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In That Paris Year, five smart, adventurous young women arrive on the banks of the Seine in 1962 for their junior year abroad. What they get is an education of a different sort. As they move from the grueling demands of the Sorbonne by day to late nights of discovery in smoky cafes, the young Americans discover a mythical country shaped not only by the upheavals of history, but by the great French writers of the 20th Century, a place where seduction is intellectual as well as sexual. Ten years later, our narrator, J. J., is asked to speak at her old college on the virtues of going abroad. Drawing on the emotionally charged tools of memory and imagination, as well as old journals, letters, and telegrams, she chronicles and re-creates the story of that momentous year. Following in the footsteps of Marcel Proust, Joanna Biggar has written a novel in which intellect, eroticism, and art reverberate from the page to the heartbeat of the City of Light, an American book with the sweep and elegance of French literary tradition.
Revealing a rural side of France, the essays in this collection explore the areas surrounding the picturesque Canal du Midi. Featuring contributions from Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Larry Habegger, Joanna Biggar, and others, "Floating Through France" is perfect for those traveling to France or those who just want to feel like they're there.
The outspoken half of magic duo Penn & Teller presents an atheist reinterpretation of the Ten Commandments, discussing why doubt, skepticism, and wonder should be celebrated and offering humorous stories from his own experiences.
The acclaimed travel writer journeys by train across the Americas from Boston to Patagonia in this international bestselling travel memoir. Starting with a rush-hour subway ride to South Station in Boston to catch the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, Paul Theroux takes a grand railway adventure first across the United States and then south through Mexico, Central America, and across the Andes until he winds up on the meandering Old Patagonian Express steam engine. His epic commute finally comes to a halt in a desolate land of cracked hills and thorn bushes that reaches toward Antarctica. Along the way, Theroux demonstrates how train travel can reveal “"the social miseries and scenic splendors” of a continent. And through his perceptive prose we learn that what matters most are the people he meets along the way, including the monologuing Mr. Thornberry in Costa Rica, the bogus priest of Cali, and the blind Jorge Luis Borges, who delights in having Theroux read Robert Louis Stevenson to him.
Italy is the top tourist destination in Europe. But while the pleasures of Tuscany, Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rome are well known and well documented, Puglia remains relatively undiscovered. Venturing in Italy collects 30 true stories that explore every aspect of this fascinating region. The book’s 19 writers, including Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Joanna Biggar, and Laurie King, find stories everywhere they look, greatly helped by Puglia's rich history: everything from Neolithic cave paintings to ancient Greek cities and temples, from houses built in caves to medieval castles and fortresses. Seen here, Puglia is vibrantly alive with unique local wines and cuisine, thermal spas in Santa Ceasaria, and mussel farming in Taranto. Maps and sketches show Puglia and the surrounding areas at their most enchanting.
'Pearls My Mother Wore' is about loss and recovery, resentment and forgiveness. The novel opens on the day that forty-three-year-old 'nice girl' Kelly Tremblake buries the ashes of her forty-two-year-old husband, Grayson. Devastated by his sudden and unexpected death, Kelly finds the sweet, uncomplicated life she has intentionally crafted for herself screeching to a halt. As she pulls increasingly inward in response to this psychic blow, what she finds is complicated and decades old.Compounding the agony of her loss and the flood of memories is the sudden and unexpected arrival of Grayson's twenty-three-year-old 'bad-boy' nephew, Mitchell. Kelly can not stand this young man for a number of reasons, chief among them the fact that years earlier he stole a pearl necklace and earring set that had belonged to her deceased mother. This combination of events throws Kelly into a spiral of grief, bitter resentment, paranoia, and despair. To find relief, she must get those pearls back.
Navigating the Divide: Selected Poetry and Prose is a career-spanning, multi-genre collection from the award-winning Asian-American writer and indie lit legend Linda Watanabe McFerrin. In poetry and prose that is sometimes profoundly personal, sometimes astoundingly surreal, this world traveler and devoted literary explorer breaks down walls, bridges, cultures, and genres, delighting and instructing the reader. This rich, multi-faceted collection really does "navigate the divide" between spiritual and physical, between thought and desire, between identity and others.
Zombies, ghouls, vampires, gangsters; pursuit, betrayal, death—it's a globalized manga turned literature. Dead Love is Twilight with teeth.
1970s Afghanistan: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives... Since its publication in 2003, The Kite Runner has sold twenty one million copies worldwide. Through Khaled Hosseini's brilliant writing, a previously unknown part of the world was brought to life. Now in this beautifully illustrated, four-colour graphic novel adaptation, The Kite Runner is given a vibrant new life which is sure to compel a new generation of readers.