A Family Scrapbook is a collection of poems that trace the arc of 5 generations of a family; from the death of the author's grandfather on a cold winter day in Sioux City, Iowa to the birth and childhood of his 5 grandchildren. The poems are based on real people and real memories, but there is also something universal about the experience of growing up in families. They are behind us and in front of us, our history and our future. The author says that these poems are prayers: family prayer...

"Dream You" is more than a collection of poems; it's an intimate exploration of the human experience, gently inviting readers into the tapestry of real-life moments. With over 70 poems, this literary journey gracefully navigates the complexities of love, loss, and the enduring quest for connection. Far removed from the grandiosity of clichéd verses, these poems present a nuanced perspective, allowing emotions to surface organically. It's a journey through the subtleties of lived experience...

“Lake Wobegon Days is about the way our beliefs, desires and fears tail off into abstractions--and get renewed from time to time. . . this book, unfolding Mr. Keillor's full design, is a genuine work of American history.” -The New York Times“A comic anatomy of what is small and ordinary and therefore potentially profound and universal in American life…Keillor’s strength as a writer is to make the ordinary extraordinary.” -Chicago Tribune

"A deeply beautiful book, with the fierce galloping pace of a great novel."—Liz Rosenberg Boston GlobeInformed by the death of a beloved brother, here are the stories of childhood, its thicket of sex and sorrow and joy, boys and girls growing into men and women, stories of a brother who in his dying could teach how to be most alive. What the Living Do reflects "a new form of confessional poetry, one shared to some degree by other women poets such ...

Another wonderful poetry anthology from Garrison Keillor-rooted in the American landscape.Greatness comes in many forms, and as Garrison Keillor demonstrates daily on The Writer's Almanac, the most affecting poems in the canon are in plain English. Third in Keillor's series of anthologies, Good Poems, American Places brings together poems that celebrate the geography and culture that bind us together as a nation. Think of these poems as postcards ...

Winner of the National Book Award in 1991“This collection amounts to a hymn of praise for all the workers of America. These proletarian heroes, with names like Lonnie, Loo, Sweet Pea, and Packy, work the furnaces, forges, slag heaps, assembly lines, and loading docks at places with unglamorous names like Brass Craft or Feinberg and Breslin’s First-Rate Plumbing and Plating. Only Studs Terkel’s Working approaches the pathos and beauty of this book. But Levine’s characters a...

It is Sunday and Miss Brill is sitting on her special bench in the public gardens. She likes to watch the crowd and listen to their conversations, especially now that the Season has started and the band in its rotunda is making a greater effort. Week after week she sees the same faces. There is something funny about almost all of them, she thinks…HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production ...

Born in the small, eastern Kentucky coal-mining town of Harlan, George Ella Lyon began her career with Mountain, a chapbook of poems. She has since published many more books in multiple genres and for readers of all ages, but poetry remains at the heart of her work. Many-Storied House is her fifth collection. While teaching aspiring writers, Lyon asked her students to write a poem based on memories rooted in a house where they had lived. Working on the assignment herself,...

I discovered that I liked girls one afternoon that summer. I was on my way home after mowing a couple of yards, when I ran into two older girls from my elementary school. I could tell that they were far wiser than I was. They were very pretty and I was impressed, because they were both smoking cigarettes. I thought that was very cool. They actually stopped and started a conversation with me. That had never happened before.

The classic tale of Beauty and the Beast will capture the heart of every child. Perfect for reading aloud to small children, or for more confident readers to enjoy by themselves, children will be thrilled by the adventures of the young heroine as she gradually discovers the goodness beneath the outwardly terrifying exterior of the Beast. This attractive new version is retold with warmth and sensitivity, and illustrated with lively decorative pictures by Annabel Spenceley.

Cleaning ladies are not always what you think they are. They may give you a gift that you never knew you wanted.

This coming of age story pits a young boy against reality as he loses his best friend in a tragic accident. The loss forces him to leave childhood fantasies behind and face the stark reality of growing up.