"... a memoir of an immigrant family coming to America, as told by a lifelong misfit who forged from his imagination an essential literary voice and, against all odds, a place in the world."-- Publisher's description.

"It's midsummer in Wyoming and Alexandra is barely hanging on. Grieving her father and pining for her home country of Zimbabwe, reeling from a midlife breakup, freshly sober and piecing her way uncertainly through a volatile new relationship with a younger woman, Alexandra vows to get herself back on even keel. And then-suddenly and incomprehensibly-her son Fi, at twenty-one years old, dies in his sleep. No stranger to loss-young siblings, a parent,...

This is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it's that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter...

Moving his family from California to Maine, mystery writer David Rosenfelt tried to prepare for everything. They brought three GPSs, refrigerators full of food, and volunteers for help. But traveling in three RVs with twenty-five dogs turned out to be a bigger ordeal than he anticipated. Rosenfelt recounts the adventure with humor and warmth and tells how he and his wife became passionate foster parents for rescue dogs, culminating in the creation...

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State -- and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little...

The story of a street-smart city girl who must adapt to a new life on an apple farm after she falls in love with Adrian Curtis, the pride of a prominent local family whose lives and orchards are said to be cursed. Married after only three months, young Theresa finds life with Adrian on the farm far more difficult and dangerous than she expected. Rejected by her husband's family as an outsider, she slowly learns about the isolated world of farming...

"Explores the surprising truth about women's most popular body part with vulnerable, witty frankness and true nuggets of American culture that will resonate with everyone who has breasts--or loves them. ...At turns funny and heartbreaking, A Boob's Life explores both the joys and hazards inherent to living in a woman's body. Lehr deftly blends her personal narrative with national history, starting in the 1960s with the women's liberation movement...

Suzanne Collins is the critically acclaimed author of the Hunger Games trilogy. But how did she get her start? Where does she find her inspiration? This biography of the media-shy Suzanne Collins offers a peek into the life and career of one of today's most successful authors, including where she finds inspiration, how she got her start, and much more. Her youth as a military kid through the height of her current success is also explored.

Everybody's Fool In these nine essays, Richard Russo provides insight into his life as a writer, teacher, friend, and reader. From a commencement speech he gave at Colby College, to the story of how an oddly placed toilet made him reevaluate the purpose of humor in art and life, to a comprehensive analysis of Mark Twain's value, to his harrowing journey accompanying a dear friend as she pursued gender-reassignment surgery, The Destiny Thief reflects...

Drawing on her own experiences, the author of the critically acclaimed memoir "Whip Smart" discusses how to confront the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing about our most intimate lives.