A Mountain of Crumbs PDF Download

Author: Elena Gorokhova
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9781439135587
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Elena Gorokhova’s A Mountain of Crumbs is the moving story of a Soviet girl who discovers the truths adults are hiding from her and the lies her homeland lives by. Elena’s country is no longer the majestic Russia of literature or the tsars, but a nation struggling to retain its power and its pride. Born with a desire to explore the world beyond her borders, Elena finds her passion in the complexity of the English language—but in the Soviet Union of the 1960s such a passion verges on the subversive. Elena is controlled by the state the same way she is controlled by her mother, a mirror image of her motherland: overbearing, protective, difficult to leave. In the battle between a strong-willed daughter and her authoritarian mother, the daughter, in the end, must break free and leave in order to survive. Through Elena’s captivating voice, we learn not only the stories of Russian family life in the second half of the twentieth century, but also the story of one rebellious citizen whose curiosity and determination finally transport her to a new world. It is an elegy to the lost country of childhood, where those who leave can never return.

Author: Elena Gorokhova
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451689845
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing From the bestselling author of A Mountain of Crumbs, a “brilliant and illuminating” (BookPage) portrait of mothers and daughters that reaches from Cold War Russia to modern-day New Jersey to show how the ties that hold you back can also teach you how to start over. Elena Gorokhova moves to the US in her twenties to join her American husband and to break away from her mother, a mirror image of her Soviet Motherland: overbearing, protective, and difficult to leave. Before the birth of Elena’s daughter, her mother comes to help care for the baby and stays for twenty-four years, ordering everyone to eat soup and wear a hat, just as she did in Leningrad. Russian Tattoo is the story of a unique balancing act and a family struggle: three generations of strong women with very different cultural values, all living under the same roof and battling for control. As Elena strives to bridge the gap between the cultures of her past and present and find her place in a new world, she comes to love the fierce resilience of her Soviet mother when she recognizes it in her American daughter. “Gorokhova writes about her life with a novelist’s gift,” says The New York Times, and her second memoir is filled with empathy, insight, and humor.

Author: Anna Quindlen
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0812995759
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A superb love story from Anna Quindlen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rise and Shine, Blessings, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendent, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life. Brilliantly written, powerfully observed, Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined. Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more. “There comes a moment in every novelist’s career when she . . . ventures into new territory, breaking free into a marriage of tone and style, of plot and characterization, that’s utterly her own. Anna Quindlen’s marvelous romantic comedy of manners is just such a book. . . . Taken as a whole, Quindlen’s writings represent a generous and moving interrogation of women’s experience across the lines of class and race. [Still Life with Bread Crumbs] proves all the more moving because of its light, sophisticated humor. Quindlen’s least overtly political novel, it packs perhaps the most serious punch. . . . Quindlen has delivered a novel that will have staying power all its own.”—The New York Times Book Review “[A] wise tale about second chances, starting over, and going after what is most important in life.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune “Quindlen’s astute observations . . . are the sorts of details every writer and reader lives for.”—Chicago Tribune “[Anna] Quindlen’s seventh novel offers the literary equivalent of comfort food. . . . She still has her finger firmly planted on the pulse of her generation.”—NPR “Enchanting . . . [The protagonist’s] photographs are celebrated for turning the ‘minutiae of women’s lives into unforgettable images,’ and Quindlen does the same here with her enveloping, sure-handed storytelling.”—People “Charming . . . a hot cup of tea of a story, smooth and comforting about the vulnerabilities of growing older . . . a pleasure.”—USA Today “With spare, elegant prose, [Quindlen] crafts a poignant glimpse into the inner life of an aging woman who discovers that reality contains much more color than her own celebrated black-and-white images.”—Library Journal “Quindlen has always excelled at capturing telling details in a story, and she does so again in this quiet, powerful novel, showing the charged emotions that teem beneath the surface of daily life.”—Publishers Weekly “Quindlen presents instantly recognizable characters who may be appealingly warm and nonthreatening, but that only serves to drive home her potent message that it’s never too late to embrace life’s second chances.”—Booklist “Profound . . . engaging.”—Kirkus Reviews

Author: Laura Adams Armer
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486492885
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Younger Brother, a Navaho Indian boy, undergoes eight years of training in the ancient religion of his people and the practical knowledge of material existence.

Author: Jonna Ivin
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781468184754
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Raised by an alcoholic mother and without a father, Jonna learned at a young age to put her needs on the back-burner. After her mother dies of cancer, she goes on a spiritual journey looking for enlightenment and a purpose for her life. Eventually, she ends up as a volunteer in the relief effort following Hurricane Ike. There she meets a man that will forever change her life. In the swamps of Louisiana and the hills of Arkansas, Jonna follows her heart to build a life with an American hero - a 20 year veteran of the Army Special Forces. Only after uprooting her whole life, leaving everything and everyone she knows behind, do the pieces of this fairytale start to unravel. Realizing the man of her dreams is actually the stuff of nightmares; Jonna must once again go within and discover why she is a woman willing to love for crumbs.

Author: Olga Grushin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780143038405
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Olga Grushin’s astonishing literary debut has won her comparisons with everyone from Gogol to Nabokov. A virtuoso study in betrayal and its consequences, it explores—really, colonizes—the consciousness of Anatoly Sukhanov, who many years before abandoned the precarious existence of an underground artist for the perks of a Soviet apparatchik. But, at the age of 56, his perfect life is suddenly disintegrating. Buried dreams return to haunt him. New political alignments threaten to undo him. Vaulting effortlessly from the real to the surreal and from privilege to paranoia, The Dream Life of Sukhanov is a darkly funny, demonically entertaining novel.

Author: Janet Lee Berg
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1682611434
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Sylvie Rosenberg escaped the Holocaust-- but can she escape the past? October 20, 1942. Benjamin Katz and his six-year-old daughter Sylvie stand with their frightened family at a train station in occupied Holland, unsure if the train would take them to their freedom-- or to a death camp. Hitler and his henchmen have long had their eye on the art collection of Benjamin and his brother, which includes Rembrandt's "Portrait of Raman." Now the brothers are faced with the ultimate choice --part with the art, or suffer the consequences. Based on a true story, Rembrandt's Shadow is the tale of two women from different generations who find themselves forced to confront each other years later-- while still haunted by the past.

Author: Melissa Wiley
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0375870385
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
A feisty girl from a family of ranchers lands a job as a daredevil stunt girl in the early days of silent film in this adventurous and funny cross between Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken and Ramona. Pearl lives on a ranch where her chores include collecting eggs and feeding ornery ostriches. She has three older brothers, who don't coddle her at all. And she knows a thing or two about horses, too. One day, Pearl's brothers get cushy jobs doing stunts for this new form of entertainment called "moving pictures." They're the Daredevil Donnelly Brothers, a Death-Defying Cowboy Trio. Before she knows it, Pearl has stumbled into being a stunt girl herself--and dreams of becoming a star. The only problem is, her mother has no idea what she's up to. And let's just say she wouldn't be too happy to find out that Pearl's been jumping out of burning buildings in her spare time. Filled with action, humor, and heart--not to mention those pesky ostriches--The Nerviest Girl in the World introduces a spunky heroine whose adventures will have kids on the edge of their seats and whose sense of humor will have them laughing until the very last line.

Author: Alexandra Stafford
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
ISBN: 0553459848
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
With praise from Dorie Greenspan, Jim Lahey, and David Lebovitz, the definitive bread-baking book for a new generation. But this book isn’t just about baking bread-- it’s about what to do with the slices and heels and nubs from those many loaves you’ll bake. Alexandra Stafford grew up eating her mother’s peasant bread at nearly every meal—the recipe for which was a closely-guarded family secret. When her blog, Alexandra’s Kitchen, began to grow in popularity, readers started asking how to make the bread they’d heard so much about; the bread they had seen peeking into photos. Finally, Alexandra’s mother relented, and the recipe went up on the internet. It has since inspired many who had deemed bread-baking an impossibility to give it a try, and their results have exceeded expectations. The secret is in its simplicity: the no-knead dough comes together in fewer than five minutes, rises in an hour, and after a second short rise, bakes in buttered bowls. After you master the famous peasant bread, you’ll work your way through its many variations, both in flavor (Cornmeal, Jalapeno, and Jack; Three Seed) and form (Cranberry Walnut Dinner Rolls; Cinnamon Sugar Monkey Bread). You’ll enjoy bread’s usual utilities with Food Cart Grilled Cheese and the Summer Tartine with Burrata and Avocado, but then you’ll discover its true versatility when you use it to sop up Mussels with Shallot and White Wine or juicy Roast Chicken Legs. Finally, you’ll find ways to savor every last bite, from Panzanella Salad Three Ways to Roasted Tomato Soup to No-Bake Chocolate-Coconut Cookies. Bread, Toast, Crumbs is a 2018 nominee for The IACP Julia Child First Book Award, and Alexandra's Kitchen was a finalist for the Saveur Blog Awards Most Inspired Weeknight Dinners 2016

Author: James P. Lenfestey
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
ISBN: 1571319611
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
“These tender, sly, plainspoken poems are a profound (and sexy) hymn to a long marriage.” —Chase Twichell, author of Things As It Is Writing love poems fifty years into a marriage is no easy task: “If he exaggerates his love, she’ll know . . . And if his desire for her is undiminished, / who would believe?” But in A Marriage Book, James P. Lenfestey meets his own challenge with aplomb. These poems drop readers into the rich, textured world of one couple’s enduring intimacy, from the warmth of a bedroom occupied by two to squabbles over miscommunications and crumbs in the kitchen. As the marriage (and the poems) transition into parenthood, Lenfestey illuminates the equally stalwart wonder of observing one’s children as they age and develop. Paternal love persists, and is even fed by, watching his children argue, suffer their own mistakes, and roar horrible breath at breakfast. A Marriage Book is a collection that essences the magic from the household quotidian, creating a technicolor portrait of a durable, long-lasting love and a vibrant, dynamic family. “James Lenfestey, after a lifetime of attentive writing, has lately done poems for family and marriage that put most of us to shame.” —Gary Snyder, TheNew York Times Book Review