Blue Plate Special

A delectable memoir about the transformative power of food, Blue Plate Special is a deeply personal narrative in which food becomes the vehicle for exploring a life. Here, novelist Kate Christensen tells her own story, from her unorthodox childhood in 1960s Berkeley as the daughter of a legal activist who ruled the house with his fists to her extraordinary success as a PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author. Hungry not just for food, but for love and a sense of belonging, Christensen writes honestly about her struggle to find the contentment she has always yearned for. A beautifully written account of a knockabout life, full of sorrows, pleasures—and, of course, food—Blue Plate Special is a delicious reading experience.

An amazing gastronomic journey across America's heartland, this guide stops at the coziest, friendliest, and busiest diners, cafes and roadside stands in the country. Includes recipes and 75 photos.

It seems impossible that two healthy female politicians could have both died from a cerebral hemorrhage within days of each other. The police hire Blue McCarron and Roxie Bouchie as consultants. The two women, who are involved professionally and personally, work with evangelical preachers, former convicts, and paintball playing plastic surgeons in order to find this unorthodox killer.

“Not since Michael Pollan has such a powerful storyteller emerged to reform American food.” —The Washington Post Today’s optimistic farm-to-table food culture has a dark secret: the local food movement has failed to change how we eat. It has also offered a false promise for the future of food. In his visionary New York Times–bestselling book, chef Dan Barber, recently showcased on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, offers a radical new way of thinking about food that will heal the land and taste good, too. Looking to the detrimental cooking of our past, and the misguided dining of our present, Barber points to a future “third plate”: a new form of American eating where good farming and good food intersect. Barber’s The Third Plate charts a bright path forward for eaters and chefs alike, daring everyone to imagine a future for our national cuisine that is as sustainable as it is delicious.

Can Campbell McBride find her father before it's too late? Campbell McBride drives to her father's house in Murray, Kentucky, dreading telling him she's lost her job as an English professor. Private Investigator Bill McBride isn't home or at his office in town. His brash young employee, Nick Emerson, hasn't heard from Bill since the night before when he learned Bill was working on a new case.

In alternating chapters, the lives of three teenage girls from three different generations are woven together as each girl learns about forgiveness, empathy, and self-respect.

From New York Times bestselling author Andy Andrews comes the return of one of our favorite characters: Jones, the Noticer, whose wise stories have comforted and guided millions of readers. In this third volume of The Noticer series, navigate the hope that the impossible can come true. At 3:29 a.m. on May 22, a telephone rings in Orange Beach, Alabama. Breaking the sleepy silence, a hastily whispered message heralds the news that readers have been waiting on for seven years: Jones is back in town. Apparently, however, he is also in jail. The old man is tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding his brief incarceration. After arriving to bail him out, Andy is shocked to discover that his trusted friend has already opened an unusual business in one of the resort town’s most high-profile shopping districts. As the town moves from spring to summer, a practical joker is becoming bolder and more inventive with every prank that is pulled. Could Jones be behind some of it? Why? What’s the truth about that four-hundred-pound table in his store? And why does it look as if every person Jones meets has a secret they will reveal only to him? Based on a remarkable true story, Just Jones beautifully blends fiction, allegory, and inspiration. With rare insight, Andy and Jones take us on a journey that proves the importance of perspective, the power of connection, and the ability we all have to make the impossible come true. Standalone fictional novel based on true events Follows the character of Jones, a mysterious elderly man with endless wisdom who appears precisely when needed most Part of the bestselling Noticer series Book 1: The Noticer Book 2: The Noticer Returns Book 3: Just Jones