Open Road: 9207 books

John Gardner’s essential collection encompassing the fundamentals of fiction writing In this posthumously published collection of his essays and reviews, acclaimed novelist John Gardner discusses the craft of fiction writing, taking to task some of his best-known contemporaries in the process....

The evolution and manipulation of language from the celebrated author of After Babel. “A keenly discriminating literary mind at work on what it loves” (The New York Times Book Review). Language and Silence is a book about language—and politics, meaning, silence, and the future of literature....

The NPR reporter offers an “engaging and enlightening” window into late-90s Cuba, “from the cafes in Havana to the mysterious lairs of Santiago de Cuba” (Kirkus Reviews). For NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu, reporting from Cuba on the eve of Pope John Paul II’s 1998 visit was an opportunity...

Three books in one volume: Advice and reflections on modern fiction from “one of the greatest creative writing teachers we’ve ever had” (Frederick Busch). In On Becoming a Novelist, John Gardner advises the aspiring fiction author on such topics as the value of creative writing workshops,...

“An enjoyable, irascible collection” of smart and sometimes-scathing film criticism from a famously candid author (Library Journal).   Everyone’s a critic, especially in the digital age—but no one takes on the movies like multiple award-winning author Harlan Ellison. Renowned both for fiction...

  A Persian poet’s masterpiece   While better known in his time for his mathematical and astronomical works, eleventh-century Persian philosopher and poet Omar Khayyam is best known today for his romantic poetry collected in the Rubaiyat. This selection presents 365 of the...

The collected nonfiction of the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Ironweed: “A great pleasure to read no matter what the subject” (Library Journal). When William Kennedy arrives in Barcelona, his guidebook recommends taking the trolley around town—but the trolleys haven’t run in the...

In this eye-opening book, Mary McCarthy shares her love of the novel and her fear that it is becoming an endangered literary species “He had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it.” So begins Mary McCarthy’s fascinating critical analysis of the novel (and its practitioners)...

An early collection of Kahlil Gibran’s writings showcases the many styles of this prolific thinker, all profoundly beautiful   Kahlil Gibran reveals his vision of the soul and understanding of the world—past, present, and future—in this rich sampling of more than twenty works....

Two families are united—and torn apart—by the Civil War in these three dramatic novels by the #1 New York Times–bestselling master of the historical epic. In North and South, the first volume of John Jakes’s acclaimed and sweeping saga, a friendship is threatened by the divisions of...

Christmas Eve, 1957: An RAF pilot needs a miracle to make it home as his fighter jet begins to fail, in a story by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author.   It is Christmas Eve, 1957, and there are cozier places to be than the cockpit of a de Havilland Vampire fighter plane. But for the...

With “shattering prose,” the New York Times–bestselling author of From Here to Eternity captures the intense combat in the battle of Guadalcanal (San Francisco Chronicle).   In August of 1942 the first American marines charged Guadalcanal, igniting a six-month battle for two thousand...

The searing conclusion to the North and South Trilogy brings the battle between the Mains and Hazards—and Confederate and Union armies—to a brilliantly satisfying end The last days of the Civil War bring no peace for the Main and Hazard families. As the Mains’ South smolders in the ruins...

A World War I veteran’s comfortable life is upended by buried memories in this “completely real and convincing” New York Times bestseller by an Academy Award–winning screenwriter (The New York Times). Charles Rainier’s family feared him lost along with so many of Britain’s youth...