In this compelling novel – a cross between Lady Chatterley’s Lover and The Aviator – the acclaimed modern master takes us to riveting new territory. Part love story, part murder mystery, Russell Banks’s The Reserve is as gripping as it is beautifully written, set in a pre-WWII world of class, politics, art, love and madness. Vanessa Cole is a stunningly beautiful and wild heiress, her parents’ adopted only daughter. Twice-married, she has been scandalously linked to rich and famous men. On the night of July 4, 1936, inside the Cole family’s remote Adirondack Mountain enclave, known as the Reserve, Vanessa will lose her father to a heart attack – and meet Jordan Groves, a seductively carefree local artist whose leftist political loyalties to his working class neighbours are undercut by his wealth and his clientele. Jordan is easy prey for Vanessa’s electrifying charm. But the heiress carries a dark family secret. Unhinged by her father’s unexpected death, she begins to spin out of control, manipulating and destroying the lives of all who cross her path. Moving from the secluded beauty of the Adirondacks to war-torn Spain and fascist Germany, filled with characters that pierce the heart, The Reserve is a passionately romantic novel of suspense and drama that adds a new dimension to this acclaimed author’s extraordinary repertoire.

No Reserve is your guide to shattering the ceiling you’ve built on your dreams by taking risks on yourself and your passions. Its eleven strategies for removing the reserve from your life—or dispensing with any minimum conditions for taking action and giving of yourself—will enable you to live with unlimited joy, success, optimism, and a fearless generosity. These strategies will not only transform your life for the better, but they will also enable you to make impressions on the lives of others, moving the needle of humanity toward the greater good. Life is like an auction: you get your best returns if you don’t set a reserve on it. The foremost “auctiontainer” who works with premier nonprofits such as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation®, Letitia Frye knows how important it is to designate auctions as “no reserve,” or without a minimum bid. What’s more, she’s learned how crucial it is to approach life this way as well. When there is no perceived limitation, there is room for chance—as in, unlimited opportunities for success. Having worked her way to the top of a male-dominated industry, left a turbulent marriage to build a high-profile career as a single mom, suffered the devastating losses of her ex-husband and her plus-one child, and survived a traumatic brain injury, Letitia has bounced back from tragedy and beaten the odds multiple times and emerged stronger, more confident, and more successful. In No Reserve, she shares eleven key strategies that will help readers stop limiting themselves in all their endeavors—their career, their relationships, and their personal growth. As readers will discover, you can have everything you want in life, but you have to stop looking for opportunities to come to you, or for the road suddenly to become easier. Oftentimes, you have to make your own path: do the work before getting paid for it, create your own network by mentoring others, and give generously of yourself when you think you have little or nothing to offer. By implementing these and other principles, you will learn to build an authentic, absolute life in which you create the value you deserve.