Good To Go

Item #: UD6242
Price: $14.95
Returning to his family's New York farm after a harrowing stint as a POW in World War II, Chip Mackinnon is disillusioned with the social-climbing plans his overbearing father has in place for him. But he dutifully proposes to the right girl and seems primed to finally bring the Mackinnons into society's innermost circles--until Chip meets Jean Cooper, a beguiling Midwestern beauty with no social connections. Chip and Jean's passionate and defiant affair pit father against son in a testosterone-fueled battle of wills that lays bare the complex relationship between parent and adult child, with the love between the two men threatening to turn irrevocably into violent hatred. This powerful and unflinchingly honest novel is a literary masterpiece that may especially appeal to male readers (though this female reader found it quite exquisite).

Item #: UD4462
Price: $12.99
After her marriage fizzles out, piano teacher Anna Dunlap settles into a new life as a single mother to four-year-old Molly, the only person Anna has ever truly loved. Anna's pursuits of friendship and romance have always left her heart empty. But then she meets Leo, a kindhearted artist who makes her feel beautiful, confident, and sensual. They begin a passionate relationship, and when Molly accepts Leo into their small family, Anna believes she has finally found the happiness that eluded her for so long. But this blissful new life is shattered when Anna's ex-husband accuses Leo of inappropriate behavior with Molly. Suddenly Anna is locked in a fierce custody battle, forced to defend her competence as a mother even as she questions it herself. I felt uneasy throughout my reading of this extraordinary novel, but was entranced by Sue Miller's unflinching exploration of the modern complexities of motherhood.

Item #: UE9472
Price: $20.76
On the eve of their wedding, Cookie Himmel and her wealthy fiance, Melvin Whiteson, are awakened by the piercing screams of the peacock flock of her eccentric neighbor, the writer Flannery O'Connor. The couple has returned to Cookie's hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia, to begin a family, but soon Melvin develops a secret friendship with the famous author, who challenges him intellectually like no one has before. Meanwhile, Cookie hires Lona Waters, wife of a local policeman, to make curtains for their new house, and through this daily escape, Lona begins to explore a life beyond the one she's always known. In the course of one afternoon, passions seething below the genteel facade of the small Southern town explode onto the surface, and no one's life will be the same. Ann Napolitano's penetrating novel brings its flawed yet movingly sympathetic characters to brilliant life. Especially sparkling is her fictional tribute to the enigmatic O'Connor.

Item #: UD8292
Price: $14.95
This practical book about dealing with death is surprisingly funny. Jo Myers's chatty yet informative guide through several very realistic end-of-life topics-interacting with Alzheimer's patients, using hospice care, cleaning out the homes of deceased loved ones, offering sympathy in helpful ways, being cremated (or, "making an ash of yourself "), running a death notice, planning a funeral, being a good executor, and more-is positively, if unexpectedly, delightful. She shares her helpful insights through humorous personal vignettes, approaching the grimmest of inevitabilities with upbeat realism. We may as well be prepared for death (our own and others') and Good to Go can help us toward that goal-and amuse us along the way!

Item #: UD6782
Price: $8.95
Petite enough to slip into a greeting card or tuck into a bouquet of flowers, our lovely, letterpress printed Miniature Books make perfect little presents for all sorts of occasions. With bright, cheerful covers and colored endpapers, the little (4½"x3¼") booklets contain scores of thoughtful, inspiring, and/or hilarious quotations--mostly from notable authors--on their respective topics. (Good Words from the Good Book features familiar Bible verses.) For fishermen, gardeners, new parents, chefs, retirees, travelers, books worms, and just about anyone you know…one--or the perfect combo of several--of these tiny treasures is just right!

Item #: UE9862
Price: $19.96
This cleverly conceived cookbook is designed to inspire a lifelong enthusiasm for good healthy food. Starting with infancy and continuing through adolescence, What Chefs Feed Their Kids offers parents advice, techniques, and recipes that are sure to create happy young eaters. And even more excitingly, the dishes are delicious for the whole family--even the pureed meals for babies include adaptations for more mature palates! There will always be a place for a nice PB&J, but how wonderful to add more taste budthrilling fare--like wild greens soup with noodles, cauliflower and Parmesan macaroni, yogurt panna cotta, savory waffles, shaking beef, and lemongrass snapper--to the kids' menu!

Item #: UE8532
Price: $12.95
Leo Tolstoy devoted much of the last decade of his life to creating a "guide to living a good life" based on spiritual wisdom drawn from literature, religious texts, and philosophical systems from around the world. Wise Thoughts for Every Day was a part of that project, originally published in 1909, and now a century later translated and published in English for the first time. Enjoy a page a day throughout the year, contemplating themes of faith, love, death, temptation, virtue, prayer, suffering, happiness, and so much more.