What would our world be like if the other side had won WWII? If JFK had
never been assassinated? If the Black Death had been much, much worse?
The genre of alternate history explores questions like these and paints
rich, imaginative versions of worlds that could have so easily existed,
if just one pivotal moment in the past had turned out differently…
Today I will be present. Today, anyone I’m speaking to, I will look them in the eye and listen deeply. Today I’ll play a board game with Timby. I’ll initiate sex with Joe. Today I will take pride in my appearance. I’ll shower, get dressed in proper clothes, and only change into yoga clothes for yoga, which today I will actually attend.
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Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
(Raquel Zaldivar/NPR)
We meet Eleanor Flood, the main character of Maria Semple’s
new novel, on a day when she has resolved to change some things about her life.
She and her family recently moved to Seattle from New York, where she had
worked as an animator on a hit TV show. She’s still working a bit, but she has
also become overwhelmed by the basics of daily life. Semple tells NPR’s Rachel
Martin, “She has decided, instead of trying to accomplish a lot, to set
the bar very low for herself … and try to at least get through the day with
just a basic amount of dignity.”
One of the U.S.'s oldest and most distinguished publishing houses, Little, Brown publishes James Patterson, David Sedaris, Donna Tartt, Malcolm Gladwell & more.