Brynn Harper’s life has one steadying force - Rachel Maddow. She watches her daily, and after writing to Rachel for a school project, Brynn drafts emails to Rachel but never sends them. Brynn tells Rachel about breaking up with her first girlfriend, about her brother Nick’s death, her passive mother and even worse stepfather, about how she’s stuck in remedial courses at school and is considering dropping out. Then Brynn is confronted with a moral dilemma. One student representative will have a voice among administration in the selection of a school superintendent. Brynn’s nemesis John believes only honors students are worthy of the committee seat. Brynn feels all students deserve a voice. She asks herself: What would Rachel Maddow do?
Martin Amis's first novel, The Rachel Papers, tells the story of Charles Highway and his relationship with his girlfriend in the year before going to university--with a new introduction by Paul Murray. Charles Highway, a bright, egotistical Oxford student and soon-to-be Great Novelist, spends the eve of his twentieth birthday reflecting on his adolescence--at times stimulating, often embarrassing, and never nearly as debauched as he'd have liked. Until he meets Rachel Noyes, an elusive, unattainable, manic pixie mystery of a girl whom Charles quickly becomes entranced by. He meticulously draws up battle plans and strategies for how to seduce Rachel, and thus the "Rachel Papers" are born. Unflinchingly honest, comedically brilliant, and unapologetically original, Martin Amis's first novel, The Rachel Papers, is a masterful account of the passion and fickleness of first lust--and love.
Meet Noah Tass. Follow him as he tries to escape his hayseed hometown in Missouri. This is not a movie. This is someone's life. Noah was turning 23 and desperate leave. Pulnick had forever been a blemish on the anemic face of rural Bible-belt America. Always bland and soporific, it was now being invaded by white supremacist meth heads, visited by an unprecedented crime wave, exploited by spiritualists and local politicos, and driven to hysteria by paranoid rumors that the world would end on November 11th. Moreover, Noah's personal life was becoming more convoluted by the day. Everything seemed to conspire against his singular need to get out of this dreary, dead-end, death-wish armpit of a town. "11-11-11" is what you call a feel good novel. You'll feel good about your own life when you get a load of the losers who populate this living graveyard!
"12-12-12" is the story of a great nation falling apart and one young man's quest for meaning in the midst of chaos. It takes the stuff of reality and pitches it to a high scream. Open your mind but cover your ears. Knowledge is bliss but it's loud and painful. Yet somehow still funny. "12-12-12" manages to tell it like it is by telling it like it isn't. Granted, this is not what actually happened during 2012. But what unfolds is not more implausible. Nor is it less implausible. It's dark, ironic, witty, at times surrealistic and just plain weird. One reviewer calls it "laugh-out-loud brain food for hungry minds."
Originally published in 1987. Lady Rachel Russell (1637–1723) was regarded as "one of the best women" by many of the most powerful people of her time. Wife of Lord William Russell, the prominent Whig opponent of King Charles II who was executed for treason in 1683, Lady Russell emerged as a political figure in her own right during the Glorious Revolution and throughout her forty-year widowhood. Award-winning historian Lois G. Schwoerer has written a biography that illuminates both the political life and the lives of women in late Stuart England. Lady Russell's interest in politics and religion blossomed during her marriage to Lord Russell and after his death: "as William became a Whig martyr, Rachel became a Whig saint." Her wealth, contacts, and role as her husband's surrogate gave her considerable influence to intercede in high government appointments, lend support in elections, and exchange favors with her friend Mary of Orange. In her domestic life she similarly took steps usually reserved to men, managing large estates in London and Hampshire and negotiating favorable marriage contracts for each of her three children. Although Lady Russell was unusual for her time, she was by no means unique. Other notable women shared her concerns and traits, although to differing degrees and effects. Schwoerer suggests that the horizons of women's lives in the seventeenth century may have extended farther than is often supposed.
Having lost her parents at a young age, Rachel moves in with her aunt and uncle. She is raised in a loving home and should have been happy but she felt something was missing in her life. While visiting a nearby town she happens to discover the parents she buried and grieved for were not her real parents. She had been adopted at birth. She begins to question everything in her life and feels betrayed by those she loves.Rachel had been dating Joe for a few months and she's reluctant to allow a relationship to build. How can she open her heart to him when she's lost faith in all she's known.
**AUTHOR NOTE** This book contains difficult topics that may be hard for some readers and is suggested for a mature audience only. It contains strong language, sexual situations, abuse, and other content that may be problematic for some to read. Please keep this in mind when choosing to read this book. Rachel has always been seen as a wild child, never committing or settling down. She wants it that way, so that no one ever finds out the truth. Deep down, she is crushed over something that happened years ago that resulted in losing the only man she ever loved. Then she meets someone who tries to convince her that she's ready to commit again. But some things are not what they seem. Realizing too late that she's in over her head, and with her life on the line, she comes face to face with her past in a way she never thought possible.Devin was in love once, and it destroyed him, making him swear off love forever. After a promotion and subsequent move unexpectedly brings him into the middle of her dangerous situation, he must come face to face with his past and to the woman who broke him into pieces. But she needs help. Desperately. And maybe, just maybe, he didn't know the real truth of their past. Can he help her survive the terrible ordeal she's been through, and during it all, can he safeguard his heart from her? Or will the truth of the pain that has kept them apart show him that he can't live without her after all?
