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In My Sister's Country
by Lise Haines
At first, their sisterly anger appears nearly comical. But the furious passion with which Molly and Amanda face each other—and the most susceptible men who fall inside their borders—marks In My Sister's Country as a private, unexpected place.
Nearly motherless at seventeen, Molly cannot forgive her sister, either for her relentless manipulations or for the role Amanda once played in their fathers powerful games. As a result of those mental contests, lying comes easily to both sisters. But this matters little—until Molly realizes that she desperately desires her sister's lover.
Day by day, Molly's sadly comic insights to this uninsulated life propel her into greater deceits and betrayals. Both sisters are emotionally blindfolded, but Mollys powerful voice and her sense of rebellion well up from somewhere smart and self-contained. And when she dares to look to the other side of the blindfold, we discover how absolute a young woman's solitude can be.
An insightful and image-filled debut, In My Sister's Country takes us bravely into a world of shadowy hearts and beseeching arms. <<buy now>> [read Lise on Timing the First Novel]
Encyclopedia
of Women in Aviation and Space
by Rosanne Welch
Compiles some 250 entries on individuals, events, institutions, and organizations related to women in aviation and space. Includes many biographical entries on women aviators throughout the world, numerous b&w photographs chronicling the history of women and their flying machines, coverage of the first black female aviators, and discussions of contemporary problems of women pilots from sexual harrassment to denial of earned promotions. Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR
LA Under the Influence: 20 Los Angeles Writers, Their Work and Their Influences edited by Rob Roberge
Twenty of LA’s best playwrights and fiction writers come together for Doublewide’s 2nd book. Each writer is represented by a story or play, accompanied by an author’s essay about what leads to their work in general, and the selected piece, specifically. A great book for writers, readers and teachers. Includes stories by Susan Taylor Chehak, Francois Camoin, Diane Lefer, and Rob Roberge and plays by Leon Martell, John Steppling, and Sharon Yablon, among others.
Augusta, Gone
by Martha Tod Dudman
Remember Go Ask Alice? Augusta, Gone is the memoir Alice's mother never wrote. A single parent, Martha Tod Dudman is sure she is giving her two children the perfect life, sheltering them from the wild tumult of their youth. But when Augusta turns fifteen, things start to happen: first the cigarette, then the blue pipe and the little bag Augusta says is aspirin. Just talking to her is like sticking your hand in the garbage disposal. Martha doesn't know if she's confronting adolescent behavior, craziness, her own failures as a parent -- or all three. Augusta, Gone is the story of a girl who is doing everything to hurt herself and a mother who would try anything to save her. It is a sorrowful tale, but not a tragic one. Though the book charts a harrowing course through the troubled waters of adolescence, hope -- that mother and daughter will be reunited and will learn to love one another again -- steers them toward a shore of forgiveness and redemption. Written with darkly seductive grace, Augusta, Gone conjures the dangerous thrill of being drawn into the heart of a whirling vortex. This daring book will be admired for its lyricism, applauded for its courage, and remembered for its power. It demands to be read from start to finish, in one breathless sitting. <<buy now>>
The Knife-Thrower's Assistant: Memoirs of a Human Target by Ronnie Claire Edwards
For years, a close circle of friends have been thrilled and enchanted by actress Ronnie Claire Edwards' vivid and hilarious stories -- tall tales and yarns that have earned her a reputation as one of Hollywood's greatest raconteurs. Now, for the first time, Edwards has taken pen in hand to write those precious stories down. And the strangest thing is -- they're all true!
In a unique voice reminiscent of both Mark Twain and Eudora Welty, Edwards recounts the adventures that made hers a life unlike any other, filled with the quirky, the hair-raising, and the absurd. She writes about performing at rowdy (not to mention dangerous) mining camps, her strange and mystical experiences with the gypsies, and her true-life adventures as the Knife-Thrower's Assistant. She introduces readers to a wild and wooly assortment of oddballs and eccentrics, including Miz Arnette, who rewrote the Old Testament; Slim Rorem, the champion snake handler; Big Faye of the Fandango Hall and the Texas Four-Legged Woman, and her Uncle Homer, who fought with Pancho Villa and performed int he Pawnee Bill Wild West Show. At the centerpiece of her memoir, Edwards recalls her unconventional, irrepressible Mama and her cherished Papa, whose letters form the foundation and heart of the book. In The Knife-Thrower's Assistant, Ronnie Claire Edwards creates a style all her own, what Fannie Flagg, in her Foreward, calls "Oklahoma Gothic." If there wasn't such a thing before -- there certainly is now. <<buy now>>
Don Quixote Meets the Mob: The Craft of Fiction and the Art of Life
by Susan Taylor Chehak
"Fiction – what is it? how does it work? and what is its place in the world, for the writer and for the reader? These are the questions that I want my students to explore with me not by merely reading and analyzing others' works of fiction, but by writing and coming to understand our own – finding ways to render the 'real' world of perception and memory and time, translating experience into words, capturing character in narrative, and heightening emotional and material awareness with techniques of point of view and voice. We write, and then we write some more, and it is by way of our writing that we learn about our work and our world and ourselves."
In this unique and appealing approach to the craft of fiction writing, novelist Susan Taylor Chehak has reinvented the writing method and breathed new life into the writing instructional. Weaving together stories from life with down-to-earth instructions on how to write fiction, Chehak offers up the kind of writing advice that most authors take for granted but beginning writers cherish: searching for a workable theory of fiction, covering with depth and stunning clarity its basic technical elements, and offering insight and inspiration on the subject of revision. But she doesn't stop there. With heart and humor, comedy and compassion, she goes on to examine the place of the fiction writer in the world and of fiction in the fiction writer's life – including world-view and self-image, research and personal relationships, and braving the critical storm. A facile and entertaining storyteller, Chehak uses her own personal experiences to tease and tug at the stuff of life that is necessarily the fodder for fiction, and she fills these pages with her beguiling obsession with every aspect of the creative process as well as her contagious passion for the written word. For fiction readers as well as fiction writers, Don Quixote Meets the Mob finds in practicing the art of fiction deep and moving lessons for engaging in the art of life. "This is not just a writing text, it is an homage to writing, to how the real and the imagined come together, to how ideas start in one place only to end in another form, in another story for another day." -- Writer's Digest <<buy now>>
The Literary Enneagram: Characters from the inside Out by Judith Searle
As entertaining as it is illuminating, The Literary Enneagram uses characters from literature to show the inner dynamics of the nine Enneagram styles. Examples from works by Shakespeare, Chaucer, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Dostoevski, Tolstoi, Hardy, Flaubert, Proust, Goethe and other classic authors alternate with selections from Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E.M. Forster, James Joyce, Henry James and other modern masters. A unique study in depth, Judith Searle’s book offers a mix of male and female characters, with examples for each of the core styles, each of the 18 wing types, and each of the 27 subtypes. <<buy now>>