Southland Writers

Southland Writers
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 476
Release :
ISBN-10 : UGA:32108003721910
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (10 Downloads)

Synopsis Southland Writers by : Mary T. Tardy

Southland

Southland
Author :
Publisher : Akashic Books
Total Pages : 356
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781936070480
ISBN-13 : 1936070480
Rating : 4/5 (80 Downloads)

Synopsis Southland by : Nina Revoyr

Nina Revoyr brings us a compelling story of race, love, murder, and history against the backdrop of Los Angeles. —Winner of a 2004 American Library Association Stonewall Honor Award in Literature —Winner of the 2003 Lambda Literary Award —Nominated for an Edgar Award The plot line of Southland is the stuff of a James Ellroy or a Walter Mosley novel . . . But the climax fairly glows with the good-heartedness that Revoyr displays from the very first page. —Los Angeles Times Jackie Ishida’s grandfather had a store in Watts where four boys were killed during the riots in 1965, a mystery she attempts to solve. —New York Times Book Review, included in “Where Noir Lives in the City of Angels” Nina Revoyr brings us a compelling story of race, love, murder, and history against the backdrop of Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four black teenagers were killed in the store he ran during the Watts Riots of 1965—and that the murders were never solved or reported. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, she tries to piece together the story of the boys’ deaths. In the process, Jackie unearths the long-held secrets of her family’s history—and her own. Moving in and out of the past, from the shipping yards and internment camps of World War II; to the barley fields of the Crenshaw District in the 1930s; to the means streets of Watts in the 1960s; to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s, Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms.

The House of Percy

The House of Percy
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages : 499
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780195109825
ISBN-13 : 0195109821
Rating : 4/5 (25 Downloads)

Synopsis The House of Percy by : Bertram Wyatt-Brown

Although the novels of Walker Percy represent some of the most prominent work in 20th-century Southern fiction, the Percy family itself has a history that is arguably as compelling as anything he could have created. Behind Percy's prose lurks a legacy of wealth, literary accomplishment, political leadership, depression, and suicide that spans two centuries. In this compelling biography, Wyatt-Brown skilfully combines intensive research and telling insights to produce the unforgettable story of this gifted family. 48 halftones.

Wingshooters

Wingshooters
Author :
Publisher : Akashic Books
Total Pages : 258
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781936070718
ISBN-13 : 1936070715
Rating : 4/5 (18 Downloads)

Synopsis Wingshooters by : Nina Revoyr

Michelle LeBeau and her white-Japanese family are forever changed when a black family moves into her all-white town in 1974.

Georgialina

Georgialina
Author :
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
Total Pages : 194
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781611175950
ISBN-13 : 161117595X
Rating : 4/5 (50 Downloads)

Synopsis Georgialina by : Tom Poland

Veteran journalist and southern storyteller Tom Poland has been writing about the disappearing rural South for nearly four decades. With a companionable appreciation for nostalgia, preservation, humor, and wonder, Georgialina: A Southland as We Knew It brings to life once more the fading and often-forgotten unfiltered character of the South as Poland takes readers down back roads to old homeplaces, covered bridges, and country stores. He recalls hunting for snipes and for lost Confederate gold; the joys of beach music, the shag, and cruising Ocean Drive; and the fading traditions of sweeping yards with homemade brooms, funeral processions, calling catfish, and other customs of southern heritage and history. Peppered with candid memoir, Georgialina also introduces readers to a host of quirky and memorable characters who have populated the southland of Poland's meanderings. As commercialization, homogenization, and relocation have slowly altered distinctive regions of the country, making all places increasingly similar, southern traditions have proven to be more resilient than most. But Poland notes that many elements that once defined day-to-day life in the South are now completely foreign to contemporary generations. Set primarily in Poland's native Georgia and adopted home of South Carolina, his tales of bygone times resonate across a recognizably southern landscape and faithfully recall the regional history and lore that have defined the South for generations as a place uniquely its own for natives, newcomers, and visitors.

Vigilante: Southland

Vigilante: Southland
Author :
Publisher : DC Comics
Total Pages : 148
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781401285951
ISBN-13 : 1401285953
Rating : 4/5 (51 Downloads)

Synopsis Vigilante: Southland by : Gary Phillips

VIGILANTE: SOUTHLAND is a hard-hitting tale of revenge and redemption from acclaimed crime novelist Gary Phillips (PEEPLAND) and artist Elena Casagrande (SUICIDE RISK) that puts an uncompromising, contemporary spin on the classic Marv Wolfman and George Pérez-created character. Donny thought he had it all. A cushy life in L.A. and a brilliant and beautiful girlfriend, Dorrie. While Donny just never seemed to have time for social causes, Dorrie dedicated her life to fighting societal and racial injustice…but crime and corruption have a way of fighting back. Now Dorrie’s dead…and Donny is left behind to take up the battle. It’s the last thing he ever expected, but the more he learns about the shadowy forces that killed the woman he loved, the more determined he is to find justice—by any means necessary. Conspiracies. Corporations. Assassins. Family secrets best left buried. The system can’t stop any of them from taking their bloody toll, but Donny can. All he needs is his fists, his smarts, a little training…and a mask. Because sometimes doing the right thing means breaking the law. He is the Vigilante. How far will he go to set the wrong things right? Collects VIGILANTE: SOUTHLAND issues #1-6, with the first publication of issues #4-6.

The Age of Dreaming

The Age of Dreaming
Author :
Publisher : Akashic Books
Total Pages : 298
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781936070176
ISBN-13 : 1936070170
Rating : 4/5 (76 Downloads)

Synopsis The Age of Dreaming by : Nina Revoyr

In 1960s L.A., a Japanese American former silent film star investigates a mystery from his dark past in this novel by the author of Southland. Jun Nakayama was a silent film star in the early days of Hollywood. By 1964, he is living in complete obscurity, until a young writer, Nick Bellinger, tracks him down for an interview. When Bellinger reveals that he has written a screenplay with Nakayama in mind, Jun is intrigued by the possibility of returning to movies. But he begins to worry that someone might delve too deeply into the past and uncover the events that abruptly ended his career in 1922. Like the changing social and racial tides in California—and the unsolved murder of his favorite director. Spurred on by his fear of a potential “misunderstanding,” Jun begins to track down his surviving acquaintances from his years as Perennial Pictures’ greatest star. In the process, he recounts the lives of several other figures from the silent film era: Elizabeth Banks, the working-class girl from St. Louis who becomes a major Hollywood diva. Nora Minton Niles, the dreamy, childlike teenage star controlled by her ambitious mother. Hanako Minatoya, the elegant actress and playwright who serves as Jun’s inspiration and foil. And Ashley Bennett Tyler, the British director whose guiding hand turns Jun into a star. But what Jun ultimately discovers is far more complex and personal than even he could have imagined. The Age of Dreaming alternates between the 1960s and the height of the silent film era, telling the story of a man caught between worlds. Jun must try to please both his Japanese and American fans, and while he is adored by moviegoers—especially women—he’s despised by public officials, who see him as a threat to American power and racial purity. Praise for The Age of Dreaming “With Nabokov-worthy sentences, characters so real our hearts begin to beat with theirs, and a story as deeply mysterious and riveting as any the Hollywood it conjures up could have created, The Age of Dreaming is a masterpiece of the sort that doesn’t just seduce the reader—it leaves you transformed . . . . Revoyr deserves to be counted among the top ranks of novelists at work today.” —Jerry Stahl, author of I, Fatty “Brilliant and original . . . . The carefully restrained voice of its narrator recalls Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day.” —Alison Lurie, Pulitzer Prize winner “Cunning . . . . Revoyr beautifully invokes Jun’s self-deceptions and his growing self-awareness. It’s an enormously satisfying novel.” —Publishers Weekly

A Student of History

A Student of History
Author :
Publisher : Akashic Books
Total Pages : 184
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781617756986
ISBN-13 : 1617756989
Rating : 4/5 (86 Downloads)

Synopsis A Student of History by : Nina Revoyr

"Revoyr is gifted in her ability to deal with complex ideas like racism, class conflict, and sexuality without sacrificing the truth of her narrative. Furthermore, like the most adroit novelists, Revoyr specializes in reversal. All of her books are filled with suspense and sudden surprises that take the stories in unexpected directions...As much as Nina Revoyr herself is a student of history, she's also one of our best teachers." --Los Angeles Review of Books "Revoyr's latest noir tells a story that's somewhere between Sunset Boulevard and the darker regions of The Great Gatsby...Revoyr is a subtle observer of human foibles and social structures, and the result is one of the most insightful, and the most entertaining books of the year." --Literary Hub, one of Lit Hub's 50 Favorite Books of 2019 "A Student of History is full of research, detail, lush descriptions, and visual place-setting. [Revoyr's] a fiction writer with an eye for reality set in a dream-like world, often in her home city of Los Angeles." --The Rumpus "Any Nina Revoyr novel is a cause for celebration, and her latest, A Student of History, is assured and marvelous, an absorbing rags among riches tale about a broke USC grad student who finds himself swept off his feet by Los Angeles's insular, powerful .01% class. It's a contemporary novel that feels like an instant classic, with the wry tragedy of The House of Mirth, the sinister glamour of Sunset Boulevard, and a fresh, original point of view." --CrimeReads "With a nod to Great Expectations and The Great Gatsby, Rick Nagano is Nick Carraway and young Pip rolled into one...Lambda Award–winner Revoyr focuses on the impact of race in the construct of class and society, and how there are some doors that will always remain closed." --The Advocate "Nina Revyor's new novel, A Student of History, continues the tradition of the Los Angeles oil novel, but steers it in a new direction." --Rain Taxi Review of Books "With her two Walter Mosley-like gifts--impeccable narrative pacing and masterful command of Los Angeles' intricate, evolving dynamics of race and class--Nina Revoyr's LA novels convincingly capture the lifespan of Los Angeles as a major city, none more gracefully than A Student of History." --New York Journal of Books Rick Nagano is a graduate student in the history department at USC, struggling to make rent on his South Los Angeles apartment near the neighborhood where his family once lived. When he lands a job as a research assistant for the elderly Mrs. W--, the heir to an oil fortune, he sees it at first simply as a source of extra cash. But as he grows closer to the iconoclastic, charming, and feisty Mrs. W--, he gets drawn into a world of privilege and wealth far different from his racially mixed, blue-collar beginnings. Putting aside his half-finished dissertation, Rick sets up office in Mrs. W--'s grand Bel Air mansion and begins to transcribe her journals--which document an old Los Angeles not described in his history books. He also accompanies Mrs. W-- to venues frequented by the descendants of the land and oil barons who built the city. One evening, at an event, he meets Fiona Morgan--the elegant scion of an old steel family--who takes an interest in his studies. Irresistibly drawn to Fiona, he agrees to help her with a project of questionable merit in the hopes he'll win her favor. A Student of History explores both the beginnings of Los Angeles and the present-day dynamics of race and class. It offers a window into the usually hidden world of high society, and the influence of historic families on current events. Like Great Expectations and The Great Gatsby, it features, in Rick Nagano, a young man of modest means who is navigating a world where he doesn't belong.

The Necessary Hunger

The Necessary Hunger
Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
Total Pages : 370
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0312181426
ISBN-13 : 9780312181420
Rating : 4/5 (26 Downloads)

Synopsis The Necessary Hunger by : Nina Revoyr

Basketball player, Nancy Takahiro's life changes as her father and the mother of the All-State shooting guard move in together. Rivalry becomes intense friendship as the girls prepare to leave their inner-city neighborhood to face future that is no longer easily defined.