Pleasure Boat: 33 books

On the night of November 6th, 1941, the life of Isaac Gochman, a 16-year-old Polish Jew, changes tragically and profoundly. Over 20,000 Jews from Rovno, Poland, are marched into the Sosenki Forest by the Nazis, stripped and shot to death, then buried in an endless, unmarked ravine. All of Isaac’s...

In The Law of the Unforeseen, the law Harkness speaks of requires us to know now and then. We walk under “the trees of unremembrance,” so that we may know who we are, how we got here, and who we came from. And we arrive in this lovely and threatened paradise called Earth, right now. The “endless...

A hit and run driver pinwheeled his daughter's car into the waters of Tomales Bay and his life is turned upside down. Then the sheriff's detective tells him he may have found the driver, a rich man who lives nearby. Fueled by his anger and an overwhelming desire for revenge, he plots ways to make...

In these poems, Miller drafts people, characters, images and events out of their familiar locations and contexts and weaves them into new situations, creating unexpected connections, original experiences. This new town is the locale of Miller's vital imagination.

WOODY ALLEN His first printed joke was in a gossip column. It read: Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O.P.S. Prices -- Other People's Salaries. NEIL ARMSTRONG After Neil Armstrong walked upon the moon, the Ohio Dairy Men's Association presented a sculpture of the astronaut to the Ohio State Fair. The sculpture was made out of 900 pounds of butter.

These stories by Louis Phillips reinforce his reputation throughout his dozens of books of being imaginative, incisive, and entertaining. The voice here is that of a young man who is learning about life and about work. Phillips captures these formative years brilliantly, creating a coming-of-age collection of stories that will take you back to your own youth.

Charles "Chas" Mayhead was one of the millions of young British lads of the 30s who didn't have a clear idea of what they wanted to do with their lives. One thing Chas did know was that he wanted to get out of his working-class London neighborhood and see the world. And he wanted to be able to...

Goodbye, Philip Roth is a strange novella that challenges the reader and won't let up: What is going on? Who is this "Martin Smith" (a fictional character easily confused with the author) who is so obsessed with how America's great author, Philip Roth, is slowly and so very cleverly humiliating...

Leeds (English, Central Connecticut State Univ.; The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer) is an unabashed Mailer fan. The present book, which is more subjective than his earlier volume, treats the themes of women and heterosexuality, politics, and ritualized violence in Mailer's work. Leeds focuses...

Sister Maple Syrup Eyes is one of the first books published from the historically under-reported perspective on rape: from that of the lesser and oft-forgotten "other victim," the individual's partner. With terse lyricism, this novella radiates the anguish of attempting to repair a love and life...

In PAIN, a woman’s visit to the doctor becomes a complex and life-changing event for both of them. JUDAIC STUDIES portrays a scholar on vacation in Vienna contacted by a former student; but all is not what it seems and he gets much more than he bargained for. In NEWS: Herbie, a city Jew, has a hard...

Homicide My Own resides in that strange and fascinating land between mystery fiction and detective fiction, adjoined with the mystique of philosophy and Native American customs. Pick this book up at your own risk. You may find yourself having lost not only the next few hours but also your sense of confidence in, as one might say, "the world as you know it.

With THE OTHER ROMANIAN, Argula has again hit the mark. This strange mystery revolves around a postage stamp belonging to Hitler and a man who doesn't want to be found. Because of Quinn's accidental involvement, she is called upon to solve this case. Doing so requires her to examine her own feelings, deeply, and to solve a mystery about herself as well.

A word about the women in this story: Patient. Truth is, Robert and Jasper wouldn't have been quite so eager for Franny and Charlotte to go to work for a female escort service as the women were for Robert and Jasper to go to work for this one...