Blazingly intelligent, wickedly funny, and piercingly honest, a memoir that captures the perils and pleasures of girlhood, womanhood, and life itself. “One of my favorite books of the last few years.” —Cheryl Strayed “Sentence for sentence, a more pleasure-yielding midlife memoir is hard to think of.” —The Atlantic At mid-life, Claire Dederer developed a sudden yearning for jailbreak. In this exuberant memoir, she reflects on two periods in her life uncannily similar in their emotional intensity: her present experience as a middle-aged mom in the grip of unruly and mysterious new hungers, and her recollections of herself as a teenager.

A collection of stories satirizing our society. They range from Settling an Old Score, on a meeting between George Bernard Shaw and Lyndon B. Johnson, to Partners, on an ostentatious wedding.

Felicia Castillo is a small-time grifter on the run from a nasty New Orleans gangster she just ripped off when she discovers she has the amazing ability to teleport. This lands her in the crosshairs of the nefarious Mars Corporation, which exploits supernatural gifts of people like Felicia. They make her an offer she canÍt refuse: use her unique talent to become an assassin that can get close to anyone, anywhere. However, Felicia soon learns that no matter how long or how far you run, your troubles always catch up to you.

Witty and heartfelt, clear-sighted and irreverent, Poser is the book that sane, sensible and intelligent mothers around the world have been waiting for

I've always been textbook people pleaser with third-degree middle child syndrome. Putting everyone else first with a smile on my face was working out pretty well for me when out of nowhere, Archer Bliss - a growly single dad- drops a bomb on my carefully constructed happy life. It seems my boyfriend has been cheating on me with Archer's girlfriend. Even worse? She's my coworker and secret archnemesis. The old me would have forgiven them and wished them the best. But the new me has had enough. So, I do the (ir)rational thing and dump my lunch all over the backstabbing cheaters. Then I plant a kiss right on Archer's very kissable lips right in front of both of them. That's right - I started a war by serving up a dish called revenge, which is best served with lips and lo mein. And now, I've somehow teamed up with this hunky beast of a man to get even with our cheating exes. At least it started that way, but now it's an excuse to spend time together... some of which is horizontal. The catch? He's got three kids who need him, and I'm still trying to figure out who I am. Starting a romance with each of us fresh out of a messy breakup is only asking for trouble. But the new me likes trouble. And Archer Bliss is trouble with a capital T.

“Henry Smith’s father told him that if you build your house far enough away from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you.” But Trouble comes careening down the road one night in the form of a pickup truck that strikes Henry’s older brother, Franklin. In the truck is Chay Chouan, a young Cambodian from Franklin’s preparatory school, and the accident sparks racial tensions in the school—and in the well-established town where Henry’s family has lived for generations. Caught between anger and grief, Henry sets out to do the only thing he can think of: climb Mt. Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine, which he and Franklin were going to climb together. Along with Black Dog, whom Henry has rescued from drowning, and a friend, Henry leaves without his parents’ knowledge. The journey, both exhilarating and dangerous, turns into an odyssey of discovery about himself, his older sister, Louisa, his ancestry, and why one can never escape from Trouble.

Short fiction about the female experience from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Color Purple, “one of the best American writers of today” (The Washington Post). Here are stories of women traveling with the weight of broken dreams, with kids in tow, with doubt and regret, with memories of lost loves, with lovers who have their own hard pasts and hard edges. Some from the South, some from the North, some rich and some poor, the characters that inhabit InLove & Trouble all seek a measure of self-fulfillment, even as they struggle with difficult circumstances and limiting social conventions. The stories that make up Alice Walker’s debut short fiction collection reflect her tenacious commitment to face brutal and sometimes melancholy truths while also illuminating the ways in which the courageous pursuit of love brings hope to even the most harrowing lives. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alice Walker including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.