How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly is the transcendent story of a young woman who, in a twenty-four hour period, journeys through startling moments of self-discovery that lead her to a courageous and life-altering decision. Set amidst the lush pine forests and rich savannahs of Florida's Northern Panhandle, HO W CLARISSA BURDEN LEARNED TO FLY tells the story of one woman whose life until now has been fairly normal. She is 30-something, married, and goes about her daily routine. But as readers will soon discover, Clarissa's life has been burdened by ghosts and an indifferent husband-and like a butterfly in a chrysalis, she is poised on the precipice of great change. Today, for the first time in her predictable existence, she has awakened to the realization that she has had enough! Clarissa Burden is mad as hell and she's not going to take it any longer. Suddenly, wanting nothing more than to spread her wings and set her heart free, Clarissa will have to find a way to do the unthinkable. This is a remarkable novel about an unexpected mid-life awakening, a story that women will share and discuss in book clubs for years to come.

From the author of "Before Women Had Wings" comes this story of a woman in her mid-thirties who ultimately transcends the quagmire of her middle-aged existence and leaves her husband.

A nine-year-old girl's harrowing account of abuse at the hands of her parents. Her name is Avocet Jackson, but her mother called her Bird, naming both her children after birds, "her logic being that if we were named for something with wings then maybe we'd be able to fly above the shit in our lives."

Emotionally neglected by her mother, abandoned by her father, Mattie O’Rourke spent her childhood starved for the one thing she thought she’d never find: love. When her mother dies and, at twenty-two, she finds herself completely without ties of any kind, Mattie takes a chance at ending her loneliness and moves to a tiny coastal Florida town. At the Suwannee Swifty convenience store, a sea change envelops her. Mattie O’Rourke sees Proteus Nicholas Blue and their fate is sealed after only a few shy, stolen glances. Nick walks into Mattie’s life having fled his own. A lifelong fisherman from a remote island off the coast, Nick is haunted by the certain knowledge that the sea will be the death of him (as it has been for all the Blue men) and he has resolved to leave it behind. But as Nick and Mattie settle into an intimacy that both comforts and surprises them, Nick feels the inextricable pull of the waxing moon’s tide and the siren’s call of the dolphins that, Blue legend has it, are his brethren. And so it is that Mattie, who only months before felt that happiness would never find her, returns with Nick to the island home that nurtured him and finds herself embraced by a large and loving family and an alluring and sensual landscape. Life on Lethe is transforming for Mattie. But Nick always knew that the sea would claim him, and all of Mattie’s love cannot prevent the tragedy that is their destiny. Moving and enchanting, Remembering Blue is a lush story of love, loss, and the mythic power of the ocean, told in an elegant and passionate voice that could only come from Connie May Fowler. From the Trade Paperback edition.

"HEARTBREAKING...COMPELLING...The story carries you like a slow, implacable current." --San Francisco Chronicle Forty-something Sadie Hunter is a loner. But more than that, she is afraid of not being alone. Ever since her mother and Native American grandmother died together when she was a child, dancing cheek-to-cheek in a saloon in the middle of a violent storm, Sadie hasn't let anyone get too close. Not even Carlos, a passionate Cuban who sees the rich soul that Sadie tries to hide from herself. Cynical and loveless, she becomes obsessed with learning more about her unacknowledged identity, torn apart by tragic family legends she can't quite believe. And although she tries to fight it, she half suspects that with Carlos's help, she could find the truth of the past, and it could set her free.... "A fluid, fun read--a story of self-discovery told by a woman haunted by female forebears while struggling to learn love....A work of accomplished introspection." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

Growing up the 1940's and 50's, not just poor but peculiar, means life for Jodie Taylor is difficult and dangerous. As a young adult, she is alienated from her family and stuck in racially charged Selma, Alabama, when a crisis sets Jodie on a backward journey that will finally take her home

"Writer Pat Conroy passed away in 2016 at age 70. He was the author of The Water is Wide, The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, and Beach Music, among other works. Several of his books have been made into movies starring actors including Robert Duvall, Barbra Streisand, and Jon Voight. This book collects in one volume seventy entries from people who all knew a different facet of Pat Conroy: writers, poets, editors, musicians, friends, classmates. Contributors include Rick Bragg, Kathleen Parker, Nikky Finney, Mary Alice Monroe, Dori Sanders, Ron Rash, Janis Ian, Tony Grooms, Patti Callahan Henry, Connie May Fowler, Sandra Brown, Jonathan Carroll, Jonathan Galassi, Nathalie Dupree, and Wendell Minor, as well as several members of the Conroy family. Additionally, the book includes a gallery of photos of Conroy, many never seen by the public before"--

In this thrilling anthology, bestselling mystery writers abandon the cloak of fiction to investigate the suspenseful secrets in their own lives. For many of us, a good, heart-pounding mystery is the perfect escape from real-world confusion and chaos. But what about the writers who create those stories of suspense and intrigue? How do our favorite novelists cope with our perplexing world, and what mysteries keep them up at night? In Private Investigations, twenty fan-favorite mystery writers share first-person tales of mysteries they've encountered at home and in the world. Caroline Leavitt regales us with a medical mystery, recounting a time when she lost her voice and doctors couldn't find a cure, Martin Limón travels back to his military stint in Korea to grapple with the crimes of war, Anne Perry ponders the magical powers of stories conjured from writers' imaginations, and more. Exploring all the tropes of the genre -- from haunted houses and elusive perpetrators to regrouping after missed signals have derailed them -- these writers' true tales show just how much art imitates life, and how, ultimately, we are all private investigators in our own real-world dramas.

“On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist beautifully outlines . . . what it means to seek the truth. It gave me a new faith in the power of reporting.” —Oprah Winfrey The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward’s singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism. Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and reporting from the center of Israel’s war with Hezbollah. Soon she was soon on assignment all over the globe. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward covered Bashar al-Assad’s reign of terror without fear and with courage and compassion. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and became a mother. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective. On All Fronts is the unforgettable story of one extraordinary journalist—and of a changing world.

A richly textured novel tells a story of sex and longing, love and loss, and of the deceit that can lie at the heart of family relationships. “Each chapter…has the seductive aura of a finely crafted story. Liars and Saints is instructive and bittersweet and yet somehow never nostalgic” (Los Angeles Times). Set in California, Liars and Saints follows four generations of the Catholic Santerre family from World War II to the present. In a family driven as much by jealousy and propriety as by love, an unspoken tradition of deceit is passed from generation to generation. When tragedy shatters their precarious domestic lives, it takes astonishing courage and compassion to bring them back together. By turns funny and disturbing, irreverent and profound, Liars and Saints is a masterful display of Maile Meloy’s prodigious gifts and of her penetrating insight into an extraordinary American family and into the nature of human love. “Meloy may be the first great American realist of the twenty-first century: The Santerres aren’t real but they feel like they are, and the reader will not soon forget them” (The Boston Globe).