New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and international sensation Amy Tan’s latest novel: a sweeping, evocative epic of two women’s intertwined fates and their search for identity, from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village.
Archives
Provence: 1970
M.F.K. Fisher guides our story in this group biography of a time and place when a circle of food icons (the Bloomsbury set of the food world) gathered, and—amid friendships, rivalries, and much debate-—the American food movement as we know it was born. In Provence, 1970, Luke Barr, grandnephew of legendary writer M.F.K. Fisher, combines reportage and never-before-revealed material from journals and letters to re-create this pivotal moment in culinary history, when Fisher, Julia Child, Judith Jones, James Beard, and Richard Olney collaborated and clashed over the future of food. Would American cookery build on the traditions of classic French cuisine, or would it strive to pioneer new, fresh flavors? Would popular personalities such as Child and Beard prove more influential than rising chefs and critics such as Olney? Fisher chronicled their meals and debates, a food history version of A Moveable Feast, as the major figures in the culinary world convened in Provence for a series of dinners and gossip sessions
Johnny Carson
An endlessly revealing and incisive account of the King of Late Night at the height of his fame and power, by his lawyer, wingman, fixer, and closest confidant.
From 1962 till 1992, Johnny Carson hosted the Tonight Show and permeated the American consciousness. In the ’70s and ’80s, he was the country’s highest paid entertainer and its most enigmatic. He was notoriously inscrutable, as mercurial (and sometimes cruel) off-camera as he was charming and spontaneously hilarious on-stage. During the apex of his reign, Carson’s long-time lawyer and best friend was Henry Bushkin, who now shows us Johnny Carson with a breathtaking clarity and depth that nobody else could.
From the moment in 1970 when Carson hired Bushkin (who was then just 27) till the moment 18 years later when they parted ways, the author witnessed and often took part in a continuous string of escapades that still retain their power to surprise and fascinate us now. One of Bushkin’s first assignments was helping Carson break into a posh Manhattan apartment to gather evidence of his wife’s infidelity. (Carson was packing a .38 at the time, just in case.) More than once, Bushkin helped his client avoid entanglements with the Mob. Of course, Carson’s adventures didn’t just skirt the lower echelons of society. He hosted Reagan’s Inaugural concert as a personal favor to the new President, and he prevented a drunken Dean Martin from appearing onstage that evening. Carson socialized with Frank Sinatra, Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Stewart, Kirk Douglas, and dozens of other boldface names who populate this atmospheric and propulsive chronicle of the King of Late Night and his world.
But this memoir isn’t just dishy. It is a tautly rendered and remarkably nuanced portrait of Carson, revealing not only how he truly was, but why. Bushkin explains why Carson, a voracious (and very talented) womanizer, felt he always had to be married; why he loathed small-talk even as he excelled at it; why he couldn’t visit his son in the hospital and wouldn’t attend his mother’s funeral, and much more.
Bushkin’s account is by turns shocking, poignant, and uproarious — written with a novelist’s eye for detail, a screenwriter’s ear for dialogue, and a knack for comic timing that Carson himself would relish. Johnny Carson unveils not only the hidden Carson, but the raucous, star-studded world he ruled.
Anything That Moves
New Yorker writer Dana Goodyear combines the style of Mary Roach with the on-the-ground food savvy of Anthony Bourdain in a rollicking narrative look at the shocking extremes of the contemporary American food world.
A new American cuisine is forming. Animals never before considered or long since forgotten are emerging as delicacies. Parts that used to be for scrap are centerpieces. Ash and hay are fashionable ingredients, and you pay handsomely to breathe flavored air. Going out to a nice dinner now often precipitates a confrontation with a fundamental question: Is that food?
Dana Goodyear’s anticipated debut, Anything That Moves, is simultaneously a humorous adventure, a behind-the-scenes look at, and an attempt to understand the implications of the way we eat. This is a universe populated by insect-eaters and blood drinkers, avant-garde chefs who make food out of roadside leaves and wood, and others who serve endangered species and Schedule I drugs—a cast of characters, in other words, who flirt with danger, taboo, and disgust in pursuit of the sublime. Behind them is an intricate network of scavengers, dealers, and pitchmen responsible for introducing the rare and exotic into the marketplace. This is the fringe of the modern American meal, but to judge from history, it will not be long before it reaches the family table. Anything That Moves is a highly entertaining, revelatory look into the raucous, strange, fascinatingly complex world of contemporary American food culture, and the places where the extreme is bleeding into the mainstream.
The Witness Wore Red
The revealing and inspiring memoir of a woman forced into polygamous marriage in FLDS Church and her brave struggle to protect others from the same fate.
Rebecca Musser grew up in fear, concealing her family’s polygamous lifestyle from the “dangerous” outside world. Covered neck-to-calf in strict, modest clothing, she received a rigorous education at Alta Academy, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ school headed by Warren Jeffs. Always seeking to be an obedient Priesthood girl, she was forced in her teens to become the nineteenth wife of her people’s prophet: 85-year-old Rulon Jeffs, Warren’s father. Finally sickened by the abuse she suffered and saw around her, she pulled off a daring escape and sought to build a new life and family.
The church, however, had a way of pulling her back in and by 2007, Rebecca had no choice but to take the witness stand against the new prophet of the FLDS in order to protect her little sisters and other young girls from being forced to marry at shockingly young ages. The following year, Rebecca and the rest of the world watched as a team of Texas Rangers raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a stronghold of the FLDS. Rebecca’s subsequent testimony would reveal the horrific secrets taking place behind closed doors of the temple, sending their leaders to prison for years, and Warren Jeffs for life.
The Witness Wore Red is a gripping account of one woman’s struggle to escape the perverse embrace of religious fanaticism and sexual slavery, and a courageous story of hope and transformation.
Strings Attached
Strings Attached is the story of a brilliant but ferocious music teacher who came to be known as “Mr. K,” told in the alternating first person perspectives of his former student —award-winning journalist Joanne Lipman—and his daughter—Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Melanie Kupchynsky. Mr. K pushed his students harder than their parents, harder than their other teachers and coaches, and through sheer force of will made them better than they had any right to be. It wasn’t until years later that his students realized how much they loved him for it. At Mr. K’s memorial service, three generations of students flew in from all over the country to play a concert in his memory, having finally understood his tough lessons. Mr. K’s subject was music, but the lessons he taught were universal ones about resilience, the power of a “can do” attitude, and achieving excellence in life.
Countdown
In Countdown, Weisman explores the complexity of calculating how many humans this planet can hold without capsizing. He visits an extraordinary range of the world’s cultures, religions, nationalities, tribes, and political systems to learn what in their beliefs, histories, liturgies, or current circumstances might suggest that sometimes it’s in their own best interest to limit their growth. He asks if we can determine how robust the Earth’s ecosystem must be to assure our continued existence, and whether we can know which other species are essential to our survival. And, he inquires how we might design an economy for a shrinking and finally stable population, to have genuine prosperity without endless growth. The result is a landmark work of reporting: devastating, urgent, and, ultimately, deeply hopeful.
Turn Around Bright Eyes
A sequel to Rob Sheffield’s massively bestselling, beloved first book, Love is a Mix Tape.
Turn Around Bright Eyes picks up the story where Love is a Mix Tape left readers—with Rob Sheffield’s life imploding. After the death of his wife, Rob begins to create a life in a new city with a new circle of friends, finds the job of his dreams, and ultimately, loses himself in the campy fun of karaoke—and in doing so, finds himself with the woman of his dreams.
Sweet, funny, honest, and full of the music you love, hate and love to hate, Turn Around Bright Eyes is Rob Sheffield at his very best.
When They Were Boys
This is the story of the Beatles’ harrowing rise to fame: focusing on that seven-year stretch from the time the boys met as teenagers to early 1964, when the Fab Four made their momentous first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. From the boys’ humble beginnings in Liverpool, to the cellars of Hamburg, When They Were Boys includes stories never before told, including the heartbreaks and the lucky breaks. Included are an eyewitness account of that first meeting between Lennon and McCartney, the inside story of how Ringo replaced Pete Best, an exploration of the brilliant but troubled soul of manager Brian Epstein, and the real scoop on their disastrous first visit to Germany and the death of Stu Sutcliffe. With an eye for life in Liverpool during the 50’s and 60’s and over 65 eyewitness accounts from those closest to the Beatles, Larry Kane brings to life the evolution of the group that changed music forever.
Lies You Wanted To Hear
Lucy’s two young children have been gone for nine years now, an unbearable burden that haunts her even more because of her role in what happened. You can hardly see a glimpse of that carefree girl Lucy was before she married Matt. She was a magnet for men who were bad for her—men like Griffin. With shattering, unthinkable turns that will wrench every mother’s heart, this suspenseful story probes the issue of how well you know the person you married. How much can you trust them with your heart—and with your future?