Bücher veröffentlicht von Houghton Mifflin

?I want yesterday.? That's all seventeen-year-old Maud can say when she gets the news about her sister: Lucy's dead, killed in a bomb blast. Without even a body to bury, Maud is left with only questions: How? Why? Maud's search for answers leads her down the same path her sister took. But all she finds are empty words and more questions. Jeff struggles down a separate but parallel path. His brother, a Marine, has been called up to Vietnam. To the world, Jeff looks the part of a conservative preppy, but inside, he questions the war. But does questioning the war mean he doesn't support his brother?It's 1969, and life in America has become an angry jumble of patriotism and rebellion, cynicism and hope. Jeff and Maud are caught up in the confusion. All they want is stability. What they get is each other. Hopefully, it'll be enough.

On Valentine's Day, Sherry finds an anonymous note in her mailbox: be mine. As the notes continue, Sherry becomes more and more charged by the idea that she can inspire such feelings. Her twenty-year marriage is routine and she feels old, aimless, and empty now that her son is in college. When she discovers who her admirer is, she begins a wildly passionate affair with him. But her son's childhood friend is witness to the affair, her best friend is strangely silent, and her husband is playing a disturbing game of titil­lation and encouragement. Soon events spiral out of Sherry's control, threatening not only her marriage but also her son and her home. This deeply erotic thriller explores how little we know ourselves and those we live with and what we risk when we step away from our social personas and allow passion to control our lives.

When Grace Stanley's older brother, Matt, died in a car accident, she wanted to die, too. But she's slowly finding her way again, with the help of her mysterious new friend, Philomena--who always seems to show up when Grace needs her most. If only Jackson, Matt's best friend, had a Philomena of his own. He's fallen into some very bad habits--at the same time that Grace is falling for him. The second book in the Saving Grace series explores the themes of faith, hope, and learning to live (maybe even love) in the wake of a tragedy.

In this prize-winning collection, a debut poet evokes his childhood as the son of missionaries in Papua New Guinea.Mission Work is an arresting collection of poems based on Aaron Baker's experiences as a child of missionaries living among the Kuman people in the remote Chimbu Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Rich with Christian and Kuman myths and stories, the poems explore Western and tribal ways of looking at the world -- an interface of vastly different cultures and notions of spirituality, illuminated by the poet's own struggles as he comes of age in this unique environment.The images conjured in Mission Work are viscerally stirring: native people slaughter pigs for a Chimbu wedding ceremony; a papery flight of cicadas cuts through a cloud forest; hands sting as they beat a drum made of dried snakeskin. Quieter moments are shot through with the unfamiliar as well. In ?Bird of Paradise,? a father angles his son's head toward the canopy of the jungle so the boy can catch sight of an elusive bird. Stanley Plumly, this year's guest judge, writes, ?How rare to find precision and immersion so alive in the same poetry. Aaron Baker's pressure on his language not only intensifies and elevates his memories of Papuan 'mission work,' it transforms it back into something very like his original childhood experience. Throughout this remarkably written and felt first book, the reader, like the author himself, 'can't tell if this is white or black magic,' Christian, tribal, or both at once.?

In Senior Year, Dan Shaughnessy focuses his acclaimed sports writing talents on his son Sam's senior year of high school, a turning point in any young life and certainly in the relationship between father and son. Using that experience, Shaughnessy circles back to his own boyhood and calls on the many sports greats he's known over the years -- Ted Williams, Roger Clemens, Larry Bird -- to capture that uniquely American rite of passage that is sports.Growing up, Dan Shaughnessy was so baseball-obsessed that he played games by himself and didn?ft even let himself win. His son, Sam Shaughnessy, came by his own love of sports naturally and was a natural hitter who quickly ascended the ranks of youth sports. Now nicknamed the 3-2 Kid for his astonishing ability to hover between success and failure in everything he does, Sam is finally a senior, and it's all on the line: what college to attend; how to keep his grades up and his head down until graduation; and whether his final high school baseball season, which features foul weather, a hitting slump, and a surprising clash with a longtime coach, will end in disappointment or triumph.All along the way, Dad is there, chronicling that universal experience of putting your child out on the field -- and in the world -- and hoping for the best. With gleaming insight, wicked humor, and, at times, the searching soul of an unsure father, Shaughnessy illuminates how sports connect generations and how they help us grow up -- and let go.

Just after her eleventh birthday, Susan Richards Shreve was sent to the sanitarium at Warm Springs, Georgia. The polio haven, famously founded by FDR, was ?a perfect setting in time and place and strangeness for a hospital of crippled children.? During Shreve's two year stay, the Salk vaccine would be discovered, ensuring that she would be among the last Americans to have suffered childhood polio. At Warm Springs, Shreve found herself in a community of similarly afflicted children, and for the first time she was one of the gang. Away from her fiercely protective mother, she became a feisty troublemaker and an outspoken ringleader. Shreve experienced first love with a thirteen-year-old boy in a wheelchair. She navigated rocky friendships, religious questions, and family tensions, and encountered healing of all kinds. Shreve's memoir is both a fascinating historical record of that time and an intensely felt story of childhood.

If you had to pick the top ten iconic sporting events, what would they be? Jim Gorant asked himself this question, and the answer resulted in a yearlong journey into the heart of sports. From the Kentucky Derby to the Super Bowl, from a day game at Wrigley Field to a fortnight at Wimbledon, from the NCAA Final Four to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, Gorant takes us along for the ride, evoking the best (and sometimes the worst) sports has to offer. He enters the inner sanctum of NASCAR, witnesses Jack Nicklaus teeing off for the last time at the Masters, and takes part in one of college football's biggest rivalries -- Ohio State versus Michigan.Part adventure, part pilgrimage, Fanatic is a rollicking story of the ultimate sports road trip. Through this transformative journey Jim Gorant learned a little more about what it means to be a fan and a lot more about himself.

For her acclaimed collection of stories, Red Ant House, Joyce Carol Oates hailed Ann Cummins as "a master storyteller." The San Francisco Chronicle called her "startlingly original." Now, in her debut novel, Cummins stakes claim to rich new literary territory with a story of straddling cultures and cheating fate in the American Southwest. Yellowcake introduces us to two unforgettable families-one Navajo, one Anglo-some thirty years after the closing of the uranium mill near which they once made their homes. When little Becky Atcitty shows up on the Mahoneys' doorstep all grown up, the past comes crashing in on Ryland and his lively brood. Becky, the daughter of one of the Navajo mill workers Ryland had supervised, is now involved in a group seeking damages for those harmed by the radioactive dust that contaminated their world. But Ryland wants no part of dredging up their past-or acknowledging his future. When his wife joins the cause, the messy, modern lives of this eclectic cast of characters collide once again, testing their mettle, stretching their faith, and reconnecting past and present in unexpected new ways. Finely crafted, deeply felt, and bursting with heartache and hilarity, Yellowcake is a moving story of how everyday people sort their way through life, with all its hidden hazards.

Humphrey Clark and Ailsa Kelman spent a summer together as children in Ornemouth, a town by the gray North Sea. Now, as they journey back to receive honorary degrees from a new university there--Humphrey on the train, Ailsa flying--they take stock of their lives, their careers, and their shared personal entanglements, romantic and otherwise. Humphrey is a successful marine biologist, happiest under water, but now retired; Ailsa, scholar and feminist, is celebrated for her pioneering studies of gender. Their mutual pasts unfold in an exquisite portrait of English social life in the latter half of the twentieth century.

1666: The Great Fire of London sweeps through the streets and a heavily pregnant woman flees the flames. A few months later she gives birth to a child disfigured by a red birthmark.1718: Sixteen-year-old Eliza Tally sees the gleaming dome of St. Paul's Cathedral rising above a rebuilt city. She arrives as an apothecary's maid, a position hastily arranged to shield the father of her unborn child from scandal. But why is the apothecary so eager to welcome her when he already has a maid, a half-wit named Mary? Why is Eliza never allowed to look her veiled master in the face or go into the study where he pursues his experiments? It is only on her visits to the Huguenot bookseller who supplies her master's scientific tomes that she realizes the nature of his obsession. And she knows she has to act to save not just the child but Mary and herself.

A group of "settlers" (more like survivors) arrive in Virginia from the ravished island of Manhattan, intending to establish an outpost, find oil, and exploit the Indians controlling the area. But nothing goes quite as planned (one settler, for instance, keeps losing body parts). At the heart of the story is Pocahontas, who speaks Valley Girl, Ebonics, Old English, and Algonquin-sometimes all in the same sentence. And she pursues a heated romance with settler Johnny Rolfe via text messaging, instant messaging, and, ultimately, telepathy. Deadly serious and seriously funny, Matthew Sharpe's fictional retelling of one of America's original myths is a history of violence, a cross-cultural love story, and a tragicomic commentary on America's past and present.

Critics greeted Russ Parsons' first book, How to Read a French Fry, with raves. The New York Times praised it for its "affable voice and intellectual clarity"; Julia Child lauded it for its "deep factual information." Now in How to Pick a Peach, Parsons takes on one of the hottest food topics today. Good cooking starts with the right ingredients, and nowhere is that more true than with produce. Should we refrigerate that peach? How do we cook that artichoke? And what are those different varieties of pears? Most of us aren't sure. Parsons helps the cook sort through the produce in the market by illuminating the issues surrounding it, revealing intriguing facts about vegetables and fruits in individual profiles about them, and providing instructions on how to choose, store, and prepare these items. Whether explaining why basil, citrus, tomatoes, and potatoes should never be refrigerated, describing how Dutch farmers revolutionized the tomato business in America, exploring organic farming and its effect on flavor, or giving tips on how to recognize a ripe melon, How to Pick a Peach is Parsons at his peak.

In a world dominated by fast food and fake food, establishing healthy eating habits in children is one of the greatest concerns for parents -- and potentially one of the greatest challenges. Fortunately, the renowned physician Dr. David Ludwig developed a proven lifestyle plan that has benefited thousands of families. Here he shares his nine-week program, offering the tools -- including tasty recipes, motivational tips, and activities -- that can help families prevent the kitchen table from becoming a battleground.

We treat disease as our enemy. Germs and infections are things we battle. But what if we've been giving them a bum rap? From the earliest days of life on earth, disease has evolved alongside us. And its presence isn't just natural but is also essential to our health. Drawing on the latest research, Zuk answers a fascinating range of questions about disease: Why do men die younger than women? Why are we attracted to our mates? Why does the average male bird not have a penis? Why do we--as well as insects, birds, pigs, cows, goats, and even plants--get STDs? Why do we have sex at all, rather than simply splitting off copies of ourselves like certain geckos? And how is our obsession with cleanliness making us sicker? In this witty, engaging book, evolutionary biologist Zuk makes us rethink our instincts as she argues that disease is our partner, not our foe. Reconsider the fearsome parasite!

From one of Spain's most celebrated writers, an extraordinary, inspired book-at once fiction, history, and memoir-that draws on the Sephardic diaspora, the Holocaust, and Stalin's purges to tell a twentieth-century story. Shifting seamlessly from the past to the present and following the routes of escape across countries and continents, Muñoz Molina evokes people real and imagined who come together in a richly allusive pattern-from Eugenia Ginsburg to Grete Buber-Neumann, the one on a train to the gulag, the other heading toward a Nazi concentration camp; from a shoemaker and a nun who become lovers in a small Spanish town to Primo Levi bound for Auschwitz. From the well known to the virtually unknown-all of Molina's characters are voices of separation, nostalgia, love, and endless waiting.Written with clarity of vision and passion, in a style both lyrical and accessible, Sepharad makes the experience our own. A brilliant achievement.

Seventeen-year-old Chrissy Gibbons has landed her dream job?a summer internship at her favorite magazine, Savvy. Being an intern is hard work, but the job becomes a lot more fun when Chrissy is befriended by a glamorous fashion editor who takes her to all the best parties. As the summer winds down, though, Chrissy realizes that in the whirlwind of parties and boys, she's been neglecting what could be her big break in the magazine business: an opportunity to compete against other interns to become Savvy's first teen columnist. Chrissy struggles to come up with a winning subject for her column?and in the process, she discovers what is most important to her.

Georgeanne Brennan moved to Provence in 1970, seeking a simpler life. She set off on her many adventures in Provençale cuisine by tracking down a herd of goats, a cool workshop, some rennet, and the lost art of making fresh goat cheese. From this first effort throughout her time in Provence, Brennan transformed from novice fromagère to renowned, James Beard Foundation Award?winning cookbook author and food writer. A Pig in Provence is the story of how Georgeanne Brennan fell in love with Provence. But it's also the story of making a life beyond the well-trodden path and the story of how food can unite a community. In loving detail, Brennan tells of the herders who maintain a centuries-old grazing route, of the community feast that brings a town to one table, and of the daily rhythms and joys of living by the cycles of food and nature. Sprinkled with recipes that offer samples of Brennan's Provençale cooking, A Pig in Provence is a food memoir that urges you to savor every morsel.

Last year, awareness about global warming reached a tipping point. Now one of the most dynamic writers and one of the most respected scientists in the field of climate change offer the first concise guide to both the problems and the solutions. Guiding us past a blizzard of information and misinformation, Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King explain the science of warming, the most cutting-edge technological solutions from small to large, and the national and international politics that will affect our efforts. While there have been many other books about the problem of global warming, none has addressed what we can and should do about it so clearly and persuasively, with no spin, no agenda, and no exaggeration. Neither Walker nor King is an activist or politician, and theirs is not a generic green call to arms. Instead they propose specific ideas to fix a very specific problem. Most important, they offer hope: This is a serious issue, perhaps the most serious that humanity has ever faced. But we can still do something about it. And they'll show us how.

We don't just live in the air; we live because of it. It's the most miraculous substance on earth, responsible for our food, our weather, our water, and our ability to hear. In this exuberant book, gifted science writer Gabrielle Walker peels back the layers of our atmosphere with the stories of the people who uncovered its secrets:• A flamboyant Renaissance Italian discovers how heavy our air really is: The air filling Carnegie Hall, for example, weighs seventy thousand pounds. • A one-eyed barnstorming pilot finds a set of winds that constantly blow five miles above our heads.• An impoverished American farmer figures out why hurricanes move in a circle by carving equations with his pitchfork on a barn door. • A well-meaning inventor nearly destroys the ozone layer. • A reclusive mathematical genius predicts, thirty years before he's proved right, that the sky contains a layer of floating metal fed by the glowing tails of shooting stars.

Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn't seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude oil skyrocketing and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the nineteenth-century scramble for colonization there. But what does this giddy new oil boom mean-for America, for the world, for Africans themselves?John Ghazvinian traveled through twelve African countries-from Sudan to Congo to Angola-talking to warlords, industry executives, bandits, activists, priests, missionaries, oil-rig workers, scientists, and ordinary people whose lives have been transformed-not necessarily for the better-by the riches beneath their feet. The result is a high-octane narrative that reveals the challenges, obstacles, reasons for despair, and reasons for hope emerging from one of the world's energy hot spots.

**DEBUT FICTION** Lara McCauley never wanted to go to Beirut. But in 1983, when her husband's career as a foreign correspondent brings her there in the midst of the civil war, she tries to make the best of it for the sake of her marriage. Unlike the other foreign visitors-most of whom are hard-charging journalists like her husband-Lara can't seem to find her footing in the chaotic city. Although she's relatively insulated from risk, she's as terrified of the frequent eruptions of violence as she is ashamed of her fear. Bored, lonely, and afraid, Lara defies her increasingly bullying husband by befriending a mysterious Polish journalist and beginning to work part-time as a broadcast film editor. But she is an inexperienced player in a dangerous game. As the U.S. "mission of presence" in Lebanon rapidly morphs into something far more deadly, Lara unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events with devastating consequences. Drawing on her years of experience as a foreign correspondent, Margaret Lowrie Robertson brings war-torn Beirut to life in this gripping debut.