Download or read book This Vacant Paradise written by Victoria Patterson and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2012-01-10 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Patterson beautifully parses the consequences of one woman’s fall in this memorable, penetrating, fully achieved novel.” —The New York Times Book Review Story Prize and California Book Award finalist Victoria Patterson revisits Newport Beach in This Vacant Paradise, examining the intersections of economics, class, race, sex, and family expectations during the mid–1990s. Esther lives with her grandmother, a virulent matriarch who controls her family through her wealth. Esther knows that an advantageous marriage replete with social standing, familial and peer approval, and financial rewards will alleviate her struggles. But she has been known to self–sabotage, and her loved ones are rooting for her not to blow it with her latest beau, especially since she’s at the ripe old age of thirty–three. All is well until she begins a tumultuous love affair with Charlie, a local college professor known for his unconventional ideals as much as for his golf game and good looks. He sets a fire inside Esther, sparking and delivering her—whether by choice or not—from the insular, safe, and stifling confines of societal expectations to an alternate, unglamorous, and indefinable course. The result is a stunning debut novel: a powerful work of fiction sure to provoke and engage. “Patterson writes with the exuberance of a natural storyteller. Her cast is rich, her narrative sinuous and masterfully structured.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Considering the subject matter—the real housewives of Orange County—Patterson’s debut novel (after story collection Drift) is surprisingly sophisticated and nuanced.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book This Vacant Paradise written by Victoria Patterson and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2011-03-10 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Patterson beautifully parses the consequences of one woman’s fall in this memorable, penetrating, fully achieved novel.” —The New York Times Book Review Story Prize and California Book Award finalist Victoria Patterson revisits Newport Beach in This Vacant Paradise, examining the intersections of economics, class, race, sex, and family expectations during the mid–1990s. Esther lives with her grandmother, a virulent matriarch who controls her family through her wealth. Esther knows that an advantageous marriage replete with social standing, familial and peer approval, and financial rewards will alleviate her struggles. But she has been known to self–sabotage, and her loved ones are rooting for her not to blow it with her latest beau, especially since she’s at the ripe old age of thirty–three. All is well until she begins a tumultuous love affair with Charlie, a local college professor known for his unconventional ideals as much as for his golf game and good looks. He sets a fire inside Esther, sparking and delivering her—whether by choice or not—from the insular, safe, and stifling confines of societal expectations to an alternate, unglamorous, and indefinable course. The result is a stunning debut novel: a powerful work of fiction sure to provoke and engage. “Patterson writes with the exuberance of a natural storyteller. Her cast is rich, her narrative sinuous and masterfully structured.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Considering the subject matter—the real housewives of Orange County—Patterson’s debut novel (after story collection Drift) is surprisingly sophisticated and nuanced.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book Paradise Dogs written by Man Martin and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adam Newman once had it all. But then he lost it. Now Adam yearns to reunite with his estranged wife, Evelyn, and recapture the Edenic life they once had running Paradise Dogs, the roadside hot-dog restaurant now legendary throughout central Florida. He has a few obstacles along the way. For starters, there's his impending marriage to Lily. There's also the matter of a quarter million dollars' worth of diamonds that he mislaid, along with what appears to be a shadowy conspiracy that is buying up land around the Cross-Florida Canal (and which may or may not be a product of Adam's alcohol-infused imagination). Despite his own troubles---and a brief stay in Chattahoochee---Adam looks to mentor his son, Addison, in the ways of love. Awkward, unsure, and employed as the world's least accurate obituary writer, Addison pines for a beautiful and painfully earnest linguistic student but must compete for her attention with his older and more sophisticated half brother from Evelyn's first marriage. But if anybody can set these worlds in order, it is Adam, who has an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time and allowing others to believe he's someone he's not. Whether it's delivering a baby, rescuing a marriage, or exposing a Communist conspiracy, our protagonist is up for the job. Paradise Dogs, from Georgia Author of the Year Award winner Man Martin, is a farcical tale of paradise lost, the American Dream, and the true measures of love

Download or read book Paradise Lot written by Eric Toensmeier and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2013-02-08 with total page 1 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates moved into a duplex in a run-down part of Holyoke, Massachusetts, the tenth-of-an-acre lot was barren ground and bad soil, peppered with broken pieces of concrete, asphalt, and brick. The two friends got to work designing what would become not just another urban farm, but a "permaculture paradise" replete with perennial broccoli, paw paws, bananas, and moringa—all told, more than two hundred low-maintenance edible plants in an innovative food forest on a small city lot. The garden—intended to function like a natural ecosystem with the plants themselves providing most of the garden's needs for fertility, pest control, and weed suppression—also features an edible water garden, a year-round unheated greenhouse, tropical crops, urban poultry, and even silkworms. In telling the story of Paradise Lot, Toensmeier explains the principles and practices of permaculture, the choice of exotic and unusual food plants, the techniques of design and cultivation, and, of course, the adventures, mistakes, and do-overs in the process. Packed full of detailed, useful information about designing a highly productive permaculture garden, Paradise Lot is also a funny and charming story of two single guys, both plant nerds, with a wild plan: to realize the garden of their dreams and meet women to share it with. Amazingly, on both counts, they succeed.

Download or read book James Wright written by Frank Graziano and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1990-12-21 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Features poems, an essay, and previously unpublished letters by James Wright, plus excerpts from interviews, memoirs, and elegies

Download or read book This Side of Paradise written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published by The Floating Press. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Side of Paradise is a novel about post-World War I youth and their morality. Amory Blaine is a young Princeton University student with an attractive face and an interest in literature. His greed and desire for social status warp the theme of love weaving through the story.

Download or read book Burning Paradise written by Robert Charles Wilson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Cassie [Iverson], eighteen years old, lives in the United States in the year 2014--but it's not our United States and it's not our 2014. Cassie's world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1914. But Cassie knows the world isn't what it seems. Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: that for decades--back to the dawn of radio communications--human progress has been interfered with, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity"--

Download or read book The Peerless Four written by Victoria Patterson and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Running so hard you think you'll choke on your next breath. Lungs burning like they're drenched in battery acid. Peripheral vision blurred by the same adrenaline that drowns out the cheers coming from the full stadium. And of course, the reporters. The men scribbling furiously on their notepads so they can publish every stumble, sprain, and sniffle in these historic games. This was the world of the female athletes in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, the first games in which women were allowed to compete (and on a trial basis, at that). Nicknamed "the Peerless Four," the Canadian track team included some of the strongest and most diversely talented women on the scene. Narrated by the team's chaperone—a former runner herself—the women embark on their journey with the same golden goals as every other Olympian, male or female. But as the Olympic tension begins to rise with unexpected injuries, heartbreaking disqualifications, and the pressure of supreme athletic performance, each woman discovers new fears and new priorities, all while the weight of women's future in the Olympics rests on their performance poise. The Peerless Four is more than a sports novel, more than a record of how far women's rights have come in the past 75 years. It's a meditation on sacrifice, loyalty, commitment, perseverance, and the courage to live a true underdog tale.

Download or read book Resort Corridor Fixed Guideway Las Vegas written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise written by Dario Fernandez-Morera and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-07-11 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A finalist for World Magazine's Book of the Year! Scholars, journalists, and even politicians uphold Muslim-ruled medieval Spain—"al-Andalus"—as a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony. There is only one problem with this widely accepted account: it is a myth. In this groundbreaking book, Northwestern University scholar Darío Fernández-Morera tells the full story of Islamic Spain. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise shines light on hidden history by drawing on an abundance of primary sources that scholars have ignored, as well as archaeological evidence only recently unearthed. This supposed beacon of peaceful coexistence began, of course, with the Islamic Caliphate's conquest of Spain. Far from a land of religious tolerance, Islamic Spain was marked by religious and therefore cultural repression in all areas of life and the marginalization of Christians and other groups—all this in the service of social control by autocratic rulers and a class of religious authorities. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise provides a desperately needed reassessment of medieval Spain. As professors, politicians, and pundits continue to celebrate Islamic Spain for its "multiculturalism" and "diversity," Fernández-Morera sets the historical record straight—showing that a politically useful myth is a myth nonetheless.

Download or read book Investigation of Real Estate Bondholders Reorganizations Public Hearings Before a Subcommittee of 73 2 74 2 written by United States. Congress. House Select Committee on Investigation ofReal Estate Bondholders' Reorganizations and published by . This book was released on 1934 with total page 2202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Investigation of Real Estate Bondholders Reorganizations written by United States. Congress. House. Select Committee to Investigate Real Estate Bondholders' Reorganizations and published by . This book was released on 1934 with total page 1914 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The British Study Edition of the Urantia Papers Book A4 PDF written by and published by Tigran Aivazian. This book was released on with total page 1477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Middle Men written by Jim Gavin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-02-19 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful, funny, and wise debut from a writer Esquire praises as “the second coming of Denis Johnson.” In this widely acclaimed story collection, Jim Gavin delivers a hilarious and panoramic vision of California, in which a number of down-on-their-luck men, from young dreamers to old vets, make valiant forays into middle-class respectability. Each of the men in Gavin’s stories is stuck somewhere in the middle, caught halfway between his dreams and the often crushing reality of his life. A work of profound humanity that pairs moments of high comedy with searing truths about life’s missed opportunities, Middle Men brings to life unforgettable characters as they learn what it means to love and work and exist in the world as a man. Hailed as a “modern-day Dubliners” (Time Out ) and “reminiscent of Tom Perotta’s best work” (The Boston Globe), this stellar debut has the Los Angeles Review of Books raving, “Middle Men deserves its hype and demonstrates a top-shelf talent. . . . A brilliant sense of humor animates each story and creates a state of near-continuous reading pleasure.”

Download or read book The Starboard Sea written by Amber Dermont and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2012-02-28 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A rich, quietly artful novel that is bound for deep water, with questions of beauty, power and spiritual navigation as its main concerns. The title refers not to the right side of a boat but to the right course through life, and the immense difficulty of finding and following it."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times A powerful first novel about life and death, friendship and love, as one young man must navigate the depths of his emotions. JASON PROSPER grew up in the elite world of Manhattan penthouses, Maine summer estates, old-boy prep schools, and exclusive sailing clubs. A smart, athletic teenager, Jason maintains a healthy, humorous disdain for the trappings of affluence, preferring to spend afternoons sailing with Cal, his best friend and boarding-school roommate. When Cal commits suicide during their junior year at Kensington Prep, Jason is devastated by the loss and transfers to Bellingham Academy. There, he meets Aidan, a fellow student with her own troubled past. They embark on a tender, awkward, deeply emotional relationship. When a major hurricane hits the New England coast, the destruction it causes brings with it another upheaval in Jason's life, forcing him to make sense of a terrible secret that has been buried by the boys he considers his friends. Set against the backdrop of the 1987 stock market collapse, The Starboard Seais an examination of the abuses of class privilege, the mutability of sexual desire, the thrill and risk of competitive sailing, and the adult cost of teenage recklessness. It is a powerful and provocative novel about a young man finding his moral center, trying to forgive himself, and accepting the gift of love.

Download or read book Writers on the Edge written by Diana Raab and published by Loving Healing Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Major contemporary authors offer a range of essays, memoirs, and poetry that brings fresh insight into the dark world of addictionNfrom drugs and alcohol to sex, gambling, and food.

Download or read book Simon Schuster 2013 Fiction Sampler written by Teddy Wayne and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-04-03 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are proud to introduce seven powerful, original, and irresistible novels coming in 2013 from Simon & Schuster: The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, Y, Middle Men, Motherland, The Why of Things, The Gravity of Birds, and Snow Hunters. This sample features exclusive excerpts, interviews with the writers, and commentary from the books’ editors. · In The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne, an eleven-year-old pop megastar searches for his identity in the dark heart of America's monstrous obsession with fame. · Marjorie Celona’s highly acclaimed and exquisitely rendered debut, Y, follows a wise-beyond-her-years foster child abandoned as a newborn on the doorstep of the local YMCA. · From an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Motherland is a powerful story of a love triangle set in England, France, India, and Jamaica against the backdrop of World War II. · In Middle Men, Stegner Fellow and New Yorker contributor Jim Gavin delivers a hilarious and panoramic vision of California, portraying a group of men, from young dreamers to old vets, as they make valiant forays into middle-class respectability. · Tracy Guzeman's compelling debut novel, The Gravity of Birds, follows the ordeal of an art authenticator and an art historian employed by a famous, reclusive painter to sell a never-before-seen portrait, leading them to discover devastating secrets two sisters have kept from each other, and from the artist. · In Snow Hunters, an elegant, haunting, and highly anticipated debut novel from 5 Under 35 National Book Foundation honoree Paul Yoon, a North Korean war refugee confronts the wreckage of his past. · From the critically acclaimed author of December comes The Why Of Things, a buoyant and beautiful new novel about a family struggling in the aftermath of a suicide. Each author is an accomplished artist and has created a lasting work you’ll want to read and relish and talk about.