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You're the Worst Person in the World

Scarlet Hiltibidal

Are you tired of the unrelenting pressure to be the best at everything? Author and speaker Scarlet Hiltibidal was too.



For Scarlet, attempting to be the best at pretty much everything--whether that be the best wife or the best sub-sandwich maker or the best Christian--was her life story. But in the midst of all her striving and reaching to hit the mark, she somehow still couldn't grab hold of the joy and freedom and life-change that's supposed to come with the gospel's good news. That is, until she realized something revolutionary--instead of the best, she might actually be...the worst. The "chief of sinners." Poor in spirit and gone astray.



In her much-anticipated follow-up to Afraid of All the Things (and in her humorous and relatable style), Scarlet tells plenty of stories of her own "worstness" to help you see your own and rejoice in the reality that our goodness and badness aren't what make God smile at us.



Instead of hiding from our brokenness, this book will help us stare that broken reality straight in the face, along with a laugh or two, as we feel the weight of just how absurdly and glaringly off the mark we all are! What's more--this book will also help us embrace our status as "sinners" and "sheep" and "worst people on earth" who have been mercifully rescued and impossibly loved by the best person who has ever lived: Jesus. And the unbelievable part? As we admit our worstness, stop trying to be perfect on our own, and simply walk with the One who really is perfect, we'll find along the way that we are actually changing for the better!



If you're tired of hustling to be the best, take a load off with Scarlet and say the honest and laughable truth along with her: we're the worst people in the world!

 

Edited by Kate 
 

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An Inconvenient Apocalypse

Wes Jackson

Confronting harsh ecological realities, this book explores the roots of social injustice and offers a down-powering path to "fewer and less."

Since the advent of agriculture, humans have been depleting the ecological capital of the planet, with some doing far more damage than others. In An Inconvenient Apocalypse, Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen, two of today's most prominent writers in the fields of sustainability studies, argue that to understand the present we need to recognize how geographic determinism has shaped the past and how we can't ignore human nature in planning for the future.

The failure to understand the human place in the struggle for energy-rich carbon leaves us facing four hard questions: How much smaller is a sustainable size for the human population? What is the appropriate scale of our communities? Is maintaining our current infrastructure and energy-dependent society within our true scope of abilities? How much faster do we need to move in order to avoid even greater catastrophes? Whatever choices we make, Jackson and Jensen argue, the new future will be marked by "fewer and less," far fewer people consuming far less energy. The authors offer a secular reading of theological concepts--the prophetic, the apocalyptic, a saving remnant, and grace--to chart a collective path for dealing with today's multiple cascading ecological crises. The inevitable down-powering will not be easy but can lead to a renewed appreciation of the larger living world, a more joyful participation in the Creation. Written in plain language with intellectual rigor, An Inconvenient Apocalypse is accessible for general readers. In addition, students in the environmental humanities and Anthropocene studies more broadly will find this book rich and important.

Edited by Kate 

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Reclaiming Body Trust

Hilary Kinavey

A holistic and powerful framework for accepting and liberating our bodies, and ourselves.

Have you ever felt uncomfortable or not “at home” in your body? In this book, the founders of Body Trust, licensed therapist Hilary Kinavey and registered dietician Dana Sturtevant, invite readers to break free from the status quo and reject a diet culture that has taken advantage and profited from trauma, stigma, and disembodiment, and fully reclaim and embrace their bodies.

Informed by the personal body stories of the hundreds of people they have worked with, Reclaiming Body Trust delineates an intersectional, social justice−orientated path to healing in three phases: The Rupture, The Reckoning, and The Reclamation. Throughout, readers will be anchored by the authors’ innovative and revolutionary Body Trust framework to discover a pathway out of a rigid, mechanistic way of thinking about the body and into a more authentic, sustainable way to occupy and nurture our bodies.

Edited by Kate 




 

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Democracy's Data

Dan Bouk

From the historian Dan Bouk, a lesson in reading between the lines of the U.S. census to uncover the stories behind the data.

The census isn’t just a data-collection process; it’s a ritual, and a tool, of American democracy. Behind every neat grid of numbers is a collage of messy, human stories—you just have to know how to read them.

In Democracy’s Data, the data historian Dan Bouk examines the 1940 U.S. census, uncovering what those numbers both condense and cleverly abstract: a universe of meaning and uncertainty, of cultural negotiation and political struggle. He introduces us to the men and women employed as census takers, bringing us with them as they go door to door, recording the lives of their neighbors. He takes us into the makeshift halls of the Census Bureau, where hundreds of civil servants, not to mention machines, labored with pencil and paper to divide and conquer the nation’s data. And he uses these little points to paint bigger pictures, such as of the ruling hand of white supremacy, the place of queer people in straight systems, and the struggle of ordinary people to be seen by the state as they see themselves.

The 1940 census is a crucial entry in American history, a controversial dataset that enabled the creation of New Deal era social programs, but that also, with the advent of World War Two, would be weaponized against many of the citizens whom it was supposed to serve. In our age of quantification, Democracy’s Data not only teaches us how to read between the lines but gives us a new perspective on the relationship between representation, identity, and governance today.

Edited by Kate 

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Lethal Tides

Catherine Musemeche

"Magnificently researched, brilliantly written, Lethal Tides is immensely entertaining and reads like an action novel. Catherine Musemeche has brought to life the incredible work of the scientists and researchers who made such a remarkable contribution to America's war effort in the Pacific theater during WWII." --Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy, Ret.), #1 New York Times bestselling author of Make Your Bed and The Hero Code

 

 

Lethal Tides tells the story of the virtually unknown Mary Sears, "the first oceanographer of the Navy," whose groundbreaking oceanographic research led the U.S. to victory in the Pacific theater during World War II.

In Lethal Tides, Catherine Musemeche weaves together science, biography, and military history in the compelling story of an unsung woman who had a dramatic effect on the U.S. Navy's success against Japan in WWII, creating an intelligence-gathering juggernaut based on the new science of oceanography.

When World War II began, the U.S. Navy was unprepared to enact its island-hopping strategy to reach Japan. Anticipating tides, planning for coral reefs, and preparing for enemy fire was new ground for them, and with lives at stake it was ground that had to be covered quickly. Mary Sears, a marine biologist, was the untapped talent they turned to, and she along with a team of quirky marine scientists were instrumental in turning the tide of the war in the United States' favor.

The Sears team analyzed ocean currents, made wave and tide predictions, identified zones of bioluminescence, mapped deep-water levels where submarines could hide and gathered information about the topography and surf conditions surrounding the Pacific islands and Japan. Sears was frequently called upon to make middle-of-the-night calculations for last-minute top-secret landing destinations and boldly predicted optimal landing times and locations for amphibious invasions.

In supplying these crucial details, Sears and her team played a major role in averting catastrophes that plagued earlier amphibious landings, like the disastrous Tarawa, and cleared a path to Okinawa, the last major battle of World War II.

Edited by Kate 

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Come to This Court and Cry

Linda Kinstler

In 1965, five years after the capture of Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, one of his Mossad abductors was sent back to South America to kill another fugitive Nazi, the so-called "butcher of Riga," Latvian Herberts Cukurs. Cukurs was shot. On his corpse, the assassins left pages from the closing speech of the chief British prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg:



"After this ordeal to which mankind has been submitted, mankind itself . . . comes to this Court and cries: 'These are our laws--let them prevail!'"



Years later, the Latvian prosecutor general began investigating the possibility of redeeming Cukurs for his past actions. Researching the case, Linda Kinstler discovered that her grandfather, Boris, had served in Cukurs's killing unit and was rumored to be a double agent for the KGB. The proceedings, which might have resulted in Cukurs's pardon, threw into question supposed "facts" about the Holocaust at the precise moment its last living survivors--the last legal witnesses--were dying.



Rich with scholarly detective work and personal reflection, Come to This Court and Cry is a fearlessly brave examination of how history can become distorted over time, how easily the innocent are forgotten, and how carelessly the guilty are sometimes reprieved.39880006998694

 

Edited by Kate 

 

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Algebra the Beautiful

G. Arnell Williams

Mathematicians and scientists frequently say that math - algebra in particular -- is beautiful. But the rest of us may not see it that way - and who can blame us? After all, if your childhood memories of math are mostly about anxiety and frustration, it can feel like the "true beauty" of math must be reserved for mathematicians and geniuses of the highest caliber. Award-winning mathematics professor Gerald Williams is here to change that. Algebra the Beautiful is a journey into the theoretical heart of elementary math that proves just how big, dramatic, and relevant this discipline really is. Drawing from 25 years of teaching mathematics to liberal arts students, Williams blends metaphor, history, and storytelling with numbers and equations to bring the hidden grandeur of his subject into view. Williams doesn't ignore the obvious practical applications of algebra, delving into how we use it to think about motion and to reckon with the unknown and the unpredictable. At the same time, he shows readers how to think of algebra the same way they might think about a symphony or a painting. Yes, to create one, you must know how to use brushes and paints, or how violins or clarinets sound on their own. But to appreciate them - to enjoy them - you are better off learning how the parts work together to create a wonderful whole. Whether you're a teacher looking to make math come alive for your students; a parent hoping to get your children engaged and ahead; a student trying to come to terms with a sometimes bewildering subject; or just a lover of mathematics, this book has something for you. Gerald Williams shows all of us how we can grasp the beauty and harmony of algebra.

 

Edited by Kate 
 

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ParentPreneurs

Jamie Ratner

This fun tale is entertaining and inspiring in equal measure. Publishers Weekly Come along for the ride, as Jamie and Brian Ratner show you how to build a successful business with your spouse. When Jamie Ratner pitched her new idea for a family-friendly Groupon to her husband Brian on their drive to Pittsburgh for the Christmas holiday in their messy minivan, Brian's response shocked her. He said, "That's a great idea." For the rest of their holiday, while his parents watched their two young kids, they worked late into the night on a business plan and timeline to launch what soon would become CertifiKID. Jamie was an entrepreneur at heart but had no business background. Brian was a partner at a Washington, DC, law firm whose practice was litigation not corporate law. They had no free time. The timing to start a business was far from ideal. They did it anyway. More than a decade later, in ParentPreneurs, Jamie and Brian tell their rollercoaster story of how they built a multi-million dollar company through thousands of deals with small and big businesses for the benefit of their million plus members; cut a deal with Kevin O'Leary (aka "Mr. Wonderful") on the ABC television show Shark Tank that was one of his biggest deals in 10 seasons; and navigated the Covid pandemic that sent their business to the edge of the cliff by making a risky pivot acquisition. They give an honest account from each of their own unique perspectives on the toll and rewards of mixing marriage and business at every stage. They provide tips and lessons for how to manage both, maintain work/life balance especially in this age of remote and flexible work, and accomplish your personal and professional goals. This is a book for every entrepreneurial parent, whether you're in the game or just thinking about it. It is real and uplifting, and it will inspire you to rethink how you view your work and determine whether you can start or build something new that will bring you greater joy and fulfillment. Jamie and Brian show how parents can be successful entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs can be successful parents and spouses. And so can you.

Edited by Kate

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Modern Wedding

Kelsey McKinnon

The secret to planning a deeply personal, meaningful wedding has nothing to do with budget—it’s about finding unique, beautiful ways to express who you are as a couple. Modern Wedding is filled with hundreds of gorgeous photos for couples to look at and say, This feels like us, plus detailed information on every aspect of the big day—from stationery to catering, the dress to the ceremony—with timelines, resources, and creative ideas for how to make your day uniquely yours.

Edited by Kate 

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How to Deal with How You Feel

James Merritt

“Dr. Merritt brings the truth of God’s Word and the wisdom of experience to that part of our humanity that moves us—the emotions.”
—Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books


In today’s climate of turmoil and uncertainty, threatening and incapacitating feelings run rampant. Yet the God who created your emotions has also given you everything you need to navigate them. The Bible paints relatable and resonant portraits of women and men struggling with grief, anger, guilt, and despair—and provides divine wisdom for transforming your emotional trials into spiritual triumphs.
 
When you study God’s Word carefully, you’ll discover it illuminates not just your faith, but also your feelings. In How to Deal with How You Feel, Dr. James Merritt will help you understand and apply the Bible’s often overlooked practical guidance for handling difficult emotions, including depression, jealousy, dissatisfaction, anxiety, rage, and loneliness.
 
How to Deal with How You Feel is a powerful roadmap to emotional health that will provide you with simple strategies and effective tools to process even your most chaotic emotions in a spiritually beneficial way. As you read, you’ll discover how a deep-rooted faith will empower you to experience the richness of contentment, joy, and peace that transcends understanding.

Edited by Kate 

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Going Higher with God in Prayer

A.W. Tozer

What's Keeping Your Prayers from Being Effective? Learning how to pray is one of the greatest challenges in a Christian's life. A.W. Tozer pointed out that the Church's greatest curse is unanswered prayer, and that many people do not seem bothered by that. Maybe they don't understand what answered prayer is all about. Tozer outlines this as only he can, describing the kind of prayer God answers and the kind of prayer that leaves Him silent. Ultimately, you have to ask yourself: are my prayers today more powerful and effective than they were a year ago? Our good Father wants them to be!

The book opens with Jacob's Ladder and its theme of ascending into God's very presence. What better place to begin dialoging with God? Only He can teach us what is on His heart, what His will is, and what our part in it could be.

Edited by Kate 

 

 

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All the Living and the Dead

Hayley Campbell

A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people—morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners—who work in it and what led them there.

We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we’re so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look?

Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending sixty-two lives. She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a homicide detective, and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear.

Through Campbell’s incisive and candid interviews with these people who see death every day, she asks: Why would someone choose this kind of life? Does it change you as a person? And are we missing something vital by letting death remain hidden? A dazzling work of cultural criticism, All the Living and the Dead weaves together reportage with memoir, history, and philosophy, to offer readers a fascinating look into the psychology of Western death.

Edited by Kate 

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Jackie and the Mona Lisa

Debbie Rovin Murphy

Jackie Kennedy loved the arts. And America loved Jackie Kennedy. The first lady knew she had the country's attention--what would she do with it? Encourage Americans to appreciate art, of course! She turned the White House into a historical site filled with some of America's most treasured artifacts and pieces of art. She brought Shakespearean theater to the White House and ballerinas to the South Lawn. And most epically, she brought the Mona Lisa to the states (much to the chagrin of many Parisians) to encourage Americans to visit museums--and it worked! An inspiring story about one of the nation's most influential first ladies.

(Added by Jenna)

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Do Baby Elephants Suck Their Trunks?

Ben Lerwill

"Explore the amazing ways animal babies are just like us in this enchanting non-fiction picture book. There are babies everywhere! Some babies can fly and some babies can swim. Most animal babies are very different to us, but there are lots of special ways that we might be the same. Especially when we were very little... With a friendly text that's perfect for reading aloud, this book encourages children to think about what makes them unique while learning about amazing similarities they might share with babies in the animal kingdom. From giraffes wobbling as they walk to puppies losing their baby teeth, each spread is fully illustrated with heart-warming collage artwork that beautifully captures the love between parent and child. This is a very special book to share again and again"--Publisher's description.

(Added by Jenna)

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LEGO Amazing But True

Elizabeth Dowsett

An eye-popping fact book with a LEGO twist - discover amazing information about the world around us with the help of LEGO minifigures and bricks!

Did you know a Goliath spider weighs the same as 75 2x4 LEGO bricks? Or that LEGO bricks and minifigures in various forms have travelled to Saturn, Mars, and the International Space Station?

And did you know the Taj Mahal gets a mud pack treatment to remove pollution stains? Or that hummingbirds are the only birds that fly backwards?

From unbelievable space and nature facts, to mind-boggling inventions and technology trivia, children will be amazed and entertained with incredible information about the LEGO world and our own.

©2022 The LEGO Group.

(Added by Jenna)

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Can You Believe It?

Joyce Grant

Everything kids need to know to tell facts from “fake news” on the internet. Here’s a comprehensive guide to how real journalism is made, what “fake news” is and, most importantly, how to spot the difference. It provides practical advice, thought-provoking examples, and loads of explanations, definitions and useful context. Never judgmental, it encourages young people to approach what they find online with skepticism and helps them hone their critical-thinking skills to make good choices about what to believe and share. It’s a must-read book on a topic that couldn’t be more important in today’s online world. Sure, kids know how to look for things on the internet. Now they’ll know how to look at them, too.

(Added by Jenna)

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Raising Lazarus

Beth Macy

One of Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2022

Author of Dopesick, the New York Times bestselling book that inspired the Hulu limited series

New York Times Bestselling author of Dopesick and Factory Man

In her gripping, necessary, and deeply humane follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Dopesick, journalist Beth Macy brings us to the next frontier of the opioid crisis, telling the story of the everyday heroes fighting to stem the tide of drug overdose in communities that are too often left to fend for themselves, and of the activists and relatives of the dead who are still struggling for accountability in America's courts.

Nearly a decade into the second wave of America's overdose crisis, pharmaceutical companies have yet to answer for the harms they created. As pending court battles against opioid makers, distributors, and retailers drag on, addiction rates have soared to record-breaking levels during the COVID pandemic, illustrating the critical need for leadership, urgency, and change. Meanwhile, there is scant consensus between law enforcement and medical leaders, nor an understanding of how to truly scale the programs that are out there, working at the ragged edge of capacity and actually saving lives.

Distilling this massive, unprecedented national health crisis down to its character-driven emotional core as only she can, Beth Macy takes us into the country's hardest hit places to witness the devastating personal costs that one-third of America's families are now being forced to shoulder. Here we meet the ordinary people fighting for the least of us with the fewest resources, from harm reductionists risking arrest to bring lifesaving care to the homeless and addicted to the activists and bereaved families pushing to hold Purdue and the Sackler family accountable. These heroes come from all walks of life; what they have in common is an up-close and personal understanding of addiction that refuses to stigmatize--and therefore abandon--people who use drugs, as big pharma execs and many politicians are all too ready to do.

Like the treatment innovators she profiles, Beth Macy meets the opioid crisis where it is--not where we think it should be or wish it was. Bearing witness with clear eyes, intrepid curiosity, and unfailing empathy, she brings us the crucial next installment in the story of the defining disaster of our era, one that touches every single one of us, whether directly or indirectly. A complex story of public health, big pharma, dark money, politics, race, and class that is by turns harrowing and heartening, infuriating and inspiring, Raising Lazarus is a must-read for all Americans.

Edited by Kate 

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The Fifth Act

Elliot Ackerman

“The American betrayal of Afghanistan took twenty years. Elliot Ackerman, a participant and witness, tells the story with unsparing honesty in this intensely personal chronicle.” —George Packer

A powerful and revelatory eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan, its desperate endgame, and the war’s echoing legacy


Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities for years now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families. The official US government evacuation effort was a bureaucratic failure that led to a humanitarian catastrophe. With former colleagues and friends protecting the airport in Kabul, Ackerman joined an impromptu effort by a group of journalists and other veterans to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. These were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America's longest war. For Ackerman, it also became a chance to reconcile his past with his present.
 
The Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week, the week the war ended. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves a personal history of the war's long progression, beginning with the initial invasion in the months after 9/11. It is a play in five acts, the fifth act being the story’s tragic denouement, a prelude to Afghanistan's dark future. Any reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war’s trajectory will find a trenchant account here. But The Fifth Act also brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters, American and Afghan, who fought the war with courage and dedication, and at great personal cost. Ackerman's story is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic.

Edited by Kate 

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If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal

Justin Gregg

"A dazzling, delightful read on what animal cognition can teach us about our own mental shortcomings."
- Adam Grant

"Undeniably entertaining"
- The New York Times

This funny, "extraordinary and thought-provoking" (The Wall Street Journal) book asks whether we are in fact the superior species. As it turns out, the truth is stranger--and far more interesting--than we have been led to believe.

If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal overturns everything we thought we knew about human intelligence, and asks the question: would humans be better off as narwhals? Or some other, less brainy species? There's a good argument to be made that humans might be a less successful animal species precisely because of our amazing, complex intelligence.

All our unique gifts like language, math, and science do not make us happier or more "successful" (evolutionarily speaking) than other species. Our intelligence allowed us to split the atom, but we've harnessed that knowledge to make machines of war. We are uniquely susceptible to bullshit (though, cuttlefish may be the best liars in the animal kingdom); our bizarre obsession with lawns has contributed to the growing threat of climate change; we are sexually diverse like many species yet stand apart as homophobic; and discriminate among our own as if its natural, which it certainly is not. Is our intelligence more of a curse than a gift?

As scientist Justin Gregg persuasively argues, there's an evolutionary reason why human intelligence isn't more prevalent in the animal kingdom. Simply put, non-human animals don't need it to be successful. And, miraculously, their success arrives without the added baggage of destroying themselves and the planet in the process.

In seven mind-bending and hilarious chapters, Gregg highlights one feature seemingly unique to humans--our use of language, our rationality, our moral systems, our so-called sophisticated consciousness--and compares it to our animal brethren. Along the way, remarkable tales of animal smarts emerge, as you'll discover:

  • The house cat who's better at picking winning stocks than actual fund managers
  • Elephants who love to drink
  • Pigeons who are better than radiologists at spotting cancerous tissue
  • Bumblebees who are geniuses at teaching each other soccer


What emerges is both demystifying and remarkable, and will change how you look at animals, humans, and the meaning of life itself.

Edited by Kate 

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Fleurs Du Mal

Charles Baudelaire

The celebrated, National Book Award winning, translation of Baudelaire's masterpiece. "It is the English edition to acquire."--Washington Post

Pulitzer Prize winning poet and translator, Richard Howard, gives English readers the true voice of Baudelaire in this masterful translation. Charles Baudelaire's 1857 masterwork was scandalous in its day for its portrayals of sex, same-sex love, death, the corrupting and oppressive power of the modern city and lost innocence, Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) remains powerful and relevant for our time.

In "Spleen et idéal," Baudelaire dramatizes the erotic cycle of ecstacy and anguish--of sexual and romantic love. "Tableaux Parisiens" condemns the crushing effects of urban planning on a city's soul and praises the city's anti-heroes including the deranged and derelict. "Le Vin" centers on the search for oblivion in drink and drugs. The many kinds of love that lie outside traditional morality is the focus of "Fleurs du Mal" while rebellion is at the heart of "Révolte."

"Howard's achievement is such that we can be confident that his Flowers of Evil will long stand as definitive, a superb guide to France's greatest poet."--The Nation

Edited by Kate 

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The Big Book of BTS

Katy Sprinkel

THE HOTTEST GROUP IN THE WORLD

Between selling out arenas, dropping mixtapes, and filming a surprise concert documentary, BTS has still found time to release wildly popular hits like "Boy with Luv" and "Idol." For these icons, the best may still be yet to come.

The Big Book of BTS is the biggest and most complete guide to all things Bangtan. Including more than 100 full-color photographs, you'll get an in-depth look at the lives of RM, J-Hope, Suga, Jimin, V, Jin, and Jungkook. It also explores their meteoric rise, musical influences, unbeatable style, far-reaching activism, and bond with fans.

Added by Hailey M.

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A Seed Grows

Antoinette Portis

The transformative life cycle of a sunflower plays out in this bold read-aloud by Sibert honoree Antoinette Portis.

To understand how a seed becomes a sunflower, you have to peek beneath the soil and wait patiently as winding roots grow, a stalk inches out of the earth, and new seeds emerge among blooming petals.

"A seed falls,
And settles into the ground,
And the Sun shines,
And the rain comes down,
And the seed grows…"


Leading up to a striking fold-out spread of a full-grown sunflower, the lively, bold illustrations in A Seed Grows offer a close-up view of each step of the growth cycle.

Additional material in the back of the book explains the science of plant life cycles, and goes into more detail on the ways in which flowers and seeds depend on other creatures.

Antoinette Portis is the author of A New Green Day, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and NCTE Notable Book in Poetry, as well as the Sibert Honor winning Hey, Water!

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

(Added by Jenna)

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Paletero Man/¡Que Paletero Tan Cool!

Lucky Diaz

With the English and Spanish text side by side on the page, this bilingual edition of the vibrant picture book celebrating the strength of community and the tastes of summer is ideal for bilingual readers as well as Spanish speakers learning English and vice versa. By Latin Grammy-winning musician Lucky Diaz and celebrated artist Micah Player!

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Can you hear his call? Paletas for one! Paletas for all! / ¡Vengan a comprar! Paleta para uno ¡o pa' to'a la vecindad!

Follow along with our narrator as he passes through his busy neighborhood in search of the Paletero Man. But when he finally catches up with him, our narrator's pockets are empty. Oh no! What happened to his dinero? It will take the help of the entire community to get the tasty treat now.

Full of musicality, generosity, kindness, and ice pops, this book is sure to satisfy fans of Thank You, Omu! and Carmela Full of Wishes.

Includes an author's note from Lucky Diaz and a link to a live version of the Lucky Band's popular song that inspired the book.

A Junior Library Guild Selection!

"A wonderfully executed treat of a book with a sweet community focus."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Depicts wonderful examples of kindness, community, and delicious paletas."--Booklist (starred review)

(Added by Jenna)

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The Sweetest Scoop

Lisa Robinson

A biography of the entrepreneurial, activist duo behind Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, and their rocky road to success

Chunky Monkey. Cherry Garcia. Truffle Kerfuffle.

Legendary ice cream makers Ben & Jerry are behind some of the wackiest, tastiest flavors we know and love. It all began when two groovy guys, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, met when they were twelve years old. Ben liked art, Jerry liked science, and they both loved food . . . especially ice cream!

They started a business together, and with no idea how to actually make ice cream, they made it happen with teamwork, determination, and an appetite for fun and experimentation. When the doors of Ben & Jerry's Homemade ice cream shop finally opened, crowds flocked. But the pair would still have a rocky road ahead--and ambitious, activist goals to fulfill.

Chock-full of facts and humor, this entertaining biography about two hardworking partners living their Americone Dream gives readers plenty to chew on. Through their inventiveness, passion, and activism, Ben & Jerry dreamed of making the world a better, more delicious place--one scoop at a time.

(Added by Jenna)

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A Home Named Walter

Chelsea Lin Wallace

A home named Walter learns how to heal his broken heart after a family he loves moves away in this poignant picture book about loss and renewal.

Walter was a happy home.

He loved the bustle and warmth of the family that lived with him. But when they move away, his feelings are hurt. He grows cold and quiet and only wants to be left alone.

So when a little girl and her mama move in, Walter is determined to get them out! But in his struggle to do so, Walter may just feel livable again and change how he feels.

Chelsea Lin Wallace has written a truly poignant story. With its classic sensibility, paired with Ginnie Hsu’s warm and lush illustrations, A Home Named Walter is a special story that will resonate with many readers for years to come.

(Added by Jenna)

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A Is for Axolotl: An Unusual Animal ABC

Catherine Macorol

Incredible animals await in Catherine Macorol's A Is for Axolotl—not the tame or the merely wild, but the strangest, most fascinating creatures of all!

Readers will join an alphabet adventure that spans the globe as they climb trees with the binturong (also known as the bearcat), glide through the rainforest canopy with the colugo, and deep dive with the Dumbo octopus.

Get ready for close encounters with axolotls, binturongs, colugos, dumbo octopuses, echidnas, fossas, gerenuks, hyraxes, ibex, jerboas, kiwis, lorises, maned wolves, naked mole rats, okapis, pangolins, quokkas, red pandas, saigas, thorny dragons, uakaris, vaquitas, water bears, xenopus, yeti crabs, and zebra duikers.

(Added by Jenna)

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Reading the Water

Mark Hume

"A father shares the joys of fly-fishing with his daughters. In this eloquent memoir ... [Mark] Hume vividly conveys the sensory details of their adventures and the stunning surroundings ... A heartfelt, beautifully written celebration of the wonders of nature and comfort of family."--Kirkus STARRED Review

Fishing was Mark Hume's passion since he was a young boy, a lifeline through a childhood marked by his family's frequent moves. When he became a father, he knew he wanted to pass on his love of water, fishing, and the natural world to his daughters. Most of all, he wanted to give them hope for their future even as they were coming of age during uncertain times.

As soon as they were old enough, Mark taught his girls how to read the water and see the patterns in nature. He showed them how to cast, how to catch fish and release them, and--only when needed--how to kill them. He discovered that fly fishing and fatherhood require many of the same skills: patience, flexibility, and the knowledge of when to reel in and when to let go.

Illuminating and heartfelt, Reading the Water is a much-needed, positive story about a father raising daughters, and a meditation on finding faith in a deep connection with the natural world.

Edited by Kate

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Androids

Chet Haase

The fascinating inside story of how the Android operating system came to be.

In 2004, Android was two people who wanted to build camera software but couldn't get investors interested. Today, Android is a large team at Google, delivering an operating system (including camera software) to over 3 billion devices worldwide. This is the inside story, told by the people who made it happen.

Androids: The Team that Built the Android Operating System is a first-hand chronological account of how the startup began, how the team came together, and how they all built an operating system from the kernel level to its applications and everything in between. It describes the tenuous beginnings of this ambitious project as a tiny startup, then as a small acquisition by Google that took on an industry with strong, entrenched competition. Author Chet Haase joined the Android team at Google in May 2010 and later recorded conversations with team members to preserve the early days of Android's history leading to the launch of 1.0. This engaging and accessible book captures the developers' stories in their own voices to answer the question: How did Android succeed?

Edited by Kate 

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Mushroom Foraging and Feasting

Victoria Romanoff

A beguiling invitation to the world of mushroom hunting--combining practical advice and recipes with tales and photographs from a lifetime on the hunt

Victoria Romanoff picked her first mushroom--a brown-capped butterpilz or sticky bun--at the age of four, at her family's summer dacha on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Little did she realize that her newfound interest in mushrooming would soon become an essential survival skill, as she and her mother spent eight years in displaced persons camps in the aftermath of World War II, foraging wild foods to supplement their diets. Resettled in the United States, Romanoff has continued to pursue her mycological passion ever since, deploying her considerable culinary skills to convert friends and strangers to the joys of wild mushrooms. Now, in this marvelously written book, rich with anecdote, she shares the wisdom gathered from a lifetime on the hunt.

 

Romanoff introduces readers to twelve of the most easily foraged and delicious mushrooms, including the chanterelle, the morel, and the oyster. She describes the appearance, habits, and lore of each variety, and provides a recipe for each; her recipes include both refined kitchen creations and rustic dishes meant to be prepared over an open fire at the end of a successful hunt. Romanoff also shares personal stories from her eight decades of mushrooming. From serendipitous discoveries while canoeing to habitual hikes with Piglet (in fact a terrier, not a truffle pig), her detailed accounts bring alive the sensory experience of the hunt, and the particular connection with nature that a forager enjoys.

Illustrated throughout with photos by Romanoff's partner Sarah Adams--which are instructive and sometimes whimsical--Mushroom Foraging and Feasting will be a friendly primer for novice mushroom hunters and an unexpected delight for veteran mycophiles.

Edited by Kate 

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Epic Hikes of the Americas 1

Lonely Planet

Lace up your hiking boots for the next in Lonely Planet's highly successful Epic Hikes series, this time exploring 50 of the Americas' most rewarding treks and trails. From Canada's longest hut-to-hut hike, the Sunshine Coast Trail, to a descent through Havasu Canyon in the USA, and the Santa Cruz Trail of northern Peru, we cover a huge variety of themes and experiences across routes that range from one-day walks to multi-day treks.

Each of the featured hikes includes:

  • First-person accounts from writers who have completed the hike
  • Challenge level grading: easy / harder / epic
  • Inspirational photography, maps and practical information to follow in the writer's footsteps
  • Orientation toolkit: when is the best time of year to hike, how to get there, special equipment required
  • Expert travel advice: where to stay, recommended tours, the best places to eat
  • Suggestions for similar hikes

50 epic hikes across the Americas, including:

  • The Chilkoot Trail, Alaska (USA)
  • Joshua Tree Trail, California (USA)
  • Highline Trail, Glacier National Park, Montana (USA)
  • Halawa Valley, Hawaii (USA)
  • Wonderland Trail, Washington (USA)
  • Huemul Circuit, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (Argentina)
  • The Black Rock Lodge Summit Hike (Belize)
  • Wild Pacific Trail (Canada)
  • Isla Navarino (Chile)
  • Tayrona National Park (Colombia)
  • Corcovado National Park (Costa Rica)
  • Comandancia de la Plata and Pico Turquino (Cuba)
  • Boiling Lake Hike (Dominica)
  • Quilotoa Loop (Ecuador)
  • The Arctic Circle Trail (Greenland)
  • Camino del Cobre (Mexico)
  • Santa Cruz Trail (Peru)

With a vibrant cover illustrated by Ross Murray, this beautiful hardback continues this collectible series. Whether you're a seasoned hiker, a novice embarking on your very first trek, or looking for a gift to suit an adventurer in your life, Epic Hikes of the Americas will inspire a lifetime of epic journeys on foot.

About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and phrasebooks for 120 languages, and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, videos, 14 languages, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more, enabling you to explore every day.

'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times

'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

Edited by Kate 

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Just Work

Kim Scott

From Kim Scott, author of the revolutionary New York Times bestseller Radical Candor, comes Just Work—how we can recognize, attack, and eliminate workplace injustice—and transform our careers and organizations in the process.

We—all of us—consistently exclude, underestimate, and underutilize huge numbers of people in the workforce even as we include, overestimate, and promote others, often beyond their level of competence. Not only is this immoral and unjust, it's bad for business. Just Work is the solution.

Just Work is Kim Scott's new book, revealing a practical framework for both respecting everyone’s individuality and collaborating effectively. This is the essential guide leaders and their employees need to create more just workplaces and establish new norms of collaboration and respect.

Edited by Kate 

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Ways of Being

James Bridle

Artist, technologist, and philosopher James Bridle’s Ways of Being is a brilliant, searching exploration of different kinds of intelligence—plant, animal, human, artificial—and how they transform our understanding of humans’ place in the cosmos.

What does it mean to be intelligent? Is it something unique to humans or shared with other beings— beings of flesh, wood, stone, and silicon? The last few years have seen rapid advances in “artificial” intelligence. But rather than a friend or companion, AI increasingly appears to be something stranger than we ever imagined, an alien invention that threatens to decenter and supplant us.

At the same time, we’re only just becoming aware of the other intelligences that have been with us all along, even if we’ve failed to recognize or acknowledge them. These others—the animals, plants, and natural systems that surround us—are slowly revealing their complexity, agency, and knowledge, just as the technologies we’ve built to sustain ourselves are threatening to cause their extinction and ours. What can we learn from them, and how can we change ourselves, our technologies, our societies, and our politics to live better and more equitably with one another and the nonhuman world?

The artist and maverick thinker James Bridle draws on biology and physics, computation, literature, art, and philosophy to answer these unsettling questions. Startling and bold, Ways of Being explores the fascinating, strange, and multitudinous forms of knowing, doing, and being that make up the world, and that are essential for our survival.

Edited by Kate 

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The Scandalous Hamiltons

Bill Shaffer

An Alexander Hamilton heir, a beautiful female con artist, an abandoned baby, and the shocking courtroom drama that was splashed across front pages from coast to coast--this is the fascinating true story behind one of the greatest scandals of the Gilded Age . . .

Adultery? Check. Attempted murder? Check. Baby-trafficking? Check. These are just a few of the missteps of the woman who rained humiliation onto the House of Hamilton. --Marlene Wagman-Geller, author of Women of Means: Fascinating Biographies of Royals, Heiresses, Eccentrics and Other Poor Little Rich Girls

It's a story almost too tawdry to be true--a con woman prostitute who met the descendant of a Founding Father in a brothel, duped him into marriage using an infant purchased from a baby farm, then went to prison for stabbing the couple's baby nurse--all while in a common-law marriage with another man. The scandal surrounding Evangeline and Robert Ray Hamilton, though little known today, was one of the sensations of the Gilded Age, a sordid, gripping tale involving bigamy, bribery, sex, and violence.

When the salacious Hamilton story emerged in during Eva's trial for the August 1889 stabbing, it commanded unprecedented national and international newspaper coverage thanks to the telegraph and the recently founded Associated Press. For the New York dailies, eager to capture readers through provocative headlines, Ray and Eva were a godsend.

As lurid details emerged, the public's fascination grew--how did a man of Hamilton's stature become entangled with such an adventuress? Nellie Bly, the world-famous investigative reporter, finagled an exclusive interview with Eva after her conviction. Hamilton's death under mysterious circumstances, a year after the stabbing, added to the intrigue.

Through personal correspondence, court records, and sensational newspaper accounts, The Scandalous Hamiltons explores not only the full, riveting saga of ill-fated Ray and Eva, but the rise of tabloid journalism and celebrity in a story that is both a fascinating slice of pop culture history and a timeless tale of ambition, greed, and obsession.

"Historical true crime buffs will be engrossed." - Publishers Weekly

"Shaffer has an appealing writing style and a talent for sneaking up on the reader with each big reveal...Rich period detail." - Booklist

Edited by Kate 

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The Desperate Hours

Marie Brenner

AWARD-WINNING VANITY FAIR WRITER Marie Brenner shares a remarkable depiction of New York—a city in crisis—based on new, behind-the-scenes reporting that captures the resilience, peril, and compassion of the early days of the Covid pandemic.

In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 arrived in New York City.

Before long, America’s largest metropolis was at war against a virus that mercilessly swept through its five boroughs. It became apparent that if Covid wasn’t somehow halted, the death count in New York alone would be in the hundreds of thousands. And if New York’s hospitals failed, what chance did the rest of the country have?

Brenner, having been granted unprecedented 18-month access to the entire New York-Presbyterian hospital system, tells the story of the doctors, nurses, residents, researchers, and suppliers who tried to save lives across Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn and the northern periphery of the city. Drawing on more than 200 interviews, Brenner takes us inside secure ICU units, sealed operating rooms, locked executive suites, unknown basement workshops, and makeshift clinics to provide extraordinary witness to the war as it was waged on the front line.

But The Desperate Hours is more than a thrilling account of medicine under extreme pressure. It is an intimate portrait of courageous men and women coming together in their devotion to duty, their families, each other, and the city they loved more than any other.

Edited by Kate 

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The Neuroscience of You

Chantel Prat

From University of Washington professor Chantel Prat comes The Neuroscience of You, a rollicking adventure into the human brain that reveals the surprising truth about neuroscience, shifting our focus from what’s average to an understanding of how every brain is different, exactly why our quirks are important, and what this means for each of us.

With style and wit, Chantel Prat takes us on a tour of the meaningful ways that our brains are dissimilar from one another. Using real-world examples, along with take-them-yourself tests and quizzes, she shows you how to identify the strengths and weakness of your own brain, while learning what might be going on in the brains of those who are unlike you. With sections like “Focus,” “Navigate,” and “Connect,” The Neuroscience of You helps us see how brains that are engineered differently ultimately take diverse paths when it comes time to prioritize information, use what they’ve learned from experience, relate to other people, and so much more.
 
While other scientists focus on how “the” brain works “on average,” Prat argues that our obsession with commonalities has slowed our progress toward understanding the very things that make each of us unique and interesting. Her field-leading research, employing cutting-edge technology, reveals the truth: Complicated as it may be, no two brains are alike. And individual differences in brain functioning are as pervasive as they are fundamental to defining what “normal” looks like. Adages such as, “I’m not wired that way” intuitively point to the fact that the brains we’re piloting, educating, and parenting are wonderfully distinct, explaining a whole host of phenomena, from how easily a person might learn a second language in adulthood to whether someone feels curious or threatened when faced with new information. This book invites the reader to understand themselves and others by zooming in so close that we all look gray and squishy.

Edited by Kate 

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The Comic Book Lesson

Mark Crilley

An aspiring young creator learns the fundamentals of visual storytelling from three comic book mentors in this charming illustrated tale--a graphic novel that teaches you how to turn your stories into comics!

Acclaimed illustrator and graphic novelist Mark Crilley returns with a new approach to learning the essential elements of making comics. His easy-to-follow instruction about comic book art, design, and storytelling provides aspiring creators a one-of-a-kind how-to experience.

In The Comic Book Lesson, you'll meet Emily--an enthusiastic young comics fan who has a story she needs to tell. On her quest to turn that story into a comic book, Emily meets three helpful mentors who share their knowledge. Trudy, a high school student who works at the local comics shop, teaches Emily how to create expressive characters and how art can convey action and suspense. Madeline, a self-published manga artist, teaches Emily how to use panel composition and layout to tell a story visually and how to develop a comic from script to sketch to finished pages. Sophie, a professional graphic novelist, guides Emily through fine-tuning the details of dialogue, sequence, and pacing to lead readers through the story.

Page by page, you'll discover more about the events that drive Emily to create her comic book as her mentors teach her (and you!) about the fundamentals of visual narrative and comic book art. Each lesson builds on the previous one, guiding you through the steps of planning and creating your comic, with accompanying exercises you can try for yourself. Are you ready to start your comic book lesson today?

Edited by Kate

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Asian American Histories of the United States

Catherine Ceniza Choy

An inclusive and landmark history, emphasizing how essential Asian American experiences are to any understanding of US history

Original and expansive, Asian American Histories of the United States is a nearly 200-year history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the US. Reckoning with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian hate and violence, award-winning historian Catherine Ceniza Choy presents an urgent social history of the fastest growing group of Americans. The book features the lived experiences and diverse voices of immigrants, refugees, US-born Asian Americans, multiracial Americans, and workers from industries spanning agriculture to healthcare.

Despite significant Asian American breakthroughs in American politics, arts, and popular culture in the 21st century, a profound lack of understanding of Asian American history permeates American culture. Choy traces how anti-Asian violence and its intersection with misogyny and other forms of hatred, the erasure of Asian American experiences and contributions, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted are prominent themes in Asian American history. This ambitious book is fundamental to understanding the American experience and its existential crises of the early 21st century.

Edited by Kate 

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Death by Landscape

Elvia Wilk

From the acclaimed author of the novel Oval comes a book of “fan nonfiction” about living and writing in the age of extinction

In this constellation of essays, Elvia Wilk asks what kinds of narratives will help us rethink our human perspective toward Earth. The book begins as an exploration of the role of fiction today and becomes a deep interrogation of the writing process and the self.

Wilk examines creative works across time and genre in order to break down binaries between dystopia and utopia, real and imagined, self and world. She makes connections between works by such wide-ranging writers as Mark Fisher, Karen Russell, Han Kang, Doris Lessing, Anne Carson, Octavia E. Butler, Michelle Tea, Helen Phillips, Kathe Koja, Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, and Hildegard von Bingen.

What happens when research becomes personal, when the observer breaks through the glass? Through the eye of the fan, this collection delves into literal and literary world-building projects—medieval monasteries, solarpunk futures, vampire role plays, environments devoid of humans—bridging the micro and the macro and revealing how our relationship to narrative shapes our relationships to the natural world and to one another.

Edited by Kate 

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The Power of Plus

Gianluca Russo

"The Power of Plus will leave you feeling inspired, motivated, and ready to push for real change, as well as confident and encouraged to embrace yourself, just as you are. This is essential reading for anyone who truly cares about the future of fashion, and for anyone who believes in the power of being yourself." --Versha Sharma, editor in chief, Teen Vogue

Plus-size fashion revolutionizes the way women view themselves and their bodies.

Exclusivity runs within the foundation of fashion. While calls for diversity have intensified recently, long-held attitudes are only beginning to change. But through social media, plus-size people have been able to create supportive communities that show their confidence, strength, and beauty.

Plus-size fashionistas have been writing their own narrative for the past three decades, creating a market all on their own that is now worth more than $21 billion. The Power of Plus features interviews with trailblazers such as Tess Holliday, Emme Aronson, Gabi Gregg, and more as it follows the evolution of plus-size fashion from its start on small blogs to its current boom, examining the way this market has changed women's relationships with their bodies and how plus-size fashion is integral to the future success of the industry.

Plus-size fashion is not a PR stunt. It is a culture-changing market created by and for the people who have always deserved to feel stylish but never had the visibility to be . . . until now.

By honoring our progress so far, The Power of Plus celebrates the next stage of the plus-size fashion movement.

Edited by Kate

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Fearless

Don Dahler

In the spirit of the bestseller Fly Girls comes the definitive and compelling true story of Harriet Quimby, the first American woman to receive a pilot's license.

In the early twentieth century, headlines declared that the era of women has dawned. Against this changing historical backdrop, Harriet Quimby's extraordinary life stands out as the embodiment of this tumultuous, exciting era--when flight was measured in minutes, not miles.

This untold piece of feminist history unveils Quimby's incredible story: rising from humble beginnings as a dirt-poor farm girl to become a globe-trotting journalist, history-making aviator, and international celebrity. With her tragic death in 1912 at the age of thirty-seven, her story faded, with her many accomplishments--the first woman to fly solo over the English Channel among them--overshadowed by major events, including the sinking of the Titanic.

With black and white illustrations throughout, Fearless, /i> is the definitive biography of the first licensed female American pilot: one of the most inspiring hidden figures of history.

Edited by Kate 

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All Down Darkness Wide

Seán Hewitt

"Rapturous...Hewitt beautifully illuminates his own darknesses so that we might also see our own." — Melissa Febos, The New York Times Book Review

"Unique and singularly captivating...This memoir is gripping and deserves to be read by anyone looking for hope in these especially dark times." — David Vogel, Buzzfeed

“Exquisitely written.” —Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine

Named a Best Book of July by Buzzfeed * A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction 2022 Summer Read * Observer Book of the Week


By turns devastating and soaring, an ambitious memoir debut from one of Irish literature’s rising stars


When Seán Hewitt meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe mental illness, they soon come face-to-face with crisis.

All Down Darkness Wide is a perceptive and unflinching meditation on the burden of living in a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds, and a tender and honest portrayal of what it’s like to be caught in the undertow of a loved one’s deep depression. As lives are made and unmade, this memoir asks what love can endure and what it cannot.

Delving into his own history, enlisting the ghosts of queer figures before him, Hewitt plumbs the darkness in search of answers. From a nineteenth-century cemetery in Liverpool to a sacred grotto in the Pyrenees, it is a journey of lonely discovery followed by the light of community. Haunted by the rites of Catholicism and spectres of shame, it is nevertheless marked by an insistent search for beauty.

Hewitt captures transcendent moments in nature with exquisite lyricism, honours the power of reciprocated desire and provides a master class in the incredible force of unsparing specificity. All Down Darkness Wide illuminates a path ahead for queer literature and for the literature of heartbreak, striking a piercing and resonant chord for all who trace Hewitt’s dauntless footsteps.

Edited by Kate

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The World's Worst Assistant

Sona Movsesian

***An Instant New York Times Bestseller***

From Conan O’Brien’s longtime assistant and cohost of his podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, a completely hilarious and irreverent how-to guide for becoming a terrible, yet unfireable employee, spilling her trade secrets for minimizing effort while maximizing the rewards.

 
Sona Movsesian didn’t wake up one day and decide to become the World’s Worst Assistant. Achieving such greatness is a gradual process--one that starts with long hours and hard work before it eventually descends into sneaking low-dosage edibles into your lunch and napping on your boss’s couch. 
 
With a foreword from Conan O’Brien, The World’s Worst Assistant is populated with hysterical black-and-white illustrations, comics, and more. It’s a mixture of how-tos (like How to Nap at Work and How to Watch TV at Your Desk), tips for becoming untouchable (like memorizing social security and credit card numbers and endearing yourself to friends and family), and incredible personal stories from Sona’s twelve years spent working for Conan that put their adorable closeness and professional dysfunction on display. In these pages, Sona will explain her descent from eager, hard-working, ambitious, detail-orientated assistant to self-awarded title-holder for the worst in history.

This book is irresistible fun you’ll want to give to every young professional in your life. For readers of heartfelt humor like that of Phoebe Robinson and Colin Jost, The World’s Worst Assistant is a chance for fans, viewers, and listeners of Conan’s shows and podcast to fall in love with Sona and Conan all over again.

Edited by Kate 

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Style: the Art of Creating a Beautiful Home

Natalie Walton

Style: The Art of Creating a Beautiful Home is a timeless interiors book that shows you how to transform your living spaces using what you own and love. While designing can be a big investment, styling allows you to elevate your spaces with what you've already got.



This book is at once beautiful and practical, demystifying the creative process of styling so that you can create a beautiful home with confidence. Based on more than a decade of industry experience and teaching, this book will show you how to connect with your own personal style and enjoy inspiring, welcoming and authentic interiors. Styling is both an art and a science - and you can learn both.



The inviting chapters explore identifying your style; design principles; transforming spaces; visual storytelling; and nurturing your craft. As well, author and renowned interior stylist Natalie Walton steps through significant rooms in the house to provide expert insider insights on how you can create magical styling moments in your home.



The book is beautifully shot by photographer Chris Warnes, who has collaborated with Natalie on her previous books, This is Home: The Art of Simple Living and Still: The Slow Home.

Edited by Kate 
 

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The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide

Jenny Rose Carey

“Full of practical insights, ideas, and inspiration to help you grow the flower-packed garden of your dreams.”—Greg Loades, author of The Modern Cottage Garden
 
The colors, shapes, and scents of flowers are as ravishing to the senses as to the soul. But it’s all too easy get things wrong: colors that clash, flowers that bloom at the wrong time, plants that fail to thrive. Enter The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide by expert gardener Jenny Rose Carey. She tells you exactly how to get started, how to combine plants for the most spectacular effects, and how to keep your garden going from year to year. Whether you’re interested in dramatic color combinations, how best to use a favorite flower, or how to create a garden for a specific purpose, such as nourishing pollinators, you’ll find the answers in this friendly, information-packed book. As Jenny herself says, “Don’t be afraid—just have a go!”

Edited by Kate

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Her True Worth

Brittany Maher

Brittany Maher and Cassandra Speer, leaders of the social media sensation and ministry Her True Worth, deliver a powerful call to women to break free from the bondage of false identities and discover their true worth in Jesus Christ.

After years of working in the beauty industry, Brittany Maher and Cassandra Speer became disheartened by the false, contradictory messages about what defines a woman's worth. They saw women who were lost and wandering, endlessly seeking security and approval. So Maher and Speer made it their mission to help Christian women uncover their valuable identity in Jesus Christ.

In Her True Worth, Maher and Speer reveal what God intended our identity to be in the beginning, how sin corrupted it, how Christ has redeemed it, and how to live securely in that identity. They remind us that, ultimately, our true worth is found in Him--and that's a life-altering, soul-anchoring truth to live in and live from.

As you uncover your true worth, you'll also learn how to:

  • Identify the false messages that are stealing your self-worth
  • Embrace what the Word of God says about who you are
  • Find your security and significance in Christ alone

Let Her True Worth be your guide as you discover the woman you were meant to be.

Praise for Her True Worth:

In a world that teaches us to measure our worth by our social media followings, achievements, and striving, Her True Worth gently turns us back to where our identity truly lies: in Jesus. Brittany and Cassandra empower women to remember the source of all hope and encourage us to lay down our idols in exchange for true peace in him.

--Danielle Coke, illustrator, activist, and founder of Oh Happy Dani

Edited by Kate 

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Mini Amigurumi Birds

Sarah Abbondio

"Cute and cuddly amigurumi birds from the bestselling author of Mini Amigurumi Animals. Complete your menagerie with this flock of 25 birds! This charming book is full of cute and characterful birds to crochet. Choose from a vibrant peacock, puffin or flamingo, an adorable penguin, or a striking emu or swan. Attach your finished birds to purses, key rings, baby buggies or baby mobiles. There are 25 tiny birds to make and collect, and even a little egg to complete the set! All you need is a crochet hook, some yarn, and a few basic crochet techniques, which are clearly explained to get you started. Which one will fly off your hook first?"--Publisher's description.

Edited by Kate 

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Be Thankful for Trees

Harriet Ziefert

What gives you a seat, a floor for your feet?

A place you can sit with your family to eat?

 

The pum-pum of a drum, a guitar's twangy strum . . .

 

Tree wood makes music zing, ping, and hum.

 

Using lilting, rhyming couplets, this book explores the many items that are made from trees. But it doesn't stop there! Kids will also learn about the many uses of live trees - and the environmental danger to trees posed by forest fires, floods, and deforestation. Kids are encouraged to be kind, not only to one another, but to the environment as well.

 

Kids will view their backyards and parks in a whole new light after going on an arboreal eco-tour in this gorgeous paean to trees.

This book is printed on responsibly sourced, 100% recycled FSC paper.

(Added by Jenna)

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The Secret Signs of Nature

Craig Caudill

Learn how to navigate through any landscape--forests, deserts, even your own backyard--through observation of the world around you!

Put away your map, look up from your phone, and let nature be your guide.

Rediscover nature's hidden signs as you delve into the amazing science of natural navigation. Meet two young adventurers, as they discover the joy of finding their way using nature's clues. From worms, honeybees, and spiders to trees, flowers, and clouds, young adventurers are shown what to look and listen for wherever they are--whether in the back garden, a vast meadow, or the open sea.

Top wilderness trainer Craig Caudill shares more than 200 tips for reading nature from decades spent walking the land around his home and around the world. So, whether you're walking in the country, along a coastline, or out at night, this is the ultimate guide on what the land, sky, plants, animals, and weather can reveal--if you only know where to look!

By opening our senses to the unfolding world of nature all around us, this visual compendium can be enjoyed by all the family to transform the way the natural world is experienced.

(Added by Jenna)

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Yes We Will: Asian Americans Who Shaped This Country

Kelly Yang

From #1 NYT bestselling author Kelly Yang comes a gorgeously illustrated picture book about Asian American changemakers doing everything they dreamed of and inspiring all of us to reach for new heights!

From creating beautiful music like Yo-Yo Ma to flying to outer space like Franklin Chang-Díaz; from standing up to injustice like Fred Korematsu to becoming the first Asian American, Black and female vice president of the United States like Kamala Harris, this book illuminates the power of Asian Americans all over the country, in all sorts of fields.

Each spread is illustrated by a different renowned Asian American or Asian artist. Alongside the poetic main text, Yes We Will includes one-line biographies of the person or historical moment featured on the page, with extended biographies at the end. Readers of different ages and needs can use the book in different ways, from classroom discussions to bedtime readalouds and more.

Yes We Will answers the question, can we accomplish whatever we dream? With love, courage, determination, and lots of imagination, we can--and we will!

Featured changemakers:
Franklin Chang-Díaz
Lia Cirio
Tammy Duckworth
Jenny Han
Kamala Harris
H.E.R.
Fred Korematsu
Padma Lakshmi
Sunisa Lee
Jeremy Li
Yo-Yo Ma
Amanda Nguyen
Sandra Oh
I. M. Pei
Mamie Tape
Peter Tsai
Philip Vera Cruz
Vera Wang

(Added by Jenna)

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Behind the Scenes at the Space Stations

DK (COR).

Your all-access pass to spectacular space stations.

Step inside one of humanity's greatest achievements with a behind-the-scenes guide to space exploration.

Revealing a new perspective into the world of space exploration and the daring astronauts who make it possible, Behind the Scenes at the Space Station takes you on a once-in-a-lifetime tour of the space station. Learn what the astronauts do once they make it to the space station, from experiments to repairs and so much more! Have you ever wondered if plants can grow in outer space? Or how the space station doesn't break down in outer space? Or how astronauts go to the toilet in zero gravity?

Behind the Scenes at the Space Station is a treasure trove of information. Did you know that during a 24-hour period, the space station completes 16 orbits of Earth and the astronauts on board see 16 sunrises and sunsets everyday? Or that the International Space Station is so enormous that it was launched in pieces and constructed in orbit?

Brimming with astonishing visuals, step-by-step explanations of everyday space work in action, and job profiles of the adventurous people who make it happen, Behind the Scenes at the Space Station is the perfect way to experience life in space.

(Added by Jenna)

 

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I Am Dolly Parton

Brad Meltzer

An instant New York Times Best Seller!

The legendary country musician, reading advocate, and philanthropist Dolly Parton is the 28th in the New York Times bestselling picture book biography series for ages 5 to 8. (Cover may vary)

This book spotlights Dolly Parton, known for her beloved country songs, who has also sent over 150 million free books to children through her Imagination Library.

This friendly, fun biography series inspired the PBS Kids TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. One great role model at a time, these books encourage kids to dream big. Included in each book are:

- A timeline of key events in the hero's history
- Photos that bring the story more fully to life
- Comic-book-style illustrations that are irresistibly adorable
- Childhood moments that influenced the hero
- Facts that make great conversation-starters
- A virtue this person embodies: Dolly Parton's love is seen in everything she does.

You'll want to collect each book in this dynamic, informative series!

 

(Added by Jenna)

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Gamer Girls

Mary Kenney

Discover the women behind the video games we love--the iconic games they created, the genres they invented, the studios and companies they built--and how they changed the industry forever.

Women have always made video games, from the 1960s and the first-of-its-kind, projector-based Sumerian Game to the blockbuster Uncharted games that defined the early 2000s. Women have been behind the writing, design, scores, and engines that power one of the most influential industries out there. In Gamer Girls, now you can explore the stories of 25 of those women. Bursting with bold artwork, easy-to-read profiles, and real-life stories of the women working on games like Centipede, Final Fantasy, Halo, and more, this dynamic illustrated book shows what a huge role women have played--and will continue to play--in the creation of video games.

With additional sidebars about other influential women in the industry, as well as a glossary and additional resources page, Gamer Girls offers a look into the work and lives of influential pixel queens.

Whether you're a gamer girl who plays video games, a gamer girl who makes video games, or a parent raising a gamer girl, this entertaining, inspiring book will have you itching to pick up a controller or create your own video games!

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Saturday AM Presents How to Draw Diverse Manga

Saturday AM

Learn how to create diverse manga-style characters from the talented team of artists at Saturday AM magazine, the world’s leading showcase of diverse anime and manga stories and characters.

Saturday AM Presents How to Draw Diverse Manga features Saturday AM’s most popular artists, who themselves represent racial identities, ethnicities, and cultures from all over the world as well as diverse gender identities. The reader-friendly, step-by-step presentation, which is accessible even to beginning artists, shares drawing guidance for:

  • Faces, features, and expressions
  • Bodies, proportions, and body positivity
  • Hair, including afros, braids, and waves
  • Developing character design through the language of shape, silhouette, and color schemes  
  • Avoiding stereotypes and caricatures

Perfect for beginning to intermediate manga and anime artists, character designers, fantasy illustrators, animators, and cartoonists, Saturday AM Presents How to Draw Diverse Manga offers an insider’s point of view and expertise on how to design and draw authentic manga characters that reflect diverse identities and backgrounds.

Edited by Kate

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Collage Your Life

Melanie Mowinski

Requiring minimal equipment--just scissors, glue, paper, and pens--collage is an accessible craft that offers limitless creative possibilities. Like meditation or journaling, making collage can be an avenue for self-reflection and artistic exploration. In Collage Your Life, artist and teacher Melanie Mowinski teaches a variety of core techniques including lettering, stamping, stenciling, transfers, and adhesive methods, and provides dozens of prompts to jumpstart the creative process and encourage crafters to explore the versatility of collage, such as: make a self-portrait; disrupt your routine instincts; incorporate text; assemble mementos from a trip; process anger or anxiety; collage with others; or try creating block-out poetry with pages from a magazine. Inspiring examples of the author's work along with that of other collage artists are featured throughout. Crafters, journaling fans, scrapbookers, and artists alike will find guidance and support for developing their own distinctive collage style, whether the goal is to create a visual record of daily experiences and special occasions or to expand a creative journaling practice.
 

Edited by Kate 

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Log Cabin Improv

Mary M. Hogan

For quilters seeking to have some fun with improv quilting but aren't quite sure how to approach the technique, this is a must-have guide that offers some sought-after structure using a very familiar quilt block - log cabins! With the log cabin quilt block structure, you can explore a variety of improvisational possibilities while still ending up with a quilt that beautifully goes together! Featuring a collection of log cabin quilt designs that use easy improv techniques, each project includes step-by-step instructions, helpful diagrams and illustrations, expert tips, and more. Also included are sections on tools and supplies, log cabin basics, improv concepts and approaches, and design principles. Mary M. Hogan has been quilting for 25 years and specializes in improv quilting and using as many fabrics as possible. She is the author of Fast Fold Hexies from Pre-Cuts & Stash, Fast Fold Hexie Quilting, String Quilt Style, and Classic to Contemporary String Quilts.

Edited by Kate 

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Dial Up the Dream

Colleen O'Grady

Your daughter is growing up, but you don’t have to grow apart.

Picking up where her national bestseller, Dial Down the Drama, left off, Colleen O’Grady’s Dial Up the Dream supports you in navigating your daughter’s last days at home and her transition to adulthood. This emerging-adult stage can be even more stressful on both mother and daughter than the teen years, because the stakes are higher and the changes to the relationship more profound.

This essential guidebook will validate what you are feeling and experiencing with your daughter right now as well as give you a road map for what’s coming. Dial Up the Dream will prepare moms for the three phases they will go through during the late teens and early twenties. The first goal is to preserve the relationship during senior year and not get preoccupied with the future, i.e. falling into the “college trap”. The second phase is when your daughter leaves home, whether it’s to live with roommates, travel, enter the workforce, try entrepreneurship, or go to college. As she gains her independence, you’re losing a job that’s defined you for nearly two decades. While she gets ceremonies and congratulations, there’s no accompanying ritual or even acknowledgment for the changes in your life. The third phase is letting go, which can trigger a “mom crisis.” O’Grady helps you get unstuck, make sense of your own story, reconnect with yourself and dial up your dream. The paradox is that when you dial up your own dream...you stay close to your daughter.

In this book, you’ll learn:

· Exactly what’s going on with your daughter emotionally and physiologically. And how to use this science-based knowledge to set realistic expectations
· How to think about and navigate the many complex feelings in this journey for both you and your daughter
· The most common emotional traps we moms get caught in during these years and how to avoid them altogether
· Why it’s imperative to change your parenting role from monitor to trusted consultant—and how to do that· How to use this new phase in your daughter’s life to dial up your own dreams—and why doing so is imperative to your daughter’s development and to a having a vibrant, meaningful, lifelong mother-daughter relationship.

Edited by Kate 

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Ritual as Remedy

Mara Branscombe

A step-by-step guide to potent self-care and soul-care rituals that awaken freedom, joy, intuition, self-love, and your inner mystic

• Explains how ritual can serve as a way to ground yourself, invite in the new, let go of what needs to be shed, and tap into your own inner powers

• Shares ancient and modern rituals, ceremonies, and practices to connect with the seasons, the lunar cycles, and the five elements, as well as open your heart, dance with your shadow self, grow your intuition, and connect with your body

• Offers detailed instructions for each ritual, ceremony, and transformative healing practice

HEALING BALM for psyche and soul, ritual invokes a unique magic that allows us to step beyond the mundane and touch base with the sacred turning points in our life and the truth of our soul’s calling.

In this evocative guide, Mara Branscombe offers potent soul-care rituals and ceremonies to purify and strengthen minds, hearts, and bodies, so as to enable us to activate our inner power. Connecting with the pagan wheel of the year, the five elements, and the lunar cycle, soul-stirring rituals and step-by-step healing protocols show a path towards a deeper, heart-centered living. Transformative practices such as guided meditations and visualizations, breathwork, altar creation, and discovery of our personal empowerment mantras facilitate our healing journey. Ancient and modern ceremonies and specific spiritual formulas help us embody a loving existence, dance with our shadow self, engage with grief, grow our intuition, dismantle limiting beliefs, and heal toxic patterns to find inner strength and peace.

Ritual as Remedy is an invitation to shape-shift, heal, transform, and reclaim one’s true soul purpose through powerful self-care protocols that awaken freedom, joy, and a wild, untamed self-love.

Edited by Kate 

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Arte Popular

Mexican Museum

Arte Popular features 100 pieces from Rex May's extensive collection of exquisite hand-crafted objects from all over Mexico.

Coming from the reputable Mexican Museum, this volume demonstrates the dramatic power of folk art.

This bilingual volume provides a veritable treasure trove of discoveries for the curious reader.

- Features bold and atmospheric photographs
- Includes scholarly essays that delve into the collection's origins and significance
- A visual treat for lovers of Mexican art, craft, and visual culture

The Rex May Collection-bequeathed to the Mexican Museum by the legendary 39-Mile-Drive sign designer-demonstrates the dramatic power of folk art.

This book is a companion to the opening of the Mexican Museum building in downtown San Francisco's Yerba Buena museum neighborhood.

- Wrapped in a striking, gold-foil-bedecked case, this makes a wonderful gift for artists and art fans everywhere.
- Perfect for museum goers and fans of Mexican arts and crafts
- The Mexican Museum has been a San Francisco cultural destination and educational resource for 37 years, and became the only San Francisco affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in 2012.
- Add it to the shelf with books like Mexican Details by Joe P. Carr and Karen Witynski, Crafts of Mexico by Margarita de Orellana and Alberto Ruy Sanchez, and Masks of Mexico: Tigers, Devils, and the Dance of Life by Barbara Mauldin.

Edited by Kate 

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Salmon Wars

Catherine Collins

A Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent and a former private investigator dive deep into the murky waters of the international salmon farming industry, exposing the unappetizing truth about a fish that is not as good for you as you have been told.

A decade ago, farmed Atlantic salmon replaced tuna as the most popular fish on North America’s dinner tables. We are told salmon is healthy and environmentally friendly. The reality is disturbingly different.

In Salmon Wars, investigative journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins bring readers to massive ocean feedlots where millions of salmon are crammed into parasite-plagued cages and fed a chemical-laced diet. The authors reveal the conditions inside hatcheries, where young salmon are treated like garbage, and at the farms that threaten our fragile coasts. They draw colorful portraits of characters, such as the big salmon farmer who poisoned his own backyard, the fly-fishing activist who risked everything to ban salmon farms in Puget Sound, and the American researcher driven out of Norway for raising the alarm about dangerous contaminants in the fish. Frantz and Collins document how the industrialization of Atlantic salmon threatens this keystone species, endangers our health and environment, and lines the pockets of our generation's version of Big Tobacco. And they show how it doesn't need to be this way.

Just as Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation forced a reckoning with the Big Mac, the vivid stories, scientific research, and high-stakes finance at the heart of Salmon Wars will inspire readers to make choices that protect our health and our planet.

Edited by Kate 

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Resilient

John Eldredge

The human soul has a built-in yearning for joy and beauty and all good things. But that craving for life has taken a real beating in the last few years. Join New York Times bestselling author John Eldredge as he gives you the tools you need to follow Jesus' path of supernatural resilience so you can reclaim your joy, strengthen your heart, and thrive through the storm.

Between false promises of ease and comfort on one side and the sheer trauma of global disease and disasters on the other, people today are facing a shortage of peace, happiness, and strength. In Resilient, Eldredge reveals a path toward genuine recovery and resilience through Jesus himself.

Drawing on wisdom from Scripture and Christian tradition, and illustrated throughout with powerful, true stories of grit and survival, Resilient will help you:

  • Recover from the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Tap into the river of life that God promises his people
  • Learn to be patient with yourself--genuine recovery from spiritual and emotional trauma takes time and intentionality
  • Create a plan to foster resilience in your day-to-day life
  • Discover deep wells of freedom and strength through Christ who lives within us

Thriving requires a resilient soul. This book will help you find the resilience you long for when the world has gone mad--and discover in Jesus himself the strength that prevails.

Edited by Kate 

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Around the Board

Emily Delaney

Gather around the board to celebrate all of life's occasions!

With a chapter for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, you'll learn to make nearly 50 creative, delicious boards that capitalize on the flavors and festivities of the season. Complete with suggested flavor and beverage pairings, styling tips, ingredient profiles, and more, Around the Board is your guide to year-round entertaining.

Celebrate the beauty of winter with the Winter Pairings board, filled with bold, rich flavors and pops of juicy color from pomegranate and citrus.

When a beautiful spring day calls for a brunch gathering, Emily walks you through the steps of building a beautiful display of pastries, granola, spreads, fresh fruit and more.

As calendars fill up with holidays and celebrations throughout the summer and fall, you'll find recipes for boards to enjoy from the 4th of July to Halloween, all featuring seasonal ingredients, delicious pairing options, and eye-catching yet easy-to-achieve arrangements.

Each recipe is accompanied by annotated photography that guides you through the steps to create the board at home, along with helpful tips, product recommendations, and more. The beautiful recipe images are as pleasing to admire as they are to create, making the book the perfect addition to any entertainer's kitchen or coffee table.

With an emphasis on honing your own cheese board instincts, Around the Board is a complete resource to mastering one of the year's most popular food trends.

Edited by Kate 

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Everyday Celebrations from Scratch

Maria Provenzano

Why wait for the holidays to celebrate?

Life's everyday moments are worthy of connecting people together with food and crafts. Everyday Celebrations from Scratch is filled with impressive (yet easy) recipes, step-by-step craft tutorials, and inspiration to set the scene--all to help you create the life you want, from scratch.

First, Maria shares the essentials of everyday celebrations, including must-haves for a well-stocked pantry and the basic supplies for craft activities anyone can do.

Each section of the book provides inspiration for both food and do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, so you can invest minimum time for maximum impact! Discover how fun it can be to celebrate . . .

  • Weeknight meals, so even a takeout night is memorable
  • Family, including an inspiring and nourishing breakfast before a loved one's major presentation or important test
  • Friendship, with crafts like custom bookmarks for your reading club or wine glass tags for a girl's night in
  • Sports, which can involve the best-ever tailgating party or a neighborhood backyard Olympics
  • Seasons, to make it even easier to feel festive all year round

Everyday celebrations are the foundations of memories that last a lifetime, and Maria will show you just how easy it can be!

Edited by Kate 

 

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Surrounded by Narcissists

Thomas Erikson

Part of the bestselling Surrounded by Idiots series!

Internationally bestselling author Thomas Erikson shares the secrets of dealing with everyday narcissists.

Are the narcissists in your life making you miserable? Are you worn out by their constant demands for attention, their absolute conviction they are right (even when they’re clearly not), their determination to do whatever they want (regardless of the impact), and their baffling need to control everyone and everything around them?

In this thought-provoking, sanity-saving book, Thomas Erikson helps you understand what makes narcissists tick and, crucially, how to handle them without wearing yourself out in the process. With the help of the simple, four-color behavioral model made famous in Surrounded by Idiots, Erikson provides all the tools you need to manage not just the narcissists around you but everyday narcissistic behaviors as well–something that is becoming more widespread in the age of social media.

Engaging and practical, Surrounded by Narcissists will help you free yourself from the thrall of others' toxic agendas so you can pursue a happier, more fulfilling and successful life.

Edited by Kate 

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The Last Resort

Sarah Stodola

A captivating exploration of beach resort culture--from its roots in fashionable society to its undervalued role in today's world economy--as the travel industry approaches a climate reckoning

With its promise of escape from the strains of everyday life, the beach has a hold on the popular imagination as the ultimate paradise. In The Last Resort, Sarah Stodola dives into the psyche of the beachgoer and gets to the heart of what drives humans to seek out the sand. At the same time, she grapples with the darker realities of resort culture: strangleholds on local economies, reckless construction, erosion of beaches, weighty carbon footprints, and the inevitable overdevelopment and decline that comes with a soaring demand for popular shorelines.

The Last Resort weaves Stodola's firsthand travel notes with her exacting journalism in an enthralling report on the past, present, and future of coastal travel. She takes us from Monte Carlo, where the pursuit of pleasure first became part of the beach resort experience, to a village in Fiji that was changed irrevocably by the opening of a single resort; from the overdevelopment that stripped Acapulco of its reputation for exclusivity to Miami Beach, where extreme measures are underway to prevent the barrier island from vanishing into the ocean.

In the twenty-first century, beach travel has become central to our globalized world--its culture, economy, and interconnectedness. But with sea levels likely to rise at least 1.5 to 3 feet by the end of this century, beaches will become increasingly difficult to preserve, and many will disappear altogether. What will our last resort be when water begins to fill the lobbies?

Edited by Kate 

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Dare to Lead Like a Girl

Dalia Feldheim

For women AND men, this fresh look at leadership helps us all learn to connect to our more feminine leadership traits and lead like a girl! Dare to Lead Like a Girl is a holistic look at how to achieve purpose and joy at work. It is about turning the world of work into a place where empathy, intuition, passion, and resilience take their rightful place, where women can lead like women and men can tap into their more feminine leadership traits and dare to lead (more) like a girl! Dalia Feldheim was one of the marketing directors behind the 2014 global Always ad campaign "#LikeAGirl." This message touched a nerve for women and men alike becoming much more than a commercial - as it became an icon for women's empowerment. The ad was selected by Forbes as one of the 10 most influential campaigns of the decade. In the commercial, while a young girl understand the phrase 'run like a girl' to mean, run as fast as you can, somewhere along the way, doing things "like a girl" becomes an insult. The goal of the commercial was to change the meaning of words and reclaim the phrase to simply mean "be proud of who you are." With Dalia's new book it is time to reclaim that phrase once again and this time in the world of leadership. It's time to stop asking our women leaders to lead like men and instead start learning from what is working for our women leaders--and share that wisdom with everyone, men and women alike. Dare to Lead Like a Girl is a provocative call to action to all leaders to stop wearing an emotional mask at work and connect to their more feminine leadership traits - owning their passion, perseverance, people skills, and positivity. With her flare for relatable storytelling, Dalia shares her executive leadership journey of over two decades backed by theoretical underpinning from the world of psychology, business, and mindfulness to encourage leaders to connect to their more feminine super powers: be courageous, lead from their heart, and Dare to Lead (more) Like a Girl.

Edited by Kate 

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The War of Nerves

Martin Sixsmith

A major new history of the Cold War that explores the conflict through the minds of the people who lived through it.

More than any other conflict, the Cold War was fought on the battlefield of the human mind. And, nearly thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its legacy still endures—not only in our politics, but in our own thoughts and fears.

Drawing on a vast array of untapped archives and unseen sources, Martin Sixsmith vividly recreates the tensions and paranoia of the Cold War, framing it for the first time from a psychological perspective. Revisiting towering, unique personalities like Khrushchev, Kennedy, and Nixon, as well as the lives of the unknown millions who were caught up in the conflict, this is a gripping narrative of the paranoia of the Cold War—and in today's uncertain times, this story is more resonant than ever.

Edited by Kate 

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Modern Table

Kim Kushner

The Modern Table, by acclaimed chef and author Kim Kushner, presents kosher cuisine in a fresh, contemporary light. Jam-packed with 75 simple and delicious recipes, entertaining ideas, and menu inspirations, this beautiful cookbook is designed to make every get-together memorable--whether it's a casual midweek dinner or a full-on Shabbat feast. It includes quick and healthy dishes for busy lifestyles, such as Honeydew with Sea Salt and Lime-Poppy Seed Drizzle, or Leek and Butternut Squash Soup. Fresh, vibrant salads like Grilled Peaches, Burrata, and Mint highlight seasonal offerings, while a delectable Slow-Cooked Lollipop Short Ribs rivals your favorite restaurant dishes. Recipes such as Spicy Green Tahini, Za'atar Cauliflower Steaks, and The Orange Blossom Chiffon Cake with Rose Petals celebrate Kim's Moroccan and Ashkenazi-Canadian heritage. Also featured are table setting ideas, informal and formal menus, simple floral inspirations, and culinary gifts.

The Modern Table is an elegant collection of delicious, fresh, seasonal, beautiful recipes that also happen to be kosher. It is the culmination of ideas inspired by years of gathering to form connections around the table.
 

Edited by Kate

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My Name Is Jason. Mine Too.

Jason Reynolds

A stunning visual autobiography of two crazy-talented besties, bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds and painter Jason Griffin, who could never be who they are singularly if they weren’t who they were together.

Once upon a time in America, there were two Jasons. Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin. One a poet. One an artist. One Black. One white. Two voices. One journey in mind: to move to New York, the city of dreams, to make their own dreams come true. Willing to have a life not un-hard, so long as it wasn’t unhappy. Willing to let the city swallow them whole, so long as it gives them their chance. They had each other. “What if painting was a sin, and the poetry became taboo. And no one ever clapped for me again. My question is, would you?”

They clapped. Oh, they clapped. And aren’t we glad?

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Fantastic Origami Sea Creatures

福井久男

Dive under the sea with these realistic marine origami models!

In Fantastic Origami Sea Creatures, Japanese origami expert Hisao Fukui shows you how to create incredibly detailed aquatic wildlife, including a giant squid, prehistoric creatures and even a massive blue whale calf!

The step-by-step folding instructions and photos in this book present 20 challenging and amazingly lifelike models -- from intermediate to complex in terms of their level of difficulty.

The 20 projects in this book include:

  • The Penguin -- A color-change model capturing the awkward and slightly comical appearance of these flightless aquatic birds
  • The Polar Bear -- A menacing hunter who will hungrily stalk the edge of your desk or bookshelf
  • The Goldfish -- This model features elegant lines and clever folding solutions -- and it's difficult to overfeed, to boot!
  • The Crocodile -- A lurking hunter which is ideal for showcasing special papers
  • The Crab -- With all of the legs to define, this model is a challenging one, but with fewer pinch folds than you might expect
  • The Manta Ray -- A graceful and gentle filter feeder whose sweeping wings give you the opportunity to create a truly expressive paper sculpture
  • And many more!

Edited by Kate 

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Pig Beach BBQ Cookbook

Matt Abdoo

A delicious deep dive into the world of barbecue from the celebrated chefs behind the popular restaurants Pig Beach

Matt Abdoo and Shane McBride cut their teeth preparing three-star Italian and French cuisine, but in their spare time, what they really loved cooking (and eating) was barbecue. Eventually, they traded in their Michelin star kitchens for a smoker and opened their dream restaurant: a laid-back eatery that pays homage to the culinary traditions of American BBQ but isn't afraid to experiment with worldly influences.

Now, you can master Matt and Shane's smoky meats and championship-winning sauces at home. With more than 50 mouthwatering recipes, Pig Beach BBQ Cookbook includes everything from traditional favorites like buffalo wings and smoked beef brisket, to groundbreaking new dishes like Mojo-Marinated St. Louis Ribs and Secret Spice Pecan Candied Bacon.

An essential read for every at-home pitmaster, Pig Beach BBQ Cookbook is also a definitive barbecue tour of the United States. By sharing tricks of the trade from experts in every region, it explains once and for all how North Carolina 'cue differs from Texas 'cue, and teaches you how to recreate those distinct and delicious flavors no matter where you live.

Edited by Kate 

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Chance Encounters

David Zinn

 

The master of contemporary sidewalk chalk shares his latest creations in this collection of impossible-seeming, brilliantly imagined illustrations that leap off the page in all their original joyful exuberance.

David Zinn's amazing street drawings are created using chalk, charcoal and found objects, and each extraordinary drawing is only ever temporary. This book preserves Zinn's art in all its colorful, hypnotic glory by collecting together never-before-published images of his eye-popping creations. Created over the last two years on streets across the globe, these adorably zany and deceptively three-dimensional characters come to life on manhole covers and streetlamps, village squares and subway platforms. Zinn's most frequent characters are a bright green googly-eyed monster and a phlegmatic flying pig--but the diversity of his menagerie is limited only by the size of the sidewalk and the spirit of the day. In a brief introduction Zinn describes his creative process, explaining how he seeks out everyday imperfections to situate his art-such as sidewalk cracks and chips, tufts of weeds and sewer grates-and brief captions describe the provenance of each work. While these amazing drawings can no longer stop pedestrians in their tracks on the streets, they live on in book form to mesmerize and inspire readers of all ages.

Edited by Kate 

 

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The Universe and You

Suzanne Slade

During the night, as we sleep, a beautiful celestial dance is taking place. While Earth seems solid and still, it's actually spinning on its axis and circling the sun. Joining Earth in this orbit around the sun are the other seven planets in our solar system, along with dozens of moons and millions of comets and asteroids. Containing our solar system is the wondrous Milky Way galaxy, with its billions of stars, just like our own sun, swirling and whirling around. And on from there are the billions of galaxies with their own stars swirling and whirling into the ever-expanding space called our universe. When the sun rises on a brand new day, the dance continues. Through lyrical text, award-winning science writer Suzanne Slade (June Almeida, Virus Detective! The Woman Who Discovered the First Human Coronavirus) takes young readers on an exploration of our solar system, galaxies beyond, and finally the universe as a whole. Back matter includes science facts.

(Added by Jenna)

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Light the Sky, Firefly

Sheri M. Bestor

Fireflies (or lightning bugs) are some the world's most fascinating--and illuminating!--insects. And one many children can find right in their backyards! With a simple story, perfect for read-alouds, and colorful illustrations, this scientific look at a firefly's life-cycle will captivate little entomologists. Informative sidebars are included that let children learn even more about these amazing insects.

(Added by Jenna)

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Making Simple Robots

Kathy Ceceri

Making Simple Robots is based on the idea that anybody can build a robot! That includes kids, educators, parents, and anyone who didn't make it to engineering school. If you can cut, fold, and tape a piece of paper to make a tube or a box, you can build a no-tech robotic part. In fact, many of the models in this book are based upon real-life prototypes -- working models created in research labs and companies. What's more, if you can use the apps on your smartphone, you can quickly learn to tell robots what to do using free, online, beginner-level software like MIT's Scratch and Microsoft MakeCode.

The projects in this book which teach you about electric circuits by making jumping origami frogs with eyes that light up when you get them ready to hop. You'll practice designing all-terrain robot wheel-legs with free, online Tinkercad software, and you'll create files ready for 3D printing. You'll also learn to sew -- and code -- a cyborg rag doll with a blinking electronic eye.

Each project includes step-by-step directions and clear illustrations and photographs. Along the way, you'll learn about the real research behind the DIY version, find shortcuts for making projects easier when needed, and get suggestions for adding to the challenge as your skill set grows.

(Added by Jenna)

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Companion Planting for Beginners

Brian Lowell

If you want a vibrant, chemical-free vegetable garden, companion planting is the solution.

Did you know tomatoes produce a natural insecticide that can help protect carrots against pests? Or that planting mint near lettuce can repel slugs? Every gardener knows that the key to an abundant harvest in their vegetable garden is controlling pests and disease, while still maintaining a healthy growing environment. But it is possible to have a healthy, thriving vegetable garden without using dangerous chemicals? It is, as long as you know how to pair up the right plants. Organic gardeners have known for years that planting the right plants together is the key to minimizing pests, improving soil quality, and increasing the yield of their gardens, and almost any vegetable you can grow likely has a beneficial companion. Companion planting is the ideal way to avoid using chemicals, while still increasing the efficiency of your garden. Expert organic gardener Brian Lowell will teach you how to use plants to create a beautiful, vibrant vegetable garden that will be free of toxic chemicals.

Here's what you'll find inside:
- Handy companion planting pairings for all of the most common garden vegetables
- Practical, simple photography and colorful illustrations for dozens of beneficial planting configurations
- Expert advice from a master gardener that is specifically designed for beginners
- Loads of troubleshooting tips for fixing common issues with companion-planted gardens
- Tips for setting up the perfect vegetable garden, including practical advice on watering, soil management, troubleshooting, and more

Edited by Kate 

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All the Flowers Kneeling

Paul Tran

“Paul Tran’s debut collection of poems is indelible, this remarkable voice transforming itself as you read, eventually transforming you.” —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

“This powerful debut marshals narrative lyrics and stark beauty to address personal and political violence.” New York Times Book Review
 
A profound meditation on physical, emotional, and psychological transformation in the aftermath of imperial violence and interpersonal abuse, from a poet both “tender and unflinching” (Khadijah Queen)


Visceral and astonishing, Paul Tran's debut poetry collection All the Flowers Kneeling investigates intergenerational trauma, sexual violence, and U.S. imperialism in order to radically alter our understanding of freedom, power, and control. In poems of desire, gender, bodies, legacies, and imagined futures, Tran’s poems elucidate the complex and harrowing processes of reckoning and recovery, enhanced by innovative poetic forms that mirror the nonlinear emotional and psychological experiences of trauma survivors. At once grand and intimate, commanding and deeply vulnerable, All the Flowers Kneeling revels in rediscovering and reconfiguring the self, and ultimately becomes an essential testament to the human capacity for resilience, endurance, and love.

Edited by Kate 

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Talk with Her

Kimberly Wolf

A comprehensive guide to help dads support their daughters through the preteen and teen years up to adulthood

“Communication” with your daughter doesn’t mean having “big” conversations all the time. Creating even the smallest moments of father-daughter connection can build bonds. In Talk with Her, you’ll find information on nineteen topics defining your daughter’s life—including body positivity, romantic relationships, social media, mental health, and academic achievement—along with the communication strategies you’ll need to address them with care and confidence.

With cutting-edge research, expert perspectives, and talking points, Kimberly Wolf brings broad-ranging and often overwhelming topics into focus to help you make a positive, lifelong impact on your daughter one conversation at a time.

“Kimberly Wolf provides a vital map for fathers in navigating the most important—and often the most challenging and turbulent—aspects of father-daughter relationships. This is an engaging, insightful, thoughtful, and wonderfully useful book.” —Dr. Richard Weissbourd, Senior Lecturer and Faculty Director of Making Caring Common, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Edited by Kate 

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Trip of One's Own

Kate Wills

A travel story is the best story of them all...

Travel journalist Kate Wills wasn't expecting to be divorced after less than a year of marriage, or to be forced to restart a life that had seemed so stable for so long. Luckily, her job as a writer offered her the perfect opportunity to escape from it all. But this time, with no deadlines to hit or all-expenses-paid trips to absorb in a few days before churning out copy for a travel magazine, her jet-setting felt different. There were no photographers working alongside her or assistants booking her flights. For the first time ever, Kate was traveling alone.

Feeling unexpectedly out of her element, Kate began to scour history for stories of female travelers to inspire her. From a 4th-century nun to a globe-circling cyclist, Kate discovered that there have always been astonishing women who have broken free from society's expectations, clearing the path for many of us to do the same.

Funny, heartfelt, and guaranteed to spark wanderlust, A Trip of One's Ownis the perfect armchair travel read to inspire you to jump in the car or hop on a plane to explore the world. This book is the must-have next read for any aspiring solo female traveler!

Edited by Kate 

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This Might Be Too Personal

Alyssa Shelasky

A PureWow Best Beach Read of 2022

A frisky, feminine, funny, and profoundly genuine essay collection on relationships, sex, motherhood, and finding yourself, by the editor of New York magazine's "Sex Diaries."

Alyssa Shelasky has a lot to tell you.

In this hilarious and intimate essay collection, Alyssa navigates life as a wild-hearted woman and her thrilling career as a sex, relationship, and celebrity writer in New York City. From running away from the “perfect” future husband(s), to interviewing A-list stars while contemplating an abortion, to bypassing men entirely to have a baby with an anonymous sperm donor, to partnering up with a sexy enigma while extremely pregnant and eventually finding a soulmate whom she swears she’ll never marry, Alyssa’s essays paint a deeply genuine, romantic, and uproarious portrait of a woman who lives by her own paradigm of love and lust, and who refuses to settle or sacrifice her fierce inner-spirit, sometimes to her own regret and detriment. Through her stories, confessions, and columns, she shares all the beautiful, embarrassing, and emotional details of her bleeding heart and busy bedroom.

This Might Be Too Personal is like having (several) drinks with your best friend who has seen, heard, and done everything. Literally, everything. Told with a refreshing candor with jolts of humor, comforting relatability, and irresistible energy, Alyssa’s book is the ultimate meditation on living an authentic life with big feelings, hard decisions, and the small victories and painful mistakes of motherhood, womanhood, and profound independence.

Edited by Kate 

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Legends of Drag

Harry James Hanson

A tribute to the groundbreaking drag icons who helped pave the way for the queens of today



Drag has officially transcended the underground and exploded into the mainstream. Queens have more visibility than ever, and it's been hard won through decades of perseverance, imagination, and intergenerational support within local drag communities. It's time to honor the queens who paved the way for the new generation of drag and are still carrying out their work today.



To create Legends of Drag, a photo book and archive of living drag history, authors Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus traveled coast to coast, visiting 16 cities to meet 80 legendary entertainers who shared boundless wisdom and powerful anecdotes from their lives. These queens are featured in stunning portraits shot on location and styled with unique floral elements.

Edited by Kate 

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Catholica

Suzanna Ivanic

Focusing on a carefully curated selection of Catholic art and artefacts, this book explains the meaning of the iconography and the mystic power of the faith's ritual objects. A wealth of often hidden symbols are identified and examined close up, building into a catalogue of key visual symbols for readers to use to interpret all Catholic visual and material culture. The book is organized into three parts - Tenet, Locus and Spiritus - each containing three themed chapters. The first part introduces the centrepieces of the faith, explaining the symbolism in the artistic representation of the holy family, apostles and saints, and in stories from scripture. The second part examines places of worship, identifying the constituent parts of the cathedral and presenting evocative images of roadside shrines. The third part explores celebrations and traditions, including personal devotional tools and jewelry. For each of the nine themed chapters, illustrated introductory text is followed by a spread-by-spread presentation of the key figures, the key stories and the key iconography relevant to each theme. Paintings and artefacts are examined in detail, identifying and explaining the symbolism and the stories depicted in each. As the book progresses, readers will build up knowledge of the entire Catholic visual code - the symbols that define Catholic practice, the attributes of the saints, the parts of the cathedral - allowing them to interpret Catholic imagery and objects wherever they find them and to understand the tenets, sites and rituals of the faith.

Edited by Kate 

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The 2% Way

Myron L. Rolle

You don't have to change your life overnight--instead, you can make small changes that leave a lasting impact. In The 2% Way, discover the simple, revolutionary practice behind the against-the-odds success story of Dr. Myron L. Rolle.

Dr. Rolle has led a remarkable life: from earning a scholarship to a prestigious private high school to becoming a top-rated recruit at Florida State University; from winning the Rhodes Scholarship for study at Oxford to playing football in the NFL and then becoming a neurosurgery resident at Harvard.

In this inspiring book, Dr. Rolle tells the story of his incredible journey, revealing how a strong work ethic, deep faith, and the family values instilled by his Bahamian immigrant parents set the stage for the transformative life philosophy that enabled him to overcome adversity, defy expectations, and create a life of meaning and purpose.

Whether you're struggling with your own obstacles, looking to improve yourself, searching for your purpose and identity, or seeking inspiration, Dr. Rolle's story will give you the encouragement and tools you need to:

  • Make incremental improvements that lead to long-lasting results
  • Build a life full of purpose and meaning
  • Tackle life with the assurance that you're moving in the right direction

The 2% Way will change the way you think about self-improvement, proving that you have the power to make strides toward the life you've always dreamed of.

Edited by Kate 

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Bet My Soul on Rock 'n' Roll

Jean Beauvoir

The life and career of Haitian American musician Jean Beauvoir, a member of the legendary New York City punk band the Plasmatics

Jean Beauvoir joined the Plasmatics in 1979, playing bass and keyboards for the most notorious band to emerge out of the New York City punk scene. By 1982, he was a member of Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, a retro-rock revival act headed by Steven Van Zandt. The Disciples of Soul videos played on MTV during the network's earliest years, making Beauvoir one of the first Black recording artists to cross the start-up music channel's "color line."

Beauvoir went on to become a multi-platinum artist, producer, and songwriter. Bet My Soul on Rock 'n' Roll follows his ride through the American music industry, detailing his encounters with rock stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Lita Ford, as well as the actor Sylvester Stallone, the billionaire executive Richard Branson, and even Donald Trump. Beauvoir also considers the manner in which his Haitian heritage has shaped his public image, his music, and his role as an activist for the dispossessed and the poor.

Beauvoir's collaborations--and stories--span genres, including work with KISS, Debbie Harry, Lionel Richie, and the Ramones

Edited by Kate 

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Climate in Crisis

Carla Mooney

Does your region get stronger storms and more extreme weather than it used to? Do you have to take steps to conserve water because of drought? Is there more flooding in your area than there used to be? These could all be symptoms of Earth's climate crisis.

In Climate in Crisis: Changing Coastlines, Severe Storms, and Damaging Drought, readers discover how climate change is affecting the human population--from extreme weather and rising coastlines to new migration patterns and disease--through real-life stories and a deep examination of the science driving the phenomenon. Climate change is an enormous topic, but through real-life examples of how climate change affects humans directly, readers can find a relatable foothold from which to explore the dependent relationship between the Earth, the climate, and all living creatures, including humans. As kids gain a deeper understanding of our ultimate connection to everything on and around our planet, they are also encouraged to think of innovative ways to help curb climate change, which has been called humanity's greatest challenge.

Throughout Climate in Crisis, hands-on STEM activities, entertaining illustrations, essential questions, and fascinating sidebars illuminate the topic and engage readers further. In addition, Climate in Crisis integrates a digital learning component by providing links to primary sources, videos, and other relevant websites.

Added by Hailey M.

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The Book of Hops

Dan DiSorbo

The first fully illustrated guidebook for craft beer drinkers, pairing hyper-detailed photography with profiles of fifty of today's most sought-after hop varieties.

Hops are beer's most important ingredient, offering a spectrum of distinct aromas, flavors, and bitterness to all the tasty brews we enjoy. With delicious varieties like the floral Cascade, bitter Galena, tropical Galaxy, or juicy Citra, this heavily illustrated and deeply researched guidebook helps you navigate this ever-expanding field of choices with craft beer aficionado Dan DiSorbo and renowned macrophotographer Erik Christiansen.

The Book of Hops profiles fifty of the most popular and important hops from around the world with notes on taste, composition, use, origin, history, and associated beer styles. A handy primer section explains the science, story, and production of beer using text, illustrations, and infographics, including a breakdown of key ingredients, the brewing process, and even the right glass for the right beer. The book also describes twenty key beer styles, from Pale Ales and Pilsners to Imperial Stouts and New England IPAs, with a brief history and summary of each style's taste profile.

With hundreds of hand-picked craft beer recommendations throughout, this book is all you need to choose your next favorite brew.

Edited by Kate

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Good Arguments

Bo Seo

“The rare book that has the potential to make you smarter—and everyone around you wiser.” —Adam Grant

Two-time world champion debater and former coach of the Harvard debate team, Bo Seo tells the inspiring story of his life in competitive debating and reveals the timeless secrets of effective communication and persuasion


When Bo Seo was 8 years old, he and his family migrated from Korea to Australia. At the time, he did not speak English, and, unsurprisingly, struggled at school. But, then, in fifth grade, something happened to change his life: he discovered competitive debate. Immediately, he was hooked. It turned out, perhaps counterintuitively, that debating was the perfect activity for someone shy and unsure of himself. It became a way for Bo not only to find his voice, but to excel socially and academically. And he’s not the only one. Far from it: presidents, Supreme Court justices, and CEOs are all disproportionally debaters. This is hardly a coincidence. By tracing his own journey from immigrant kid to world champion, Seo shows how the skills of debating—information gathering, truth finding, lucidity, organization, and persuasion—are often the cornerstone of successful careers and happy lives.

Drawing insights from its strategies, structure, and history, Seo teaches readers the skills of competitive debate, and in doing so shows how they can improve their communication with friends, family, and colleagues alike. He takes readers on a thrilling intellectual adventure into the eccentric and brilliant subculture of competitive debate, touching on everything from the radical politics of Malcom X to Artificial Intelligence. Seo proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, far from being a source of conflict, good-faith debate can enrich our daily lives. Indeed, these good arguments are essential to a flourishing democracy, and are more important than ever at time when bad faith is all around, and our democracy seems so imperiled.

Edited by Kate 

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The Secret Life of Secrets

Michael Slepian

"If you've ever wondered why we keep secrets and what motivates us to spill them, look no further. Michael Slepian has spent the past decade studying the psychology of secrets, and is ready to reveal his findings to the world."--Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again

"The Secret Life of Secrets gracefully blends engaging stories with compelling science."--Sonja Lyubomirsky, University of California professor and author of The How of Happiness

Think of a secret that you're keeping from others. It shouldn't take long; behavioral scientist Michael Slepian finds that, on average, we are keeping as many as thirteen secrets at any given time. His research involving more than 50,000 participants from around the world shows that the most common secrets include lies we've told, ambitions, addictions, mental health challenges, hidden relationships, and financial struggles.

Our secrets can weigh heavily upon us. Yet the burden of secrecy, Slepian argues, rarely stems from the work it takes to keep a secret hidden. Rather, the weight of our secrets comes from carrying them alone, without the support of others. Whether we are motivated to protect our reputation, a relationship, a loved one's feelings, or some personal or professional goal, one thing is clear: Holding back some part of our inner world is often lonely and isolating. But The Secret Life of Secrets shows you that it doesn't have to be.

Filled with fresh insight into one of the most universal--yet least understood--aspects of human behavior, The Secret Life of Secrets sheds a fascinating new light on questions like: At what age do children develop the cognitive capacity for secrecy? Do all secrets come with the same mental load? How can we reconcile our secrets with our human desires to relate, connect, and be known? When should we confess our secrets? Who makes for the ideal confidant? And can keeping certain types of secrets actually enhance our well-being?

Drawing on over a decade of original research, The Secret Life of Secrets reveals the surprising ways that secrets pervade our lives, and offers science-based strategies that make them easier to live with. The result is a rare window into the inner workings of our minds, our relationships, and our sense of who we are.

Edited by Kate

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As Cooked on TikTok

TikTok

The first official cookbook from TikTok, featuring both viral and brand-new recipes from the community's most beloved TikTok food creators!

"This cookbook is full of some of TikTok's biggest trends, displaying innovative cooking and fun dishes to make at home."--Gordon and Tilly Ramsay, from the foreword

Bring the fun to your kitchen with all the most popular recipes you know and love from the entertainment platform with more than one billion users globally!

Featuring more than sixty recipes from more than forty food creators on the platform, The TikTok Cookbook offers something different and delicious on every page. There's The Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich from The Korean Vegan, Grilled Jalapeño Corn Off the Cob from Cooking with Shereen, Ramen Carbonara from Cooking with Lynja, Bang Bang Shrimp from Newt, and Strawberry Cream Puffs from ScheckEats--plus tips and techniques from TikTok star chefs like Ming Tsai, Alex Guarnaschelli, and The Pasta Queen, among others. Each recipe has not only been tested and vetted for home kitchens, but also includes a QR code to scan so you can go straight to that creator's page. It's like making a meal with the creator right in your kitchen with you!

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The New Design Rules: How to Decorate and Renovate, from Start to Finish: An Interior Design Book

Emily Henderson

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Styled, here is Emily Henderson's masterclass on interior design.

"An approachable guide for anyone who is looking for tools and resources to create a home that speaks to who they are and what they love."--Joanna Gaines

Whether you're embarking on a weekend refresh or complete renovation, interior designer Emily Henderson wants you to take risks with your home design without experiencing regret. In this visually driven decorating bible punctuated with photographs from real homes and colorful illustrations, she takes you through her entire process, including every single decision she makes when it comes to picking paint, arranging furniture, hanging window treatments, and deciding on lighting fixtures. You'll also learn when to hire a contractor versus an architect versus a handyperson, all the materials to consider (and why you might want to skip those marble countertops), proper measurements of the elements in each room, and so much more. By the end of the book, you'll feel more confident when it comes to visualizing the home of your dreams, and you'll finally know how to make it happen.

 Edited by Kate

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Life Savers

Eryl Nash

Spend a day with real-life emergency service heroes . . . and be inspired to make a difference!

Have you ever wondered what equipment a firefighter takes into a blazing fire? Or what tools a surgeon uses to perform a life-saving operation? Or what gear a mountain rescuer needs on a 13,000-foot-high peak? Meet real-life emergency service workers from across the world as they share with you a day in their lives. Taking you to the heart of the heroes who help us, from Cecilia the Nurse and Koen the Lifeguard to Tamika the Veterinarian, this uplifting nonfiction picture book showcases the amazing work they do, the incredible skills they have, and the important equipment they need to save a life.

A book that opens up opportunities for young readers to talk about interesting careers, diversity, and positive role models, with a foreword by the New York Fire Department's first Black, female deputy chief Tonya Boyd! Illustrated by Little People, Big Dreams series artist Ana Albero, these charming depictions of everyday heroes show that the future of our world starts here . . . with you!

(Added by Jenna)

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Omari McQueen's Best Bites Cookbook

Omari McQueen

Hey America, get cooking with the UK's youngest vegan chef, the award-winning Omari McQueen!

Learn how to make over 35 plant-based recipes, from pizza to pasta, snacks to smoothies. This easy-to-use cookbook is filled to the brim with delicious natural treats created by the award-winning chef! In this book, Omari shares his favorite plant-based dishes in this fun and accessible recipe guide designed to encourage the next generation of vegan cooks.

"I can't wait to inspire other kids to experiment and have fun with vegan food in the kitchen." -Omari

Recipes include:
Happy Hummus
Go-Go Energy Smoothie
BBQ Jackfruit
Rasta Pasta
Rice 'n' Peas
Peri Peri Wedges
Strawberry Coconut Cheesecake
Cherry Brownies

and many more! This edition features American measurements and a flashy foil cover!

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Fun Painting Projects for Kids

Louise McMullen

Nurture Your Artistic Side with 60 Exciting Paint Projects

Learn important skills to help you become a better artist with this super-fun collection of art projects. Louise McMullen, founder of the children’s craft blog, Messy Little Monster, brings her experience as both a teacher and a mother to ensure there’s a project for every artist, whatever your interest, ability or age.

Learn different techniques such as how to create new colors, how to use different types of paints and even how to paint like famous artists. There are small, detailed projects for indoors and large interactive projects where you can get messy outdoors. And you’ll be inspired to think outside the box, like using shaving cream and paint to make a marbling effect, or dish soap and toothpicks to make scratch art.

With 60 unique and totally fun projects, plus plenty of ideas to change things up, you’ll be inspired to paint all day every day!

(Added by Jenna)

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Arab Arab All Year Long!

Cathy Camper

Celebrate the beauty and diversity of life in the Arab diaspora throughout the year.

Wrapping grape leaves, playing doumbek, drawing henna tattoos,
we're Arab, Arab, Arab, the whole year through!

Yallah! From January to December, join some busy kids as they partake in traditions old and new. There's so much to do, whether it's learning to write Arabic or looking at hijab fashion sites while planning costumes for a local comic convention. With details as vivid as the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle perfume (made to remind Mom of Morocco), children bond with friends, honor tradition, and spend loving time with family. Accompanied by buoyant and charming illustrations, this portrait of Arab life and childhood zeal is sure to bring joy all year round. Back matter includes an extensive glossary and notes to enrich the experience for readers of any culture.

(Added by Jenna)

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Time to Shine

Karen Jameson

Let yourself be dazzled by creatures around the world in this brilliant nonfiction picture book about iridescence.

Have you ever noticed the rainbow-like shimmer on certain bird feathers, insect bodies and animal scales? This effect, called iridescence, changes depending on the angle from which its viewed, and animals across the globe use the effect to both blend in and stand out.

In playful rhyming couplets, Time to Shine takes a closer look at these creatures and their sparkly "clothes," from the mallard duck's shining green flying "cap," which allows the birds to coordinate flight movements, to the reed frog's heat reflecting "vest," to the hummingbird's sequinned "costume," which helps to attract a mate. A secondary level of prose text on each spread gives further context for each animal's particular environment and adaptation.

Light seems to dance off of the book's vibrant pages, with illustrations that bring us up close and personal with animals both exotic and familiar to young readers. An author's note provides additional information about the science of iridescence.

(Added by Jenna)

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The Marmalade Diaries

Ben Aitken

"Charming, touching and very very funny" -- Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling author

 

ONE HOUSE. TWO UNLIKELY HOUSEMATES.

 

While hunting for a room in London, Ben Aitken came across one for a great price in a lovely part of town. There had to be a catch. And there was. The catch was Winnie: an 85-year-old widow who doesn't suffer fools.

 

Full of warmth, wit and candor, The Marmalade Diaries tells the story of an unlikely friendship built during an unlikely time. One of the pair, a grieving aristocrat in her mid-eighties. The other? A millennial snowflake. What could possibly go wrong? What could possibly go right?

 

Out of the most inauspicious of soils - and from the author of The Gran Tour - comes a book about grief, family, friendship, loneliness, life, love, lockdown and marmalade.

 

Edited by Kate 

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It Starts with Fruit

Jordan Champagne

Jam making gets a bad rap for being highly technical, complicated, messy, hot, and sticky; but preserving fruit can be simple and easy.

Jordan Champagne unlocks the secrets of mouthwatering fruit sauces and butters, delicious whole-fruit preserves, and fresh-tasting jams and marmalades from the comfort of your home kitchen.

It Starts with Fruit features 73 recipes total: master recipes for each type of preserve, followed by recipes for jams, marmalade, juices, syrups, shrubs, whole fruit preserves, butters, pie fillings, and dried fruits, plus a final chapter on baking with preserves.

• Great for home cooks who want an easy and approachable guide to making jams and other fruit-based preserves
• Jordan's gentle and encouraging methods will guide you through the process of making incredible fruit preserves using seasonal produce.
• Learn inventive techniques that are more flavorful and less complicated than traditional methods—with less sugar, too!

Jordan Champagne, author and cofounder of Happy Girl Kitchen, learned how to make jam while working on a farm, trying to use up fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. Now it's your turn to learn.

Recipes include Raspberry Lemon Jam, Pink Grapefruit Marmalade, Honeyed Apricots, and Peach Rosemary Syrup, as well as baking recipes to turn your fabulous preserves into Thumbprint Cookies, Jam Bars, Fruit Cobbler, and Homemade Toaster Pastries.

• A must-have for anyone who wants to learn about making jam and other preserves, likes experimenting in the kitchen, or enjoys DIY projects
• Approachable for first-timers who feel intimidated by jam-making
• Perfect for those who loved The Noma Guide to Fermentation by René Redzepi & David Zilber, The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Preserving by the Pint by Marisa McClellan

Edited by Kate 

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Scoundrel

Sarah Weinman

A Recommended Read from: The Los Angeles Times * Town and Country * The Seattle Times * Publishers Weekly * Lit Hub * Crime Reads * Alma

From the author of The Real Lolita and editor of Unspeakable Acts, the astonishing story of a murderer who conned the people around him--including conservative thinker William F. Buckley--into helping set him free

In the 1960s, Edgar Smith, in prison and sentenced to death for the murder of teenager Victoria Zielinski, struck up a correspondence with William F. Buckley, the founder of National Review. Buckley, who refused to believe that a man who supported the neoconservative movement could have committed such a heinous crime, began to advocate not only for Smith's life to be spared but also for his sentence to be overturned.

So begins a bizarre and tragic tale of mid-century America. Sarah Weinman's Scoundrel leads us through the twists of fate and fortune that brought Smith to freedom, book deals, fame, and eventually to attempting murder again. In Smith, Weinman has uncovered a psychopath who slipped his way into public acclaim and acceptance before crashing down to earth once again.

From the people Smith deceived--Buckley, the book editor who published his work, friends from back home, and the women who loved him--to Americans who were willing to buy into his lies, Weinman explores who in our world is accorded innocence, and how the public becomes complicit in the stories we tell one another.

Scoundrel shows, with clear eyes and sympathy for all those who entered Smith's orbit, how and why he was able to manipulate, obfuscate, and make a mockery of both well-meaning people and the American criminal justice system. It tells a forgotten part of American history at the nexus of justice, prison reform, and civil rights, and exposes how one man's ill-conceived plan to set another man free came at the great expense of Edgar Smith's victims.

Edited by Kate

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Vogue Paris

Vogue

A visually engaging history of the 100-year-old fashion authority Vogue Paris

Always a defender of artistic and literary creation, Vogue Paris, more than other publications, makes fashion a cultural and societal topic as much as an object of fantasy. Through photographs, drawings, and magazines, this book will highlight how Vogue Paris plays a major and singular role in the diffusion of Parisian style.

Edited by Kate 

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Home with Rue

Kelli Lamb

From top home design magazine Rue comes an accessible guide to creating your ideal space.

"Home with Rue tells us, step by step, how we can feel confident about making home design choices that make every room in our house gorgeous."--Bobbi Brown, founder of Jones Road Beauty and creative director of The George hotel

No matter your location, your style, or your budget, beautiful design should be available to all. As a pioneer in the digital magazine industry, Rue has inspired thousands since establishing their business in 2010. Now Rue's editorial director, Kelli Lamb, has created this incredible collection to carry their style and advice into book form.

Home with Rue is a compendium of inspirational and accessible ideas to help anyone imagine, plan, and create their ultimate living space. Written in the signature Rue voice and full of beautiful images of real homes lived in by real people, it features thoughtfully curated advice, how-to information, and resources. Each chapter focuses on a different space and explores a variety of complementary aesthetics. Woven throughout are expert insights, concise tips and tricks sharing why certain decorating methods work, and quotes from top designers on their creative processes and favorite details or memories of a space.

With hundreds of never-before-seen interior design photographs from Rue's extensive collection, Home with Rue is destined to be a timeless classic to help fans, followers, and readers design the rooms and home of their dreams.

Edited by Kate

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Six Walks

Ben Shattuck

On an autumn morning in 1849, Henry David Thoreau stepped out his front door to walk the beaches of Cape Cod. Over a century and a half later, Ben Shattuck does the same. With little more than a loaf of bread, brick of cheese, and a notebook, Shattuck sets out to retrace Thoreau's path through the Cape's outer beaches, from the elbow to Provincetown's fingertip.

This is the first of six journeys taken by Shattuck, each one inspired by a walk once taken by Henry David Thoreau. After the Cape, Shattuck goes up Mount Katahdin and Mount Wachusett, down the coastline of his hometown, and then through the Allagash. Along the way, Shattuck encounters unexpected characters, landscapes, and stories, seeing for himself the restorative effects that walking can have on a dampened spirit. Over years of following Thoreau, Shattuck finds himself uncovering new insights about family, love, friendship, and fatherhood, and understanding more deeply the lessons walking can offer through life's changing seasons.

Intimate, entertaining, and beautifully crafted, Six Walks is a resounding tribute to the ways walking in nature can inspire us all.

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