Credited with the current revival of the literary memoir, Mary Karr knows a thing or two about the form. She spent over a year at the top of the New York Times bestseller list with The Liars’ Club, Cherry, and Lit, and she teaches a highly selective seminar at Syracuse University in New York, where she has mentored future bestselling memoirists such as Cheryl Strayed and Koren Zailckas. Synthesizing her experiences as a writer, reader, and teacher, Karr now provides a unique window into the mechanics and art of memoir that is as irreverent and entertaining as her own work in the genre.
Archives
Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo
Building on the critical success of A Replacement Life, Boris Fishman’s second novel—which follows a couple who travel to Montana to find their adopted son’s biological parents and the source of his unusually wild behavior—demonstrates the full range of his phenomenal talent and has the potential to be both a literary masterpiece and a huge commercial hit.
Years after their whirlwind romance and marriage, Russian immigrants Alex and Maya Rubin have thrown themselves into the quiet, calm life of suburban New Jersey. Both have tried to distance themselves from their foreign roots and settle into the mold of prototypical Americans. And their young adopted son, Max, is as American as they come—the vigorous blond offspring of two teenagers from Montana. But Max begins to act out in inscrutable, wild ways. He has always been a bit of a mystery to Alex and Maya, ever since his biological mother dropped him off at their house eight years earlier, insisting “Don’t let my baby do rodeo.” As Max’s actions become increasingly alarming, the woman’s words haunt Maya—what did she mean? Maya convinces Alex to embark on a cross-country road trip to Montana with Max, hoping to track down Max’s biological parents and solve the puzzle that is their son. But the wild, undulating landscapes unleash something within Maya. She once used to be a force of nature herself, a wild girl who chased her dreams with a single-minded ferocity. But two decades of marriage have refashioned her into simply a wife, a daughter-in-law, and a mother. The trip to Montana—and what they find there—force Maya to wrestle with her choices, with seismic consequences for her family.
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto
This is the epic story of Frankie Presto—the greatest guitar player to ever walk the earth—and the six lives he changed with his six blue strings. Born under ringing chimes of a burning church, Frankie’s amazing journey from a war-torn Spanish town to America weaves him through the musical landscape of the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s, his stunning talent affecting numerous stars along the way (Duke Ellington, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley) until, as if predestined, he becomes a pop star himself. But Frankie Presto’s gift is also his burden, as he realizes the power of the magical strings his childhood teacher gave him, and how, through his music, he can actually change people’s fates. With the spirit of Music as our otherworldly guide, we see how “everyone joins a band in this life” and how each of us affects its members, just as its members affect us. A longtime musician himself, #1 New York Times bestselling author Mitch Albom creates his deepest, most fascinating tale, a remarkable novel about the power of talent to change lives.
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.
We Are Water
As her wedding day approaches, Annie Oh finds herself one morning staring at a bed covered in Vera Wang wedding dresses, at the mercy of hopes and fears about the momentous change on the horizon. This is not Annie’s first walk down the aisle. She has just emerged from a twenty-seven year marriage to Orion Oh, which produced three children, twins Andrew and Ariane and daughter Marisa. Annie has been trying to reach her ex-husband, as she wants to make sure that he is all right. Orion, a psychologist with a crippling need to help others, keeps assuring everyone that he is fine. But how can he be? Annie, a self-taught artist, is about to marry a woman named Viveca, the sophisticated and seductive art dealer who understands her work and has helped make her enormously successful. The Oh children have different responses to their mother’s upcoming wedding and her new partner. But when Viveca, who specializes in outsider art, discovers a painting by Josephus Jones, a self-taught African American artist of the 1950’s and ‘60’s, in the Oh family home in Three Rivers, Connecticut, the already difficult relationship between Orion, Annie, and Viveca becomes even more fraught. Jones’s canvases, and the story of his prematurely shortened life, come to play an unexpected role in the life of the Oh family. On the very day of the wedding, as its members struggle with their new roles in the reshaped family landscape, secrets are shared and shocking truths come to light.