House Beautiful 500 Makeovers: Great Ideas & Quick Changeovers

Published by the editors of House Beautiful magazine, this volume of decorating ideas contains 500 designs to guide the reader in redecorating the home, be it in one room or several. Over 400 pages of full-color photographs illustrate, chapter by chapter, the basic components of design, including those of balance, simplicity, impact, function, details and color. Whether you accomplish a little or a lot, you’ll be inspired to begin creating your dream home.

Drown by Juno Diaz

Drown is a collection of 10 short stories dealing with the immigrant condition. The stories cover a whole range of life experiences, from childhood through adulthood. “Ysrael,” “Aguantando,” and “No Face” are set in the barrios of the Dominican Republic and examine the childhood experience among poverty and in the absence of a father. “Fiesta, 1980,” “Edison, New Jersey” and “Negocios” reflect the Dominican migrant experience and family structure within the United States. “Aurora;” “Drown,” “Boyfriend” and “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” examine the harshness of inner city life, relationships, sexuality and drug abuse.
Diaz’s stories are honest, unapologetic accounts of life, sometimes under the harshest of conditions. Themes addressed in these stories include loss of fathers, the separation of families through immigration and the pursuit of the “American Dream,” the identity crisis of the immigrant, and inner city life.

Audience

The stories in Drown contain harsh language and depictions sexuality and drug abuse. This book is for your literary reader who is not offended by such things. The stories in this collection would be great for a book discussion.

About the Author

Junot Díaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and immigrated to the Unites State with his family when he was six. He published Drown when he was 27 years old and 11 years later he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao (2008). His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, African Voices, Best American Short Stories (1996, 1997, 1999, 2000), in Pushcart Prize XXII and in The O'Henry Prize Stories 2009.

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Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia

Here is author Elizabeth Gilbert’s account of her quest for spiritual, psychological and physical balance after a divorce and other personal problems upset her well-being. Ever the traveler in her work as a freelance writer, Liz plans to visit three countries over the course of a year in order to escape her deep depression and regain her joy of living. Her choices are: Italy, to sample the ultimate in fine cuisine and enjoy their effect on her five senses; India, to study at an Ashram belonging to a guru she met in Manhattan; and Indonesia, where her desire is “to learn . . . how to live in this world and enjoy its delights, but also devote my self to God”. Along the way she makes new friends and finds true love.

The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own

What are fashion’s timeless pieces? Almost every woman has asked herself this question at one time or another. Nina Garcia, the author of this book and The Little Black Book of Style, and also a fashion judge on the television show Project Runway, is a legitimate authority to make these selections. Accompanied by sophisticated illustrations by artist Ruben Toledo, Ms. Garcia alphabetically reviews the top one hundred items in essay format, accompanied by many witty remarks and (fashion) historical insights. This is the perfect book to browse through before going on that big shopping trip.

Motherless Brooklyn

A mystery written by critically acclaimed author Jonathan Lethem, this is a classic whodunit with a twist. Our hero, an aspiring private detective named Lionel Essrog, suffers from Tourette’s syndrome. The condition plays havoc with Lionel’s attempts to communicate with both the good and the bad people he runs into in his search for a murderer. However, this self-educated, intelligent man who is viewed as a good-for-nothing by many succeeds in the end.

Lionel grew up in a Brooklyn orphanage, a loner until small-time crook Frank Minna selects him and three other orphans and entices them to carry out various semi-illegal jobs with the lure of twenty dollar bills as rewards. The years pass and the orphans now are in their twenties and settled in their work for Frank. When Frank is murdered, Lionel charges into an investigation that connects him to a couple of Mafia big shots, some Japanese businessmen involved in inscrutable dealings, a Zen Buddhist commune in the middle of Manhattan, and more. Expect equal parts classic detective novel and hilarity when you read this book.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

As written by Simon Winchester, here is a factual account of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary intermixed with a superb mystery tale. Although it took seventy years to produce, with the assistance of thousands of learned individuals writing the definitions and tracings of over four hundred thousand words, two men were instrumental in producing a greater part of this multi-volume masterpiece. They were Professor James Murphy, editor of the dictionary for over thirty years, and Dr. William Chester Minor, an American surgeon and veteran of the Civil War, who contributed over 10,000 definitions to the work. Both of these men resembled one another in their devotion to their study of the English language. However, the mystery arose in that for twenty years, Dr. Minor refused to meet with Professor Murphy to discuss their work. When the professor finally travelled to meet the doctor, he discovered that Dr. Minor was a criminally insane murderer incarcerated in the criminal lunatic asylum of Broadmoor. It was to Dr. Minor’s advantage that his scholarly involvement in the dictionary’s creation was a balancing force in his life; it was to Professor Murphy's benefit that Dr. Minor's work contributed so much to the dictionary.

This book provides an analysis of several subjects: the design of the English language, the history of dictionaries, and the treatment of mental illness in the nineteenth century. It also offers the reader a closer view of the passions and obsessions of two brilliant men.

Dashing Through the Snow

Mother and daughter suspense writers Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark team up again for another Christmas-holiday novel. Writing in their usual light mystery/romance style, the Clarks revisit some of their favorite characters: lottery winner/amateur sleuth Alvirah Meehan and her husband Willy, and private investigator Regan Reilly and her NYPD officer husband Jack. This time around, while visiting a quaint New Hampshire village celebrating its first annual “Festival of Joy”, they become involved with a local mystery: a man has disappeared shortly before it is discovered that he shares a winning lottery ticket with his co-workers. It is determined that he has been abducted. The kidnappers are con men who find themselves in over their heads when some really nasty hard-core criminals take over the job. Not to worry; a rescue ensues and all ends happily.