<div>How do the spaces we inhabit affect us&mdash;and reflect us? A Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author explores architecture, in this insightful, &ldquo;breezy&rdquo; read (The Washington Post). In 1981, Alison Lurie published The Language of Clothes, a meditation on costume and fashion as an expression of history, social status and individual psychology. Amusing, enlightening and full of literary allusion, the book was highly praised and widely anthologized. Now Lurie has returned with a companion book, The Language of Houses, a lucid, provocative and entertaining look at how the architecture of buildings and the spaces within them both reflect and affect the people who inhabit them. Schools, churches, government buildings, museums, prisons, hospitals, restaurants, and of course, houses and apartments&mdash;all of them speak to human experience in vital and varied ways. The Language of Houses discusses historical and regional styles and the use of materials such as stone and wood and concrete, as well as contemplating the roles of stairs and mirrors, windows and doors, tiny rooms and cathedral-like expanses, illustrating its conclusions with illuminating literary references and the comments of experts in the field. Accompanied by lighthearted original drawings, The Language of Houses is an essential and highly entertaining new contribution to the literature of modern architecture. </div>

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The Language of Houses

<div>Poignant remembrances and sharp observations from the &ldquo;most able and witty&rdquo; Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of Foreign Affairs (The New York Times). This engaging new collection of essays from the New York Times&ndash;bestselling novelist gathers together her reflections on the writing life; fond recollections of inspiring friends; and perceptive, playful commentary on preoccupations ranging from children&rsquo;s literature to fashion and feminism. Citing her husband&rsquo;s comment to her that &ldquo;Nobody asked you to write a novel,&rdquo; Lurie goes on to eloquently explain why there was never another choice for her. She looks back on attending Radcliffe in the 1940s&mdash;an era of wartime rations and a wall of sexism where it was understood that Harvard was only for the men. From offering a gleeful glimpse into Jonathan Miller&rsquo;s production of Hamlet to memorializing mentors and intimate friends such as poet James Merrill, illustrator Edward Gorey, and New York Times Book Review coeditor Barbara Epstein, Lurie celebrates the creative artists who encouraged and inspired her. A lifelong devotee of children&rsquo;s literature, she suggests saying no to Narnia, revisits the phenomenon of Harry Potter, and tells the truth about the ultimate good bad boy, Pinocchio. Returning to a favorite subject, fashion, Lurie explores the symbolic meaning of aprons, enthuses on how the zipper made dressing and undressing faster&mdash;and sexier&mdash;and tells how, feeling abandoned by Vogue at age sixty, she finally found herself freed from fashion&rsquo;s restrictions on women. Always spirited no matter the subject, Lurie ultimately conveys a joie de vivre that comes from a lifetime of never abandoning her &ldquo;childish impulse to play with words, to reimagine the world.&rdquo;</div>

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Words and Worlds

<div>This Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning novel follows two American academics in London&mdash;a young man and a middle-aged woman&mdash;as they each fall into unexpected romances. In her early fifties, Vinnie Miner is the sort of woman no one ever notices, despite her career as an Ivy League professor. She doubts she could get a man&rsquo;s attention if she waved a brightly colored object in front of him. And though she loves her work, her specialty&mdash;children&rsquo;s folk rhymes&mdash;earns little respect from her fellow scholars. Then, alone on a flight to London for a research trip, she sits next to a man she would never have viewed as a potential romantic partner. In a Western-cut suit and a rawhide tie, he is a sanitary engineer from Tulsa, Oklahoma, on a group tour. He&rsquo;s the very opposite of her type, but before Vinnie knows it, she&rsquo;s spending more and more time with him. Also in London is Vinnie&rsquo;s colleague, a young, handsome English professor whose marriage and self-esteem are both on the rocks. But Fred Turner is also about to find consolation&mdash;in the arms of the most beautiful actress in England. Stylish and highborn, she introduces Fred to a glamorous, yet eccentric, London scene that he never expected to encounter. The course of these two relationships makes up the story of Foreign Affairs&mdash;a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award as well as a Pulitzer Prize winner, and an entertaining, poignant tale from the author of The War Between the Tates and The Last Resort, &ldquo;one of this country&rsquo;s most able and witty novelists&rdquo; (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author&rsquo;s personal collection. </div>

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Foreign Affairs

<div>In the Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author&rsquo;s &ldquo;excellent&rdquo; debut, a professor&rsquo;s wife searches for liberation at the hands of a music instructor (The New York Times). Though born in New York, the men of Emmy Turner&rsquo;s family have long found their spiritual home in the idyllic Convers College. Her father, brothers, and uncles entered the New England intellectual enclave as boys and came out men, ready to take on the challenges of the world. It is a pity, Emmy thinks, that women are not allowed to enroll. So when her husband, Holman, wins a place teaching at Convers, Emmy is thrilled to finally see what all the fuss is about. But by the time the first snow hits, she is bored, listless, and utterly out of love. Emmy&rsquo;s search for pleasure on campus leads her to Miranda, a cocky young bohemian, and Will, a music teacher specializing in sexual composition. Emmy may not be paying tuition, but in her first Convers winter she will learn more than she ever expected. The National Book Award&ndash;shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs Affairs, The War Between the Tates, and The Last Resort writes a sharply observant and poignant debut novel. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author&rsquo;s collection. </div>

Love and Friendship

<div>Two sociologists infiltrate a cult that pulls them into madness in this &ldquo;barbed and richly entertaining&rdquo; novel from a Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author (The Wall Street Journal). Once the nation&rsquo;s most popular sociologist, Tom McMann searches for a research subject that will invigorate his career. Unlike any study he&rsquo;s seen before, he targets the Truth Seekers, an up-and-coming cult that seeks flying saucers, utopian planets, and new spiritual plains. An irresistible mixture of New Age cranks and sci-fi nerds, they are ruled over by Verena, a beautiful young telepath who believes she has a hotline to another world. The Seekers are isolated, committed, and eccentric, but most importantly, they&rsquo;re hiring. Assisted by his wide-eyed young colleague, Roger Zimmern, McMann infiltrates the Truth Seekers, hoping to see how the zealots respond if questioned by someone within their midst. But when Verena&rsquo;s babblings start to make a little too much sense, the researchers must choose between losing their minds and buying one-way tickets to outer space. From the National Book Award&ndash;shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs, The War Between the Tates, and The Last Resort, this is a richly funny novel that will dazzle and entertain. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author&rsquo;s collection. </div>

Imaginary Friends

<div>In this &ldquo;excellent&rdquo; novel of &ldquo;rare understanding&rdquo; from a Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author, culture shock consumes a young Harvard couple in Los Angeles (The New York Times). When his mentor at Harvard University suddenly leaves for Washington, Paul Cattleman finds himself adrift in the wilds of academia. After losing his fellowship, he is out of work and one thesis short of a PhD. Rather than doom his career by taking what he considers to be an unsuitable job, he finds a temporary position at the Nutting Research and Development Corporation in Los Angeles, a city whose superficial charms signal an adventure. He is ready to make the best of his year out west among the beatniks and Hollywood hippies. The only thing holding him back is his wife. Katherine is a New Englander through and through, and as soon as she steps into the LA smog, she knows this transition will be a struggle. What Paul sees as fun, she considers vulgar. Bogged down by her allergies and crumbling marriage, she seeks out a shrink, who surprises and transforms her. While Los Angeles may be a cultural wasteland, this East Coast girl will find that West Coast pleasures can be quite a lot of fun. The National Book Award&ndash;shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs &ldquo;writes coolly and wickedly&rdquo; of freedom and self-discovery in this witty novel (The New Yorker). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author&rsquo;s collection. </div>

The Nowhere City

<div>A novel of childlike wonder and adult discord during the Great Depression&mdash;by the Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of The Nowhere City. Dozing in the back seat of her father&rsquo;s car, Mary Ann Hubbard is the happiest eight-year-old in the country. It&rsquo;s 1935, and she and her parents are going to spend Fourth of July weekend at her headmistress&rsquo;s farm in upstate New York. Joining them are the Zimmerns, whose daughter Lolly is Mary Ann&rsquo;s best friend from school. While the two little girls frolic in the attic, endowing the rambling old house with wonder, creativity, and imagination, their parents are downstairs, mired in all the pleasure, pain, and occasional childishness of adulthood. As an affair threatens to tear the two families apart, Lolly and Mary Ann retreat farther into playtime. By the end of the weekend, the girls begin to realize that becoming an adult and growing up can be two very different things. The National Book Award&ndash;shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs gives a joyous glimpse into the innocence and irony of childhood during the Great Depression. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author&rsquo;s collection. </div>

Only Children

<div>In this comedy by a Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author, a biographer out to vindicate a neglected female artist learns that the truth is never tidy. Polly Alter is through with men. Recovering from her divorce, she has taken a year off from her museum job to write a biography of Lorin Jones, a sensitive painter who died young and nearly forgotten. Polly is determined to bring the artist the public acclaim she deserves, making up for the neglect and exploitation Lorin suffered from the men in her life. The only problem with the story of Lorin&rsquo;s victimhood is that it may not be true. And as Polly wades deeper into her research, growing more attached to her subject, and more lost in the world of two decades past, she begins to realize that no life story is as simple as a biographer might wish. The National Book Award&ndash;shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs writes a daring and &ldquo;relentless comedy&rdquo; that novelist Edmund White calls &ldquo;one of the most entertaining novels I&#39;ve read in a long time&rdquo; (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author&rsquo;s collection. </div>

The Truth About Lorin Jones

<div>An artists&rsquo; colony is a false paradise for a frustrated writer in this &ldquo;witty, knowing, and perceptive&rdquo; novel from a Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author (The New Yorker). The mansion is called Illyria, but for the writers and artists who flock there each summer, it&rsquo;s a Garden of Eden where every artistic curiosity is explored. Away from family, friends, and ordinary responsibilities, the creative spirit can flower, nurtured by the company of other artistic souls. Janet Belle Smith&rsquo;s husband doesn&rsquo;t understand why she can&rsquo;t write at home&mdash;or really, for that matter, why she must write at all&mdash;but for Janet, the reason is clear: Only in Illyria can she be herself. But as the writer mingles with her fellow artists&mdash;including a Marxist novelist, a Beat poet, and a wild-man sculptor&mdash;she begins to fear that the &ldquo;real&rdquo; her isn&rsquo;t who she expected, and Illyria is not the peaceful kingdom it appears to be. This creative paradise is rotting from the inside out, and if Janet doesn&rsquo;t move quickly, she&rsquo;ll be trapped in the rubble when the walls come tumbling down. From the National Book Award&ndash;shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs, this humorous story &ldquo;goes down pleasantly, like a glass of lemonade&rdquo; (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author&rsquo;s collection. </div>

Real People

<div>A husband&rsquo;s affair pushes a suburban wife to her breaking point in this &ldquo;near perfect comedy of manners&rdquo; by the Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of Real People (The New York Times). Erica Tate wouldn&rsquo;t mind getting up in the morning if her children were less intolerable. Until puberty struck, Jeffrey and Matilda were absolute darlings, but in the last year, they have become sullen, insufferable little monsters. A forty-year-old housewife out of work and out of mind, she finds little happiness in the small college town of Corinth. Erica&rsquo;s husband, Brian, a political science professor, is so deeply immersed in university life&mdash;or more accurately in the legs of his mistress, a half-literate flower child named Wendy&mdash;that he either doesn&rsquo;t notice his wife&rsquo;s misery or simply doesn&rsquo;t care. Worst of all, their pleasant little neighborhood is transforming into a subdivision. As new ranch houses spring up around their once idyllic home, Erica&rsquo;s marriage inches closer to disaster. When the Tate household tips into full-scale emotional combat, Erica must do her best to ensure that she comes out on top. In this darkly comic tale of a family at civil war, the National Book Award&ndash;shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs dives into the deterioration of a marriage. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author&rsquo;s collection.</div>

The War Between the Tates

<div>A Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author&rsquo;s &ldquo;sparkling, smart&rdquo; tale of an aging writer and his younger wife looking for new life&mdash;or a way to end it&mdash;in Key West (The New York Times). Every schoolboy in America knows the work of author Wilkie Walker, who won fame and fortune with his accessible nature books. But as he turns seventy, his renown is nearly gone. Now he sits up at night torturing himself with fears that his career was a waste, his talent is gone, and his body destroyed by cancer. His wife, Jenny, twenty-five years younger, can tell only that he is out of sorts. She has no idea her husband is on the verge of giving up on life. When Jenny suggests spending the winter in Key West, Wilkie goes along with it. After all, if you need to plan a fatal &ldquo;accident,&rdquo; Florida is a perfectly good place to do so. And when they touch down in the sunshine state, the Walkers find it&rsquo;s not too late to live life&mdash;or end it&mdash;however they damn well please. The National Book Award&ndash;shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs Affairs, The War Between the Tates, and The Last Resort writes a &ldquo;sparkling, smart . . . highly volatile&rdquo; novel (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author&rsquo;s collection. </div>

Alison Lurie
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Books By Alison Lurie (11 Books)

The Language of Houses

Words and Worlds

Foreign Affairs

Love and Friendship

Imaginary Friends

The Nowhere City

Only Children

The Truth About Lorin Jones

Real People

The War Between the Tates

The Last Resort

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Alison LurieFollow this author