In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly leaves her at an orphanage, promising to be back. But she never returns, and Cecily is sold to a traveling circus. Performing as “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. But the cracks in her little world begin to show, and when teenage Cecily falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto a surprising—and dangerous—course. In 2015, Cecily is now 94, living quietly in Minnesota. But when her family surprises her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light Cecily’s tragic past but also throw into question everything about the family she’s raised and claimed as her own for nearly seventy years. Cecily and everyone in her life must now decide who they really are and what family—and forgiveness—really mean.
Sarah and Warren’s college love story ended in a single moment. Decades later, when a chance meeting brings them together, a passion ignites—threatening the foundations of the lives they’ve built apart. Seeing Warren sparks an awakening in Sarah, who feels emotionally alive for the first time in decades. As their affair intensifies, Sarah and Warren must confront the moral responsibilities of their love for their families and each other. Leaving charts a passage through loyalty and desire as it builds to a shattering conclusion. In her boldest and most powerful work to date, Roxana Robinson demonstrates her “trademark gifts as an intelligent, sensitive analyst of family life” (Wendy Smith, Chicago Tribune) in an engrossing exploration of the vows we make to one another, the tensile relationships between parents and their children, and what we owe to others and ourselves.
How does art mirror and shape our lives? Can it transcend the boundaries of time, wealth, and circumstance? Debra Spark—whose previous work The Washington Post described as "richly imaginative" and "real world magic"—explores these themes in her new novel Discipline. With a trio of important paintings missing, the book weaves together three narratives which span nearly a century. From an inhumane boarding school in Maine in the late 1970s, to a contemporary Boston art appraiser struggling with raising a teen, to the long-lost love letters between a painter and his wife, Discipline is a propulsive literary mystery about family strife and devotion, ambition and authorship, and the abiding and mysterious power of art. Inspired by the life and family of painter Walt Kuhn and the scandal-ridden Elan Boarding School which was forced to shut down in 2011, this richly drawn, suspenseful novel shows Spark at her most masterful.
Did you ever change your plans spontaneously, in the moment? For an entire group? Have you ever felt frustrated that a learning or teaching experience wasn't working, and wished it was different? Did you ever ask your children or students what they wanted to learn and put that at the center of their education? The author did all these things and more with her students. Here she reveals her personal experiences, when and where these things occurred, and what she did in each situation. Laurie Block Spigel created environments and curriculum where student-centered learning could flourish. Here she shares her journey, doubts, fears, surprises (both good and bad), and the ultimate rewards which spring from game-based, personalized education. Educators, parents, and learners of all ages will be enlightened and inspired by Letting Them Lead.
Inn Mates is a lively chronicle of two Boston corporate escapees who dreamt of owning a luxury inn, in Bar Harbor, Maine. The inn was a passion, and sometimes a prison, offering five-star hospitality to a parade of guests who taught them lessons of gratitude, humility, love, and laughter in the midst of life's hurricanes.
In her new memoir, Penny Guisinger recounts formative relationships with women and men, including the marriage that produced her two children and ultimately ended (in part) due to her affair with her now-wife. Beginning her story as straight and ending as queer, she struggles to make sense of how her identity changed so profoundly while leaving her feeling like the same person she’s always been. While covering pivotal periods of her life, including previous relationships and raising her children across the chasm of divorce, Guisinger reaches for quantum physics, music theory, planetary harmonics, palmistry, and more to interrogate her experiences. This personal story stages against the backdrop of the national debate on same-sex marriage and how it played out in rural, easternmost Maine. Under scrutiny, Guisinger’s sense of her own identity becomes like a Möbius strip or Penrose triangle—an optical illusion that challenges the dimensions and possibilities of the world.
Morpho Didius: Palindromic Poetry
Rachel Prizant Kotok
Armature Publishing
Morpho Didius is an extraordinary collection of palindromic poetry in which each piece is a linguistic marvel, reading the same forwards and backwards. The title of the book draws inspiration for transformation and reflects the mirrored language inside each palindrome. Central to this collection is the personal journey of the poet who has used palindromic form as a path to liberation from a traumatic childhood event—entrapment by a strange adult. In the paradox of constrained writing, Kotok finds liberation, crafting each palindrome as a step towards emotional and psychological freedom. The themes of these poems are vast and intimate, covering personal and historical survival, feminism, sex, and hope. These poems surpass linguistic acrobatics; they are an offering of transformation, an alchemizing of pain through the healing power of art. "Seer trees. Muse, rise! / Den. I am home, open as fire. / Serif sane poem, oh Maine desire. / Sum. Seer trees."
Pinkie
Shannon Dow
Illustrated by Joy Kelly
Dorrance Publishing
When little Iris can't sleep without her beloved Pinkie, big sister Hazel promises to bring Pinkie back to Iris and sets about, secretly, doing just that. The bond between the sisters prompts Hazel to defy parental "rules" so Iris can experience the safety and comfort of her security blanket. Ultimately, this story asks readers to take care of one another, support each other's emotional well-being, and explore what it means to begin letting go.
Daisy’s head is always in the clouds, and no matter where she is or what she's doing, her imagination kicks in to make things more interesting. Most of the time, it’s great fun. But sometimes it causes trouble. She folds the little brother she’s supposed to be feeding and feeds the socks she should fold. Worst of all, Daisy longs to be line leader on a field trip to the aquarium, but the job is reserved for whoever can listen best to a lesson on octopuses. As hard as she tries, Daisy just can’t keep the distracted clouds from rolling over her head. Still, Daisy is determined to show her teacher what she’s learned, in a way that works for her—she can draw! Daisy pours her heart into an illustrated guide to the octopus, and earns her own special job, as the field trip’s official artist.
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