One of The New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2015 One of Jezebel's Favorite Books of 2016 A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place. "Perhaps, with the present collection, Lucia Berlin will begin to gain the attention she deserves." -Lydia Davis

"Do Angels Live in Trees?" could not be more timely! Millions of people suffer from scars of childhood and emotional trauma inflicted by others. Too little emphasis is placed on those who are seen as not important to society. This story unravels with the mind of the child wrapping herself in fantasy and visions of angels who live in trees. This is her way of survival and teaches how faith and determination can change one's life. This book will open eyes to see the deep hurt and needs of the unwanted child. "Do Angels Live in Trees" may be cross-referenced in several ways. It not only provides spiritual undertones but also addresses child abuse issues. Readers who have concerns for the welfare of children will find it most entertaining and enlightening. It could also easily fit into the self-help category. It is a true biography of the author. The general population will find this book full of intrigue, hope, and a determination to survive, no matter how difficult the circumstances.

The New York Times–bestselling author of So Long contemplates the human condition in this short story collection for fans of Grace Paley & Alice Munro. The elusive nature of happiness is a compelling theme in Where I Live Now. The survivors in these stories—many of them society's marginal or excluded people, fighting alcohol or drug addiction, bearing emotional scars—recognize it all too well. They mourn the lost dreams of youth, the roads not taken. They suffer the damage life inflicts: the ache of loneliness, the pain of separation, the fear of death. Set mainly in Los Angeles, Lucia Berlin’s gritty working-class stories bridge the gap between the Americas—rich and poor, North and South, Anglo and Hispanic. While her style has been compared to Raymond Carver’s, and her dream- and drink-addicted characters to Richard Yates’s, her fictional territory and fatalistic humor are hers alone. Praise for Where I Live Now “Berlin’s literary model is Chekhov, but there are extra-literary models too, including the extended jazz solo, with its surges, convolutions, and asides. This is writing of a very high order.” —August Kleinzahler, London Review of Books “This remarkable collection occasionally put me in mind of Annie Proulx’s Accordion Crimes, with its sweep of American origins and places. Berlin is our Scheherazade, continually surprising her readers with a startling variety of voices, vividly drawn characters, and settings alive with sight and sound.” —Barbara Barnard, American Book Review “Berlin is marvelously successful, placing her memorable characters in gripping situations, plumbing their messed-up lives for pathos and allowing us to see deeply into their souls.” —Publishers Weekly

In Where I Live Now, Berlin contemplates the human condition with a compassionate understanding. Berlin's vision is sometimes remorseful, sometimes resigned, always courageous. The elusive nature of happiness is a compelling theme here: the survivors in these stories--many of them society's marginal or excluded people, fighting alcohol or drug addiction, bearing emotional scars--recognize it all too well.

"As the case with her fiction, Berlin's pieces here are as faceted as the brightest diamond." --Kristin Iversen, NYLON NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE. Named a Fall Read by Buzzfeed, Vulture, Newsday and HuffPost A compilation of sketches, photographs, and letters, Welcome Home is an essential nonfiction companion to the stories by Lucia Berlin Before Lucia Berlin died, she was working on a book of previously unpublished autobiographical sketches called Welcome Home. The work consisted of more than twenty chapters that started in 1936 in Alaska and ended (prematurely) in 1966 in southern Mexico. In our publication of Welcome Home, her son Jeff Berlin is filling in the gaps with photos and letters from her eventful, romantic, and tragic life. From Alaska to Argentina, Kentucky to Mexico, New York City to Chile, Berlin’s world was wide. And the writing here is, as we’ve come to expect, dazzling. She describes the places she lived and the people she knew with all the style and wit and heart and humor that readers fell in love with in her stories. Combined with letters from and photos of friends and lovers, Welcome Home is an essential nonfiction companion to A Manual for Cleaning Women and Evening in Paradise.

Courting Pippa is a heart-warming romantic-comedy. It is a surprisingly whimsical story that will leave you smiling days after you finish reading it. Courting Pippa brings us back to the age of innocence. Since joining the New South Wales' Rescue and Bomb Disposal Unit as a desk jockey, Pippa Mitchell has made a rule for herself: She won't date cops. Even her crush, Officer Paolo Joshua Domini, was off limits. Over time, their friendship had deepened to the point Josh called on his childhood friend, ex-girlfriend Abigail Senna to help sort out his feelings for Pippa. His visit revealed Abigail was dying with a few months to live. Her concern was for him was to experience life fully and to find lasting love. After the time spent with Abigail, Josh was convinced it was time to pursue Pippa, the woman of his choosing. Would he be able to convince her to give him a chance? Pippa continued to play hard to get and kept him at arm's length, but he was drop dead gorgeous, adork-able, and funny. Would she be able to keep resisting him? Or would she fall for his charm? This exquisite tale of love and friendship is swoon-worthy and addictive! Get Your Copy of Courting Pippa Now.

Working-class women are the majority of women in the United States, and yet their work and their culture are rarely visible. Calling Home is an anthology of writings by and about working-class women. Over fifty selections represent the ethnic, racial, and geographic diversity of working-class experience. This is writing grounded in social history, not in the academy. Traditional boundaries of genre and periodization collapse in this collection, which includes reportage, oral histories, speeches, songs, and letters, as well as poetry, stories, and essays. The divisions in this collection - telling stories, bearing witness, celebrating solidarity - address the distinction of "by" or "about" working-class women, and show the connections between individual identity and collective sensibility in a common history of struggle for economic justice. The geography of home, identity, parents, sex, motherhood, the dominance of the job, the overlapping of private and public worlds, the promise of solidarity and community are a few of the themes of this book. Here is a chorus of working class women's voices: Sandra Cisneros, Barbara Garson, Meridel Le Sueur, Tillie Olsen, Barbara Smith, Endesha I. M. Holland, Mother Jones, Nellie Wong, Agnes Smedley, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Sharon Doubiago, Carol Tarlen, Hazel Hall, Margaret Randall, Judy Grahn, and many others! The aesthetic impulse is shaped by class, but not limited to one ruling class. What connects these writers is a collective consciousness, a class, which rejects bondage and lays claim to liberation through all the possibilities of language. Calling Home is illustrated with family photographs as well as images of working women by professional photographers.

Homesick collects many of the stories first found in Lucia Berlin's early books Angels Laundromat (Turtle Island), Phantom Pain (Tombouctou Press) and Safe And Sound (Poltroon Press) as well as her remarkable, classic story "Manual for Cleaning Women".

A story of love, anger, lust, romance, humor, grief, hope, sorrow, regret, and ultimately redemption. Angels neutral in the first war in heaven are given tasks by the angel Emekmiyahu to redeem themselves in the eyes of GOD.