Washoe County Library System

A revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties. In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machados engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to...

""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nonfiction companion to the stories by Lucia Berlin Before Lucia Berlin died, she was working on a book of previously unpublished autobiographical...

"A comprehensive and engaging biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the beloved classic The Yearling. Washington, DC, born and Wisconsin educated, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an unlikely author of a coming-of-age novel about a poor central Florida child and his pet fawn-much less one that has become synonymous with Florida literature writ large. Rawlings was a tough, ambitious, and independent woman who refused the...

Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know- how with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason...

A follow-up to "The Language of Baklava" continues the story of the author's struggles with cross-cultural values and how they shaped her coming of age and her culinary life, tracing her three marriages, her literary ambitions, and her midlife decision to become a parent. On one side, there is Grace: prize-winning author Diana Abu-Jaber’s tough, independent sugar-fiend of a German grandmother, wielding a suitcase full of holiday cookies. On the...

"A Fran Lebowitz-esque comic exploration of a year in the life of "imaginatively twisted and fearless" (Los Angeles Times) bestselling writer. In a half-changed America, "liberated" women have had to wear fifteen different hats to make everyday life work-while putting themselves second. As the self-appointed spokeswoman for the forgotten generation of Gen-X women-those who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, neither First Wave Bella Abzug feminists...

"A lyrical and evocative collection of personal stories from the author of Under the Tuscan Sun, in which the queen of wanderlust reflects on the comforts of home. Veranda Book Club Pick • “A soulful meditation on ‘what home means, how it hooks the past and pushes into the future’ . . . spellbinding.”&#٬٢٠١٤؛Publishers Weekly (starred review) Though Frances Mayes is known for her travels, she has always sought a sense of home wherever...

The story of growing old in another age. The time is the early 1910s, the protagonist a grandmother. She complains her children treat her like a child, taking her for walks and car rides to keep her healthy, activities she hates. One can only speculate how grandma would view the modern practice of sending aging relatives to old people's homes. The shadow of age -- My mother's home -- The conventions of age -- Other people's medicine -- The compensation...

The author reminisces on the art of balancing family, politics, and a writing career during her pre-fame years in the 1970s and 1980s, tracing her rise from a small-time columnist and her friendships with such notables as Richard Pryor, Avery Brooks, and Jesse Jackson.