New England Notebook

New England Notebook
Author: Ted Reinstein
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2013-05-21
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0762795387

Looking to buy some medieval armour? In the mood for an orchestra of typewriters? Perhaps you’d like to sift through handcrafted cashmere scarves while chatting up Indiana Jones’ lovely co-star? Know where to find America’s oldest baseball diamond, New England’s smallest town, or Grover Cleveland’s impossibly-young (and spitting-image) grandson (think about it)? New England Notebook offers the answers to these questions and more in a blend of the region’s most singular and noteworthy nuggets of history, people, and culture. This is a collection of colorful facts, stories and anecdotes, plus a savvy selection of unusual eats, goods, services and events. Whether it’s finding a little-known museum of Titanic memorabilia, an underwater escape artist, or the smallest bar, both casual readers and dedicated lovers of all things New England will share a hearty—and humorous—sense of, “Who knew?” Written by a native New Englander and WCVB on-air reporter, New England Notebook goes beyond the merely curious, though it offers plenty of intriguing tidbits, unusual museums, fascinating characters, and many pieces of trivia and little-known facts.

The Wedding

The Wedding
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-02-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781538745328

In this stunning New York Times bestselling follow-up to The Notebook, a hardworking but distant husband vows to win back the love of his life by looking to Noah and Allie's legendary romance. After thirty years, Wilson Lewis is forced to face a painful truth: the romance has gone out of his marriage. His wife, Jane, has fallen out of love with him, and it is entirely his fault. Despite the shining example of his in-laws, Noah and Allie Calhoun, and their fifty-year love affair, Wilson himself is a man unable to express his true feelings. He has spent too little time at home and too much at the office, leaving the responsibility of raising their children to Jane. Now his daughter is about to marry, and his wife is thinking about leaving him. But if Wilson is sure of anything, it is this: His love for Jane has only grown over the years, and he will do everything he can to save their marriage. With the memories of Noah and Allie's inspiring life together as his guide, he vows to find a way to make his wife fall in love with him...all over again. In this powerfully moving tale of love lost, rediscovered, and renewed, Nicholas Sparks once again brings readers his unique insight into the only emotion that ultimately really matters.

Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California

Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California
Author: Matthew Specktor
Publisher: Tin House Books
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2021-07-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1951142632

A Best Book of the Year at The Atlantic Los Angeles Times Bestseller "[An] absorbing and revealing book. . . . nestling in the fruitful terrain between memoir and criticism." —Geoff Dyer, author of Out of Sheer Rage Blending memoir and cultural criticism, Matthew Specktor explores family legacy, the lives of artists, and a city that embodies both dreams and disillusionment. In 2006, Matthew Specktor moved into a crumbling Los Angeles apartment opposite the one in which F. Scott Fitzgerald spent the last moments of his life. Fitz had been Specktor’s first literary idol, someone whose own passage through Hollywood had, allegedly, broken him. Freshly divorced, professionally flailing, and reeling from his mother’s cancer diagnosis, Specktor was feeling unmoored. But rather than giving in or “cracking up,” he embarked on an obsessive journey to make sense of the mythologies of “success” and “failure” that haunt the artist’s life and the American imagination. Part memoir, part cultural history, part portrait of place, Always Crashing in the Same Car explores Hollywood through a certain kind of collapse. It’s a vibrant and intimate inspection of failure told through the lives of iconic, if under-sung, artists—Carole Eastman, Eleanor Perry, Warren Zevon, Tuesday Weld, and Hal Ashby, among others—and the author’s own family history. Through this constellation of Hollywood figures, he unearths a fascinating alternate history of the city that raised him and explores the ways in which curtailed ambition, insufficiency, and loss shape all our lives. At once deeply personal and broadly erudite, it is a story of an art form (the movies), a city (Los Angeles), and one person’s attempt to create meaning out of both. Above all, Specktor creates a moving search for optimism alongside the inevitability of failure and reveals the still-resonant power of art to help us navigate the beautiful ruins that await us all.

The Maidens

The Maidens
Author: Alex Michaelides
Publisher: Celadon Books
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250304474

**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** "Alex Michaelides’s long-awaited next novel, 'The Maidens,' is finally here...the premise is enticing and the elements irresistible." —The New York Times "A deliciously dark, elegant, utterly compulsive read—with a twist that blew my mind. I loved this even more than I loved The Silent Patient and that's saying something!" —Lucy Foley, New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient comes a spellbinding tale of psychological suspense, weaving together Greek mythology, murder, and obsession, that further cements “Michaelides as a major player in the field” (Publishers Weekly). Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld? When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.

Stella Keeps the Sun Up

Stella Keeps the Sun Up
Author: Clothilde Ewing
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2022-03-08
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1534487859

"When Stella does not want to go to bed, she tries all sorts of ways to keep the sun up"--

Friends Disappear

Friends Disappear
Author: Mary Barr
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2014-10-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 022615646X

In 1974, middle-schooler Mary Barr and a dozen of her friends boys and girls, black and white sat for a photograph on a porch in Evanston, Illinois. Barr s book, both history and ethnography, emerges from her thinking about this photograph and its deep background. Using government documents, newspaper articles, and census data, Barr provides a history of Evanston with a particular emphasis on its neighborhoods, its schools, and its families. Barr also tracked down all of the living people in her photograph and interviewed them about their experiences in Evanston and beyond. Ultimately, Barr comes to better understand the stories and the lies people tell about their communities, as well as the ways that inequality begets inequality, both in a historical sense and in the daily lives of her far-flung friends. "

Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever

Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever
Author: Justin Bieber
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2010-10-12
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 006203975X

"It's a big, big world It's easy to get lost in it..." —Justin Bieber, "Up" I love those lines in the lyrics. Sometimes I feel like that's what everyone's expecting. My world got very big, very fast, and a lot of people expect me to get lost in it. I grew up in a small town in Canada. I taught myself to sing in front of my bedroom mirror and to play guitar on a hand-me-down. My mom posted my first videos on YouTube. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd sell millions of records, sing for the president of the United States and sell out a massive arena tour. So no, I'm not lost. Not at all. If anything, onstage in front of my fans, I'm home. I'm found. And that's what this book is about: my journey, from singing and busking on the sidewalk in Stratford, Ontario, to performing and showing my appreciation to millions of fans all over the world for making this dream a reality. My music and lyrics give a glimpse of what's in my heart, but I think this book is a window into my world. In here are hundreds of pictures of me that no one's ever seen before, and I'll tell you about who I was before I joined forces with Scooter Braun and Usher and got a record deal, and who I've become since I've been blessed with the opportunity to share my music with the world. This is my gift to you, the fans who've supported and been with me on this amazing journey every step of the way.

The Middle Finger Project

The Middle Finger Project
Author: Ash Ambirge
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2020-02-11
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0525540334

Fresh, funny, and fearless, The Middle Finger Project is a point-by-point primer on how to get unstuck, slay imposter syndrome, trust in your own worth and ability, and become a strong, capable, wonderful, weird, brilliant, ballsy, unfuckwithable YOU. "Don't worry, this isn't a book about God, nor is it a book about Ryan Gosling (second in command). But it is a book about authority and becoming your own." --Ash Ambirge After a string of dead-end jobs and a death in the family, Ash Ambirge was down to her last $26 and sleeping in a Kmart parking lot when she faced the truth: No one was coming to her rescue. It was up to her to appoint herself. That night led to what eventually became a six-figure freelance career as a sought-after marketing and copywriting consultant, all while sipping coffee from her front porch in Costa Rica. She then launched The Middle Finger Project, a blog and online course hub, which has provided tens of thousands of young "women who disobey" with the tools and mindset to give everyone else's expectations the finger and get on your own path to happiness, wealth, independence, and adventure. In her first book, Ash draws on her unconventional personal story to offer a fun, bracing, and occasionally potty-mouthed manifesto for the transformative power of radical self-reliance. Employing the signature wit and wordsmithing she's used to build an avid following, she offers paradigm-shifting advice along the lines of: • The best feeling in the world is knowing who you are and what you're capable of doing. • Life circumstances are not life sentences. If a Scranton girl who grew up in a trailer park can make it, so can you. • What you believe about yourself will either murder your chances or save your life. So why not believe something good? • You don't need a high-ranking job title to be authorized to contribute. You just need to contribute. • Be your own authority. Authority only works as long as you trust that someone smarter than you is making the rules. • The way you become a force is by being the most radically real version of yourself that you can be. • You only have 12 fucks a day to give, so use them wisely.

Maybe in Another Life

Maybe in Another Life
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2015-07-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 147677689X

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo A People Magazine Pick * US Weekly “Must” Pick * Named “Best Book of the Summer” by Glamour * Good Housekeeping * USA TODAY * Cosmopolitan * PopSugar * Working Mother * Bustle * Goodreads A breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results. At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan. Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan? In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate? Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.

The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo

The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo
Author: F. G. Haghenbeck
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2012-09-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1451632843

One of Mexico’s most celebrated new novelists, F. G. Haghenbeck offers a beautifully written reimagining of Frida Kahlo’s fascinating life and loves. When several notebooks were recently discovered among Frida Kahlo’s belongings at her home in Coyoacán, Mexico City, acclaimed Mexican novelist F. G. Haghenbeck was inspired to write this beautifully wrought fictional account of her life. Haghenbeck imagines that, after Frida nearly died when a streetcar’s iron handrail pierced her abdomen during a traffic accident, she received one of the notebooks as a gift from her lover Tina Modotti. Frida called the notebook “The Hierba Santa Book” (The Sacred Herbs Book) and filled it with memories, ideas, and recipes. Haghenbeck takes readers on a magical ride through Frida’s passionate life: her long and tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera, the development of her art, her complex personality, her hunger for experience, and her ardent feminism. This stunning narrative also details her remarkable relationships with Georgia O’Keeffe, Leon Trotsky, Nelson Rockefeller, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Henry Miller, and Salvador Dalí. Combining rich, luscious prose with recipes from “The Hierba Santa Book,” Haghenbeck tells the extraordinary story of a woman whose life was as stunning a creation as her art.