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The last book in the trilogy begun by Jennifer Worth's New York Times bestseller and the basis for the PBS series Call the MidwifeWhen twenty-two-year-old Jennifer Worth, from a comfortable middle-class upbringing, went to work as a midwife in the poorest section of postwar London, she not only delivered hundreds of babies and touched many lives, she also became the neighborhood's most vivid chronicler. Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End is the last book in Worth's memoir trilogy, which the Times Literary Supplement described as "powerful stories with sweet charm and controlled outrage" in the face of dire circumstances.Here, at last, is the full story of Chummy's delightful courtship and wedding. We also meet Megan'mave, identical twins who share a browbeaten husband, and return to Sister Monica Joan, who is in top eccentric form. As in Worth's first two books, Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times and Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse, the vividly portrayed denizens of a postwar East End contend with the trials of extreme poverty?unsanitary conditions, hunger, and disease?and find surprising ways to thrive in their tightly knit community.A rich portrait of a bygone era of comradeship and midwifery populated by unforgettable characters, Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End will appeal to readers of Frank McCourt, Katherine Boo, and James Herriot, as well as to the fans of the acclaimed PBS show based on the trilogy.

One of TIME's Best New Books to Read This Summer?Brilliant?a keen, elegantly written, and scorching account of the American family today. Through vivid stories, sharp analysis and wit, Quart anatomizes the middle class's fall while also offering solutions and hope.? ? Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and DimedFamilies today are squeezed on every side?from high childcare costs and harsh employment policies to workplaces without paid family leave or even dependable and regular working hours. Many realize that attaining the standard of living their parents managed has become impossible.Alissa Quart, executive editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of many middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children. Through gripping firsthand storytelling, Quart shows how our country has failed its families. Her subjects?from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses?have been wrung out by a system that doesn't support them, and enriches only a tiny elite.Interlacing her own experience with close-up reporting on families that are just getting by, Quart reveals parenthood itself to be financially overwhelming, except for the wealthiest. She offers real solutions to these problems, including outlining necessary policy shifts, as well as detailing the DIY tactics some families are already putting into motion, and argues for the cultural reevaluation of parenthood and caregiving. Written in the spirit of Barbara Ehrenreich and Jennifer Senior, Squeezed is an eye-opening page-turner. Powerfully argued, deeply reported, and ultimately hopeful, it casts a bright, clarifying light on families struggling to thrive in an economy that holds too few options. It will make readers think differently about their lives and those of their neighbors.

For years, the D'Amico family has enjoyed an idyllic life in Greenwich, Connecticut. Isabel D'Amico is widely envied and respected, and her husband, Bob, rules his Manhattan investment bank ruthlessly. But in the fall of 2008, the women of this community are swept up in a national crisis. In the wake of Bob's public downfall, they must learn to negotiate power on their own terms and ultimately ask themselves what, if anything, is worth saving.So begins Our Little Racket, an examination of men, women, money, and culpability in the highest echelons of American society. As Bob's headstrong teenage daughter, Madison, begins to probe her father's heretofore secret life for information, she and the four other women close to her watch their roles shift in a community that has kept them protected but so often sidelined. Forced to acknowledge the fragile foundations of their world, they are met with another painful question: where is the line between willful ignorance and unspoken complicity?

Now a TV Series on AMC starring Pierce Brosnan and co-written by Philipp Meyer.Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling epic, a saga of land, blood, and power that follows the rise of one unforgettable Texas family from the Comanche raids of the 1800s to the oil booms of the 20th century.Part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching examination of the bloody price of power, The Son is a gripping and utterly transporting novel that maps the legacy of violence in the American west with rare emotional acuity, even as it presents an intimate portrait of one family across two centuries.Eli McCullough is just twelve-years-old when a marauding band of Comanche storm his Texas homestead and brutally murder his mother and sister, taking him as a captive. Despite their torture and cruelty, Eli--against all odds--adapts to life with the Comanche, learning their ways, their language, taking on a new name, finding a place as the adopted son of the chief of the band, and fighting their wars against not only other Indians, but white men, too-complicating his sense of loyalty, his promised vengeance, and his very understanding of self. But when disease, starvation, and westward expansion finally decimate the Comanche, Eli is left alone in a world in which he belongs nowhere, neither white nor Indian, civilized or fully wild.Deftly interweaving Eli's story with those of his son, Peter, and his great-granddaughter, JA, The Son deftly explores the legacy of Eli's ruthlessness, his drive to power, and his life-long status as an outsider, even as the McCullough family rises to become one of the richest in Texas, a ranching-and-oil dynasty of unsurpassed wealth and privilege.Harrowing, panoramic, and deeply evocative, The Son is a fully realized masterwork in the greatest tradition of the American canon-an unforgettable novel that combines the narrative prowess of Larry McMurtry with the knife edge sharpness of Cormac McCarthy.

A young researcher at MIT, Jane Weiss is obsessed with finding the genetic marker for Valentine's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that killed her mother. With a fifty percent chance of developing the disease herself, Jane throws herself into her research and steers clear of romantic entanglement, for fear of becoming a burden. Then, the summer before her father's second wedding, Jane falls hard for her future stepbrother, Willie, who has his own tragic past with Valentine's. If Jane succeeds in making history, will she be brave enough to face the truth this newfound knowledge could hold for their lives?

Back in print in this deluxe edition, the former Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet's only collection of short fiction, now part of the Ecco Art of the Story series."Imagine a writer who combines Woody Allen's sense of exaggeration--his ability to extrapolate situations to their funniest extremes--with the perspective and self-consciously elegant language of John Updike. That's right, you'd have a creature who is never very likely to walk the face of the earth. But Strand, the prize-winning Canadian-born poet and professor of English at the University of Utah, comes close to that model. The stories in this first collection, originally printed in Vogue, The New Yorker, and Michigan Quarterly Review, vary widely. Yet several of them share a spirit of stubborn determination in the pursuit of idiosyncratic meanings of happiness. In one story a U.S. President noted mainly for reading Chekhov to his Cabinet and creating the 'National Museum of Weather, ' resigns. . . . Another tale is about a man who says he has been married five times and in love six, with none of the 11 experiences overlapping. Then there's Stanley R., the killer poet who murders his parents so he can write a poem about the experience. . . . . Few writers, though, can manage to make one of man's favorite pastimes' futile longing seem to be so hilarious, touching and ultimately admirable as Strand does, in very succinct ways" (People magazine).

A bold new translation of Euripides' shockingly modern classic work, from Forward Prize-winning poet Robin Robertson, with a new preface by bestselling and award-winning writer, critic, and translator Daniel MendelsohnThebes has been rocked by the arrival of Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy. Drawn by the god's power, the women of the city have rushed to worship him on the mountain, drinking and dancing with frenzied abandon.Pentheus, the king of Thebes, is furious, denouncing this so-called god as a charlatan and an insurgent. But no mortal can deny a god, much less one as powerful and seductive as Dionysus, who will exact a terrible revenge on Pentheus, drawing the king to his own tragic destruction.This stunning translation by award-winning poet Robin Robertson reinvigorates Euripides' masterpiece. Updating it for contemporary readers, he brings the ancient verse to fervid, brutal life, revealing a work of art as devastating and relevant today as it was in the fifth century BC.

Denizens of the shadows who live outside the law?from the desolate meth labs of the Ozark Mountains to the dog-fighting rings of Detroit to the lavish Los Angeles hotels where the famous run wild?the characters in Love and Other Wounds all thirst for something seemingly just beyond their reach. Some are on the run, pursued by the law or propelled relentlessly forward by a dangerous past that is disturbingly close. Others are searching for a semblance of peace and stability, and even love, in a fractured world defined by seething violence and ruthless desperation. All are bruised, pushed to their breaking points and beyond, driven to extremes they never imagined.Crackling with cinematic energy, raw and disquieting yet filled with pathos and a darkly vital humor, Love and Other Wounds is an unforgettable debut from an electrifying new voice, and a welcome addition to the pulp poetry canon.

From master storyteller Paul Bowles comes a new addition to ecco's the art of the story series?"essential reading" for any witness to the magic of the short form, writes vendela vidaAll the tales are a variety of detective story," writes Bowles of this, his first short story collection, "in which the reader is the detective; the mystery is in the motivation for the characters' behavior." In such stories as "A Distant Episode" and "How Many Midnights," Bowles pushes human character beyond socially defined limits, mapping a transformed?often horribly transformed?reality. Bowles captures the duality of human frailty and cruelty in these seventeen taut and atmospheric tales, written between 1939 and 1949. Brutal and gorgeous, visceral and profound, this timeless collection is "one of the most profound, beautifully wrought, and haunting collections in our literature... at once austere, witty, violent, and sensuous....His language has a purity of line, a poise and authority entirely its own, capable of instantly modulating from farce to horror without a ruffle" (Tobias Wolff).

This twentieth-anniversary reissue of a timeless collection celebrates the joys of poetry for children of all ages. Bringing together essential classic children's poems with the best of modern and contemporary international poetry, A Child's Anthology of Poetry is an indispensable introduction to literature and life for the young readerThe simple pleasures of reading and listening to poetry are unforgettable memories of childhood, and, for young minds, poetry is the gateway to an interest in language and storytelling. From Robert Frost to Maya Angelou, Shel Silverstein to Emily Dickinson, this collection emphasizes the fun and diversity of poetry, providing readers with a well-rounded, inclusive selection of poets. With the guidance of a special advisory board of esteemed poets? Deborah Digges, Gerald Early, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Edward Hirsch, Garrett Hongo, Maxine Kumin, Cynthia MacDonald, William Matthews, Thylias Moss, Ishmael Reed, Sarah Rosenstock, and Mark Strand?the editors have fashioned a delightful volume that encourages parents not to underestimate their children's ability to appreciate the music of the written word. It is a volume that will be treasured by generations of readers.Featuring artwork by Tom Pohrt, the wellknown illustrator of Crow and Weasel, and including favorite poems such as William Blake's "The Tyger" and Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," in addition to more recent classics such as Elizabeth Bishop's "Sestina" and Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz," A Child's Anthology of Poetry is full of surprises and lyric charm.

Now in paperback, the inventive, lushly imagined debut novel?reminiscent of The Tiger's Wife and The History of Love?that explores the intersections of family secrets, Jewish myths, the legacy of war and history, and the bonds between sisters Sisters Marjorie and Holly are best friends?until Holly converts to a mysterious Jewish sect and marries a controlling man Marjorie despises. When Holly announces she's expecting her first child, Marjorie fears that she's lost her sister forever.But then Marjorie discovers their late grandfather Eli's notebook and its tale about a wizard named the White Rebbe and his struggle against the Angel of Losses, protector of the lost letter of the alphabet, which completes the secret name of God. Everything Marjorie thought she knew about her family comes undone. To learn the truth, she embarks on an odyssey that will lead her deep into the past and back to the present?and finally to her estranged sister, Holly, whom she must save from the consequences of Eli's secrets.Interweaving history, theology, and both real and imagined Jewish folktales, The Angel of Losses is a family story of what lasts, and of what we can?and cannot?escape.

Illuminating and essential, Can a Bee Sting a Bee? is a timeless gift, a handbook for curious children and their perplexed parents Many of the questions children ask in the course of growing up can stump even the best educated adult: Why can't I tickle myself? Are we all related? Who named all the cities? Do aliens exist? What makes me me? Is it okay to eat a worm? Who invented chocolate? If the universe started from nothing, how did it become something? How do you fall in love? Who is God? Why are some people mean?This charming and informative collection has been compiled from schoolchildren's actual questions, which are answered by the world's greatest experts, including Mary Roach, Richard Dawkins, Philip Pullman, Bear Grylls, David Eagleman, Philippa Gregory, Noam Chomsky, and Mario Batali.

The Riddle of the Labyrinth is the true story of the quest to solve one of the most mesmerizing linguistic riddles in history and of the three brilliant, obsessed, and ultimately doomed investigators whose combined work would eventually crack the code. An award?winning journalist trained as a linguist, Margalit Fox not only takes readers step-by-step through the forensic process involved in cracking an ancient secret code, she restores one of the primary investigators, Alice Kober, to her rightful place in what is one of the most remarkable intellectual detective stories of all time.

Heir to the Astor legacy, Alexandra Aldrich tells the astonishing story of her eccentric, fractured family and her decision to flee its storied legacy

It's 2008, and Sweet Kirkendall's life is unraveling: her father is in jail for harboring undocumented Mexicans, her husband is away working, her young son is turning into a bully, she's a full-time caretaker for an invalid elderly family member, and now Sweet has to take in her orphaned ten-year-old nephew, Dustin, because his grandpa has been jailed. A contemporary everywoman, Sweet struggles to hold her family together under pressures from within and without. She has little money, no help, and surely no time to truck with current political issues?until they come roaring into her life via a new state immigration law, a fractured family, a lost child, an ambitious legislator, a grandstanding sheriff, a niece in desperate need of help, and the national news media camped on her doorstep.In a novel that tackles hot-button subjects?immigration, religion, civil rights, small-town politics, and the everyday struggles of working families?Rilla Askew vividly weaves together an authentic and compelling narrative with grace and humor.

The screenplay for McCarthy's classic film, bearing in full measure his gift?the ability to fit complex and universal emotions into ordinary lives and still preserve all of their power and significanceIn the spring of 1975 the film director Richard Pearce approached Cormac McCarthy with a screenplay idea. Though already a widely acclaimed novelist, the author of such modern classics as The Orchard Keeper and Child of God, McCarthy had never before written a screenplay. Using a few photographs in the footnotes to a 1928 biography of a famous pre?Civil War industrialist as inspiration, McCarthy and Pearce roamed the mill towns of the South researching their subject. A year later McCarthy finished The Gardener's Son, a taut, riveting drama of impotence, rage, and violence spanning two generations of mill owners and workers, fathers and sons, during the rise and fall of one of America's most bizarre utopian industrial experiments. Produced as a two-hour film and broadcast on PBS in 1976, The Gardener's Son received two Emmy Award nominations and was shown at the Berlin and Edinburgh Film Festivals.Set in Graniteville, South Carolina, The Gardener's Son is the tale of two families: the wealthy Greggs, who own and operate the local cotton mill, and the McEvoys, a family of mill workers beset by misfortune. The action opens as Robert McEvoy, a young mill worker, is having his leg amputated after an accident rumored to have been caused by James Gregg, the son of the mill's founder. Crippled and consumed by bitterness, McEvoy deserts both his job and his family.Returning two years later at the news of his mother's terminal illness, McEvoy arrives only to confront the grave diggers preparing her final resting place. His father, the mill's gardener, is now working on the factory line, the gardens forgotten. These proceedings stoke the slow-burning rage McEvoy carries within him, a fury that will ultimately consume both families.

Dust to Dust is an extraordinary memoir about life and landscape, mortality and memory, the farm and the battlefield, the adventures of childhood and the revelations of adulthood. Writing with enormous poignancy, Benjamin Busch, a decorated U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer and the son of celebrated novelist Frederick Busch, has crafted a lasting book about our place in time to stand with the finest work of Tim O'Brien or Annie Dillard.From his pastoral childhood in rural New York to Marine training in North Carolina, Ukraine, and California; from a boyhood of fort building and exploration to deployment during the worst of the war in Iraq, in Dust to Dust Busch offers much more than a war memoir. Here is an unforgettable meditation on life and loss, the longing for the elemental and the call of the wild, and how the curious children we were remain alive in us all.

Stockholm, 1791. Emil Larsson is a self-satisfied bureaucrat in the Office of Customs and Excise. He is a true man of the Town?a drinker, card player, and contented bachelor. That is until Mrs. Sofia Sparrow, fortune-teller and proprietor of an exclusive gaming parlor, shares with him a vision she has had of a golden path that will lead Emil to love and connection. She lays an Octavo for him, a spread of eight cards that augur the eight individuals who can help him realize this vision?if he can find them.But as Emil eagerly searches for his eight, he comes to the startling realization that finding them is no longer just a game of the heart, but crucial to pulling his country back from the crumbling precipice of rebellion and chaos.

With The Rage of a Privileged Class, Ellis Cose, a venerated and bestselling voice on American life, offered an eye-opening look at the simmering anger of the black middle class. Some sixteen years later, Cose has discovered this group is much less angry and even optimistic about its future, despite a flagging economy and a deeply divided body politic. With The End of Anger, Cose examines these new attitudes as well as the decline of white guilt and the intergenerational shifts in how blacks and whites view and interact with each other. Weaving material from interviews and two large and ambitious surveys, Cose?an esteemed journalist?offers an invaluable portrait of contemporary America, one that attempts to make sense of what a people do when the American dream, for some, is finally within reach, as one historical era ends and another begins. The End of Anger is an indispensable exploration of how mores change from one generation to the next and may well be the most important book dealing with race and class to be published in recent decades.

When a head injury obliterated twenty-two-year-old Molly Birnbaum's sense of smell, it destroyed her dream of becoming a chef. Determined to reawaken her nose, she bravely sets off on a quest to rediscover the scented world. On the way, she seeks out everyone from former poet laureate Robert Pinsky to neuroscientist Oliver Sacks. A moving personal story packed with surprising facts about the senses, Season to Taste brims with the scents of Molly's world?cinnamon, cedarwood, fresh bagels, and lavender?lost and finally found. In Season to Taste, Molly describes an ineffable, but indispensable, layer of life.

Celebrated legal scholar Kenji Yoshino's first book, Covering, was acclaimed?from the New York Times Book Review to O, The Oprah Magazine to the American Lawyer?for its elegant prose, its good humor, and its brilliant insights into civil rights and discrimination law. Now, in A Thousand Times More Fair, Yoshino turns his attention to the question of what makes a fair and just society, and delves deep into a surprising source to answer it: Shakespeare's greatest plays. Through fresh and insightful readings of Measure for Measure, Titus Andronicus, Othello, and others, he addresses the fundamental questions we ask about our world today and elucidates some of the most troubling issues in contemporary life. Enormously creative, engaging, and provocative, A Thousand Times More Fair is an altogether original book about Shakespeare and the law, and an ideal starting point to explore the nature of a just society?and our own.

From the acclaimed author of the 2007 New York Times Notable Book Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name comes a stunning novel about the love between husbands and wives, mothers and children.Twenty-eight years ago, Peter and Yvonne honeymooned in the beautiful coastal village of Datça, Turkey. Now Yvonne is a widow, her twin children grown. Hoping to immerse herself in memories of a happier time?as well as sand and sea?Yvonne returns to Datça. But her plans for a restorative week in Turkey are quickly complicated. Instead of comforting her, her memories begin to trouble her.Overwhelmed by the past and unexpectedly dislocated by the environment, Yvonne clings to a newfound friendship with Ahmet, a local boy who makes his living as a shell collector. But a devastating accident upends her delicate peace and throws her life into chaos?and her sense of self into turmoil.With the crystalline voice and psychological nuance for which her work has been so celebrated, Vendela Vida has crafted another unforgettable heroine in a stunningly beautiful and mysterious landscape.