High school senior Riley Ozment is desperate to change her reality after making a fool of herself on social media. She wins a spot on a Survivor-style reality TV show, and is dropped onto a deserted tropical island with nineteen other teens competing for a million dollars and a rumored treasure lost on the island. A local curse says that seven people need to die before the treasure can be found. And six hunters have already lost their lives in the...

It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children--four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness--sneak out to hear their fortunes. Their prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas...

The Canadian skaters who won the 2010 Olympic gold medal in ice dancing share their story, from their childhoods to world stardom, and discuss the behind-the-scenes reality of competitive skating.

"Briana Scurry was a pioneer on the US Women's National Team. She won gold in Atlanta in 1996, the first time women's soccer was ever played in the Olympics. She was a key part of the fabled "99ers," making an epic save in the decisive penalty-kick shootout in the final. Scurry captured her second Olympic gold in 2004, cementing her status as one of the premier players in the world. She was the only Black player on the team, and she was also the first...

A long-haul trucker reflects on the changing realities of the working class as witnessed during journeys ranging from the I-95 Powerland and the Florida Everglades to the truck stops of the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains.

During WWII, a solitary prospector crosses paths with Nazis in northern Finland. When the Nazis steal his gold, they quickly discover he is no ordinary miner. While there is no direct translation for the Finnish word "sisu," the legendary ex-commando will embody what it means: a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds. And this one-man death squad will go to outrageous lengths to get his gold...

Explains how the influences of dreamers, zealots, hucksters, and superstitious groups shaped America's tendency toward a rich fantasy life, citing the roles of individuals from P.T. Barnum to Donald Trump in perpetuating conspiracy theories, self-delusion, and magical thinking.

The Fortunes reimagines the traditional multigenerational novel through the lens of immigrant experience. The family institution is revered in Chinese culture, but the historical reality of Chinese Americans has seen family bonds denied, fragmented, or imperiled. The Fortunes uses this history from the bachelor society of the gold rush era to laws against interracial marriage to the recent wave of adopted baby girls to create a portrait of a community...

"A brilliant, funny, generation-defining memoir about the double bind of crafting perfect adversity narratives for highly selective institutions, while fumbling through the far murkier reality of actual life in foster care and inpatient mental health treatment. As a child, Emi Nietfeld was caught between a hoarder mother who got her put on antipsychotic medication, but was also the only person to believe she was exceptional, and a state system exemplified...

"A freewheeling romp through the world of imagery and metaphor, this quietly startling collection of thirty poems, framed by the four elements, is about art and reality, fact and fancy. Look around: what do you see? A clown balancing a pie in a tree, or an empty nest perched on a leafless branch? As poet Connie Wanek alludes to in her afterword--a lively dialogue with former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser--sometimes the simplest sights and sounds "summon...