NCW Libraries

"A by-the-book literary agent must decide if happily ever after is worth changing her whole life for in this insightful, delightful new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation. Nora Stephens' life is books--she's read them all--and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laid-back dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for...

"The riveting story of a woman convicted of a brutal crime, the prison psychologist who recognizes her as his high-school crush--and the charged reunion that sets off an astonishing chain of events with dangerous consequences for both -- As an inmate psychologist at a state prison, Frank Lundquist has had his fair share of surprises. But nothing could possibly prepare him for the day in which his high school object of desire, Miranda Greene, walks...

"E. L. Doctorow selected some of his finest stories to create this pinnacle collection, his final project before his death. There are 15 stories total, including "The Water Works," "Jolene," "All the Time in the World," and Doctorow's own revision of "Liner Notes: The Songs of Billy Bathgate.""--

"Born a baby late at night there's no parade just crashing rain She listens listens writes and draws stitches pages sews a book She finds another way to tell a tale This unique picture book biography provides a mesmerizing look at the life of children's writer Ruth Krauss, best known for books like The Carrot Seed, A Hole is to Dig, and A Very Special House. With an imaginative, spontaneous text from Carter Higgins that pays homage to Krauss's distinct...

'Stories, both my own and those I've taken to heart, make up whoever it is that I've become,' Peter Orner writes in this collection of essays about reading, writing, and living. Orner reads and writes everywhere he finds himself: a hospital cafeteria, a coffee shop in Albania, or a crowded bus in Haiti. The result is 'a book of unlearned meditations that stumbles into memoir.' Among the many writers Orner addresses are Isaac Babel and Zora Neale Hurston,...

"Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young--but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about...

When animal behaviorist Guy Schermerhorn demonstrates on a TV game show that he has taught Sam, his juvenile chimp, to speak in sign language, Aimee Villard, an undergraduate at Guy's university, is so taken with the performance that she applies to become his assistant. A romantic and intellectual attachment soon morphs into an interspecies love triangle that pushes hard at the boundaries of consciousness and the question of what we know and how we...

"While working for Washington State Magazine, eleven journalists traveled throughout the region to interview farmers, chefs, wine tasters, mountain climbers, scientists, and more. The resulting stories highlight the Evergreen State's captivating people, industries, and history, describing influential programs, cities from Aberdeen to Zillah, as well as a wide variety of trends, research, and innovative solutions"-- Provided by publisher.

"Featuring submissions by contemporary and emerging talents, alongside ancient stories and oral traditions, framed and guided by a Maori author and a professor of the Piikani Nation, this eye-opening collection dips into the rich diversity of storytelling heritate of first peoples around the globe. From the origins of the world to modern-day struggles, stories of injustice sit with memories of hope and wonder"--Back cover.

"Most folk thought Sallie Kincaid was a nobody who'd amount to nothing. Sallie had other plans. Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the biggest man in a small town, the charismatic Duke Kincaid. Born at the turn of the 20th century into a life of comfort and privilege, Sallie remembers little about her mother who died in a violent argument with the Duke. By the time she is just eight years old, the Duke has remarried and had a son, Eddie. While Sallie...