"It's a wonderful life . . ." Joy, fear, love, children, fishing, friends, and the constant writing of books are some of the elements of this revealing memoir by novelist Craig Nova. He began this book as a letter to his children but it soon became a credo, a belief in the way an American novelist can live in the modern age. He writes about falling in love with his wife, a devastating review of his first novel, the birth of his daughter, his restorative relationship with the stream and the...

Originally published in 1982 to wide acclaim, The Good Son remains Craig Nova's undisputed masterpiece. This classic explored the complicated entanglements of fathers and sons —expressed in the story of nouvue–riche father Pop Mackinnon, who used his wealth to manipulate his son Chip into the 'right' kind of marriage upon the young man's return from World War II.Chip eventually gave up the love of his life and married to secure his future and what were the consequences o...

What does it mean to be a decent man? To love well, with fidelity and constancy? These are the lessons that Jake's father, a wildlife biologist, tries to impart to his son, often on fishing trips to their beloved Furnace Creek. Bound up in the laws of Einstein's theories, these lessons will ultimately influence Jake's own career as an astronomer. Out on the creek, both father and son conquer their greatest challenges: marital infidelity, professional setbacks, and Jake's long term, passion...

Quinn Farrell is a modern-day fixer in Los Angeles. He cleans up other people’s messes—rich people’s messes—for a lot of money. He’s so good that he’s become indispensable to Hollywood moguls, and he’s managed to construct a working moral framework so that he can live with himself. That is, he did until a new neighbor moves in next door, Rose Marie, who works with terminally ill teens. Against all his survival instincts, Farrell falls in love with Rose Marie… and then her uncanny patients,...

When Donovan Hohn first heard the remarkable story of how 28,904 bath toys spilled into the Pacific en route to the US from China and have been washing up along beaches throughout the world ever since, he decided to find out more and assumed he would interview a few oceanographers, talk to some beachcombers and read up on Arctic science and geography. ‘But questions can be like ocean currents: wade in too far, and they carry you away.’Setting out on a series of journeys to track th...

Essays on life that will resonate deeply as readers discover how universal insights can be found in ordinary events.More than thirty years ago, Robert Fulghum published a simple credo—a credo that became the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Today, after being embraced around the world and selling more than seven million copies, Fulghum’s book retains the potency of a common though no less...

In these eight masterful stories, Lorrie Moore, explores the passage of time, and summons up its inevitable sorrows and comic pitfalls.In 'Debarking', a newly divorced man tries to keep his wits about him as the US prepares to invade Iraq. In 'Foes', a political argument goes grotesquely awry as the events of 9/11 unexpectedly manifest at a fundraising dinner in Georgetown. In 'The Juniper Tree', a teacher, visited by the ghost of her recently deceased friend, is forced to sing 'Th...

Flan Parker has always had an inquisitive mind, searching for what’s hidden below the surface and behind the door. Her curious nature and enthusiastic probing have translated into a thriving resale business in the university housing complex where she lives with her husband and two young children. Flan’s venture helps pay the bills while her husband works on his dissertation, work that lately seems to involve more loafing on the sofa watching soap operas than reading or writing. The secret ...

Jefferson Bass’s Cut to the Bone, the long-awaited prequel to his New York Times bestselling mystery series, turns the clock back to reveal the Body Farm's creation—and Dr. Bill Brockton's deadly duel with a serial killer.In the summer of 1992, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore begin their long-shot campaign to win the White House. In the sweltering hills of Knoxville at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Bill Brockton, the bright, amb...

“The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.”—Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author“He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels.”—Leonard Cohen, songwriterWhat Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire is the second posthumous collection from Charles Bukowski that takes readers deep into the raw, wild vein of writing that extends from the early 1970s to the 1990s.

A cop who hates you, a hurricane, or your big sister … which would you rather spend time with?PI Sydney Brennan’s vacation with her estranged sister in Winterport, Florida, is cut short when her brother-in-law becomes a murder suspect. With a hurricane bearing down on central Florida, it’s up to Sydney to figure out what the man’s gotten himself into and track him down before the authorities—or someone far worse—beats her to it.No Safe Winterpo...

"Witty, wise, and full of heart, Gail Storey’s winning memoir of her hike on the Pacific Crest Trail at the age of fifty-six is a book for every one who ever dreamed of taking the road less traveled. I Promise Not to Suffer is as inspiring as it is hilarious, as poignant as it is smart. It’s one of those oh-please-don’t-let-it-end books. I’d carry it in my backpack anywhere.”—Cheryl Strayed, author of WildWith comfortabl...