T. Coraghessan Boyle

The lives of three women on turn-of-the-20th-century San Miguel are shaped by ambition and circumstance, including the wife of a Civil War veteran who hopes to recover her health, her rebellious aspiring actress daughter and a librarian who wonders if the island's peace will endure in the face of looming war.

In 1943, LSD is synthesized in Basel. Two decades later, a coterie of grad students at Harvard are gradually drawn into the inner circle of renowned psychologist and psychedelic drug enthusiast Timothy Leary. Fitzhugh Loney, a psychology Ph. D. student and his wife, Joanie, become entranced by the drug's possibilities such that their 'research' becomes less a matter of clinical trials and academic papers and instead turns into a free-wheeling exploration...

"From the title story, which features a so-called relive box that allows users to experience anew almost any moment from their past, to 'The Five-Pound Burrito,' the tale of a man aiming to build the biggest burrito in town, the twelve stories in this collection represent a whole new way of looking at the world"--From publisher description.

"From best-selling novelist T. C. Boyle, a satirical yet ultimately moving take on contemporary American life in the glare of climate change"-- Denied a dog, a baby, and even a faithful fianč, Cat suddenly craves a snake: a glistening, writhing creature that can be worn like "jewelry, living jewelry" to match her black jeans. But when the budding social media star promptly loses the young "Burmie" she buys from a local pet store, she inadvertently...

Alma Boyd Takesue, a biologist for the National Park Service, is determined to save Santa Barbara from invasive species, but her dreadlocked antagonist, Dave LaJoy, and his lover, folk singer Anise Reed, are adamantly opposed to the killing of any species and will do everything they can to stop Alma and her colleagues from ridding the area of rats and feral pigs.

Deaf Dana Halter is falsley arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, auto theft, and passing bad checks, while William Wilson has been living a blameless life of criminal excess at her expense. Dana and her boyfriend Bridger set out to track him down.