A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Dave Eggers

Biographies & Memoirs / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

'When you read his extraordinary memoir you don't laugh, then cry, then laugh again; you somehow experience these emotions all at once.' "Well, this was when Bill was sighing a lot. He had decided that after our parents died he just didn't want any more fighting between what was left of us. He was twenty-four, Beth was twenty-three, I was twenty-one, Toph was eight, and all of us were so tried already, from that winter. So when something would come up, any little thing, some bill to pay or decision to make, he would just sigh, his eyes tired, his mouth in a sorry kind of smile. But Beth and I...Jesus, we were fighting with everyone, anyone, each other, with strangers at bars, anywhere -- we were angry people wanting to exact revenge. We came to California and we wanted everything, would take what was ours, anything within reach. And I decided that little Toph and I, he with his backward hat and long hair, living together in our little house in Berkeley, would be world-destroyers. We inherited each other and, we felt, a responsibility to reinvent everything, to scoff and re-create and drive fast while singing loudly and pounding the windows. It was a hopeless sort of exhilaration, a kind of arrogance born of fatalism, I guess, of the feeling that if you could lose a couple of parents in a month, then basically anything could happen, at any time -- all bullets bear your name, all cars are there to crush you, any balcony could give way; more disaster seemed only logical. And then, as in Dorothy's dream, all these people I grew up with were there, too, some of them orphans also, most but not all of us believing that what we had been given was extraordinary, that it was time to tear or break down, ruin, remake, take and devour. This was San Francisco, you know, and everyone had some dumb idea -- I mean, wicca? -- and no one there would tell you yours was doomed. Thus the public nudity, and this ridiculous magazine, and the Real World tryout, all this need, most of it disguised by sneering, but all driven by a hyper-awareness of this window, I guess, a few years when your muscles are taut, coiled up and vibrating. But what to do with the energy? I mean, when we drive, Toph and I, and we drive past people, standing on top of all these hills, part of me wants to stop the car and turn up the radio and have us all dance in formation, and part of me wants to run them all over."
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Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett

Literature & Fiction / Theatre / Poetry

From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment among American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. As Clive Barnes wrote, “Time catches up with genius … Waiting for Godot is one of the masterpieces of the century.”The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone—or something—named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as mankind’s inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett’s language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existential post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.
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Taking Chances

Taking Chances

Molly McAdams

Contemporary / Romance / Suspense

Her first year away is turning out to be nearly perfect, but one weekend of giving in to heated passion will change everythingEighteen-year-old Harper has grown up under the thumb of her career marine father. Ready to live life her own way and to experience things she's only ever heard of from the jarheads in her father's unit, she's on her way to college at San Diego State University.Thanks to her new roommate, Harper is introduced to a world of parties, gorgeous guys, family, and emotions. She finds herself being torn in two as she quickly falls in love with both her new boyfriend, Brandon, and her roommate's brother, Chase. Despite their dangerous looks and histories, both men adore Harper and would do anything for her, including taking a step back if it would mean she'd be happy.
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The Perfect Neighbor

Nora Roberts

Fiction / Suspense / Fantasy

In New York, people were supposed to ignore their neighbours. But that was a rule that Cybil Campbell had never learned. When the sunny brunette knocks on her new neighbour\'s door, she expected that they would make a connection - after all, she knew everyone else in the apartment block. Preston McQuinn wasn\'t interested in small talk. He was in Manhattan to finish a job and leave as quickly as possible - until Cybil\'s sweet nature and big green eyes captured his interest. Cybil was intrigued by her mysterious new acquaintance - but what would she do when she found out he\'d been lying to her from the very first moment they met?
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Logan Kade

Tijan

Fiction / Romance / Young Adult

People think that just because they know my name, my reputation, and my family that they know me. They don\'t. They say I’m a manwhore, but who wouldn’t be with my face and body? They say I’m a partier, and that\'s not going to change. They say I\'m a fighter, and hell yes I am. F*ck with mine, and I’ll f*ck you back ten times worse. So, yes. Maybe what they say is true, but that’s not all of me. I\'m loyal to a damned fault. If you earn it, I\'ll never leave your side. And when I love, I love hard, but there\'s another side to me where it\'s dark and painful. That side\'s been kept hidden, until her. Taylor saw inside of me, and the second she was there, she owned me. People think they know me… …but only she can see me.
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Fallen Fourth Down

Tijan

Fiction / Romance / Young Adult

My mother tried to destroy me. She doesn’t exist to me anymore and my father, the one who raised me and the biological one, are both works in progress. The only two people that I can trust are Mason and Logan, and they’re the two people who I could lose. It won’t happen. I won’t let it. No matter the truth, no matter who loves me, I won’t let anything or anyone come between us. They’re my world. They’re my life. They’re my family.
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On Dublin Street

On Dublin Street

Samantha Young

Romance / Fantasy / Contemporary

Jocelyn Butler has been hiding from her past for years. But all her secrets are about to be laid bare… Four years ago, Jocelyn left her tragic past behind in the States and started over in Scotland, burying her grief, ignoring her demons, and forging ahead without attachments. Her solitary life is working well—until she moves into a new apartment on Dublin Street where she meets a man who shakes her carefully guarded world to its core. Braden Carmichael is used to getting what he wants, and he’s determined to get Jocelyn into his bed. Knowing how skittish she is about entering a relationship, Braden proposes an arrangement that will satisfy their intense attraction without any strings attached. But after an intrigued Jocelyn accepts, she realizes that Braden won’t be satisfied with just mind-blowing passion. The stubborn Scotsman is intent on truly knowing her… down to the very soul.
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The Marriage Bargain

The Marriage Bargain

Jennifer Probst

Romance / Children's Books

A marriage in name only. . . To save her family home, impulsive bookstore owner, Alexa Maria McKenzie, casts a love spell. But she never planned on conjuring up her best friend's older brother—the powerful man who once shattered her heart. Billionaire Nicholas Ryan doesn’t believe in marriage, but in order to inherit his father’s corporation, he needs a wife and needs one fast. When he discovers his sister’s childhood friend is in dire financial straits, he offers Alexa a bold proposition. A marriage in name only with certain rules: avoid entanglement. Keep things all business. Do not fall in love. The arrangement is only for a year so the rules shouldn’t be that hard to follow, right? Except fate has a way of upsetting the best-laid plans…
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Four: A Divergent Collection

Veronica Roth

Young Adult / Science Fiction

Complete your Divergent library with Four ! Fans of the Divergent trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be thrilled by Four: A Divergent Collection , a companion volume that includes four pre-Divergent stories plus three additional scenes from Divergent, all told from Tobias\'s point of view. This collection also makes a great pick for fans of the blockbuster movies who want to delve deeper into the character played by Theo James. Readers first encountered Tobias as Four in Divergent . His voice is an integral part of Allegiant . Readers will find more of this charismatic character\'s backstory told from his own perspective in Four: A Divergent Collection . When read together, these long narrative pieces illuminate the defining moments in Tobias\'s life. The first three pieces in this volumeThe Transfer, The Initiate, and The Sonfollow Tobias\'s transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless, his Dauntless initiation, and the first clues that a foul plan is brewing in the leadership of two factions. The fourth story, The Traitor, runs parallel with the events of Divergent , giving readers a glimpse into the decisions of loyaltyand lovethat Tobias makes in the weeks after he meets Tris Prior. Also includes three additional scenes from Divergent , told from Tobias\'s point of view! Discover Veronica Roths new novel, Carve the Mark .
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Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert

Fiction

Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment and the consequences are devastating. Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi'.
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Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu

Philosophy

In 81 brief chapters, Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, provides advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit, and teaches us how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao—the basic principle of the universe. Stephen Mitchell's bestselling version has been widely acclaimed as a gift to contemporary culture. **
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World Without End

World Without End

Ken Follett

Mystery & Thrillers / Literature & Fiction

**#1* New York Times* Bestseller** **In 1989, Ken Follett astonished the literary world with *The Pillars of the Earth*, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected. Critics were overwhelmed—“it will hold you, fascinate you, surround you” (*Chicago Tribune*)—and readers everywhere hoped for a sequel. Look out for the next book in this series, *A Column of Fire*, available now. ** *World Without End* takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of *The Pillars of the Earth*. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroads of new ideas—about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death.  Three years in the writing and nearly eighteen years since its predecessor, *World Without End* breathes new life into the epic historical novel and once again shows that Ken Follett is a masterful author writing at the top of his craft.
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The Collector

Nora Roberts

Fiction / Suspense / Fantasy

From #1 New York Times-bestselling author Nora Roberts comes a novel of a woman who needs nothing, a man who sees everything, and the web of deceit, greed, and danger that brings them together—and could tear them apart . . .When professional house-sitter Lila Emerson witnesses a murder/suicide from her current apartment-sitting job, life as she knows it takes a dramatic turn. Suddenly, the woman with no permanent ties finds herself almost wishing for one. . . .Artist Ashton Archer knows his brother isn’t capable of violence—against himself or others. He recruits Lila, the only eyewitness, to help him uncover what happened. Ash longs to paint her as intensely as he hungers to touch her. But their investigation draws them into a rarified circle where priceless antiques are bought, sold, gambled away, and stolen, where what you possess is who you are, and where what you desire becomes a deadly obsession. . . .
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Into the Wild

Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer

Nonfiction / Travel / Nature

Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.
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A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Sarah J. Maas

Young Adult / Science Fiction & Fantasy

Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ... Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.
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