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Book Cover for: Contents May Have Shifted, Pam Houston

Contents May Have Shifted

Pam Houston

Pam Houston, an "early master of the art of rendering fiercely independent, brilliant women in love with the wrong men" (Sarah Norris, Barnes & Noble Review), delivers a novel that whisks us from one breathtaking precipice to the next. Along the way, we unravel the story of Pam (a character not unlike the author), a fearless traveler aiming to leave her metaphorical baggage behind as she seeks a comfort zone in the air. With the help of a loyal cast of friends, body workers, and a new partner who helps her to be at home, she finally finds something like ground under her feet.

Book Details

  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
  • Publish Date: Jan 28th, 2013
  • Pages: 338
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.27in - 5.51in - 0.76in - 0.58lb
  • EAN: 9780393343489
  • Categories: WomenLiteraryFriendship

About the Author

Houston, Pam: - Pam Houston is the prize-winning author of Contents May Have Shifted, among other books. She is professor of English at the University of California-Davis and lives on a ranch at 9,000 feet in Colorado near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

Praise for this book

If [Houston's] unlucky in love, she's certainly lucky in prose. She makes everyday accidental details of nature fly vividly off the page.--Alan Cheuse
Houston is a wonderful writer, and her graceful vignettes are by turns beautiful, slyly funny and heart-stopping.--Rebecca Barry
Houston builds her story out of 132 highly crafted vignettes identified by place names--gems in a constantly changing mosaic.--Jane Ciabattari
Houston is a consummate yarn spinner--smart, funny, and elegant--and her autobiographically tinged book is full of vignette realizations, beautiful scenery, and amazing adventures by a narrator you'd kill to have as a best friend.--Courtney Ferguson
A tale so vivid, intricate, and intimate that it puts high-def TV to shame: One moment, we're straddling lava flowing from a Hawaiian volcano; the next, we're watching thousands of glowworms light up a New Zealand cave...Peppered throughout is advice to live by, stuff worth scribbling down and posting on your inspiration board for when that dark cloud rolls in.--Natasha Clark
True to its title, each snippet harbors small dips and rises that add up to cumulative wisdom by book's end, and a satisfying arc of anecdote that makes a convincing whole.--Ben Fulton
Eat, Pray, Love meets Up in the Air in this engaging novel about a woman whose craving for adventure (and jerk of a boyfriend) sends her flying.
A driving kinetic energy...keeps the reader whirling as Pam turns an observant and critical eye on herself, her relationship, and her country...Houston is as adept a writer as she is an adventurer. And it's her writing with its startling images of the natural world that set this book apart from the rest.--Erika Recordon