Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Author: ZZ Packer
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2004-02-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781573223782

The acclaimed debut short story collection that introduced the world to an arresting and unforgettable new voice in fiction, from multi-award winning author ZZ Packer Her impressive range and talent are abundantly evident: Packer dazzles with her command of language, surprising and delighting us with unexpected turns and indelible images, as she takes us into the lives of characters on the periphery, unsure of where they belong. We meet a Brownie troop of black girls who are confronted with a troop of white girls; a young man who goes with his father to the Million Man March and must decide where his allegiance lies; an international group of drifters in Japan, who are starving, unable to find work; a girl in a Baltimore ghetto who has dreams of the larger world she has seen only on the screens in the television store nearby, where the Lithuanian shopkeeper holds out hope for attaining his own American Dream. With penetrating insight, ZZ Packer helps us see the world with a clearer vision. Fresh, versatile, and captivating, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a striking and unforgettable collection, sure to stand out among the contemporary canon of fiction.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Let's Pretend This Never Happened
Author: Jenny Lawson
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2012-04-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1101573082

The #1 New York Times bestselling (mostly true) memoir from the hilarious author of Furiously Happy. “Gaspingly funny and wonderfully inappropriate.”—O, The Oprah Magazine When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it. In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives. Readers Guide Inside

Look at Me

Look at Me
Author: Jennifer Egan
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2009-12-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1400033276

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • In this ambitiously multilayered novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, a fashion model named Charlotte Swenson emerges from a car accident in her Illinois hometown with her face so badly shattered that it takes eighty titanium screws to reassemble it. She returns to New York still beautiful but oddly unrecognizable, a virtual stranger in the world she once effortlessly occupied. With the surreal authority of a David Lynch, Jennifer Egan threads Charlotte’s narrative with those of other casualties of our infatuation with the image. There’s a deceptively plain teenaged girl embarking on a dangerous secret life, an alcoholic private eye, and an enigmatic stranger who changes names and accents as he prepares an apocalyptic blow against American society. As these narratives inexorably converge, Look at Me becomes a coolly mesmerizing intellectual thriller of identity and imposture.

Between the Lines

Between the Lines
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2013-06-25
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1451635818

Told in their separate voices, sixteen-year-old Prince Oliver, who wants to break free of his fairy-tale existence, and fifteen-year-old Delilah, a loner obsessed with Prince Oliver and the book in which he exists, work together to seek his freedom.

Lucky

Lucky
Author: Alice Sebold
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2019-03-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1529014646

With an introduction by the author of Circe and The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller In Lucky Alice Sebold reveals how her life was irrevocably changed when, as an eighteen-year-old college freshman, she was raped and beaten inside a tunnel near her campus. In this same tunnel, a girl had been raped and dismembered. By comparison, Alice was told by police, she was lucky. Though Alice’s friends and family try their best to offer understanding and support, in the end it is Alice’s formidable spirit which resonates most in these pages. In a narrative both painful and inspiring, Alice Sebold shines a light on the true experience of violent trauma. Sebold’s redemption turns out to be as hard-won as it is real.

The Chase

The Chase
Author: Adrienne Giordano
Publisher: ALG Publishing LLC
Total Pages: 133
Release: 2014-01-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0988893908

Hard-driving attorney Jo Pomeroy is as determined as she is sexy—in other words, a major pain in NYPD Sergeant Gabe Townsend’s butt. Working together on a high-profile task force charged with busting sales of counterfeit goods has been rocky from the start. And Jo’s penchant for trouble is as difficult to ignore as her spectacular legs. The world of knock-offs isn’t as frivolous as it appears. The purses are fake, but the danger is all too real—and Jo seems hell-bent on putting herself in the middle of it. Her investigations have uncovered valuable leads for Gabe’s team, but they’ve also drawn the wrong kind of attention. Now, she’s on the radar of a mysterious smuggler not afraid to use violence to evade the law. At the risk of their lives—and their hearts—Gabe and Jo must find him before he finds them.

Jefferson's Road: Patriots and Tyrants

Jefferson's Road: Patriots and Tyrants
Author: Michael J. Scott
Publisher: Michael J. Scott
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2011-06-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1458080471

Peter Baird is running for his life. Skillfully manipulated and played for a patsy, he has become an assassin--public enemy number one: the man who shot the President of the United States. Now abandoned and on his own, he has but one chance to save his brother and rescue his country: He must join forces with the man he hates the most--Grant Collins, the mysterious commander of the New York militia. The problem is he has no idea where to find the man. Peter sets himself on a quest: find the militia and convince Grant to mount a rescue and save his brother from certain death. But will the price of liberty come at the cost of his soul?

Falling for Mr. Wrong Series

Falling for Mr. Wrong Series
Author: Jenny Gardiner
Publisher: Jenny Gardiner Books
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2019-05-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1944763317

Hit the beach with one of your favorites from Big O Romeo…after the palatial elegance of the Royal Romeo series, it’s time to relax in the warm, summertime vibes of the North Carolina shores, where sun, fun, and romance take center stage, with the first three books of the series bundled for the first time... Falling for Mr. Wrong If lusting after him is wrong, she doesn’t want to be right… Harper Landry sometimes feels like she’s turned into a professional dater. Which might not be such a bad job if it didn’t involve having to spend so much time with a succession of truly undesirable men who were obviously still single for good reason. So she’s elated when she ends up on a blind date with the charming and handsome Danny Greevy, a man who seems too good to be true. But Harper’s starting to think that too good to be true might be downright perfect for her. Particularly when the man who launched her man-drought shows up unexpectedly to throw a wrench in her life yet again. Noah Gunderson is back in town after traveling the world for the past several years. Forced to return home after promising his mother on her deathbed to save the beloved inn that she’d nearly run into the ground, he’s planning to get far away from Verity Beach just as soon as he’s got the inn back in the black. And he’s determined not to let the distraction of Harper Landry, the one that got away, keep him here a moment longer. Falling for Mr. Maybe If it swells, ride it… Georgie Childress moved to Verity Beach to lick her wounds after her controlling fiancé pulled a runner mere weeks before the wedding. Jobless and desperate to flee his turf, she sought solace in the quietude of the ocean, happily escaping into her own thoughts while surrounded by diving dolphins and cacophonous seagulls. Only when she accidentally runs over some random—and super sexy—surfer dude’s surfboard does she start to wonder if she needs to bring her head out of the clouds and start paying attention to life again. Spencer Willoughby long ago fled his rigid upbringing, shunning the familial expectations of an Ivy League education and Wall Street career in favor of the sun, sand and surf along North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Give him a surfboard and he’s a happy man. That is until some nutty lady with a penchant for fender-benders backs into his beloved hand-crafted wooden surfboard, snapping it in half. It’s enough to make a man crazy—crazier still because the kooky blond is making his blood run hot. Just when he finally gets the woman out of his head, Spencer is unwittingly paired off with her at a wedding as a favor to a friend, forcing him to make nice with his board-murdering nemesis who he might just want to ride off into the sunset. Falling for Mr. No Way in Hell Taking the plunge… Lacy Caldwell’s mermaid gig at a cheesy roadside beach bar provided much-needed income while she pursues her graduate degree. That is until the beloved owner dies and her greedy nephew announces he’s cashing out by closing the bar and selling the property to a developer who’s going to replace the kitschy charm of the Mermaid’s Purse with ocean-view condos. Cameron Sanders can’t believe his good luck. Struggling financially, he’s thrilled to find out some random, ancient aunt he hardly knew died and left him an inheritance that’ll help take the money monkey off his back. He’s ready to go to the mat in battle when some annoying mermaid from the bar tries to throw a wrench in his plans. But things get complicated when he realizes that she’s a woman he’s started to have feelings for.

when all else fails

when all else fails
Author: Jeffrey Vreeland
Publisher: when all else fails
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2007-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0978737709

In the northern suburbs, violence threatens when the efforts of a clandestine spiritual community spearhead the creation of a secret landscaper's cartel to pressure wealthy homeowners into paying higher prices for services. An incident at a local nuclear lab further enmeshes illegal immigrants, a spiritual healer working with the Minyan Community and a wealthy suburbanite who owns the facility. Escalating tensions between the two groups eventually challenge the spiritual community's core injunction against the use of redemptive violence in their quest for the economic improvement if the immigrants.