Olivia (Rossner novel) Olivia (Rossner novel) Olivia (or, The Weight of the Past) is the penultimate novel by Judith Rossner, author of the critically acclaimed best sellers "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and "August". Published in 1994 by Crown, "Olivia" examines "a mother-daughter conflict set in the world of gastronomy." Caroline Sindler is a chef and popular cooking teacher. In flashback, she recounts her past life: after showing an early interest, she learns to cook. After dropping out of college, she travels to Italy, where she finds work in a restaurant, and meets Angelo, a Sicilian in his thirties. After becoming pregnant by him,
Looking for Alaska Looking for Alaska Looking for Alaska is John Green's first novel, published in March 2005 by Dutton Juvenile. It won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association, and led the association's list of most-challenged books in 2015 due to profanity and sexually explicit scenes. "Looking for Alaska" is inspired by Green's own experiences as a high school student. The story is told through the first-person narration of teenager Miles "Pudge" Halter, as he enrolls in a boarding school in order to "seek a Great Perhaps", in the words of François Rabelais. Pudge meets one student in