Alone With You in the Ether

Product Information

The worry on Ms. Holiday’s face eases. “Excellent,” she says with a tentative smile. “Well, don’t let me keep you! I’m here if you have any—”

Reading Paulette Jiles' revenge western Chenneville, it's easy to remember she's a poet. She plays ... Silver masterfully uses descriptive details and imagery. Share a passage that impressed itself upon your mind, and discuss her use of language and metaphor.

Reader Reviews

I cross the hallway and push open one of the heavy double doors leading outside. We’re less than a month away from fall, and the maple trees lining the cobblestone pathway to the street hint at their turn, green leaves dulling in brightness, rusting around the edges. Even though I’m dying to move south, I’ll miss the weather. Especially fall. The turning of the leaves and maple lattes and how the city comes alive once summer comes to an end. In each story, discuss the character’s detachment from each other, and from themselves. Is this a defense mechanism, or a character trait? Which protagonist has the greatest sense of self, and why?

You look like a fish, sweetheart,” he said, and he put his lips to her cheek and blew out puffs of air until she giggled. For a second, Vivian caught a glimpse of what her mother had looked like as a little girl.In] Alone With You, Marisa Silver explores the impact of collateral damage, whether sustained in war or life - brisk and keenly observed - Silver's characters manage somehow to emerge as credible realists, unafraid of the rigors of making do. Even in the darkest moments, their stories are illuminating as they find the courage to face who they are. How is the process of writing a novel different from that of writing short stories? Do you prefer one over the other? Many of my stories explore the issues of separation and intimacy, and I think that these issues are brought to the fore when the possibility of loss is most immanent. These stories are never only, or even mostly, about illness or loss. These threads are always part of a greater weave that is full of humor and moments of happiness and moments of connection. It’s all happening the same time, just like life. Lethally smart. Filled with a cast of brilliantly realized characters, each entangled with one another in torturously delicious ways, The Atlas Six will grip you by the throat and refuse to let go. Olivie Blake is a mind-blowing talent.” — Chloe Gong, author of New York Times bestselling These Violent Delights

It was at moments like this, high enough to inhale the promise of risk, that the whittled lines of city streets brought out his lingering melancholy; that l'appel du vide, the call of the void.” Because we have agreed, collectively, that to proceed without knowledge or understanding is a stupid kind of bravery, an impulsive kind of blindness, but that to be alone without wonder or curiosity is to chip away any possible value we might discover in existing.” A debut collection of short stories which sympathetically explores some of the toughest dilemmas we face in our struggle though life. The director of the agency assured them that they had done well in the interview process, but that it was her job to match the right children with the right parents and this effort could take time.If you’re looking for a book you will want to talk about for a long time (and have plenty of people to talk to about it), The Atlas Six is it.” — Buzzfeed My dentist keeps warning me about bruxism, but I grind my molars anyway. For the last three years, I’ve had one goal: getting into the University of Southern California. Until last month, I was intent on laser-focusing on my fall grades, playing video games in my spare time, and senioritis-ing my way to graduation once that acceptance pinged my inbox. Then Dad lost his job. Eloise Deane is the worst and doesn’t care who knows it. She’s grumpy, prefers to be alone, and is just slogging through senior year with one goal: get accepted to USC and move to California. So when her guidance counselor drops the bombshell that to score a scholarship she’ll desperately need, her applications require volunteer hours, Eloise is up for the challenge. Until she’s paired with LifeCare, a volunteer agency that offers social support to lonely seniors through phone calls and visits. Basically, it’s a total nightmare for Eloise’s anxiety.