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Book The Literary Beach Bum

    Book Details:
  • Author : Valerie M. Sebestyen
  • Publisher : CreateSpace
  • Release : 2014-07-01
  • ISBN : 9781500388485
  • Pages : 80 pages

Download or read book The Literary Beach Bum written by Valerie M. Sebestyen and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology of beach-related poems is for readers who find themselves thinking—or wishing they could think—poetical thoughts while listening to or watching the interplay of water with land. Whether it be ocean-side or lake-side, sandy or pebbled, the beach can be a place of contemplation, reminding us of things both bigger and smaller than ourselves.Many of the poets you'll recognize, some you may not, but whatever your mood, they've written a poem to suit, an image to inspire, and perhaps a reminder to find your own unique voice within.

Book Beachbum Berry s Sippin  Safari

Download or read book Beachbum Berry s Sippin Safari written by Jeff Berry and published by Slave Labor Graphics. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new book by the author of The Grog Log, Intoxica and Taboo Table. Beach Bum Berry, as he is better known, is America's leading authority on tropical drinks and polynesian pop culture. In this all new book, Berry not only offers up tantilizing new drink recipes, but tells stories about some of the most famous figures of their time. The Bum applies the same dogged research to the untold stories of the people behind the drinks. Stories culled from over 100 interviews with those who actually created the mid-century Tiki scene -- people as colorful as the drinks they invented, or served, or simply drank. People like: Leon Lontoc, the Don The Beachcomber's waiter who served Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando by night, and acted in their movies by day; Henry Riddle, the Malibu Seacomber bartender who fed items about his famous customers to infamous gossip columnist Louella Parsons, till the day Howard Hughes found him out; and Duke Kamanamoku, whose manager turned him from Olympic champion into reluctant restaurateur.

Book Beach Read

    Book Details:
  • Author : Emily Henry
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • Release : 2021-05-25
  • ISBN : 0593336127
  • Pages : 354 pages

Download or read book Beach Read written by Emily Henry and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION! "Original, sparkling bright, and layered with feeling."--Sally Thorne, author of The Hating Game A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They're polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

Book Beach Bum

    Book Details:
  • Author : Rawle C Eastmond
  • Publisher : Rawle Eastmond
  • Release : 2013-02-01
  • ISBN : 9789768233394
  • Pages : 280 pages

Download or read book Beach Bum written by Rawle C Eastmond and published by Rawle Eastmond. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beach bums. Who are they and what do they do? Are they good for the tourist industry? In other words, are they a part of the solution or part of the problem? in this fourth novel by Rawle C. Eastmond we are allowed a close look at the typical beach character and his day-to-day ministrations. This story opens our eyes to the issues that plague the alternative lifestyles of those who roam the beaches in search of their livelihoods.

Book The Last Summer  of You and Me

Download or read book The Last Summer of You and Me written by Ann Brashares and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-05-06 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Ann Brashares comes her first adult novel In the town of Waterby on Fire Island, the rhythms and rituals of summer are sacrosanct: the ceremonial arrivals and departures by ferry; yacht club dinners with terrible food and breathtaking views; the virtual decree against shoes; and the generational parade of sandy, sun-bleached kids, running, swimming, squealing, and coming of age on the beach. Set against this vivid backdrop, The Last Summer (of You and Me) is the enchanting, heartrending story of a beach-community friendship triangle and summertime romance among three young adults for whom summer and this place have meant everything. Sisters Riley and Alice, now in their twenties, have been returning to their parents’ modest beach house every summer for their entire lives. Petite, tenacious Riley is a tomboy and a lifeguard, always ready for a midnight swim, a gale-force sail, or a barefoot sprint down the beach. Beautiful Alice is lithe, gentle, a reader and a thinker, and worshipful of her older sister. And every summer growing up, in the big house that overshadowed their humble one, there was Paul, a friend as important to both girls as the place itself, who has now finally returned to the island after three years away. But his return marks a season of tremendous change, and when a simmering attraction, a serious illness, and a deep secret all collide, the three friends are launched into an unfamiliar adult world, a world from which their summer haven can no longer protect them. Ann Brashares has won millions of fans with her blockbuster series, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, in which she so powerfully captured the emotional complexities of female friendship and young love. With The Last Summer (of You and Me), she moves on to introduce a new set of characters and adult relationships just as true, endearing, and unforgettable. With warmth, humor, and wisdom, Brashares makes us feel the excruciating joys and pangs of love—both platonic and romantic. She reminds us of the strength and sting of friendship, the great ache of loss, and the complicated weight of family loyalty. Thoughtful, lyrical, and tremendously moving, The Last Summer (of You and Me is a deeply felt celebration of summer and nostalgia for youth.

Book Key Zest

    Book Details:
  • Author : Harmony Korine
  • Publisher : Nieves
  • Release : 2019
  • ISBN : 9783907179086
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book Key Zest written by Harmony Korine and published by Nieves. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key Zest arises from Harmony Korine's 2019 film The Beach Bum, which follows the misadventures of a poet named Moondog (Matthew McConaughey), a "rebellious burnout who only knows how to live life by his own rules." Set in Key West, Florida, and also starring Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher, Zac Efron, Jimmy Buffett, Martin Lawrence and Jonah Hill, the movie tracks Moondog's comical mishaps and assignations, culminating in his unlikely fame after the publication of his memoirs, which are universally lauded and win him a Pulitzer Prize. Key Zest is a collection of Moondog's poems. Hilarious, preposterous and ribald, it includes such gems as "Alright, sunrise. / Let's get this party started." and "We can do whatever we want or nothing at all. / Eh, civilization." Harmony Korine writes, "Moondog is the greatest poet in the history of Key West. I read a few of these pages and loved every minute of it."

Book Cadillac Beach

    Book Details:
  • Author : Tim Dorsey
  • Publisher : Zondervan
  • Release : 2009-03-17
  • ISBN : 0061841897
  • Pages : 402 pages

Download or read book Cadillac Beach written by Tim Dorsey and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: And busting out of Chattahoochee State Hospital ... without his meds! The thrill-killing Floridaphile needs to get to the bottom of his bookie grandad's bizarre 1964 death -- not to mention launch "Serge & Lenny's Florida Experience," the new Miami specialty tour venture he's cooked up with his best brain-dead druggie-buddy. It's all good. For Serge A. Storms, anyway. Not so much for anyone else.

Book Night Beach

    Book Details:
  • Author : Kirsty Eagar
  • Publisher : Penguin UK
  • Release : 2012-04-26
  • ISBN : 0857961799
  • Pages : 373 pages

Download or read book Night Beach written by Kirsty Eagar and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine there is someone you like so much that just thinking about them leaves you desperate and reckless. You crave them in a way that's not rational, not right, and you're becoming somebody you don't recognise, and certainly don't respect, but you don't even care. And this person you like is unattainable. Except for one thing . . . He lives downstairs. Abbie has three obsessions. Art. The ocean. And Kane.But since Kane's been back, he's changed. There's a darkness shadowing him that only Abbie can see. And it wants her in its world. A Gothic story about the very dark things that feed the creative process, from the winner of the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for young adult fiction. There are images in this novel that take my breath away, dialogue that I envy and one of the most achingly real protagonists I've come across for a long while.' Melina Marchetta

Book Meant to Be

    Book Details:
  • Author : Lauren Morrill
  • Publisher : Delacorte Press
  • Release : 2012-11-13
  • ISBN : 0375987118
  • Pages : 304 pages

Download or read book Meant to Be written by Lauren Morrill and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2012-11-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A girl with it all planned out discovers a romance she never expected in this funny debut about a class trip to London that HelloGiggles.com says you’ll love “if you’re into swoony romances with a little bit of history thrown in.” This spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love. Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be. *** "Readers of Jennifer E. Smith and Stephanie Perkins will revel in this debate about love ruled by the stars or as a matter of the heart." --Shelf Awareness "Fun, fresh and irresistibly romantic. STB (SURE to be) loved!" --Sarah Mlynowski “Star-crossed characters, hilarious dialogue, and a perfect London setting. I loved Meant to Be!” –Robin Benway, author of Emmy & Oliver

Book Evvie Drake Starts Over

    Book Details:
  • Author : Linda Holmes
  • Publisher : Ballantine Books
  • Release : 2022-03-29
  • ISBN : 0593496663
  • Pages : 401 pages

Download or read book Evvie Drake Starts Over written by Linda Holmes and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2022-03-29 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • “Everything a romantic comedy should be: witty, relatable, and a little complicated.”—People A heartfelt debut about the unlikely relationship between a young woman who’s lost her husband and a major league pitcher who’s lost his game. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR In a sleepy seaside town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her large, painfully empty house nearly a year after her husband’s death in a car crash. Everyone in town, even her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and Evvie doesn’t correct them. Meanwhile, in New York City, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips”: he can’t throw straight anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why. As the media storm heats up, an invitation from Andy to stay in Maine seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button on Dean’s future. When he moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie’s house, the two make a deal: Dean won’t ask about Evvie’s late husband, and Evvie won’t ask about Dean’s baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken—and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. To move forward, Evvie and Dean will have to reckon with their pasts—the friendships they’ve damaged, the secrets they’ve kept—but in life, as in baseball, there’s always a chance—up until the last out. A joyful, hilarious, and hope-filled debut, Evvie Drake Starts Over will have you cheering for the two most unlikely comebacks of the year—and will leave you wanting more from Linda Holmes. Praise for Evvie Drake Starts Over “A quirky, sweet, and splendid story of a woman coming into her own.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six “Effortlessly enjoyable . . . [a] pitch-perfect . . . adult love story that is as romantic as it is real.”–USA Today “Charming, hopeful, and gently romantic . . . Evvie Drake is great company.”—Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park

Book Beach Bum

    Book Details:
  • Author : Dennis Gimmel
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2005-05
  • ISBN : 9780971248229
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book Beach Bum written by Dennis Gimmel and published by . This book was released on 2005-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Glasdrum

    Book Details:
  • Author : Fiona Macbain
  • Publisher : Fionamacbain.com
  • Release : 2017-04-03
  • ISBN : 9780995658936
  • Pages : 306 pages

Download or read book Glasdrum written by Fiona Macbain and published by Fionamacbain.com. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life is not easy for the women of Glasdrum. A skeleton is unearthed, too many walkers are falling to their deaths off mountain cliffs, and the local pub doesn't know how to make a decent daiquiri. As the women battle through daily life, the spectre of death looms over the Highland town. Could one of them be living with a killer?

Book Sunset Beach

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mary Kay Andrews
  • Publisher : St. Martin's Press
  • Release : 2019-05-07
  • ISBN : 125012610X
  • Pages : 433 pages

Download or read book Sunset Beach written by Mary Kay Andrews and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pull up a lounge chair and have a cocktail at Sunset Beach – it comes with a twist. Drue Campbell’s life is adrift. Out of a job and down on her luck, life doesn’t seem to be getting any better when her estranged father, Brice Campbell, a flamboyant personal injury attorney, shows up at her mother’s funeral after a twenty-year absence. Worse, he’s remarried – to Drue’s eighth grade frenemy, Wendy, now his office manager. And they’re offering her a job. It seems like the job from hell, but the offer is sweetened by the news of her inheritance – her grandparents’ beach bungalow in the sleepy town of Sunset Beach, a charming but storm-damaged eyesore now surrounded by waterfront McMansions. With no other prospects, Drue begrudgingly joins the firm, spending her days screening out the grifters whose phone calls flood the law office. Working with Wendy is no picnic either. But when a suspicious death at an exclusive beach resort nearby exposes possible corruption at her father’s firm, she goes from unwilling cubicle rat to unwitting investigator, and is drawn into a case that may – or may not – involve her father. With an office romance building, a decades-old missing persons case re-opened, and a cottage in rehab, one thing is for sure at Sunset Beach: there’s a storm on the horizon. Sunset Beach is a compelling ride, full of Mary Kay Andrews' signature wit, heart, and charm.

Book I Know This Much Is True

    Book Details:
  • Author : Wally Lamb
  • Publisher : Cambridge University Press
  • Release : 1998-06-03
  • ISBN : 9780060391621
  • Pages : 884 pages

Download or read book I Know This Much Is True written by Wally Lamb and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-03 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

Book Boogie Beach  The Record  Book 1

Download or read book Boogie Beach The Record Book 1 written by Winnie Winkle and published by J. S. Netwal. This book was released on 2021-06-21 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A funny, paranormal urban fantasy book that keeps you laughing and makes you think! Winnie's powerhouse narration style and plots full of twists and turns make every page jump. 5.0 out of 5 stars Thrilled to find such a well written and interesting book! Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2022 Verified Purchase Beautifully written with a fresh take on an interaction with the pantheon. It grabbed me and wrenched emotions from me one after another. Loved it! And the best part is that there are more books in the series to read. Now please excuse me as I dive into the next one. ~~~ Two bars, one magical and one human, lie in the exact same space. That should work. It’d better; I run those joints and we’re under attack. I live a pretty weird life—as in gods in speedos, powerful witches with little patience for mere humans, and shifters whose vibrations make my guts quake. Plus, an oceanside bar and a magical book run my existence. Beach life and eccentric are besties. The record picked me, Cleopatra O’Keefe, to be the next Keeper. I took over the book and started chronicling the intersection and occasional asininity of the human and magical worlds. That’s when eccentric plunked its butt on the deck next to mine and we careened into the world of funky oddities seasoned with occasional mayhem. I’ve juggled the two worlds for almost twenty years, but my pier is under attack from the one entity feared by gods and magicals alike. Between slinging drinks, writing the history, and trying to keep the worlds in balance, I’m discovering that the Keeper’s job has way more depth than the magicals told me. Who’s lying? Which bits are truth? I’m at a crossroads and it’s time to make a choice. Toe the line and live, or save the world and die? Typical Tuesday.

Book Kick Ass

    Book Details:
  • Author : Carl Hiaasen
  • Publisher : University Press of Florida
  • Release : 2009-09-13
  • ISBN : 0813037891
  • Pages : 591 pages

Download or read book Kick Ass written by Carl Hiaasen and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2009-09-13 with total page 591 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readers who eagerly anticipate each new Carl Hiaasen novel will relish this selection of his Miami Herald columns, written with the same dark humor and satirical edge as Tourist Season, Strip Tease, Stormy Weather, and the rest of Hiaasen’s brilliant and nationally acclaimed fiction. Known for evoking the disastrously flawed paradise of modern South Florida, Hiaasen proves in these columns that facts can indeed be stranger than the fiction they inspire. Beginning with "Welcome to South Florida," a chapter introducing such everyday events as animal sacrifice, riots at the beach, and a shootout over limes at the supermarket, this collection organizes over 200 columns into 18 chapters, chronicling the events and defining the issues that have kept the South Florida melting pot bubbling throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s. An introductory essay provides an overview of Hiaasen’s career and outlines his principal concerns as a journalist. Since its inception in 1985, Hiaasen’s twice-weekly "baseball-bat-to-the-forehead" column has become enormously popular for its passionate conviction and willingness to confront powerful interests in pursuit of the public good. Amid the corruption and chaos of a city on the edge, Hiaasen’s pointblank honesty and clear articulation of what’s right have secured him wide respect across the community’s many racial and ethnic divides as well as the admiration of his peers, who compare him to A. J. Leibling, I. F. Stone, and H. L. Mencken. In addition to South Florida color and world-class journalism, readers of Kick Ass will find one of Florida’s staunchest defenders in action, and they’ll take great pleasure in watching him work.

Book The Old Priest

    Book Details:
  • Author : Anthony Wallace
  • Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Press
  • Release : 2013-09-12
  • ISBN : 0822979209
  • Pages : 184 pages

Download or read book The Old Priest written by Anthony Wallace and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2013-09-12 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Old Priest is a book of transformations. From the cigar-smoke-and-mirrors world of casino life, to the collection’s title character morphing into a goat-man before the narrator’s eyes, to a family drama upended by a miniature dinosaur in the backyard, Anthony Wallace writes about life-changing events. The characters seek to escape their earthly boundaries through artifice and fantasy, and those boundaries can be as elegant and fragile as a martini glass or as hardscrabble as an Indian reservation. In these eight vividly detailed short stories we encounter cheating husbands, neurotic housewives, out-of-control teenagers, desperate gamblers, deluded alcoholics, and a host of others who would like a chance at something more. Some face the consequences of their actions, while others simply begin to see what they’ve been missing all along. Through wry, ironic prose—and what feels like firsthand experience—Wallace describes a comic and often misguided search for self-knowledge in the most unlikely locations—like the Emerald City, a low-rent gambling den where a cocktail waitress dressed as an X-rated Dorothy offers gamblers more than a Scotch on the rocks; or the Bastille Hotel-Casino, where a dealer dressed as an eighteenth century footman deals five-dollar blackjack to a reminiscing Holocaust survivor. Occasionally a real demon appears, but the collection is mostly about personal demons and the possibility of exorcising them. The stories in The Old Priest have to do with time and memory, and they convincingly open out beyond ordinary daily time to reveal something else—the present moment, perhaps, but a larger, more mysterious conception of it.