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Before You Know Kindness (Vintage Contemporaries)
by Chris BohjalianFor ten summers, the Seton family--all three generations--met at their country home in New England to spend a week together playing tennis, badminton, and golf, and savoring gin and tonics on the wraparound porch to celebrate the end of the season. In the eleventh summer, everything changed. A hunting rifle with a single cartridge left in the chamber wound up in exactly the wrong hands at exactly the wrong time, and led to a nightmarish accident that put to the test the values that unite the family--and the convictions that just may pull it apart. Before You Know Kindness is a family saga that is timely in its examination of some of the most important issues of our era, and timeless in its exploration of the strange and unexpected places where we find love. As he did with his earlier masterpiece,Midwives, Chris Bohjalian has written a novel that is rich with unforgettable characters--and absolutely riveting in its page-turning intensity. "Few writers can manipulate a plot with Bohjalian's grace and power."--The New York Times Book Review. "Chris Bohjalian's many fans will be glad to know he's back on the high wire, expertly balancing topical issues with the more timeless concerns of the human heart. His well-drawn, sympathetic characters deepen and intensify the novel's gripping plot rather than simply serving it. Before You Know Kindness is smart, first-rate storytelling."--Richard Russo, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls. "Once again, Chris Bohjalian dares to tackle the complexities--and complacencies--of modern society at its most vulnerable spot, where the personal clashes with the political, where the private is forced to go public. And once again, he forges a drama that will keep his readers on the edge of their seats... perhaps their conscience as well."--Julia Glass, winner of the National Book Award for Three Junes. "Chris Bohjalian's magnificent new novel, Before You Know Kindness, is the best work of fiction I've read about an American family since Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. It is one of the funniest, best-written, most compassionate, most engaging, and flat-out most enjoyable novels I've ever read."--Howard Frank Mosher, winner of the New England Book Award for A Stranger in the Kingdom. "Elegant, refined... a triumph." --Booklist (starred review).
Before You Met Me
by Agatha SicilMost people have skeletons in their closet and go through the motions of life meeting new people who are unaware of their past experiences. As a result, a person has more than one life to tell. The purpose of this book is to open the reader' s eyes that the person whom they refer to as their friend, colleague, in-law, or neighbor, is not who they really say they are but their previous interactions begin to make sense.
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
by Danielle EvansIntroducing a new star of her generation, an electric debut story collection about mixed-race and African-American teenagers, women, and men struggling to find a place in their families and communities. When Danielle Evans's short story "Virgins" was published in The Paris Review in late 2007, it announced the arrival of a major new American short story writer. Written when she was only twenty-three, Evans's story of two black, blue-collar fifteen-year-old girls' flirtation with adulthood for one night was startling in its pitch-perfect examination of race, class, and the shifting terrain of adolescence. Now this debut short story collection delivers on the promise of that early story. In "Harvest," a college student's unplanned pregnancy forces her to confront her own feelings of inadequacy in comparison to her white classmates. In "Jellyfish," a father's misguided attempt to rescue a gift for his grown daughter from an apartment collapse magnifies all he doesn't know about her. And in "Snakes," the mixed-race daughter of intellectuals recounts the disastrous summer she spent with her white grandmother and cousin, a summer that has unforeseen repercussions in the present. Striking in their emotional immediacy, the stories in Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self are based in a world where inequality is reality but where the insecurities of adolescence and young adulthood, and the tensions within family and the community, are sometimes the biggest complicating forces in one's sense of identity and the choices one makes. .
Before You Were Mine
by Maribeth BoeltsAdopting a shelter dog comes with unconditional love, but also many questions.A little boy imagines what life was like for his new dog before he adopted him from a shelter. Maybe he had a boy who loved him, but the family had to move and couldn't keep him. Maybe he belonged to someone who didn't appreciate how mischievous puppies can be. Maybe he was treated badly.But the most important thing is that now, he can be shown all the love he's been missing. Because this dog is home.Winner of the Humane Society KIND Children's Picture Book Award and the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children's Book Award, this touching story celebrates all who support, care for, and adopt shelter dogs.
Before You Write Your Novel: Essential Skills for the First-time Novelist
by James McCreetPreviously available as "Before You Write a Word", Before You Write Your Novel sets out the essential techniques and approaches that lay the perfect foundation for writing your first novel. This concise and readable guide addresses the major stumbling blocks of fiction writing: the importance of planning and structure. This book covers the essential components of novel writing including narrative, story, plot, pace, chronology, character arc and engagement techniques, as well as research, story building, plotting and editing. Using an open and honest approach, feeding from his own experience as a published novelist and creative writing teacher, James McCreet offers a guide to the structural mechanisms of the novel, helping you plan a first draft through to a finished novel.
Before Your Memory Fades: A Novel (Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series #3)
by Toshikazu KawaguchiPREORDER YOUR COPY OF BEFORE WE FORGET KINDNESS, the fifth book in the best-selling and much loved series, NOW!The third novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, following four new customers in a cafe where customers can travel back in time.On the hillside of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan, Cafe Donna Donna is fabled for its dazzling views of Hakodate port. But that&’s not all. Like the charming Tokyo cafe Funiculi Funicula, Cafe Donna Donna offers its customers the extraordinary experience of travelling through time.From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of the cafe's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Toshikazu Kawaguchi&’s previous novels, readers will also be introduced to: A daughter who begrudges her deceased parents for leaving her orphaned A comedian who aches for his beloved and their shared dreams A younger sister whose grief has become all-consuming A young man who realizes his love for his childhood friend too lateTranslated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot and featuring signature heart-warming characters and wistful storytelling, in Before Your Memory Fades, Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?Meet more wonderful characters in the rest of the captivating Before the Coffee Gets Cold series: Before the Coffee Gets Cold Tales from the Cafe Before We Say Goodbye And the upcoming BEFORE WE FORGET KINDESS
The Beforelife
by Franz WrightIn this stunning collection, Franz Wright chronicles the journey back from a place of isolation and wordlessness. After a period when it seemed certain he would never write poetry again, he speaks with bracing clarity about the twilit world that lies between madness and sanity, addiction and recovery. Wright negotiates the precarious transition from illness to health in a state of skeptical rapture, discovering along the way the exhilaration of love--both divine and human--and finding that even the most battered consciousness can be good company. Whether he is writing about his regret for the abortion of a child, describing the mechanics of slander ("I can just hear them on the telephone and keening all their kissy little knives"), or composing an ironic ode to himself ("To a Blossoming Nut Case"), Wright's poems are exquisitely precise. Charles Simic has characterized him as a poetic miniaturist, whose "secret ambition is to write an epic on the inside of a matchbook cover. " Time and again, Wright turns on a dime in a few brief lines, exposing the dark comedy and poignancy of his heightened perception. Here is one of the poems from the collection: Description of Her Eyes Two teaspoonfuls, and my mind goes everyone can kiss my ass now-- then it's changed, I change my mind. Eyes so sad, and infinitely kind.
Beforelight
by Matthew GellmanBeforelight explores queer childhood as a site of rupture and queer coming-of-age as a process of both becoming and unbecoming. With wisdom and grace, the speaker in these poems confronts the impacts of fragmented relationships and trauma on his nascent identity, ultimately committing to the self's authenticity as the highest form of devotion. Lush, cinematic, and deeply psychological, these poems grapple with the fragility of our most formative connections—familial, communal, and ancestral—as the speaker searches for communion with himself and tries to discover how not to “make a life out of pain.”
Befriending the Commedia dell'Arte of Flaminio Scala
by Natalie Crohn SchmittThe most important theatrical movement in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Europe, the commedia dell'arte has inspired playwrights, artists, and musicians including Molière, Dario Fo, Picasso, and Stravinsky. Because of its stock characters, improvised dialogue, and extravagant theatricalism, the commedia dell'arte is often assumed to be a superficial comic style. With Befriending the Commedia dell'Arte of Flaminio Scala, Natalie Crohn Schmitt demolishes that assumption.By reconstructing the commedia dell'arte scenarios published by troupe manager Flaminio Scala (1547-1624), Schmitt demonstrates that in its Golden Age the commedia dell'arte relied as much on craftsmanship as on improvisation and that Scala's scenarios are a treasure trove of social commentary on early modern daily life in Italy.In the book, Schmitt makes use of her intensive research into the social and cultural history of sixteenth-century Italy and the aesthetic principles of the period. She combines this research with her insights drawn from studying with contemporary commedia dell'arte performers and from directing a production of one of Scala's scenarios. The result is a new perspective on the commedia dell'arte that illuminates the style's full richness.
Befriending the Queer Nineteenth Century: Curious Attachments (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature)
by Michael BorgstromBefriending the Queer Nineteenth Century: Curious Attachments addresses a longstanding question in literary and cultural studies: how can a case be made for the ongoing value of the humanities without an articulation of that field's social effects? In response, this book examines how readers "befriend" works of literature, overtures that are based in a curiosity about the world that help those readers to appreciate the world anew. As an instance of this dynamic, it examines how the contemporary social interest in queerness can be contextualized through encounters with texts produced during an earlier era of queer flux: the U.S. nineteenth century. The book offers first-hand accounts of such meetings, weaving within its analysis reports on readers' engagements with literature and the consequences of those connections. It frames such dynamics as central to a new politics, or to finding a vocabulary for a familiar politics that has not received its due.
Beg, Borrow, or Steal: The new rivals-to-lovers romance by the author of the TikTok sensation, THE CHEAT SHEET
by Sarah Adams'Sarah Adams writes books with heart and soul. They speak to the people finding their way and being unapologetically themselves in the process. I love her style' HANNAH GRACE💖Rivals-to-lovers💖Black cat/golden retriever💖Small town💖Secret identity💖Forced proximityTwo feuding second-grade teachers find themselves as unlikely allies (and neighbours) in this rivals-to-lovers romance by Sarah Adams, author of The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect.___________________________Maybe it's time for a plot twist . . .Emily Walker hates anyone disrupting her carefully curated life, especially her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett - the exact opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer. But now Jack's back in town after a failed engagement and he's here to stay . . . as both her colleague and her neighbour.Jack is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. Until, that is, he realises he's now neighbours with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons.With their red-hot animosity at an all-time high, Emily makes a mistake that could reveal her secret literary identity. Frustratingly, she needs Jack's help to make it right. Will their unlikely alliance put an end to their rivalry? Or could it lead to a steamy plot twist they never saw coming?___________________________'Feuding second-grade teachers learn they make a great team in this cute rivals-to-lovers romance . . . this charms' PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY'Sarah Adams' books are woven with pure sunshine and rainbows . . . It's everything you could want in a small town romance, along with a heaping dollop of her signature wit and sparkling charm' AMY LEA'You can always count on a Sarah Adams rom-com to be equal parts funny, sweet, and swoony' SOPHIE SULLIVANAnd readers just can't get enough!'I just adored this story . . . I'm ready to eat up anything that Sarah Adams writes''A perfect mix of hilarious banter, comical situations, and sweet romance''This romance is brilliant! It is fast paced, laugh out loud and so cute!''A feel-good rom-com with everything you want in a romance!'
Beg, Borrow, or Steal: The new rivals-to-lovers romance by the author of the TikTok sensation, THE CHEAT SHEET
by Sarah Adams'Sarah Adams writes books with heart and soul. They speak to the people finding their way and being unapologetically themselves in the process. I love her style' HANNAH GRACE💖Rivals-to-lovers💖Black cat/golden retriever💖Small town💖Secret identity💖Forced proximityTwo feuding second-grade teachers find themselves as unlikely allies (and neighbours) in this rivals-to-lovers romance by Sarah Adams, author of The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect.___________________________Maybe it's time for a plot twist . . .Emily Walker hates anyone disrupting her carefully curated life, especially her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett - the exact opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer. But now Jack's back in town after a failed engagement and he's here to stay . . . as both her colleague and her neighbour.Jack is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. Until, that is, he realises he's now neighbours with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons.With their red-hot animosity at an all-time high, Emily makes a mistake that could reveal her secret literary identity. Frustratingly, she needs Jack's help to make it right. Will their unlikely alliance put an end to their rivalry? Or could it lead to a steamy plot twist they never saw coming?___________________________'Feuding second-grade teachers learn they make a great team in this cute rivals-to-lovers romance . . . this charms' PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY'Sarah Adams' books are woven with pure sunshine and rainbows . . . It's everything you could want in a small town romance, along with a heaping dollop of her signature wit and sparkling charm' AMY LEA'You can always count on a Sarah Adams rom-com to be equal parts funny, sweet, and swoony' SOPHIE SULLIVANAnd readers just can't get enough!'I just adored this story . . . I'm ready to eat up anything that Sarah Adams writes''A perfect mix of hilarious banter, comical situations, and sweet romance''This romance is brilliant! It is fast paced, laugh out loud and so cute!''A feel-good rom-com with everything you want in a romance!'
Beg, Borrow, or Steal: A Novel
by Sarah AdamsTwo feuding second-grade teachers (and neighbors) find themselves teaming up in this new rivals-to-lovers romance set in Rome, Kentucky—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rule Book and Practice Makes Perfect.&“Sarah Adams writes books with heart and soul. They speak to the people finding their way and being unapologetically themselves in the process. I love her style.&”—Hannah Grace, author of IcebreakerEmily Walker hates having her carefully crafted world disrupted by anyone, most of all her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett. He&’s the opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer, which is why Emily was perfectly happy when Jack left Rome, Kentucky, mid-school year with his fiancée. The last thing Emily saw coming was Jack&’s return at the start of the summer after calling off the wedding and ending his relationship, but he&’s here to stay—as her colleague and her neighbor.Jack is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. But when he realizes he&’s now neighbors with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons, he discovers something he&’s even more excited about—thwarting Emily and her petty plans to sabotage his return.With their chemistry-fueled animosity at an all-time high, Emily accidentally sends an email to their school&’s principal that could reveal her secret literary side hustle. She needs to steal back her manuscript, and Jack—she hates to admit—is just the man to help her. Surprisingly, he agrees. Will their unlikely alliance put an end to their rivalry? Or could it lead to a steamy plot twist they never saw coming?Look for all of Sarah Adams&’s When in Rome books:WHEN IN ROME • PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT • BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL (Coming Soon!)
Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life
by Michael GreenbergIn Beg, Borrow, StealMichael Greenberg regales us with his wry and vivid take on the life of a writer of little means trying to practise his craft or simply stay alive. He finds himself doctoring doomed movie scripts; selling cosmetics from an ironing board in front of a women's department store; writing about golf, a game he has never played; and botching his debut as a waiter in a posh restaurant. Central characters include Michael's father, whose prediction that Michael's 'scribbling' wouldn't get him on the subway almost came true; his artistic first wife, whom he met in a Greenwich Village high school; and their son who grew up on the Lower East Side,fluent in the language of the street. Then there are Greenberg's unexpected encounters: a Holocaust survivor who, on his deathbed, tries to leave Michael his fortune; a repentant communist who confesses his sins; a man who becomes a woman; a Chilean film-maker in search of his past; and rats who behave like humans and ceaseto live underground. Hilarious and bittersweet, Greenberg's stories invite us into a world where the familial, the literary, the tragic and the mundane not only speak to one another, but deeply enjoy the exchange.
Beg, Borrow, Steal
by Michael GreenbergIn Beg, Borrow, Steal Michael Greenberg regales us with his wry and vivid take on the life of a writer of little means trying to practice his craft or simply stay alive. He finds himself doctoring doomed movie scripts; selling cosmetics from an ironing board in front of a women's department store; writing about golf, a game he has never played; and botching his debut as a waiter in a posh restaurant.Central characters include Michael's father, whose prediction that Michael's "scribbling" wouldn't get him on the subway almost came true; his artistic first wife, whom he met in a Greenwich Village high school; and their son who grew up on the Lower East Side, fluent in the language of the street and in the language of the parlor. Then there are Greenberg's unexpected encounters: a Holocaust survivor who on his deathbed tries to leave Michael his fortune; a repentant communist who confesses his sins; a man who becomes a woman; a Chilean filmmaker in search of his past; and rats who behave like humans and cease to live underground.Hilarious and bittersweet, Greenberg's stories invite us into a world where the familial, the literary, the tragic and the mundane not only speak to one another, but deeply enjoy the exchange.
Beg for Mercy (A Mercy Hollings Novel #1)
by Toni AndrewsI've never been certain I'm human Oh, the X-rays and blood tests are normal, and most people have no reason to suspect I'm more than I appear to be. But if I tell you to do something? You do it -- no ifs, ands or buts. I call my power the 'press.' My name is Mercy Hollings, and if you think that having the power to control people makes my life easy, you're dead wrong. Because when I get angry, everyone around me is at risk -- Sukey, my friend who has frightening taste in men; my clients, who, ironically, come to me for help; my neighbors, who regard me as a loner; and Sam, a man who wants to know my darkest secret. I have hurt people in the past, and I don't want that to happen again. But now a powerful stranger is threatening the new life that I've made for myself. And I'm afraid my anger is taking over.
Beg For Mercy: Dead Wrong Book 1 (Dead Wrong)
by Jami AldenJami Alden's Beg For Mercy is a sizzling, suspenseful tale, perfect for fans of Melinda Leigh, Kendra Elliot, Karen Rose and Laura Griffin.Megan Flynn thought she was falling in love with Cole Williams. That is until he arrested her brother - the only family she has left - for a murder she knows he couldn't have possibly committed. Now, with her heart broken and her brother's life hanging in the balance, Megan will risk everything to prove his innocence. Even if that means throwing herself into the path of a sadistic killer with a hauntingly familiar MO. When she insinuates herself into the most shockingly brutal case Cole has ever worked, he can't stand idly by. Plunged into a secret world where the city's elite indulge their darkest desires, Cole will do whatever it takes save the woman he loves and bring down the madman who has made Megan his most coveted prey.Don't miss more edge-of-the-seat suspense from Jami Alden with her sexy, thrilling novels Hide From Evil, Run From Fear and Guilty As Sin.
Beg Me: A Novel
by Lisa LawrenceIt’s the ultimate erotic experience: a handpicked group where every man’s craving can be satisfied. But for Teresa Knight, it’s also a place where sensual adventures can spiral dangerously out of control. Hired to probe a suspicious death, the part-time investigator enters the sizzling New York fetish scene—a seductive, uncertain world that will test the limits of her own sexuality with every potential lover she meets. For gaining entry into this elite BDSM cult means that Teresa must let down her defenses—in more ways than one. Her search for answers brings her into contact with an enigmatic businessman who takes her to the brink of her own untapped desires even as he enlists her help in solving a crime that dates back forty years and crosses continents. From exotic Bangkok to gleaming Manhattan, Teresa finds herself locked in a sensual power struggle with a shadowy man who has a deadly agenda. What she uncovers is a shocking conspiracy of murder that will imperil her life while giving a whole new meaning to going all the way. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Begeistert vom Herzog
by Diana Nabih Amanda MarielDas Letzte, was sie erwartete, war, sich mit dem Herzog von Radcliff, Aaron St. John, und seiner zehnjährigen Tochter, Lady Sophia, zu finden. Begeistert vom Herzog Fräulein Emma Baxter verstaute sich in einer Kutsche, um ihrem Onkel und dem Baron zu entkommen, den er zur Heirat zwang. Das Letzte, was sie erwartete, war, sich mit dem Herzog von Radcliff, Aaron St. John, und seiner zehnjährigen Tochter, Lady Sophia, zu finden. Jetzt steht sie vor einer ganz anderen Gefahr. Genre: FIKTION / Romantik / Historisch Sekundär Genre: Fiction / Romanze / Kurzgeschichten Schlüsselwörter: Regentschaft, historische Romanze, historische, Saga, Herzog, Romanze
The Beggar
by Naguib MahfouzA complex tale of alienation and despair. Unable to achieve psychological renewal in the aftermath of Nasser's revolution, a man sacrifices his work and family to a series of illicit love affairs that intensify his feelings of estrangement. A passionate outcry against irrelevance.
The Beggar
by Naguib MahfouzThe book is a complex tale of alienation and despair and a passionate outcry against irrelevance. Unable to achieve psychological renewal in the aftermath of Nasser's revolution, a man sacrifices his work and family to a series of illicit love affairs that intensify his feelings of estrangement.
The Beggar and Other Stories (Pushkin Collection)
by Gaito Gazdanov Bryan KaretnykTranslated for the first time, the best short stories by the 'modernist master' Gazdanov, author of The Spectre of Alexander Wolf.In a Metro underpass, bald and dressed in rags, stands a silent beggar. In the evening, he walks the deserted streets of Paris; at night, he sleeps in a small, foetid crate vacated by the death of another beggar. He is poor and he is ill, but, on reflection, he is free.Never published before in English, this marvellously translated collection of tightly written, lyrical works represent marvellously compact miniatures of all the major strands that Gazdanov explores in his novels. The senselessness of life, the nature of fate, and the richness of the inner life - these brilliant and moving stories have it all.
The Beggar and the Hare
by Tuomas KyroA strange, compelling fable about Europe, capitalism and the human heart. Vatanescu, an impoverished construction worker, wants a future for himself and a pair of football boots for his son. So he decides to head north to a cold, dark country where there is money to be made...
A Beggar at the Gate
by Thalassa AliSet in nineteenth-century British India, Thalassa Ali's dazzling debut, A Singular Hostage, introduced us to Mariana Givens, the Englishwoman who risked everything to save a young Indian orphan from certain death. Now Ali returns to that exotic kingdom beyond the northwestern frontier, where Mariana will come face-to-face with a different destiny.Two years have passed since Mariana left the walled city of Lahore. But she's unable to forget its haunting scent of roses or her ill-fated marriage to a native-born husband that has scandalized Calcutta society and made her an outcast among the English. Worse still, she bears the knowledge that she will be forced to give up Saboor--the boy believed to be endowed with magical gifts whose life she risked her own to save.Now Mariana must revisit Lahore to return Saboor to his family and request a divorce from Hassan Ali Khan. But how can she say good-bye to the enigmatic man whose love defied two cultures--or the child she's loved as her own? As political and civil strife threaten to erupt in violence, she seeks answers in a world no Englishwoman has ever seen. And she's driven ever closer to a secret so powerful that it will change her life--and the lives of those she loves--forever.From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Beggar Bride: A Novel
by Gillian WhiteDesperate for a new life, a London woman engineers a cunning deception &“in this tangled tale that twists and turns up to the very end&” (Booklist). Angela Harper&’s life has never been simple. She&’s an orphan who spent her childhood in foster homes. Her handsome, charming husband Billy can&’t hold down a job. And they&’re both stuck in a grimy London flat with no prospects for their future beyond the periodic welfare check. That is, until Ange concocts a lie that will change their lives. Her con targets the wealthy, twice-divorced businessman Fabian Ormerod, whom, with the approval of her husband, she is determined to trick into a very advantageous marriage—with a quick divorce to follow. Gillian White&’s cutting, sardonic style unfurls in The Beggar Bride, as she needles England&’s stiff upper crust, the titans of business, and the idle poor below them.