The author of the popular Lemony Snicket books discusses his love of strange literature and reflects on his life experiences in an entertaining memoir that also serves as inspiration for aspiring writers. "Writing as Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler has led several generations of young readers into that special and curious space of being hopelessly lost, and joyfully finding yourself, in the essential strangeness of literature. The wondrous and perilous...

"A mother-daughter adventure around the world in pursuit of self-discovery, a family reckoning, and Asian American defiance"-- Provided by publisher. "A dazzling mother-daughter adventure around the world in pursuit of self-discovery, a family reckoning, and Asian American defiance. Connie Wang explores her complicated relationship to her stubborn and charismatic mother, Qing Li, through the "oh my god" moments in their travels together. From attending...

Amy Ephron weaves together the most insightful, profound, and just plain funny stories of her life to form a tapestry of a woman's experiences from childhood through young adulthood, marriage, divorce (and remarriage), and everything in between--an evocative and often piercing look at modern life.--From publisher description.

The Watchmaker's Daughter tells the story of a child of two refugees: a watchmaker who saved lives within Dachau prison, and his wife, a gifted concert pianist about to make her debut when the Nazis seized power. In this memoir, Sonia Taitz is born into a world in which the Holocaust is discussed constantly by her insular concentration camp-surviving parents. This legacy, combined with Sonia's passion and intelligence, leads the author to forge an...

"Bird Cloud" is the name the author gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and four hundred foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. She also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope. She fell in love with the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy,...

Who is the greatest living essayist writing in English? Unquestionably Joseph Epstein. Epstein is penetrating. He is witty. He has a magic touch with words, that hard to define but immediately recognizable quality called style. Above all, he is impossible to put down. How easy it is today to forget the simple delight of reading for no intended purpose. Each of the 39 pieces in this book is a pure pleasure to read.

"From the beloved author of The House on Mango Street: a richly illustrated compilation of true stories and nonfiction pieces that, taken together, form a jigsaw autobiography: an intimate album of a literary legend's life and career. From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking The House on Mango Street to her abode in Mexico, in a region where "my ancestors lived for centuries," the places Sandra Cisneros has lived...

"In 2015 Cristina Devereaux Ramírez's family found more than 750 pages of Spanish language poems and stories written by her maternal grandmother, Ramona González. González was a mother, grocery store owner, published writer, and community activist born in 1906 in an El Paso border barrio. Her writings celebrate the rich Mexican American culture of Chihuahuita, a neighborhood the National Trust for Historic Preservation identified as one of America's...