Call Me Brooklyn

Through an ingenious structure that jumps from narrator to narrator and spans decades, Call Me Brooklyn follows the life of Gal Ackerman, a Spanish orphan adopted during the Spanish Civil War and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Moving from the secret tunnels that shelter the forgotten residents of Manhattan to the studio where Mark Rothko put an end to his life, from the jazz clubs frequented by Thomas Pynchon to the bar in Madrid where we learn the truth about Ackerman's past, Call Me Brooklyn draws upon a rich tradition that includes Nabokov's Pale Fire, Bellow's Humbolt's Gift, and the novels of Felipe Alfau—a hymn to mystery and to the power of fiction.

In this captivating memoir, Jakob, a Welsh-born Australian, takes readers on a remarkable journey that begins with a troubled youth and a life-changing decision. After running into legal trouble as a teenager, his family sends him off to sea on Scandinavian ships, where Jakob finds himself working out of Brooklyn, New York, joining ships engaged in global trade. It’s the era of rock and roll, with an atmosphere of freedom, free-spiritedness, and indulgence. However, tired of the endless partying and constant financial struggle, Jakob sets his sights on a new path. He travels to England, enrolls in a navigational school, and earns his license as a ship’s deck officer. But his thirst for adventure and reinvention leads him to an unexpected destination - Israel. Jakob’s love for the kibbutz lifestyle and a young woman on the kibbutz captures his heart. However, as war disrupts the region, their relationship crumbles, and Jakob finds solace in a hippie commune on the sunny shores of Eilat. Through ups and downs, Jakob’s journey takes him across continents, from the Canadian Arctic to Thailand and beyond. His tale is one of resilience, self-discovery, and the pursuit of a meaningful life amidst the challenges and uncertainties of a rapidly changing world.

In a hustler’s world, no one can be trusted. If you’ve ever met a pimp, then you know two rules apply—BITCHES and MONEY brings POWER. City, an inspiring rapper, has very high hopes for his adult entertainment business. He is looking to expand his operation and maybe even legalize it like his role model Hugh Hefner did. To achieve this goal, City needs more than he already has. Upgrading his stable of women is an immediate must. Brooklyn, an army veteran, is driven to the streets after a run-in with the law. She knows that she needs money, but doesn’t know how she is going to make it until City comes to her rescue. As soon as Brooklyn enters City’s world, the battle for his attention and love begins. At this stage in their lives, Brooklyn wants to be taken care of, while City wants to do more than just survive. He wants the world to feel his power. As a result of their ambitions, Bonnie and Clyde are reborn. Brooklyn’s City reveals the truth about sex, money, revenge, and greed.

Brooklyn figured all of life's riddles would be solved if she could just get Zac Henderson to notice her. Little did she know that getting his attention would be just the beginning of her problems. Take an emotional rollercoaster ride with Brooklyn as she learns, and teaches, that love isn't black or white. It's colorblind.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Includes all-new ma-ma-material! ALL NEW CHAPTER: Baba Booey’s Afghanistan Journal! and . . . the Shvoogie Buzzer story! One of pop culture’s great enduring unsung heroes: Gary Dell’Abate, Howard Stern Show producer, miracle worker, professional good sport, and servant to the King of All Media, tells the story of his early years and reveals how his chaotic childhood and early obsessions prepared him for life at the center of the greatest show on earth. Baba Booey! Baba Booey! It was a slip of the tongue—that unfortunately was heard by a few million listeners—but in that split second a nickname, a persona, a rallying cry, and a phenomenon was born. Some would say it was the moment Gary Dell’Abate, the long-suffering heroic producer of The Howard Stern Show, for better or worse, finally came into his own. In They Call Me Baba Booey, Dell’Abate explains how his early life was the perfect training ground for the day-to-day chaos that comes with producing the most popular radio show on earth. Growing up on Long Island in the 1970s, the youngest of three boys born to a clinically depressed mother, Gary learned how to fend for himself when under attack. Obsessed with music, he listened with religious intensity to Casey Kasem's Top 40 every Sunday morning, compulsively bought 45s of his favorite songs, and nerdily copied the lyrics into a notebook. Music became an ordering principle to his life, even as the chaos at home got out of hand. Dell’Abate’s memoir sketches the trajectory from the obsessive pop-music trivia buff to the man in the beekeeper’s mask who handily defeats his opponents playing “Stump the Booey.” We learn about the memorable moments in his life that taught him to endure epic bouts of humiliation and get his unique perspective on some of his favorite Stern show episodes—such as the day he nearly killed the Mets mascot while throwing out the first pitch, or the time his mother called Howard’s mother and demanded an apology. Hilarious, painful, and eye-opening, it’s Gary as you’ve never seen him before, telling a story that even Stern show insiders can’t begin to imagine.

Lights Burning Blue is a tender story of an unlikely friendship, and also a page-turning thriller set in the world of the theatre. Brooke McCarthy left drama school over a year ago. After many months of waiting for her big break, she gets a job with The Edwardian Palace Theatre Company on the south coast. 'Why did I feel slightly ashamed of the fact that my first real job since leaving college is stage-managing? It’s an important job. Vital in fact, and it can be a very rewarding and challenging career. Except in my case I didn’t really want to do it.' It’s not everything she hoped for; it’s not a proper acting job and the play’s director, the notorious Jimmy Knowles, is difficult to work for and a hard man to please. The play is not even rehearsing at the theatre itself, but in an out-of-the-way village hall near a woodland nature reserve miles from anywhere. But this is the theatrical profession. Jobs don’t come along very easily, and Brooke is fed up with working as a temp in an office. On her first day, Brooke meets an endearing old man who lives in the cottage just across the path from the rehearsal hall. A man with an interesting past and an infectious love of the theatre.. Just the week before Brooke arrives at her new job, a young girl who looks somewhat like her has been found murdered in the woods... Lights Burning Blue is a page-turning thriller that will not only keep you guessing, but being written by an actor, will also give you an insider's view of what it is really like to work in the theatre.

Winner of the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Colm Tóibín's internationally bestselling novel is a story of devastating emotional power. At the centre of Colm Tóibín's internationally celebrated novel is Eilis Lacey, one among many of her generation who has come of age in 1950s Ireland but cannot find work at home. When she receives a job offer in America, it is clear to everyone that she must go. Leaving her family and country behind, Eilis heads for unfamiliar Brooklyn, and to a crowded boarding house where the landlady's intense scrutiny and the small jealousies of her fellow residents only deepen her isolation. Slowly, however, the pain of parting and a longing for home are buried beneath the rhythms of her new life—until she begins to realize that she has found a sort of happiness. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, tragic news summons her back to Ireland, where she unexpectedly finds herself facing an impossible decision.