queens (new york, n.y.)

Krystal Ball of Queens, New York, is looking forward to her tenth birthday party, but she is worried that nobody will come because her psychic dreams make her seem weird. Then a flood in her friend Billy's apartment damages her apartment and it looks like the party will never happen.

In 1960s New York, fifth-grader Ruthie, a Cuban-Jewish immigrant, must rely on books, art, her family, and friends in her multicultural neighborhood when an accident puts her in a body cast.

In 1970 Queens, New York, Julian Twerski, now in seventh grade, struggles to write an essay as punishment for an act he did not commit, worries about Beverly, the girl he likes, prepares for his bar mitzvah, and tries to cope with the serious illness of one of his closest friends, Quentin.

A single mother awakens to find her children missing, catapulting her into a suspenseful search for answers.

Born in 1941 in Queens and raised by alcoholic Irish immigrant parents, Eileen Tumulty dreams of better life and she thinks she's found the perfect partner in a promising research scientist, but Eileen quickly discovers Ed doesn't aspire to the same American Dream and later it becomes clear that his growing reluctance is part of a deeper psychological shift.

In Queens, New York, in 1969, twelve-year-old Julian Twerski writes a journal for his English teacher in which he explores his friendships and how they are effected by girls, a new student who may be as fast as Julian, and especially an incident of bullying.

"Born in 1941, Eileen Tumulty is raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Woodside, Queens, in an apartment where the mood swings between heartbreak and hilarity, depending on whether guests are over and how much alcohol has been consumed. Eileen can't help but dream of a calmer life, in a better neighborhood. When Eileen meets Ed Leary, a scientist whose bearing is nothing like those of the men she grew up with, she thinks she's found the perfect partner to deliver her to the cosmopolitan world she longs to inhabit. They marry, and Eileen quickly discovers Ed doesn't aspire to the same, ever bigger, stakes in the American Dream. Eileen encourages her husband to want more: a better job, better friends, a better house, but as years pass it becomes clear that his growing reluctance is part of a deeper psychological shift. An inescapable darkness enters their lives, and Eileen and Ed and their son Connell try desperately to hold together a semblance of the reality they have known, and to preserve, against long odds, an idea they have cherished of the future. Through the Learys, novelist Matthew Thomas charts the story of the American Century, particularly the promise of domestic bliss and economic prosperity that captured hearts and minds after WWII. The result is a powerfully affecting work of art; one that reminds us that life is more than a tally of victories and defeats, that we live to love and be loved, and that we should tell each other so before the moment slips away. Epic in scope, heroic in character, masterful in prose, We Are Not Ourselves is a testament to our greatest desires and our greatest frailties."--.

Born in 1941 in Queens and raised by alcoholic Irish immigrant parents, Eileen Tumulty dreams of better life and she thinks she's found the perfect partner in a promising research scientist, but Eileen quickly discovers Ed doesn't aspire to the same American Dream and later it becomes clear that his growing reluctance is part of a deeper psychological shift.

Tom Pak, hired as a clerk at a Korean grocery store, becomes caught up in the racial and class conflicts that threaten to destroy the neighborhood.

A multicultural collection of stories, poems, essays, drama, and photographs by past and current residents of Queens, New York.