Acclaimed author Charlie Carillo revisits Shepherd Avenue, the novel that sparked his career, in a witty, moving story about growing older and (sometimes) growing up . . . For the second time in a few weeks, Joey Ambrosio has done something reckless. The first incident—climbing to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge to scatter his father’s remains—earned him newspaper headlines and court-ordered therapy. This time, he’s doing something arguably even more dangerous: buying his grandparents’ old house in the rough Brooklyn neighborhood where he spent an idyllic summer half a century ago. With boarded up stores and bars on every window, Shepherd Avenue sure isn’t the way it used to be. Then again, neither is Joey. In 1961, he was a newly motherless kid trying to find his way. Now a successful children’s book author estranged from his grown daughter, he’s viewed with suspicion by his new neighbors—and with amusement by the beautiful Puerto Rican laundress across the street. Amongst the colorful misfits of his past and present he’s hoping to heal old wounds, forge new bonds, and figure out what exactly brought him back here . . . and how, at last, to move on. Praise for Charlie Carillo and Shepherd Avenue An American Library Association Notable Book of the Year “An excellent writer and a marvelous storyteller. . . . He creates a special world on Shepherd Avenue that I loved to enter and hated to leave.” –Ferrol Sams

An American Library Association Notable Book of the Year “An excellent writer and a marvelous storyteller. . . . He creates a special world on Shepherd Avenue that I loved to enter and hated to leave.” –Ferrol Sams From acclaimed author Charlie Carillo comes a poignant, darkly funny, coming-of-age story set in the heart of Italian-American Brooklyn, New York, and the heat of one eventful 1960s summer . . . Ten-year-old Joey Ambrosio has barely begun to grieve his mother’s death when his father abruptly uproots him from his sedate suburban Long Island home, and deposits him at his estranged grandparents’ house in boisterous East New York. While his dad takes off on an indefinite road trip, Joey is left to navigate unfamiliar terrain. Besides his gruff Italian grandparents, there's his teenage Uncle Vic, a baseball star obsessed with the music of Frank Sinatra; a steady diet of soulful, hearty foods he’s never tasted, and a community teeming with life, from endless gossip and arguments to curse-laden stickball games under the elevated train. It’s a world where privacy doesn’t exist and there’s no time to feel sorry for yourself. Most of all, it’s where Joey learns not only how to fight, and how to heal, but how to love—and ultimately, how to forgive. Praise for Charlie Carillo and Raising Jake “The best kind of journey, one you don't want to end...funny, moving.” —Mike Lupica “In the tradition of Tom Perotta...truthful, and hilarious.” —Alison Grambs “A literary romp through the minefields of a totally normal, and totally abnormal, family... I actually laughed out loud and kept turning the pages to make absolutely sure that all worked out at the end.” –Cathy Lamb “Carillo has an easy way with breezy prose and likable characters.” –Publishers Weekly

In the tradition of Quantum Healing and Guns, Germs and Steel, Philip Shepherd's New Self, New World makes an intellectual inquiry into how we might restore freedom, creativity, and a sense of presence in the moment by rejecting several fundamental myths about being human New Self, New World challenges the primary story of what it means to be human, the random and materialistic lifestyle that author Philip Shepherd calls our “shattered reality.” This reality encourages us to live in our heads, self-absorbed in our own anxieties. Drawing on diverse sources and inspiration, New Self, New World reveals that our state of head-consciousness falsely teaches us to see the body as something we possess and to try to take care of it without ever really learning how to inhabit it. Shepherd articulates his vision of a world in which each of us enjoys a direct, unmediated experience of being alive. He petitions against the futile pursuit of the “known self” and instead reveals the simple grace of just being present. In compelling prose, Shepherd asks us to surrender to the reality of “what is” that enables us to reunite with our own being. Each chapter is accompanied by exercises meant to bring Shepherd’s vision into daily life, what the author calls a practice that “facilitates the voluntary sabotage of long-standing patterns.” New Self, New World is at once a philosophical primer, a spiritual handbook, and a roaming inquiry into human history.

Ten-year-old Joey Ambrosio has barely begun to grieve his mother's death when his father abruptly uproots him from his sedate suburban Long Island home, and deposits him at his estranged grandparents' house in boisterous East New York. While his dad takes off on an indefinite road trip, Joey is left to navigate unfamiliar terrain. Besides his gruff Italian grandparents, there's his teenage Uncle Vic, a baseball star obsessed with the music of Frank Sinatra; a steady diet of soulful, hearty foods he's never tasted, and a community teeming with life, from endless gossip and arguments to curse-laden stickball games under the elevated train. It's a world where privacy doesn't exist and there's no time to feel sorry for yourself. Most of all, it's where Joey learns not only how to fight, and how to heal, but how to love-and ultimately, how to forgive.

The best kind of journey, one you don't want to end. . .funny, moving. --Mike Lupica, New York Times bestselling author of Heat In Charlie Carillo's funny, insightful novel, a divorced man gets to know his seventeen-year-old son in a tale that rewrites the book on quality time together. . . Sammy Sullivan is working his way down the ladder of success. Divorced and pushing fifty, his relationships have the longevity of a fruit fly. But how many men can get themselves fired and have their only son expelled from prep school all in one day? Now, after almost eighteen years, he and Jake may finally get to know each other. (That's if his ex-wife--the super-achiever Sammy can only dream of being--doesn't find out.) Jake knows virtually nothing about his roots. So, Sammy shows him the old neighborhood in the far reaches of Queens. But it's been thirty years. The older woman Sammy lost his virginity to now uses a walker to get around. Most of his hangouts are long gone. It's dreary, born-to-lose stuff. But Jake is on a mission. Wise beyond his (and his dad's) years, he doesn't want his father to miss out the second time around on the good things he blew the first time. And they've got a whole weekend together--a journey where Sammy will confront his, dysfunctional childhood and Jake will face a past he never knew he had. This isn't your typical father-son story--one is still growing up. The other is his son. "In the tradition of Tom Perotta, Carillo explores the strength of the family bond, the power of forgiveness, and the hope that comes from embracing second chances. . .truthful, and hilarious."--Alison Grambs, author of The Smart Girls Guide to Getting Even "I don't like funny, touching novels because they make me wish I'd written them myself. I enjoyed Charlie Carillo's book from beginning to end and now I'm miserable." --Sherwood Kiraly, author of Diminished Capacity "A literary romp through the minefields of a totally normal, and totally abnormal, family. . . I actually laughed out loud and kept turning the pages to make absolutely sure that all worked out at the end." --Cathy Lamb, author of Henry's Sisters "Scathingly hilarious and truthful." --Sally Jenkins Queens-born Charlie Carillo, like his protagonist Sam Sullivan, worked at the New York Post as a journalist for many years. He is also the author of My Ride with Gus and divides his time between New York City and London, England, where he works as an independent television producer.

Yeshua of Nazareth has two sisters: Damaris, married to a wealthy merchant's son, and Pheodora, married to a simple shepherd from Bethlehem. When Pheodora's husband suffers an unexpected reversal of fortune and is thrown into debtor's prison, she returns to Nazareth, where she pins her hopes on two she-goats who should give birth to spotless white kids that would be perfect for the upcoming Yom Kippur sacrifice. In the eighteen months between the kids' birth and the opportunity to sell them and redeem her husband from prison, Pheodora must call on her wits, her family, and her God in order to provide for her daughters and survive. But when every prayer and ritual she knows is about God's care for Israel, how can she trust that God will hear and help a lowly shepherd's wife?