Download or read book A Selfie as Big as the Ritz written by Lara Williams and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Lara Williams makes a bold debut with this razor-sharp, magnificently humane story collection.” —Entertainment Weekly She finds herself single, twenty-nine, partially-employed, and about a half a stone overweight. Roller dexter of eligible friends rattling thin. Thirties breathing down her neck like an inappropriate uncle. She jogs. Looks good in turquoise. Finds herself punctuating gas “better out than in!” patting her stomach like a department store Santa. This is who I am, she thinks. The women in Lara Williams’ debut story collection, A Selfie as Big as the Ritz, navigate the tumultuous interval between early twenties and middle age. In the title story, a relationship implodes against the romantic backdrop of Paris. In “One of Those Life Things,” a young woman struggles to say the right thing at her best friend’s abortion. In “Penguins,” a girlfriend tries to accept her boyfriend’s bizarre sexual fantasy. In “Treats,” a single woman comes to terms with her loneliness. As Williams’ characters attempt to lean in, fall in love, hold together a family, fend off loneliness, and build a meaningful life, we see them alternating between expectation and resignation, giddiness and melancholy, the rollercoaster we all find ourselves on.
Download or read book A Selfie as Big as the Ritz written by Lara Williams and published by . This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Lara Williams makes a bold debut with this razor-sharp, magnificently humane story collection.” —Entertainment Weekly She finds herself single, twenty-nine, partially-employed, and about a half a stone overweight. Roller dexter of eligible friends rattling thin. Thirties breathing down her neck like an inappropriate uncle. She jogs. Looks good in turquoise. Finds herself punctuating gas “better out than in!” patting her stomach like a department store Santa. This is who I am, she thinks. The women in Lara Williams’ debut story collection, A Selfie as Big as the Ritz, navigate the tumultuous interval between early twenties and middle age. In the title story, a relationship implodes against the romantic backdrop of Paris. In “One of Those Life Things,” a young woman struggles to say the right thing at her best friend’s abortion. In “Penguins,” a girlfriend tries to accept her boyfriend’s bizarre sexual fantasy. In “Treats,” a single woman comes to terms with her loneliness. As Williams’ characters attempt to lean in, fall in love, hold together a family, fend off loneliness, and build a meaningful life, we see them alternating between expectation and resignation, giddiness and melancholy, the rollercoaster we all find ourselves on.
Download or read book Supper Club written by Lara Williams and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named a Best Book of the Year: Vogue * TIME * Real Simple * Kirkus Reviews A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice For fans of Sally Rooney's Normal People: A sharply intelligent and intimate debut novel about a secret society of hungry young women who meet after dark and feast to reclaim their appetites--and their physical spaces--that posits the question: If you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into? Roberta spends her life trying not to take up space. At almost thirty, she is adrift and alienated from life. Stuck in a mindless job and reluctant to pursue her passion for food, she suppresses her appetite and recedes to the corners of rooms. But when she meets Stevie, a spirited and effervescent artist, their intense friendship sparks a change in Roberta, a shift in her desire for more. Together, they invent the Supper Club, a transgressive and joyous collective of women who gather to celebrate, rather than admonish, their hungers. They gather after dark and feast until they are sick; they break into private buildings and leave carnage in their wake; they embrace their changing bodies; they stop apologizing. For these women, each extraordinary yet unfulfilled, the club is a way to explore, discover, and push the boundaries of the space they take up in the world. Yet as the club expands, growing in both size and rebellion, Roberta is forced to reconcile herself to the desire and vulnerabilities of the body--and the past she has worked so hard to repress. Devastatingly perceptive and savagely funny, Supper Club is an essential coming-of-age story for our times.
Download or read book Treats written by Lara Williams and published by Cargo Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dance like nobody gives a crap. Drink like you don't have a family to go home to. Love because what else is the point." So says one of the characters in Lara Williams' extraordinary debut story collection. Treats is a break-up album of tales covering relationships, the tyranny of choice, and self navigation. This fresh, beguiling new voice paints a portrait of contemporary adulthood, balancing wry humour with a pervading sense of alienation in the digital era. Williams' characters struggle with how to negotiate intimacy within relationships and isolation when single, the pitfalls and indignities of dating, dragged down by dissatisfaction. Meanwhile the dilemmas of life play out, including abortion, depression, extra-marital affairs, infatuation, new baby anxiety, bereavement, hair loss, sexual ethics, cats, and taxidermy. Praise for Treats: 'What a wonderful collection. Very smart and VERY funny. A stunning mix of measured wisdom and raw emotion. There's also a real sense that these stories - beautiful in their own right - belong together. I loved the connection between them, and the way ideas were subtle and steadily developed from beginning to end.' Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals 'Maybe you meet someone. Maybe you fall in love. Maybe you break up. Maybe someone writes a book about your life. This is that book. Brilliant stories; awesome debut.' Nicholas Royle, editor of Best British Short Stories 2015 'Funny and witty and sad and painfully self-aware.' Chris Killen, author of The Bird Room and In Real Life '[Treats] is described as a break-up album of tales covering relationships and their aftermath. So far, so Adele - but if the inescapable singer is the beige paint on a crumbling wall, this is more akin to sniffing that paint and seeing every colour in the rainbow.' The Skinny 'Each of these stories blows like a bracing wind - brilliantly written, devastating in parts but an acuity, a sense of the smallness and frailty of human relationships. Stories that make you seek shelter out of their keen urbane gaze.' Helen McClory, author of On The Edges of Vision
Download or read book Test Signal written by Dead Ink Books and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-08 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ground-breaking anthology of the best contemporary northern writing from Dead Ink and Bloomsbury, showcasing the wealth of literary talent in the North of England. 'Test Signal ... is testament to the fact that there is no singular prescription of what it means to be a northern writer and no such thing as a definitive northern voice; instead it celebrates a community of writers, each telling a different story in their own words' JESSICA ANDREWS bridges over the Tyne / crumbling coastlines / influencers' online worlds / asylum applications / packed train carriages / forgotten village social clubs / family in Nigeria / holidays in Greece / shining university campuses / ghosts in city cemeteries / jobs in London / teenage explorations / monstrous graffiti / suburban woodland We are the North With ground-breaking new authors, a thriving independent publishing scene and vibrant grass-roots networks, the North is driving a revolution in new literature. This anthology showcases the best of its talent, from every corner of the region and across all its vibrant genres. Some contributors are well-known established names, others are newcomers; all of them are part of the new northern writing scene. This is Test Signal Adam Farrer / Andrew Michael Hurley / Amy Stewart / Carmen Marcus / Crista Ermiya / Désirée Reynolds / Jane Claire Bradley / Jenna Isherwood / J. A. Mensah / Kit Fan / Lara Williams / Laura Bui / Matt Wesolowski / Melissa Wan / Naomi Booth / Rebecca Hill / Robert Williams / Sammy Wright / Sara Sherwood / Sharon Telfer / Tawseef Khan / Tricia Cresswell 'There's nothing too obviously Northern about these trenchant stories – in their content or form – beyond that stubborn refusal to blend in, to stay still, to be complacent' TOM BENN
Download or read book Buzz Books 2017 Fall Winter written by and published by Publishers Lunch. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 901 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buzz Books gives you 40 chances to find your next great reads, providing exclusive early looks at the next big thing from favorite authors and hot new discoveries. From bestselling authors, we have samples of new work from Louise Erdrich and nonfiction from novelist Amy Tan in her memoir Where the Past Begins, as well as fiction from environmentalist Bill McKibben (Radio Free Vermont). A rich selection of highly anticipated follow-up books is inside, too: From author of Ten Thousand Saints Eleanor Henderson comes her new novel The Twelve Mile Straight; from the author of the quirky Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore Robin Sloan there is Sourdough; and Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You returns with Little Fires Everywhere. This edition is packed with 16 debut novels, including the highly-touted Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo and the big thriller The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn, along with first novels by Sarah Bailey, Phil Harrison, Ali Land, K Arsenault Rivera, Adrian Walker, Cherise Wolas and more. In nonfiction, Bryan Mealer's The Kings of Big Spring recounts his family's complicated history with the Texas oil industry; Jaime Lowe's Mental: Lithium, Love, and Losing My Mind is both memoir and an investigation into the history, uses, and controversies behind lithium; Heather Harpham's Happiness looks at an estranged couple drawn back together by their daughter's unexpected illness; and actor Gabrielle Union's collection of essays about gender, sexuality, race, beauty, Hollywood, and what it means to be a modern woman suggests that We're Going to Need More Wine. Regular readers know that each Buzz Books collection is filled with early looks at titles that will go on to top the bestseller lists and critics' "best of the year" lists. And our comprehensive seasonal preview starts the book off with a curated overview of hundreds of notable books on the way later this year. For still more great previews, check out our separate Buzz Books 2017: Young Adult Fall/Winter as well, available on all major ebookstores.
Download or read book A Selfie as Big as the Ritz written by Lara Williams and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Odyssey written by Lara Williams and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2023-05-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the prize-winning author of Supper Club comes a wickedly funny and slyly poignant new satire on modern life - for fans of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Convenience Store Woman, and J. G. Ballard's High Rise 'Far from normal' The Times 'This book is a serious vibe' Cosmopolitan 'Lara Williams is the queen of smart modern satire. I could read her all day' Emma Jane Unsworth Meet Ingrid. She works on a gargantuan luxury cruise liner, where she spends her days reorganizing the merchandise and waiting for long-term guests to drop dead in the changing rooms. On her days off, she disembarks from the ship and gets blind drunk on whatever the local alcohol is. It's not a bad life. And it distracts her from thinking about the other life she left behind five years ago. Until one day she is selected for the employee mentorship scheme - an initiative run by the ship's mysterious captain and self-anointed lifestyle guru, Keith, who pushes Ingrid further than she thought possible. But sooner or later, she will have to ask herself: how far is too far? Utterly original, mischievous and thought-provoking, The Odyssey is a merciless takedown of consumer capitalism and our anxious, ill-fated quests for something to believe in. And as its title suggests, it is a voyage that will eventually lead its unlikely heroine all the way home. Though she'd do almost anything to avoid getting there...
Download or read book The Last Night in London written by Karen White and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Karen White weaves a captivating story of friendship, love, and betrayal that moves between war-torn London during the Blitz and the present day. London, 1939. Beautiful and ambitious Eva Harlow and her American best friend, Precious Dubose, are trying to make their way as fashion models. When Eva falls in love with Graham St. John, an aristocrat and Royal Air Force pilot, she can’t believe her luck—she’s getting everything she ever wanted. Then the Blitz devastates her world, and Eva finds herself slipping into a web of intrigue, spies, and secrets. As Eva struggles to protect her friendship with Precious and everything she holds dear, all it takes is one unwary moment to change their lives forever… London, 2019. American journalist Maddie Warner, whose life has been marked by the tragic loss of her mother, travels to London to interview Precious about her life in pre-WWII London. Maddie has been careful to close herself off to others, but in Precious she recognizes someone whose grief rivals her own—but unlike Maddie, Precious hasn’t allowed it to crush her. Maddie finds herself drawn to both Precious and to Colin, her enigmatic surrogate nephew. As Maddie gets closer to her, she begins to unravel Precious’s haunting past—a story of friendship, betrayal, and the unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
Download or read book Maggie Brown Others written by Peter Orner and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this powerful and virtuosic collection of interlocking stories, each one "a marvel of concision and compassion" (Washington Post), a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and "master of his form" (/~i~New York Times) takes the short story to new heights. Through forty-four compressed gems, Peter Orner, a writer who "doesn't simply bring his characters to life, he gives them souls" (NYT Book Review), chronicles people whose lives are at inflection points, gripping us with a series of defining moments. Whether it's a first date that turns into a late-night road trip to a séance in an abandoned airplane hangar, or a family's memories of the painful mystery surrounding a neglected uncle's demise, Orner reveals how our fleeting decisions between kindness and abandonment chase us across time. These stories are anchored by a poignant novella that delivers not only the joys and travails of a forty-year marriage, but an entire era in a working-class New England city. Bristling with the crackling energy of life itself, Maggie Brown & Others marks the most sustained achievement to date for "a master of his form" (New York Times). A New York Times Notable Book A Chicago Tribune Notable Book An Oprah Magazine Best Book of 2019 Kirkus Reviews Best Short Fiction of 2019 Longlisted for the Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Prize
Download or read book TMI written by Perez Hilton and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Delicious memoir. . . . catnip for Hollywood gossip hounds." —Publishers Weekly The story of how Mario Lavandeira becomes Perez Hilton, the world's first and biggest celebrity blogger, with millions of readers around the globe. With Perez's help, many promising young artists reached the masses—Katy Perry, Adele, Amy Winehouse, and Lady Gaga, to name a few. Soon Perez was a Hollywood insider, but after a dramatic fallout with Lady Gaga, his blog became increasingly mean. When people called him a bully and a hypocrite for outing gay celebrities, Perez was forced to reevaluate not only his alter ego, but also himself. TMI reveals the man behind the blog in a new, revealing, and still juicy memoir.
Download or read book Mooncakes and Milk Bread written by Kristina Cho and published by Harper Celebrate. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2022 JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER • Baking and Desserts 2022 JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER • Emerging Voice, Books ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker Magazine, The New York Times ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time Out, Glamour, Taste of Home Food blogger Kristina Cho (eatchofood.com) introduces you to Chinese bakery cooking with fresh, simple interpretations of classic recipes for the modern baker. Inside, you’ll find sweet and savory baked buns, steamed buns, Chinese breads, unique cookies, whimsical cakes, juicy dumplings, Chinese breakfast dishes, and drinks. Recipes for steamed BBQ pork buns, pineapple buns with a thick slice of butter, silky smooth milk tea, and chocolate Swiss rolls all make an appearance--because a book about Chinese bakeries wouldn’t be complete without them In Mooncakes & Milk Bread, Kristina teaches you to whip up these delicacies like a pro, including how to: Knead dough without a stand mixer Avoid collapsed steamed buns Infuse creams and custards with aromatic tea flavors Mix the most workable dumpling dough Pleat dumplings like an Asian grandma This is the first book to exclusively focus on Chinese bakeries and cafés, but it isn’t just for those nostalgic for Chinese bakeshop foods--it’s for all home bakers who want exciting new recipes to add to their repertoires.
Download or read book Text Me when You Get Home written by Kayleen Schaefer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Text me when you get home.' After joyful nights out together, female friends say this to one another as a way of cementing their love. It's about safety but, more than that, it's about solidarity. A validation of female friendship unlike any that's ever existed before, Text Me When You Get Home is a mix of historical research, the author's own personal experience, and conversations about friendships with women across the country. Everything Schaefer uncovers reveals that these ties are making us, both as individuals and as society as a whole, stronger than ever before.
Download or read book Once Upon a Wardrobe written by Patti Callahan and published by Harper Muse. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: College student Megs Devonshire sets out to fulfill her younger brother George’s last wish by uncovering the truth behind his favorite story. What transpires is a fascinating look into the bond between siblings and the life-changing magic of stories. 1950: Margaret Devonshire (Megs) is a seventeen-year-old student of mathematics and physics at Oxford University. When her beloved eight-year-old brother asks Megs if Narnia is real, logical Megs tells him it’s just a book for children, and certainly not true. Homebound due to his illness, and remaining fixated on his favorite books, George presses her to ask the author of the recently released novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a question: “Where did Narnia come from?” Despite her fear about approaching the famous author, who is a professor at her school, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with C. S. Lewis and his own brother Warnie, begging them for answers. Rather than directly telling her where Narnia came from, Lewis encourages Megs to form her own conclusion as he shares the little-known stories from his own life that led to his inspiration. As she takes these stories home to George, the little boy travels farther in his imagination than he ever could in real life. After holding so tightly to logic and reason, her brother’s request leads Megs to absorb a more profound truth: “The way stories change us can’t be explained. It can only be felt. Like love.” From the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Book of Flora Lea A captivating, standalone historical novel combining fact and fiction An emotional journey into the books and stories that make us who we are Includes discussion questions for book clubs
Download or read book The Romantic Egoists written by Matthew Joseph Bruccoli and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pictorial autobiography of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald documents two lives that have become legendary. The book draws almost entirely from the scrapbooks and photograph albums that the Fitzgeralds scrupulously kept as their personal record and provides a wealth of illustrative material not previously available. Minnesota; a photograph of the country club in Montgomery, Alabama, where the two met; reviews of This Side of Paradise; poems to the couple from Ring Lardner; snapshots of their trips abroad; Fitzgerald's careful accounting of his earnings; a photograph of the house on Long Island where The Great Gatsby was conceived; postcards with Fitzgerald's drawings for his daughter. These rare photographs and memorabilia combine into a narrative augmented by selections from Scott's and Zelda's own writings, conveying the spirit of particuular moments in their lives.
Download or read book When I Left Home written by Buddy Guy and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to Eric Clapton, John Mayer, and the late Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy is the greatest blues guitarist of all time. An enormous influence on these musicians as well as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, he is the living embodiment of Chicago blues. Guy's epic story stands at the absolute nexus of modern blues. He came to Chicago from rural Louisiana in the fifties—the very moment when urban blues were electrifying our culture. He was a regular session player at Chess Records. Willie Dixon was his mentor. He was a sideman in the bands of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. He and Junior Wells formed a band of their own. In the sixties, he became a recording star in his own right. When I Left Home tells Guy's picaresque story in his own unique voice, that of a storyteller who remembers everything, including blues masters in their prime and the exploding, evolving culture of music that happened all around him.
Download or read book My Book of the Dead written by Ana Castillo and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2021-09-01 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than thirty years, Ana Castillo has been mesmerizing and inspiring readers from all over the world with her passionate and fiery poetry and prose. Now the original Xicanista is back to her first literary love, poetry, and to interrogating the social and political upheaval the world has seen over the last decade. Angry and sad, playful and wise, Castillo delves into the bitter side of our world—the environmental crisis, COVID-19, ongoing systemic racism and violence, children in detention camps, and the Trump presidency—and emerges stronger from exploring these troubling affairs of today. Drawings by Castillo created over the past five years are featured throughout the collection and further showcase her connection to her work as both a writer and a visual artist. My Book of the Dead is a remarkable collection that features a poet at the height of her craft.
