Showing results by narrator "Charlie Thurston" in All Categories

Bloomland opens during finals week at a fictional southern university, when a student walks into the library with his roommate's semi-automatic rifle and opens fire. When he stops shooting, 12 people are dead. In this richly textured debut, John Englehardt explores how the origin and aftermath of the shooting impacts the lives of three characters: a disillusioned student, a grieving professor, and a young man whose valuation of fear and disconnection funnels him into the role of the aggressor.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Neiders has written a book on a highly successful stuttering therapy that enhances the ability to recover from stuttering by using a holistic approach. The therapy utilizes psychological methods from Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy to manage the unhealthy negative feelings of anxiety, shame, guilt and worthlessness and the beliefs upon which these feelings are based. To eliminate the uncontrollable struggling, forced stutters the authors explain how to learn easy bounces, a minimally disruptive habit based on the Iowa bounce technique adapted from Wendell Johnson.

In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he starts to see his life anew - and risks losing everything: his wife, locked into her religious prejudices; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of what turns into a bitter custody battle. With no way out but ahead, Asher takes Justin and flees to Key West, where he hopes to find his brother, Luke, whom he'd turned against years ago after Luke came out.

Brad Johnson is the lone witness to a UFO sighting. The sighting, while odd in itself, is not the only incident that occurs that evening. The incident is followed up with the alien targeting him and his family. The firefight with the alien destroys everything Brad thought he knew about his family and pulls him into an intergalactic battle between two space faring aliens. Brad quickly finds himself leaving Earth struggling to understand his role with the aliens on both sides of the conflict. One group threatens Earth's security, the other group wants something from him.

From 21-Jump Street writer and series creator Patrick Hasburgh, a part thriller, part family novel about an ex-pat American living and surfing in Mexico, the family he loves, and the murder he witnesses, in the vein of Don Winslow’s The Dawn Patrol. “It’s rare to find a novel that’s so...

In this stunning volume, noted art historians Jean-Pierre Isbouts and Christopher Heath Brown discuss the historical, social, and political conditions that shaped Dali's work, identify the impact of Modern as well as Old Master art, and present an unflinching view of the master's personal relationships and motivations.

In this bewitching debut novel, a sensitive teen, newly arrived in Alabama, falls in love, questions his faith, and navigates a strange power. While his German parents don't know what to make of a South pining for the past, shy Max thrives in the thick heat. Taken in by the football team, he learns how to catch a spiraling ball, how to point a gun, and how to hide his innermost secrets. 

An honest story about recovery and coping with both past and present, framed by the meteoric rise and fall of the band Nirvana and the wide-reaching scope of the #metoo movement, Nirvana is Here explores issues of identity, race, sex, and family with both poignancy and unexpected humor. Deftly told intertwining stories with rich, real characters are reminiscent of the sensuality and haunting nostalgia of Andre Aciman's Call Me By Your Name blended with the raw emotion of Kurt Cobain's lyrics.

Stella was born to sing. Someday Broadway. But everything changes when a tragic accident renders her deaf; she cannot hear, much less sing. Trapped in a strange new world of total silence, she must face not only the loss of her friends, her hopes, and her voice but also the loss of her identity and her life's purpose. Who is she if she's not a singer? Hayden is a quiet loner, an outcast, and the only person Stella can communicate with; his profound stutter makes him speak so slowly, she is able to easily read his lips.

She's a chart-topper. He's a football player. Together, they're a love story no one saw coming. Griffin Hayes is football's golden boy--charming, talented, and completely out of his depth when a video of him belting out pop star Aria Wilder's breakup anthem goes viral. Overnight, he's crowned...

Learn about the Dutch artist behind beloved paintings like The Starry Night, Sunflowers, and over thirty self-portraits in this fascinating biography about Vincent Van Gogh for young readers. Today, Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most famous artists of all time. During his lifetime, he sold...

Master storyteller Chris Offutt’s acclaimed crime series has been praised by Ian Rankin as “righteous Kentucky noir with top notes of Daniel Woodrell and S. A. Cosby,” and in this breakneck new novel, sheriff Mick Hardin navigates the treacherous terrain of a town’s festering secrets and...

I'm basically a golden retriever puppy. I love everyone and want everyone to love me. But Cameron is the singular exception to my "love everyone" rule, and the hatred goes both ways. First of all, he's one of THOSE guys. The kind that looks like he belongs on the cover of Yacht Club Weekly. Second of all, he's way too good at his job. The man is a walking Wikipedia. His walking tours of historic downtown Charleston stay booked weeks in advance. Did I mention I run tours along the same route?

A man wakes to find himself below ground in the abandoned subway stations of New York City. He has no idea how he got there, no idea who he is. In his pocket he finds only a wad of blood-stained cash and a deck of playing cards. Once above ground, he rents out a cheap apartment, previously occupied by an enigmatic artist named Max Leider who’d left most everything behind—books, clothes, personal letters. But most peculiar are a series of paintings, each one of a mysterious woman hidden behind a curtain.

 Men I've Never Been recounts Michael Sadowski's odyssey as a boy who shuns his own identity - and, ultimately, his sexual orientation - in order to become who he thinks he's supposed to be.  

A spiritually uplifting memoir by the hugely popular photographer on Instagram, Joe Greer, Lay of the Land is a collection of thoughtful essays—half fan favorites, and half never-before-seen. “Each photograph really does come down to a split second when you decide to freeze that moment in...

On a surprisingly snowy day in Texas, a young student finds himself braving recess alone…that is, until he spots a new face sitting on the school's Buddy Bench. After a quick introduction, the two spend their recess discovering fun ways to enjoy the snow. By the end of recess, both kids leave the playground with a brand new friend. This sweet story of friendship brings the Buddy Bench's purpose to life.

Set in Queens and Manhattan in the aughts, the book is narrated by Ty, a half-Jewish, half-Catholic 20-something who works for a business consulting firm on Wall Street. He’s in love with Jenny, a fledgling writer from his Queens neighborhood, but she finds ways to keep her distance. He’s also smitten with his co-worker, Krista Kaplan, but she’s his supervisor and skeptical of Ty because of his relationship with Jenny. His mother has recently died, and his father spends most of his time watching movies from the Rocky and Superman franchises....

From a bright new talent, a witty, moving, and inspirational coming-of-age debut novel set in 1970s Brooklyn about a teenager and his abusive father whose obsession with broken down vintage cars careens wildly out of control. “Such a pleasure to read.... This is a coming of age story, but it...

Robert Coover has been playing by his own rules for more than half a century, earning the 1987 Rea Award for the Short Story as "a writer who has managed, willfully and even perversely, to remain his own man while offering his generous vision and versions of America." Coover finds inspiration in everything from painting, cinema, theater, and dance to slapstick, magic acts, puzzles, and riddles. His 1969 story, "The Babysitter," has alone inspired generations of innovative young writers. Here, in this selection of 30 of his best stories, you will find an invisible man tragically obsessed by an invisible woman.