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Oil Pastel Masterpieces in 4 Easy Steps

Anna Koliadych

Breathtaking, Vibrant, Simple—Your Must-Have Guide to Everything Oil Pastels

Master the art of creating stunning oil pastel drawings under the guidance of Anna Koliadych, the creator of DearAnnArt and the bestselling author of 15-Minute Watercolor Masterpieces. Let her walk you through 50 gorgeous, four-step projects and teach you all the must-know oil pastel tips and techniques you need to create vivid landscapes, botanicals, cute animals and more.

Revel in dozens of beautiful projects that will spark your creativity. Try your hand at recreating the Aurora Borealis, or draw a breathtaking Magical Lightning landscape. Compose some Autumn Forest Mushrooms, a Blooming Sakura or even a Fluffy Sheep. And with only four steps, every project is assured to be a breeze. Each step is also accompanied by a photo, so you can effortlessly follow along! Anna’s experience as an art educator makes it easy for beginners to jump right in, and her expertise guarantees that even pros will find something new to learn.

With straightforward, no-fluff directions and dozens of projects to inspire you, you’ll work your way from novice to master in a matter of pages.

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Creative Drawing: Symbols and Sacred Geometry

Ana Victoria Calderon

Learn simple step-by-step techniques for drawing and embellishing the exciting, inspiring, and beautiful motifs of sacred geometry.

In Creative Drawing: Symbols and Sacred Geometry, artist, instructor, and author Ana Victoria Calderon takes you on an inner voyage of creative discovery.

  • Learn how sacred geometry has been practiced and celebrated by cultures all over the world and influenced artists throughout history, including Leonardo da Vinci
  • Start with the essentials—compass drawing with graphite pencils on paper—then explore the featured mediums for embellishing, including colored pencils, watercolor, inks, and other easy-to-use mediums
  • Take a step-by-step look at fundamental drawing techniques for a variety of universal motifs, starting with the simple circle and building to more complex motifs, including the Yin Yang symbol, the Tree of Life, the Torus, and the Vortex
  • Learn to paint a variety of stunning effects and find great project ideas for creating amazing images


The study and creation of sacred geometry inspires the imagination and provokes reflection. So grab your pencils and take a beautiful creative journey with drawing!

Perfect for creative beginners, the books in the Art for Modern Makers series take a fun, practical approach to learning about and working with paints and other art mediums to create beautiful DIY projects and crafts.

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The Beginner's Guide to Wheel Throwing

Julia Claire Weber

“An excellent guide for those aspiring to take up pottery making. […] While nothing can replace hands-on instruction, this book comes close.” ―Library Journal Starred Review

Ready, set, throw! If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at the pottery wheel, or if you have ever taken a class and walked away wishing you knew more, you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to the wheel, from artist and instructor Julia Claire Weber. In The Beginner’s Guide to Wheel Throwing, you’ll find all you need to develop the skills (and patience) you need to make your first forms. You’ll start at the beginning of the process with a tour through a typical ceramics studio, a discussion of the best clays for throwing, as well as a variety of centering methods. Then unleash your creativity with the chapters that follow. You’ll find:

  • Starter projects like cups, bowls, and plates to hone your skills.
  • Tutorials on important topics like trimming and handles.
  • A unique decal workshop, unlocking the potential of image transfer.

Throughout the book, skill-building is front and center, with tips and tricks to help you crack the code and make pieces you’re proud of. Gallery work from some of today's top artists are sure to inspire potters of all levels. What will you make first?

For beginners and those returning to ceramics, the Essential Ceramics Skills series from Quarry Books offer the fundamentals along with fresh, contemporary, and simple projects that build skills progressively.

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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.
 

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Carry

Toni Jensen

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE * A powerful, poetic memoir about what it means to exist as an Indigenous woman in America, told in snapshots of the author's encounters with gun violence.

Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize * Goop Book Club Pick * "Essential . . . We need more voices like Toni Jensen's, more books like Carry."--Tommy Orange, New York Times bestselling author of There There

Toni Jensen grew up around guns: As a girl, she learned to shoot birds in rural Iowa with her father, a card-carrying member of the NRA. As an adult, she's had guns waved in her face near Standing Rock, and felt their silent threat on the concealed-carry campus where she teaches. And she has always known that in this she is not alone. As a Métis woman, she is no stranger to the violence enacted on the bodies of Indigenous women, on Indigenous land, and the ways it is hidden, ignored, forgotten.

In Carry, Jensen maps her personal experience onto the historical, exploring how history is lived in the body and redefining the language we use to speak about violence in America. In the title chapter, Jensen connects the trauma of school shootings with her own experiences of racism and sexual assault on college campuses. "The Worry Line" explores the gun and gang violence in her neighborhood the year her daughter was born. "At the Workshop" focuses on her graduate school years, during which a workshop classmate repeatedly killed off thinly veiled versions of her in his stories. In "Women in the Fracklands," Jensen takes the reader inside Standing Rock during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and bears witness to the peril faced by women in regions overcome by the fracking boom.

In prose at once forensic and deeply emotional, Toni Jensen shows herself to be a brave new voice and a fearless witness to her own difficult history--as well as to the violent cultural landscape in which she finds her coordinates. With each chapter, Carry reminds us that surviving in one's country is not the same as surviving one's country.

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A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

Alicia Elliott

"In her raw, unflinching memoir . . . she tells the impassioned, wrenching story of the mental health crisis within her own family and community . . . A searing cry." —New York Times Book Review

The Mohawk phrase for depression can be roughly translated to "a mind spread out on the ground." In this urgent and visceral work, Alicia Elliott explores how apt a description that is for the ongoing effects of personal, intergenerational, and colonial traumas she and so many Native people have experienced.

Elliott's deeply personal writing details a life spent between Indigenous and white communities, a divide reflected in her own family, and engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, art, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrification, and representation. Throughout, she makes thrilling connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political.

A national bestseller in Canada, this updated and expanded American edition helps us better understand legacy, oppression, and racism throughout North America, and offers us a profound new way to decolonize our minds.

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Thunder in the Mountains

Daniel J. Sharfstein

The epic clash of two American legends—their brutal war and a battle of ideas that defined America after Reconstruction.

Oliver Otis Howard thought he was a man of destiny. Chosen to lead the Freedmen’s Bureau after the Civil War, the Union Army general was entrusted with the era’s most crucial task: helping millions of former slaves claim the rights of citizens. He was energized by the belief that abolition and Reconstruction, the country’s great struggles for liberty and equality, were God’s plan for himself and the nation. To honor his righteous commitment to a new American freedom, Howard University was named for him.

 

But as the nation’s politics curdled in the 1870s, General Howard exiled himself from Washington, D.C., rejoined the army, and was sent across the continent to command forces in the Pacific Northwest. Shattered by Reconstruction’s collapse, he assumed a new mission: forcing Native Americans to become Christian farmers on government reservations.

Howard’s plans for redemption in the West ran headlong into the resistance of Chief Joseph, a young Nez Perce leader in northeastern Oregon who refused to leave his ancestral land. Claiming equal rights for Native Americans, Joseph was determined to find his way to the center of American power and convince the government to acknowledge his people’s humanity and capacity for citizenship. Although his words echoed the very ideas about liberty and equality that Howard had championed during Reconstruction, in the summer of 1877 the general and his troops ruthlessly pursued hundreds of Nez Perce families through the stark and unforgiving Northern Rockies. An odyssey and a tragedy, their devastating war transfixed the nation and immortalized Chief Joseph as a hero to generations of Americans.

Recreating the Nez Perce War through the voices of its survivors, Daniel J. Sharfstein’s visionary history of the West casts Howard’s turn away from civil rights alongside the nation’s rejection of racial equality and embrace of empire. The conflict becomes a pivotal struggle over who gets to claim the American dream: a battle of ideas about the meaning of freedom and equality, the mechanics of American power, and the limits of what the government can and should do for its people. The war that Howard and Joseph fought is one that Americans continue to fight today.

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Native American Landmarks and Festivals

Yvonne Wakim Dennis

A state-by-state (and Canada too!) tour of monuments, events, sites, and festivals of Indigenous American history

From ancient rock drawings, historic sites, and modern museums to eco- and cultural tourism, sports events and powwows, the Native American Landmarks and Festivals: A Traveler's Guide to Indigenous United States and Canada provides a fascinating tour of the rich heritage of Indigenous people across the continent. Whether it's the annual All Indian Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada, a dog-sledding trek in Arctic Bay, Nunavut, or a rough ride to the ancient Kaunolu Village Site on Lanai, Hawaii, there is lots more to experience in the Indigenous world right around the corner, including ...

  • The Montezuma Castle National Monument
  • Trail of Tears National Historic Trail
  • The Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City
  • The Autry Museum of the American West
  • The Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center
  • The Thunderbird Powwow
  • The First Nations Film and Video Festival in various cities and states
  • The Angel Mounds State Memorial
  • The Harvest Moon American Indian Festival
  • The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
  • Canada's National Aboriginal Veterans Monument
  • And hundreds more!

    Native American Landmarks and Festivals guides the traveler to 729 landmarks, sites, festivals, and events in all 50 states and Canada. Travelers not only read about the history and traditions for each site, but maps, photos, illustrations, addresses and websites are also included to help further exploration. This book lets the reader choose from a vast array of "authentic" adventures such as dog sledding, camping in a tipi, hunting and fishing expeditions, researching the history with the people who made the history, making crafts, herbal walks, building and sailing in canoes, hiking along ancient routes, exploring rock art, and preparing and eating Native foods. Organized by region, Indigenous enterprises are included in state and federal parks, including federal and international heritage sites, public and private museums and non-Native events that include Indigenous voice. This convenient reference also has a helpful bibliography and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness. Whether traveling by car, plane, or armchair, Native American Landmarks and Festivals: A Traveler's Guide to Indigenous United States and Canada will bring hours of enjoyable discovery.

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The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

David Treuer

FINALIST FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Named a best book of 2019 by The New York Times, TIMEThe Washington Post, NPRHudson BooksellersThe New York Public LibraryThe Dallas Morning News, and Library Journal.


"Chapter after chapter, it's like one shattered myth after another." - NPR

"An informed, moving and kaleidoscopic portrait... Treuer's powerful book suggests the need for soul-searching about the meanings of American history and the stories we tell ourselves about this nation's past.." - New York Times Book Review, front page

A sweeping history—and counter-narrative—of Native American life from the Wounded Knee massacre to the present.


The received idea of Native American history—as promulgated by books like Dee Brown's mega-bestselling 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee—has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did one hundred fifty Sioux die at the hands of the U. S. Cavalry, the sense was, but Native civilization did as well.

Growing up Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative. Because they did not disappear—and not despite but rather because of their intense struggles to preserve their language, their traditions, their families, and their very existence—the story of American Indians since the end of the nineteenth century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention.

In The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes' distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. The devastating seizures of land gave rise to increasingly sophisticated legal and political maneuvering that put the lie to the myth that Indians don't know or care about property. The forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools incubated a unifying Native identity. Conscription in the US military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is the essential, intimate story of a resilient people in a transformative era.

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Born of Lakes and Plains

Anne F. Hyde

A fresh history of the West grounded in the lives of mixed-descent Native families who first bridged and then collided with racial boundaries.

Often overlooked, there is mixed blood at the heart of America. And at the heart of Native life for centuries there were complex households using intermarriage to link disparate communities and create protective circles of kin. Beginning in the seventeenth century, Native peoples—Ojibwes, Otoes, Cheyennes, Chinooks, and others—formed new families with young French, English, Canadian, and American fur traders who spent months in smoky winter lodges or at boisterous summer rendezvous. These families built cosmopolitan trade centers from Michilimackinac on the Great Lakes to Bellevue on the Missouri River, Bent’s Fort in the southern Plains, and Fort Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest. Their family names are often imprinted on the landscape, but their voices have long been muted in our histories. Anne F. Hyde’s pathbreaking history restores them in full.

 

Vividly combining the panoramic and the particular, Born of Lakes and Plains follows five mixed-descent families whose lives intertwined major events: imperial battles over the fur trade; the first extensions of American authority west of the Appalachians; the ravages of imported disease; the violence of Indian removal; encroaching American settlement; and, following the Civil War, the disasters of Indian war, reservations policy, and allotment. During the pivotal nineteenth century, mixed-descent people who had once occupied a middle ground became a racial problem drawing hostility from all sides. Their identities were challenged by the pseudo-science of blood quantum—the instrument of allotment policy—and their traditions by the Indian schools established to erase Native ways. As Anne F. Hyde shows, they navigated the hard choices they faced as they had for centuries: by relying on the rich resources of family and kin. Here is an indelible western history with a new human face.

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The Four Agreements

Don Miguel Ruiz

In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.

•  A New York Times bestseller for over a decade
•  Translated into 48 languages worldwide
 
“This book by don Miguel Ruiz, simple yet so powerful, has made a tremendous difference in how I think and act in every encounter.” — Oprah Winfrey

“Don Miguel Ruiz’s book is a roadmap to enlightenment and freedom.” — Deepak Chopra, Author, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

“An inspiring book with many great lessons.” — Wayne Dyer, Author, Real Magic

“In the tradition of Castaneda, Ruiz distills essential Toltec wisdom, expressing with clarity and impeccability what it means for men and women to live as peaceful warriors in the modern world.” — Dan Millman, Author, Way of the Peaceful Warrior

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Poet Warrior

Joy Harjo

National bestseller
An ALA Notable Book

Three-term poet laureate Joy Harjo offers a vivid, lyrical, and inspiring call for love and justice in this contemplation of her trailblazing life.

Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice.

 

Harjo listens to stories of ancestors and family, the poetry and music that she first encountered as a child, and the messengers of a changing earth—owls heralding grief, resilient desert plants, and a smooth green snake curled up in surprise. She celebrates the influences that shaped her poetry, among them Audre Lorde, N. Scott Momaday, Walt Whitman, Muscogee stomp dance call-and-response, Navajo horse songs, rain, and sunrise. In absorbing, incantatory prose, Harjo grieves at the loss of her mother, reckons with the theft of her ancestral homeland, and sheds light on the rituals that nourish her as an artist, mother, wife, and community member.

Moving fluidly between prose, song, and poetry, Harjo recounts a luminous journey of becoming, a spiritual map that will help us all find home. Poet Warrior sings with the jazz, blues, tenderness, and bravery that we know as distinctly Joy Harjo.

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Indigenous Continent

Pekka Hämäläinen

There is an old, deeply rooted story about America that goes like this: Columbus “discovers” a strange continent and brings back tales of untold riches. The European empires rush over, eager to stake out as much of this astonishing “New World” as possible. Though Indigenous peoples fight back, they cannot stop the onslaught. White imperialists are destined to rule the continent, and history is an irreversible march toward Indigenous destruction.

Yet as with other long-accepted origin stories, this one, too, turns out to be based in myth and distortion. In Indigenous Continent, acclaimed historian Pekka Hämäläinen presents a sweeping counternarrative that shatters the most basic assumptions about American history. Shifting our perspective away from Jamestown, Plymouth Rock, the Revolution, and other well-trodden episodes on the conventional timeline, he depicts a sovereign world of Native nations whose members, far from helpless victims of colonial violence, dominated the continent for centuries after the first European arrivals. From the Iroquois in the Northeast to the Comanches on the Plains, and from the Pueblos in the Southwest to the Cherokees in the Southeast, Native nations frequently decimated white newcomers in battle. Even as the white population exploded and colonists’ land greed grew more extravagant, Indigenous peoples flourished due to sophisticated diplomacy and leadership structures.

By 1776, various colonial powers claimed nearly all of the continent, but Indigenous peoples still controlled it—as Hämäläinen points out, the maps in modern textbooks that paint much of North America in neat, color-coded blocks confuse outlandish imperial boasts for actual holdings. In fact, Native power peaked in the late nineteenth century, with the Lakota victory in 1876 at Little Big Horn, which was not an American blunder, but an all-too-expected outcome.

Hämäläinen ultimately contends that the very notion of “colonial America” is misleading, and that we should speak instead of an “Indigenous America” that was only slowly and unevenly becoming colonial. The evidence of Indigenous defiance is apparent today in the hundreds of Native nations that still dot the United States and Canada. Necessary reading for anyone who cares about America’s past, present, and future, Indigenous Continent restores Native peoples to their rightful place at the very fulcrum of American history.

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The Mosquito Bowl

Buzz Bissinger

"Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights is an American classic. With The Mosquito Bowl, he is back with a true story even more colorful and profound. This book too is destined to become a classic. I devoured it." -- John Grisham

An extraordinary, untold story of the Second World War in the vein of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, from the author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war - the invasion of Okinawa--their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled: Former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly twenty men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL.

When the trash-talking between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as "The Mosquito Bowl."

Within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players in "The Mosquito Bowl" would be killed at Okinawa, by far the largest number of American athletes ever to die in a single battle. The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave and beautiful young men, those who survived and those who did not. It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them. It is a story of a far more innocent time in both college athletics and the life of the country, and of the loss of that innocence.

Writing with the style and rigor that won him a Pulitzer Prize and have made several of his books modern classics, Buzz Bissinger takes us from the playing fields of America's campuses where boys played at being Marines, to the final time they were allowed to still be boys on that field of dirt and coral, to the darkest and deadliest days that followed at Okinawa.

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I Want to Thank You

Gina Hamadey

An inspiring guide to saying thank you, one heartfelt note at a time.

We all know that gratitude is good for us--but the real magic comes when we express it. Writer Gina Hamadey learned this life-changing lesson firsthand when a case of burnout and too many hours on social media left her feeling depleted and disconnected. In this engaging book, she chronicles how twelve months spent writing 365 thank-you notes to strangers, neighbors, family members, and friends shifted her perspective. Her journey shows that developing a lasting active gratitude practice can make you a happier person, heal complicated relationships, and reconnect you with the people you love--all with just a little bit of bravery at the mailbox.

How can we turn an often-dreaded task into a rewarding act of self-care that makes us feel more present, joyful, and connected? Whether we're writing to a long-lost friend, a helpful neighbor, or a child's teacher, this inspiring book helps us reflect on meaningful memories and shared experiences and express ourselves with authenticity, vulnerability, and heart. Informed by Hamadey's year of discovery as well as interviews with experts on relationships, gratitude, and more, this deceptively simple guide offers a powerful way to jump-start your joy.

Hamadey found herself thanking not only family members and friends, but less expected people in her sphere, including local shopkeepers, physical therapists, long-ago career mentors, favorite authors, and more. Once you get going, you might find yourself cultivating an active gratitude practice, too--one heartfelt note of thanks at a time.

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The Gratitude Diaries

Janice Kaplan

In this New York Times bestseller, Janice Kaplan spends a year living gratefully and transforms her marriage, family life, work, and health. 
On New Year’s Eve, journalist and former Parade editor in chief Janice Kaplan makes a promise to be grateful and look on the bright side of whatever happens. She realizes that how she feels over the next year will have less to do with the events that occur than her own attitude and perspective. Getting advice at every turn from psychologists, academics, doctors, and philosophers, Kaplan brings readers on a smart and witty journey to discover the value of appreciating what you have.

Relying on both amusing personal experiences and extensive research, Kaplan explores how gratitude can transform every aspect of life, including marriage and friendship, money and ambition, and health and fitness. She learns how appreciating your spouse changes the neurons of your brain and why saying thanks helps CEOs succeed. Through extensive interviews with experts, and lively conversations with real people, including celebrities like Matt Damon, Daniel Craig, and Jerry Seinfeld, Kaplan discovers the role of gratitude in everything from our sense of fulfillment to our children’s happiness.
 
With warmth, humor, and appealing insight, Kaplan’s journey will empower readers to think positively and start living their own best year ever. 

 

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Magnolia Table

Joanna Gaines

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Magnolia Table is infused with Joanna Gaines' warmth and passion for all things family, prepared and served straight from the heart of her home, with recipes inspired by dozens of Gaines family favorites and classic comfort selections from the couple's new Waco restaurant, Magnolia Table.

Jo believes there's no better way to celebrate family and friendship than through the art of togetherness, celebrating tradition, and sharing a great meal. Magnolia Table includes 125 classic recipes—from breakfast, lunch, and dinner to small plates, snacks, and desserts—presenting a modern selection of American classics and personal family favorites. Complemented by her love for her garden, these dishes also incorporate homegrown, seasonal produce at the peak of its flavor. Inside Magnolia Table, you'll find recipes the whole family will enjoy, such as:

  • Chicken Pot Pie
  • Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • Asparagus and Fontina Quiche
  • Brussels Sprouts with Crispy Bacon, Toasted Pecans, and Balsamic Reduction
  • Peach Caprese
  • Overnight French Toast
  • White Cheddar Bisque
  • Fried Chicken with Sticky Poppy Seed Jam
  • Lemon Pie
  • Mac and Cheese

Full of personal stories and beautiful photos, Magnolia Table is an invitation to share a seat at the table with Joanna Gaines and her family.

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Tartine Bread (Artisan Bread Cookbook, Best Bread Recipes, Sourdough Book)

Chad Robertson

The Tartine Way - Not all bread is created equal

"...The most beautiful bread book yet published..." – The New York Times

Tartine - A bread bible for the home baker or professional bread-maker! It comes from Chad Robertson, a man many consider to be the best bread baker in the United States, and co-owner with Elizabeth Prueitt of San Francisco's Tartine Bakery. At 5 P.M., Chad Robertson's rugged, magnificent Tartine loaves are drawn from the oven. The bread at San Francisco's legendary Tartine Bakery sells out within an hour almost every day.

Only a handful of bakers have learned the bread science techniques Chad Robertson has developed: To Chad Robertson, bread is the foundation of a meal, the center of daily life, and each loaf tells the story of the baker who shaped it. Chad Robertson developed his unique bread over two decades of apprenticeship with the finest artisan bakers in France and the United States, as well as experimentation in his own ovens. Readers will be astonished at how elemental it is.

Bread making the Tartine Way: Now it's your turn to make this bread with your own hands. Clear instructions and hundreds of step-by-step photos put you by Chad's side as he shows you how to make exceptional and elemental bread using just flour, water, and salt.

If you liked Tartine All Day by Elisabeth Prueitt, Chad's partner in work and life, and Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish, you'll love Tartine Bread! Additional categories for this book include:

  • Baking Books
  • Baking Recipe Books
  • Baking Cook Books
  • Bread Recipe Books
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Mastering Bread

Marc Vetri

From a master of the artisan bread movement comes a comprehensive guide to making incredible bread at home, featuring more than 70 delicious recipes

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

“Here, finally, is the one bread book that every cook needs on their kitchen worktable.”—Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods

The Vetri Cucina Bread Program began over a decade ago and has been part of the American movement to reclaim high-quality bread as a cornerstone of our food culture. In Mastering Bread, Marc Vetri and his former head baker, Claire Kopp McWilliams, show home cooks how to create simple breads with unique flavors in a home oven. 
 
Included are more than seventy recipes for their bestselling sourdough and yeast loaves as well as accompaniments to serve with the breads. Their process of bread-making is broken down into three easy-to-digest chapters: Mix, Shape, and Bake. Another chapter includes recipes for enjoying breadin dishes such as Bruschetta, Panzanella, and Ribollita. There’s even a bonus chapter revealing the secrets of Vetri’s coveted Panettone. This book shares everything that Vetri and McWilliams have learned over the years about the art and science of making incredible bread. They explain how to use fresh milled and whole-grain flours as well as local and regional wheat varieties, with easy instructions for adapting bread recipes for success with whatever flour is available in your market. Included throughout are bios and interviews with grain farmers, millers, and bread bakers from around the nation.

Mastering Bread is a master class from an award-winning chef who makes world-class artisan bread easy to bake for both home cooks and professionals alike.

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Art of the Pie

Kate Mcdermott

"A new baking bible." (*Wall Street Journal)
"If there's such a thing as a pie guru, it's Kate McDermott." (*Sunset Magazine)
"The next best thing to taking one of her classes."(*The Washington Post)
"Gorgeous...a dream of a cookbook." (*Eat Your Books)
"Heartwarming and funny...an instructive debut." (*Library Journal)
"Utterly exquisite, will steal your heart. RUN, don't walk, to order your copy. (**The Blender Girl)
"Not just on crusts and fillings but life itself. A keeper." (***Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
"Whether you're a seasoned pie hand or a beginner with more enthusiasm than skill, Kate's got you covered." (Dorie Greenspan)
"One of the best books written on the topic." (Publishers Weekly)

Kate McDermott, who learned to make pie from her Iowa grandmother, has taught the time-honored craft of pie-making to thousands of people. Here she shares her secrets to great crusts (including gluten-free options), fabulous fillings, and to living a good life. This is the only PIE cookbook you need.

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The Book on Pie

Erin Jeanne McDowell

Look no further than The Book on Pie for the only book on pie you'll ever want or need.

Erin Jeanne McDowell, New York Times contributing baker extraordinaire and top food stylist, wrote the book on pie, a comprehensive handbook that distills all you'll ever need to know for making perfect pies. The Book on Pie starts with the basics, including ways to mix pie dough for extra flaky crusts, storage and freezing, recipe size conversions, and expert tips for decorating and styling, before diving into the recipes for all the different kinds of pies: fruit, custard, cream, chiffon, cold set, savory, and mini. Find everything from classics like Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie, to more inspired recipes like Birthday-Cake Pie and Caramel Pork Pie with Chile and Scallions.

Erin also suggests recommended pie doughs and toppings with each recipe for infinitely customizable pies: Mix and match Pumpkin Spice Pie Dough and Dark Chocolate Drippy Glaze with the Pumpkin Pie, or sub in the Chive Compound-Butter Crust for the Croque Madame Pielets . . . the possibilities are endless. With helpful tips, photographic guides, and inspirations--pie-deas--it's almost like having Erin in the kitchen baking pies with you.

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Vegan Holiday Cookbook

Katie Culpin

75 Veganized Seasonal Classics for Family and Friends 

Are you vegan—and do you dread Thanksgiving because your family insists on a traditional turkey? Or are you a nonvegan family member welcoming everyone home for the Christmas holidays—and you’re scratching your head over what to cook for your newly vegan son or daughter-in-law?

Holiday feasts have always been contentious for vegans and their nonvegan family members—when a supposedly welcoming season of loved ones dining together becomes divisive when animal products are cooked as part of tradition. Vegan Holiday Recipes addresses this issue head-on and unites family and friends, vegan or not, over simply delicious, easy, healthy, seasonal food.
 
Containing seventy-five plant-based recipes specifically designed with Christmas and Thanksgiving in mind, this is the ultimate book for vegans, the vegan-curious, and their families and loved ones. The book will also include menu designs for the perfect festive lunch or dinner get together. Learn to prepare vegan breakfasts, snacks, drinks, main meals, sides, and, of course, desserts:
 

  • Potato Rosti and French Toast for Breakfast
  • Artichoke Dip and Macadamia Dill Cheese for Snacks
  • Mushroom and Parsnip Soup and Sweet Potato Salad
  • Pecan and Mushroom Wellington and Cheesy Broccoli Bake for Mains
  • Roast Vegetable Stuffing and Mashed Potato and Gravy for Sides
  • Pecan Caramel Pie and Nutmeg Cookies for Sweets
  • Mulled Apple Cider and Hot Chocolate for Drinks
  • And more!


Bring festive joy during the holiday season and inspire everyone with a delicious, inclusive table.
 

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From Harvest to Home

Alicia Tenise Chew

A gorgeous photo-driven lifestyle guide filled with autumnal activities, easy DIYs, and cozy recipes, for anyone who loves the fall season.

Crisp air. Vibrant foliage. Chunky sweaters. Pumpkin everything.

For anyone who loves all things fall, FROM HARVEST TO HOME is a stunning celebration of this cozy season. Brimming with gorgeous photography and tons of autumnal activities, creative décor projects, and delicious recipes, this beautiful lifestyle guide will inspire readers to make the most of this enchanting time of year.

Learn how to craft an eye-catching fall wreath. Plan an epic tailgate party. Host a spooky movie marathon with the ultimate watch list. Get inspired to go apple picking, then make Cardamom Ginger Apple Butter. Design an exquisite tablescape using decorative gourds, greenery, and candles for a Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving celebration.

All these ideas and more are presented in an attractive package with foil on the cover that makes a thoughtful, seasonal gift alongside a scarf, a thermos, or a fall-themed candle.

WIDE APPEAL: Who doesn't love fall?! It's an undeniably beautiful, cozy season. This inviting, visually driven book will appeal to people of all ages who look forward to fall, decorate their homes for the season, and uphold traditions with friends or family, like going to football games, baking pies, or hosting a Halloween party. From Harvest to Home provides all the inspiration you could ever need to make the most out of this wonderful time of year.

BEAUTIFUL TO GIFT & DISPLAY: With foil on the cover and evocative photography of pumpkin patches, apple orchards, and country roads, as well as styled shots of seasonal food, drink, and crafts, From Harvest to Home is a stunning celebration of autumn. Display it on your coffee table alongside a fall-themed candle, a mini pumpkin, or a bowl of Halloween candy. Snuggle up by the fireplace with a cup of tea and flip through the pages to get inspired. Or, give it to the person in your life who loves all things fall--it's a perfect gift alongside a mug or knit throw.

UNIQUE OFFERING: Despite the large audience of people who love fall, there are no fall-themed lifestyle guides on the market. This is the first!

Perfect for:

  • Anyone who loves the fall season
  • People who visit the pumpkin patch or apple orchard every year
  • People who decorate their house for fall
  • PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) drinkers

People looking for a seasonal housewarming, hostess, back-to-school, or Thanksgiving gift

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The Complete Autumn and Winter Cookbook

America's Test Kitchen

Celebrate the season with this treasure trove of cozy cooking and baking recipes, from soul-warming soups and simple dinners to showstoppers and weekend projects.

As the air grows chillier and nights longer, these dishes draw us to the table and the warmth of an active kitchen: Slow-simmered dishes like Cider-Braised Pork Roast, cheesy weeknight pasta like Unstuffed Shells with Butternut Squash, or a crusty bread like Fig and Fennel Bread.

When the flavors of summer fade, autumn and winter fruits and vegetables can be just as bold and bountiful. Find recipe inspiration from the season's first ripe figs and plump brussels sprouts to roasty sides featuring celery root, kohlrabi, and kabocha squash, or a cranberry curd tart to brighten a winter's night.

Themed chapters showcase all the reasons to love autumn and winter cooking:

  • Find new celeberation favorites with a chapter of centerpiece dishes like Turkey and Gravy for a Crowd or Swiss Chard Pie to wow your guests.
  • Picked apples on an autumnal adventure? All Things Apple covers both sweet and savory recipes like French Apple Cake and Celery Root, Fennel, and Apple Chowder to help you use them up.
  • Create the ultimate party spread with chapters devoted to Appetizers, Festive Drinks, and Brunch: Try fried Korean fried chicken wings, latkes with beet-horseradish applesauce, or Everything Straws.
  • Obsessed with pumpkin? So are we! In the Everyone Loves Pumpkin chapter you'll find everything from Creamy Pumpkin-Chai Soup to Rum Pumpkin Chiffon Pie.
  • Bake to your heart's content with chapters covering breads, cookies, cakes, pies, puddings, and more.
  • Give the gift of food with recipes for Rocky Road Bark and Fruits of the Forest Liqueur.

  • America's Test Kitchen's tips and tricks guarantee every meal is a success. Flip to the introduction for menus and entertaining tips. Plus, we've added seasonally themed spreads throughout so you can decorate the perfect holiday cookies or plan a charcuterie board with last-second appetizers.

 

 

 

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The Sagrada Familia

Gijs van Hensbergen

An illuminating biography of one of the most famous--and most famously unfinished--buildings in the world, the Sagrada Familia of Barcelona.

The scaffolding-cloaked spires of Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, dominate the Barcelona skyline and draw in millions of visitors every year. More than a century after the first stone was laid in 1882, the Sagrada Familia remains unfinished, a testament to Gaudí's quixotic ambition, his religious devotion, and the sensuous eccentricity of his design. It has defied the critics, the penny-pinching accountants, the conservative town-planners, and the devotees of sterile modernism. It has enchanted and frustrated the citizens of Barcelona. And it has passed through the landmark changes of twentieth-century Spain, surviving two World Wars, the ravages of the Spanish Civil War, and the "Hunger Years" of Franco's rule.

Gijs van Hensbergen's The Sagrada Familia explores the evolution of this remarkable building, working through the decades right up to the present day before looking beyond to the final stretch of its construction. Rich in detail and vast in scope, this is a revelatory chronicle of an iconic structure, its place in history, and the wild genius that created it.

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A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes

Rodrigo Garcia

"This is a beautiful farewell to two extraordinary people. It enthralled and moved me, and it will move and enthrall anyone who has ever entered the glorious literary world of Gabriel García Márquez."--Salman Rushdie

"In A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes Rodrigo Garcia finds the words that cannot be said, the moments that signal all that is possible to know about the passage from life to death, from what love brings and the loss it leaves. With details as rich as any giant biography, you will find yourself grieving as you read, grateful for the profound art that remains a part of our cultural heritage."--Walter Mosley, New York Times bestselling author of Down the River Unto the Sea

"An intensely personal reflection on [Garcia's] father's legacy and his family bonds, tender in its treatment and stirring in its brevity."--Booklist (starred review)

The son of one of the greatest writers of our time--Nobel Prize winner and internationally bestselling icon Gabriel García Márquez--remembers his beloved father and mother in this tender memoir about love and loss.

In March 2014, Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century, came down with a cold. The woman who had been beside him for more than fifty years, his wife Mercedes Barcha, was not hopeful; her husband, affectionately known as "Gabo," was then nearly 87 and battling dementia. I don't think we'll get out of this one, she told their son Rodrigo.

Hearing his mother's words, Rodrigo wondered, "Is this how the end begins?" To make sense of events as they unfolded, he began to write the story of García Márquez's final days. The result is this intimate and honest account that not only contemplates his father's mortality but reveals his remarkable humanity.

Both an illuminating memoir and a heartbreaking work of reportage, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes transforms this towering genius from literary creator to protagonist, and paints a rich and revelatory portrait of a family coping with loss. At its center is a man at his most vulnerable, whose wry humor shines even as his lucidity wanes. Gabo savors affection and attention from those in his orbit, but wrestles with what he will lose--and what is already lost. Throughout his final journey is the charismatic Mercedes, his constant companion and the creative muse who was one of the foremost influences on Gabo's life and his art.

Bittersweet and insightful, surprising and powerful, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes celebrates the formidable legacy of Rodrigo's parents, offering an unprecedented look at the private family life of a literary giant. It is at once a gift to Gabriel García Márquez's readers worldwide, and a grand tribute from a writer who knew him well.

"You read this short memoir with a feeling of deep gratitude. Yes, it is a moving homage by a son to his extraordinary parents, but also much more: it is a revelation of the hidden corners of a fascinating life. A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes is generous, unsentimental and wise." --Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Sound of Things Falling

"A warm homage filled with both fond and painful memories." --Kirkus

Garcia's limpid prose gazes calmly at death, registering pain but not being overcome by it . . . the result is a moving eulogy that will captivate fans of the literary lion. -- Publishers Weekly

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Children of the Land

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

An NPR Best Book of the Year

A 2020 International Latino Book Award Finalist

An Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, and LitHub Most Anticipated Book of the Year

This unforgettable memoir from a prize-winning poet about growing up undocumented in the United States recounts the sorrows and joys of a family torn apart by draconian policies and chronicles one young man's attempt to build a future in a nation that denies his existence.

"You were not a ghost even though an entire country was scared of you. No one in this story was a ghost. This was not a story."

When Marcelo Hernandez Castillo was five years old and his family was preparing to cross the border between Mexico and the United States, he suffered temporary, stress-induced blindness. Castillo regained his vision, but quickly understood that he had to move into a threshold of invisibility before settling in California with his parents and siblings. Thus began a new life of hiding in plain sight and of paying extraordinarily careful attention at all times for fear of being truly seen. Before Castillo was one of the most celebrated poets of a generation, he was a boy who perfected his English in the hopes that he might never seem extraordinary.

With beauty, grace, and honesty, Castillo recounts his and his family's encounters with a system that treats them as criminals for seeking safe, ordinary lives. He writes of the Sunday afternoon when he opened the door to an ICE officer who had one hand on his holster, of the hours he spent making a fake social security card so that he could work to support his family, of his father's deportation and the decade that he spent waiting to return to his wife and children only to be denied reentry, and of his mother's heartbreaking decision to leave her children and grandchildren so that she could be reunited with her estranged husband and retire from a life of hard labor.

Children of the Land distills the trauma of displacement, illuminates the human lives behind the headlines and serves as a stunning meditation on what it means to be a man and a citizen.

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The Undocumented Americans

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation.
“Karla’s book sheds light on people’s personal experiences and allows their stories to be told and their voices to be heard.”—Selena Gomez

FINALIST FOR THE NBCC JOHN LEONARD AWARD
• NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, NPR, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, BOOK RIOT, LIBRARY JOURNAL, AND TIME

Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she’d tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell.  So she wrote her immigration lawyer’s phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants—and to find the hidden key to her own. 
 
Looking beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMers, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented—and the mysteries of her own life. She finds the singular, effervescent characters across the nation often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers. The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects. 
 
In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited into the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami, we enter the ubiquitous botanicas, which offer medicinal herbs and potions to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we learn of demands for state ID in order to receive life-saving clean water. In Connecticut, Cornejo Villavicencio, childless by choice, finds family in two teenage girls whose father is in sanctuary. And through it all we see the author grappling with the biggest questions of love, duty, family, and survival. 
 
In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. Through these stories we come to understand what it truly means to be a stray. An expendable. A hero. An American.

 

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The Hurting Kind

Ada Limón

An astonishing collection about interconnectedness--between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ourselves--from National Book Critics Circle Award winner, National Book Award finalist and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.

"I have always been too sensitive, a weeper / from a long line of weepers," writes Limón. "I am the hurting kind." What does it mean to be the hurting kind? To be sensitive not only to the world's pain and joys, but to the meanings that bend in the scrim between the natural world and the human world? To divine the relationships between us all? To perceive ourselves in other beings--and to know that those beings are resolutely their own, that they "do not / care to be seen as symbols"?

With Limón's remarkable ability to trace thought, The Hurting Kind explores those questions--incorporating others' stories and ways of knowing, making surprising turns, and always reaching a place of startling insight. These poems slip through the seasons, teeming with horses and kingfishers and the gleaming eyes of fish. And they honor parents, stepparents, and grandparents: the sacrifices made, the separate lives lived, the tendernesses extended to a hurting child; the abundance, in retrospect, of having two families.

Along the way, we glimpse loss. There are flashes of the pandemic, ghosts whose presence manifests in unexpected memories and the mysterious behavior of pets left behind. But The Hurting Kind is filled, above all, with connection and the delight of being in the world. "Slippery and waddle thieving my tomatoes still / green in the morning's shade," writes Limón of a groundhog in her garden, "she is doing what she can to survive."

 

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Crying in the Bathroom

Erika L. Sánchez

From the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, an utterly original memoir-in-essays that is as deeply moving as it is hilarious

Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the nineties, Erika Sánchez was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment—a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy, often laughing so hard with her friends that she had to leave her school classroom. Twenty-five years later, she’s now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she’s still got an irrepressible laugh, an acerbic wit, and singular powers of perception about the world around her.

In these essays, Sánchez writes about everything from sex to white feminism to debilitating depression, revealing an interior life rich with ideas, self-awareness, and perception. Raunchy, insightful, unapologetic, and brutally honest, Crying in the Bathroom is Sánchez at her best—a book that will make you feel that post-confessional high that comes from talking for hours with your best friend.

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Woman Without Shame

Sandra Cisneros

A brave new collection of poems from Sandra Cisneros, the best-selling author of The House on Mango Street.

It has been twenty-eight years since Sandra Cisneros published a book of poetry. With dozens of never-before-seen poems, Woman Without Shame is a moving collection of songs, elegies, and declarations that chronicle her pilgrimage toward rebirth and the recognition of her prerogative as a woman artist. These bluntly honest and often humorous meditations on memory, desire, and the essential nature of love blaze a path toward self-awareness. For Cisneros, Woman Without Shame is the culmination of her search for home--in the Mexico of her ancestors and in her own heart.

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In the Shadow of the Mountain

Silvia Vasquez-Lavado

“In climbing the Seven Summits, Silvia Vasquez-Lavado did nothing less than take back her own life—one brave step at a time. She will inspire untold numbers of souls with this story, for her victory is a win on behalf of all of us.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

Endless ice. Thin air. The threat of dropping into nothingness thousands of feet below. This is the climb Silvia Vasquez-Lavado braves in her page-turning, pulse-raising memoir chronicling her journey to Mount Everest.

A Latina hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. Deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she’d suffered as a child, she started climbing. Something about the brute force required for the ascent—the risk and spirit and sheer size of the mountains and death’s close proximity—woke her up. She then took her biggest pain as a survivor to the biggest mountain: Everest.

“The Mother of the World,” as it’s known in Nepal, allows few to reach her summit, but Silvia didn’t go alone. She gathered a group of young female survivors and led them to base camp alongside her. It was never easy. At times hair-raising, nerve-racking, and always challenging, Silvia remembers the acute anxiety of leading a group of novice climbers to Everest’s base, all the while coping with her own nerves of summiting. But, there were also moments of peace, joy, and healing with the strength of her fellow survivors and community propelling her forward.

In the Shadow of the Mountain is a remarkable story of heroism, one which awakens in all of us a lust for adventure, an appetite for risk, and faith in our own resilience.

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Finding Latinx

Paola Ramos

Young Latinos across the United States are redefining their identities, pushing boundaries, and awakening politically in powerful and surprising ways. Many of them--Afrolatino, indigenous, Muslim, queer and undocumented, living in large cities and small towns--are voices who have been chronically overlooked in how the diverse population of almost sixty million Latinos in the U.S. has been represented. No longer.

In this empowering cross-country travelogue, journalist and activist Paola Ramos embarks on a journey to find the communities of people defining the controversial term, "Latinx." She introduces us to the indigenous Oaxacans who rebuilt the main street in a post-industrial town in upstate New York, the "Las Poderosas" who fight for reproductive rights in Texas, the musicians in Milwaukee whose beats reassure others of their belonging, as well as drag queens, environmental activists, farmworkers, and the migrants detained at our border. Drawing on intensive field research as well as her own personal story, Ramos chronicles how "Latinx" has given rise to a sense of collectivity and solidarity among Latinos unseen in this country for decades.

A vital and inspiring work of reportage, Finding Latinx calls on all of us to expand our understanding of what it means to be Latino and what it means to be American. The first step towards change, writes Ramos, is for us to recognize who we are.

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The Man who Could Move Clouds

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

From the author of the critically acclaimed novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree, comes a dazzling, kaleidoscopic memoir reclaiming her family's otherworldly legacy.

"The Man Who Could Move Clouds is the work of a genius, a wildly moving, profound, groundbreaking, often hilarious book that I'll reread until I die." --R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries

For Ingrid Rojas Contreras, magic runs in the family. Raised amid the political violence of 1980s and '90s Colombia, in a house bustling with her mother's fortune-telling clients, very little seemed out of the ordinary. Her maternal grandfather, Nono, was a renowned curandero, a community healer gifted with what the family called "the secrets" the power to talk to the dead, tell the future, treat the sick, and move the clouds. And as the first woman to inherit "the secrets," Rojas Contreras' mother was just as powerful. Mami delighted in her ability to appear in two places at once, and she could cast out even the most persistent spirits with nothing more than a glass of water.

But this had always felt like a story that belonged to her mother and grandfather, until, in her twenties, Rojas Contreras' suffered a head injury that left her with amnesia. As she regained partial memory, her family was excited to tell her that this had happened before: Decades ago Mami had taken a fall that left her with amnesia, too. And when she recovered, she had gained access to "the secrets."

In 2012, spurred by a shared dream among Mami and her sisters, and her own powerful urge to relearn her family history in the aftermath of her memory loss, Rojas Contreras joins her mother on a journey home to Colombia to disinter Nono's remains. With Mami as her unpredictable, stubborn, and often hilarious guide, Rojas Contreras traces her lineage back to her Indigenous and Spanish roots, uncovering the violent and rigid colonial narrative that would eventually break her family into two camps: those who believe "the secrets" are a gift, and those who are convinced they are a curse.

Interweaving family stories more enchanting than those in any novel, resurrected Colombian history, and her own deeply personal reckonings with the bounds of reality, Rojas Contreras writes her way through the incomprehensible and into her inheritance. The result is a luminous testament to the power of storytelling as a healing art and an invitation to embrace the extraordinary.

This is a memoir like no other . . . Ingrid Rojas Contreras has given us a glorious gift with these pages. --Patricia Engel, author of Infinite Country

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Solito

Javier Zamora

READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • A young poet tells the unforgettable story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this moving, page-turning memoir hailed as “the mythic journey of our era” (Sandra Cisneros)
“A new landmark in the literature of migration, and in nonfiction writ large.”—Francisco Cantú, author of The Line Becomes a River

Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago—“one day, you’ll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure.”  
 
Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.
 
At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents’ arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.
 
A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.

 

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The Beginners Guide to Growing Great Vegetables

Lorene Edwards Forkner

“For new and novice gardeners who want a straightforward, unfussy guide to growing their own food.” —Library Journal

You can grow beautiful, healthy, delicious veggies and herbs right from the start—just follow the trustworthy advice found in The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Great Vegetables. Expert gardener Lorene Edwards Forkner shares all the information you need to create a thriving garden, from facts about soil and sun to tips on fertilizing, mulching, and watering. Regional planting charts show what to plant when, and a month-by-month planner takes you from January through December. Profiles of popular edibles explain exactly how to plant, care for, and harvest your bounty. Whether your garden grows in the ground, on a balcony, or in containers on a sunny patio, this is your guide to grow-your-own success. Your backyard bounty awaits!

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Plant Grow Harvest Repeat

Meg McAndrews Cowden

“Wonderfully written, beautifully illustrated, and everything you need to know to get more productivity out of your food garden.” —Joe Lamp’l, creator and executive producer, Growing a Greener World

Discover how to get more out of your growing space with succession planting—carefully planned, continuous seed sowing—and provide a steady stream of fresh food from early spring through late fall.
 
Drawing inspiration from succession in natural landscapes, Meg McAndrews Cowden teaches you how to implement lessons from these dynamic systems in your home garden. You’ll learn how to layer succession across your perennial and annual crops; maximize the early growing season; determine the sequence to plant and replant in summer; and incorporate annual and perennial flowers to benefit wildlife and ensure efficient pollination. You’ll also find detailed, seasonal sowing charts to inform your garden planning, so you can grow more anywhere, regardless of your climate.
 
Plant Grow Harvest Repeat will inspire you to create an even more productive, beautiful, and enjoyable garden across the seasons—every vegetable gardener’s dream.

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The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest

Ann Accetta-Scott

Food preservation is one of the most intimidating aspects of homesteading, yet one of the most important. Although there is a plethora of websites, books and blogs dedicated to learning how to preserve the harvest, people must search multiple places in order to gather the necessary information. For a beginner new to the world of preserving this leaves them frustrated and quite discouraged. The ideal tool for a newbie is a detailed reference guide, one such as The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest, that shares the basics on canning, dehydrating, freezing, fermenting, curing, and smoking, and how to use the right tools for each method. Homesteader and blogger Ann Accetta-Scott guides readers at the beginning, moderate or advanced levels of preserving. Newcomers to the world of preserving can start with a simple jam and jelly recipe using a hot water bath canner, while others may be advanced enough to have mastered the pressure canner and are ready to move onto curing and smoking meat and fish. The progression in this book will help the home preserver build confidence in the most common methods of preserving.

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The Family Garden Plan

Melissa K. Norris

Grow a Year’s Worth of Food for Your Family

Do something good for your loved ones by learning how to plant a garden that will yield wholesome, organic fruits and vegetables in surprisingly less space than you would think. Melissa K. Norris, fifth-generation homesteader and host of the popular Pioneering Today podcast, walks you through each step of the process, including how to

  • decide which food crops are best for your area and family
  • plan your garden to maximize the space you have
  • protect your garden from common pests and diseases naturally
  • determine when your fruits and vegetables are ready to be harvested
  • improve soil health with simple techniques like crop rotation and backyard composting  

Sharing the same practices and techniques from her homestead, Melissa shows you how easy it can be to raise a year’s worth of produce at home. Simple-to-follow charts, worksheets, and photographs are provided throughout to help you through every phase of the gardening process.     

You can enjoy good eating and greater well-being for you and your family.

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Backyard Homesteader

Alison Candlin

The essential beginner's manual on living a greener, healthier, and more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Absolutely all you need to know to provide you and your family with homegrown food throughout the year. Alison Candlin offers easy-to-follow advice on planning, establishing, and maintaining a small-acre farm, an allotment, or a backyard garden. She also includes essential tips for selecting, housing, and looking after chickens, goats, pigs, bees, and other animals. Learn how to collect and recycle water, compost your leftover scraps, and generate renewable energy for your own home in order to save money and minimize your impact on the environment. With step-by-step instructions and more than 350 photographs and charming illustrations, this book is a practical and comprehensive guide to living off the land.

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Grow More Food

Colin McCrate

Just how productive can one small vegetable garden be? More productive than one might think! Colin McCrate and Brad Halm, former CSA growers and current owners of the Seattle Urban Farm Company, help readers boost their garden productivity by teaching them how to plan carefully, maximize production in every bed, get the most out of every plant, scale up systems to maximize efficiency, and expand the harvest season with succession planting, intercropping, and season extension.
 
Along with chapters devoted to the Five Tenets of a Productive Gardener (Plan Well to Get the Most from Your Garden; Maximize Production in Each Bed; Get the Most out of Every Plant; Scale up Tools and Systems for Efficiency; and Expand and Extend the Harvest), the book contains interactive tools that home gardeners can use to assist them in determining how, when, and what to plant; evaluating crop health; and planning and storing the harvest. For today’s vegetable gardeners who want to grow as much of their own food as possible, this guide offers expert advice and strategies for cultivating a garden that supplies what they need.

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The Heirloom Gardener

John Forti

“Empowers readers with a toolkit of traditional and sustainable practices for an emerging artisanal crafts movement, and a brighter future.” —Alice Waters, chef and owner, Chez Panisse; founder, The Edible Schoolyard Project

Modern life is a cornucopia of technological wonders. But is something precious being lost? A tangible bond with our natural world—the deep satisfaction of connecting to the earth that was enjoyed by previous generations?

In The Heirloom Gardener, John Forti celebrates gardening as a craft and shares the lore and traditional practices that link us with our environment and with each other. Charmingly illustrated and brimming with wisdom, this guide will inspire you to slow down, recharge, and reconnect.

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The Art of Preserving

Emma Macdonald

This sumptuous guide filled with beautiful photography and expert practical tips is guaranteed to be the only resource you will ever need to preserve fruit, vegetables, meat and fish.

Preserving food at home is vital to eating in a seasonal, sustainable, low-waste and, most importantly, utterly delicious way.
Everyone can master the art of preserving with this essential book on canning, which provides a one-stop resource. Whether you have foraged hedgerows, picked produce from your own vegetable garden or allotment, or searched out the best seasonal buys in the supermarket or market, this book contains more than 100 delicious recipes for preserving fruit and vegetables, meat or fish.
Emma Macdonald gives clear and comprehensive instructions for curing, drying, pickling, bottling/canning, crystalizing and jellying; as well as recipes for all kinds of jams, chutneys, cordials, fruit liqueurs, terrines, cheeses and butters. Every classic is covered, including: gravlax, confit chicken, candied peel, quince cheese, mint jelly, onion marmalade, mango chutney, sloe gin and piccalilli. There are many others, some of them centuries old, many of them with a modern twist, such as Banana and Date Chutney and Grapefruit and Elderflower Marmalade. Emma also includes expert tips on troubleshooting and information on all the equipment you will need. Pick up your cheesecloths and straining funnel and get preserving!

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The Preservation Kitchen

Paul Virant

The first canning manual and cookbook authored by a Michelin-starred chef and restaurant owner, The Preservation Kitchen reveals a world of endless flavor combinations using revolutionary ideas that bring homemade preserves deliciously to life. Pairing science with art, Paul Virant presents expert preserving techniques, sophisticated recipes, and seasonal menus inspired by the award-winning fare at his restaurant, Vie, in Western Springs, Illinois.

Imaginative tangy jams, brandied fruits, zesty relishes, cured meats, and sweet and savory conserves are the focus of the first half of this book, while seasonal menus pairing these preserves with everything from salads and cocktails to poached fish and braised meat compose the second. Brandied Cherries used in Cherry Clafoutis, or as a garnish for the Beer-Jam Manhattan, are a sweet reminder of the summer harvest. And the Chicken Fried Steak with Smoked Spring Onion Relish anticipates warmer days when you're still deep in winter.

Alongside recipes and menus, Virant draws on his extensive technical knowledge and experience to provide detailed and comprehensive guidelines for safe canning practices, testing pH, pressure canning, water bath processing, and storing. But no matter how precise the science, Virant never forgets the art in each handcrafted preserve and thoughtfully developed recipe. His unique approach re-imagines seasonal eating by harmonizing opposite or unusual partnerships: the brightness of summer fruit may be tempered with the earthiness of meats and winter produce, or the delicacy of spring vegetables might be enriched by the robust herbs and spices more typical of fall. The Preservation Kitchen not only demonstrates and instructs, it encourages and explores the limitless possibilities of capturing the seasons in a jar.

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Saving the Season

Kevin West

The ultimate canning guide for cooks--from the novice to the professional--and the only book you need to save (and savor) the season throughout the entire year

Gardening history, 18th-century American painters, poems, and practical information; it's a rich book. And unlike other books on preserving, West gives recipes that will goad you to make easy preserves." --The Atlantic

Strawberry jam. Pickled beets. Homegrown tomatoes. These are the tastes of Kevin West's Southern childhood, and they are the tastes that inspired him to "save the season," as he traveled from the citrus groves of Southern California to the cranberry bogs of Massachusetts and everywhere in between, chronicling America's rich preserving traditions.

Here, West presents his findings: 220 recipes for sweet and savory jams, pickles, cordials, cocktails, candies, and more--from Classic Apricot Jam to Green Tomato Chutney; from Pickled Asparagus with Tarragon and Green Garlic to Scotch Marmalade. Includes 300 full-color photographs.

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Beyond Canning

Autumn Giles

"This is a book that caters to the real-life canner in all of us." - John Becker and Megan Scott, Joy of Cooking editorial team

If you're looking for Hot & Sour Cherry preserves, Old Bay Pickled Cauliflower, or Gochugaru Preserved Lemons, you've come to the right place! In Beyond Canning, Autumn Giles has packed the pages with creative preserved foods and preserving techniques. You'll use herb-infused vinegar to make a shrub, explore the science of maceration for the sake of better preserves, step up to the air-locked mason jar for worry-free ferments, master simple ratios for inventing your own small-batch creations, and much more. The 70 recipes feature flavors and textures that are equally inventive: Rangpur Lime Marmalade, Lavender Apple Butter, Raspberry-Rhubarb Sauce, Quick Peach-Bourbon Jam, Hibiscus Lime Jelly, Kombu Dashi Pickled Shitake Mushrooms, Curried Orange Pickle, Maple-Plum Mostarda, Pickled Figs with Port & Black Pepper, Raspberry & Burnt Honey Gastrique, Fermented Jalepeno Slices, Lemony Sprouts Kraut-Chi, and Radicchio & Sunchoke Kraut with Thyme are all inside.

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Preserving

Pat Crocker

Preserve it!

A comprehensive guide to canning and freezing

Home canning and freezing are time-honored kitchen skills that are being rediscovered by a new generation of Americans—both for the pleasure of performing these simple activities and for their inherent economy. Now home cooks can take advantage of their local farmer's markets to buy fresh, inexpensive and seasonal produce to enjoy all year round. In Preserving, Pat Crocker offers practical, easy-to-follow information on home canning and freezing to get novices started and inspire experienced hands.

Relish it!

More than 200 recipes for pickles, chutneys, jams, sauces, curds, relishes and so much more

Organized by season and focused on simple but effective concepts, this practical guide offers thorough information on preserving a diverse range of foods for the pantry, from asparagus and blueberries to peaches and winter squash. Here are techniques on canning, jamming and freezing everything from the most basic hot-packed fruit recipes to gorgeous, internationally flavored chutneys and relishes. Filled with safe and detailed instructions, step-by-step photography and more than two hundred recipes, Preserving is a kitchen essential that is sure to become a classic.

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Put 'em Up!

Sherri Brooks Vinton

PRESERVING IS BACK, AND IT'S BETTER THAN EVER. Flavors are brighter, batch sizes are more flexible, and modern methods make the process safer and easier. Eating locally is on everybodys mind, and nothing is more local than Heirloom Salsa made from vine-fresh tomatoes or a quick batch of Ice-Box Berry Jam saved from the seasons last berries. Even beginners who never made peach jam or dill pickles in their grandmothers kitchens are eager to pick up preserving skills as a way to save money, extend the local harvest, and control the quality of preserved ingredients.

The step-by-step instructions in Put 'em Up will have the most timid beginners filling their pantries and freezers with the preserved goodness of summer in no time. An extensive Techniques section includes complete how-to for every kind of preserving: refrigerating and freezing, air- and oven-drying, cold- and hot-pack canning, and pickling. And with recipe yields as small as a few pints or as large as several gallons, readers can easily choose recipes that work for the amount of produce and time at hand.

Real food advocate Sherri Brooks Vinton offers recipes with exciting flavor combinations to please contemporary palates and put preserved fruits and vegetables on dinner-party menus everywhere. Pickled Asparagus and Wasabi Beans are delicious additions to holiday relish trays; Sweet Pepper Marmalade perks up cool-weather roasts; and Berry Bourbon is an unexpected base for a warming cocktail.

The best versions of tried-and-true favorites are all here too. Bushels of fresh-picked apples are easily turned into applesauce, dried fruit rings, jelly, butter, or even brandy. Falling-off-the-vine tomatoes can be frozen whole, oven dried, canned, or made into a tangy marinara. Options for pickling cucumbers range from Bread and Butter Chips and Dill Spears to Asian Ice-Box Pickles. Something delicious for every pantry!

Recipes Include:

Pickled AsparagusÊ Wasabi BeansÊ Beet Relish
Berry BourbonÊ Grannys Chow-ChowÊ Agua FrescaÊ Cantaloupe RumÊ Asian Carrot SlawÊ Curried CauliflowerÊ Drunken CherriesÊ Cherry and Black Pepper PreservesÊ Pickled JalapenosÊ Three-Chili Hot SauceÊ Preserved LemonsÊ Candied Citrus RindÊ Oven-Dried Sweet CornÊ Bread and Butter ChipsÊ Pickled FennelÊ Figs in Honey SyrupÊ Roasted Garlic ButterÊ Grape LeatherÊ Dill Pesto with FetaÊ Martini OnionsÊ Ginger and Peach JamÊ Dried Pear ChipsÊ Sugar PlumsÊ Pickled RampsÊ Classic Strawberry JamÊ Sweet Pepper MarmaladeÊ Salsa VerdeÊ Oven-Dried TomatoesÊ Pickled Watermelon Rind

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Ball Canning Back to Basics

Ball Home Canning Test Kitchen

Can it, pickle it, and store it with confidence. 

If you can boil water, you can make your own delectable jams and jellies, try your hand at fresh-pack pickling, and jar savory sauces. Ball Canning Back to Basics focuses on the building-block techniques and easy, classic recipes every canner should know. The book begins with in-depth information on water bath canning, the equipment you need, and food safety guidance. Each preserving method is thoroughly explained with beginner-friendly tutorials and step-by-step photographs highlighting key steps. Learn to capture the sweet, ripe flavors of your favorite fruits and vegetables with 100 approachable, versatile recipes for the modern pantry. Packed with simple variation ideas for low-sugar and flavor change-ups, and time-tested tips from the most trusted authority in home canning, this handy guide delivers everything you need to successfully master home canning safely and deliciously.

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The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving

Ball Home Canning Test Kitchen

From the experts at Jarden Home Brands, makers of Ball canning products, comes the first truly comprehensive canning guide created for today's home cooks. This modern handbook boasts more than 350 of the best recipes ranging from jams and jellies to jerkies, pickles, salsas, and more-including extender recipes to create brand new dishes using your freshly preserved farmer's market finds or vegetable garden bounty.

Organized by technique, The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving covers water bath and pressure canning, pickling, fermenting, freezing, dehydrating, and smoking. Straightforward instructions and step-by-step photos ensure success for beginners, while practiced home canners will find more advanced methods and inspiring ingredient twists.

Thoroughly tested for safety and quality by thermal process engineers at the Fresh Preserving Quality Assurance Lab, recipes range from much-loved classics — Tart Lemon Jelly, Tomato-Herb Jam, Ploughman's Pickles — to fresh flavors such as Asian Pear Kimchi, Smoked Maple-Juniper Bacon, and homemade Kombucha. Make the most of your preserves with delicious dishes including Crab Cakes garnished with Eastern Shore Corn Relish and traditional Strawberry-Rhubarb Hand Pies. Special sidebars highlight seasonal fruits and vegetables, while handy charts cover processing times, temperatures, and recipe formulas for fast preparation.

Lushly illustrated with color photographs, The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving is a classic in the making for a new generation of home cooks.

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My Family and Other Animals

Gerald Durrell

The first book Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy: a bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu, now the inspiration for The Durrells in Corfu on Masterpiece PBS
When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. My Family and Other Animals was intended to embrace the natural history of the island but ended up as a delightful account of Durrell’s family’s experiences, from the many eccentric hangers-on to the ceaseless procession of puppies, toads, scorpions, geckoes, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, bats, and butterflies into their home.

 

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Travels with George

Nathaniel Philbrick

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Travels with George . . . is quintessential Philbrick—a lively, courageous, and masterful achievement.” The Boston Globe

 
Does George Washington still matter? Bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick argues for Washington’s unique contribution to the forging of America by retracing his journey as a new president through all thirteen former colonies, which were now an unsure nation. Travels with George marks a new first-person voice for Philbrick, weaving history and personal reflection into a single narrative.


When George Washington became president in 1789, the United States of America was still a loose and quarrelsome confederation and a tentative political experiment. Washington undertook a tour of the ex-colonies to talk to ordinary citizens about his new government, and to imbue in them the idea of being one thing—Americans.

In the fall of 2018, Nathaniel Philbrick embarked on his own journey into what Washington called “the infant woody country” to see for himself what America had become in the 229 years since. Writing in a thoughtful first person about his own adventures with his wife, Melissa, and their dog, Dora, Philbrick follows Washington’s presidential excursions: from Mount Vernon to the new capital in New York; a monthlong tour of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island; a venture onto Long Island and eventually across Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The narrative moves smoothly between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries as we see the country through both Washington’s and Philbrick’s eyes.

Written at a moment when America’s founding figures are under increasing scrutiny, Travels with George grapples bluntly and honestly with Washington’s legacy as a man of the people, a reluctant president, and a plantation owner who held people in slavery. At historic houses and landmarks, Philbrick reports on the reinterpretations at work as he meets reenactors, tour guides, and other keepers of history’s flame. He paints a picture of eighteenth-century America as divided and fraught as it is today, and he comes to understand how Washington compelled, enticed, stood up to, and listened to the many different people he met along the way—and how his all-consuming belief in the union helped to forge a nation.

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In Pursuit of Jefferson

Derek Baxter

A debut that combines historical nonfiction with travel books, for fans of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, In Pursuit of Jefferson is the story of an American on a journey through Europe, following the epic trail of Thomas Jefferson.

A controversial founding father. A man ready for a change. And a completely unique trip through Europe.

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson was a broken man. Reeling from the loss of his wife and stung from a political scandal during the Revolutionary war, he needed to remake himself. To do that, he traveled. Wandering through Europe, Jefferson saw and learned as much as he could, ultimately bringing his knowledge home to a young America. There, he would rise to power and shape a nation.

More than two hundred years later, Derek Baxter, a devotee of American history, stumbles on an obscure travel guide written by Jefferson--Hints for Americans Traveling Through Europe--as he's going through his own personal crisis. Who better to offer advice than a founding father himself? Using Hints as his roadmap, Baxter follows Jefferson through six countries and countless lessons. But what Baxter learns isn't always what Jefferson had in mind, and as he comes to understand Jefferson better, he doesn't always like what he finds.

In Pursuit of Jefferson is at once the story of a life-changing trip through Europe, an unflinching look at a founding father, and a moving personal journey. With rich historical detail, a sense of humor, and boundless heart, Baxter explores how we can be better moving forward only by first looking back.

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Bicycling with Butterflies

Sara Dykman

“What a wonderful idea for an adventure! Absolutely inspired, timely, and important.” —Alistair Humphreys, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and author of The Doorstep Mile and Around the World by Bike

Outdoor educator and field researcher Sara Dykman made history when she became the first person to bicycle along­side monarch butterflies on their storied annual migration—a round-trip adventure that included three countries and more than 10,000 miles. Equally remarkable, she did it solo, on a bike cobbled together from used parts. Her panniers were recycled buckets.
 
In Bicycling with Butterflies, Dykman recounts her incredible journey and the dramatic ups and downs of the nearly nine-month odyssey. We’re beside her as she nav­igates unmapped roads in foreign countries, checks roadside milkweed for monarch eggs, and shares her passion with eager schoolchil­dren, skeptical bar patrons, and unimpressed border officials. We also meet some of the ardent monarch stewards who supported her efforts, from citizen scientists and research­ers to farmers and high-rise city dwellers.
 
With both humor and humility, Dykman offers a compelling story, confirming the urgency of saving the threatened monarch migration—and the other threatened systems of nature that affect the survival of us all.

 

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Lost in the Valley of Death

Harley Rustad

"By patient accumulation of anecdote and detail, Rustad evolves Shetler's story into something much more human, and humanly tragic, into a layered inquisition and a reportorial force....suffice it to say Rustad has done what the best storytellers do: tried to track the story to its last twig and then stepped aside." --New York Times Book Review

In the vein of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, a riveting work of narrative nonfiction centering on the unsolved disappearance of an American backpacker in India--one of at least two dozen tourists who have met a similar fate in the remote and storied Parvati Valley.

For centuries, India has enthralled westerners looking for an exotic getaway, a brief immersion in yoga and meditation, or in rare cases, a true pilgrimage to find spiritual revelation. Justin Alexander Shetler, an inveterate traveler trained in wilderness survival, was one such seeker.

In his early thirties Justin Alexander Shetler, quit his job at a tech startup and set out on a global journey: across the United States by motorcycle, then down to South America, and on to the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal, in search of authentic experiences and meaningful encounters, while also documenting his travels on Instagram. His enigmatic character and magnetic personality gained him a devoted following who lived vicariously through his adventures. But the ever restless explorer was driven to pursue ever greater challenges, and greater risks, in what had become a personal quest--his own hero's journey.

In 2016, he made his way to the Parvati Valley, a remote and rugged corner of the Indian Himalayas steeped in mystical tradition yet shrouded in darkness and danger. There, he spent weeks studying under the guidance of a sadhu, an Indian holy man, living and meditating in a cave. At the end of August, accompanied by the sadhu, he set off on a "spiritual journey" to a holy lake--a journey from which he would never return.

Lost in the Valley of Death is about one man's search to find himself, in a country where for many westerners the path to spiritual enlightenment can prove fraught, even treacherous. But it is also a story about all of us and the ways, sometimes extreme, we seek fulfillment in life.

Lost in the Valley of Death includes 16 pages of color photographs.

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South to America

Imani Perry

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South--and thus of America--by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration." --Isabel Wilkerson

An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South--and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America

We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole.

This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life.

Weaving together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences, Imani Perry crafts a tapestry unlike any other. With uncommon insight and breathtaking clarity, South to America offers an assertion that if we want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line.

A Recommended Read from: The New York Times - TIME - Oprah Daily - USA Today - Vulture - Essence - Esquire - W Magazine - Atlanta Journal-Constitution - PopSugar - Book Riot - Chicago Review of Books - Electric Literature - Lit Hub

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Around the World in 80 Books

David Damrosch

A transporting and illuminating voyage around the globe, through classic and modern literary works that are in conversation with one another and with the world around them
*Featured in the Chicago Tribune's Great 2021 Fall Book Preview * One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best Books About Travel of 2021*

Inspired by Jules Verne’s hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University’s department of comparative literature and founder of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic’s restrictions on travel by exploring eighty exceptional books from around the globe. Following a literary itinerary from London to Venice, Tehran and points beyond, and via authors from Woolf and Dante to Nobel Prize–winners Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mo Yan, and Olga Tokarczuk, he explores how these works have shaped our idea of the world, and the ways in which the world bleeds into literature.
 
To chart the expansive landscape of world literature today, Damrosch explores how writers live in two very different worlds: the world of their personal experience and the world of books that have enabled great writers to give shape and meaning to their lives. In his literary cartography, Damrosch includes compelling contemporary works as well as perennial classics, hard-bitten crime fiction as well as haunting works of fantasy, and the formative tales that introduce us as children to the world we’re entering. Taken together, these eighty titles offer us fresh perspective on enduring problems, from the social consequences of epidemics to the rising inequality that Thomas More designed Utopia to combat, as well as the patriarchal structures within and against which many of these books’ heroines have to struggle—from the work of Murasaki Shikibu a millennium ago to Margaret Atwood today.
 
Around the World in 80 Books is a global invitation to look beyond ourselves and our surroundings, and to see our world and its literature in new ways.

 

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Nowhere for Very Long

Brianna Madia

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER - USA TODAY! BESTSELLER

In this beautifully written, vividly detailed memoir, a young woman chronicles her adventures traveling across the deserts of the American West in an orange van named Bertha and reflects on an unconventional approach to life.

A woman defined by motion, Brianna Madia bought a beat-up bright orange van, filled it with her two dogs Bucket and Dagwood, and headed into the canyons of Utah with her husband. Nowhere for Very Long is her deeply felt, immaculately told story of exploration--of the world outside and the spirit within.

However, pursuing a life of intention isn't always what it seems. In fact, at times it was downright boring, exhausting, and even desperate--when Bertha overheated and she was forced to pull over on a lonely stretch of South Dakota highway; when the weather was bitterly cold and her water jugs froze beneath her as she slept in the parking lot of her office; when she worried about money, her marriage, and the looming question mark of her future. But Brianna was committed to living a life true to herself, come what may, and that made all the difference.

Nowhere for Very Long is the true story of a woman learning and unlearning, from backroads to breakdowns, from married to solo, and finally, from lost to found to lost again . . . this time, on purpose.

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Disappointment River

Brian Castner

In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie traveled 1200 miles on the immense river in Canada that now bears his name, in search of the fabled Northwest Passage that had eluded mariners for hundreds of years. In 2016, the acclaimed memoirist Brian Castner retraced Mackenzie's route by canoe in a grueling journey -- and discovered the Passage he could not find.

Disappointment River is a dual historical narrative and travel memoir that at once transports readers back to the heroic age of North American exploration and places them in a still rugged but increasingly fragile Arctic wilderness in the process of profound alteration by the dual forces of globalization and climate change. Fourteen years before Lewis and Clark, Mackenzie set off to cross the continent of North America with a team of voyageurs and Chipewyan guides, to find a trade route to the riches of the East. What he found was a river that he named "Disappointment." Mackenzie died thinking he had failed. He was wrong.

In this book, Brian Castner not only retells the story of Mackenzie's epic voyages in vivid prose, he personally retraces his travels, battling exhaustion, exposure, mosquitoes, white water rapids and the threat of bears. He transports readers to a world rarely glimpsed in the media, of tar sands, thawing permafrost, remote indigenous villages and, at the end, a wide open Arctic Ocean that could become a far-northern Mississippi of barges and pipelines and oil money.

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Ghost Train to the Eastern Star

Paul Theroux

Thirty years after the epic journey chronicled in his classic work The Great Railway Bazaar, the world's most acclaimed travel writer re-creates his 25,000-mile journey through eastern Europe, central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia.

Half a lifetime ago, Paul Theroux virtually invented the modern travel narrative by recounting his grand tour by train through Asia. In the three decades since, the world he recorded in that book has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed and China has risen; India booms while Burma smothers under dictatorship; Vietnam flourishes in the aftermath of the havoc America was unleashing on it the last time Theroux passed through. And no one is better able to capture the texture, sights, smells, and sounds of that changing landscape than Theroux.
Theroux's odyssey takes him from eastern Europe, still hung-over from communism, through tense but thriving Turkey into the Caucasus, where Georgia limps back toward feudalism while its neighbor Azerbaijan revels in oil-fueled capitalism. Theroux is firsthand witness to it all, traveling as the locals do?by stifling train, rattletrap bus, illicit taxi, and mud-caked foot?encountering adventures only he could have: from the literary (sparring with the incisive Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk) to the dissolute (surviving a week-long bender on the Trans-Siberian Railroad). And wherever he goes, his omnivorous curiosity and unerring eye for detail never fail to inspire, enlighten, inform, and entertain.

PAUL THEROUX was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1941 and published his first novel, Waldo, in 1967. His fiction includes The Mosquito Coast, My Secret History, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, Blinding Light, and most recently, The Elephanta Suite. His highly acclaimed travel books include Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, Fresh Air Fiend, and Dark Star Safari. He has been the guest editor of The Best American Travel Writing and is a frequent contributor to various magazines, including The New Yorker. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.

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Lands of Lost Borders

Kate Harris

"Lands of Lost Borders is illuminating, heart-warming, and hopeful in its suggestion that we will explore not to conquer but to connect."—Booklist (starred review)

"Lands of Lost Borders carried me up into a state of openness and excitement I haven’t felt for years. It’s a modern classic."—Pico Iyer

A brilliant, fierce writer makes her debut with this enthralling travelogue and memoir of her journey by bicycle along the Silk Road—an illuminating and thought-provoking fusion of The Places in Between, Lab Girl, and Wild that dares us to challenge the limits we place on ourselves and the natural world.

As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved—to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician—had gone extinct. From what she could tell of the world from small-town Ontario, the likes of Marco Polo and Magellan had mapped the whole earth; there was nothing left to be discovered. Looking beyond this planet, she decided to become a scientist and go to Mars.

In between studying at Oxford and MIT, Harris set off by bicycle down the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel. Pedaling mile upon mile in some of the remotest places on earth, she realized that an explorer, in any day and age, is the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. Forget charting maps, naming peaks: what she yearned for was the feeling of soaring completely out of bounds. The farther she traveled, the closer she came to a world as wild as she felt within.

Lands of Lost Borders, winner of the 2018 Banff Adventure Travel Award, is the chronicle of Harris’s odyssey and an exploration of the importance of breaking the boundaries we set ourselves; an examination of the stories borders tell, and the restrictions they place on nature and humanity; and a meditation on the existential need to explore—the essential longing to discover what in the universe we are doing here.

Like Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer, Kate Harris offers a travel account at once exuberant and reflective, wry and rapturous. Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of the self that can never fully be mapped. Weaving adventure and philosophy with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders celebrates our connection as humans to the natural world, and ultimately to each other—a belonging that transcends any fences or stories that may divide us.

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The Tenth Island

Diana Marcum

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer comes an exuberant memoir of personal loss and longing, and finding connection on the remote Azorean Islands of the Atlantic Ocean.

Reporter Diana Marcum is in crisis. A long-buried personal sadness is enfolding her--and her career is stalled--when she stumbles upon an unusual group of immigrants living in rural California. She follows them on their annual return to the remote Azorean Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, where bulls run down village streets, volcanoes are active, and the people celebrate festas to ease their saudade, a longing so deep that the Portuguese word for it can't be fully translated.

Years later, California is in a terrible drought, the wildfires seem to never end, and Diana finds herself still dreaming of those islands and the chuva--a rain so soft you don't notice when it begins or ends.

With her troublesome Labrador retriever, Murphy, in tow, Diana returns to the islands of her dreams only to discover that there are still things she longs for--and one of them may be a most unexpected love.

An Amazon Charts Most Read book.

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A Pilgrimage to Eternity

Timothy Egan

From "the world's greatest tour guide," a deeply-researched, captivating journey through the rich history of Christianity and the winding paths of the French and Italian countryside that will feed mind, body, and soul (New York Times).

"What a wondrous work! This beautifully written and totally clear-eyed account of his pilgrimage will have you wondering whether we should all embark on such a journey, either of the body, the soul or, as in Egan's case, both." --Cokie Roberts

"Egan draws us in, making us feel frozen in the snow-covered Alps, joyful in valleys of trees with low-hanging fruit, skeptical of the relics of embalmed saints and hopeful for the healing of his encrusted toes, so worn and weathered from their walk."--The Washington Post


Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity to explore the religion in the world that it created. Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and travels overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy, accompanied by a quirky cast of fellow pilgrims and by some of the towering figures of the faith--Joan of Arc, Henry VIII, Martin Luther. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium.

A thrilling journey, a family story, and a revealing history, A Pilgrimage to Eternity looks for our future in its search for God.

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Travel Light, Move Fast

Alexandra Fuller

From bestselling author Alexandra Fuller, the utterly original story of her father, Tim Fuller, and a deeply felt tribute to a life well lived
Six months before he died in Budapest, Tim Fuller turned to his daughter: "Let me tell you the secret to life right now, in case I suddenly give up the ghost. Then he lit his pipe and stroked his dog Harry's head. Harry put his paw on Dad's lap and they sat there, the two of them, one man and his dog, keepers to the secret of life. "Well?" she said. "Nothing comes to mind, quite honestly, Bobo," he said, with some surprise. "Now that I think about it, maybe there isn't a secret to life. It's just what it is, right under your nose. What do you think, Harry?" Harry gave Dad a look of utter agreement. He was a very superior dog. "Well, there you have it," Dad said.

 

After her father's sudden death, Alexandra Fuller realizes that if she is going to weather his loss, she will need to become the parts of him she misses most. So begins Travel Light, Move Fast, the unforgettable story of Tim Fuller, a self-exiled black sheep who moved to Africa to fight in the Rhodesian Bush War before settling as a banana farmer in Zambia. A man who preferred chaos to predictability, to revel in promise rather than wallow in regret, and who was more afraid of becoming bored than of getting lost, he taught his daughters to live as if everything needed to happen all together, all at once--or not at all. Now, in the wake of his death, Fuller internalizes his lessons with clear eyes and celebrates a man who swallowed life whole.

A master of time and memory, Fuller moves seamlessly between the days and months following her father's death, as she and her mother return to his farm with his ashes and contend with his overwhelming absence, and her childhood spent running after him in southern and central Africa. Writing with reverent irreverence of the rollicking grand misadventures of her mother and father, bursting with pandemonium and tragedy, Fuller takes their insatiable appetite for life to heart. Here, in Fuller's Africa, is a story of joy, resilience, and vitality, from one of our finest writers.

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Alone Time

Stephanie Rosenbloom

"In Paris (or anywhere else, really) a table for one can be a most delightful place." --Alone Time, as seen in The New York Times

A wise, passionate account of the pleasures of traveling solo

In our increasingly frantic daily lives, many people are genuinely fearful of the prospect of solitude, but time alone can be both rich and restorative, especially when travelling. Through on-the-ground reporting and recounting the experiences of artists, writers, and innovators who cherished solitude, Stephanie Rosenbloom considers how being alone as a traveller--and even in one's own city--is conducive to becoming acutely aware of the sensual details of the world--patterns, textures, colors, tastes, sounds--in ways that are difficult to do in the company of others.

Alone Time is divided into four parts, each set in a different city, in a different season, in a single year. The destinations--Paris, Istanbul, Florence, New York--are all pedestrian-friendly, allowing travelers to slow down and appreciate casual pleasures instead of hurtling through museums and posting photos to Instagram. Each section spotlights a different theme associated with the joys and benefits of time alone and how it can enable people to enrich their lives--facilitating creativity, learning, self-reliance, as well as the ability to experiment and change. Rosenbloom incorporates insights from psychologists and sociologists who have studied solitude and happiness, and explores such topics as dining alone, learning to savor, discovering interests and passions, and finding or creating silent spaces. Her engaging and elegant prose makes Alone Time as warmly intimate an account as the details of a trip shared by a beloved friend--and will have its many readers eager to set off on their own solo adventures.

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An Abolitionist's Handbook

Patrisse Cullors

In AN ABOLITIONIST’S HANDBOOK, Cullors charts a framework for how everyday activists can effectively fight for an abolitionist present and future.

Filled with relatable pedagogy on the history of abolition, a reimagining of what reparations look like for Black lives and real-life anecdotes from Cullors AN ABOLITIONIST’S HANDBOOK offers a bold, innovative, and humanistic approach to how to be a modern-day abolitionist. Cullors asks us to lead with love, fierce compassion, and precision.

In AN ABOLITIONIST’S HANDBOOK readers will learn how to:

- have courageous conversations
- move away from reaction and towards response
- take care of oneself while fighting for others
- turn inter-community conflict into a transformative action
- expand one’s imagination, think creatively, and find the courage to experiment
- make justice joyful
- practice active forgiveness
- make space for difficult feelings and honor mental health
- practice non-harm and cultivate compassion
- organize local and national governments to work towards abolition
- move away from cancel culture

AN ABOLITIONIST’S HANDBOOK is for those who are looking to reimagine a world where communities are treated with dignity, care and respect. It gives us permission to move away from cancel culture and into visioning change and healing.

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Indecency

Justin Phillip Reed

Winner of the 2018 National Book Award in Poetry

Indecency is boldly and carefully executed and perfectly ragged. In these poems, Justin Phillip Reed experiments with language to explore inequity and injustice and to critique and lament the culture of white supremacy and the dominant social order. Political and personal, tender, daring, and insightful--the author unpacks his intimacies, weaponizing poetry to take on masculinity, sexuality, exploitation, and the prison industrial complex and unmask all the failures of the structures into which society sorts us.

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How to Be an Antiracist

Ibram X. Kendi

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Shelf Awareness, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews

Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.

Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

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Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates

NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTES BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly  

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

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Running Is My Therapy

Scott Douglas

From a New York Times–bestselling author and lifelong runner, a groundbreaking guide to fighting depression and anxiety one run at a time

There’s no other book like this. Longtime running writer Scott Douglas marshals expert advice (especially his own, cultivated from more than 110,000 miles of personal experience), and a growing body of scientific research to show how running can make us happier.

How? Everyone knows that running builds stronger muscles and a healthier heart; science now shows it also helps develop a healthier brain. For those struggling with depression and anxiety, a consistent running routine can enhance the mental-health benefits of talk therapy, antidepressants, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The key to running’s therapeutic power lies in its lasting physiological effects, inducing changes in brain structure and chemistry that other forms of exercise don’t—including the best mood boost in all of sports, thanks to the body’s release of natural pain-relievers.

Running is my therapy is no longer just a mantra for seasoned runners; with science behind him, Douglas presents proven methods so that we can all use running to improve our mental health and live happier—in and out of running shoes.

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The Wim Hof Method

Wim Hof

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The only definitive book authored by Wim Hof on his powerful method for realizing our physical and spiritual potential.

“This method is very simple, very accessible, and endorsed by science. Anybody can do it, and there is no dogma, only acceptance. Only freedom.” Wim Hof

Wim Hof has a message for each of us: “You can literally do the impossible. You can overcome disease, improve your mental health and physical performance, and even control your physiology so you can thrive in any stressful situation.” With The Wim Hof Method, this trailblazer of human potential shares a method that anyone can use—young or old, sick or healthy—to supercharge their capacity for strength, vitality, and happiness.

Wim has become known as “The Iceman” for his astounding physical feats, such as spending hours in freezing water and running barefoot marathons over deserts and ice fields. Yet his most remarkable achievement is not any record-breaking performance—it is the creation of a method that thousands of people have used to transform their lives.

In his gripping and passionate style, Wim shares his method and his story, including:

Breath—Wim’s unique practices to change your body chemistry, infuse yourself with energy, and focus your mind
Cold—Safe, controlled, shock-free practices for using cold exposure to enhance your cardiovascular system and awaken your body’s untapped strength
Mindset—Build your willpower, inner clarity, sensory awareness, and innate joyfulness in the miracle of living
Science—How users of this method have redefined what is medically possible in study after study
Health—True stories and testimonials from people using the method to overcome disease and chronic illness
Performance—Increase your endurance, improve recovery time, up your mental game, and more
Wim’s Story—Follow Wim’s inspiring personal journey of discovery, tragedy, and triumph
Spiritual Awakening—How breath, cold, and mindset can reveal the beauty of your soul

Wim Hof is a man on a mission: to transform the way we live by reminding us of our true power and purpose. “This is how we will change the world, one soul at a time,” Wim says. “We alter the collective consciousness by awakening to our own boundless potential. We are limited only by the depth of our imagination and the strength of our conviction.”

If you’re ready to explore and exceed the limits of your own potential, The Wim Hof Method is waiting for you.

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Your Brain Is Always Listening

Amen MD Daniel G.

New York Times bestselling author Dr. Daniel Amen equips you with powerful weapons to battle the inner dragons that are breathing fire on your brain, driving unhealthy behaviors, and robbing you of joy and contentment.

Your brain is always listening and responding to these hidden influences and unless you recognize and deal with them, they can steal your happiness, spoil your relationships, and sabotage your health. This book will teach you to tame the:

  • Dragons from the Past that ignite your most painful emotions;
  • Negative Thought Dragons that attack you, fueling anxiety and depression;
  • They and Them Dragons, people in your life whose own dragons do battle with yours;
  • Bad Habit Dragons that increase the chances you'll be overweight, overwhelmed, and an underachiever;
  • Addicted Dragons that make you lose control of your health, wealth, and relationships; and
  • Scheming Dragons, advertisers and social media sites that steal your attention.

Dr. Daniel Amen shows you how to recognize harmful dragons and gives you the weapons to vanquish them. With these practical tools, you can stop feeling sad, mad, nervous, or out of control and start being happier, calmer, and more in control of your own destiny.

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Chatter

Ethan Kross

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * An award-winning psychologist reveals the hidden power of our inner voice and shows how to harness it to combat anxiety, improve physical and mental health, and deepen our relationships with others.

LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD * "A masterpiece."--Angela Duckworth, bestselling author of Grit * Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel H. Pink's Next Big Idea Club Winter 2021 Winning Selection

One of the best new books of the year--The Washington Post, BBC, USA Today, CNN Underscored, Shape, Behavioral Scientist, PopSugar * Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness starred reviews

Tell a stranger that you talk to yourself, and you're likely to get written off as eccentric. But the truth is that we all have a voice in our head. When we talk to ourselves, we often hope to tap into our inner coach but find our inner critic instead. When we're facing a tough task, our inner coach can buoy us up: Focus--you can do this. But, just as often, our inner critic sinks us entirely: I'm going to fail. They'll all laugh at me. What's the use?

In Chatter, acclaimed psychologist Ethan Kross explores the silent conversations we have with ourselves. Interweaving groundbreaking behavioral and brain research from his own lab with real-world case studies--from a pitcher who forgets how to pitch, to a Harvard undergrad negotiating her double life as a spy--Kross explains how these conversations shape our lives, work, and relationships. He warns that giving in to negative and disorienting self-talk--what he calls "chatter"--can tank our health, sink our moods, strain our social connections, and cause us to fold under pressure.

But the good news is that we're already equipped with the tools we need to make our inner voice work in our favor. These tools are often hidden in plain sight--in the words we use to think about ourselves, the technologies we embrace, the diaries we keep in our drawers, the conversations we have with our loved ones, and the cultures we create in our schools and workplaces.

Brilliantly argued, expertly researched, and filled with compelling stories, Chatter gives us the power to change the most important conversation we have each day: the one we have with ourselves.

 

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The Power of Tranquility in a Very Noisy World

Bernie Krause

You've decluttered your personal space, now it's time to tidy up your soundscape.

At a time when noise and chaos compete for every moment of our attention, noted author, musician, and naturalist, Dr. Bernie Krause, introduces us to methods for turning down the clatter in our lives, restoring a sense of contentment, and reclaiming the calm.

Just as some influencers inspire us to tidy up household clutter, The Power of Tranquility in a Very Noisy World takes personal organization a step further - into the sonic realm. Bioacoustician, Bernie Krause, shares healthful tips that identify and reduce the damaging aural assaults that besiege us - incoherent dissonance that impacts our health more than we may realize. With his reassuring guidance, you will be able to fine-tune your surroundings, improve your sense of wellness, reduce anxiety, and restore a sense of inner peace and productivity to your own acoustic space.

The Power of Tranquility in a Very Noisy World is a revelatory and powerful book. Thoroughly researched and accessibly crafted, it's today's best quiet guide - directing you from a debris field of noise into a more tranquil, connected, and resonant life.
 

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The Listening Path

Julia Cameron

A 6-week Artist’s Way Program from legendary author Julia Cameron

A Washington Post and Publisher's Weekly Bestseller

"Cameron's fans will love this"—Publishers Weekly

The newest book from beloved author Julia Cameron, The Listening Path is a transformational journey to deeper, more profound listening and creativity. Over six weeks, readers will be given the tools to become better listeners—to their environment, the people around them, and themselves. The reward for learning to truly listen is immense. As we learn to listen, our attention is heightened and we gain healing, insight, clarity. But above all, listening creates connections and ignites a creativity that will resonate through every aspect of our lives.

Julia Cameron is the author of the explosively successful book The Artist’s Way, which has transformed the creative lives of millions of readers since it was first published. Incorporating tools from The Artist’s Way, The Listening Path offers a new method of creative and personal transformation.

Each week, readers will be challenged to expand their ability to listen in a new way, beginning by listening to their environment and culminating in learning to listen to silence. These weekly practices open up a new world of connection and fulfillment. In a culture of bustle and constant sound, The Listening Path is a deeply necessary reminder of the power of truly hearing.

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Growing Up Mindful

Christopher Willard, PsyD

Introducing mindfulness into the lives of our children and teenagers is perhaps the greatest gift we can offer. Mindfulness builds emotional intelligence, boosts happiness, increases curiosity and engagement, reduces anxiety and depression, soothes the pain of trauma, and helps kids (and adults) focus, learn, and make better choices. If that weren’t enough, research now shows that mindfulness significantly enhances what psychologists call "flourishing"—the opposite of depression and avoidance.

Growing Up Mindful helps parents, educators, and counselors learn how to embody and share the skills of mindfulness that will empower our children with resilience throughout their lives. With more than 75 accessible exercises and practices, along with adaptations for the individual needs of a wide range of children and teens, this inspiring guidebook brings you road-tested insights and tools for:

• Tapping the power of the imagination, play, and creativity



• Body-based mindfulness and movement practices



• Creatively overcoming resistance and gaining kids’ buy-in



• The mindful use of technology and social media



• Building the foundation through your own personal practice



• "Attending" and "Befriending"—two positive responses to stress



• Setting intentions and managing expectations of new practitioners



• Sharing mindfulness in a formal setting including schools and workplaces



• Extending our practice into the larger communities we share

"Seeds of mindfulness can be planted in anyone at any time—seeds that under the right conditions can burst and bloom into a life of compassion and connection," writes Dr. Willard. Growing Up Mindful invites you to "embark on something incredible and world-changing" as you join the growing community of adults bringing wonder, curiosity, and reflection back into childhood and adolescence.

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Real Change

Sharon Salzberg

From one of most prominent figures in the field of meditation comes a guidebook for how to use mindfulness to build our inner strength, find balance, and help create a better world.

In today’s fractured world, we’re constantly flooded with breaking news that causes anger, grief, and pain. People are feeling more stressed out than ever, and in the face of this fear and anxiety they can feel so burnt out and overwhelmed that they end up frozen in their tracks and unable to do anything. In Real Change, Sharon Salzberg, a leading expert in lovingkindness meditation, shares sage advice and indispensable techniques to help free ourselves from these negative feelings and actions. She teaches us that meditation is not a replacement for action, but rather a way to practice generosity with ourselves and summon the courage to break through boundaries, reconnect to a movement that’s bigger than ourselves, and have the energy to stay active.

Consulting with veteran activists and social-change agents in a variety of fields, Salzberg collects and shares their wisdom and offers the best practical advice to foster transformation in both ourselves and in society. To help tame our inner landscape or chaos, Salzberg offers mindfulness practices that will help readers cultivate a sense of agency and stay engaged in the long-term struggle for social change.

Whether you’re resolving conflicts with a crotchety neighbor or combating global warming, Real Change will provide the fundamental principles and mindfulness practices to help guide you to the clarity and confidence to lift a foot and take the next step into a better world.

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The Little Book of Being

Diana Winston

A practical guide for experiencing natural awareness—an effortless and spacious state of resting in the depth of our being.

Do you recall, as a child, being enthralled by a drifting cloud, a rain-soaked leaf, a wandering ladybug? Or suddenly having a sense of timelessness, contentment, and ease? If so, then you've already had a taste of natural awareness.

Known and revered in many traditions as a complement to focused mindfulness training, natural awareness transcends even these wondrous childhood moments. Some describe it as a profound "awareness of awareness"—an effortless, boundless state of resting in the depth of our being.

For those new to meditation and experienced meditators alike, these 72 "mini-chapters" guide you on an in-depth odyssey into natural awareness, illuminated by many simple and enjoyable insights and exercises. The Little Book of Being invites you to explore: The spectrum of awareness practices, from focused mindfulness to flexible mindfulness to natural awareness
• How classical mindfulness and effortless natural awareness enrich and shape each other, and how to practice both
• Three ways to move into natural awareness—relaxing effort, broadening awareness, and dropping objects
• A treasury of "glimpse practices" to spark natural awareness anytime, in just a few moments
• How to bring this way of "simply being" into your daily life, into your connection with others, and into the world
"At first natural awareness may seem far away, just a whisper, but then it will begin to grow and expand and permeate aspects of living. Over time we may feel more peace, more connection to ourselves. We may find ourselves taking life a bit more lightly. We may feel a sense of relaxed ‘beingness’ throughout the day, and when we do get caught in our dramas, we may find ourselves moving out of them quicker than we imagined we could." —Diana Winston

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Happy Teachers Change the World

Thich Nhat Hanh

Happy Teachers Change the World is the first official, authoritative manual of the Thich Nhat Hanh/Plum Village approach to mindfulness in education. Spanning the whole range of schools and grade levels, from preschool through higher education, these techniques are grounded in the everyday world of schools, colleges, and universities.

Beginning firmly with teachers and all those working with students, including administrators, counselors, and other personnel, the Plum Village approach stresses that educators must first establish their own mindfulness practice since everything they do in the classroom will be based on that foundation. The book includes easy-to-follow, step-by-step techniques perfected by educators to teach themselves and to apply to their work with students and colleagues, along with inspirational stories of the ways in which teachers have made mindfulness practice alive and relevant for themselves and their students across the school and out into the community.

The instructions in Happy Teachers Change the World are offered as basic practices taught by Thich Nhat Hanh, followed by guidance from educators using these practices in their classrooms, with ample in-class interpretations, activities, tips, and instructions. Woven throughout are stories from members of the Plum Village community around the world who are applying these teachings in their own lives and educational contexts.

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Happy Not Perfect

Poppy Jamie

A clear path to overcoming uncertainty, perfectionism, and fears of rejection so you can finally find peace with the past and create a happier, healthier future

"Poppy's powerful approach will help you take control of your thoughts so they don't control you."--Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone


Even before the pandemic brought on a crushing wave of stress, anxiety, isolation, life change, and financial struggle, there was already a growing mental health crisis. Due to a culture that encourages perfection, hustle, and fictional life/work balance, many are burning out. Behind her Instagram-projected image of "happy wellness founder," Poppy Jamie was also struggling mightily with perfectionism and life purpose.

She began working with mental health experts and researchers to find practical tools to overcome her inner critic and rewire her mind. She discovered that it is possible to create new neural pathways in your brain to break patterns of avoidance, challenge fears of not being good enough, and turn failure around by stretching the mind with new, healthier thought habits. The old wiring (and habits) that you've been stuck with can be written-over. You can actually upgrade your headspace to make curiosity, vulnerability, compassion, and emotional flexibility your default settings.

In the emphatic and trusted voice of Bridget Jones meets neuroscience, Poppy shares her Flexy Thoughts approach for changing how you react to emotional triggers and think of yourself while improving your mental and physical health, relationships, and vision of the future.

Our emotional resilience may continue to be tested, but the new perspectives and strategies in Happy Not Perfect will help us bring confidence, adaptability, and acceptance to whatever comes next.

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Tarot

Tina Gong

Find out how to customize, interpret, and apply the wisdom of tarot to enhance every area of your life - your career, finances, relationships, and more.

Get to know each card in detail - meet The Magician, who encourages you to trust in your abilities; connect with the nurturing instincts of The Empress; feel the confidence of The Chariot - and explore the meanings of each card for you.

Discover how tarot readings can illuminate your unique path and lead to tangible, positive actions that you can apply day to day.

Let Tarot guide you on a journey of self-knowledge and self-fulfillment.

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Effortless

Greg McKeown

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A Times (UK) Best Book of the Year * From the author of the million-copy-selling Essentialism comes an empowering guide to achieving your goals. It all starts with a simple principle: Not everything has to be so hard.
"In a world beset by burnout, Greg McKeown's work is essential."--Daniel H. Pink, author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human

"At a time when fear, uncertainty, and our ever-growing list of responsibilities have come to feel like much too much to handle, Effortless couldn't be timelier, or more necessary."--Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play


Do you ever feel like:

* You're teetering right on the edge of burnout?
* You want to make a higher contribution, but lack the energy?
* You're running faster but not moving closer to your goals?
* Everything is so much harder than it used to be?

As high achievers, we've been conditioned to believe that the path to success is paved with relentless work. That if we want to overachieve, we have to overexert, overthink, and overdo. That if we aren't perpetually exhausted, we're not doing enough.

But lately, working hard is more exhausting than ever. And the more depleted we get, the more effort it takes to make progress. Stuck in an endless loop of "Zoom, eat, sleep, repeat," we're often working twice as hard to achieve half as much.

Getting ahead doesn't have to be as hard as we make it. No matter what challenges or obstacles we face, there is a better way: instead of pushing ourselves harder, we can find an easier path.

Effortless offers actionable advice for making the most essential activities the easiest ones, so you can achieve the results you want, without burning out.

Effortless teaches you how to:
* Turn tedious tasks into enjoyable rituals
* Prevent frustration by solving problems before they arise
* Set a sustainable pace instead of powering through
* Make one-time choices that eliminate many future decisions
* Simplify your processes by removing unnecessary steps
* Make relationships easier to maintain and manage
* And much more

The effortless way isn't the lazy way. It's the smart way. It may even be the only way.

Not every hard thing in life can be made easy. But we can make it easier to do more of what matters most.

 

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The Book of Ichigo Ichie

Héctor García

Find happiness by living fully in the present with this definitive guide to ichigo ichie--the Japanese art of making the most of every moment--from the bestselling authors of Ikigai.

Every moment in our life happens only once, and if we let it slip away, we lose it forever--an idea captured by the Japanese phrase ichigo ichie (pronounced itchy-GO itchy-A). Often spoken in Japan when greeting someone or saying goodbye, to convey that the encounter is unique and special, it is a tenet of Zen Buddhism and is attributed to a sixteenth-century master of the Japanese tea ceremony, or "ceremony of attention," whose intricate rituals compel us to focus on the present moment.

From this age-old concept comes a new kind of mindfulness. In The Book of Ichigo Ichie, you will learn to...

appreciate the beauty of the fleeting, the way the Japanese celebrate the cherry blossoms for two weeks every April, knowing they'll have to wait a whole year to see them again;
use all five senses to anchor yourself in the present, helping you to let go of fear, sadness, anger, and other negative emotions fueled by fixating on the past or the future;
be alert to the magic of coincidences, which help us find meaning among the disconnected events of our lives;
use ichigo ichie to help you discover your ikigai, or life's purpose--because it's only by learning to be present, to be tuned into what catches your attention and excites you in the moment, that you can identify what it is that most motivates you and brings you happiness.

Every one of us contains a key that can open the door to attention, harmony with others, and love of life. And that key is ichigo ichie.

A PENGUIN LIFE TITLE

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Raising Good Humans

Hunter Clarke-Fields

"A wise and fresh approach to mindful parenting."
--Tara Brach, author of
Radical Acceptance

A kinder, more compassionate world starts with kind and compassionate kids. In Raising Good Humans, you'll find powerful and practical strategies to break free from "reactive parenting" habits and raise kind, cooperative, and confident kids.

Whether you're running late for school, trying to get your child to eat their vegetables, or dealing with an epic meltdown in the checkout line at a grocery store--being a parent is hard work! And, as parents, many of us react in times of stress without thinking--often by yelling. But what if, instead of always reacting on autopilot, you could respond thoughtfully in those moments, keep your cool, and get from A to B on time and in one piece?

With this book, you'll find powerful mindfulness skills for calming your own stress response when difficult emotions arise. You'll also discover strategies for cultivating respectful communication, effective conflict resolution, and reflective listening. In the process, you'll learn to examine your own unhelpful patterns and ingrained reactions that reflect the generational habits shaped by your parents, so you can break the cycle and respond to your children in more skillful ways.

When children experience a parent reacting with kindness and patience, they learn to act with kindness as well--thereby altering generational patterns for a kinder, more compassionate future. With this essential guide, you'll see how changing your own "autopilot reactions" can create a lasting positive impact, not just for your kids, but for generations to come.

An essential, must-read for all parents--now more than ever.

"To raise the children we hope to raise, we have to learn to become the person we hoped to be.... This wonderful book will help you handle the ride."
--KJ Dell'Antonia, author of How to Be a Happier Parent

"Hunter Clarke-Fields shares her wisdom and personal experience to help parents create peaceful families."
--Joanna Faber and Julie King, coauthors of How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen

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Mindful Pregnancy

Tracy Donegan

Are you a yoga-loving, mindful mother-to-be looking for sound advice on how to enjoy a natural, stress-free pregnancy? If so, Mindful Pregnancy is your go-to guide.

Organized trimester by trimester, this book offers safe yoga, meditation, natural remedies, nutritional, and hypnobirthing advice and techniques to match your stage of pregnancy and the development of your baby. Encouraging, practical advice will help you embrace change, understand your body, relish your pregnancy, and prepare for becoming a mother.

Troubleshoot pregnancy aches and pains with appropriate exercises, quell morning sickness with natural remedies and food, bond with your baby through meditation and movement, and prepare your body and mind safely and healthily for childbirth using strengthening exercises and hypnobirthing techniques.

Feel empowered to deliver your baby with strength and confidence. After the birth, continue to use these natural techniques and resources in the first few weeks as you recover, bond with your baby, and embrace life as a new mother. The book supports and guides you as you take the lead from your own body and intuition during pregnancy and birth. Pregnancy is not an illness. It is the most natural thing in the world--so enjoy it throughout, naturally.

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The Mindful Athlete

George Mumford

“George helped me understand the art of mindfulness. To be neither distracted or focused, rigid or flexible, passive or aggressive. I learned just to be." —Kobe Bryant
Michael Jordan credits George Mumford with transforming his on-court leadership of the Bulls, helping Jordan lead the team to six NBA championships. Mumford also helped Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom and countless other NBA players turn around their games. A widely respected public speaker and coach, Mumford is sharing his own story and the strategies that have made these athletes into stars in The Mindful Athlete: The Secret to Pure Performance. His proven, gentle but groundbreaking mindfulness techniques can transform the performance of anyone with a goal, be they an Olympian, weekend warrior, executive, hacker, or artist.

When Michael Jordan left the Chicago Bulls to play baseball in 1993, the team was in crisis. Coach Phil Jackson, a long-time mindfulness practitioner, contacted Dr. Kabat-Zinn to find someone who could teach mindfulness techniques to the struggling team—someone who would have credibility and could speak the language of his players. Kabat-Zinn led Jackson to Mumford and their partnership began. Mumford has worked with Jackson and each of the eleven teams he coached to become NBA champions. His roster of champion clients has since blossomed way beyond basketball to include corporate executives, Olympians, and athletes in many different sports.

With a charismatic teaching style that combines techniques of engaged mindfulness with lessons from popular culture icons such as Yoda, Indiana Jones, and Bruce Lee, Mumford tells illuminating stories about his larger than life clients. His writing is down-to-earth and easy to understand and apply. The Mindful Athlete is an engrossing story and an invaluable resource for anyone looking to elevate their game, no matter what the pursuit, and includes a foreword by Phil Jackson.

"Self-consciousness is when you’re focused on how you’re doing instead of what you’re doing. We have to learn how to push and challenge ourselves, but not in an insensitive way. Honing your performance really comes down to being comfortable with being uncomfortable."—George Mumford

 

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The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness

Andy Puddicombe

Quiet the mind, feel less stressed, less tired, and achieve a new level of calm and fulfillment in just ten minutes a day

Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk, the Voice of Headspace, and the UK’s foremost mindfulness expert, is on a mission: to get people to take 10 minutes out of their day to sit in the here and now.

Like his readers and students, Andy began his own meditation practice as a normal, busy person with everyday concerns, and he has since designed a program of mindfulness and guided meditation that fits neatly into a jam-packed daily routine—proving that just 10 minutes a day can make a world of difference.

Accessible and portable, The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness offers simple but powerful meditation techniques that positively impact every area of physical and mental health: from productivity and focus, to stress and anxiety relief, sleep, weight-loss, personal relationships...the benefits are limitless. The result? More headspace, less stress. Andy brings this ancient practice into the modern world, tailor made for the most time starved among us.

Switch off after work * Fall asleep at night * Feel less anxious, sad, or angry * Control your cravings * Find a healthy weight

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Unwinding Anxiety

Judson Brewer

The instant New York Times bestseller

A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits


We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone.

We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us to map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work.

Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

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Llewellyn's Complete Book of Mindful Living

Michael Bernard Beckwith

Enhance your awareness, achieve higher focus and happiness, and improve all levels of your health with the supportive practices in this guide to mindful living. Featuring over twenty-five leading meditation and mindfulness experts, Llewellyn's Complete Book of Mindful Living shows you how to boost your well-being and overcome obstacles.

With an impressive array of topics by visionary teachers and authors, this comprehensive book provides inspiration, discussion, and specific techniques based on the transformative applications of mindfulness: basic understanding and practices, better health, loving your body, reaching your potential, and connecting to subtle energy and spirit. Using meditation, breathwork, and other powerful exercises, you'll bring the many benefits of mindfulness into your everyday life.

Contributors include Rachel Avalon, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Sarah Bowen, Jeanne Van Bronkhorst, Erin Byron, Robert Butera, Jack Canfield, Alexandra Chauran, Cyndi Dale, Sherrie Dillard, Guy Finley, Rolf Gates, Melissa Grabau, Servet Hasan, Ana Holub, Patricia Johnson, Shakta Khalsa, Melanie Klein, Danielle MacKinnon, Mark A. Michaels, William L. Mikulas, Thomas Moore, Keith Park, Deborah Sandella, Amy B. Scher, Tess Whitehurst, and Angela Wix.

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The New Mindful Home

Joanna Thornhill

Make your home more mindful and discover a more considered way to decorate with this beautifully presented guide by acclaimed interior stylist, Joanna Thornhill.

We often think of mindfulness in relation to meditation, but our homes and interior design can play a big part in our emotional well-being. The New Mindful Home demystifies the links between body, mind and soul to explain how you can harness the power of mindfulness to help our homes support a more considered lifestyle.

How do we create spaces that can calm and revives us? With the same practical attention to problem-solving as in her first book, My Bedroom is an Office, author Joanna Thornhill helps you create an environment you will always want to come home to.

The New Mindful Home explores how you can use interiors to aid living with intention, slow living, creating supportive room layouts, considering mindful effects of color, and embracing plants and natural elements in our homes. Enhanced by beautiful contemporary photography, this book will provide interior design inspiration for a generation who want to consider how they can live more mindfully.

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Full Catastrophe Living

Jon Kabat-Zinn

The landmark work on mindfulness, meditation, and healing, now revised and updated after twenty-five years

Stress. It can sap our energy, undermine our health if we let it, even shorten our lives. It makes us more vulnerable to anxiety and depression, disconnection and disease. Based on Jon Kabat-Zinn's renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction program, this classic, groundbreaking work—which gave rise to a whole new field in medicine and psychology—shows you how to use medically proven mind-body approaches derived from meditation and yoga to counteract stress, establish greater balance of body and mind, and stimulate well-being and healing. By engaging in these mindfulness practices and integrating them into your life from moment to moment and from day to day, you can learn to manage chronic pain, promote optimal healing, reduce anxiety and feelings of panic, and improve the overall quality of your life, relationships, and social networks. This second edition features results from recent studies on the science of mindfulness, a new Introduction, up-to-date statistics, and an extensive updated reading list. Full Catastrophe Living is a book for the young and the old, the well and the ill, and anyone trying to live a healthier and saner life in our fast-paced world.

Praise for Full Catastrophe Living

“To say that this wise, deep book is helpful to those who face the challenges of human crisis would be a vast understatement. It is essential, unique, and, above all, fundamentally healing.”—Donald M. Berwick, M.D., president emeritus and senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

“One of the great classics of mind/body medicine.”—Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom

“A book for everyone . . . Jon Kabat-Zinn has done more than any other person on the planet to spread the power of mindfulness to the lives of ordinary people and major societal institutions.”—Richard J. Davidson, founder and chair, Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“This is the ultimate owner's manual for our lives. What a gift!”—Amy Gross, former editor in chief, O: The Oprah Magazine

“I first read Full Catastrophe Living in my early twenties and it changed my life.”—Chade-Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow of Google and author of Search Inside Yourself

“Jon Kabat-Zinn's classic work on the practice of mindfulness to alleviate stress and human suffering stands the test of time, a most useful resource and practical guide. I recommend this new edition enthusiastically to doctors, patients, and anyone interested in learning to use the power of focused awareness to meet life's challenges, whether great or small.”—Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Spontaneous Happiness and 8 Weeks to Optimum Health

“How wonderful to have a new and updated version of this classic book that invited so many of us down a path that transformed our minds and awakened us to the beauty of each moment, day-by-day, through our lives. This second edition, building on the first, is sure to become a treasured sourcebook and traveling companion for new generations who seek the wisdom to live full and fulfilling lives.”—Diana Chapman Walsh, Ph.D., president emerita of Wellesley College

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Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

Dan Harris

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF 10% HAPPIER

Too busy to meditate? Can't turn off your brain? Curious about mindfulness but more comfortable in the gym? This book is for you.

You'll also get access to guided audio meditations on the 10% Happier app, to jumpstart your practice from day one.

ABC News anchor Dan Harris used to think that meditation was for people who collect crystals, play Ultimate Frisbee, and use the word "namaste" without irony. After he had a panic attack on live television, he went on a strange and circuitous journey that ultimately led him to become one of meditation's most vocal public proponents.

Harris found that meditation made him more focused and less yanked around by his emotions. According to his wife, it also made him less annoying. Science suggests that the practice can lower your blood pressure, mitigate depression and anxiety, and literally rewire key parts of the brain. So what's holding you back?

In Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, Harris and Jeff Warren, a masterful teacher and "Meditation MacGyver," embark on a gonzo cross-country quest to tackle the myths, misconceptions, and self-deceptions that keep people from meditating. It is filled with game-changing and deeply practical meditation instructions--all of which are also available (for free) on the 10% Happier app. This book is a trip worth taking.

Praise for Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

"If you're intrigued by meditation but don't know how to begin--or you've benefited from meditation in the past but need help to get started again--Dan Harris has written the book for you. Well researched, practical, and crammed with expert advice, it's also an irreverent, hilarious page-turner."--Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

"The ABC News anchor, a 'defender of worrying' who once had an anxiety attack on air, offers a hilarious and stirring account of his two-steps-forward-one-step-back campaign to sort 'useless rumination' from 'constructive anguish' via mindfulness, along with invaluable suggestions for following in his footsteps."--O: The Oprah Magazine

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Digital Minimalism

Cal Newport

A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestseller

"Newport is making a bid to be the Marie Kondo of technology: someone with an actual plan for helping you realize the digital pursuits that do, and don't, bring value to your life."--Ezra Klein, Vox

Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world.


In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.

Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can get lost in a good book, a woodworking project, or a leisurely morning run. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They stay informed about the news of the day, but don't feel overwhelmed by it. They don't experience "fear of missing out" because they already know which activities provide them meaning and satisfaction.

Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips, like turning off notifications, or occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, don't go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions.

Drawing on a diverse array of real-life examples, from Amish farmers to harried parents to Silicon Valley programmers, Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life, starting with a thirty-day "digital declutter" process that has already helped thousands feel less overwhelmed and more in control.

Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you. This book shows the way.

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Think Like a Monk

Jay Shetty

Jay Shetty, social media superstar and host of the #1 podcast On Purpose, distills the timeless wisdom he learned as a monk into practical steps anyone can take every day to live a less anxious, more meaningful life.

When you think like a monk, you’ll understand:
-How to overcome negativity
-How to stop overthinking
-Why comparison kills love
-How to use your fear
-Why you can’t find happiness by looking for it
-How to learn from everyone you meet
-Why you are not your thoughts
-How to find your purpose
-Why kindness is crucial to success
-And much more...

Shetty grew up in a family where you could become one of three things—a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. His family was convinced he had chosen option three: instead of attending his college graduation ceremony, he headed to India to become a monk, to meditate every day for four to eight hours, and devote his life to helping others. After three years, one of his teachers told him that he would have more impact on the world if he left the monk’s path to share his experience and wisdom with others. Heavily in debt, and with no recognizable skills on his résumé, he moved back home in north London with his parents.

Shetty reconnected with old school friends—many working for some of the world’s largest corporations—who were experiencing tremendous stress, pressure, and unhappiness, and they invited Shetty to coach them on well-being, purpose, and mindfulness. Since then, Shetty has become one of the world’s most popular influencers. In 2017, he was named in the Forbes magazine 30-under-30 for being a game-changer in the world of media. In 2018, he had the #1 video on Facebook with over 360 million views. His social media following totals over 38 million, he has produced over 400 viral videos which have amassed more than 8 billion views, and his podcast, On Purpose, is consistently ranked the world’s #1 Health and Wellness podcast.

In this inspiring, empowering book, Shetty draws on his time as a monk to show us how we can clear the roadblocks to our potential and power. Combining ancient wisdom and his own rich experiences in the ashram, Think Like a Monk reveals how to overcome negative thoughts and habits, and access the calm and purpose that lie within all of us. He transforms abstract lessons into advice and exercises we can all apply to reduce stress, improve relationships, and give the gifts we find in ourselves to the world. Shetty proves that everyone can—and should—think like a monk.

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Poetry of Presence

Phyllis Cole-Dai

Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems is a collection of poetry that provides a refuge of quiet clarity very much needed in today's restless, chaotic world. Every reader will find favorites to share and to return to, again and again. The diverse group of contributing poets includes contemporary favorites such as Wendell Berry, Joy Harjo, Jane Hirshfield, Li-Young Lee, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Derek Walcott, as well as poets of the past such as Hafiz, Pablo Neruda, Li Po, and Rumi. Readers of the poems in this book will begin to find themselves becoming less stressed, more balanced, and more fully present in the world.

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Forest Bathing

Dr. Qing Li

The definitive guide to the therapeutic Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or the art and science of how trees can promote health and happiness

Notice how a tree sways in the wind. Run your hands over its bark. Take in its citrusy scent. As a society we suffer from nature deficit disorder, but studies have shown that spending mindful, intentional time around trees--what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing--can promote health and happiness.

In this beautiful book--featuring more than 100 color photographs from forests around the world, including the forest therapy trails that criss-cross Japan--Dr. Qing Li, the world's foremost expert in forest medicine, shows how forest bathing can reduce your stress levels and blood pressure, strengthen your immune and cardiovascular systems, boost your energy, mood, creativity, and concentration, and even help you lose weight and live longer.

Once you've discovered the healing power of trees, you can lose yourself in the beauty of your surroundings, leave everyday stress behind, and reach a place of greater calm and wellness.

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Breath

James Nestor

A New York Times Bestseller

A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020

Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR
 
“A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.


There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.

Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.

Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.

Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.

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Untamed

Glennon Doyle

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine The Washington Post Cosmopolitan Marie ClaireBloomberg Parade • “Untamed will liberate women—emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It is phenomenal.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls and Eat Pray Love

This is how you find yourself.

There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent—even from ourselves.

For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her own discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There She Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. But she soon realized they had come to her from within. This was her own voice—the one she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions, cultural conditioning, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl she had been before the world told her who to be. Glennon decided to quit abandoning herself and to instead abandon the world’s expectations of her. She quit being good so she could be free. She quit pleasing and started living.

Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is.

Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get.

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Start Without Me

Gary Janetti

The New York Times Bestseller!

From New York Times bestselling author, and Family Guy writer Gary Janetti comes Start Without Me, a collection of hilarious, laugh out loud, true life stories about the small moments that add up to a big life.


Gary Janetti is bothered. By a lot of things. And thank God he’s here to tell us.

In Start Without Me, Gary returns with his acid tongue firmly in cheek to the moments and times that defined him. He takes us by the hand as we follow him through the summers he spends in his twenties, pursuing both the perfect tan and the perfect man to no avail and much regret. At his Catholic high school, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with a nun who shares Gary's love of soap operas, which becomes a salvation to them both. And don't get him started on how a bad hotel room can ruin even the best vacation. This laugh-out-loud collection of true-life stories from the man “behind his generation’s greatest comedy” (The New York Times) is for anyone who has felt the joy in holding a decade-long grudge.

Whether you are a new convert to Janetti or one of the million who follow him on social media for a daily laugh, Start Without Me will have you howling at Gary's frustrations and nodding along in agreement at the outrages of life's small slights. It's the literary equivalent of a night out with your funniest friend that you wish would never end.

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Happy-Go-Lucky

David Sedaris

David Sedaris returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso.

Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask--or not--was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes.

But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he's stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. To cope, he walks for miles through a nearly deserted city, smelling only his own breath. He vacuums his apartment twice a day, fails to hoard anything, and contemplates how sex workers and acupuncturists might be getting by during quarantine.

As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger's teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own, and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone's son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America: people weary, storefronts empty or festooned with Help Wanted signs, walls painted with graffiti reflecting the contradictory messages of our time: Eat the Rich. Trump 2024. Black Lives Matter.

In Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than the incomparable David Sedaris.

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