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manicpixiedreamgirl
Tom Leveen
She's not what he thinks. He's not what she needs.
In stunningly raw, relatable prose that upends the idea of the manic pixie dream girl trope, Tom Leveen does more than just talk: he tells the story of a less-than-perfect "dream girl" and the equally flawed boy who worships her.
Tyler has been crushing on Becky since he started high school, but didn't get the guts to talk to her until long after he already found himself dating Sydney, a quintessential good girl whose patience for Tyler's unrequited love is thinning. After publishing a story about Becky in a prestigious magazine, Tyler decides tonight -- halfway through their senior year -- he's going to come clean to Becky, with whom he has become good friends. But "Open For Business Becca" has some not-so-secret secrets Tyler's been denying, and there's no way Tyler's dream girl can ever be what he needs her to be. Instead, he just might discover how far he's willing to go to break his own heart.
Zero
Tom Leveen
Summer. Almost 18. Art, punk rock...and him.
After missing her best opportunity to attend a prestigious art school, 17-year-old Salvador Dali devotee Zero begins dating Mike, a drummer in an up-and-coming punk band. As their tentative relationship blooms, Zero confronts a ton of baggage holding her back from her art career: the majorly awkward drama with her former best friend, Jenn; her dad's excessive drinking and parents' ongoing fights; and one formerly successful art teacher who might just hold the keys to her future, or smash Z's hopes forever.
When Mike's band gets a chance of lifetime to bust out of black hole that is Metro Phoenix, Zero must make a life-altering decision and answer the one question we all face at some point in our lives:
Follow your own heart, or the heart of the one you love?
Party
Tom Leveen
I'm the girl nobody knows until she commits suicide. Then suddenly everyone had a class with her. You know the one I mean. Tonight's the night. Everyone will be there. Will you?
Graduation in Santa Barbara, a house near the beach, and no parents! That can mean only one thing: PARTY! But not everyone's in a partying mood. Beckett is only going to confirm she is invisible after having spent two years caring for her mother; Morrigan seeks revenge on her ex- for having the gall to not sleep with her; Azize is trying to make a friend—any friend; and Anthony's ready to pop off on anyone who mentions his maimed, combat-veteran brother.
As the night quickly spirals out of control, eleven unique characters—all of whom are familiar to anyone who's been a high school student—crash, collide, and recombine in ways none of them saw coming when a violently brutal hate crime brings the celebration to a halt.
Graduation is a time of change. But after tonight, no one will ever be the same.
Award-winning YA author Tom Leveen releases a special edition of his debut novel, in which a group very different teens converge on the biggest party of the year. Told in only eleven chapters, with each character allowed only one chance to tell their version of events, this special edition includes never-before-seen chapters, behind the scenes notes, and a new afterword by the author.
Before Wallis
Rachel Trethewey
Wallis Simpson was the woman who stole the king’s heart and rocked the monarchy - but she was not Edward VIII’s first or only love. This book is about the women he adored before Wallis dominated his life. There was Rosemary Leveson Gower, the girl he wanted to marry and who would have made the perfect match for a future king; the Prince’s long-term mistress, Freda Dudley Ward, who exerted a pull almost equal to Wallis over her lover, but abided by the rules of the game and knew she would never marry him. Then there was Thelma Furness, his twice-married American lover, who enjoyed a domestic life with him, but realised it could not last forever and demanded nothing more than to be his mistress. In each love affair, Edward behaved like a cross between a little boy lost and a spoilt child. Each one of the three women in this book could have changed the course of history. In examining their lives and impact on the heir to the throne, we question whether he ever really wanted to be king.
Now You Don't
Tom Leveen
Now you see him...
Jim never thought of himself as the hero type. When his girlfriend and her daughter are targeted by a disfigured assailant who's been popping the eyes out of his victims, Jim becomes the only person with a chance to save them.
The first victim is Jim's best friend Travis, who is attacked and blinded in his home and overpowered by the grisly intruder. Travis's elderly father is assaulted next, then his mother. That leaves Travis's only living relatives: his daughter Darla, and his ex-wife, who police assume are targeted as the next victims. Jim quickly agrees to protect them as best he can, neglecting to tell his buddy that he and Travis's ex- already have a relationship on the side, and that Jim is beginning to love Darla like his own kid.
As police race to find and stop the assailant, Jim discovers it's far too late: someone's lying in wait, and what he—or they—want is the last thing Jim could ever have expected . . .
…now you don’t.
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe
George Eliot
George Eliot's third novel follows the story of Silas Marner, a poor and reclusive linen weaver with a reputation for wisdom, and for knowing things that most people don't. Silas finds his life radically altered upon finding an unexpected gift on his hearth.
This British classic, published in 1861, is a heartwarming tale that highlights a man's touching journey in finding redemption and second chances. All the while, the story sheds light on the weight of material gains and what can bring forth true happiness in a person's life.
Those We Bury Back
Tom Leveen
Braden’s parents should have been imprisoned for the abuses they perpetrated on him as a child. But that’s the past, and Braden’s moved on. Wife, kid, nominal success as a novelist—and no contact with his parents for years. The two of them have moved out of state, and Braden is secure with his own family in a new home. Several years of therapy have helped, too. Pushing forty, life is at last treating Braden well.
Then a box of his books is accidentally—and mysteriously—delivered to his childhood home. Ignoring his own best judgment, Braden swings by the old place with his three-year-old, Josiah, to pick up the box. In and out, super fast, no big deal.
The house has other ideas.
Apparently infected somehow by the traumas his parents put him through, the house traps Braden and Josiah with its lone occupant. It begins turning Braden’s long buried memories into corporeal horrors that threaten not only his fragile, still-recovering psyche, but the childhood of his only son. As Josiah begins to age before his father’s eyes and inanimate objects take on lives of their own, Braden struggles to uncover what exactly the house wants from him.
Or if it is, in fact, the house that’s haunted.
Heartless
Tom Leveen
Friends. Family. Monsters. Urban legends of a murderous figure called Springheel Jack date back to the 19th century. What 16-year-old Baylee is about to learn is that “he” is most certainly for real…and not alone. Baylee and her older brother Elijah are orphans, their parents brutally murdered in what appears to be a random act of violence along an empty Nevada highway. Living now in another state with friends of the family they hardly know, the two teens do their best to build new friendships: shy Elijah with a small and loyal group of gamers, and quiet Baylee with exactly one tomboy skater friend, Krista…plus a strikingly beautiful and kind boyfriend Baylee won't tell anyone about. When Elijah suddenly gets his first girlfriend and Krista is picked up by a new boyfriend, both of them cease talking to Baylee. Determined to prove the two new kids are bad somehow, maybe even criminal, Baylee follows them out to the desert one night, and finds her worst fears are nothing compared to the bloody, gruesome truth. And her secret beau is right at the center of it…As Elijah slowly turns into something dangerous and otherworldly and Baylee's adoptive family moves to put her into a psychiatric health facility after she tells the truth about what she knows, Baylee turns to the only people who might be able to Elijah human again: her brother’s nerdy RPG gamer friends.
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans was already an accomplished writer and author by the time she adopted the pen name George Eliot. It’s thought that she wanted the fiction she produced to be free from bias stemming from her already massive body of work, or perhaps she wanted to insulate herself from stereotypes against female authors in 19th century England. Regardless, one could reasonably be forgiven for assuming that Evans and Eliot were separate people entirely, as each name is associated with a lifetime of masterwork.
For over 150 years, Middlemarch has been a focal point in exploring the class conflict and social mobility of mid-19th century England. Set in the years leading up to the First Opium War, Middlemarch first masquerades as a simple tale of love and friendship. Most of the residents' lives overlap in some way or another over the 30-year period in which the book is set. But in the contrast of the characters—the morally questionable doctor, the passionate artist, the childhood sweethearts—George Eliot reveals the more complex social dynamics at play.
Twenty years after its publishing, Middlemarch won the very first prize offered by the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Children.
The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches
W. Du Bois
The Souls of Black Folk is remembered as one of the first and most important sociological studies in history. While the subject matter deals with American society, the findings and key takeaways of the essay are applicable worldwide. Du Bois, often referred to as "The Father of Black Studies" and a leading figure during the Harlem Renaissance, outlines the discrepancies between the treatment of white Americans and black Americans, and seeks to further understand the main causes of racial inequality.
Though both informative and illuminating, The Souls of Black Folk is also remarkable for its syntax and prose. Du Bois relied heavily on poetic imagery and metaphor to convey the weight of his findings. In one particular instance, Du Bois masterfully describes the psychological and mental toll of freed slaves in Reconstruction-era America: ""They were held and pushed and dragged; they were squeezed until they could take it no more; they were beaten until they could take it no longer; but still they remained, fixed as fish in a jar.”
A portion of the proceeds from this book will be used to support initiatives by various social justice organizations, including Southern Poverty Law Center and Barbershop Books.
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
Lewis Carroll
From Wikipedia:
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (also known as Alice Through the Looking-Glass or simply Through the Looking-Glass) is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, University of Oxford, and the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic (for example, running helps one remain stationary, walking away from something brings one towards it, chessmen are alive, nursery rhyme characters exist, and so on).
Through the Looking-Glass includes such verses as "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter", and the episode involving Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The mirror above the fireplace that is displayed at Hetton Lawn in Charlton Kings, Gloucestershire (a house that was owned by Alice Liddell's grandparents, and was regularly visited by Alice and Lewis Carroll) resembles the one drawn by John Tenniel and is cited as a possible inspiration for Carroll. It prompted a newfound appreciation for its predecessor when it was published.
We Did That?
Sophie Stirling
Buckle up for a very odd ride through history with entertaining trivia about the odd things humans have done . . .
This book is packed with fun facts about:
Quirky inventions: Everyone knows about mousetraps, but did you know they were originally inspired by burglar alarms?
Bizarre beauty and fashion fads: Discover wooden bathing suits, breast enhancers in the shape of toilet plungers, and death-inducing cosmetics.
Strange superstitions and folklore: Do you know about the centuries-old Banana Curse, the origin of the Tooth Fairy, or our weird obsession with shoes*?*
Covering these and other subjects from very odd jobs to gross medical cures, this collection of our species’ accomplishments is likely to leave you wondering, we did that?