{"title":"Billie Livingston","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"crooked-heart-of-mercy-book-billie-livingston-9780062413772","title":"The Crooked Heart of Mercy","description":"From acclaimed Canadian novelist Billie Livingston comes this powerful U.S. debut that unfolds over a riveting dual narrative-an unforgettable story of ordinary lives rocked by hardship and scandal that follows in the tradition of Jennifer Haigh, A. Manette Ansay, and Jennifer Egan.  Ben wakes up in a hospital with a hole in his head he can't explain. What he can remember he'd rather forget. Like how he'd spend nights as a limo driver for the wealthy and debauched...how he and his wife, Maggie, drifted apart in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy...how his little brother, Cola, got in over his head with loan sharks circling.  Maggie is alone. Again. With bills to pay and Ben in a psych ward, she must return to work. But who would hire her in the state she's in? And just as Maggie turns to her brother, Francis, the Internet explodes with video of his latest escapade. The headline? Drunk Priest Propositions Cops.  Francis is an unlikely priest with a drinking problem and little interest in celibacy. A third DUI, a looming court date...When Maggie takes him in, he knows he may be down to his last chance. And his best shot at healing might lie in helping Maggie and Ben reconnect-against all odds.  Simmering with dark humor and piercing insights, The Crooked Heart of Mercy is a startling reminder that redemption can be found in the most unlikely of places.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49916849619217,"sku":"CIN0062413775G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50324138983697,"sku":"CIN0062413775VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52650724360465,"sku":"NLS9780062413772","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52734396760337,"sku":"NIN9780062413772","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062413775.jpg?v=1750693675"},{"product_id":"going-down-swinging-book-billie-livingston-9780679310006","title":"Going Down Swinging","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50359345512721,"sku":"CIN0679310002G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0679310002.jpg?v=1750784246"},{"product_id":"cease-to-blush-book-billie-livingston-9780679313236","title":"Cease to Blush","description":"Billie Livingston's fine second novel leads us to consider the nature of our hidden lives and desires -- and to question whether the sky would really fall if we admitted our true needs and ceased to blush. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs \u003cb\u003eCease to Blush\u003c\/b\u003e opens, Vivian is late to her own mother's funeral. Wearing a tight red suit, Vivian stands out like a pornographer's dream amongst the West Coast intellectuals mourning the death of prominent feminist Josie Callwood. But for all of her bravado, Vivian finds herself emotionally numb and spiraling downward. Vivian and her mother were in constant conflict, with Josie disapproving of her daughter's lifestyle; her inclination to use her body instead of her brain, and her so-called acting career, which has amounted to little more than playing prostitutes and the odd dead body. For her part Vivian has been invested in antagonizing her mother's feminist ideology. As the story opens Vivian's career, as well as her relationship with boyfriend Frank, is taking an unsavoury turn as she wades into the quick cash scheme of Internet porn with herself cast in the lead. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut Josie has left a big surprise for her troubled daughter: a trunk full of mementoes from her own past, all of which point to a secret life more exotic than anything Vivian has been able to pull off. Puzzling together bits and pieces, Vivian learns that her mother was at one time a burlesque performer named Celia Dare who rubbed shoulders with the flashiest celebrities of the sixties. Vivian becomes determined to uncover the true story of her mother's life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eChasing rumours, Vivian sets off down the Pacific coast and soon finds out that truth is a slippery snake. With only a few of her mother's letters, some guarded anecdotes from Josie's former confidant and a slew of books about the sixties, Vivian begins to re-create her mother's life, placing her at the heart of some of the biggest events and scenes of the era. From the protests and beat coffeehouses of Haight-Ashbury to the frenzied nightlife of Rat Pack Vegas, from the political soir es of New York to mob meetings in glitzy Miami hotels, Celia Dare saw and did it all. Yet the glamour hid an ugly underbelly, and as Vivian peels away the layers of the past she begins to uncover her own emotional truths as well. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eCease to Blush\u003c\/b\u003e drives the bumpy road from the burlesque stages of Rat Pack Vegas to the bedroom Internet porn business, exploring just how far women have really come. In Vivian, Livingston has created the perfect character through which to explore what it means to be an independent woman today; with Celia\/Josie, it's clear that things weren't so cut and dry in her day either. Though Celia's story is told vividly here, its accuracy is impossible to gauge and the ghosts are not talking. But maybe this is Celia's gift to Vivian: the ability of the past not only to illuminate the future, but to re-imagine it.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51329271759121,"sku":"CIN0679313230G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0679313230.jpg?v=1751199006"},{"product_id":"chick-at-the-back-of-the-church-book-billie-livingston-9780889711778","title":"The Chick at the Back of the Church","description":"Billie Livingston's poems drive straight for the sharp edges--from the rough, self-assured and brash voice of a woman who poses nude at seventeen while considering the 40-year-old photographer as her guinea pig, to the confidante of relatives and friends grappling with the torturing frustration of love, sexuality, adultery and death.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e These jagged realities also collide with the innocence of childhood--a toddler being offered LSD by the next-door neighbor, a Catholic schoolgirl being dropped into the frontlines of a fierce abortion protest and a young woman trying to relax with a book in a park but instead facing an unwelcome exposure. Livingston also includes a selection of poems written from the disparate voices of a self-destructive family that eventually developed into her popular novel.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52667911405841,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52667912552721,"sku":"NLS9780889711778","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780889711778.jpg?v=1762283715"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-billie-livingston.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}