Rock Away Granny

Getting dropped off at Grandma’s house could be a total snooze. Hours of sitting in the rocking chairs. But not this Grandma. Up she hops to wheel out the record player. And then, with kitty as the DJ—a dance party! The twist, the swing, the Monster Mash—they rock, rock, rock, at Granny’s house tonight. Then right as Mom returns, everyone crashes out in the rocking chairs. Just another boring night at Grandma’s (Mom thinks). Wink! Includes pictures of easy to follow dance steps like the side pass, cuddle, and underarm turn.

Richard Grayson has been keeping a daily diary compulsively since the summer of 1969, when he was an 18-year-old agoraphobic about to venture out into the world - or at least the world around him in Brooklyn. His diary, approximately 600 words a day without missing a day since August 1, 1969, now totals over 9 million words, rivaling the longest diaries ever written. But Grayson is not merely an eccentric with graphomania. ROLLING STONE called Grayson's first short story collection, WITH HITLER IN NEW YORK, published in 1979, "where avant-garde fiction goes when it becomes stand-up comedy." THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, reviewing AND TO THINK THAT HE KISSED HIM ON LORIMER STREET in 2006, said, "Grayson has a fresh, funny voice." BROOKLYN FRIENDS, ROCKAWAY NEIGHBORS covers the start of his studies in the new M.F.A. program in creative writing at Brooklyn College in 1974. BROOKLYN FRIENDS, ROCKAWAY NEIGHBORS covers the winter and spring of 1975, when Grayson is a student in the MFA program at Brooklyn College.

Acclaimed short story writer Richard Grayson has been keeping a diary since the summer of 1969 when he turned 18, a time recounted in his first published book of diary entries, SUMMER IN BROOKLYN. In LAST SUMMER IN ROCKAWAY, it's 1991 and he's turning 40 and spending his final summer in New York City, living in the beachfront apartment that had been his grandparents' longtime home. Having just survived bankruptcy, Grayson is about to shake up his life by moving to a strange city and becoming a first-year law student in middle age. Richard Grayson's previous diary books include SUMMER IN BROOKLYN: 1969-75; MORE SUMMER IN BROOKLYN: 1976-79; WINTER IN BROOKLYN, 1971-72; SPRING IN BROOKLYN, 1975; AUTUMN IN BROOKLYN, 1978; A YEAR IN ROCKAWAY, 1980; SOUTH FLORIDA WINTERS, 1981-84; WEST SIDE SUMMERS, 1984-87; LATE SPRING IN SUNRISE, 1982; INDIAN SUMMER: PARK SLOPE, 1985; SPRINGTIME IN LAUDERHILL, 1986; EIGHTIES' END: 1987-89; SUMMER IN NEW YORK, 1990; and FIRST FALL IN GAINESVILLE, 1991.

When terrorists attacked on September 11, 2001, Lieutenant Brian Murphy rescued seven people from the World Trade Center. Even as steel girders buckled and groaned, Brian rushed back up the stairs of the North Tower in search of those in need. He died a hero, one of more than four hundred police officers, firefighters, and other first responders who perished that fateful day. Three years later, Vietnam veteran and retired NYPD detective-sergeant Jimmy Murphy is on a mission to find the truth behind his son's death. Why was Brian in the tower that morning? Had he anticipated the attack? Suspecting a cover-up of a deeper truth, Jimmy must confront his family, friends, and old colleagues in the police department to discover what happened to Brian and who his eldest son really was. Murphy's investigation takes him from his home turf in the Irish American enclave of Rockaway Beach to Muslim Atlantic Avenue and beyond in order to find his own truth about 9/11. Dry-eyed and determined, Murphy battles barstool patriotism, the NYPD blue wall of silence, and a ticking clock—all the while haunted by his own secrets and the raw memory of his difficult relationship with his dead son. Written by author and musician Larry Kirwan, Rockaway Blue is a thrilling and poignant story of a family struggling to pull itself together after an unthinkable trauma.

East Rockaway is a village on the south shore of Nassau County, Long Island. In 1689, Joseph Haviland built a gristmill, which became the center of economic, social, and cultural life for the next century and a half, until the arrival of the railroad changed the focus of East Rockaway. Shipping waned, milling became obsolete, and new families arrived as East Rockaway entered the 20th century. A picturesque community, the village was incorporated in an effort by the village fathers to fight against unnecessary taxation. Today East Rockaway is a suburban community, with many of its residents employed locally, and it embraces its portrayal as a somnolent, quiet village.

Richard Grayson, author of such acclaimed short story collections as WITH HITLER IN NEW YORK, LINCOLN'S DOCTOR'S DOG and I BRAKE FOR DELMORE SCHWARTZ, has kept a daily diary for over 41 years, since the summer of 1969, when he was an agoraphobic Brooklyn teenager.The year in Rockaway is 1980. Grayson is broke and living in a beachfront studio. His first book, WITH HITLER IN NEW YORK, published the year before, received good reviews but has earned him no more money than his many published stories in literary magazines. Grayson - along with his friends also in their twenties in a year of rampant inflation, widespread unemployment, and a New York City beset with crime, drugs, and seemingly unstoppable decay - wonders where to go next.

Richard Grayson has been keeping a daily diary compulsively since the summer of 1969, when he was an 18-year-old agoraphobic about to venture out into the world - or at least the world around him in Brooklyn. His diary, approximately 600 words a day without missing a day since August 1, 1969, now totals over 9 million words, rivaling the longest diaries ever written.But Grayson is not merely an eccentric with graphomania. ROLLING STONE called Grayson's first short story collection, WITH HITLER IN NEW YORK, published in 1979, "where avant-garde fiction goes when it becomes stand-up comedy." THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, reviewing AND TO THINK THAT HE KISSED HIM ON LORIMER STREET in 2006, said, "Grayson has a fresh, funny voice."BROOKLYN FRIENDS, ROCKAWAY NEIGHBORS covers the start of his studies in the new M.F.A. program in creative writing at Brooklyn College in 1974.BROOKLYN FRIENDS, ROCKAWAY NEIGHBORS covers Grayson's start in the brand-new MFA program at Brooklyn College.

Sleep baby sleep, somewhere in the down deep, a mysterious mountain, a Dreamer's fountain and near its source a talking horse... A grandmother's lullaby guides a princess to grand adventures in the secret Valley of Singing Crystals in the fantastical tale, Granny's Baskets. When the princess of Castletown suddenly runs away from home with a horse seller, little does she know that the handsome stranger is really a prince in disguise. But instead of following his destiny, he now chooses to live in the Valley of Singing Crystals amidst a wizard, a dangerous Sharpie, and a talking horse. The princess and the horse seller try to find their way back to Castletown and they discover the path sealed by an avalanche of rocks. Forced to locate an alternative route, they must dodge danger at every turn and look for clues to help them return home. In a valley filled with magic and mystery, the princess must learn the rules that govern this strange land and in so doing, she finds a treasure lost long ago when her grandmother was a young girl. Will this treasure help lead her home, or will this enchanted world encompass her forever?

Some might say that she is an enigma: this sophisticated forty-year-old grandmother, a widow of twenty years, has been celibate for the duration. After Nyja raised her daughter, in an appropriate manner, she is ready to resume an active sex life. She finds the man of her dreams. However, after their marriage, all chaos breaks out. Nyja finds herself responsible for raising her grandson, just when all she really wants in life is the one thing she has denied herself of for so longa man. But can she turn her back on her daughter now, just when she needs her the most? Nyja finds that she is not the only grandmother, living the dilemma of grandmothers raising another generation; she and other grandmothers in this story learn that their will is strong, but what is even stronger is a grandmothers love.

While helping her granny Collette evacuate to a makeshift shelter in Brooklyn during Superstorm Sandy, Lily uncovers secrets of her grandmother's past as a member of the French Resistance during WWII. Queens, 2012. Hurricane Sandy is flooding New York City, and Lily is at a nursing home with her grandmother, Collette. Lily visits Collette often, as she is beginning to lose her memories. When the National Guard shows up to evacuate the building and take them to safety at the Park Slope armory in Brooklyn, Lily's granny suddenly produces a red box she's hidden in a closet for years. Once they get to safety, Lily opens the box, where she finds an old, beautiful Montblanc pen. Granny tells Lily that the pen is very important and that she has to take care of it, as well as some letters written in French. But Lily loses the pen in the course of helping other nursing home residents, and as she searches the city trying to find it, she learns more about her grandmother's past in France and begins to uncover the significance of the pen with the help of her best friend, a quirky pen expert, and a larger-than-life, off-Broadway understudy. Told in alternating sections (2012 and 1944), this engaging book explores a deep friendship during difficult times and the importance of family.