Ocean State Libraries

Receiving an invitation to his ex-boyfriend's wedding, Arthur, a failed novelist on the eve of his fiftieth birthday, embarks on an international journey that finds him falling in love, risking his life, reinventing himself, and making connections with the past. "Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged...

It's the summer of 1983 in Italy, and Elio, a precocious 17-year-old, spends his days in his family's villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading and flirting with his friend Marzia. One day, Oliver, a charming American scholar arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio's father, an eminent professor. Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives...

"For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences. Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding Written with a sharp eye and ear for the bizarre,...

"Arthur Less, after the death of an old lover and a sudden financial crisis, sets out on a literary adventure across the United States, during which he must finally face his personal demons."--

If being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom was a superpower, Nick Bell would be a hero. Instead he's just a fanboy with ADHD, posting online. After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City's mightiest hero (and Nick's biggest crush), he sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he'll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick's best friend (and maybe the love of his life). -- adapted from jacket...

"Playful, poignant and wholly original, this coming-of-age memoir about Blackness, masculinity and addiction follows the author, a poet and screenwriter, as he recounts his experiences, revealing a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in." --

"Bookshop owner Jacob Moore can't believe his longtime celebrity crush, author Rasul Youssef, is moving to Copper Point. For many, the chance to meet the playboy novelist would be a dream come true, but Jacob dreads it. You should never meet your heroes. You definitely shouldn't pretend to be their boyfriend. Rasul came to this backwater town for an academic residency - a necessary evil, since he's burned through his advance without finishing the...

"An expansive yet intimate story of desire, artistic ambition, and fidelity, set in the glamorous literary and film circles of 1950s Italy. i\In July of 1953, at a glittering party thrown by Truman Capote in Portofino, Italy, Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover Frank Merlo meet Anja Blomgren, a mysteriously taciturn young Swedish beauty and aspiring actress. Their encounter will go on to alter all of their lives. Ten years later, Frank revisits...

The Happy Prince tells the untold story of the last days of Oscar Wilde. Though his last days were tragic, Wilde reflects on his life with humor at a distance. As he lies on his deathbed in Paris, memories of his life come to him in flashes. He recounts his fame in London and how he fell from grace in the same city. He looks back at his past lovers including his wife, his affair with a lord, and the love of someone who tried saving him in the end....