"The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays"-- ""Any story that starts will also end." As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious...

James Patterson is the world's bestselling author. The creator of Alex Cross, he has produced more enduring fictional heroes than any other novelist alive. How did a kid whose dad lived in the poorhouse become the most successful storyteller in the world? Some of Patterson's best stories are the stories of his own life: on the morning he was born, he nearly died. He worked at a mental hospital in Massachusetts, where he met the singer James Taylor,...

After contracting polio as a child, the author progressed from braces and crutches to a manual wheelchair to a power wheelchair--but loneliness has remained a constant, from the wild claustrophobia of a child in body casts to just yesterday, trapped at home, gasping from pain. This memoir-in-essays explores the intersection of disability, queerness, and female desire with frankness and humor. She presents the adventures of flourishing within a world...

"As a child, Alethea Black drifts between her father, a brilliant mathematician who is also her best friend, and her mother, a frank and outspoken woman on fire. After her father's death, Alethea is left unmoored, a young woman more connected to life's ethereal mysteries than to practical things such as doing laundry or paying taxes. And then, just when life seems to be getting back on track, she's suddenly racked by crushing fatigue, inexplicable...

"An entertaining and fascinating memoir of "gifted storyteller" (People) Ann Hood's adventurous years as a TWA flight attendant. In 1978, in the tailwind of the Golden Age of air travel, flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of college and hungry to experience the world, Ann Hood joined their ranks. She carved chateaubriand in the first-class cabin, found romance on layovers in London and Lisbon, and walked more...

"Pese a la calidad abrumadora de su escritura, tuvo que llegar Manual para mujeres de la limpieza para que Lucia Berlin se convirtiera en una estrella literaria sin igual. Sus historias están pobladas de personajes, entornos y emociones de la propia vida de la autora, una vida llena de precariedad y cambios de rumbo. Bienvenida a casa es una recopilación de textos autobiográficos en la que Berlin estaba trabajando antes de su muerte y que muestra,...

"Katie Roiphe, culture writer and author of The Morning After, shares a timely blend of memoir, feminist investigation, and exploration in famous female writers' lives, in a bold, essential discussion of how strong women experience their power"--

"Newbery Medalist Paul Fleischman reflects on growing up with his award-winning father, Sid Fleischman, and details his own path to becoming a writer"--