Adam Gopnik

Noticeable rip on spine and back cover along with various all over blemishes. Please view pictures

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Massachusetts

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The finest book on France in recent years.”—Alain de Botton, The New York Times Book Review In 1995, Adam Gopnik, his wife, and their infant son left the familiar comforts and hassles of New York City for the urbane glamour of Paris. In the grand tradition of Stein, Hemingway, Baldwin, and Liebling, Gopnik set out to enjoy the storied existence of an American in Paris—walks down the paths of the Tuileries, philosophical discussions in cafés, and afternoon jaunts to the Musée d’Orsay. But as readers of Gopnik’s beloved and award-winning “Paris Journal” in The New Yorker know, there was also the matter of raising a child and carrying on with la vie quotidienne—the daily, slightly less fabled life. As Gopnik discovers in this tender account, the dual processes of navigating a foreign city and becoming a parent are not completely dissimilar—both promise new routines, new languages, and a new set of rules by which each day is to be lived. With singular wit and insight, Gopnik manages to weave the magical with the mundane in this wholly delightful book that Entertainment Weekly deemed “magisterial.”

Paris to the Moon

4d15e502-a699-41bf-8b57-dc5c62e3a5d6-1

Karen Harper

Slight blemishes on cover and black mark on top page edges. Please see pictures 

A Novel of England's World War II Queen

"1939. As the wife of the King George VI and the mother of the future queen, Elizabeth, the queen mother--shows a warm, smiling face to the world. But it's no surprise that Hitler himself calls her the 'most dangerous woman in Europe.' For behind that soft voice and kindly demeanor is a will of steel ... Elizabeth holds many powerful cards, she's also hiding damaging secrets about her past and her provenance that could prove to be her undoing. In this ... novel of royal secrets and intrigue, Karen Harper lifts the veil on one of the world's most fascinating families, and how its 'secret weapon' of a matriarch maneuvered her way through one of the most dangerous chapters of the century"--Publisher marketing.

The Queen's Secret

303807e5-0486-4aa5-8816-48cd3599e5b9-1

Ellie Midwood

Excellent condition with possible minor blemishes on cover

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

A Totally Gripping and Absolutely Heartbreaking World War 2 Page-Turner, Based on a True Story

"We must die standing up for something." "And what are we standing up for?" "The most important thing there is. Freedom." Millions of people walked through Auschwitz's gates, but she was the first woman who escaped. This powerful novel tells the inspiring true story of Mala Zimetbaum, whose heroism will never be forgotten, and whose fate altered the course of history... Nobody leaves Auschwitz alive. Mala, inmate 19880, understood that the moment she stepped off the cattle train into the depths of hell. As an interpreter for the SS, she uses her position to save as many lives as she can, smuggling scraps of bread to those desperate with hunger. Edward, inmate 531, is a camp veteran and a political prisoner. Though he looks like everyone else, with a shaved head and striped uniform, he's a fighter in the underground Resistance. And he has an escape plan. They are locked up for no other sin than simply existing. But when they meet, the dark shadow of Auschwitz is lit by a glimmer of hope. Edward makes Mala believe in the impossible. That despite being surrounded by electric wire, machine guns topping endless watchtowers and searchlights roaming the ground, they will leave this death camp. A promise is made--they will escape together or they will die together. What follows is one of the greatest love stories in history... Fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Choice, and The Orphan Train will love this breathtakingly beautiful tale, of courage in the face of tragedy and bravery in the face of fear. Based on a true story, The Girl Who Escaped Auschwitz shows that, in darkness, love can be your light... Readers totally love Ellie Midwood: "Oh, my heart!... Beautiful, chilling, terrifying, and hopeful... Midwood is a wonder with words--I am so in love with her writing... I cried quite a few times while reading this, so have tissues at the ready! And her descriptions of life in the ghetto and the daily struggle to survive were real and visceral... I loved every second I spent with this book and cannot wait for more from Ellie Midwood!' Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz

60b66780-b048-445c-9141-d91f457c1a7b-1

Jenny Lecoat

Small indent on cover and slight folding of a page along the bottom edge but in otherwise great condition. Please see photos. 

Inspired by true events, the riveting story of a young Jewish woman trapped on the occupied island of Jersey during World War II. Summer 1940: Hedy Bercu fled Vienna two years ago. Now she watches the skies over Jersey for German planes, convinced that an invasion is imminent. When it finally comes, there is no counterattack from Allied forces--the Channel Islands are simply not worth defending. Most islanders and occupying forces settle into an uneasy coexistence, but for Hedy, the situation is perilously different. For Hedy is Jewish--a fact that could mean deportation, or worse. With no means of escape, Hedy hides in plain sight, working as a translator for the Germans while silently working against them. She forges a tentative friendship with a sympathetic German officer who is likewise trapped by circumstance. But as the war intensifies, Hedy knows she is in greater danger each day. Soon, her survival will depend not just on her own courage but on the community she has come to cherish and a man who should be her enemy. Vividly recreating little-known events, this is an unforgettable tale of resilience and bravery, and of the extraordinary power found in quiet acts of heroism and love.

The Girl from the Channel Islands

8f2b5694-4b31-40c3-950b-3fd86199439e-1

Ellen Marie Wiseman

Back cover in particular has some denting along with blemishes on front cover. Please view pictures 

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A Heroic Novel of Survival During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Ellen Marie Wiseman, acclaimed author of What She Left Behind and The Life She Was Given, weaves the stories of two very different women into a page-turning novel as suspenseful as it is poignant, set amid one of history's deadliest pandemics. In the fall of 1918, thirteen-year-old German immigrant Pia Lange longs to be far from Philadelphia's overcrowded streets and slums, and from the anti-German sentiment that compelled her father to enlist in the U.S. Army, hoping to prove his loyalty. But an even more urgent threat has arrived. Spanish influenza is spreading through the city. Soon, dead and dying are everywhere. With no food at home, Pia must venture out in search of supplies, leaving her infant twin brothers alone . . . Since her baby died days ago, Bernice Groves has been lost in grief and bitterness. If doctors hadn't been so busy tending to hordes of immigrants, perhaps they could have saved her son. When Bernice sees Pia leaving her tenement across the way, she is buoyed by a shocking, life-altering decision that leads her on a sinister mission: to transform the city's orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are "true Americans." As Pia navigates the city's somber neighborhoods, she cannot know that her brothers won't be home when she returns. And it will be a long and arduous journey to learn what happened--even as Bernice plots to keep the truth hidden at any cost. Only with persistence, and the courage to face her own shame and fear, will Pia put the pieces together and find the strength to risk everything to see justice at last.

The Orphan Collector

b0a6c01a-67bc-47eb-b4c1-2a742e8ac1e3-1

Amy Meyerson

Some light markings on cover but in otherwise great condition 

"Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy's bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. On Miranda's twelfth birthday, Billy has a falling-out with her mother and disappears from Miranda's life. Sixteen years later she receives news that Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy-- and one final scavenger hunt. Home in Los Angeles, Miranda finds clues that Billy has hidden for her inside novels on the store's shelves, in locked drawers of his apartment upstairs, in the name of the store itself. She is drawn into a journey where she meets people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda's mother has kept hidden-- and the terrible secret that tore her family apart."-- Adapted from book jacket.

The Bookshop of Yesterdays

6fe71792-0fa8-4432-ad13-75b8913382aa-1

Vanessa Chan

Some light scuffing on the back of the dust jacket

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A Novel

A spellbinding, sweeping novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII—and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family. Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day. Cecily knows two things: that this is all her fault; and that her family must never learn the truth. A decade prior, Cecily had been desperate to be more than a housewife to a low-level bureaucrat in British-colonized Malaya. A chance meeting with the charismatic General Fuijwara lured her into a life of espionage, pursuing dreams of an “Asia for Asians.” Instead, Cecily helped usher in an even more brutal occupation by the Japanese. Ten years later as the war reaches its apex, her actions have caught up with her. Now her family is on the brink of destruction—and she will do anything to save them. Spanning years of pain and triumph, told from the perspectives of four unforgettable characters, The Storm We Made is a dazzling saga about the horrors of war; the fraught relationships between the colonized and their oppressors, and the ambiguity of right and wrong when survival is at stake.

The Storm We Made

02f57773-e555-4ff3-a458-13a81537b6c9-0

Whitney Scharer

Top left corner is banged. Dry sticker residue on the back and some edge wear. Please see pictures. 

One of the Best Books of the Year: Parade, Glamour, Real Simple, Refinery29, Yahoo! Lifestyle. "A startlingly modern love story and a mesmerizing portrait of a woman's self-transformation from muse to artist." --Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere

"I'd rather take a photograph than be one," Lee Miller declares after she arrives in Paris in 1929, where she soon catches the eye of the famous Surrealist Man Ray. Though he wants to use her only as a model, Lee convinces him to take her on as his assistant and teach her everything he knows. As they work together in the darkroom, their personal and professional lives become intimately entwined, changing the course of Lee's life forever.

Lee's journey of self-discovery takes took her from the cabarets of bohemian Paris to the battlefields of war-torn Europe during WWII, from inventing radical new photography techniques to documenting the liberation of the concentration camps as one of the first female war correspondents. Through it all, Lee must grapple with the question of whether it's possible to stay true to herself while also fulfilling her artistic ambition--and what she will have to sacrifice to do so.

The Age of Light

4a2072ab-85a4-482b-88a5-5de63b18b824-1

J. D. Salinger

Some cover scuffing but otherwise in good condition

The Stories: A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, Just Before the War with the Eskimos, The Laughing Man, Down at the Dinghy, For Esme -- With Love and Squalor, Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes, De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period, and Teddy.

Nine Stories

85f4a145-92a8-4803-877d-d0ce5e986343-1

John F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy

Yellowed from age. Some spin cracking and overall general age wear. 

"This is a book about the most admirable of human virtues--courage. 'Grace under pressure,' Ernest Hemingway defined it. And these are the stories of the pressures experienced by eight United States Senators and the grace with which they endured them." -- John F. Kennedy During 1954-55, John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. Senator, chose eight of his historical coleagues to profile for their acts of astounding integrity in the face of overwhelming opposition. These heroes include John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benson, and Robert A. Taft. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1956, Profiles in Courage resounds with timeless lessons on themost cherished of virtues and is a powerful reminder of the strength of the human spirit. It is, as Robert Kennedy states in the foreword, "not just stories of the past but a book of hope and confidence for the future. What happens to the country, to the world, depends on what we do with what others have left us.

Profiles in Courage

a29ba27f-358e-4a25-8231-effbbc3d0a8d-1

Mary Kay Andrews

Some wear and markings on dust cover. Black mark on bottom page edge. Please see photos. 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

The New York Times bestselling author and Queen of the Beach Reads delivers her next page-turner for the summer. Letty Carnahan is in trouble. She’s on the run from New York City; she has her four-year-old niece, Maya in tow, and her sister was found dead in the entry hall of her glamorous townhome. Letty believes she knows who did it: her sister’s awful, money-grubbing ex-husband, Eli Wingfield. Letty can't forget her sister Tara's insistence: "if anything bad ever happens to me--It's Eli. Promise me you'll take Maya and run. Promise me." But run where? The only clue Tara has left behind is a faded magazine story about a sleepy mom-and-pop motel on Florida's Gulf Coast. Certain that the police and Tara's ex are hot on her trail, Letty leaves her own life behind without a backwards glance, knowing she will somehow get justice for Tara, and sets out for her destination--The Murmuring Surf. The Surf, as regulars call it, is the winter home of a close-knit but quarrelsome group of retirees and snowbirds who regard this newcomer and her adorable niece with suspicion and more than a little curiosity. There's a No Vacancy sign swinging from the neon motel marquee, but the motel's longtime owner Ava DeCurtis takes Letty in, offers her a room and eventually a job, much to the disapproval of Ava's cynical son Joe, a local police detective whose every instinct tells him that Letty is a dangerous fugitive, possibly even a kidnapper and murderer. As Letty tries to settle into her new life and help heal Maya's trauma, she's preoccupied as her late sister's troubled past and connection to the motel are revealed, all while trying to deal with the attractive detective's unwelcome advances. Is Joe a would-be suitor? Or a cop determined to betray her confidence and put her behind bars?

The Newcomer

5b468f3f-ae57-4ba4-ae75-f9aa33881c4a-1

Dawnie Walton

Dust jacket is worn. Some wear to the pages as well. Please see pictures. 

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

"Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can't imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job--despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar's amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records. In early seventies New York City, just as she's finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal's bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially black women, who dare to speak their truth. Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo's most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything."--

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev

7985c3b1-dc94-40fb-9353-3671a813cd5d-1

Carolyn Prusa

Slight scuffs on dust jacket but in otherwise good condition.

Perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Jennifer Weiner, this smart and witty debut novel follows Ramona through the forty-eight hours after her life has been upended by the discovery of her husband's affair and an approaching Category Four hurricane.

Ramona's got a bratty boss, a toddler teetering through toilet training, a critical mom who doesn't mind sharing, and oops--a cheating husband. That's how a Category Four hurricane bearing down on her life in Savannah becomes just another item on her to-do list. In the next forty-eight hours she'll add a neighborhood child and the class guinea pig named Clarence Thomas to her entourage as she struggles to evacuate town.

Ignoring the persistent glow of her minivan's check engine light, Ramona navigates police check points, bathroom emergencies, demands from her boss, and torrential downpours while fielding calls and apology texts from her cheating husband and longing for the days when her life was like a Prince song, full of sexy creativity and joy.

Thoroughly entertaining and completely relatable, None of This Would Have Happened if Prince Were Alive is the hilarious, heartwarming story of a woman up to her elbows in calamities and about to drive off the brink of the rest of her life.

None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive

5f7a8b98-d0c2-4263-becf-5ff63327da79-1

Laura Kalpakian

Bottom corner is warped and needs some weight on it. Top edge of page is yellowed. Otherwise I’m good condition. 

"An unforgettable novel from an award-winning author about an ambitious young agent's daring fight to protect blacklisted writers in McCarthy-era Hollywood and her passionate relationship with an African American journalist. Outraged by her grandfather's illicit affair with Empire Pictures' latest femme fatale, Roxanne Granville forsakes her position as Hollywood royalty and rejects the man who raised her, determined to strike out on her own. Backed by little more than the stubborn grit she inherited from her beloved grandmother, Roxanne sets up shop as a low-budget film agent for budding screenwriters. When an old friend, exiled from Hollywood and Empire Pictures by her grandfather for being a Communist sympathizer, begs for her help, Roxanne decides to right the wrongs committed by her family. It's what her grandmother would have wanted. Soon Roxanne finds herself at the helm of a lucrative business, having landed her secret clients a handful of major studio deals through willing frontmen. Her newfound freedom leads her to a passionate relationship with an African American journalist and jazz aficionado. But Hollywood is ruthless when it senses a scandal. How long will it take before all of Roxanne's success comes crumbling down?"--

The Great Pretenders

3276546e-7c7d-415a-9546-f71ea8110835-1

Polly Samson

"In this novel based on real events and people, a young woman arrives on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960 and falls in with a bohemian group of poets, painters, and musicians, including the young Leonard Cohen and his beloved Marianne"--

A Theater for Dreamers

cf2d799d-a6a2-482d-8b46-e06755cc220b-1

Paul Lieberman

Some marks and scuffing on front and back covers and spine but in otherwise great condition. 

"The shadowy Gangster Squad was formed in 1946 with eight men operating out of two rusted old Fords. They had no office and made no arrests - the idea was to remain invisible. By the time I met Sgt. Jack O'Mara, most of the early members were dead, so I set out to find the survivors." Based on the hugely popular Los Angeles Times column LA Noir: Tales from the Gangster Squad, this is the dark-hearted true story of a group of men cleaning up the mean streets of post-War America. From hundreds of interviews with the original members of the team, Paul Lieberman stitches together the story of Jack O'Mara, his dangerous colleague Jerry Wooters ("the killer cop, that's what they called me") and their anything-goes war with arch-criminal Mickey Cohen and his budding rival Jack "The Enforcer" Whalen. A tale of stake-outs, shoot-outs and even the famous Black Dahlia murder case, this is ice-cool narrative non-fiction at its best - and the basis for a huge Warner Brothers film of the same name, starring Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emma Stone.

Gangster Squad by

b1b7c0f0-b4b8-4a9b-9d97-326ec6260d6a-1

Very pre-loved. Cover wear and bubbles, page spotting, and general all over aging. Please view pictures carefully. 

Water for Elephants

Luca D'Andrea

Black mark on bottom page edge and some light corner wear. 

In his haunting follow-up to the acclaimed Beneath the Mountain, Luca D'Andrea returns to the stunning Italian landscape of Alto Adige in this clever, twisting thriller that follows a woman on the run from her crime boss husband and the assassin sent to kill her. The Italian region of Alto-Adige is the northernmost part of the county, bordering Switzerland and Austria. The majestic Dolomites mountain range encompasses the area creating stark, beautiful landscapes. But this place of beauty also hides an evil side. For within the shadows of the towering Dolomites' peaks, one man has forged a reign of terror. Since World War II, when he was only a boy, Herr Wegener has been entrenched in a black market crime organization. He is feared by all and controls everyone: politicians, police, and his wife Marlene. But Marlene has finally had enough... Unable to take her husband's abuse and cruelty anymore, Marlene has reached her breaking point and goes on the run--but not before stealing millions of lire worth of sapphires from Wegener's safe as well as his car. Marlene was a young woman when Wegener fell into her life by chance while she was working at a hotel to earn money for her family who still lives in a rural mountain town. He represented protection and sanctuary--until she found out too late how he made his money. But no one escapes Wegener, and he will make sure Marlene pays for her betrayal. Wegener sends a notorious assassin to kill his wife--an assassin known solely as The Trusted Man and who always gets the job done. Once he is given an assignment, he sees it through to the end no matter how difficult. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem for Wegener. But then one of his men discovers the one fact that would make him want Marlene alive. She's pregnant with his son.... With nightmarish villains and kind-hearted heroes, Sanctuary is a fairy tale-esque thriller that will leave readers racing through its pages to keep up with a cat and mouse game between a lunatic crime boss and his desperate, pregnant wife.

Sanctuary

c4594fbb-2733-4629-9f2b-942a51fb7e00-1

Beatriz Williams

Slight wear around cover edges and scuffs on page edges but otherwise great condition. 

“The Summer Wives is an exquisitely rendered novel that tackles two of my favorite topics: love and money. The glorious setting and drama are enriched by Williams’s signature vintage touch. It’s at the top of my picks for the beach this summer.” —Elin Hilderbrand, author of The Perfect Couple New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams brings us the blockbuster novel of the season—an electrifying postwar fable of love, class, power, and redemption set among the inhabitants of an island off the New England coast . . . In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister—all long legs and world-weary bravado, engaged to a wealthy Island scion—is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. But beneath the island’s patrician surface, there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers who earn their living on the water and in the laundries of the summer houses. Uneasy among Isobel’s privileged friends, Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father keeps the lighthouse with his mysterious wife. In summer, Joseph helps his father in the lobster boats, but in the autumn he returns to Brown University, where he’s determined to make something of himself. Since childhood, Joseph’s enjoyed an intense, complex friendship with Isobel Fisher, and as the summer winds to its end, Miranda’s caught in a catastrophe that will shatter Winthrop’s hard-won tranquility and banish Miranda from the island for nearly two decades. Now, in the landmark summer of 1969, Miranda returns at last, as a renowned Shakespearean actress hiding a terrible heartbreak. On its surface, the Island remains the same—determined to keep the outside world from its shores, fiercely loyal to those who belong. But the formerly powerful Fisher family is a shadow of itself, and Joseph Vargas has recently escaped the prison where he was incarcerated for the murder of Miranda’s stepfather eighteen years earlier. What’s more, Miranda herself is no longer a naïve teenager, and she begins a fierce, inexorable quest for justice for the man she once loved . . . even if it means uncovering every last one of the secrets that bind together the families of Winthrop Island.

Browse by categories