John Grogan

Collection of newspaper articles written about dogs. Humor, wit, affection, and insight about our very best and most loyal friends. 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Michigan

Selected Writings on Animals, Family and Life by John Grogan for the Philadelphia Inquirer

Collects more than seventy-five "Philadelphia Inquirer" columns by John Grogan that cover such topics as families, animals, and life in modern America.

Bad Dogs Have More Fun

f451a94d-7b07-4199-becf-11c4175af9ee

Yann Martel

A man gets stranded with a tiger named Richard Parker on a boat..a gripping read that leaves you wondering. 

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Life of Pi

80ebbbbb-da05-4a22-a9c3-ad1fcb2e5da7-1

Eleanor Catton

Sometimes a novel arrives that is so good all you can do is shake your head in wonder. Brilliant in design, masterful in execution, and intensely pleasurable to inhabit. A masterpiece. 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

A Novel

Arriving in New Zealand in 1866 to seek his fortune in the goldfields, Walter Moody finds himself drawn into a series of unsolved crimes and complex mysteries.

The Luminaries

0945d715-911d-43cc-84a3-ca1217e20956-1

Paula McLain

Follows the life of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, as she navigates 1920s Paris.

The Paris Wife

824c651f-babb-433b-8e9e-42a9f6d615ef-1

Robin Layton

Lisa Erspamer

Kimi Culp

Stunning qualityPhotos of dogs with letters from their owners. Many celebrity letter-writers including Chelsea Handler, Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and many more. A great gift book for a dog lover in your life!

Notes to Our Best Friends

Dogs know how to talk to us they do it all the time. A pair of raised ears or a wagging tail can speak volumes to those in the know. In this heartfelt ode to the furriest of family members, dog lovers get the chance to say something back, sharing personal letters penned to their beloved companions. With gorgeous accompanying photographs by Robin Layton, this collection of letters and portraits features a wide range of dogs and their owners, including everyday people with remarkable stories as well as celebrities like Hilary Duff, Tony Bennett, and Oprah Winfrey alongside their pooches. Throughout, these tales of perseverance, love, and loyalty celebrate the deep and devoted friendships that humans share with their pups.

A Letter to My Dog

1d612deb-9538-46ad-88e2-d221472156f9-1

Tom Perrotta

What if - whoosh, right now, with no explanation- a number of us simply vanished? Would we think it was the Rapture? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down?

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011
A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011
A USA Today 10 Books We Loved Reading in 2011 Title
One of NPR’s 10 Best Novels of 2011
 
What if—whoosh, right now, with no explanation—a number of us simply vanished?  Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down?

That’s what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since it happened—not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children. 

Kevin Garvey, Mapleton’s new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin’s own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence; his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne.  Only Kevin’s teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she’s definitely not the sweet “A” student she used to be.  Kevin wants to help her, but he’s distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she struggles to move beyond it and make a new start.

With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta has written a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.

The Leftovers

38822fab-a5f0-45d1-8497-4a53eb1773ea-1

George Hagen

A few pages got wet (reading in the pool). Otherwise, perfect. A funny, engaging novel about family, migration, and identity. 
Just noticed my name written on inside page - must have loaned it out at some point!

Meet the Laments—the affably dysfunctional globetrotting family at the center of George Hagen’s exuberant debut novel. Howard is an engineer who dreams of irrigating the Sahara and lives by the motto “Laments move!” His wife Julia is a fiery spirit who must balance her husband’s oddly peripatetic nature with unexpected aspirations of her own. And Will is the “waif with a paper-thin heart” who is given to Howard and Julia in return for their own child who has been lost in a bizarre maternity ward mishap. As Will makes his way from infancy to manhood in a family that careens from continent to continent, one wonders where the Laments will ever belong. In Bahrain, Howard takes a job with an oil company and young Will makes his first friend. But in short order he is wrenched off to another land, his mother’s complicated friendship with the American siren Trixie Howitzer causing the family to bolt. In Northern Rhodesia, during its last days as a white colony, the twin enfants terribles Marcus and Julius are born, and Will falls for the gardener’s daughter, a girl so vain that she admires her image in the lid of a biscuit tin. But soon the family’s life is upturned again, thie time by their neighbor Major Buck Quinn, with his suburban tirades against black self-rule. Envisioning a more civilized life on “the sceptered isle,” the Laments board an ocean liner bound for England. Alas, poor Will is greeted by the tribal ferocity of his schoolmates and a society fixated on the Blitz. No sooner has he succumbed to British pop culture in the guise of mop-top Sally Byrd and her stacks of 45s, than the Laments uproot themselves once again, and it’s off to New Jersey, where life deals crisis and opportunity in equal measure. Undeniably eccentric, the Laments are also universal. Every family moves on in life. Children grow up, things are left behind; there is always something to lament. Through the Lament’s restlessness, responses to adversity, and especially their unwieldy love for one another, George Hagen gives us a portrait of every family that is funny, tragic, and improbably true.

The Laments

109e9544-b33e-4e5c-9b46-5a5be1c9530c-1

Curtis Sittenfeld

Twins born with psychic abilities do some earthquake predicting… conflicts arise as one seeks notoriety and the other wants privacy. 

Sisterland

40333b38-6bf1-434a-a248-e4cc4533fba5-1

“We Venetians do not see bridges as obstacles. To us bridges are transitions. We go over them very slowly. They are part of the rhythm.”

The City of Falling Angels

A Sudanese survivor of war tells his story to Dave Eggers, who then turns it into this novel. Not an exact “history” but a glimpse into the harsh atrocities he lives through. Gripping and a wake up call. 

What is the What

John Homans

A wonderful field guide to the heart and soul of dogs and our intimate and enduring connection to them. 

The Surprising History, Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Man's Best Friend

Describes the author's loving relationship with a rescued dog and his observations about how today's pet dogs are treated with considerably more care than in past generations, exploring the dog's complex and prominent place in the world while assessing related issues about animal rights and ethics. 40,000 first printing.

What's a Dog For?

5f0eec54-2811-4307-805b-537239dcebf3-1

Susanna Clarke

Mysterious tale of a practicing magician who raises a young woman from the dead — a long, winding tale filled with fascinating details. Witty and elegant. 

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory. But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French. All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative-the very opposite of Mr Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear. Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

3b6c85b2-b26c-42a2-b2a6-88e2a0c93e01-1

John Elder. Robison

Teaches us to celebrate differences but also offers clear insight and valuable advice on how to cope with the challenges that being different can create. It’s a lesson on the human condition. 

My Adventures with Asperger's and My Advice for Fellow Aspergians, Misfits, Families, and Teachers

In his bestselling memoir, "Look Me in the Eye," Robison described growing up with Asperger's syndrome at a time when the diagnosis didn't exist. Here, he shares a new batch of endearing stories about his childhood, adolescence, and young adult years, giving the reader a rare window into the Aspergian mind.

Be Different

91484a28-85e6-45cd-9aed-06c7422dee9c-1

Family drama featuring a daughter dealing with her mother’s dementia. Very readable with memorable characters. 

The Almost Moon

Christopher Moore

Jacket slightly damaged from water (reading in the pool!). A really fun read - sailors, whales, great characters. Funny, warm, thought provoking 

Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

After reverently lambasting the most cherished rites and credos of virtually every one of the world's major religions in his transcendently hilarious novel Lamb, the one and only Christopher Moore returns with a wild look at interspecies communication, adventure on the high seas, and an eons-old mystery. Marine behavioral biologist Nate Quinn is in love -- with the salt air and sun-drenched waters off Maui ... and especially with the majestic ocean-dwelling behemoths that have been bleeping and hooting their haunting music for more than twenty million years. But just why do the humpback whales sing? That's the question that has Nate and his crew poking, charting, recording, and photographing any large marine mammal that crosses their path. Until the extraordinary day when a whale lifts its tail into the air to display a cryptic message spelled out in foot-high letters: Bite me. No one on Nate's team has ever seen such a thing; not his longtime partner, photographer Clay Demodocus, not their saucy young research assistant, Amy. Not even spliff-puffing white-boy Rastaman, Kona (the former Preston Applebaum of New Jersey), could boast such a sighting in one of his dope-induced hallucinations. And when a roll of film returns from the lab missing the crucial tail shot -- and their research facility is summarily trashed -- Nate realizes that something very fishy indeed is going on. This, apparently, is big, involving dangerously interested other parties -- competitive researchers, the cutthroat tourist industry, perhaps even the military. The weirdness only gets weirder when a call comes in from Nate's big-bucks benefactor saying that a whale has made contact -- by phone. And it's asking for a hot pastrami and Swiss on rye. Suddenly the answer to the question that has daunted and driven Nate throughout his adult life is within his reach. But it's waiting for him in the form of an amazing adventure beneath the waves, 623 feet down, somewhere off the coast of Chile. And it's not what anyone would think. It must be said: Christopher Moore's Fluke is a whale of a novel.

Fluke

00365e3d-0f5f-49bb-997e-b3ebd4ca5bc0-1

Extraordinary women share the wisdom they wish they’d had when they were younger. Madeline Albright- Macy Gray - Rebecca Loving- Trisha Yearwood - Maya Angelou - Ann Curry and more 

Letters to My Younger Self 

What I Know Now

You’ll laugh…you’ll cry - as everyone who has owned a dogs knows. 

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life. Now with photos and new material.

Is it possible for humans to discover the key to happiness through a bigger-than-life, bad-boy dog? Just ask the Grogans.

John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.

Marley grew into a barreling, ninety-seven-pound streamroller of a Labrador retriever. He crashed through screen doors, gouged through drywall, and stole women's undergarments. Obedience school did no good -- Marley was expelled.

But just as Marley joyfully refused any limits on his behavior, his love and loyalty were boundless, too. Marley remained a model of devotion, even when his family was at its wit's end. Unconditional love, they would learn, comes in many forms.

Marley & Me is John Grogan's funny, unforgettable tribute to this wonderful, wildly neurotic Lab and the meaning he brought to their lives.

Marley and Me

cdb70ef2-183d-4d6f-8dcd-545b428870d3-1

Kenan Thompson

Life Lessons, Funny Stories and Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown

When I Was Your Age has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

When I Was Your Age

04c42039-9a80-48df-9486-9e8f77ee9a30-0

Julia Bartz

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

"Darkly satirical and action-packed....An absolutely splendid debut!" --Wendy Walker, nationally bestselling author of Don't Look for Me

The Plot meets Please Join Us in this psychological suspense debut about a young author at an exclusive writer's retreat that descends into a nightmare.

Alex has all but given up on her dreams of becoming a published author when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: attend an exclusive, month-long writing retreat at the estate of feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesn't dampen her excitement.

But when the attendees arrive, Roza drops a bombshell--they must all complete an entire novel from scratch during the next month, and the author of the best one will receive a life-changing seven-figure publishing deal. Determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, Alex buckles down and tries to ignore the strange happenings at the estate, including Roza's erratic behavior, Wren's cruel mind games, and the alleged haunting of the mansion itself. But when one of the writers vanishes during a snowstorm, Alex realizes that something very sinister is afoot. With the clock running out, she's desperate to discover the truth and save herself.

A claustrophobic and propulsive thriller exploring the dark side of female friendships and fame, The Writing Retreat is the unputdownable debut novel from a compelling new talent.

The Writing Retreat

329cd89a-2203-4ce6-8732-14ca43acab42-1

Heather Gay

A Memoir

Drinking and Tweeting meets Unorthodox in this vulnerable memoir about The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star's departure from the Mormon Church, and her unforeseen success in business, television, and single motherhood.

Straight off the slopes and into the spotlight, Heather Gay is famous for speaking the gospel truth. Whether as a businesswoman, mother, or television personality, she is unafraid to blaze a new trail, even if it means losing family, friends, and her community.

Born and bred to be devout, Heather based her life around her faith. She attended Brigham Young University, served a mission in France, and married into Mormon royalty in the temple. But her life as a good Mormon abruptly ended when she lost the marriage and faith that she had once believed would last forever.

With writing that is beautiful, sad, funny, and true, Heather recounts the difficult discovery of the darkness and damage that often exists behind a picture-perfect life, while examining the nuanced relationship between duty to self and duty to God. Exposing secrets she once held sacred, Bad Mormon is an unfiltered look at the religion that broke her heart.

A revealing and ultimately hopeful memoir, Bad Mormon is a captivating read in the vein of Untamed, Educated, and Me Talk Pretty One Day.

Bad Mormon

2c3e0f32-dff3-4706-9f4c-7129ce251b14-1

James McBride

Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction Winner of the Gotham Book Prize One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year" Oprah's Book Club Pick Named one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and TIME Magazine A Washington Post Notable Novel From the author of the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird and the bestselling modern classic The Color of Water, comes one of the most celebrated novels of the year. In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters—caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York—overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion. Bringing to these pages both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water. Told with insight and wit, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.

Deacon King Kong

2be7d449-35a2-4739-b5a3-9182b5990342-1

Charles Frazier

From the New York Times bestselling author of Cold Mountain and Varina, a stunning new novel that paints a vivid portrait of life in the Great Depression

Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he's landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.

A wealthy art lover named John Long and his wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a western swing band. Long holds shady political aspirations, but was once a WWI sniper--and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a vestige of the violent old west. Val quickly finds himself entranced by their lives.

One day, Eve flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road with a mission of tracking her down. Journeying from ramshackle Hoovervilles to San Francisco nightclubs to the swamps of Florida, Val's search for Eve narrows, and he soon turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them.

In The Trackers, singular American writer Charles Frazier conjures up the lives of everyday people during an extraordinary period of history that bears uncanny resemblance to our own. With the keen perceptions of humanity and transcendent storytelling that have made him beloved for decades, Frazier has created a powerful and timeless new classic.

The Trackers

723ea5d2-eccb-40c9-9c9d-288ff8f94114-1

Dave Smith

Secrets Revealed and Questions Answered

Beginning with the July 1983 issue of Disney Channel Magazine, Dave Smith began answering Disney trivia questions from viewers of the Disney Channel. In the ensuing thirty years, his column has continued through multiple publications, including Disney Magazine, the on-line “Disney Insider,” and most recently the D23 website. "Ask Dave" questions have come from Disney enthusiasts the world over, and have covered topics ranging from Cinderella's last name (Tremaine) to the number of triangles covering the surface of Epcot's Spaceship Earth (11,324 facets comprising 954 triangles.) Over 1,100 questions have been fielded by Dave Smith, the now-retired Chief Archivist of The Walt Disney Company, and this book is a compendium of the most interesting and revealing of those queries. The book is divided into chapters that each cover an aspect of Disney history, including Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney films, Disney television, and Disney characters. Many of the questions bring up interesting information that has not been published elsewhere, and readers will delight in discovering some of the secrets behind their favorite movies and theme parks. "Did the same actress provide the voice of Maleficent, as well as the voice of Madame Leota, the head in the crystal ball in The Haunted Mansion?" "Who was the first athelete to say 'I'm going to Disneyland!'?" Only Dave knows the answers!

Browse by categories

John Grogan

Bad Dogs Have More Fun

Yann Martel

Life of Pi

Eleanor Catton

The Luminaries

Paula McLain

The Paris Wife

Robin Layton; Lisa Erspamer; Kimi Culp

A Letter to My Dog

Tom Perrotta

The Leftovers

George Hagen

The Laments

Curtis Sittenfeld

Sisterland

John Berendt

The City of Falling Angels

Dave Eggers

What is the What

John Homans

What's a Dog For?

Susanna Clarke

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

John Elder. Robison

Be Different

Alice Sebold

The Almost Moon

Christopher Moore

Fluke

Ed by Ellen Spragins

What I Know Now

John Grogan

Marley and Me

Kenan Thompson

When I Was Your Age

Julia Bartz

The Writing Retreat

Heather Gay

Bad Mormon

James McBride

Deacon King Kong

Charles Frazier

The Trackers

Dave Smith

Disney Trivia from the Vault

Barbara Wallraff

Word Count

Get The App