Whip-smart, hilarious, and unapologetically honest, Rachel Lucas's The State of Grace is a heartwarming story of one girl trying to work out where she fits in, and whether she even wants to. “Sometimes I feel like everyone else was handed a copy of the rules for life and mine got lost.” Grace is autistic and has her own way of looking at the world. She's got a horse and a best friend who understand her, and that's pretty much all she needs. But when Grace kisses Gabe and things start to change at home, the world doesn't make much sense to her any more. Suddenly everything threatens to fall apart, and it's up to Grace to fix it on her own.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NOMINEE • This "beautifully crafted" (The New York Times Book Review), haunting, profoundly disquieting novel manages to be at once sparse and lush, to combine Biblical simplicity with Gothic intensity and strangeness. It is the story of Kate, despised by her mother, bound to her father by ties stronger and darker than blood. It is the story of her attempted escapes—in detached sexual encounters, at a Southern college populated by spoiled and perverse beauties, and in a doomed marriage to a man who cannot understand what she is running from. Witty, erotic, searing acute, State of Grace bears the inimitable stamp of one of our finest and most provocative writers.

"Originally published in 2014 by Hardie Grant Egmont ... Australia"--Page facing title page.

Christmas at the White House Wouldn’t Be Complete Without a Murder or Two… The holiday season is under way in Washington, D.C., but Metro Police Lieutenant Sam Holland is busier than ever as she contends with the murder of a well-liked wife, mother and businesswoman found bound, gagged and dead for quite some time inside her minivan, miles from her home. Who could’ve wanted her dead badly enough to make her suffer for days before she died? Sam is determined to close the vexing case before a much-needed vacation with her family, but the universe has other ideas when a second murder—this one someone she knows—has her wondering if the vacation is going to happen. Meanwhile, Sam’s husband, President Nick Cappuano, deals with the first national tragedy on his watch, forcing him on the record on a contentious issue as he fills the role of comforter-in-chief to a nation reeling from another senseless act of violence. All the while, a custody battle for the twins he and Sam took in after their parents’ murder is looming, casting a dark cloud over everything this holiday season. With chaos swirling all around them, will Sam and Nick be able to pull off a big family Christmas at the White House? As always, Sam and Nick turn to each other for comfort in the storm that is their life together. Join Sam, Nick, Scotty, Elijah, Aubrey, Alden and Skippy, the First Dog, as they celebrate a Christmas like no other.

Growing up in Centralia wasn't easy for Grace, who was just four years old at the time of the coal mine eruption that nearly destroyed her hometown and took her father with it. Her days were clouded with ash and despair until her mother, Rita, fell for the warm and heroic Bill. Together, Bill and Rita had a child of their own, a boy named Sam, who quickly became the light in Grace's eyes. The pair grew up together in a world of uncertainty, until fate decided it had other plans: Sam slipped into one of the many sinkholes in the crumbled town, which led to the still-burning hellfire below him. As tragedy envelops her family and her sanity again, Grace fights to make it out into the real world outside of Centralia. But where will she go, and what will she do? With a college scholarship, the help of her new friends, and the opportunities of academia, Grace struggles forward, trying to find a balance between letting go of the past and honoring where she came from.

Provides in-depth analyses of key moments in Brazilian utopianism, including theologico-political, matriarchal, environmental, and work-free utopias. States of Grace offers a novel approach to the study of Brazilian culture through the lens of utopianism. Patrícia I. Vieira explores religious and political writings, journalistic texts, sociological studies, and literary works that portray Brazil as a utopian “land of the future,” where dreams of a coming messianic age and of social and political emancipation would come true. The book discusses crucial utopian moments such as the theological-political utopia proposed by Jesuit Priest Antônio Vieira; matriarchal utopias, like the egalitarian society of the Amazons; work-free utopias that abolished the boundaries separating toil and play; and ecological utopias, where humans and nonhumans coexist harmoniously. The uniqueness of the book’s approach lies in rethinking the link between messianic and utopian texts, as well as the alliances forged between progressive religious, socioeconomic, political, and ecological ideas. Patrícia I. Vieira is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Georgetown University and Associate Research Professor at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She has written several books, including Seeing Politics Otherwise: Vision in Latin American and Iberian Fiction and Existential Utopia: New Perspectives on Utopian Thought (coedited with Michael Marder).

In his long-awaited follow-up to "The Nightingale's Song," Timberg revives the powerful themes of courage, manhood, and loss in this in this autobiographical tale in which he rediscovers an earlier time (between the Good War and Vietnam) and an America now largely lost.