The leaves that fell in July |
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Pablo Neruda once said ... |
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The books that help you most are those which make you think the most.
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Elaina Battista-Parsons |
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Finalist
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Elaina Battista-Parsons' short story, "Camaro," was named a finalist in WOW! Women On Writing's Flash Fiction Contest. She also recently co-hosted an Instagram Live with fellow VLP author Ian M. Rogers, where they discussed fictional friendships among other topics.
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Temple Grandin once said ... |
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If I could snap my fingers and be nonautistic, I would not. Autism is part of what I am.
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Joseph Lezza |
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Franklin Park Reading Series
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Joseph Lezza will be among other authors reading as a part of the Franklin Park Reading Series. August's event will take place at Franklin Park Bar and Beer Garden in Crown Heights, Brooklyn on August 14th at 8 pm ET.
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Martha Engber |
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Reading, Discussion, & Signing
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Martha Engber will read from her recently released memoir, Bliss Road, as well as discuss and sign copies of her book at Tatnuck Bookseller in Westborough, MA on August 19th at 12 pm ET.
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David Levithan once said ... |
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It is an awful thing to be betrayed by your body. And it's lonely, because you feel you can't talk about it...
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Robert M. Hensel once said ... |
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I choose not to place 'DIS,' in my ability.
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Joanne Nelson
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"I don’t think there is a right answer. We all come to our decisions based on the story, our backgrounds, the ways our families communicated, and who’s still alive." Joanne Nelson joins Roz Morris to discuss balancing truth and privacy in nonfiction, her essay collections, and more.
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Joseph Lezza
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"'Grief is very much a wild animal. You don't tame a wild animal. You co-exist with it...'" Joseph Lezza was recently interviewed by ABC 7's Reggie Aqui, and he and his book, I'm Never Fine: Scenes & Spasms on Loss, were featured as a part of the station's Pride Month Book Club. You can watch the full interview here.
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Sylvia Plath once said ... |
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August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.
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Check out our top-rated all-time bestsellers & other recommendations: |
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by Melanie Brooks |
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A Hard Silence
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In the mid 1980s, Canada's worst public health disaster was unfolding. Catastrophic mismanagement of the country's blood supply allowed contaminated blood to be knowingly distributed nationwide, infecting close to two thousand Canadians with HIV. Among them was Melanie Brooks's surgeon father who, after receiving a blood transfusion during open-heart surgery in 1985, learned he was HIV positive.
A Hard Silence is an intimate glimpse into Melanie's memories of coping with the tragedy of her father's illness and enduring the loneliness and isolation of not being able to speak. With candor and vulnerability, Melanie opens her grief wounds and brings her reader inside her journey, twenty years after her father died, to finally understand the consequences of her family's silence, to interrogate the roots of stigma and discrimination responsible for the ongoing secret-keeping, and to show how she's now learned to be authentic.
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by Jennifer Lang |
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Places We Left Behind
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When American-born Jennifer falls in love with French-born Philippe during the First Intifada in Israel, she understands their relationship isn't perfect.
Both 23, both Jewish, they lead very different lives: she's a secular tourist, he's an observant immigrant. Despite their opposing outlooks on two fundamental issues—country and religion—they are determined to make it work. For the next 20 years, they root and uproot their growing family, each longing for a singular place to call home.
In Places We Left Behind, Jennifer puts her marriage under a microscope, examining commitment and compromise, faith and family while moving between prose and poetry, playing with language and form, daring the reader to read between the lines.
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by Mark E. Leib |
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Image Breaker
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Tristan Wishnasky seems to have it all: a successful career as a cynical novelist in love with the Void, a romantic relationship with a formidable woman, and admission to the parties and revelries of the glitterati. But just when he’s confident nothing can stop his stupendous rise, he begins to hallucinate mysterious messages telling him he’s wasting his life.
But the messages don’t stop, and he turns to his atheist lover, his oracular psychotherapist, and an ingenious female rabbi for guidance and direction. Where has he gone wrong? How should he be living?
In his search for self-knowledge, Tristan lurches from the art galleries of the famous to the homeless shelters of the abandoned; from the arms of college dean Vanessa to the bed of struggling actress Barbara; from a career that ignores every claim beyond ego to the company of people trying to rescue the imperiled Earth.
As he learns to destroy every false image that’s ever laid claim to him, he begins to think possible a life that deeply, truly matters.
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by Joanne Nelson |
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My Neglected Gods
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We all have our rituals and talismans to protect us from the unknown, but will we admit what they are?
Tarot cards, speeding cars, several saints, and old dogs make appearances in Joanne Nelson’s new collection of prose and poetry. She unravels the secular deities giving shape to her days, not only on planes, but in summer crowds, at conferences, and in long post office queues. Whether it’s a bandaid in a pocket, the backup pen in a purse, or a hidden $20 in a wallet for just-in-case, Nelson explores what we carry for comfort. She delves into the Mercury retrograde conundrum and examines the significance of kitchens as holy places. Beer runs through it. There will be coffee.
Join Nelson, author of the memoir, This Is How We Leave, in this humorous and heartfelt journey through life’s often-ignored quiet moments. Ignored until, plate of cookies in hand, they come begging for a chat. All the while, the kids move out, the house gets put up for sale, and loved ones age.
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