Books with category 🇺🇸 USA
Displaying books 49-96 of 227 in total

Hidden Valley Road

2020

by Robert Kolker

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family unfolds the heartrending story of a mid-century American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand—even cure—the disease.

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the dream. After World War II, Don's work with the US Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony—and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse.

By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen in one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institutes of Mental Health.

Their shocking story also offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy and the premise of the schizophrenogenic mother, to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amidst profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. Unknown to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment and even the possibility of the eradication of the disease for future generations.

With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love and hope.

Here for It

2020

by R. Eric Thomas

Here for It is a delightful and insightful memoir by R. Eric Thomas, filled with humor and heart. This book takes readers on a journey through the author's life, offering a unique perspective on the ups and downs of adulthood.

With a blend of wit and sincerity, Thomas shares personal stories that are both relatable and thought-provoking. Whether discussing the challenges of growing up, navigating the complexities of relationships, or finding one's place in the world, this memoir is sure to resonate with readers.

Here for It is an exploration of identity, belonging, and the search for joy in everyday life. It's a celebration of the human experience, told through the lens of a talented storyteller.

American Dirt

2020

by Jeanine Cummins

Vivid, visceral, utterly compelling, American Dirt is the first novel to explore the experience of attempting to illegally cross the US-Mexico border.

Yesterday, Lydia had a bookshop. Yesterday, Lydia was married to a journalist. Yesterday, she was with everyone she loved most in the world. Today, her eight-year-old son Luca is all she has left. For him, she will carry a machete strapped to her leg. For him, she will leap onto the roof of a high speed train. For him, she will find the strength to keep running.

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

2020

by Anissa Gray

The Butler family has had their share of trials—as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest—but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives.

Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband, Proctor, are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened.

As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters. What unfolds is a stunning portrait of the heart and core of an American family in a story that is as page-turning as it is important.

The Color Purple

2019

by Alice Walker

Alice Walker's iconic modern classic, The Color Purple, is a powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature that depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance, and silence.

Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery, and Sofia and their experiences. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery.

Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 3: Hotel Oblivion

The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 3: Hotel Oblivion, with its inspiration leading to a hit Netflix series, marks the return of creators Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá to their acclaimed 2007 superhero narrative. The duo, known for their individual successes, reunite to continue the extraordinary exploits of the disbanded teen superhero team.

In the wake of Sir Reginald Hargreeves's death, the members of the Umbrella Academy are dispersed. Number Five is now a mercenary, Kraken hunts formidable prey, Rumor grapples with her marital collapse, Spaceboy wanders Tokyo's streets out of shape, Vanya undergoes rehabilitation post-head injury, and the enigmatic activities of Séance remain unspoken. As the team confronts a surge of superpowered adversaries, they must also face the shadows of their past that threaten to engulf them once more.

This celebrated series triumphantly returns, more bizarre and enthralling than ever, encapsulating the essence of adventure, humor, and the complex dynamics of family and friendship.

Wanderers

2019

by Chuck Wendig

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them—and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them—the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart—or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

The Beautiful and Damned

First published in 1922, The Beautiful and the Damned followed Fitzgerald's impeccable debut, This Side of Paradise, thus securing his place in the tradition of great American novelists. Embellished with the author's lyrical prose, here is the story of Harvard-educated, aspiring aesthete Anthony Patch and his beautiful wife, Gloria. As they await the inheritance of his grandfather's fortune, their reckless marriage sways under the influence of alcohol and avarice.

A devastating look at the nouveau riche, and the New York nightlife, as well as the ruinous effects of wild ambition, The Beautiful and the Damned achieved stature as one of Fitzgerald's most accomplished novels. Its distinction as a classic endures to this day.

Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy

Appalachian Reckoning is a retort, at turns rigorous, critical, angry, and hopeful, to the long shadow cast over the region by J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. This collection of essays allows Appalachians to tell their own diverse and complex stories through an imaginative blend of scholarship, prose, poetry, and photography.

The book moves beyond Hillbilly Elegy to provide a deeply personal portrait of Appalachia—a place that is culturally rich and economically distressed, unique and typically American. It complicates simplistic visions that associate the region almost exclusively with death and decay, making clear Appalachia’s intellectual vitality, spiritual richness, and progressive possibilities.

House of Sand and Fog

2018

by Andre Dubus III

In this "page-turner with a beating heart" (Boston Globe), a recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck struggles to hold on to her home in California. But this becomes contested territory when a recent immigrant from the Middle East—a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force—becomes determined to restore his family's dignity through buying the house. When the woman's lover, a married cop, intervenes, he goes to extremes to win her love. Andre Dubus III's unforgettable characters—people with ordinary flaws, looking for a small piece of ground to stand on—careen toward inevitable conflict. An "affecting, subtle portrait of two hostile but equally fragile camps" (The New Yorker), their tragedy paints a shockingly true picture of the country we still live in today, two decades after this book's first publication.

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

2018

by Jessica Bruder

Nomadland takes readers on a journey from the beet fields of North Dakota to the campgrounds of California and Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas. Employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older adults. These invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in RVs and modified vans, forming a growing community of nomads.

This book tells a revelatory tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy—one which foreshadows the precarious future that may await many more of us. At the same time, it celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of these Americans who have given up ordinary rootedness to survive, but have not given up hope.

Sing, Unburied, Sing

2018

by Jesmyn Ward

Sing, Unburied, Sing is a searing and profound Southern odyssey by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward. In her first novel since the acclaimed Salvage the Bones, Ward brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America.

Drawing on influences like Morrison and Faulkner, The Odyssey and the Old Testament, Ward provides an epochal story, a journey through Mississippi's past and present that is both an intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle.

Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Their mother, Leonie, is a drug-addicted presence who is both tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother when she’s high. Mam is dying of cancer, and Pop tries to run the household while teaching Jojo how to be a man.

When the children’s father is released from prison, Leonie takes her kids on a journey to Parchman Farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary. The trip is rife with danger and promise.

Sing, Unburied, Sing grapples with the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and explores the power, and limitations, of family bonds. Rich with Ward’s distinctive, musical language, this novel is an essential contribution to American literature.

The Complete Fiction

2018

by H.P. Lovecraft

The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft brings together an extraordinary collection of tales from one of the most influential American writers of weird tales since Edgar Allan Poe.

Stories included are:

  • The Nameless City
  • The Festival
  • The Colour Out of Space
  • The Call of Cthulhu
  • The Dunwich Horror
  • The Whisperer in Darkness
  • The Dreams in the Witch House
  • The Haunter of the Dark
  • The Shadow Over Innsmouth
  • The Shadow Out of Time
  • At the Mountains of Madness
  • The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
  • Azathoth
  • Beyond the Wall of Sleep
  • Celephaïs
  • Cool Air
  • Dagon
  • Ex Oblivione
  • Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
  • From Beyond
  • Herbert West-Reanimator
  • Hypnos
  • In the Vault
  • Memory
  • Nyarlathotep
  • Pickman’s Model
  • The Book
  • The Cats of Ulthar
  • The Descendant
  • The Doom That Came to Sarnath
  • The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
  • The Evil Clergyman
  • The Horror at Red Hook
  • The Hound
  • The Lurking Fear
  • The Moon-Bog
  • The Music of Erich Zann
  • The Other Gods
  • The Outsider
  • The Picture in the House
  • The Quest of Iranon
  • The Rats in the Walls
  • The Shunned House
  • The Silver Key
  • The Statement of Randolph Carter
  • The Strange High House in the Mist
  • The Street
  • The Temple
  • The Terrible Old Man
  • The Thing on the Doorstep
  • The Tomb
  • The Transition of Juan Romero
  • The Tree
  • The Unnamable
  • The White Ship
  • What the Moon Brings
  • Polaris
  • The Very Old Folk
  • Ibid
  • Old Bugs
  • Sweet Ermengarde, or, The Heart of a Country Girl
  • A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson
  • The History of the Necronomicon

This collection showcases Lovecraft's mastery of the macabre and his pioneering of a new type of fiction that fused elements of supernatural horror with visionary science fiction, revolutionizing modern horror fiction.

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case."You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark."For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.

An American Marriage

2018

by Tayari Jones

Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined.

Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center.

This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward—with hope and pain—into the future.

The Nix

2017

by Nathan Hill

A hilarious and deeply touching debut novel about a son, the mother who left him as a child, and how his search to uncover the secrets of her life leads him to reclaim his own.

Meet Samuel Andresen-Anderson: stalled writer, bored teacher at a local college, obsessive player of an online video game. He hasn't seen his mother, Faye, since she walked out when he was a child. But then one day there she is, all over the news, throwing rocks at a presidential candidate. The media paints Faye as a militant radical with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother never left her small Iowa town. Which version of his mother is the true one?

Determined to solve the puzzle—and finally have something to deliver to his publisher—Samuel decides to capitalize on his mother's new fame by writing a tell-all biography, a book that will savage her intimately, publicly. But first, he has to locate her; and second, to talk to her without bursting into tears.

As Samuel begins to excavate her history, the story moves from the rural Midwest of the 1960s to New York City during the Great Recession and Occupy Wall Street, to the infamous riots at the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, and finally to Norway, home of the mysterious Nix that his mother told him about as a child. And in these places, Samuel will unexpectedly find that he has to rethink everything he ever knew about his mother—a woman with an epic story of her own, a story she kept hidden from the world.

Anything is possible

Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout is a novel that delves into the intimate dramas of small-town life, exploring the full range of human emotions. The story revolves around a compelling cast of characters, each grappling with their own struggles and desires.

Two sisters are at the heart of this narrative: one trades self-respect for a wealthy husband, while the other discovers a kindred spirit in the pages of a book, transforming her life. Meanwhile, a grown daughter yearns for her mother's love, even as she comes to terms with her mother's happiness in a foreign land.

After a long absence of seventeen years, Lucy Barton returns to her hometown to reconnect with her siblings, setting the stage for a story filled with deep family bonds and the hope of reconciliation.

With its heartfelt storytelling and exploration of self-discovery and family dynamics, Anything Is Possible offers readers a chance to reflect on their own lives and relationships.

Killers of the Flower Moon

2017

by David Grann

Killers of the Flower Moon delves into the haunting true-life murder mystery of one of the most monstrous crimes in American history. In the 1920s, members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma were the wealthiest people per capita in the world, thanks to oil discovered beneath their land. They lived opulently with chauffeured automobiles, mansions, and European-educated children. However, a sinister series of events unfolded as they began to be systematically murdered.

The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, was a prime target, with relatives being shot and poisoned. As the body count grew, the newly formed FBI stepped in, with the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, assigning former Texas Ranger Tom White to the case. White assembled an undercover team, including a Native American agent, to work with the Osage and uncover a chilling conspiracy.

Author David Grann presents a masterful work of literary journalism that captures the urgency of the mystery. Killers of the Flower Moon is not only a riveting account but also a searing indictment of the era's racial injustice.

Commonwealth

2016

by Ann Patchett

One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.

Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.

Behold the Dreamers

2016

by Imbolo Mbue

Behold the Dreamers is a compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream. It tells the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy.

Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty—and Jende is eager to please. Clark’s wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses’ summer home in the Hamptons.

With these opportunities, Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future. However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers’ façades. When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Jongas are desperate to keep Jende’s job—even as their marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice.

The Master Butchers Singing Club

2016

by Louise Erdrich

From National Book Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author Louise Erdrich, comes a profound and enchanting novel: a richly imagined world “where butchers sing like angels.”

Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend, killed in action. With a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher's precious knife set, Fidelis sets out for America.

In Argus, North Dakota, he builds a business, a home for his family—which includes Eva and four sons—and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. When the Old World meets the New—in the person of Delphine Watzka—the great adventure of Fidelis's life begins. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted. She meets Fidelis, and the ground trembles.

These momentous encounters will determine the course of Delphine's life, and the trajectory of this brilliant novel.

A Head Full of Ghosts

2016

by Paul Tremblay

A Head Full of Ghosts is a chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror. The novel is reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist.

The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism, believing the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight for a reality television show.

With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long-ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface. A mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.

Little Town on the Prairie

The seventh book in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s treasured Little House series, Little Town on the Prairie is a story that has captivated generations of readers. As the settlement that weathered the long, hard winter of 1880-81 grows into a bustling town, Laura finds herself facing new challenges and adventures.

With the arrival of spring, Laura secures a new job, participates in town parties, and enjoys more time with Almanzo Wilder. She also takes it upon herself to help her parents save money so that her sister Mary can attend a college for the blind. This book, inspired by Laura’s own childhood, offers a unique glimpse into America’s frontier history, woven into heartwarming, unforgettable stories.

My Name Is Lucy Barton

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn't spoken for many years, comes to see her. Her unexpected visit forces Lucy to confront the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of her life: her impoverished childhood in Amgash, Illinois, her escape to New York and her desire to become a writer, her faltering marriage, her love for her two daughters.

Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable. In My Name Is Lucy Barton, one of America's finest writers shows how a simple hospital visit illuminates the most tender relationship of all—the one between mother and daughter.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

2016

by J.D. Vance

Hillbilly Elegy recounts J.D. Vance’s powerful origin story.

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as a U.S. Senator from Ohio, this is an incisive account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class.

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring for more than forty years, is reported with growing frequency and alarm but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J.D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J.D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually, one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. It is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.

Extreme Ownership

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin served together in SEAL Task Unit Bruiser, the most highly decorated Special Operations unit from the war in Iraq. Through difficult months of sustained combat, Jocko, Leif, and their SEAL brothers learned that leadership—at every level—is the most important thing on the battlefield.

They started Echelon Front to teach these same leadership principles to companies across industries throughout the business world that want to build their own high-performance, winning teams. This book explains the SEAL leadership concepts crucial to accomplishing the most difficult missions in combat and how to apply them to any group, team, or organization. It provides the reader with Jocko and Leif's formula for success: the mindset and guiding principles that enable SEAL combat units to achieve extraordinary results.

It demonstrates how to apply these directly to business and life to likewise achieve victory. The book covers various topics such as Cover and Move, Decentralized Command, and Leading Up the Chain, explaining what they are, why they are important, and how to implement them in any leadership environment.

A compelling narrative with powerful instruction and direct application, Extreme Ownership revolutionizes business management and challenges leaders everywhere to fulfill their ultimate purpose: lead and win.

Black Boy

2015

by Richard Wright

Black Boy is a classic of American autobiography, a subtly crafted narrative of Richard Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. An enduring story of one young man's coming of age during a particular time and place, Black Boy remains a seminal text in our history about what it means to be a man, black, and Southern in America.

Our Souls at Night

2015

by Kent Haruf

Our Souls at Night is a spare yet eloquent, bittersweet yet inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future.

In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife.

His daughter lives hours away in Colorado Springs, her son even farther away in Grand Junction, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in houses now empty of family, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with.

Their brave adventures—their pleasures and their difficulties—are hugely involving and truly resonant, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer's enduring contribution to American literature.

Butcher's Crossing

2015

by John Williams

Butcher’s Crossing is a fiercely intelligent and beautifully written western novel. Set in the 1870s, it follows the journey of Will Andrews, a young man inspired by Emerson to seek an original relation to nature. Leaving Harvard, he ventures west, finding himself in the small Kansas town of Butcher’s Crossing, a place filled with restless men eager to make and waste money.

Andrews befriends a man who speaks of immense herds of buffalo hidden in a beautiful Colorado Rockies valley. Enticed by the promise, Andrews joins an expedition to hunt the buffalo. The journey is grueling, but the valley's richness is worth the struggle. However, as they indulge in an orgy of slaughter, the men lose track of time, and winter traps them in snow.

The following spring, driven to madness by cabin fever, cold, and hunger, they return to Butcher’s Crossing, only to find a world as irrevocably changed as they are.

Ms. Marvel Volume 1

Marvel Comics presents the all-new Ms. Marvel, the groundbreaking heroine that has become an international sensation! Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City - until she is suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the all-new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm!

As Kamala discovers the dangers of her newfound powers, she unlocks a secret behind them as well. Is Kamala ready to wield these immense new gifts? Or will the weight of the legacy before her be too much to handle? Kamala has no idea either. But she's comin' for you, New York! It's history in the making from acclaimed writer G. Willow Wilson (Air, Cairo) and beloved artist Adrian Alphona (Runaways)!

COLLECTING: MS. MARVEL 1-5, MATERIAL FROM ALL-NEW MARVEL NOW! POINT ONE

The Martian

2014

by Andy Weir

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old human error are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Steve Jobs

2013

by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson's worldwide bestselling biography of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is a compelling account of a man whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized multiple industries, including personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

Isaacson's narrative is based on over forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years, as well as conversations with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues. This biography paints an intricate portrait of a creative entrepreneur known for his intense personality and inventive mind.

Jobs's story offers invaluable lessons on innovation, character, leadership, and values, and serves as a source of inspiration for maintaining America's innovative edge in the digital age. His approach to business and the groundbreaking products that resulted are a testament to his belief in the fusion of creativity with technology.

Throughout the biography, Jobs's colleagues provide a candid view of the qualities that shaped his approach to business and innovation. Despite his complex character, Jobs's impact on the tech world remains unmatched, and his story continues to inspire future generations.

Grand Forks

Once upon a time, salad was iceberg lettuce with a few shredded carrots and a cucumber slice, if you were lucky. A vegetable side was potatoes—would you like those baked, mashed, or au gratin? A nice anniversary dinner? Would you rather visit the Holiday Inn or the Regency Inn?


In Grand Forks, North Dakota, a small town where professors moonlight as farmers, farmers moonlight as football coaches, and everyone loves hockey, one woman has had the answers for more than twenty-five years: Marilyn Hagerty. In her weekly Eatbeat column in the local paper, Marilyn gives the denizens of Grand Forks the straight scoop on everything from the best blue plate specials—beef stroganoff at the Pantry—to the choicest truck stops—the Big Sioux (and its lutefisk lunch special)—to the ambience of the town's first Taco Bell. Her verdict? A cool pastel oasis on a hot day.


No-nonsense but wry, earnest but self-aware, Eatbeat also encourages the best in its readers—reminding them to tip well and why—and serves as its own kind of down-home social register, peopled with stories of ex–postal workers turned café owners and prom queen waitresses.


Filled with reviews of the mom-and-pop diners that eventually gave way to fast-food joints and the Norwegian specialties that finally faded away in the face of the Olive Garden's endless breadsticks, Grand Forks is more than just a loving look at the shifts in American dining in the last years of the twentieth century—it is also a surprisingly moving and hilarious portrait of the quintessential American town, one we all recognize in our hearts regardless of where we're from.

Treme

Inspired by David Simon’s award-winning HBO series Treme, this book is a vibrant celebration of the culinary spirit of post-Katrina New Orleans. It features recipes and tributes from both real and fictional characters who highlight the Crescent City’s rich foodways.

From chef Janette Desautel’s own Crawfish Ravioli and LaDonna Batiste-Williams’s Smothered Turnip Soup to the city’s finest Sazerac, New Orleans’ cuisine is a mélange of influences from Creole to Vietnamese—at once new and old, genteel and down-home. In the words of Toni Bernette, it is all "seasoned with delicious nostalgia."

As visually rich as the series itself, the book includes 100 heritage and contemporary recipes from the city’s heralded restaurants such as Upperline, Bayona, Restaurant August, and Herbsaint. It also features original recipes from renowned chefs like Eric Ripert and David Chang, alongside other Treme guest stars.

For the six million who come to New Orleans each year for its food and music, this book is the ultimate homage to the traditions that make it one of the world’s greatest cities.

The Interestings

2013

by Meg Wolitzer

In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge. The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules’s now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding.

The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken. Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life.

We Live in Water

2013

by Jess Walter

We Live in Water is a darkly comic and moving collection of short stories by New York Times bestselling author Jess Walter. This suite of diverse stories explores personal struggles and diminished dreams, marked by the author's wry wit and generosity of spirit, making him a favorite among booksellers and readers alike.

These stories range from comic tales of love to social satire and suspenseful crime fiction. Journey through hip Portland, once-hip Seattle, never-hip Spokane, a condemned casino in Las Vegas, and a bottomless lake in the dark woods of Idaho. This is a world of lost fathers and redemptive con men, of meth tweakers on desperate odysseys, and men committing suicide by fishing.

In the title story, "We Live in Water," a lawyer returns to his corrupt hometown to find his father, who disappeared 30 years earlier. In "Thief," a blue-collar worker turns unlikely detective to solve the mystery of which of his kids is stealing from the family fund. "Anything Helps" sees a homeless man trying to raise money to buy his son the new Harry Potter book. In "Virgo," a newspaper editor attempts to get back at his superstitious ex-girlfriend by screwing with her horoscope.

Also included are "Don't Eat Cat" and "Statistical Abstract of My Hometown, Spokane, Washington," both of which achieved cult status after their first publication online. This collection reveals Jess Walter as a ridiculously talented writer and one of the freshest voices in American literature.

The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song

The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song is a rich and compelling original graphic novel that tells the story of the Carter Family—the first superstar group of country music—who made hundreds of recordings and sold millions of records. Many of their hit songs, such as “Wildwood Flower” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” have influenced countless musicians and remain timeless country standards.

The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song is not only a unique illustrated biography, but a moving account that reveals the family’s rise to success, their struggles along the way, and their impact on contemporary music. Illustrated with exacting detail and written in the Southern dialect of the time, its dynamic narrative is pure Americana. It is also a story of success and failure, of poverty and wealth, of racism and tolerance, of creativity and business, and of the power of music and love.

Blue Highways

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about those little towns that get on the map — if they get on at all — only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi.

His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

The Red Badge of Courage

2011

by Stephen Crane

Henry Fleming has joined the Union army because of his romantic ideas of military life, but soon finds himself in the middle of a battle against a regiment of Confederate soldiers. Terrified, Henry deserts his comrades. Upon returning to his regiment, he struggles with his shame as he tries to redeem himself and prove his courage.

The Red Badge of Courage is Stephen Crane’s second book, notable for its realism and the fact that Crane had never personally experienced battle. Crane drew heavy inspiration from Century Magazine, a periodical known for its articles about the American Civil War. However, he criticized the articles for their lack of emotional depth and decided to write a war novel of his own. The manuscript was first serialized in December 1894 by The Philadelphia Press and quickly won Crane international acclaim before he died in June 1900 at the age of 28.

The Outlaw Album

2011

by Daniel Woodrell

Twelve timeless Ozarkian tales of those on the fringes of society, by a stunningly original American master. Daniel Woodrell is able to lend uncanny logic to harsh, even criminal behavior in this wrenching collection of stories.


Desperation—both material and psychological—motivates his characters. A husband cruelly avenges the killing of his wife's pet; an injured rapist is cared for by a young girl, until she reaches her breaking point; a disturbed veteran of Iraq is murdered for his erratic behavior; an outsider's house is set on fire by an angry neighbor.


There is also the tenderness and loyalty of the vulnerable in these stories—between spouses, parents and children, siblings, and comrades in arms—which brings the troubled, sorely tested cast of characters to vivid, relatable life.

The Strain

The Strain is the first installment in a thrilling trilogy that presents a horrifying battle between man and vampire, threatening all of humanity. A Boeing 777 lands at JFK Airport and comes to an inexplicable stop on the tarmac. With all shades pulled down, lights out, and communication channels silent, the ground crews are baffled. The CDC sends out an alert, and Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project which investigates biological threats, is summoned to investigate.

What Dr. Goodweather discovers on the plane sends chills down his spine. Meanwhile, in Spanish Harlem, Abraham Setrakian, a former professor and Holocaust survivor, senses that an ominous war is brewing. As a vampiric virus infects New York and begins to spread, Dr. Goodweather, Setrakian, and a diverse group of fighters unite to stop the contagion and save the city, including Dr. Goodweather's own family, before it's too late.

Authored by Guillermo del Toro, the visionary filmmaker behind the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth, and Chuck Hogan, a Hammett Award-winning author, The Strain offers a bold, epic, and extraordinary narrative that reinvents the vampire novel with a chilling and unputdownable tale of survival.

Devil Sent the Rain: Music and Writing in Desperate America

2011

by Tom Piazza

Devil Sent the Rain is a dynamic collection of essays and journalism by acclaimed author Tom Piazza. Following his prize-winning novel City of Refuge and the post-Katrina classic Why New Orleans Matters, Piazza explores American music and character in this engaging work.

Piazza’s writing is filled with energy and tender, insightful words for the brilliant and irascible, from Jimmy Martin to Norman Mailer. Time and time again, Piazza identifies the unlikely, precious connections between recent events, art, letters, and music. Through his words, these byways of popular culture provide an unexpected measure of the times.

Freedom

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter's dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world.

But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter's college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become "a very different kind of neighbor," an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

Pittsburgh Noir

2011

by Kathleen George

Pittsburgh Noir roars forth, exploring the hidden underworld of what has often been called the most livable city in America. Despite Pittsburgh being labeled the country’s most livable city, the fictional citizens populating the 14 high-quality stories in Akashic’s noir anthology centered on the Steel City have the same dreams, frustrations, passions, and vices as anyone else.

When the steel business faltered and died, ‘the smoky city’ reinvented itself as a white-collar urban site, fueled by its thriving universities. It had been a place so dark with pollution in the steel days that men carried clean shirts with them to work in order to change during the day. Now you can see the hills, the rivers, the rhythmic skyline—and as the cameras are fond of displaying at sports events, the city is now glittering and beautiful.

What is Pittsburgh to noir and noir to Pittsburgh? It certainly has its rough streets and grisly murders. But dark crime stories depend on something in addition to killing. The best examples of the genre revolve around private moralities and private law; they are the stories of people pushing against real or imagined oppression. In Pittsburgh Noir, as in most of the novels and films that gave the genre its name, the real story is the dark underbelly of existence, the fear and guilt and rebellion and denial in regular people: the woman buying groceries, the man grilling hot dogs. Their secret lives.

The Bayou Trilogy

2011

by Daniel Woodrell

The Bayou Trilogy is a hard-hitting collection of crime novels set in the gritty, atmospheric parish of St. Bruno. Sex is easy, corruption festers, and double-dealing is a way of life.

Follow Rene Shade, an uncompromising detective, as he navigates a world filled with hit men, porn kings, and a gang of ex-cons. Shade must also confront the ghosts of his own checkered past. These novels pit long-entrenched criminals against the hard line of the law, brother against brother, and two vastly different sons against a long-absent father.

Daniel Woodrell delivers a compelling exploration of the shadows of rural American life. This trilogy showcases the origins of an author who has left a lasting mark on crime fiction.

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

2011

by Michael Lewis

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine is a #1 New York Times bestseller and a major motion picture from Paramount Pictures. Michael Lewis, the author of The Blind Side and Moneyball, tells the compelling story of four outsiders in the high-finance world who predicted the credit and housing bubble collapse before anyone else.

The narrative starts with the silent crash that took place in the obscure markets of bonds and real estate derivatives. These are the places where complex securities are created to profit from the financial struggles of lower- and middle-class Americans. Lewis provides a character-driven narrative filled with indignation and dark humor, presenting a group of unlikely heroes whose stories are as compelling as they are improbable, establishing him yet again as an exceptional and witty chronicler of our times.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

2010

by Edmund Morris

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is a captivating biography that chronicles the life of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, from his birth in 1858 to his ascendancy to the Presidency in 1901. This book offers an in-depth look at the transformation of Roosevelt from a frail, asthmatic boy into a robust, full-blooded man who would become the youngest President in history.

The story begins at the apex of his international prestige, on New Year’s Day, 1907, when Roosevelt, who had just won the Nobel Peace Prize, opened the doors of the White House to the American people. The narrative then takes us back through the years 1858–1901, detailing how Roosevelt became a naturalist, a writer, a lover, a hunter, a ranchman, a soldier, and a politician. Each of these roles contributed to his inevitable rise to power.

From chasing thieves across the Badlands of North Dakota with a copy of Anna Karenina in one hand and a Winchester rifle in the other, to leading the famous charge up San Juan Hill, Roosevelt's life was filled with adventure and determination. He was known as a flamboyant civil service reformer, a night-stalking police commissioner, and a military hero who was rewarded with the governorship of New York.

This biography is a story of resilience, ambition, and the American Dream, showing how one man’s diverse experiences and relentless drive led him to become a leader of the nation. Roosevelt’s life is a testament to the belief that one can shape their destiny through courage and commitment.

Unbearable Lightness

2010

by Portia de Rossi

Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain is a searing, unflinchingly honest memoir by actress Portia de Rossi, where she shares the truth of her long battle to overcome anorexia and bulimia while living in the public eye. It details the new happiness and health she has found in recent years, including her coming out and her marriage to Ellen DeGeneres.

Portia de Rossi reveals the pain and illness that haunted her for decades, starting when she was a twelve-year-old girl working as a model in Australia, through her early rise to fame as a cast member of the hit television show Ally McBeal. All the while, she was terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids. She alternately starved herself and binged, putting her life in danger and concealing the seriousness of her illness from herself and everyone around her.

The memoir explores the pivotal moments of her childhood that set her on the road to illness and describes the elaborate rituals around food that dominated hours of every day. She also reveals the heartache and fear that accompany a life lived in the closet, a sense of isolation that was only magnified by her unrelenting desire to be ever thinner. From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb back to health and honesty, emerging as an outspoken and articulate advocate for gay rights and women's health issues.

Unbearable Lightness is a landmark book that inspires hope and nourishes the spirit, shining a bright light on the dark subject of eating disorders and the complex emotional truth surrounding food, weight, and body image.

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