Download or read book Alison who Went Away written by Vivian Vande Velde and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2001 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description

Download or read book Gone to the Crazies written by Alison Weaver and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a child, Alison Weaver's life shone with surface-level perfection—full of nannies, private schools, and ballet lessons. She had all the luxuries of a wealthy Manhattan upbringing, and all the makings of a perfect Upper East Side miss. But her childhood memories were laced with darker undertones: Her father was emotionally absent, unable to engage in problems that couldn't be solved with clean lines and simple plans, and her mother was a beautiful, aloof alcoholic. Neither parent approved of their daughter's outbursts and emotions—and in the midst of her parents' own flaws, Weaver was constantly reminded that she was a mess that needed fixing. By the time she was a teenager, Weaver had found escape in alcohol, marijuana, and late-night abandon. But when her exasperated parents had her shipped away—in handcuffs—to the cultish Cascade School, everything changed. Within the surreal isolation of the school's mountain campus, she left her old self behind, warping into a brainwashed model of Cascade's mottos and ideals. Graduation two years later left her unprepared for the harshness of the real world—and she soon fell back into a mind-numbing wash of drugs. Stum-bling into freefall in New York's East Village in the 1990s, Weaver's life began a downward spiral marked by needles and late-night parties, mingled with fears of HIV and death. Ultimately, faced with the reality of her rapidly escalating self-destruction, Weaver was forced to face her inner darkness head on. Gone to the Crazies proves the age-old adage: You can't come clean until you've hit rock bottom. By turns wry, heartbreaking, and emotionally intense, Alison Weaver's mesmerizing debut fascinates with its vivid depiction of the bonds between family and friends, and the thoughtful exploration of what it means to fight for identity and equilibrium.

Download or read book Road Out of Winter written by Alison Stine and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A teenage girl treks across a dangerous, frozen nation to reunite with her family in this Philip K. Dick Award–winning apocalyptic thriller. Wylodine comes from a world of paranoia and poverty. Her family grows marijuana illegally in order to survive. But now she’s been left behind in Ohio to tend the crop alone. Then spring doesn’t return for the second year in a row, bringing unprecedented, extreme winter. With grow lights stashed in her truck and a pouch of precious seeds, Wil begins a journey to join her family in California. But the icy roads and strangers hidden in the hills are treacherous. Gathering a small group of exiles on her way, she becomes the target of a volatime cult leader. Because she has the most valuable skill in the climate chaos: she can make things grow. Road Out of Winter offers a glimpse into an all-too-possible near future, with a chosen family forged in the face of dystopian collapse. Alison Stine’s acclaimed debut “blends a rural thriller and speculative realism into what could be called dystopian noir” (Library Journal, starred review).

Download or read book The Third Wave written by Alison Thompson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alison Thompson, a filmmaker living in New York City, was enjoying Christmas with her boyfriend in 2004 when she saw the news reports online: a 9.3 magnitude earthquake had struck the sea near Indonesia, triggering a massive tsunami that hit much of southern Asia. As she watched the death toll climb, Thompson had one thought: She had to go help. A few years earlier, she had spent eight months volunteering at Ground Zero after 9/11. She’d learned then that when disaster strikes, it’s not just the firemen and Red Cross who are needed—every single person can make a difference. With $300 in cash, some basic medical supplies, and a vague idea that she’d go wherever she was needed, Thompson headed to Sri Lanka. Along with a small team of volunteers, she settled in a coastal town that had been hit especially hard and began tending to people’s injuries, giving out food and water, playing games with the children, collecting dead bodies, and helping rebuild the local school and homes that had been destroyed. Thompson had intended to stay for two weeks; she ended up staying for fourteen months. She and her team helped start new businesses and set up the first tsunami early-warning center in Sri Lanka, which continues to save lives today. The Third Wave tells the inspiring story of how volunteering changed Thompson’s life. It begins with her first real introduction to disaster relief after 9/11 and ends with her more recent efforts in Haiti, where she has helped create and run, with Sean Penn, an internally-displaced-person camp and field hospital for more than 65,000 Haitians who lost their homes in the 2010 earthquake. In The Third Wave, Thompson provides an invaluable inside glimpse into what really happens on the ground after a disaster—and a road map for what anyone can do to help. As Alison Thompson shows, with some resilience, a healthy sense of humor, and the desire to make a difference, we all have what it takes to change the world for the better.

Download or read book Better Than Sane written by Alison Rose and published by Nonpareil Books. This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Better Than Sane is a sharp, delicious, bright-girl-comes-to-New-York memoir. Forty-year-old Alison Rose was a beautiful single woman feeling lost in mid-1980s New York City: "I couldn't afford one more round of my famous bad judgment, which was, according to my own records at that point, eternal." Then she landed a job at The New Yorker. Taken up by the writers there, the semi-recluse Rose became a full-fledged writer. These kindred souls formed an impromptu club, a "whole other world that was better than sane." This is the true story of how-despite her endless ability to sabotage herself-one brilliant and mordantly funny woman found herself.

Download or read book Are You Alone on Purpose written by Nancy Werlin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-06-14 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though fourteen-year-old Alison Shandling is a brain, her twin brother, Adam, is autistic. All of her life, Alison's parents have focused on Adam and what he needs, while Alison has always felt she had to be perfect. When the rabbi's son, Harry Roth, begins taunting Alison about her brother, she does her best to stand up for herself. But when Harry is injured in a diving accident, Alison senses that he's hiding something that he wants to share with someone. And she begins to think that she's just the someone he can share it with....

Download or read book Alison Wonderland written by Helen Smith and published by Mariner Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "After Alison Temple discovers that her husband is cheating on her, she does what any jilted woman would do — she spray-paints a nasty message for him on her wedding dress and takes a job with the detective firm that found him out. Being a researcher at the all-female Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation in London is certainly a change of pace from her previous life, especially considering the characters Alison meets in the line of duty. There is her boss, the estimable Mrs. Fitzgerald; Taron, Alison’s eccentric best friend, who claims her mother is a witch; Jeff, her love-struck, poetry-writing neighbor; and last, but not least, her psychic postman. Clever, quirky, and infused with just a hint of magic, Alison Wonderland is a literary novel about a memorable heroine coping with the everyday complexities of modern life"--Publisher's description.

Download or read book The Silence Between Us written by Alison Gervais and published by Blink. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faced with the challenges of transitioning from a Hard of Hearing School to a Hearing high school, Maya has more than a learning curve. But what if she has more to learn about herself and how far she is willing to push for what she believes in? Perfect for contemporary fiction fans, The Silence Between Us is a novel that doesn’t shy away from the real-life struggles of high school, heart break, and d/Deaf culture. Schneider Family Book Award, Best Teen Honor Book 2020 Torn from her Hard of Hearing school when her mother's job takes them across the country, Deaf teen Maya must attend a hearing school for the first time since her hearing loss. As if that wasn’t hard enough, she also has to adjust to the hearing culture, which she finds frustrating. When her new friends and classmates start pushing into Maya’s thoughts about what it means to be Deaf, it clashes with her idea of self-worth and values. Looking past graduation towards a future medical career, Maya knows nothing, not even an unexpected romance, will derail her pursuits or cause her to question her integrity. Wattpad sensation Alison Gervais writes a stunning portrayal of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing culture in this clean YA contemporary romance. Drawing from her own deaf experience and relationship with the HoH community, Gervais provides a personal interview and commentary on cochlear implants. The Silence Between Us mixes lighthearted romance with deeper social issues facing minority groups. “The Silence Between Us?is eminently un-put-down-able.” (NPR) “Gervais deftly renders both the nuanced, everyday realities of life with disability and Maya’s fierce pride in her Deafness, delivering a vibrant story that will resonate with Deaf and hearing audiences alike.” –?Booklist “A solid addition to middle/high school fiction that allows for deep discussion about stereotypes concerning disabilities.”?School Library Journal “This is a great YA contemporary (clean) romance that follows Maya as she navigates a new school and plans for her future. The addition of representation by a Deaf character was really beautifully done. Highly recommend for people looking for a sweet, engaging, and educational romantic read.” (YA and Kids Book Central)

Download or read book The Little Friend written by Donna Tartt and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-10-19 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch comes an utterly riveting novel set in Mississippi of childhood, innocence, and evil. • “Destined to become a special kind of classic.” —The New York Times Book Review The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s Day a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents’ yard. Twelve years later Robin’s murder is still unsolved and his family remains devastated. So it is that Robin’s sister Harriet—unnervingly bright, insufferably determined, and unduly influenced by the fiction of Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson--sets out to unmask his killer. Aided only by her worshipful friend Hely, Harriet crosses her town’s rigid lines of race and caste and burrows deep into her family’s history of loss. Filled with hairpin turns of plot and “a bustling, ridiculous humanity worthy of Dickens” (The New York Times Book Review), The Little Friend is a work of myriad enchantments by a writer of prodigious talent.

Download or read book Meander Spiral Explode written by Jane Alison and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How lovely to discover a book on the craft of writing that is also fun to read . . . Alison asserts that the best stories follow patterns in nature, and by defining these new styles she offers writers the freedom to explore but with enough guidance to thrive." ―Maris Kreizman, Vulture A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019 | A Poets & Writers Best Books for Writers As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: “For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel― one we’re actually told to follow―and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides . . . But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculosexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?" W. G. Sebald’s Emigrants was the first novel to show Alison how forward momentum can be created by way of pattern, rather than the traditional arc--or, in nature, wave. Other writers of nonlinear prose considered in her “museum of specimens” include Nicholson Baker, Anne Carson, Marguerite Duras, Gabriel García Márquez, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Susan Minot, David Mitchell, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Robison. Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions. It is a liberating manifesto that says, Let’s leave the outdated modes behind and, in thinking of new modes, bring feeling back to experimentation. It will appeal to serious readers and writers alike.

Download or read book The Sisters Antipodes written by Jane Alison and published by HMH. This book was released on 2010-04-09 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A wrenching, luminous memoir” of how betrayal and divorce transformed two families and the lives of two young women (People). When Jane Alison was a child, her family met another that seemed like its mirror. Each had a father in the Foreign Service, a beautiful mother, and two little girls. The younger two—one of them Jane—even shared a birthday. With so much in common, the two families quickly became inseparable. Within months, affairs had ignited between the adults, and before long the pairs had exchanged partners—divorced, remarried, and moved on. As if in a cataclysm of nature, two families were ripped asunder, and two new ones were formed. Two pairs of girls were left in shock, a “silent, numb shock, like a crack inside stone, not enough to split it but inside, quietly fissuring.” And Jane and her stepsister were thrown into a state of wordless combat for the love of their fathers. This true story of their rivalry, and the tragic loss that ultimately followed, is a fascinating record of how adult behavior can shape, or shatter, a childhood. Spanning from Australia to the United States, it is “enormously compelling . . . [A] harrowing journey of identity” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Download or read book I Have Life written by Marianne Thamm and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: And so began Alison's nightmare journey with the two callous killers who were to rape her, stab her so many times doctors could not count the wounds, slit her throat and leave her for dead in a filthy clearing miles from the city of Port Elizabeth which was her home. But Alison defied death. And more than that, she denied her attackers the satisfaction of destroying her life. I Have Life is the triumphant story of a woman who refused to become a victim. The courage which allowed her to move beyond severe physical and emotional trauma and to turn a devastating experience into something life-affirming and strong, is an inspiration to people everywhere.

Download or read book The Opposite of Fate written by Alison McGhee and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who gets to choose? When a young woman emerges from a lengthy coma-like state she must face the decisions that were made about her body—without her consent—in this powerful novel of reclamation and hope. Twenty-one-year-old Mallie Williams—scrappy, headstrong, and wise beyond her years—has just landed on her feet following a tumultuous youth when the unthinkable happens: she is violently assaulted. The crime leaves her comatose, surrounded by friends and family who are hoping against hopes for a full recovery. But soon Mallie's small community finds themselves divided. The rape has left Mallie pregnant, and while some friends are convinced that she would never keep the pregnancy, others are sure that a baby would be the only good thing to come out of all of this pain. Who gets to decide? How much power, in the end, do we have over our own bodies? Mallie, her family, and her town find themselves at the center of a media storm, confronting questions nobody should have to face. And when Mallie emerges from the fog, what will she think of the choices that were made on her behalf? The Opposite of Fate is an intense and moving exploration of the decisions we make—and don’t make—that forever change the course of our lives.

Download or read book Two or Three Things I Know for Sure written by Dorothy Allison and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1996-08-01 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, she takes a probing look at her family's history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next. Illustrated with photographs from the author's personal collection, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure tells the story of the Gibson women -- sisters, cousins, daughters, and aunts -- and the men who loved them, often abused them, and, nonetheless, shared their destinies. With luminous clarity, Allison explores how desire surprises and what power feels like to a young girl as she confronts abuse. As always, Dorothy Allison is provocative, confrontational, and brutally honest. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, steeped in the hard-won wisdom of experience, expresses the strength of her unique vision with beauty and eloquence.

Download or read book Little Pieces of Me written by Alison Hammer and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A powerful story of family and connection that is just as fun as it is heartbreaking. I didn’t want the story to end.” — Jill Santopolo, New York Times bestselling author of The Light We Lost and Everything After Following her acclaimed debut novel, You and Me and Us, Alison Hammer offers a deeply moving story of family and identity. When a DNA test reveals a long-buried secret, a woman must look to the past to understand her mother and herself. When Paige Meyer gets an email from a DNA testing website announcing that her father is a man she never met, she is convinced there must be a mistake. But as she digs deeper into her mother’s past and her own feelings of being the odd child out growing up, Paige begins to question everything she thought she knew. Could this be why Paige never felt like she fit in her family, and why her mother always seemed to keep her at an arm’s length? And what does it mean for Paige’s memories of her father, a man she idolized and whose death she is still grieving? Back in 1975, Betsy Kaplan, Paige’s mom, is a straightlaced sophomore at the University of Kansas. When her sweet but boring boyfriend disappoints her, Betsy decides she wants more out of life, and is tired of playing it safe. Enter Andy Abrams, the golden boy on campus with a potentially devastating secret. After their night together has unexpected consequences, Betsy is determined to bury the truth and rebuild a stable life for her unborn child, whatever the cost. When Paige can’t get answers from her mother, she goes looking for the only other person who was there that night. The more she learns about what happened, the more she sees her unflappable, distant mother as a real person faced with an impossible choice. But will it be enough to mend their broken relationship? Told in dual timelines, Little Pieces of Me examines identity and how the way we define ourselves changes (or not) through our life experiences.

Download or read book Foreign Affairs written by Alison Lurie and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Pulitzer Prize–winning novel follows two American academics in London—a young man and a middle-aged woman—as they each fall into unexpected romances. In her early fifties, Vinnie Miner is the sort of woman no one ever notices, despite her career as an Ivy League professor. She doubts she could get a man’s attention if she waved a brightly colored object in front of him. And though she loves her work, her specialty—children’s folk rhymes—earns little respect from her fellow scholars. Then, alone on a flight to London for a research trip, she sits next to a man she would never have viewed as a potential romantic partner. In a Western-cut suit and a rawhide tie, he is a sanitary engineer from Tulsa, Oklahoma, on a group tour. He’s the very opposite of her type, but before Vinnie knows it, she’s spending more and more time with him. Also in London is Vinnie’s colleague, a young, handsome English professor whose marriage and self-esteem are both on the rocks. But Fred Turner is also about to find consolation—in the arms of the most beautiful actress in England. Stylish and highborn, she introduces Fred to a glamorous, yet eccentric, London scene that he never expected to encounter. The course of these two relationships makes up the story of Foreign Affairs—a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award as well as a Pulitzer Prize winner, and an entertaining, poignant tale from the author of The War Between the Tates and The Last Resort, “one of this country’s most able and witty novelists” (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

Download or read book Tenth of December written by George Saunders and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-01-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The prize-winning, New York Times bestselling short story collection from the internationally bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo 'The best book you'll read this year' New York Times 'Dazzlingly surreal stories about a failing America' Sunday Times WINNER OF THE 2014 FOLIO PRIZE AND SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2013 George Saunders's most wryly hilarious and disturbing collection yet, Tenth of December illuminates human experience and explores figures lost in a labyrinth of troubling preoccupations. A family member recollects a backyard pole dressed for all occasions; Jeff faces horrifying ultimatums and the prospect of Darkenfloxx(TM) in some unusual drug trials; and Al Roosten hides his own internal monologue behind a winning smile that he hopes will make him popular. With dark visions of the future riffing against ghosts of the past and the ever-settling present, this collection sings with astonishing charm and intensity.