Giving Away Simone


Book Description




Giving Away Simone


Book Description

Giving Away Simone is Jan Waldron's account of her compelling, turbulent, and maddeningly original relationship with the daughter she gave away. Jan's baby, Simone, was the fifth generation of women in her family to be abandoned by their mothers. Determined to fight this "undertow of conditioned exiting, an affliction of easy farewell," Jan reunited with her daughter, now renamed Rebecca, when Rebecca was eleven. They spent the next thirteen years trying to come to terms with each other and figure out what kind of roles they were to play in each others' lives. For birthmothers, there are no simple equations of loss and gain. Each adoption is its own unique universe of complexities and ambiguities. But often the most personal is also the most universal, and there are truths to be found in every story. This beautifully rendered, intensely personal memoir gives essential shading to choices usually reduced to black and white. Waldron does not dispense advice; she probes the emotional fallout, on both sides of adoption, an area in which sedated platitudes have presided for far too long. "




Surviving the White Gaze


Book Description

A stirring and powerful memoir from black cultural critic Rebecca Carroll recounting her painful struggle to overcome a completely white childhood in order to forge her identity as a black woman in America. Rebecca Carroll grew up the only black person in her rural New Hampshire town. Adopted at birth by artistic parents who believed in peace, love, and zero population growth, her early childhood was loving and idyllic—and yet she couldn’t articulate the deep sense of isolation she increasingly felt as she grew older. Everything changed when she met her birth mother, a young white woman, who consistently undermined Carroll’s sense of her blackness and self-esteem. Carroll’s childhood became harrowing, and her memoir explores the tension between the aching desire for her birth mother’s acceptance, the loyalty she feels toward her adoptive parents, and the search for her racial identity. As an adult, Carroll forged a path from city to city, struggling along the way with difficult boyfriends, depression, eating disorders, and excessive drinking. Ultimately, through the support of her chosen black family, she was able to heal. Intimate and illuminating, Surviving the White Gaze is a timely examination of racism and racial identity in America today, and an extraordinarily moving portrait of resilience.




Uselessness


Book Description

Eduardo Lalo is a writer, essayist, and artist from San Juan, Puerto Rico. His many books include the award-winning novel Simone, which we published in translation. Suzanne Jill Levine is a leading translator of Latin American literature who runs the translation doctoral program at UCSB. A tale of social, spiritual, and intellectual yearning, Uselessness follows the life of its narrator, a young Puerto Rican writer studying in Paris, the city of his dreams. There he finds an appreciation of the arts that he has always longed for, yet he remains alienated from it because of his uncertain identity. Meanwhile, he grapples with two long, tumultuous love affairs. He conveys these events in a dark yet witty tone, as if aware of the futility of his youthful follies. After some time he chooses to end perhaps his greatest love affair, that with the city of Paris itself, and return to San Juan. Upon his return, he finds himself just as estranged and alienated at home as he felt abroad. In his writing and academic careers he gains little notoriety, but he tries to help a student whose struggles in many ways reflect his own early days. As he observes this young man's mistakes, the narrator confronts a path he very nearly traveled down himself and, in doing so, accepts his small place in the narrative of countless generations.




Oriana's Eyes


Book Description

As a pure-blood Winglet, Oriana isn't supposed to look at a half-blood much less speak to one. Half-bloods are the lowest of all races at Odon's University, because they are half Winglet and half Finlet. But when a half-blood, Dorian, locks eyes with her in the hallway, Oriana can't help but be intrigued by his daring nature. After sneaking out to the garden in the middle of the night to talk to him, Oriana knows she can't let her feelings go. She fears not following Odon's rules, but the more she sees Dorian the more she wants to break them all. When Oriana's idea of perfection crumbles she seeks a way out of the imprisoning University that threatens not only her happiness, but her very life. Dorian promises he has a plan to take her far away, but Oriana doubts they can escape Odon's all-seeing eye. Oriana isn't sure what she fears more, being stuck in the University or finding out what lies beyond its walls.




Priest


Book Description

There are many rules a priest can't break. A priest cannot marry. A priest cannot abandon his flock. A priest cannot forsake his God. I've always been good at following rules. Until she came. Then I learned new rules. My name is Tyler Anselm Bell. I'm twenty-nine years old. Six months ago, I broke my vow of celibacy on the altar of my own church, and God help me, I would do it again. I am a priest and this is my confession.




Chain Reaction


Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling author Simone Elkeles comes an epic love story like no other . . . This is the final installment in the gripping PERFECT CHEMISTRY trilogy, and the next addictive read for fans of Anna Todd's AFTER series, and Caroline Kepnes's YOU. Like his brothers, Luis Fuentes is a risk taker; whether he's scaling the Rocky Mountains or dreaming of a future as an astronaut, Luis is always looking for the next thrill. Nikki Cruz lives her life by certain rules - don't trust a boy who says "I love you", boys lie to get their own way and never date a boy from the south side of Fairfield. Then she meets Luis at his brother Alex's wedding and suddenly she's tempted to break all her rules. Getting Nikki to give him a chance is Luis's biggest challenge, until he finds himself targeted by the head of the gang that nearly destroyed his brothers' lives. Will Luis's feelings for Nikki be enough to stop him from entering a dark and violent world that could prove to be the ultimate risk? The final instalment in the steamy, romantic and thrilling Perfect Chemistry trilogy.




Simone


Book Description

A disillusioned writer in San Juan finds himself stalked by a Chinese immigrant student, and as the two realize that they share a similar plight, they move towards bitter-sweet collaborations in passion, grief, literature, and art.




Wild Cards


Book Description

Love, life, and sports will never be the same in the first title of a new series by the bestselling author of "Rules of Attraction" and "Chain Reaction."




Perfect Chemistry


Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling author Simone Elkeles comes an epic love story like no other . . . First in the gripping PERFECT CHEMISTRY series, this is the next addictive read for fans of Anna Todd's AFTER series, and Caroline Kepnes's YOU. When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created 'perfect' life is about to unravel before her eyes. Forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, Brittany finds herself having to protect everything she's worked so hard for – her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend and, most importantly, the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But the closer Alex and Brittany get to each other the more they realise that sometimes appearances can be deceptive and that you have to look beneath the surface to discover the truth. 'Compelling and addictive… I've still got that "wow" feeling you get after reading a great book' Wondrousreads.com 'Perfect Chemistry is a novel to obsess about. It is a book that you should drop everything for...the most romantic love story that I have ever read.' Thebookette.com 'Captures that rush of feelings associated with first love' Thebookbag.com 'Elkeles pens plenty of tasteful, hot scenes…that keep the pages turning. The author definitely knows how to write romance.' Kirkus Review