Most Popular Books by Laura Moriarty

Critics and readers everywhere stood up and took notice when Laura Moriarty''s captivating debut novel hit the stores in June ''03. Janet Maslin of the New York Times praised The Center of Everything as "warm" and "beguiling." USA Today compared the scrappy yet tender-hearted Evelyn Bucknow to Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. It garnered extensive national attention; from Entertainment Weekly to the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle, the press raved about the wisdom and poignancy of Moriarty''s writing. The Book-of-the-Month Club snatched it up as a Main Selection, as did the Literary Guild. It was a USA Today Summer Reading Pick, a BookSense Top 10 Pick, and a BN.com book club feature title. And still, months after The Center of Everything''s original publication date, reviews and features of the book continue to run nationwide.

A powerful and thought-provoking YA debut from New York Times bestselling author Laura Moriarty. Imagine a United States in which registries and detainment camps for Muslim-Americans are a reality. Fifteen-year-old Sarah-Mary Williams of Hannibal, Missouri, lives in this world, and though she has strong opinions on almost everything, she isn’t concerned with the internments because she doesn’t know any Muslims. She assumes that everything she reads and sees in the news is true, and that these plans are better for everyone’s safety. But when she happens upon Sadaf, a Muslim fugitive determined to reach freedom in Canada, Sarah-Mary at first believes she must turn her in. But Sadaf challenges Sarah-Mary’s perceptions of right and wrong, and instead Sarah-Mary decides, with growing conviction, to do all she can to help Sadaf escape. The two set off on a desperate journey, hitchhiking through the heart of an America that is at times courageous and kind, but always full of tension and danger for anyone deemed suspicious.

In The Rest of Her Life, Laura Moriarty delivers a luminous, compassionate, and provocative look at how mothers and daughters with the best intentions can be blind to the harm they do to one another. Leigh is the mother of high-achieving, popular high school senior Kara. Their relationship is already strained for reasons Leigh does not fully understand when, in a moment of carelessness, Kara makes a mistake that ends in tragedy -- the effects of which not only divide Leigh''s family, but polarize the entire community. We see the story from Leigh''s perspective, as she grapples with the hard reality of what her daughter has done and the devastating consequences her actions have on the family of another teenage girl in town, all while struggling to protect Kara in the face of rising public outcry. Like the best works of Jane Hamilton, Jodi Picoult, and Alice Sebold, Laura Moriarty''s The Rest of Her Life is a novel of complex moral dilemma, filled with nuanced characters and a page-turning plot that makes readers ask themselves, "What would I do"

Soon to be a feature film from the creators of Downton Abbey starring Elizabeth McGovern, The Chaperone is a New York Times-bestselling novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in the 1920s and the summer that would change them both. Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever. For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive. Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s, ’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers, and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.

While I''m Falling deftly captures the moment a child realizes that growing up means being responsible for your parents'' mistakes -- and preventing yourself from making the same ones. Laura Moriarty keeps getting better and better." -- Jodi Picoult, author of Handle with Care In While I''m Falling, Laura Moriarty presents a compelling depiction of how one young woman''s life changes when her family breaks up for good. Ever since her parents announced that they''re getting divorced, Veronica has been falling. Hard. A junior in college, she has fallen in love. She has fallen behind in her difficult coursework. She hates her job as counselor at the dorm, and she longs for the home that no longer exists. When an attempt to escape the pressure, combined with bad luck, lands her in a terrifying situation, a shaken Veronica calls her mother for help -- only to find her former foundation too preoccupied to offer any assistance at all. But Veronica only gets to feel hurt for so long. Her mother shows up at the dorm with a surprising request -- and with the elderly family dog in tow. Boyfriend complications ensue, along with her father''s sudden interest in dating. Veronica soon finds herself with a new set of problems, and new questions about love and independence. Darkly humorous, beautifully written, and filled with crystalline observations about how families fall apart, While I''m Falling takes a deep look at the relationship between a daughter and a mother when one is trying to grow up and the other is trying to stay afloat.

Fiction. Cunning is the story of various impossible women -- Elizabeth I, Mary of Scotland, the 19th century courtesan Lola Montez, Sarah Winchester and Sarah Winnemucca, the men they use and are used by, and the fabled lands they covet and colonize, California and Ireland (Kevin Killian). These are cunning women; this is cunning writing: ''She is a low cunning witch, '' he claimed, which, not knowing what he meant, made her believe that cunning was the word for what she did for what she had done. For what she was. Written in short chapters and gorgeous, propelled sentences, poet Laura Moriarty''s novelistic foray into history, geography, the female, asks to be read in one delicious sitting. In the geography of the masque, everything is exposed. There is a handwritten quality to the age which is also true of the play. Our attendance is mandatory in the sense that we will not feel part of life if we are left out. The absent ones are remembered and then not (from The Masque of ''The World'').

Controversies in Victimology features original works of noted scholars and practitioners, aiming to shed light on the debates over, the media attention on, and the psychology behind victimization. This book discusses the controversies from all sides of the debate, and attempts to reconcile the issues in order to move the field forward.

Stella Nemo, the most appealing sort of sophisticated naif, plunges her paper ship, the Nautilus, into deepest, blackest space, crossing into the fraught domains of other planets and other minds, beaming requests for information to Ada Byron (a clone and psychic information scientist), and dreaming of the renaissance poet Thomas Wyatt (who exists as data). Stella''s mission: to attempt to think and to write without being disturbed, derailed or killed.

Poetry. In this NUDE MEMOIR -- a roving gallery of nude torsos, nude cadaver toes, nude female lover and dead male lover, nude bride undoing God''s and Duchamp''s imposed abstract nakedness -- a woman is born. She is born of words formed when ''a sex (is) offered to a face.'' She is terrible and she is wonderful. She is film noir married to Baroque. She is sentences, magnificance, lust. She is an edifice of loss amterializing and de-materializing on a line between poetry and prose that Laura Moriarty casts with the hand of a magician. I, too, dream of stripping bare this figure that the poet has so gorgeously decked out, to get to the heart of her namelessness. NUDE MEMOIR is an entrancing work of love, mourning, and resistance by a major poet -- Gail Scott.

In a combination of discourse and lyric, paragraph and couplet, Bay Area poet and novelist Laura Moriarty explicates the poetics of a group of writers that resists categorization. This book-length essay uses the work of the California Tonalist painters to articulate new understanding and new possibilities for poetic practice.

A new collection of poetry from the important experimental writer of the "A Tonalist" lyric

Août 1922. Louise Brooks a 15 ans. Cette future icône du cinéma muet intègre la prestigieuse école de danse de Denishawn et touche du doigt son rêve : quitter sa ville étriquée du Kansas pour la flamboyante New York. Seule ombre au tableau, ses parents lui imposent une chaperonne, Cora Carlisle. Une femme aux antipodes de la jeune Louise, avec des valeurs, le souci des convenances, mais aussi de lourds secrets... Car si Cora se porte volontaire pour accompagner la jeune fille, c''est avant tout pour pouvoir partir sur les traces de son propre passé obscur. Elle n''imaginait pas que préserver la vertu de sa protégée s''avérerait aussi difficile. Louise, avec son air mutin, son petit carré noir soyeux à la frange bien dessinée, attire les regards, elle a soif de liberté et entend bien profiter de cette ville enchanteresse qui foisonne de théâtres, résonne d''un jazz enivrant et fourmille d''hommes. Ces cinq semaines passées ensemble vont changer le cours de leur vie à jamais.... Une sublime fresque romanesque tout en sensibilité, deux portraits de femmes d''une force, d''une audace et d''une modernité éblouissantes !

Una futura estrella del cine mudo y la mujer que la acompaña a Nueva York, en los vertiginosos años veinte.

A series of poems that explores walking, writing, and making as divinatory practices. Documenting (and interrogating) the poet''s daily walks, Which Walks investigates the twin practices of walking and art-making while aging. Gender is also a central concern in this intensely feminist work. Moriarty''s book relates to the endlessly unfinished journeys of Nathaniel Mackey''s long poems, as well as to the dailiness of many writers from Charles Baudelaire to Robert Creeley. These poems are an extension of the author''s visual practice, which she is returning to after a fifty-year break. Here she succeeds in existing--even thriving--in today''s strange, often terrifying, world.

Field Notes is a collaborative group of visual artists living and working in New York State''s Mid-Hudson Valley region, in close proximity to the Catskill Mountain Range and the Shawngunk Ridge, northern regions of the Appalachian Range. Comprising this collective are Robert Capozzi, Lorrie Fredette, Dylan McManus, Laura Moriarty, and Jill Parisi. Each of the artists addresses the earth''s environment through various conceptual and technical means. This book catalogs their installation in the Ruffin Gallery of the University of Virginia, 2010.

The O''Malley family believes that Tim, the youngest of the Nine Irish Sons, is a renowned lover, leaving broken hearts at every port. He is smart, a comedian, a dancer, and despite his job as a spy in the family agency, is chased by copious numbers of young women who find him charming and gorgeous. But the truth is that he is the shyest of men, and has had no real relationships or sexual experience. He doesn''t know why.On the other hand, Patrick, the bastard son of Gabriel O''Malley and Madeline O''Meara McStanish, and step son of Agnes O''Malley, is assumed to be a cold blooded spy, with an icy dull personality, and somewhat boring look. Compared to his princely half cousins, Patrick looks ordinary. They can''t imagine him attracting women.Then his physical skills become the object of incredulity and gossip. The Nine Irish Sons often wonder about his callous proficiencies and lack of friendliness behind his back. They finally discover to their amazement---the real truth---that Patrick has had numerous love affairs, and has fathered a profuse number of children around the globe.

Poems.

Offers hard-to-find pieces from twelve collections as well as new pieces by the American poet.

A mesmerizing exploration of the intensity and power of volcanoes in personal, geologic, and spiritual time.

Joe O''Malley is one of the youngest of The Nine Irish Sons. He chose to go to college in the U.S., first to Columbia in N.Y., and then to Georgetown Law School. His dream is to be invited into an elite D.C. law firm and then to run for congress. But his family interferes. He is literally forced into a public defender''s position in New York where Katherine Rose Gilmore set up a task force on the human trafficking of sex slaves. Joe assumes Katherine was responsible for his mother''s interference in his work and is immediately resentful. He pouts over the improbable fulfillment of his political dreams and takes it out on her. Joe''s grandmother is the true master behind the plans to have them marry, and ultimately have Joe elected to congress to uncover a myriad of international crimes by greedy politicians. But she doesn''t leave their future to pure chance. She sets plans into motion that force the two to work together on a dangerous mission until their resistance to being set up is broken and their dormant desires boil over into a rare romance.

Poems.

"An Avec Sampler" features new work by seven writers -- of poetry and experimental fiction -- who have been featured in editor Cydney Chadwick''s critically acclaimed magazine Avec, out of Penngrove, California. Included are selections from Laura Moriarty''s The Case, a selection of five poems by Chris Stroffolino, Laynie Browne from The Agency Of Wind, George Albon from Step, Stephen-Paul Martin from Not Quite Fiction, five stories by Lissa McLaughlin, and three stories by Susan Smith Nash.

“Fate provviste, staccate il telefono e chiudetevi in casa: non riuscirete a metter giù questo libro prima di aver letto la parola fine.” Kirkus Reviews Un divorzio. Un esame. Una tempesta di ghiaccio. Talvolta la vita accelera per insegnarci a starle dietro. Tutti si aspettano qualcosa da Veronica. Tim, che vuole andare a vivere con lei. Suo padre, che insiste perché faccia medicina. Perfino quello psicopatico di Jimmy, che le affida la casa mentre è via. Tutti contano su di lei, perché è una brava ragazza, assennata e diligente. Fino a che la vita perfettamente ordinata di Veronica si trasforma di colpo in un campo minato di dubbi: i suoi genitori divorziano da un giorno all’altro dopo ventisei anni di matrimonio, gli esami vanno storti e la voglia di studiare sparisce insieme a quella di rigare dritto. Cos’è? La fine del mondo? Forse sì. O forse è solo l’occasione per imparare che a volte ciò che conta è anche saper infrangere le regole, e avere il coraggio di andarsi a prendere quello che manca. Soprattutto se a mancare è un piccolo extra di felicità.

Poetry. "THE CASE, besides being a mystery to be solved (where is the dead beloved, what happened to him?) and a literal case or box containing items (as with Duchamp''s Boxes) pertinent to the larger work (the ''wedding''; or past and present lives) also strikes the reader as a private enclosure in which the poet confronts herself and what has happened. This space is sometimes theatrical or artifact-like, sometimes inclusive of the natural world; real objects and present experience can take part in the confrontation. Experience is encountered not described, the present is what it''s like when it''s happening even if it''s pain. Though THE CASE is a private domain it isn''t exclusive: the poet is alone thinking, yet others feel nearby in their warmth. THE CASE is appropriately muted, but not reticent. Its colors seem wisely chosen. It''s full of light, ocean light, house light, the light of a shadow puppet show. The subject of the book isn''t at all darkness, it''s the peculiarly lit and peculiarly gracious space in which rituals of loss take place." Alice Notley"

This book is written by someone who substituted for over five years, so you can be sure you will read things about this public job that are rarely spoken about openly.Substitute teachers often stand alone working behind a veil of obscurity and secrecy. But they should not exist in isolation or be treated as outsiders. There are some tips for substitutes in this book, especially knowing what the job can be like when there are behavioral and disciplinary issues. Therefore, facing these difficulties is the first step needed to make improvements in what should be a collaborative system . . . specifically, one that puts children first.

About the book . . ."Irish Luck" is the story of the grandparents of "The Nine Irish Sons."Before Jack Jones left for Queenstown to board the Titanic on a secret quest, he prepared legal documents leaving all he owned to his fianc�. Still, feeling strangely uneasy, he wanted to secure their bond and a definite future together, so they made love the day before he left.Maud, born nine months later, never knew of her illegitimacy---only that she adored the picture of her beloved unknown father Jones. When she met a young, handsome Irish Admiral who resembled the picture, and introduced himself as Jones O''Malley from Mayo County, she fell in love instantly.An unpredictable conundrum of Irish Luck ensues---unexpected romances unexpected wealth---unexpected illegitimacy, unexpected ties to the IRA, and unexpected children.

From The Secrets of Nine Irish Sons TrilogyAfter Rosemary O''Connor finds her abusive husband sneaking into her young daughter''s bedroom, she spends the next few years physically fighting him off to protect her beautiful Brigid. In the end, Rosemary saves her from her father, but is unable to shield Brigid from a ravaging stranger, a man nearly twice her age, who uses the young girl''s desperate desire for love to seduce her. Once she learns her daughter is pregnant, as if tempting fate, Rosemary suffers a final altercation. She sends Brigid away while secretly condemning her husband to prison. Rosemary''s scheme was to save Brigid from a pitiless society that oppressed unwed mothers during the early days of the 1900s. But she frightens her in the process. As a result, vestiges of her fear and caution keeps her desire for a husband perpetually fettered---and then each time she is ready to fall in love, fate intervenes.

Reiley Freeze was an extremely heroic, kind, and popular character with readers in the trilogy, The Secrets of Nine Irish Sons. His instant charisma was evident with everyone he knew. He was fascinating, and yet, he never met very many people---he was always on the move.Reiley was the envy of every man who ever met him including his own brother. He didn''t understand why men disliked him because he didn''t realize that he made choices with a power that many men lacked---the internal fortitude to set aside his own desires for the sake of others. He stayed completely loyal to his goals---to provide a permanent life of security for the generations who would follow his own. He made every decision as closely aligned with the world''s most valued and yet difficult necessity---the one that says good men must conquer the evil ones while not becoming stained with sin and guilt--- the only way for a man to become a real hero.Even more unlikely, the men who disliked him out of jealousy, principally because he was so admired by women, couldn''t see the truth. They saw his charm, but yet, he held no pretense or swagger. The reason women longed for him was because of his way---his way with words---his way with a smile---his way with a helping hand, and most importantly, his way with his goodness.

This is the story of grandparents of*****The Nine Irish Sons*****Brigid Jones meets Patrick a.k.a. Jones O''Malley when he walks into her mother''s bakery in Dublin. He''s dressed as an Admiral and she sees an idealized image of the father she never met. The two decide they were meant for each other almost immediately when they discover that they have identical ambitions---to marry, own a cottage, and raise a bunch of children, and interestingly dismiss the need for a romantic courtship.Unknown, however, are private lives that are filled with unspoken suffering and strange ordeals. In the end, they are blessed with the many children they both desired, but not all were their own. Brigid says in the end, "Sometimes I think there are millions of Irish spirits desperate to be born whether they end up with a decent life or not---it''s as if none of us are as important as that next life that just has to be brought into the world in Ireland."