246 pages. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's quarter black cloth with gilt lettering to spine in over black boards in original pictorial jacket. First edition. Nora Mars glamour girl, star of stage and screen, B-movie goddess has slowly aged out of mainstream popularity and quickly slipped into a coma. Known as much for her astonishing looks, her five husbands, and her way with words ( I m all for love at first sight. It saves a lot of time ) as for her movie career, Nora Mars has been a tabloid s dream diva. Marie Brown, the heroine of Jenny McPhee s debut novel The Center of Things, is everything that Nora is not: too tall, too plain, too unmarried, and always too early. But she also happens to be Nora s number-one fan and knows enough to use the star s untimely near-death to advance her own career at the Gotham City Star by insisting on writing her obit. Along the way she meets the charismatic Rex Mars, Nora Mars s husband number-three, and struggles between reportorial integrity and plain old lust. But Marie also has a secret life: She spends every free moment at the library, pursuing her fascination with physics. Here she meets the strange, intriguing Marco Trentadue, a freelance intellectual who bears a striking resemblance to Peter Lorre. While Marie is drawn more and more to Rex, she gradually finds Marco to be the stranger attractor. Interweaving vignettes from Marie s past, movie lore and lines, and metaphorical physics, Jenny McPhee limns the randomness of everyday life, the conflicting pulls of libido and intellect, and the choices conscious or not that shape the search for true love. Condition: Near fine in like jacket.

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Bookseller: The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: BOOKS000871
Title: The Center of Things
Author: Jenny McPhee (1962- )
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - Near Fine
Jacket Condition: Near Fine
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First
ISBN 10: 0385500777
ISBN 13: 9780385500777
Publisher: Doubleday and Company
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 2001
Bookseller catalogs: Literature;
Size: Octavo

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The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA

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About The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA

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Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Gilt: The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Fine: A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Cloth: "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
Octavo: Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...