The inspirational tale of a boy in wartorn Africa who fell in love with America through movies and escaped his country's turmoil to move here—a story of remarkable courage, determination, and triumph.Born in Somalia shortly before the country descended into years of brutal civil war, Abdi Nor Iftin learned to speak English by watching Schwarzenegger movies and listening to American pop songs. His first direct experience with an American was when he cheered the arrival of the Marines to take on the warlords in Mogadishu. When Somalia emerged from war only to succumb to the radical Islamist al Shabaab, Abdi used his language skills to post secret dispatches to National Public Radio and the Internet. Astoundingly, several Western listeners were able to get desperately needed cash to Abdi until the untenable situation in Somalia forced him to flee to Kenya as a refugee. In a near miraculous stroke of luck, he won entrance to the U.S. in the annual visa...

Rose Macaulay was one of the most popular satirical novelists of her day. In this lively, anecdotal collection, she turns her admittedly opinionated attention to life's random, and largely unrecorded, pleasures. From astronomy to new cars, church-going to the turtles in Hyde Park, she never fails to delight and amuse with her sure philosophical sense, sharp wit, and unerring eye for life's subtle ironies. "How true it is that every pleasure has also its reverse side, in brief, its pain. Therefore, I have added to most of my pleasures the little flavor of bitterness, the flaw in their perfections . . . which tang their sweetness and remind us of their mortality and our own, and that nothing in this world is perfect."

Eve Hartlow moved to Bull Creek to hide from an abusive ex-boyfriend, happy with the quiet life she etched out for herself. A human among paranormals, she keeps a knife at her waist, not for protection against her neighbors, but against her past. Arlin Landry made a fatal mistake in Blue Creek one night at the Wolfe's Den, a mistake that cost a man is his life. Now, forced to leave town until the heat dies down, he visits his brother in Bull Creek, a brother who just so happens to be somewhere else. He's content to kick back and relax in the quiet setting, putting his action back home out of his mind. However, Eve's past finds her and Arlin's tiger won't permit him to look away. Will he make the same mistake he made in Blue Creek?

Gabe Fuentes is in for the ride of his life when he becomes Earth's ambassador to the galaxy in this otherworldly adventure from the National Book Award–winning author of Goblin Secrets.Gabe Fuentes is reading under the covers one summer night when he is interrupted by a creature who looks like a purple sock puppet. The sock puppet introduces himself as the Envoy and asks if Gabe wants to be Earth's ambassador to the galaxy. What sane eleven-year-old could refuse? Some ingenious tinkering with the washing machine sends Gabe's "entangled" self out to the center of the galaxy. There he finds that Earth is in the path of a destructive alien force—and Gabe himself is the target of an assassination plot. Exactly who wants him out of the way? And why? Back home, Gabe discovers that his undocumented parents are in danger of being deported. Can Gabe survive long enough to solve two sets of "alien" problems? He runs for his life, through...

From the bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams comes this harrowing tale of one man's struggle to cope in a wired world, even as his own biological wiring short-circuits. As Boston's Red Line shuttles Bill Chalmers to work one summer morning, something extraordinary happens. Suddenly, he can't remember which stop is his, where he works, or even who he is. The only thing he can remember is his corporate motto: the maximum information in the minimum time.Bill's memory returns, but a strange numbness afflicts him. As he attempts to find a diagnosis for his deteriorating illness, he descends into a nightmarish tangle of inconclusive results, his company's manic frenzy, and his family's disbelief. Ultimately, Bill discovers that he is fighting not just for his body but also for his soul.From the Trade Paperback edition.

What if the bomb had actually been dropped? What if your family was the only one with a shelter? In the summer of 1962, the possibility of nuclear war is all anyone talks about. But Scott's dad is the only one in the neighborhood who actually prepares for the worst. As the neighbors scoff, he builds a bomb shelter to hold his family and stocks it with just enough supplies to keep the four of them alive for two critical weeks. In the middle of the night in late October, when the unthinkable happens, those same neighbors force their way into the shelter before Scott's dad can shut the door. With not enough room, not enough food, and not enough air, life inside the shelter is filthy, physically draining, and emotionally fraught. But even worse is the question of what will—and won't—remain when the door is opened again. Internationally best-selling author Todd Strasser has written his most impressive and personal novel to date, ruthlessly yet sensitively exploring...

The hilarious, poignant, and true story of one teens's experience growing up in America as an undocumented immigrant from the Middle East, perfect for fans of Mindy Kaling and Lena Dunham's books.At thirteen, bright-eyed, straight-A student Sara Saedi uncovered a terrible family secret: she was breaking the law simply by living in the United States. Only two years old when her parents fled Iran, she didn't learn of her undocumented status until her older sister wanted to apply for an after-school job, but couldn't because she didn't have a Social Security number.Fear of deportation kept Sara up at night, but it didn't keep her from being a teenager. She desperately wanted a green card, along with clear skin, her own car, and a boyfriend.Americanized follows Sara's progress toward getting her green card, but that's only a portion of her experiences as an Iranian-"American" teenager. From discovering that her parents secretly divorced to facilitate her...

In this moving memoir about the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit, Amy Silverstein tells the story of the extraordinary group of women who supported her as she waited on the precipice for a life-saving heart transplant. Nearly twenty-six years after receiving her first heart transplant, Amy Silverstein's donor heart plummeted into failure. If she wanted to live, she had to take on the grueling quest for a new heart—immediately. A shot at survival meant uprooting her life and moving across the country to California. When her friends heard of her plans, there was only one reaction: "I'm there." Nine remarkable women—Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann, and Jane—put demanding jobs and pressing family obligations on hold to fly across the country and be by Amy's side. Creating a calendar spreadsheet, the women—some of them strangers to one...

From the National Book Award-winning author of classics like THE WOMAN WARRIOR comes a stirring collection of essays, celebrating memory, history, and island tradition.In these eleven thought-provoking pieces, originally gathered in a limited, hand-printed edition, acclaimed writer and feminist Maxine Hong Kingston tells stories of Hawai'i "piece by piece, and hope that the sum praises her." The essays provide readers with a generous sampling of Kingston's signature: her exquisite angle of vision, her balanced and clear-sighted prose, and her stunning insight that awakens one to a wealth of knowledge.

Italy, 1980s. The unnamed narrator and her English friend Liz are booksmart but inexperienced 18-year-old students on a budget traveling around Northern Italy by train. As they share adventures and conversation, their edgy friendship not surprisingly begins to deepen. But it's on their final nocturnal train trip back to Florence that they go beyond friendship into an act of bold sexual experimentation... This short story was first published in the Cleis Press anthology Hot Ticket: Tales of Lesbians, Sex, and Travel.

I want Cesar Cruz. God, how I want him. And he’s made it no secret he desires me. I can’t handle another heartbreak, one more haunting memory that threatens my sanity. What I need is to feel wanted by a man who will love me unconditionally and forever, a man who will be patient and loving, not apathetic and abusive.What will happen if I give in to temptation and spend one night in his arms? Will he want more? Will I? Whether I say yes or no, I fear I’ll suffer regret, but as my need for him grows stronger, I may not have a choice. I only pray he will be gentle with me and my heart.

Best known for his novels and travel writing, Lawrence Durrell defied easy classification within twentieth-century Modernism. His anti-authoritarian tendencies put him at odds with many contemporaries—aesthetically and politically. However, thanks to a compelling recontextualization by editor James Gifford, these thirty-eight previously unpublished and out-of-print essays and letters reveal that Durrell's maturation as an artist was rich, complex, and subtle. Durrell fans will treasure this selection of rare nonfiction, while scholars of Durrell, Modernist literature, anti-authoritarian artists, and the Personalist movement will also appreciate Gifford's fine editorial work.