River Town Girl is a memoir that braids three separate themes: life in a tiny Hudson River town right across from Manhattan, the delights and the power of storytelling, and one girl's experience growing up--and out of pain--in the 1950s, '60s, and early '70s.

A New York Times Notable book, this memoir by a journalist who lived in a small city in China is “a vivid and touching tribute to a place and its people” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society. Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be. “This touching memoir of an American dropped into the center of China transcends the boundaries of the travel genre and will appeal to anyone wanting to learn more about the heart and soul of the Chinese people. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal “This is a colorful memoir from a Peace Corps volunteer who came away with more understanding of the Chinese than any foreign traveler has a right to expect.” —Booklist

I Cannot Undo What They Have Made Of Me. I Cannot Go Back And Smoothen Out The Wrinkled Brow Of My Childhood . . . There Are Things I Must Settle, Gaps I Must Fill. Both For Their Sake And Mine. It Is The 1930S And The Fire Of The Freedom Movement From Distant Bengal And Delhi Is Warming The Languid Bones Of The Small Town In Mysore, Where Kaveri And Setu Grow Up. Theirs Is A Liberal, Prosperous Household And The Family Takes Its Privileges For Granted. Mylaraiah, Their Father, Believes That They Are Twice Protected From Such Delusions As Swaraj Once By The British And Then By The Maharaja. While Setu Absorbs Their Father S Unquestioning Veneration Of The British, Kaveri, Profoundly Affected By Mahatma Gandhi S Visit To Their Town, Comes To Recognize Their Attempts To Be More English Than The English As Rather Shameful. In An Attempt To Follow Her Heart And Take Charge Of Her Own Future, Kaveri Defies Her Father And Participates In The Quit India March Organized By Shyam, The Hot-Headed Revolutionary She Is Attracted To. Angered And Jealous, And Loyal To His Father, Setu Is Forced Into Betraying His Sister. The Small Town Is Shaken Into Life Quite Brutally When It Faces A Police Firing For The First Time In Its History. But Kaveri Is Safe And Home, Or So Setu Thinks . . . Fifty Years Later, Setu S Daughter Tries To Unravel The Circumstances Of Her Uneasy Upbringing, Of The Grit-In-The-Eye Feeling To Her Childhood; Understand Her Cold Father, Her Self-Effacing Mother And Their Refusal To Talk About Their Past. Two Books And A Letter Found In A Tea Tin In The Attic Lead Her To Kaveri And It Is Kaveri, Whose Fate Remains Shrouded In Mystery, Who Has The Answer To Her Questions. But Even With All The Pieces Of The Jigsaw In Hand, The Picture Eludes Her. She Is Forced To Come To Terms With The Insidiousness Of Family Bonds As She Realizes That The Truth, If It At All Exists, Is Made Of Elisions And Imperfections.

A gritty tale of how far we’ll go to protect the ones we love for fans of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone from Gale Massey, a talented new name in crime fiction. Everyone says the Elders family are nothing but cheats, thieves, and convicts—a fact nineteen-year old Jamie Elders has been trying desperately to escape. She may have the natural talent of a poker savant, but her dreams of going pro and getting the hell out of the tiny town of Blind River, New York are going nowhere fast. Especially once she lands in a huge pile of debt to her uncle Loyal. At Loyal’s beck and call until her debt is repaid, Jamie can’t easily walk away—not with her younger brother Toby left at his mercy. So when Loyal demands Jamie’s help cleaning up a mess late one night, she has no choice but to agree. But disposing of a dead man and covering up his connection to the town’s most powerful judge goes beyond family duty. When it comes out that the victim was a beloved athlete and Loyal pins the murder on Toby, only Jamie can save him. But with a dogged detective on her trail and her own future at stake, she’ll have to decide: embrace her inner criminal, or defy it—and face the consequences.

From the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “eerie and fascinating” (USA TODAY) The Thirteenth Tale comes a “swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful” (Madeline Miller, internationally bestselling author of Circe) novel about how we explain the world to ourselves, ourselves to others, and the meaning of our lives in a universe that remains impenetrably mysterious. On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed. Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless. Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known. Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, this is “a beguiling tale, full of twists and turns like the river at its heart, and just as rich and intriguing” (M.L. Stedman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans).

A famous country music star is shamed by her sister into going home to look after her bedridden mother. The town is dull, her mother gets on her nerves and the "dork" who had a crush on her in high school is once again after her. But with time she gets used to it, even falls in love with the dork.

Fleeing to Australia to escape the repressive life of British-controlled Ireland, Tim Shea is alarmed by his new home's equally stifling social order and its inclination towards prejudice. By the author of Schindler's List.