Search results for ""farrar straus giroux""

A literary legend's engaging review of his career, stressing the work he never completed, and why. Over seven decades, John McPhee has set a standard for literary nonfiction. Assaying mountain ranges, bark canoes, experimental aircraft, the Swiss Army, geophysical hot spots, ocean shipping, shad fishing, dissident art in the Soviet Union, and an even wider variety of other subjects, he has consistently written narrative pieces of immaculate design. In Tabula Rasa, Volume 1, McPhee looks back at his career from the vantage point of his desk drawer, reflecting wryly upon projects he once planned to do but never got around to-people to profile, regions he meant to portray. There are so many examples that he plans to go on writing these vignettes, an ideal project for an old man, he says, and a "reminiscent montage" from a writing life. This first volume includes, among other things, glimpses of a frosty encounter with Thornton Wilder, interrogative dinners with Henry Luce, the allure of western Spain, criteria in writing about science, fireworks over the East River as seen from Malcolm Forbes's yacht, the evolving inclinations of the Tower of Pisa, the islands among the river deltas of central California, teaching in a pandemic, and persuading The New Yorker to publish an entire book on oranges. The result is a fresh survey of McPhee's singular planet.

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"As original as it is affecting . . . left me genuinely creeped out, unsettled, and shaken. An existentially frightening book." -Paul Tremblay, author of Survivor Song "Hold on, this isn't a ride, it's a slide, and it doesn't care whether you're ready or not." -Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians A widower battles his grief, rage, and the mysterious evil inhabiting his home smart speaker, in this mesmerizing horror thriller from Gus Moreno. It was Vera's idea to buy the Itza. The "world's most advanced smart speaker!" didn't interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house-who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room. It was funny and strange right up until Vera was killed, and Thiago's world became unbearable. Pundits and politicians all looking to turn his wife's death into a symbol for their own agendas. A barrage of texts from her well-meaning friends about letting go and moving on. Waking to the sound of Itza talking softly to someone in the living room . . . The only thing left to do was get far away from Chicago. Away from everything and everyone. A secluded cabin in Colorado seemed like the perfect place to hole up with his crushing grief. But soon Thiago realizes there is no escape-not from his guilt, not from his simmering rage, and not from the evil hunting him, feeding on his grief, determined to make its way into this world. A bold, original horror novel about grief, loneliness and the oppressive intimacy of technology, This Thing Between Us marks the arrival of a spectacular new talent.

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In The Fellowship, Philip and Carol Zaleski offer the first complete rendering of the Inklings' lives and works. Lewis maps the medieval mind, accepts Christ while riding in the sidecar of his brother's motorcycle, becomes a world-famous evangelist and moral satirist, and creates new forms of religiously attuned fiction while wrestling with personal crises. Tolkien transmutes an invented mythology into a breath-taking story in The Lord of the Rings, while conducting ground-breaking Old English scholarship and elucidating the Catholic teachings at the heart of his vision. This extraordinary group biography also focuses on Charles Williams, strange acolyte of Romantic love, and Owen Barfield, an esoteric philosopher who became, for a time, Saul Bellow's guru. Romantics who scorned rebellion, fantasists who prized sanity, Christians with cosmic reach, the inklings sought to revitalize literature and faith in the twentieth century's darkest years and did so.

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If animals kissed like we kiss good night . . . what would they do? Giraffe and his calf would stretch their necks high, and kiss just beneath the top of the sky. Wolf and his pup would kiss and then HOWL. And Sloth and her baby move soooo slooowwwww . . . they're sure to be kissing until long after everyone is fast asleep!

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If animals tried to be kind . . .what would they do? Porcupine would knit a scarf for Giraffe, long enough to fit. Cat would snuggle Mouse to sleep with her lullaby purrrrrr. Stork would lift up Lizard, so she could be close to the sky, just once. And across the animal kingdom, every creature would try to be thoughtful and kind to each other. Another winner from Ann Whitford Paul and David Walker, If Animals Tried to Be Kind is perfect for showing children the power of being considerate and caring.

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No one captures the border-its history and imagination, its danger, contradiction, and redemption-like Fernando A. Flores, whose stories reimagine and reinterpret the region's existence with peerless style. In his immersive, uncanny borderland, things are never what they seem: a world where the sun is both rising and setting, and where conniving possums efficiently take over an entire town and rewrite its history. The stories in Valleyesque dance between the fantastical and the hyperreal with dexterous, often hilarious flair. A dying Frédéric Chopin stumbles through Ciudad Juárez in the aftermath of his mother's death, attempting to recover his beloved piano that was seized at the border, while a muralist is taken on a psychedelic journey by an airbrushed Emiliano Zapata T-shirt. A woman is engulfed by a used-clothing warehouse with a life of its own, and a grieving mother breathlessly chronicles the demise of a town decimated by violence. In two separate stories, queso dip and musical rhythms are bottled up and sold for mass consumption. And in the final tale, Flores pieces together the adventures of a young Lee Harvey Oswald as he starts a music career in Texas. Swinging between satire and surrealism, grief and joy, Valleyesque is a boundary- and border-pushing collection from a one-of-a-kind stylist and voice. With the visceral imagination that made his debut novel, Tears of the Trufflepig, a cult classic, Flores brings his vision of the border to life-and beyond.

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St. Stephen’s Academy, Yorkshire, 1931. A world unto itself, populated by boys reveling in life’s first big mistakes and men still learning how to live with the consequences of their own. It is a cloistered life, exotic to modern eyes, founded upon privilege, ruled by byzantine and often unspoken laws, haunted by injuries both casual and calculated. Yet within those austere corridors can be found windows of enchantment, unruly love, and a wild sort of freedom, all vanished, it seems, from our world. As a work of literary time travel, H. S. Cross’s This Age of Grace stands with the novels of Patrick O’Brian and L. P. Hartley in allowing readers to breathe the air of another era. Told from a variety of viewpoints - including that of the unhappy housemaster John Grieve - This Age of Grace takes us deep inside the crucible of St. Stephen’s while retaining a clear-eyed, contemporary sensibility, drawing out the urges and even mercies hidden beneath the school’s strict, unsparing surface. The academy may live by its own codes, but as with the world around it - a world that must ultimately be faced - it already contains everything necessary to either shape its people or tear them apart.

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A is for algae, B is for barrier reef, C is for clam in this "fintastic" touch-and-feel board book. Babies and toddlers will love to look at the adorable artwork of Mr. Fish's undersea world as they learn their letters from A to Z. Little hands will be eager to touch, feel, and explore the many different textures on each captivating spread.

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Words, voices reek of the worlds from which they emerge: different worlds, each with its all but palpable aroma, its parameters, limitations, promise. Words-there is a gap, nonetheless always and forever, between words and the world- slip, slide, are imprecise, BLIND, perish. . Set up a situation,- . . . then reveal an abyss. For more than fifty years, Frank Bidart has given voice to the inner self, to the depths of his own psyche and the unforgettable characters that populate his poems. In Against Silence, the Pulitzer Prize winner's eleventh collection of poetry, Bidart writes of the cycles we cannot escape and the feelings we cannot forget. Our history is not a tabula rasa but a repeating, refining story of love and hate, of words spoken and old cruelties enacted. Moving among the dead and the living, the figures of his life and of his past, Bidart calls reality forth-with nothing settled and nothing forgotten, we must speak.

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In Archaic Smile, by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist A. E. Stallings, the poet couples poetic meditations on classic stories and themes with poems about the everyday, sometimes mundane occurrences of contemporary life (like losing an umbrella or fishing with one's father), and she infuses the latter with the magic of myth and history. With the skill of a scholar and translator and the playful, pristine composition of a poet, Stallings bridges the gap between these two distant worlds. Stallings "invigorates the old forms and makes them sing" (Meryl Natchez, ZYZZYVA) in her poetry, and the scope and origins of her talents are on full display in the acclaimed author's first collection. The poems of Archaic Smile are sung with a timeless, technically impeccable, and utterly true voice.

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Growing up, Roya Marsh was considered "tomboy passing." With an affinity for baggy clothes, cornrows, and bandannas, she came of age in an era when the wide spectrum of gender and sexuality was rarely acknowledged or discussed. She knew she was "different," her family knew she was "different," but anything outside of heteronorm was either disregarded or disparaged. In this stunning debut, written to protest an absence of representation, Marsh recalls her early life and the attendant torments of a queer Black woman coming of age in America: I've been baptized twice / Washed over / Still gay / No choice / No Christian / No cure / Girl / No daddy / Daughter / No dresses / Jamaican / No accent / Girlfriend / No boyfriend / Won't tell a lie / But I'm always swallowing truth - From "in broad daylight black bipolar girls look grimey" In lush, powerful, and vulnerable verses, dayliGht unpacks traumas to unearth truths, revealing a deep well of resilience, a cutting sense of irony, and an astonishing fresh talent. A dazzling debut from a necessary new voice, Marsh's dayliGht is at once a clarion call for Black femme voices and a corrective to broken notions of sexuality and race.

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Sarah Ruhl is a mother of three and one of America's best-known playwrights. She has written a stunningly original book of essays whose concerns range from the most minimal and personal subjects to the most encompassing matters of art and culture. The titles themselves speak to the volume's uniqueness: "On lice," "On sleeping in the theatre," "On motherhood and stools (the furniture kind)," "Greek masks and Bell's Palsy." 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write is a book in which chimpanzees, Chekhov, and child care are equally at home. A vibrant, provocative examination of the possibilities of the theatre, it is also a map to a very particular artistic sensibility, and an unexpected guide for anyone who has chosen an artist's life.

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Encounters at the Heart of the World concerns the Mandan Indians, iconic plains people whose teeming, busy towns on the upper Missouri River were for centuries at the centre of the North American universe. We know of them mostly because Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804-1805 with them, but why don't we know more? Who were they, really? In this extraordinary book, Elizabeth A. Fenn retrieves their history by piecing together important new discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, geology, climatology, epidemiology, and nutritional science. Her boldly original interpretation of these diverse research findings offers us a new perspective on early American history, a new interpretation of the American past. By 1500, more than 12,000 Mandans were established on the northern plains, and their commercial prowess, agricultural skills, and reputation for hospitality became famous. Recent archaeological discoveries show how they thrived, and then how they collapsed. The damage wrought by imported diseases like smallpox and the havoc caused by the arrival of horses and steamboats were tragic for the Mandans, yet, as Fenn makes clear, their sense of themselves as a people with distinctive traditions endured.

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Mr. Fish is on a soccer team, but his team does not win the game. All the fish are about to pout! But playing a game isn't always about who scores the most points-it's about having fun along the way. Turn little pouts into big smiles with this Beginning Reader, featuring the characters and settings children love.

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From Yangsook Choi comes an empowering picture book about a child learning a new language to keep in touch with an old friend.Today is the day I'll make friends.At least, that's what I promise myself.Jihun recently moved to the United States. In his new classroom, he receives an assignment to write a letter to his best friendbut he's not sure how it will turn out. First off, he's still learning English. Second, he doesn't have any friends at school yet. What's more, his best friend back in Korea can't read.Fueled by wonderful memories of his former home, Jihun uses his creativity to craft a letter for his best friend, Oto. The result is nothing short of extraordinary and opens a door for Jihun to make new friends.

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Mr. Fish's class has a pet, but one day the pet isn't in his cage. Where did he go? The whole class is about to pout! But if they all work together, they'll find a way to bring the pet home in no time. Turn little pouts into big smiles with this Beginning Reader, featuring the characters and settings children love from the New York Times-bestselling Pout-Pout Fish series.

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From creators Ann Whitford Paul and David Walker of the If Animals Kissed Good Night series comes another adorable picture book that reimagines animals as community helpers, such as doctors, teachers, librarians, and firefighters. If animals went to work . . . what would they do? Mail carrier Kangaroo would carry cards and packages in her pouch. Librarian Owl would read books aloud. And Snake would rat-rattle to let everyone know about the wet cement and construction zone in the road. Across the animal kingdom, every creature would be helpful in their own special way. Don't miss the other books in the bestselling If Animals Kissed Good Night series: If Animals Kissed Good Night, If Animals Said I Love You, If Animals Celebrated Christmas, If Animals Went to School, If Animals Gave Thanks, and If Animals Tried to be Kind!

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The Bible is full of stories that teach us to dream big, be curious, be courageous, and be ourselves. And who better to impart these lessons to children than biblical characters? Dream Big, Laugh Often contains images of and words of wisdom from fourteen Biblical figures, including Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Miriam, David and Goliath, and more. On every page, Hanoch Piven crafts unique portraits of these biblical characters from everyday found objects children will delight in recognizing. The accompanying text describes the values and character traits each character embodies. This is a perfect religious-interest book for Jewish and Christian readers, and for those looking for a fresh and playful take on character education.

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Max Plink’s life is complicated. Her parents aren’t getting along. The school bullies are relentless - and her own sister is the cruelest of them. Worst of all, her mouth is a mess. Max has a Class II malocclusion, otherwise known as a severe overbite. She already has braces, but now Max has to wear painful (and totally awkward) orthodontic headgear called “the jawbreaker.” Could things get any worse? Yes. The journalism competition Max wants to enter has a video component. But being on camera means showing her face to her junior high classmates, and possibly the whole city. Turns out, following her dreams is complicated, too. Inspired by Christina Wyman’s own experience with a Class II malocclusion, Jawbreaker is a humorous and heartfelt story that will break you apart only to put you back together again.

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Magical realism meets Southern Gothic in this commanding young adult debut from Ciera Burch about true love, the meaning of home, and the choices that haunt us.Welcome to Coldwater. Come for the ghosts, stay for the drama.Jericka Walker had planned to spend the summer before senior year soaking up the sun with her best friend on the Jersey Shore. Instead she finds herself in Coldwater, Maryland, a small town with a dark and complicated past where her estranged grandmother livessomeone she knows only two things about: her name and the fact that she left Jericka's mother and uncle when they were children. But now Jericka''s grandmother is dying, and her mother has dragged Jericka along to say goodbye.As Jericka attempts to form a connection with a woman she''s never known, and adjusts to life in a town where everything closes before dinner, she meets ghost girl Kat, a girl eager to leave Coldwater and more exciting than a person has any right to b

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The story of the impactful partnership between humans and mockingbirds, both scientifically and culturally over the centuries, written for young adults by award-winning nonfiction powerhouse Phil Hoose. The Northern mockingbird's brilliant song?a loud, bright, liquid sampling of musical notes and phrases?has made it a beloved companion and the official bird of five states. Many of our favorite songs and poems feature mockingbirds. Mockingbirds have been companions to humans for centuries. Many Native American myths and legends feature mockingbirds, often teaching humans to speak. Thomas Jefferson's mockingbird, "Dick", was the first White House pet. John James Audubon's portrait of a rattlesnake raiding a mockingbird's nest sparked outrage in the world of art. Atticus Finch's somber warning to his children, "Remember, it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird," is known throughout the world. Some jazz musicians credit mockingbirds with teaching them a four-note call that says, "Break's over." And mockingjays?a hybrid between jabberjays and mockers?are a symbol of the rebel cause in the Hunger Games trilogy. But in the early 1900s the mocker was plummeting toward extinction. Too many had been trapped, sold, and caged. Something had to be done. To the rescue came a powerful and determined group of women. Now, National Book Award and Newbery honor-winner Phillip Hoose brings the story of the important and overlooked connection between humans and mockingbirds?past, present, and future. It is the third volume of his bird trilogy. Duet is a study in the power of song. As author Steve Sheinkin puts it, "This book will change how you listen to the world."

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One December afternoon, boy with dog and grandfather with beard take a walk to watch the sun begin to set over the river. When the sun drops low in the sky, they start home. Buildings grow dimmer. People are rushing. As nature's lights go out, one by one, city's lights turn on, revealing brilliant Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Christmas displays in streets, homes, and stores.

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Everyone says Alice Jones's mother died in a boating accident, but Alice doesn't believe them. When she hears that the residents of Aviles know how to communicate with loved ones who have died, she knows she has to go-if she can contact her mother, she might have all the answers she needs. For generations, Leo Mercury's family has been in charge of the Aviles Island lighthouse. Now, his family runs the annual Tidings Festival, when everyone in town can trade letters with loved ones who have died. When nosy Alice Jones shows up for the festival, Leo knows it's up to him to protect the island's traditions. Because something about the tidings is changing, and he needs to fix it before it's too late. Between the Lighthouse and You is a heartwarming story about love, grief, and letting go.

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In River City, where magic used to thrive and is now fading, the witches who once ruled the city along with their powerful King have become all but obsolete. The city's crumbling government is now controlled primarily by the new university and teaching hospital, which has grown to take over half of the city. Moving between the decaying Old City and the ruthless New, four young queer people struggle with the daily hazards of life-work, school, dodging ruthless cops and unscrupulous scientists-not realizing that they have been selected to play in an age-old drama that revives the flow of magic through their world. When a mysterious death rocks their fragile peace, the four are brought into each other's orbits as they uncover a deeper magical conspiracy.

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Mr. Fish and his friends are back to turn little pouts into big smiles over and over again! Each of these 12 short stories can be read aloud in about five minutes, making this collection the perfect choice for before bedtime, on the go, or new readers. Favourite themes and new adventures come to life in each fully illustrated, energetic story of your favourite undersea friends!

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If animals gave thanks . . . what would they do? Raccoon would chir-chirrrr thanks for her cub. Crow would loop and swoop in the sky. And Bear would invite his friends to a bountiful feast. Across the animal kingdom, every creature would be grateful for food, family, and being together. This is another winner from Ann Whitford Paul and David Walker, perfect for the fall season.

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Tractor Mac and his vehicle and animal friends return in a jacketed hardcover about the seasonal changes of autumn. Fergie the calf does not like change, so when his pleasant routine on Stony Meadow Farm begins to change as summer turns to autumn. Fergie is not happy. Luckily his pals on the farm help him acclimate to, and even embrace, the change of seasons.

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Turn little pouts into big smiles! In this unabridged board book edition, Mr. Fish is nervously awaiting his first day of school, and he frets about not knowing how to write his name, how to draw shapes, and how to do math - until he's reassured that school is the perfect place to learn how to master all of these new skills.

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There is a place inside of me a space deep down inside of me where all my feelings hide. In this powerful, affirming poem by award-winning author Zetta Elliott, a Black child explores his shifting emotions throughout the year. Summertime is filled with joy-skateboarding and playing basketball-until his community is deeply wounded by a police shooting. As fall turns to winter and then spring, fear grows into anger, then pride and peace. In her stunning debut, illustrator Noa Denmon articulates the depth and nuances of a child's experiences following a police shooting-through grief and protests, healing and community-with washes of color as vibrant as his words. Here is a groundbreaking narrative that can help all readers-children and adults alike-talk about the feelings hiding deep inside each of us.

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This anthology explores disability in fictional tales told from the viewpoint of disabled characters, written by disabled creators. With stories in various genres about first loves, friendship, war, travel, and more, Unbroken will offer today's teen readers a glimpse into the lives of disabled people in the past, present, and future. The contributing authors are award winners, bestsellers, and newcomers including Kody Keplinger, Kristine Wyllys, Francisco X. Stork, William Alexander, Corinne Duyvis, Marieke Nijkamp, Dhonielle Clayton, Heidi Heilig, Katherine Locke, Karuna Riazi, Kayla Whaley, Keah Brown, and Fox Benwell. Each author identifies as disabled along a physical, mental, or neurodiverse axis - and their characters reflect this diversity.

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In A Unicorn Named Sparkle, Lucy found out that the unicorn she thought she didn't want was the exact right unicorn for her. In this new story, Lucy makes a new friend and Sparkle is worried that means she doesn't care about him anymore. What happens when two's company but three's a crowd?

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