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When E. Jean Carroll—possibly the liveliest woman in the world and author of the “Ask E. Jean” advice column in Elle Magazine, realized that her eight million readers and question-writers all seemed to have one thing in common—problems caused by men—she hit the road. Crisscrossing the country with her blue-haired poodle, Lewis Carroll, E. Jean stopped in every town named after a woman between Eden, Vermont and Tallulah, Louisiana to ask women the crucial question: What Do We Need Men For?

Over 50 years, Charles M. Schulz created a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culture. Some 20 years after the last strip appeared, the characters Schulz brought to life in Peanuts continue to resonate with millions of fans, their beguiling four-panel adventures and television escapades offering lessons about happiness, friendship, disappointment, childhood, and life itself. Here, 33 writers and artists reflect on the deeper truths of Schulz’s deceptively simple comic, its impact on their lives and art and on the broader culture.

The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers - not for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed into a ceiba tree, leaving them with more questions than answers.

Some of the most rewarding pages in Henry Miller's books concern his self-education as a writer. He tells, as few great writers ever have, how he set his goals, how he discovered the excitement of using words, how the books he read influenced him, and how he learned to draw on his own experience.

Callista McCoy is a strong, well-educated werewolf with no desire for a mate. She's seen what happens when you love too deeply and wants to avoid it at all costs. Her work as an environmental scientist and activist is enough to keep her busy. But when one of the new wolves in her pack starts to make her feel things she thought she'd successfully suppressed, her only hope is to ignore him. Wyatt Carter's only concerns are taking care of his sick mother and proving his worth to his new pack. But the moment he gets a look at his new alpha's sister, all bets are off.

This emotionally charged read tells a once-in-a-lifetime story about love: In small-town Tennessee, eighteen-year-old Charlie Ross wagers a kiss from Anna Cochran, the most beautiful girl in town, and wins. Just as their budding romance begins to blossom, Charlie is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Anna vows to wait for him, no matter how long it takes. But when Charlie is captured and later presumed dead, Anna is left picking up the pieces to her shattered world.

As a boy, Dick Falkner ran away from abject poverty and an abusive alcoholic father. Sixteen years later, he finds himself hungry of body and empty of spirit in a Midwestern town. Although he finds no help in this so-called Christian town, he is eventually taken in by George Udell, a local publisher and kindhearted man. Through hard work and Christian morals, this man, who becomes known as "that printer of Udell’s", rises above his past to a new, inspiring life with God.

Javier Estrada is the king of Mexico. Evil. Twisted. Psychopathic. A cruel madman with a killer smile. And he is my boss. My duty is to blend in, clean his home, and not make a peep. I’ve done my job well for years. I've embedded myself so deep in his world, he’s never going to get me out. But I am this king’s worst nightmare. Bad men like him took everything away from me. I will never forget. He will pay for the sins of many. I’ll just bide my time - watching, waiting, calculating - until the time is right. When I strike, he won’t know what hit him.

On Broadway, this fresh take on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has become a modern classic. Heralded as “The best new musical of the season” by The Wall Street Journal and “Sumptuous. Gorgeous. As good as it gets” by The New York Times, the show was a breakout hit, with its poignant social commentary and spellbinding music and lyrics. In this audiobook, Anaïs Mitchell takes listeners inside her more than decades-long process of building the musical from the ground up.

It's been a lifetime (and three seasons) in the making, but Jane Gloriana Villanueva is finally ready to make her much-anticipated literary debut! Snow Falling is a sweeping historical romance set in 1902 Miami - a time of railroad tycoons, hotel booms, and exciting expansion for the Magic City.

The incredible untold story of how Ann Lowe, a Black woman and granddaughter of slaves, rose above personal struggles and racial prejudice to design and create one of America's most famous wedding dresses of all time for Jackie Kennedy.

In modern-day Tokyo, Robin Swann's life has sputtered to a stop. She's stuck in a dead-end job testing antiquities for an auction house, but her true love is poetry, not pottery. Her stalled dissertation sits on her laptop, unopened in months, and she has no one to confide in but her goldfish. On the other side of town, Nori Okuda sells rice bowls and tea cups to Tokyo restaurants, as her family has done for generations. But with her grandmother in the hospital, the family business is foundering. Nori knows if her luck doesn't change soon, she'll lose what little she has left.

Longfellow's great narrative poem has been unjustly neglected in recent years though it gives a sympathetic portrait especially of Hiawatha, reared by Nokomis, daughter of the Moon, and his bride Minehaha.

February 28, 1947: Trapped inside the family home amid an uprising that has rocked Taipei, Dr. Tsai delivers his youngest daughter, the unnamed narrator of Green Island, just after midnight as the city is plunged into martial law. In the following weeks, as the Chinese Nationalists act to crush the opposition, Dr. Tsai becomes one of the many thousands of people dragged away from their families and thrown into prison.

Widowed at thirty-five, Josephine Reynolds wishes she could disappear, but her concerned sister convinces her to buy their ancestral home, a Craftsman bungalow in disrepair and foreclosure. It's a welcome distraction, and Josephine can't believe her luck when she finds the home's original door in a salvage yard. When she installs the door and steps through it, Josephine is transported into 1927, where she meets her great-grandmother Alma, a vivacious and daring woman running an illegal speakeasy in the bungalow's basement.

One sunny Spring morning, EJ's simple life is turned upside down when the town's master gardener unceremoniously hands her a stack of handwritten letters that have all been addressed to a nonexistent person at the garden. This simple act sets in motion a chain of events that will lead EJ on a life-altering quest to uncover the identity of the mysterious letter writer―and into a surprising head-on confrontation with the harsh realities of the racial injustice that is as deeply rooted in the life of her community as the ancient herbs cultivated in the Moravian garden.

Best known for his glorious comic novels, Charles Portis was also a prolific essayist, travel writer, and newspaper reporter. Now, for the first time, these writings—journalism, short fiction, memoir, travel stories, and even a play—have been brought together in Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany. The collection encompasses the breadth of Portis’s fifty-year writing career, covering topics as varied as road tripping in Baja, Elvis’s visits to his aging mother, and his own boyhood in Arkansas.

For generations, the Windsors have lived on the family's grand estate in Crestwood, South Carolina, as intertwined with local life as sweet tea and pecan pie. Now, on the anniversary of her daughter Emily's death, Sarabess Windsor believes she may be the last to carry the family name - unless she can find her second daughter, Trinity, who disappeared 15 years ago.

After Vladimir Lenin’s death, Stalin orders two Jewish scientists to preserve Lenin’s body for all time. If they succeed, the rewards will be considerable. If not, it’s the gulag - or worse. Based on real events, Vern Theissen’s nimble dark comedy exposes the absurdities of Soviet life under Stalin.

They may go to the same school, but misfits Solomon, Diwata and Howie have never met and their teachers and peers just don't take them seriously - until a sex scandal involving one of their teachers brings them together. Soon they realize that three voices are stronger than one. And since their school has no speech and debate squad, maybe this is their chance to be heard at last - by the school and even the world.