Displaying books 1105-1152 of 6894 in total

The Perfect Game

2020

by J. Sterling

He's a game she never intended to play. And she's the game changer he never knew he needed.

The Perfect Game tells the story of college juniors, Cassie Andrews & Jack Carter. When Cassie meets rising baseball hopeful Jack, she is determined to steer clear of him and his typical cocky attitude. But Jack has other things on his mind... like getting Cassie to give him the time of day.

They're both damaged, filled with mistrust and guarded before they find one another (and themselves) in this emotional journey about love and forgiveness. Strap yourselves for a ride that will not only break your heart, but put it back together. Sometimes life gets ugly before it gets beautiful.

The Switch

2020

by Beth O'Leary

Eileen is sick of being 79. Leena is tired of life in her twenties. Maybe it's time they swapped places...

When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen.

Once Leena learns of Eileen's romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile, Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn't as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect - and distractingly handsome - school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?

Think Like a Rocket Scientist

2020

by Ozan Varol

Think Like a Rocket Scientist is not just about the celebration of technology's greatest triumphs; it's about the thought process that allows us to reach beyond the known into the realm of the unknown. Ozan Varol, a former rocket scientist, shares the habits, ideas, and strategies that can transform the seemingly impossible into the possible.

The same thought process that allowed Neil Armstrong to take his giant leap for mankind and spacecraft to traverse millions of miles through outer space is now accessible to everyone. Varol introduces nine simple strategies from rocket science that can be applied to our work and life challenges. Whether you're aiming to land your dream job, propel your business forward, pick up a new skill, or create an innovative product, these strategies provide the tools to achieve extraordinary results.

In our world of complex and unfamiliar problems, those who can approach these issues creatively and persistently hold a significant advantage. Think Like a Rocket Scientist will inspire you to embark on your own moonshot project and give you the confidence to achieve liftoff.

Why Fish Don't Exist

2020

by Lulu Miller

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and—possibly—even murder, woven together in a wondrous debut by NPR reporter Lulu Miller.

David Starr Jordan, a taxonomist driven to bring order to the natural world, was on the verge of discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. However, the universe seemed determined to challenge him, as his specimen collections were destroyed by a series of calamities, culminating in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. His life's work in ruins, Jordan stood amidst the wreckage and, spotting the first fish he recognized, began the arduous task of rebuilding his collection. This time, he introduced an innovation to protect his work from chaos.

Lulu Miller's encounter with Jordan's story led her to question her own understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet. Why Fish Don't Exist is not only a biography and a memoir but also a scientific adventure that reads like a fable, offering an inspiring reflection on how to persevere in a world where chaos always seems to prevail.

Always Day One

2020

by Alex Kantrowitz

An acclaimed tech reporter reveals the inner workings of Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft, showing how to compete with the tech titans using their own playbook. At Amazon, "Day One" is code for inventing like a startup, with little regard for legacy. Day Two is, in Jeff Bezos's own words, "stasis, followed by irrelevance, followed by excruciating, painful decline, followed by death." Most companies today are set up for Day Two. They build advantages and defend them fiercely, rather than invent the future.

But Amazon and fellow tech titans Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are operating in Day One: they prioritize reinvention over tradition and collaboration over ownership. Through 130 interviews with insiders, from Mark Zuckerberg to hourly workers, Always Day One reveals the tech giants' blueprint for sustainable success in a business world where no advantage is safe. Companies today can spin up new products at record speed -- thanks to artificial intelligence and cloud computing -- and those who stand still will be picked apart.

The tech giants remain dominant because they've built cultures that spark continual reinvention. It might sound radical, but those who don't act like it's always day one do so at their own peril. Kantrowitz uncovers the engine propelling the tech giants' continued dominance at a stage when most big companies begin to decline. And he shows the way forward for everyone who wants to compete with--and beat--the titans.

Hidden Valley Road

2020

by Robert Kolker

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family unfolds the heartrending story of a mid-century American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand—even cure—the disease.

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the dream. After World War II, Don's work with the US Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony—and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse.

By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen in one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institutes of Mental Health.

Their shocking story also offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy and the premise of the schizophrenogenic mother, to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amidst profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. Unknown to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment and even the possibility of the eradication of the disease for future generations.

With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love and hope.

Redhead by the Side of the Road

2020

by Anne Tyler

From the beloved and bestselling Anne Tyler, comes a sparkling new novel about misperception, second chances, and the sometimes elusive power of human connection.

Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit. A self-employed tech expert and superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building, he seems content leading a steady, circumscribed life. Cautious to a fault behind the steering wheel, his life is a series of routines.

But one day, his routines are blown apart when his woman friend (he refuses to call anyone in her late thirties a "girlfriend") tells him she's facing eviction, and a teenager shows up at Micah's door claiming to be his son.

These surprises, and the ways they throw Micah's meticulously organized life off-kilter, risk changing him forever. An intimate look into the heart and mind of a man who finds those around him just out of reach. A funny, joyful, deeply compassionate story about seeing the world through new eyes, Redhead by the Side of the Road is a triumph, filled with Anne Tyler's signature wit and gimlet-eyed observation.

You Deserve Each Other

2020

by Sarah Hogle

Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They're preparing for their lavish wedding that's three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.

Naomi wants out, but there's a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. When Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment, the two of them go head-to-head in a battle of pranks, sabotage, and all-out emotional warfare.

But with the countdown looming to the wedding that may or may not come to pass, Naomi finds her resolve slipping. Because now that they have nothing to lose, they're finally being themselves—and having fun with the last person they expect: each other.

Inkdeath

2020

by Cornelia Funke

Caught between the covers of a cursed story... Ever since the extraordinary events of Inkspell, when the enchanted book Inkheart drew Meggie and her father, Mo, into its chapters, life in the Inkworld has been more tragic than magical.

The fire-eater Dustfinger is dead, having sacrificed his life for his apprentice Farid's, and now, under the rule of the evil Adderhead, the fairy-tale land is in bloody chaos, its characters far beyond the control of Fenoglio, their author. Even Elinor, left behind in the real world, believes her family to be lost - lost between the covers of a book.

Facing the threat of eternal winter, Mo inks a dangerous deal with Death itself. There yet remains a faint hope of changing the cursed story - if only he can fill its pages fast enough.

Inkdeath - the captivating final tale in the Inkheart trilogy.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma

Join the Mysterious Benedict Society as Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance embark on a daring new adventure that threatens to force them apart from their families, friends, and even each other. When an unexplained blackout engulfs Stonetown, the foursome must unravel clues relating to a nefarious new plot, while their search for answers brings them closer to danger than ever before.

Tooth for Tooth

2020

by J.K. Franko

"What would you do if you got away with murder? Would you stop there? Could you? Susie and Roy thought that they committed the perfect crime. Their planning was meticulous. Their execution was flawless. But, there is always a loose end, isn't there? Always a singing bone. Now, as enemies multiply and suspicions abound, their perfect world begins to crumble. The hunters have become the hunted."

This thrilling sequel has readers hooked, with its intricate plot and well-executed crime narrative. "...one of the most intricate, well thought out and executed crime novels I've ever read..." - Amazon Top 100 Reviewer

The Blindspots Between Us: How to Overcome Unconscious Cognitive Bias and Build Better Relationships

2020

by Gleb Tsipursky

When what you think you know gets in the way—this eye-opening guide offers a clear path to forging stronger, healthier, and more meaningful relationships. We all want positive, productive, and genuine relationships—whether it’s with our family, friends, peers, coworkers, or romantic partners. And yet, time and time again, we all seem to make the same thinking errors that threaten or sabotage these relationships. These errors are called cognitive bias, and they happen when our brain attempts to simplify information by making assumptions.

Grounded in evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), The Blindspots Between Us reveals the most common “hidden” cognitive biases that blind us to the truth, and which lead to the misunderstandings that damage our relationships. With this guide, you’ll learn key skills to help you debias—to stop, pause, and objectively observe situations before jumping to conclusions about others’ motives. You’ll also learn to consider other people’s points of view and past experiences before rushing to judgment and potentially undermining your relationships.

Being a human is hard. None of us are perfect, and we all have our blindspots that can get in the way of building the relationships we really and truly want, deep down. This much-needed book will help you identify your own blindspots, and move beyond them for better relationships—and a better world.

A Quick Bite

2020

by Lynsay Sands

That hot guy tied to Lissianna Argeneau's bed? He's not dessert - he's the main course!Lissianna has been spending her centuries pining for Mr. Right, not just a quick snack, and this sexy guy she finds in her bed looks like he might be a candidate. But there's another, more pressing issue: her tendency to faint at the sight of blood...an especially annoying quirk for a vampire. Of course it doesn't hurt that this man has a delicious-looking neck. What kind of cold-blooded vampire woman could resist a bite of that?Dr. Gregory Hewitt recovers from the shock of waking up in a stranger's bedroom pretty quickly - once he sees a gorgeous woman about to treat him to a wild night of passion. But is it possible for the good doctor to find true love with a vampire vixen, or will he be just a good meal? That's a question Dr. Greg might be willing to sink his teeth into...if he can just get Lissianna to bite.

Hamnet

A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, and whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down—a magnificent leap forward from one of our most gifted novelists.

In 1580’s England, during the Black Plague a young Latin tutor falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman in this best-selling winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. 

Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever. 

Wow, No Thank You.

2020

by Samantha Irby

Wow, No Thank You. is a rip-roaring, edgy, and unabashedly raunchy new collection of hilarious essays from the beloved author Samantha Irby.

Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what inspirational Instagram infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, published successful books, and has been friendzoned by Hollywood. She left Chicago and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how, with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state, where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason jar salads. This is the bourgeois life of a Hallmark Channel dream.

She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with "tv executives slash amateur astrologers" while being a "cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person," with neck pain and no cartilage in her knees, who still hides past due bills under her pillow.

The essays in this collection draw on the raw, hilarious particulars of Irby's new life. Wow, No Thank You. is Irby at her most unflinching, riotous, and relatable.

High-Rise

2020

by J.G. Ballard

When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on "enemy" floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.

Trouble on Main Street

2020

by Kirsten Fullmer

A cozy mountain town, a sweet romance, and a secret society of sneaky women... The sleepy hamlet of Sugar Mountain harbors a secret society of women. Don't misunderstand—the society itself is not secret—it's the true nature of the group that is hush-hush.

Sugar Mountain is the kind of charming village that tourists adore. If you like small-town charm, quirky shops, and local art, this is the place for you. But when a blood smeared package shows up at the post office and it appears to be linked to a scheme that threatens Heidi Collinsworth's historic home, the town takes on a sinister vibe. Heidi would lay odds that slimy Mayor Winslow is involved, but even with the enquiring skills of The Sugar Mountain Ladies Historical Society at work, proof is scarce. The new guy in town, Adam Williams, is determined not to get involved in Sugar Mountain's business. His last job in a big city planning office ruined his life, but Heidi needs his help. No matter how hard he tries to stay detached, Adam finds himself eyeball deep in Heidi's problems, as well as the needs of her teenage son and a homeless dog. With conflicting theories abound and tensions running high, it's up to the ladies of the society to don disguises and go undercover. If they're not careful, the town may fall to a wrecking ball, Heidi may fall for Adam, and the secret society will be exposed.

Meet the cast of colorful characters in this charming and zany introduction to a whole new series of romantic, cozy mysteries!

The City We Became

2020

by N.K. Jemisin

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power. In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her. In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels. And they're not the only ones.

This Is How You Lose the Time War

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions.

Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.

Diya aur baati hum

What had happened to the ever so confident Dhani? Why wasn't she sure of herself anymore? She wondered if she would be the same Dhani ever again. Dhani, a girl who thought her life was finally perfect, was now seeing it fall apart. But she was too proud to accept in front of the world about how defeated she felt. Dhruv had braved every hurdle that life had thrown at him; and when he finally felt complete with Dhani by his side, destiny showed him its ugliest face ever.

Embark on a journey of love in its purest form. Love between a father and daughter, a brother and sister, a man and woman; and the love above any other… love for one's motherland, and the urge to protect it at any cost. Diya Aur Baati Hum tells us the story of a love so potent, it changes lives and destinies. A beautiful story of love, friendship, faith, acceptance, hope and courage.

Boulder

La protagonista de Boulder se gana la vida como cocinera en un viejo barco mercante. Es la situación perfecta: soledad, una cabina, el océano, algún puerto en el que conocer mujeres y horas para encarar el vacío, para sentir la fuerza de la provisionalidad. Hasta que un día una de ellas consigue que abandone el mar, acceda a vivir entre cuatro paredes y se implique en la gestación asistida y en la educación de un hijo. ¿Qué ha hecho la maternidad con la mujer que en su día conoció en un bar de la Patagonia? ¿Qué hará ella, animal enjaulado en una casa unifamiliar de Reikiavik?


Todo ha cambiado excepto su apodo, Boulder: esas enormes piedras aisladas en medio del paisaje, expuestas a todo sin que nadie sepa de dónde vienen ni porque están ahí.

Después de la exitosa Permafrost, esta es la segunda novela del tríptico donde Baltasar explora la voz, la vida y el cuerpo de tres mujeres.

The Island of Sea Women

2020

by Lisa See

Set on the Korean island of Jeju, The Island of Sea Women follows Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective. Over many decades—through the Japanese colonialism of the 1930s and 1940s, World War II, the Korean War, and the era of cellphones and wet suits for the women divers—Mi-ja and Young-sook develop the closest of bonds. Nevertheless, their differences are impossible to ignore: Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, and Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother's position leading the divers.

After hundreds of dives and years of friendship, external forces will push their relationship to the breaking point. This novel highlights a unique and unforgettable culture, where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children. Lisa See crafts a tale of women's friendships shaped by a dramatic history that influences their lives.

De brief voor de koning

2020

by Tonke Dragt

De jonge Tiuri verbreekt de regels die bepalen dat hij met niemand mag praten in de nacht voordat hij tot ridder zal worden geslagen. Hij opent de deur en het verzoek dat hem wordt gedaan blijkt een heel gevaarlijke opdracht.

Tiuri wordt achtervolgd door boosaardige Rode Ruiters, die hem met de dood bedreigen. Maar hij is vast van plan de uiterst belangrijke brief bij koning Unauwen te bezorgen. De Zwarte Ridder met het Witte Schild heeft niet voor niets zijn leven gegeven...

Don't Overthink It

2020

by Anne Bogel

We've all been there: stuck in a cycle of what-ifs, plagued by indecision, paralyzed by the fear of getting it wrong. Nobody wants to live a life of constant overthinking, but it doesn't feel like something we can choose to stop doing. It feels like something we're wired to do, something we just can't escape. But is it? Anne Bogel's answer is no. Not only can you overcome negative thought patterns that are repetitive, unhealthy, and unhelpful, you can replace them with positive thought patterns that will bring more peace, joy, and love into your life.

In Don't Overthink It, you'll find actionable strategies that can make an immediate and lasting difference in how you deal with questions both small--Should I buy these flowers?--and large--What am I doing with my life? More than a book about making good decisions, Don't Overthink It offers you a framework for making choices you'll be comfortable with, using an appropriate amount of energy, freeing you to focus on all the other stuff that matters in life.

Hood Feminism

2020

by Mikki Kendall

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot is a potent and electrifying critique of today’s feminist movement, announcing a fresh new voice in black feminism. In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women.

Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Kendall. Issues such as food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few.

Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. Kendall asks, How can we stand in solidarity as a movement when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?

Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on reproductive rights, politics, pop culture, and the stigma of mental health, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed.

House of Earth and Blood

2020

by Sarah J. Maas

House of Earth and Blood begins the tale of half-Fae and half-human Bryce Quinlan as she seeks vengeance in a world filled with magic, danger, and intense romance. Bryce's ideal life is shattered when a demon takes the lives of her closest friends, leaving her to grieve and recover on her own. Even with the suspect imprisoned, the crimes persist, plunging Bryce into the heart of a harrowing investigation.

Hunt Athalar, a formidable Fallen angel bound to servitude, is skilled in assassination. Yet, faced with the city's demonic chaos, he is given an alluring proposition: aid Bryce in her quest for the killer, and earn his long-sought freedom. As they delve into the city's dark underbelly, Bryce and Hunt uncover a menacing power that endangers all they cherish, discovering an intense passion between them that could liberate them both—if they allow it.

With memorable characters, fiery romance, and thrilling suspense, Sarah J. Maas's new fantasy series explores the depths of loss, the cost of liberty, and the strength of love.

Okay for Now

2020

by Gary D. Schmidt

Okay For Now, the latest novel by Midwesterner Gary D. Schmidt, explores the seemingly improbable alliance between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.

While Doug struggles to be more than the thug that his teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil Spicer. Together, they explore Audubon's art, finding strength and inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon’s birds. This coming-of-age masterwork is full of equal parts comedy and tragedy, expertly weaving multiple themes of loss and recovery in a story teeming with distinctive, unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival.

Writers & Lovers

2020

by Lily King

Funny and heartbreaking, Writers & Lovers by Lily King is the bitingly clever story of Casey, a young writer who has lost her direction in life, until two men step into her world and offer her two very different futures.

Recently out of a devastating love affair and mourning the loss of her beloved mum, Casey is lost. The novel she has been writing for six years isn’t going anywhere, her debt is soaring, and at thirty-one, with all her friends getting married and having kids, she feels too old for things to be this way. Then she meets Silas. He is kind, handsome, interested. But only a few weeks later, Oscar – older, fascinating, troubled – walks into her life, his two boys in tow. Suddenly Casey finds herself at the point of a love triangle, torn between two very different relationships that promise two very different futures. And she’s still got to write that book . . .

We Keep the Dead Close

2020

by Becky Cooper

We Keep the Dead Close is a true crime narrative that delves into the unsolved murder of Jane Britton, a Harvard graduate student, in 1969. This book is not only a meticulous work of investigative journalism but also a reflection on the pervasive violence and misogyny within prestigious institutions. Becky Cooper, once a curious undergrad, unravels a complex tale of gender inequality, institutional power dynamics, and the haunting legacy of a story that refused to be forgotten.

Harvard's history is interwoven with the narrative, as the institution's legacy looms over the events that transpired. The initial rumors of a scandalous affair with a professor and a subsequent murder are debunked, but the truth that emerges is no less compelling. Cooper's decade-long investigation sheds light on the cowboy culture among male elites and the silencing effect of institutions, leading to a broader conversation about our collective narrative of female victims.

We Keep the Dead Close is a memoir that acts as a mirror to society's misogyny and murder, a ghost story that connects past and present, and a love story dedicated to a girl whose life was tragically cut short and lost to history.

Nature Obscura: A City's Hidden Natural World

2020

by Kelly Brenner

With wonder and a sense of humor, Nature Obscura author Kelly Brenner aims to help us rediscover our connection to the natural world that is just outside our front door—we just need to know where to look.


Through explorations of a rich and varied urban landscape, Brenner reveals the complex micro-habitats and surprising nature found in the middle of a city. In her hometown of Seattle, which has plowed down hills, cut through the land to connect fresh and saltwater, and paved over much of the rest, she exposes a diverse range of strange and unknown creatures.


From shore to wetland, forest to neighborhood park, and graveyard to backyard, Brenner uncovers how our land alterations have impacted nature, for good and bad, through the wildlife and plants that live alongside us, often unseen.


These stories meld together, in the same way our ecosystems, species, and human history are interconnected across the urban environment.

Apeirogon

2020

by Colum McCann

From celebrated Irish writer Colum McCann comes a dazzling new novel set in Occupied Palestine and Israel. In an astonishing act of the imagination, McCann illuminates the political situation that has riven the region for more than seventy years in a completely new light. Using a fascinating blend of real events and people, he fictionalizes their stories.

McCann tells the story of Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, and how they came together after the terrible loss of both of their daughters, one to suicide bombers and the other to Israeli police. Parents from both sides who have lost loved ones gather together in a Parents Circle to tell their stories, to heal, and to never forget their unimaginable losses.

Deploying a myriad of seemingly unrelated historical, cultural and biographical snapshots, this highly original and inventive novel reframes the never-ending Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The result is a breath-taking narrative based on events that actually happened.

Apeirogon is a completely mesmerizing novel. Driven by a compelling voice, Colum McCann has written a powerful and haunting narrative that is simply masterful in its universal implications.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it.

In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress—with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.

Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders.

Patrick Radden Keefe writes an intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

2020

by Sogyal Rinpoche

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written by Sogyal Rinpoche, is the ultimate introduction to Tibetan Buddhist wisdom. This acclaimed spiritual masterpiece is widely regarded as one of the most complete and authoritative presentations of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings ever written.

A manual for life and death and a magnificent source of sacred inspiration from the heart of the Tibetan tradition, it provides a lucid and inspiring introduction to the practice of meditation, the nature of mind, karma and rebirth, compassionate love, and care for the dying. It also delves into the trials and rewards of the spiritual path.

This book aims to enlighten, inspire, and comfort its readers, encouraging them to begin their journey to enlightenment and become 'servants of peace.'

The Twelve Chairs

Ostap Bender is an unemployed con artist living by his wits in post-revolutionary Soviet Russia. He joins forces with Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman who has returned to his hometown to find a cache of missing jewels hidden in some chairs appropriated by the Soviet authorities.

The search for the bejeweled chairs takes these unlikely heroes from the provinces to Moscow and into the wilds of Soviet Georgia and the Trans-Caucasus mountains. On their quest, they encounter a wide variety of characters: from opportunistic Soviet bureaucrats to aging survivors of the pre-revolutionary propertied classes, each one more selfish, venal, and ineffective than the one before.

Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits is a remarkable collection of almost 1,400 aphorisms penned by the renowned philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. This collection was first published in three installments, with the first volume appearing in 1878, just before Nietzsche left academic life due to health issues. It was later republished in a two-volume edition in 1886.

This work marks a significant shift in Nietzsche's philosophical approach, showcasing his new "positivism" and skepticism. Here, Nietzsche challenges his earlier metaphysical and psychological assumptions with characteristic perceptiveness and honesty, not to mention suspicion and irony.

In this wide-ranging work, Nietzsche first employed his celebrated aphoristic style, perfectly suited to his iconoclastic, penetrating, and multi-faceted thought. Many themes of his later works make their initial appearance here, expressed with unforgettable liveliness and subtlety. This book well deserves its subtitle, "A Book for Free Spirits," and its original dedication to Voltaire, whose project of radical enlightenment found a new champion in Nietzsche.

Foul is Fair

2020

by Hannah Capin

Foul is Fair is a bloody, thrilling revenge fantasy for the girls who have had enough.

Elle and her friends Mads, Jenny, and Summer rule their glittering LA circle. Untouchable, they have the kind of power other girls only dream of. Every party is theirs and the world is at their feet. Until the night of Elle’s sweet sixteen, when they crash a St. Andrew’s Prep party. The night the golden boys choose Elle as their next target. 

They picked the wrong girl. 

Sworn to vengeance, Elle transfers to St. Andrew’s. She plots to destroy each boy, one by one. She’ll take their power, their lives, and their control of the prep school’s hierarchy. And she and her coven have the perfect way in: a boy named Mack, whose ambition could turn deadly. 

Here for It

2020

by R. Eric Thomas

Here for It is a delightful and insightful memoir by R. Eric Thomas, filled with humor and heart. This book takes readers on a journey through the author's life, offering a unique perspective on the ups and downs of adulthood.

With a blend of wit and sincerity, Thomas shares personal stories that are both relatable and thought-provoking. Whether discussing the challenges of growing up, navigating the complexities of relationships, or finding one's place in the world, this memoir is sure to resonate with readers.

Here for It is an exploration of identity, belonging, and the search for joy in everyday life. It's a celebration of the human experience, told through the lens of a talented storyteller.

Turtle Under Ice

A teen navigates questions of grief, identity, and guilt in the wake of her sister’s mysterious disappearance in this breathtaking novel-in-verse from the author of 500 Words or Less—perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo.


Rowena feels like her family is a frayed string of lights that someone needs to fix with electrical tape. After her mother died a few years ago, she and her sister, Ariana, drifted into their own corners of the world, each figuring out in their own separate ways how to exist in a world in which their mother is no longer alive.


But then Ariana disappears under the cover of night in the middle of a snowstorm, leaving no trace or tracks. When Row wakes up to a world of snow and her sister’s empty bedroom, she is left to piece together the mystery behind where Ariana went and why, realizing along the way that she might be part of the reason Ariana is gone.


Haunting and evocative—and told in dual perspectives—Turtle Under Ice examines two sisters frozen by grief as they search for a way to unthaw.

Doctor Who: At Childhood's End

Once, a girl called Ace travelled the universe with the Doctor – until, in the wake of a terrible tragedy they parted company. Now, decades on, she is known as Dorothy McShane, the reclusive millionaire philanthropist who heads global organisation A Charitable Earth.

But Dorothy is haunted by terrible nightmares, vivid dreams that begin just as scores of young runaways are vanishing from the dark alleyways of London. Could the disappearances be linked to sightings of sinister creatures lurking in the city shadows? Why has an alien satellite entered a secret orbit around the Moon? Investigating the satellite with Ryan, Graham and Yaz, the Doctor is thrown together with Ace once more. Together they must unravel a malevolent plot that will cost thousands of lives.

But can the Doctor atone for her past incarnation’s behaviour – and how much must Ace sacrifice to win victory not only for herself, but for the Earth?

Black Hat Go

Like the best-selling Black Hat Python, Black Hat Go explores the darker side of the popular Go programming language. This collection of short scripts will help you test your systems, build and automate tools to fit your needs, and improve your offensive security skillset.

Black Hat Go explores the darker side of Go, the popular programming language revered by hackers for its simplicity, efficiency, and reliability. It provides an arsenal of practical tactics from the perspective of security practitioners and hackers to help you test your systems, build and automate tools to fit your needs, and improve your offensive security skillset, all using the power of Go.

You'll begin your journey with a basic overview of Go's syntax and philosophy and then start to explore examples that you can leverage for tool development, including common network protocols like HTTP, DNS, and SMB. You'll then dig into various tactics and problems that penetration testers encounter, addressing things like data pilfering, packet sniffing, and exploit development. You'll create dynamic, pluggable tools before diving into cryptography, attacking Microsoft Windows, and implementing steganography.

Are you ready to add to your arsenal of security tools? Then let's Go!

Niebla

"Niebla" es una de las obras más representativas de Miguel de Unamuno y un ejemplo clásico de la novela moderna. En esta obra, la ficción deja de ser un mero vehículo narrativo para convertirse en un universo textual lleno de sugerencias fecundas.

El título, Niebla, refleja el propósito de desdibujar lo visible y materializar lo impalpable. En este ambiente, encontramos a Augusto Pérez, un hombre esencialmente frustrado, cuya muerte nos obliga a reflexionar profundamente.

Esta edición, facilitada por Germán Gullón, ofrece una pauta de lectura que conduce a una comprensión más profunda de la novela y su importancia en la narrativa española.

Edge

2020

by Laura Huang

Laura Huang, a preeminent Harvard Business School professor, shows that success is about gaining an edge: that elusive quality that gives you an upper hand and attracts attention and support. Some people seem to naturally have it. Now, Huang teaches the rest of us how to create our own from the challenges and biases we think hold us back, and turning them to work in our favor.

How do you find a competitive edge when the obstacles feel insurmountable? How do you get people to take you seriously when they're predisposed not to, and perhaps have already written you off?

Laura Huang has come up against that problem many times--and so has anyone who's ever felt out of place or underestimated. Many of us sit back quietly, hoping that our hard work and effort will speak for itself. Or we try to force ourselves into the mold of who we think is "successful," stifling the creativity and charm that makes us unique and memorable. In Edge, Huang offers a different approach. She argues that success is rarely just about the quality of our ideas, credentials, and skills, or our effort. Instead, achieving success hinges on how well we shape others' perceptions--of our strengths, certainly, but also our flaws. It's about creating our own edge by confronting the factors that seem like shortcomings and turning them into assets that make others take notice.

Huang draws from her groundbreaking research on entrepreneurial intuition, persuasion, and implicit decision-making, to impart her profound findings and share stories of previously-overlooked Olympians, assistants-turned-executives, and flailing companies that made momentous turnarounds. Through her deeply-researched framework, Huang shows how we can turn weaknesses into strengths and create an edge in any situation. She explains how an entrepreneur scored a massive investment despite initially being disparaged for his foreign accent, and how a first-time political candidate overcame voters' doubts about his physical disabilities.

Edge shows that success is about knowing who you are and using that knowledge unapologetically and strategically. This book will teach you how to find your unique edge and keep it sharp.

The Future Is Faster Than You Think

From the New York Times bestselling authors of Abundance and Bold comes a practical playbook for technological convergence in our modern era.

In their book Abundance, bestselling authors and futurists Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler tackled grand global challenges, such as poverty, hunger, and energy. Then, in Bold, they chronicled the use of exponential technologies that allowed the emergence of powerful new entrepreneurs. Now the bestselling authors are back with The Future Is Faster Than You Think, a blueprint for how our world will change in response to the next ten years of rapid technological disruption.

Technology is accelerating far more quickly than anyone could have imagined. During the next decade, we will experience more upheaval and create more wealth than we have in the past hundred years. In this gripping and insightful roadmap to our near future, Diamandis and Kotler investigate how wave after wave of exponentially accelerating technologies will impact both our daily lives and society as a whole. What happens as AI, robotics, virtual reality, digital biology, and sensors crash into 3D printing, blockchain, and global gigabit networks? How will these convergences transform today's legacy industries? What will happen to the way we raise our kids, govern our nations, and care for our planet?

Diamandis, a space-entrepreneur-turned-innovation-pioneer, and Kotler, bestselling author and peak performance expert, probe the science of technological convergence and how it will reinvent every part of our lives—transportation, retail, advertising, education, health, entertainment, food, and finance—taking humanity into uncharted territories and reimagining the world as we know it.

As indispensable as it is gripping, The Future Is Faster Than You Think provides a prescient look at our impending future.

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

2020

by Rashid Khalidi

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is a landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history. In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.

Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.

Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.

The Skin We're In

2020

by Desmond Cole

The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power is a bracing, provocative, and perspective-shifting book from one of Canada's most celebrated and uncompromising writers, Desmond Cole. This work is set to spark a national conversation, influence policy, and inspire activists.

In his 2015 cover story for Toronto Life magazine, Desmond Cole exposed the racist actions of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times he had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. The story quickly came to national prominence, shaking the country to its core and catapulting its author into the public sphere. Cole used his newfound profile to draw insistent, unyielding attention to the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis.

Both Cole’s activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book, The Skin We’re In. Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year—2017—in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from the States, Indigenous land and water protectors resisting the celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, police across the country rallying around an officer accused of murder, and more.

The year also witnessed the profound personal and professional ramifications of Desmond Cole’s unwavering determination to combat injustice. In April, Cole disrupted a Toronto police board meeting by calling for the destruction of all data collected through carding. Following the protest, Cole, a columnist with the Toronto Star, was summoned to a meeting with the paper’s opinions editor and informed that his activism violated company policy. Rather than limit his efforts defending Black lives, Cole chose to sever his relationship with the publication. Then in July, at another police board meeting, Cole challenged the board to respond to accusations of a police cover-up in the brutal beating of Dafonte Miller by an off-duty police officer and his brother. When Cole refused to leave the meeting until the question was publicly addressed, he was arrested. The image of Cole walking out of the meeting, handcuffed and flanked by officers, fortified the distrust between the city’s Black community and its police force.

Month-by-month, Cole creates a comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality. Urgent, controversial, and unsparingly honest, The Skin We’re In is destined to become a vital text for anti-racist and social justice movements in Canada, as well as a potent antidote to the all-too-present complacency of many white Canadians.

Theory of People: Understanding Behaviors, Business, Economics, Feelings, and the Mind

2020

by Jakub Lasak

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity allows us to understand the universe on a macro scale and the relationships between space, time, and gravity. The Theory of People allows us to understand people’s psychology and the relationships between aspects such as behaviors, feelings, business, and learning.

• Control your behaviors, such as anger, laziness, and 20 other ones.
• Manage your feelings to become happier and overcome stress, shyness, and 15 other ones.
• Create a successful business by understanding what the perfect solution looks like and what makes people buy.
• Become a visionary, just like Steve Jobs, by learning his motives.
• Learn faster and improve your memory by discovering how our minds decide what information to save.
• Increase your intelligence, creativity, and wisdom by learning what they are.
• Understand what makes one country or person wealthier than other thanks to the golden law of economy.

A Unique Book
• Quick Read: Theory of People explains people on 2 pages. 70 pages are real-life applications. You would need to read tens of other books to get the same solutions.
• Easy to Apply in Life: You do not need a scientific background or have to work hard to understand complicated subjects. It presents knowledge in a simple way.
• Money-Back Guarantee: If you are unsatisfied, you can apply for a refund via Amazon within seven days of purchase. No questions asked.

If you want to understand yourself and other people and apply that knowledge to real-life, buy the Theory of People now.

American Dirt

2020

by Jeanine Cummins

Vivid, visceral, utterly compelling, American Dirt is the first novel to explore the experience of attempting to illegally cross the US-Mexico border.

Yesterday, Lydia had a bookshop. Yesterday, Lydia was married to a journalist. Yesterday, she was with everyone she loved most in the world. Today, her eight-year-old son Luca is all she has left. For him, she will carry a machete strapped to her leg. For him, she will leap onto the roof of a high speed train. For him, she will find the strength to keep running.

The Angel and the Assassin: The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine

A thrilling story of scientific detective work and medical potential that illuminates the newly understood role of microglia—an elusive type of brain cell that is vitally relevant to our everyday lives.


Until recently, microglia were thought to be merely the brain's housekeepers, helpfully removing damaged cells. But a recent groundbreaking discovery revealed them to be capable of terrifying Jekyll and Hyde behavior. When triggered—and anything that stirs up the immune system in the body can activate microglia—they can morph into destroyers, impacting a wide range of issues from memory problems and anxiety to depression and Alzheimer's.


Under the right circumstances, however, microglia can be coaxed back into being angelic healers, able to repair the brain in ways that help alleviate symptoms and hold the promise to one day prevent disease.


A fascinating behind-the-scenes account of this cutting-edge science, The Angel and the Assassin also explores the medical implications of these game-changing discoveries.


Award-winning journalist Donna Jackson Nakazawa began her investigation with a personal interest—when diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder years ago, she was convinced there was something physical going on in her brain as well as her body, though no doctor she consulted could explain how the two could be interacting in this way.


With the compassion born of her own experience, she follows practitioners and patients on the front lines of treatments that help to “reboot” microglia—from neurofeedback and intermittent fasting to transcranial magnetic stimulation and gamma light flicker therapy. She witnesses patients finding significant relief from pressing symptoms—and at least one stunning recovery—offering new hope to the tens of millions who suffer from mental, cognitive, and physical health issues.


Proving once and for all the biological basis for the mind-body connection, the discovery of the true role of microglia stands to rewrite psychiatric and medical texts as we know them.

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