![]() Beauty. Amy Wong is an up-and-coming designer in the New York fashion industry — she is young, beautiful, and has it all. But she finds herself at odds with rival designers in a world rife with chauvinism and prejudice. In her personal life, she struggles with marriage and motherhood, finding that her choices often fall short of her traditional family’s expectations. Derailed again and again, Amy must confront her own limitations to succeed as the designer and person she wants to be. Fast–paced and sexy, the backdrop of Beauty offers a peek into a Project Runway-lifestyle as we follow Amy’s journey of defiance, ambition, and self-discovery. Christina Chiu is the winner of the James Alan McPherson Award for her novel Beauty. She is also author of Troublemaker and Other Saints, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Troublemaker was a nominee for a BOMC Stephen Crane First Fiction Award, and winner of the Asian American Literary Award. Chiu has published in Tin House, The New Guard, Charlie Chan is Dead 2, Not the Only One, Washington Square, The McGuffin, and has won literary prizes from Playboy, New Stone Circle, El Dorado Writers’ Guild, and World Wide Writers. Chiu received her MFA from Columbia University. She is a founding member of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Chiu curates and co-hosts the “Let’s Talk Books” Author Series sponsored by the New York Writers Workshop, as well as the Pen Parentis Literary Salon in New York City. She is also a shoe designer and visual artist.
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WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING:“Psychics, double-crosses, missing persons—Charles Salzberg’s latest Henry Swann book has it all. Swann’s Down is a gritty, no-frills PI novel that brings to mind greats like Reed Farrel Coleman’s Moe Prager and Michael Harvey’s Michael Kelly. Whether this is your first Swann adventure or the latest, you won’t want to miss the brass-knuckle punch that is Swann’s Down. Trust me.” — Alex Segura, author of Blackout and Dangerous Ends
“In Swann’s Down Charles Salzberg proves why he is one of the best mystery authors going. Salzberg hits you with a masterful combination: The most endearing and authentic investigator you’ll ever meet, working a mystery that grabs you from the start and never lets you go. From Manhattan to Coney Island to the steamy shores of Alabama, Charles Salzberg delivers a top-flight mystery with his latest Henry Swann outing. In Swann’s Down Charles Salzberg puts you up close and personal with grifters, hitmen, and a secretive woman on the run. You’re not just reading a great mystery, you’re living it. — Tom Straw, author of Buzz Killer and the Richard Castle novels “Swann's Down gives readers two intriguing mysteries for the price of one, as skip tracer Henry Swann pursues a woman who might alibi a murderer and a psychic who swindled the ex-wife of Swann's partner. Shamus Award-nominated Salzberg does a superb job cutting between the two investigations. I kept turning pages to stay with both chases as the suspense increased to the very end. Whatever is going on, Swann is at the center of this story. His wry wit, quotes from authors and philosophers, genius for questioning suspects, and dark past make him a character readers will follow anywhere as he seeks his quarry. This is another thrilling addition to this excellent series.” — Rich Zahradnick, Lights Out Summer, winner of the 2018 Shamus Award for Best Paperback Private Eye Novel “Henry Swann dives in where others fear to tread in “Swann’s Down.”This time out, Swann crosses paths with a psycho hitman, a phony psychic and Swann’s mysterious partner, a disbarred lawyer. Who could ask for more? I hope we’ll see a lot more of Swann in the future and that this isn’t Swann’s swan song. — Paul D. Marks, Shamus Award-winning Author of White Heat and Broken Windows ABOUT SWANN’S DOWNWhen Henry Swann is asked by his quirky partner, Goldblatt, to find a missing psychic who’s swindled his ex-wife out of a small fortune, he just can’t say no. Although he doesn’t actually expect to get paid, he figures it might give him a chance to finally learn more about his partner’s mysterious past. His search takes him into the controversial, arcane world of psychics, fortunetellers, and charlatans, while raising questions in his own mind about whether or not there is an after-life. While working his partner’s case, he’s approached by a former employer, attorney Paul Rudder, to track down a missing witness who might be able to provide an alibi for his client, Nicky Diamond, a notorious mob hitman who’s scheduled to go on trial for murder he claims he didn’t commit in a week. Swann’s search for the missing witness, who happens to be the defendant’s girlfriend, takes him from Brooklyn to a small beach town across the Bay from Mobile, Ala. But what does she really know and will she even come back with him to testify for her boyfriend? The true story of the mysterious "doctor" who revolutionized neonatal care and saved some 7000 babies--by placing them in incubator sideshows on the midway. Dr. Couney's bizarre shows went on for 40 years at Coney Island and Atlantic City, as well as almost every major world's fair. NPR called the book "A mosaic mystery told in vignettes, cliffhangers, curious asides, and some surreal plot twists." The New York Times Book Review selected it as New & Notable, and the Chicago Tribune wrote that it's "written with the great style and energy of a can't put-down-thriller."
When Cookie Wagner stabs her abusive husband, she flees to remote Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. For a moment, she seems to have gotten away with murder. But, consigned to a secretive life with a new name and the need to be on constant alert, she faces all she has not gotten away with. She is helped by the recently widowed Mrs. Biddle, who offers her a place to stay, and the lobster fisherman Butch, who gives her a job and later falls in love with her. Walking the cliffs and beaches, taking in the scruffy windblown plants that survive the buffeting wind by growing at an angle, she begins to heal.
Yet, she cannot leave behind the notion that Warren is dead as the result of her action. But is he? And if not, will he one day come to find her? "Suspenseful pages jam-packed with action which carries the reader away into a different yet recognizable world, where likeable and believable characters will linger long in the mind after the book is closed." - Sheila Kohler, author of ten novels, including Cracks and the memoir, Once We Were Sisters "A tension-filled yet ultimately humane story about hard-won second chances. Warm and wise, Maureen Brady's GETAWAY takes the reader on a suspenseful and memorable journey to the tenderest corners of the human heart." --Aaron Hamburger, author of The View from Stalin's Head and Faith for Beginners "Sensitive, sensual, and stirring. Getaway is a true page-turner but one with heart and with context. I couldn't put it down until I got to the end, not just to find out what happened, but also to discover who these intriguing and complex characters would develop into. An extremely satisfying read!" - Danielle Ofri, author of What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear, Editor-in-Chief, Bellevue Literary Review "Maureen Brady's new novel, Getaway, explores wife abuse with surprising delicacy. Her upstate characters have grit and guts. . . . When did your sex last belong to you? is the question that drives the heroine's pell-mell flight all the way to Canada. A compelling read, especially for those who recognize that those whom we love can be the most dangerous." - Terese Svoboda, author of five novels including Bohemian Girl The author of the acclaimed international bestseller The Late, Lamented Molly Marx imaginatively brings to life the shocking love affair of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sheilah Graham in ANOTHER SIDE OF PARADISE, a novel of romance, celebrity, and Gatsby-esque self-creation in Old Hollywood.
In 1937, gossip columnist Sheilah Graham’s star is on the rise, while literary wonder boy F. Scott Fitzgerald’s career is slowly drowning in booze. The once-famous author, however, desperate to pay off debts by writing scripts for the silver screen, is charismatic enough to attract Miss Graham, a woman who exposes the secrets of others while carefully guarding her own. Like Jay Gatsby, Graham has meticulously constructed a life far removed from the poverty of her childhood in London’s slums. And like Gatsby, she has learned early how to use her charms to become a hardworking success feted and feared by both the movie studios and their luminaries. A notorious drunk famously married to the doomed Zelda, Fitzgerald fell hard for his “Shielah” (he never learned to spell her name), a shrewd yet soft-hearted woman—both a fool for love and nobody’s fool—who would stay with him and help revive his career until his tragic death three years later. Sally Koslow revisits their scandalous love affair, bringing Graham and Scott gloriously alive in this compelling page-turner saturated with the color, glitter, magic, and passion of 1930s Hollywood and Sheilah’s dramatic transformation in London. “Dishy with a side of wry”—Oprah.com “Captivating”—People Magazine Book Pick “A new book you won’t want to miss”—USA Today “Stylish…told with taste and sympathy”— Kirkus Reviews "Roberta Allen writes prose that sings. When that perfect pitch is coupled with her astute vision for the strange and comic business we call life, the result is The Princess of Herself: a brilliant book of stories."
--Siri Hustvedt, author of the novel, The Blazing World "These stories depict a world of aging professionals two hours north of New York City who’ve stayed too long at the party. Having moved from Manhattan, they’re marooned in their quaint towns. Roberta Allen’s short, sharp, dreamlike prose captures the oddness of this bardo-state with all its beauty, ambivalence and pain." --Chris Kraus, author of the novel, I Love Dick and After Kathy Acker, A Literary Biography “Roberta Allen's new book of stories The Princess of Herself is wonderful.Smart, humorously melancholic, Allen's voice and tone are unusual, special. If you’re looking for something to read, please consider it.” --Lynne Tillman, author, her new novel MEN AND APPARITIONS will be published in March "Roberta Allen’s sharp, jarring stories are bitingly honest and funny as hell. These sixty-ish characters grapple with messy pasts, simmering rivalries, and longings both sexual and transcendent. Rarely has anyone written so frankly about aging, and the ways we create our own past." --Dawn Raffel, author of The Secret Life of Objects, flash fictions "I love this book. The writer is always visible as one of the characters, trying to sort out reality and memory. She keeps collapsing her own life into her stories and in doing so creates a wonderful picture of the way our minds actually work. Everything merges and the act of writing and remembering is the real subject here.” --Laurie Anderson Francis Hoyt, arrogant, athletic, brilliant, manipulative and ruthless, is a master burglar. He specializes in stealing high-end silver, breaking into homes that seem impenetrable. Recently retired from his job with Connecticut’s attorney general department, Charlie Floyd is a brilliant but stubborn and experienced investigator. He’s joined by Manny Perez, a recently suspended Cuban-American Miami police detective in an effort to put an end to Francis Hoyt’s criminal career. Second Story Man, told in alternating chapters, from Hoyt, Floyd and Perez’s point-of-view, develops into a cat-and-mouse contest between the two lawmen and this master burglar.
“Second Story Man is a down and dirty game of cat and mouse, only this time there are two cats and the mouse hasn’t yet seen the trap that can touch him. Are two cats better than one? Read it and see.” Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times Bestselling author of What You Break “…the riveting SECOND STORY MAN is also a master class in voice and dialogue and storytelling. This cat and mouse caper about three men--two cops and a burglar--reinventing themselves for the second stories of their lives is unique, textured and even hilarious. Charles Salzberg has perfected the existential crime novel--and this one will break your heart.” Hank Phillippi Ryan, Anthony, Agatha and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author Good Neighbors, Serling's debut novel, is set in an idyllic suburb where four young families quickly form a neighborhood clique, their friendships based on little more than the ages of their children and a shared sense of camaraderie. When one of the couples, Paige and Gene Edwards, adopt a four-year-old girl from Russia, the group’s loyalty and morality is soon called into question. Are the Edwards unkind to their new daughter? Or is she a difficult child with hidden destructive tendencies? As the seams of the group friendship slowly unravel, neighbor Nicole Westerhof finds herself drawn further into the life of the adopted girl, forcing Nicole to re-examine the deceptive nature of her own family ties, and her complicity in the events unfolding around her. Publisher's Weekly proclaims, “While many novels have tackled the subject of suburban secrets and unease, [GOOD NEIGHBORS] excels in particular at exploring the bonds among families."
![]() This is Not Happening to You, the debut collection of stories from New York writer Tim Tomlinson, might just rescue the twenty-first century literati set from a jet lag inducing conservatism and PC hysteria. Tomlinson gets to the gutsy and often hilarious truth of who we are in prose that’s poetic and unforgiving – like a well-timed right hook. No sprigs of lavender here. Just a heady and sardonic car crash of characters you won’t be able to turn away from – murderous movie star widowers, wild boys and their dogs, rogues and their half grasped lovers, people on all kinds of edges, ex-poets at the bar. Tomlinson has the audacity to tell it how it is and we should get down on our knees and thank some dank, dark force of nature for that. –Sally Breen, author of Atomic City, a novel, and the memoir The Casuals From a man in need of a haircut picking up a hitchhiking rabbi whose Romanian village was decimated by the Nazis, to a family of rabbits, to an elderly man who might have gone to school with Lenin, to a hunch bettor at the race track who uses the results as a ouija board to his future, to a man whose wife left him via a text message, to the inner life of a queen bee, this eclectic compilation of stories examines the ties of family that break and bind. They are like sun showers, simultaneously filled with laughter and tears.
“The collection strongly recalls the conflicted, masculine themes and anxieties of John Updike, Saul Bellow, and Phillip Roth, but mostly Updike.”– KIRKUS REVIEW “When Ackerman is at his best, as in “Roof Garden” or “Leash,” he captures an elusive sensation of loss to marvelous effect. The former story follows a man spending a day with his daughter before he tells her about his decision to leave his wife. It would fit neatly in an Updike Collection” — KIRKUS REVIEW In her much-anticipated new collection, Mary Stewart Hammond’s lyrical narratives chronicle a long marriage rich with wit, dark irony, and poignancy, while reaching into personal and political histories that belong to everyone. Of Hammond’s poems, James Merrill says “they brim with what the whole world knows.”
Entering History opens on a middle-aged couple, modern-day travelers in an ancient setting. The collection follows their relationship through time and place, combining the personal and the historical in stories of the family―siblings, a daughter, and the very different marriage of the poet’s parents. “Moving back and forth in time, McBride ponders her memories of growing up and floundering into adulthood. Visited by ghosts she tries to deny, she embraces her heritage and travels to Ireland in search of a way to put her father’s spirit to rest. She repeatedly returns to images and memories of her parents—happy, furious, disappointed, and damaged. Clearly, no one came out of that household alive, not really, and this memoir of survival is even more about reinvention than reflecting on the past. Harrowing, sincere, and unforgettable.” -Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)
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