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I, Maggie Banks, solemnly swear to uphold the rules of Cobblestone Books. If only, I, Maggie Banks, believed in following the rules. When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy. Bell River's literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat. And in Maggie's world, book rules are made to be broken. To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything. Maggie will have to decide what's more important: the books that formed a small town's history, or the stories poised to change it all.

A wildly original, incendiary story about race, redemption, the dangerous imbalances that continue to destabilize society, and speaking out for what’s right. One could argue the story begins the night Allegra Douglass is awarded Distinguished Chair in Philosophy at her top-tier university in New York—the same night her grandmother dies—or before that: the day Allie left Birmingham and never looked back. Or even before that: the day her mother disappeared. But for our purposes Allie’s story begins at the end, when she is finally ready to tell her version of what happened with a white supremacist named Matthew Strong. From the beginning, Allie had the clues: in a spate of possibly connected disappearances of other young Black women; in a series of recently restored plantation homes; in letters outlining an uprising; in maps of slave trade routes and old estates; in hidden caves and buried tunnels; and finally, in a confessional that should never have existed. They just have to make a case strong enough for the FBI and police to listen. This is when Allie herself disappears. Allie is a survivor. She survived the newly post-Jim Crow south, she survived cancer, and she will survive being stalked and kidnapped by Matthew Strong, who seeks to ignite a revolution. The surprise in this doesn’t lie in the question of will she be taken; it lies in how she and her community outsmart a tactical madman.

From the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees, a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero's unforgettable journey to maturity. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.

Miriam Blum must face her past when she inherits her great-aunt's Christmas tree farm in this witty, glittering, heart-filled romcom. Thanks to her thriving art career, Miriam Blum finally has her decoupaged glitter ducks in a row—until devastating news forces her to a very unwanted family reunion. Her beloved great-aunt Cass has passed and left Miriam part-owner of Carrigan’s, her (ironically) Jewish-run Christmas tree farm. But Miriam’s plans to sit shiva, avoid her parents, then put Carrigan’s in her rearview mirror are spoiled when she learns the business is at risk of going under. To have any chance at turning things around, she’ll need to work with the farm’s grumpy manager—as long as the attraction sparking between them doesn’t set all their trees on fire first. Noelle Northwood wants Miriam Blum gone—even if her ingenious ideas and sensitive soul keep showing Noelle there’s more to Cass’s niece than meets the eye. But saving Carrigan’s requires trust, love, and risking it all—for the chance to make their wildest dreams come true.

The luminous story of a fiercely lonely young woman's quest to uncover the truth behind her mother’s disappearance ... When 6-year-old empath Leah Fern—once “The Youngest and Very Best Fortune Teller in the World”—is abandoned by her beautiful magician mother, she is consumed with longing for her mother's return. Until something bizarre happens: On her 21st birthday Leah receives an inheritance from someone she doesn’t even know, and finds herself launched on a journey of magical discovery. It's a voyage that will spiral across the United States, Canada, into the Arctic Circle and beyond—and help her make her own life whole by piecing together the mystery surrounding her mother’s disappearance. The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern is an enchanting novel about the transcendent power of the imagination, the magic at the threshold of past and present, and the will it takes to love.

Ivory Coast, 1978. It's a golden time, and the nation, too—an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa—seems fueled by something wondrous. Aya is loosely based upon Marguerite Abouet's youth in Yop City. It is the story of the studious and clear-sighted 19-year old Aya, her easy-going friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. It's wryly funny, breezy account of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City. Clément Oubrerie's warm colors and energetic, playful line connect expressively with Marguerite Abouet's vibrant writing. This reworked edition offers readers the chance to immerse themselves in the lively world of Aya and her friends, bringing together the first three volumes of the series in Book One.

Aya: Love in Yop City comprises the final three chapters of the Aya story, episodes never before seen in English. Aya is a lighthearted account of life in the Ivory Coast during the 1970s, a particularly thriving and wealthy time in the country's history. While the stories found in Aya: Love in Yop City maintain their familiar tone, quick pace, and joyfulness, we see Aya and her friends beginning to make serious decisions about their future. When a professor tries to take advantage of Aya, her plans to become a doctor are seriously shaken, and she vows to take revenge on the lecherous man. With a little help from the tight-knit community of Yopougon, Aya comes through these trials stronger than ever. This second volume of the complete Aya includes unique appendices, recipes, guides to understanding Ivorian slang, street sketches, and concluding remarks from Marguerite Abouet explaining history and social milieu. Inspired by Abouet's childhood, the series has received praise for offering relief from the disaster-struck focus of most stories set in Africa.

Twenty years in the making, this sweeping masterpiece charts Berlin through the rise of Nazism. During the past two decades, Jason Lutes has quietly created one of the masterworks of the graphic novel golden age. Berlin is one of the high-water marks of the medium: rich in its well-researched historical detail, compassionate in its character studies, and as timely as ever in its depiction of a society slowly awakening to the stranglehold of fascism. Berlin is an intricate look at the fall of the Weimar Republic through the eyes of its citizens—Marthe Müller, a young woman escaping the memory of a brother killed in World War I, Kurt Severing, an idealistic journalist losing faith in the printed word as fascism and extremism take hold; the Brauns, a family torn apart by poverty and politics. Lutes weaves these characters' lives into the larger fabric of a city slowly ripping apart. The city itself is the central protagonist in this historical fiction. Lavish salons, crumbling sidewalks, dusty attics, and train stations: all these places come alive in Lutes' masterful hand. Weimar Berlin was the world's metropolis, where intellectualism, creativity, and sensuous liberal values thrived, and Lutes maps its tragic, inevitable decline. Devastatingly relevant and beautifully told, Berlin is one of the great epics of the comics medium.

Four people intent on killing themselves meet through the suicide website Black Paradox: Maruso, a nurse who despairs about the future; Taburo, a man who is tortured by his doppelganger; Pii-tan, an engineer with his own robot clone; and Baracchi, a woman who agonizes about the birthmark on her face. They wander together in search of the perfect death, fatefully opening a door that leads them to a rather bizarre destiny...

Delving into mythology, belief, and spirituality,Kevin Huizenga's short stories are based on the lives of familiar characters confronting the textures of mortality in unique and sometimes peculiar ways. Huizenga fuses the most banal aspects of modern culture with its most looming questions in a consistently genial style. Lighthearted, but with a healthy dose of nineteenth-century spine tingling, the narratives presented in Curses are insightful portrayals of reality. Huizenga's central character in his comics is Glenn Ganges, a seemingly middle-class man living in the suburbs whose blank-eyed wonderment at everyday experiences brings together such diverse aspects of our world as golf, theology, late-night diners, parenthood, politics, Sudanese refugees, and hallucinatory vision, into a complete experience as multifaceted as our own lives. Huizenga is regarded by many as one of the most promising young cartoonists of his generation, whose artistic talent, singular writing, and studied substance prove the versatility of his skill. Curses collects his work from Kramer's Ergot and The Drawn & Quarterly Showcase, his award-winning and nominated comic-book series Or Else, and Time magazine; it is the most extensive selection of his comics to date in a single volume.

Wes and Sadie have all the usual teenage problems. Trouble at home. Trouble at school. The ability to manipulate other people's emotions by firing finger guns. Okay, maybe that one's unusual. But what could go wrong? Turns out, everything. EVERYONE KNOWS TEENAGERS CAN'T CONTROL THEIR EMOTIONS. SO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY CAN MANIPULATE THE EMOTIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE? Two troubled teenagers discover they can manipulate emotions by firing finger guns. There will be laughs. There will be tears. There will be uncomfortable teen feelings and angst. Oh yeah... and chaos. So much chaos. Collects the complete five issue series.

From recycling and making your own deodorant to buying second-hand furniture, Maïté Robert brings us a collection of humorous and thought-provoking vignettes about the many steps people can take in their day-to-day activities to live a more planet-friendly, environmentally-aware life... and about how easy it is to postpone such admirable resolutions. Told in the first-person and drawn from the author's personal victories and setbacks in her own efforts to go green.

Goliath is a retelling of the classic myth, this time from Goliath's side of the Valley of Elah. Goliath of Gath isn't much of a fighter. He would pick admin work over patrolling in a heartbeat, to say nothing of his distaste for engaging in combat. Nonetheless, at the behest of the king, he finds himself issuing a twice-daily challenge to the Israelites: "Choose a man. Let him come to me that we may fight." Quiet moments in Goliath's life as an isolated soldier are accentuated by Gauld's trademark drawing style: minimalist scenery, geometric humans, and densely crosshatched detail. Simultaneously tragic and bleakly funny, Goliath displays a sensitive wit and a bold line—a traditional narrative reworked, remade, and revolutionized into a classic tale of Gauld's very own.

Eight-year-old Marlys Mullen is Lynda Barry's most famous character from her long-running and landmark comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek, and for good reason! Given her very own collection of strips, Marlys shines in all her freckled and pig-tailed groovy glory. The trailer park where she and her family live is the grand stage for her dramas big and small. Joining Marlys are her teenaged sister Maybonne, her younger brother Freddie, their mother, and an offbeat array of family members, neighbors, and classmates. Marlys's enthusiasm for life knows no bounds. Her childhood is one where the neighborhood kids stay out all night playing kickball; the desire to be popular is unending; bullies are unrepentant; and parents make few appearances. The Greatest Of Marlys spotlights Barry's masterful skill of chronicling childhood through adolescence in all of its wonder, awkwardness, humor, and pain.

In 130 ink-and-watercolor drawings, the story of one year on a family farm in Kentucky unfolds in captured moments of daily life: Donahue's husband chopping wood, a cow sniffing her head, her daughter tending to goats after a hard day at school. Each visual is paired with a written reflection on the day's doings, interwoven with the longer-arc history of her family, the farm, and their community. In telling the story of a farm family's struggle to survive and thrive, Landings grapples with the legacy of our cultural divide between art and land, and celebrates the beauty discovered along the way.

NonNonBa is the definitive work by acclaimed gekiga-ka Shigeru Mizuki, a poetic memoir detailing his interest in yokai (spirit monsters). Mizuki's childhood experiences with yokai influenced the course of his life and oeuvre; he is now known as the forefather of yokai manga. His spring 2011 book, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, was featured on PRI's The World, where Marco Werman scored a coveted interview with one of the most famous visual artists working in Japan today. Within the pages of NonNonBa, Mizuki explores the legacy left him by his childhood explorations of the spirit world, explorations encouraged by his grandmother, a grumpy old woman named NonNonBa. NonNonBa is a touching work about childhood and growing up, as well as a fascinating portrayal of Japan in a moment of transition. NonNonBa was the first manga to win the Angouleme Prize for Best Album. Much like its namesake, NonNonBa is at once funny and nostalgic, firmly grounded in a sociohistorical context and floating in the world of the supernatural.

Nori (short for Noriko) is a spirited three-year-old girl who lives with her parents and grandmother in the suburbs of Osaka during the 1980s. While both parents work full-time, her grandmother is Nori's caregiver and companion—forever following after Nori as the three year old dashes off on fantastical adventures. One day Nori runs off to be met by an army of bats—the symbol of happiness. Soon after, she is at school chasing a missing rabbit while performing as a moon in the school play, touching on the myth of the Moon Rabbit. A ditch by the side of the road opens a world of kids, crawfish, and beetles, not to mention the golden frog and albino salamander. That night, her grandma takes to the Bon Odori festival to dance with her ancestors. When Nori wins a trip to Hawaii, she finds herself swimming with a sea turtle, though she doesn't know how to swim. In mesmerizing short stories of black and white artwork with alternating spot color, Hara draws on East Asian folklore and Japanese culture to create an enchanting milieu that Nori tries to make sense of, wrestling between the reality of what she sees and the legends her grandma shares with her.

The Property is a work that will inspire, fascinate, and delight readers and critics alike. Savvy and insightful, elegant and subtle, Rutu Modan's second full-length graphic novel is a triumph of storytelling and fine lines. After the death of her son, Regina Segal takes her granddaughter Mica to Warsaw, hoping to reclaim a family property lost during the Second World War. As they get to know modern Warsaw, Regina is forced to recall difficult things about her past, and Mica begins to wonder if maybe their reasons for coming aren't a little different than what her grandmother led her to believe. Modan offers up a world populated by prickly seniors, smart-alecky public servants, and stubborn women—a world whose realism is expressed alternately in the absurdity of people's behavior and in the complex consequences of their sacrifices. Modan's ever-present wit is articulated perfectly in her clear-line style, while a subtle, almost muted color palette complements the true-to-life nuances of her characterization. Exit Wounds made a huge splash for this signature combination of wit, style, and realism, and The Property will cement Modan's status as one of the foremost cartoonists working today.

It's the early 2000s. Lauren is fifteen, soft-spoken, and ashamed of her body. She's a devout member of an evangelical church, but when her Bible-thumping parents forbid Lauren to bring evolution textbooks home, she opts to study at her schoolmate Mariah's house. Mariah has dial-up internet, an absentee mom, and a Wiccan altar—the perfect setting for a study session and sleepover to remember. That evening, Mariah gives Lauren a makeover and the two melt into each other, in what becomes Lauren's first queer encounter. Afterward, a potent blend of Christian guilt and internalized homophobia causes Lauren to question the experience. Author Jessica Campbell (XTC69) uses frankness and dark humor to articulate Lauren's burgeoning crisis of faith and sexuality. She captures teenage antics and banter with astute comedic style, simultaneously skewering bullies, a culture of slut-shaming, and the devastating impact of religious zealotry. Rave is an instant classic, a coming-of-age story about the secret spaces young women create and the wider social structures that fail them.

How many hours of sleep did you get last night? Rate your overall mood from 1 to 5, 1 being poor. Rate your stress level from 1 to 5, 5 being severe. Are you experiencing depression or thoughts of suicide? Is there anything in your personal life that is affecting your duty? When Sabrina disappears, an airman in the U.S. Air Force is drawn into a web of suppositions, wild theories, and outright lies. He reports to work every night in a bare, sterile fortress that serves as no protection from a situation that threatens the sanity of Teddy, his childhood friend and boyfriend of the missing woman. Sabrina's grieving sister Sandra struggles to fill her days waiting in purgatory. After a videotape surfaces, we see devastation through a cinematic lens, as true tragedy is distorted when fringe thinkers and conspiracy theorists begin to interpret events to fit their own narratives. The follow-up to Nick Drnaso's LA Times Book Prize winning Beverly, Sabrina depicts a modern world devoid of personal interaction and responsibility, where relationships are stripped of intimacy through glowing computer screens. An indictment of our modern state, Drnaso contemplates the dangers of a fake news climate. Timely and articulate, Sabrina leaves you gutted, searching for meaning in the aftermath of disaster.

An action-packed comedy about a fake family that includes a spy, an assassin and a telepath! Master spy Twilight is unparalleled when it comes to going undercover on dangerous missions for the betterment of the world. But when he receives the ultimate assignment—to get married and have a kid—he may finally be in over his head! Twilight must infiltrate the prestigious Eden Academy to get close to his target Donovan Desmond, but has he ruined his daughter Anya's chances with his outburst during the admissions interview? Perhaps the truly impossible mission this time is making sure Anya both becomes an exemplary student and befriends Donovan's arrogant son Damian!

Twilight has overcome many challenges in putting together the Forger family, but now all his hard work might come undone when Yor's younger brother Yuri pops in for a surprise visit! Can Twilight outsmart Yuri, who actually works for the Ostanian secret service?!

A celebrated masterwork shimmering with vulnerability from one of alt-manga's most important female artists. "Now that we've woken from the dream, what are we going to do?" Chiharu thinks to herself, rubbing her husband's head affectionately. Set in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Tokyo, Murasaki Yamada's Talk to My Back explores the fraying of Japan's suburban middle-class dreams through a woman's relationship with her two daughters as they mature and assert their independence, and with her husband, who works late and sees his wife as little more than a domestic servant. While engaging frankly with the compromises of marriage and motherhood, Yamada remains generous with the characters who fetter her protagonist. When her husband has an affair, Chiharu feels that she, too, has broken the marital contract by straying from the template of the happy housewife. Yamada saves her harshest criticisms for society at large, particularly its false promises of eternal satisfaction within the nuclear family—as fears of having been "thrown away inside that empty vessel called the household" gnaw at Chiharu's soul. Yamada was the first cartoonist in Japan to use the expressive freedoms of alt-manga to address domesticity and womanhood in a realistic, critical, and sustained way. A watershed work of literary manga, Talk to My Back was serialized in the influential magazine Garo in the early 1980s, and is translated by Eisner-nominated Ryan Holmberg.

Clara's at a breaking point. She's got writer's block, her friends ask a lot without giving much, her psychologist is useless, and her demanding publishing job leaves little time for self care. She seeks solace in the community around her, yet, while her friends provide support and comfort, she is often left feeling empty, unable to express an underlying depression that leaves her immobilized and stifles any attempts at completing her poetry collection. In This is How I Disappear, Mirion Malle paints an empathetic portait of a young woman wrestling with psychological stress and the trauma following an experience of sexual assault. Malle displays frankness and a remarkable emotional intelligence as she explores depression, isolation, and self-harm in her expertly-drawn novel. Her heroine battles an onslaught of painful emotions and while Clara can provide consolation to those around her, she finds it difficult to bestow the same understanding unto herself. Only when she allows her community to guide her towards self-love does she find relief. Filled with 21st century idioms and social media communication, This Is How I Disappear opens a window into the lives of young people as they face a barrage of mental health hurdles. Scenes of sisterhood, fun nights out singing karaoke, and impromptu FaceTime therapy sessions show how this generation is coping, connecting, and healing together.

A series of autobio comics about mixed heritage and being from more than one place at once! Exploring the things we carry with us from past generations.

Salon How do objects summon memories? What do real images feel like? For decades, these types of questions have permeated the pages of Lynda Barry's compositions, with words attracting pictures and conjuring places through a pen that first and foremost keeps on moving. What It Is demonstrates a tried-and-true creative method that is playful, powerful, and accessible to anyone with an inquisitive wish to write or to remember. Composed of completely new material, each page of Barry's first Drawn & Quarterly book is a full-color collage that is not only a gentle guide to this process but an invigorating example of exactly what it is: "The ordinary is extraordinary."

A non-stop supernatural action adventure bathed in magic, blood, motorcycles, mayhem, vampires, and an unconventional. 1,000 year-old witch named Yonna. Magic Is In The Blood. A modern, Wild West road trip about a witch named Yonna cruising the Southwest as a band of bloodthirsty biker vampires, The Hounds of Love, hunt her scattered coven for the source of all magic: witch blood. From the critically acclaimed creators of The Modern Witch Tarot Deck and Long Lost comes Witchblood, a blend of action, lore, and Americana—perfect for fans of Buffy and American Gods.

Learn to adult even better than your parents. Even though it's tougher than ever, this adulting thing doesn't come with instructions! The moment you turn 18 you're expected to be a master of everything from personal finance to household chores, even if you've never done any of these things before. It's no wonder that a lot of people just like you are looking for a guide to adulthood that doesn't assume you magically learned how to do laundry and invest in a 401(k) on your eighteenth birthday. In Adulting For Dummies, Gencie Houy, independent living educator at Texas Tech, walks you through every critical part of adulting on your own. From basic life and household tasks to managing your finances and health, you'll learn how to achieve your goals in each area of your life that matters to you. You'll also discover how to balance the different parts of your life so you don't get overwhelmed in any one area. The book also offers: Advice on navigating the modern dating scene and communicating with family members, friends, and romantic partners; Guidance on budgeting your money and saving up for a house (yes, it's still possible!); Easy strategies for keeping your home in order and in good shape; No one said being an adult is easy. But, with help from your friends at Dummies, it doesn't have to be impossible.

Transform your next college essay into an A+ masterpiece. Taking a 100-level English composition course? Just doing your best to get ready for the rigors of college-level writing? Then it's probably time you picked up College Writing For Dummies, the single greatest roadmap to writing high-quality essays, reports, and more! This book is the ideal companion for any introductory college writing course and tracks the curriculum of a typical English Composition, College Writing, English 101, or Writing & Rhetoric course. You'll learn composition techniques, style, language, and grammar tips, and discover how to plan, write, and revise your material. You'll also get: Ten can't-miss resources for improving your college writing Strategies for revising and repairing inadequate essays on your own Techniques to help non-native English speakers master the challenging world of English essay writing Full of real-world examples, lessons in essay structure, grammar, and everything in between, this book is a must-read for every incoming college freshman looking for a head start in one of the most important skills you'll need over the next few years. Grab a copy of College Writing For Dummies today.

Let nothing stand between you and your optimal GMAT score. Show admissions committees you have what it takes to succeed in advanced business and management courses. GMAT Prep 2023 For Dummies gives you the strategies and skills you need to master the Graduate Management Admissions Test. This trusted study guide has the clear explanations and practice you need to maximize your scores on the verbal, mathematical, and analytical writing sections. You'll find proven tips and strategies to help you prepare for the GMAT and achieve success on test day. Plus, you'll get access to SEVEN full-length practice tests and plenty of flashcards online! Learn proven tips and tricks for maximizing your score on all sections of the GMAT Figure out where you need to study the most and create a targeted study plan Take seven full-length practice tests, so you'll be an old pro by the time test day rolls around Get practice questions, flashcards, and review activities that make studying hands-on and help you remember This edition, specific to the 2023 GMAT test, covers updates to the verbal section of the exam. We've got even better, clearer explanations, plus coverage of all the changes in the Official Guide to GMAT. If you're ready to kick butt on the GMAT, this is your book!

Write award-winning grant proposals that build organizational capacity! For nonprofit and for-profit firms alike, grants can be a singular generator of growth and impact. But many leaders are intimidated and confused by the sometimes-complex grant application process. The truth, however, is that anyone can learn to write and send a powerful grant letter with the right help. In Grant Writing For Dummies, Dr. Beverly Browning draws on over four decades of experience writing grant applications and training grant writers to deliver a comprehensive and easy-to-follow roadmap to drafting and submitting grant applications that get funded. You'll learn to craft the strongest application possible, find the best sources of funding from online databases, and present a realistic project budget plan. You'll also find: Example types of funding requests that demonstrate how to apply the concepts discussed in the book; New and updated material walking you through the entire grant-writing process, from beginning to end; Writing techniques that capture the imaginations of grant reviewers who decide which applicants walk away empty-handed and which ones receive cash. Whether you're looking to fund your nonprofit, grow your business, or develop your research venture, you'll find the guidance you need in Grant Writing For Dummies.

Prepare efficiently and effectively for the Graduate Record Examination. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is the most widely accepted graduate-school admissions test in the world. Over half a million people take the test every year. GRE Prep 2023 For Dummies with Online Practice is filled with useful, hands-on practice materials to help you reach your goals on this standardized test. The book teaches the verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and analytical writing skills required in graduate school and on the exam, so that you can get into the school of your choice – even with a scholarship – and start your journey towards the career that you want. In the book, you'll find: Updated strategies for acing text completion questions and learning words with common roots; Practice for finding synonyms in sentence equivalence questions and argument analysis deconstructions; Advanced techniques for reading comprehension questions; Proven strategies for acing the math sections Step-by-step instructions for writing killer issue and argument essays. Perfect for prospective graduate students seeking to take the GRE, GRE Prep 2023 For Dummies is a must-read handbook containing detailed content information, strategies for improving your score and testing well, along with plenty of opportunities to practice what you've learned.

A hands-on, power-packed guide to managing all things money. Time and money. Those are the two most important assets you have, and smart people manage both of them wisely. Managing Your Money All-in-One For Dummies is your one-stop resource to turn to when you're ready to manage your money. It offers everything you need to confidently handle your finances. When you're ready to create a budget, pay down debt, and scale back your expenses, you'll find the support you need here. If you're eyeing the future, you'll find advice on improving your credit score, saving for college and retirement, and planning an estate. As if all of that isn't enough, this comprehensive book covers other financial topics such as buying insurance, investing in your 401(k), and so much more. The authors of Managing Your Money All-in-One For Dummies explain how to handle your money in a way that encourages you to think and act positively, no matter what your financial situation looks like. And as you move toward financial freedom, you can come back to this book to get advice on topics that go beyond day-to-day money management, such as taking out a mortgage, investing online, and more. Get your financial life in order, whatever your stage of life; Make a budget, manage your credit, and pay down your debt; Demystify financial reports, online investing, and retirement plans; Save for college and learn how to balance your saving and spending habits in any economy; Navigate the new norm of online banking. Spend some time learning how to manage your money today. It'll be a wise investment of both of your most valuable assets.

Take charge of your personal health and well-being with this trusted, all-in-one guide to self-care. There's an old saying that goes, "You can't pour from an empty cup." It means that you can't take care of others unless you take care of yourself. And it's never been truer than it is today. In Self-Care All-in-One For Dummies, you'll master the fundamentals of making sure that your cup is always full, so you can give to others without draining your reserves of energy and health. From mindfulness to resilience, fitness, and clean eating, this comprehensive resource takes a holistic look at what it means to take care of yourself and offers you a how-to guide to healthy and fulfilling behaviors. In this book, you'll find: Concrete strategies for incorporating self-care practices into your busy, everyday life; Discussions of how to manage stress and maintain a mindful and calm demeanor and attitude in the face of modern challenges; An emphasis on being kind and gentle with yourself, ensuring that you don't hold yourself to an impossible or unrealistic standard. We're all looking to improve our lives, lift our spirits, and increase our well-being. Self-Care All-in-One For Dummies proves that, while perfection may be out of reach for all of us, you can make meaningful progress toward happiness and fulfilment by taking small, manageable steps towards a calmer, more grounded you.

Take your shot at becoming the next Tolkien, Asimov, or King with this simple roadmap to transforming your fiction into works of art Writing Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Horror For Dummies is your skeleton key to creating the kind of fiction that grips readers and compels them to keep turning pages (even if it's well past their bedtime!) You'll start with the basics of creative writing—including character, plot, and scene—and strategies for creating engaging stories in different forms, such as novels, short stories, scripts, and video games. After that, get beginner-friendly and straightforward advice on worldbuilding, before diving headfirst into genre-specific guidance for science fiction, horror, and fantasy writing. This book also offers: Strategies for editing and revising your next work to get it into tip-top shape for your audience; Ways to seek out second opinions from editors, experts, and even sensitivity readers; Techniques for marketing and publication, working with agents, and advice for writers going the self-publishing route. The perfect beginner's guide for aspiring writers with an interest in horror, fantasy, or science fiction, Writing Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Horror For Dummies is the first and last resource you need before you start building your next story about faraway lands, aliens, and fantastic adventures.

Momo Ayase strikes up an unusual friendship with her school's UFO fanatic, whom she nicknames "Okarun" because he has a name that is not to be said aloud. While Momo believes in spirits, she thinks aliens are nothing but nonsense. Her new friend, meanwhile, thinks the exact opposite. To settle matters, the two set out to prove each other wrong—Momo to a UFO hotspot and Okarun to a haunted tunnel! What unfolds next is a beautiful story of young love...and oddly horny aliens and spirits?

What destiny awaits them after the screaming? After abruptly departing from a train in a small town, a couple encounters a "weeping woman"—a professional mourner—sobbing inconsolably at a funeral. Mako changes afterward—she can't stop crying! In another tale, having decided to die together, a couple enters Aokigahara, the infamous suicide forest. What is the shocking otherworldly torrent that they discover there? One of horror's greatest talents, Junji Ito beckons readers to join him in an experience of ultimate terror with four transcendently terrifying tales...

Confront the spectre of failure, the wraith of social media, and other supernatural enemies of the author Tom Gauld returns with his wittiest and most trenchant collection of literary cartoons to date. Perfectly composed drawings are punctuated with the artist's signature brand of humour, hitting high and low. After all, Gauld is just as comfortable taking jabs at Jane Eyre and Game of Thrones. Some particularly favoured targets include the pretentious procrastinating novelist, the commercial mercenary of the dispassionate editor, the willful obscurantism of the vainglorious poet. Quake in the presence of the stack of bedside books as it grows taller! Gnash your teeth at the ever-moving deadline that the writer never meets! Quail before the critic's incisive dissection of the manuscript! And most importantly, seethe with envy at the paragon of creative productivity! Revenge of the Librarians contains even more murders, drubbings, and castigations than The Department of Mind-Blowing Theories, Baking For Kafka, or any other collections of mordant scribblings by the inimitably excellent Gauld.

A colorful and eclectic comics anthology exploring a wide range of autistic experiences—from diagnosis journeys to finding community—from autistic contributors. From artist and curator Bex Ollerton comes an anthology featuring comics from thirty autistic creators about their experiences of living in a world that doesn't always understand or accept them. Sensory: Life on the Spectrum contains illustrated explorations of everything from life pre-diagnosis to tips on how to explain autism to someone who isn't autistic, to suggestions for how to soothe yourself when you're feeling overstimulated. With unique, vibrant comic-style illustrations and the emotional depth and vulnerability of memoir, this book depicts these varied experiences with the kind of insight that only those who have lived them can have.

Sink your teeth into a vampiric volume that chronicles some of the greatest supernatural comics ever printed! The all-time classic Tomb of Dracula ushered in Marvel's glorious age of horror, while the black-and-white magazine Dracula Lives! delivered stories with real bite – and both featured legendary creators, including Gene Colan in his prime illustrating the Lord of Vampires! The tomb has opened, and Dracula lives again! But his descendant, Frank Drake, joins vampire hunters including Rachel Van Helsing and Quincy Harker in a bid to return him to his grave! Will they drive a stake through Dracula's heart – or will that honor fall to Blade? Plus tales of terror from across Dracula's 500-year existence, featuring Hell-Crawlers, the Monster of the Moors, wizards, gargoyles, voodoo queens and more!

Open the tomb once again for tales filled with bloodsuckers, cultists and things risen from the grave! When Dracula attempts to feed on Jack Russell's friend Topaz, it's time for a vampire versus Werewolf by Night showdown — with the Darkhold as the prize! Blade the vampire hunter closes in, but will the Lord of Darkness be burned by Doctor Sun? It's stakes on a plane when Drac's flight is hijacked — and the Montesi Formula might spell doom for all vampires! Discover the beginnings of Dracula's feud with the wizard Cagliostro and meet Lilith, his devastating daughter! Plus: The lord of the vampires battles Spider-Man! And tales from Dracula's centuries-long life, including a clash with Frankenstein's monster!

Dracula has sired a son! But why does baby Janus have golden skin... and what is his destiny? As an unholy alliance is formed between Quincy Harker's vampire hunters and Anton Lupeski's Satanist cult, the net is closing in: Drac's next meal could spell disaster. And when Dracula meets the devil himself, it's a truly transformative encounter! After centuries in the shadows, Dracula finally steps out into the sunlight. But if his humanity is restored, what does that mean to his enemies? And is this a bad time for his daughter Lilith to return? It's all leading up to a final, fatal reckoning! Plus, Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano reunite to complete a gorgeous, gothic project decades in the making!

Vi came to Arden High for a fresh start. And though doing it without her twin feels like being split in half, Vi finds her stride when she stumbles (literally!) into broody and beautiful Orsino. Soon Vi gets roped into helping plan the school's Twelfth Grade Night dance, and she can't stop dreaming about slow dancing with Orsino. The problem? All Vi's new friends assume she's not even into guys. And before Vi can ask Orsino to the dance, he recruits Vi to help woo his crush, Olivia. Who has a crush of her own... on Vi. Star-crossed love abounds in this hilarious and romantic story.

It is 1926, the first year of the Showa era. Urabe Kanoko has left her hometown after it turns against her for having the ability to hear lies when spoken. She collapses from hunger after arriving in a town called Tsukumoya, where she meets a poverty-stricken detective named Iwai Soma. Is this fate? Or something more?

A group of friends return to their hometown to confront a nightmare they first stumbled on as teenagers in this mesmerising odyssey of terror. For nearly two decades, Jamie Warren has been running from darkness. He's haunted by a traumatic childhood and the guilt at having disappeared from his disabled brother's life. But then a series of unusual events reunites him with his estranged brother and their childhood friends, and none of them can deny the sense of fate that has seemingly drawn them back together. Nor can they deny the memories of that summer, so long ago – the strange magic taught to them by an even stranger man, and the terrible act that has followed them all into adulthood. In the light of new danger, they must confront their past by facing their futures, and hunting down a man who may very well be a monster.

A gorgeous, unflinching love letter to Flint, Michigan, and the resilience of its people, Kelsey Ronan's Chevy in the Hole follows multiple generations of two families making their homes there, with a stunning contemporary love story at its center. In the opening pages of Chevy in the Hole, August "Gus" Molloy has just overdosed in a bathroom stall of the Detroit farm-to-table restaurant where he works. Shortly after, he packs it in and returns home to his family in Flint. This latest slip and recommitment to sobriety doesn't feel too terribly different from the others, until Gus meets Monae, an urban farmer trying to coax a tenuous rebirth from the city's damaged land. Through her eyes, he sees what might be possible in a city everyone else seems to have forgotten or, worse, given up on. But as they begin dreaming up an oasis together, even the most essential resources can't be counted on. Woven throughout their story are the stories of their families—Gus's white and Monae's Black—members of which have had their own triumphs and devastating setbacks trying to survive and thrive in Flint. A novel about the things that change over time and the things that don't, Chevy in the Hole reminds us again and again what people need from one another and from the city they call home.

A family's Halloween haunted house becomes a conduit to something ancient and uncanny; a young man's effigy of a movie monster becomes instrumental in his defense against a bully; a family diminishes while visiting a seaside town, leaving only one to remember what changed; a father explores a mysterious tower, and the monster imprisoned within; a man mourning the death of his father travels to his father's hometown, seeking closure, but finds himself beset by dreams of mythic bargains and a primeval, corpse-eating titan. John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with ten new tales of cosmic horror in Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies. In these stories, he continues to chart the course of 21st century weird fiction, from the unfamiliar to the familial, the unfathomably distant to the intimate.

Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with her charismatic but reckless college ex-boyfriend, Silas. When he asks her to bail him out of rehab—again—she knows she needs to cut him off. But days after he gets out, Silas turns up dead of an overdose in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and Erin’s world falls apart. Then a friend tells her about Ghost, a new drug that allows users to see the dead. Wanna get haunted? he asks. Grieving and desperate for closure with Silas, Erin agrees to a pill-popping “séance.” But the drug has unfathomable side effects—and once you take it, you can never go back.

From the worldwide bestselling author of Departure and Winter World comes a standalone novel about a father and daughter trying to unravel an intricate murder mystery spread across time – with a jaw-dropping twist. Control the past. Save the future. One morning, Dr. Sam Anderson wakes up to find that the woman he loves has been murdered. For Sam, the horror is only beginning. He and his daughter are accused of the crime. The evidence is ironclad. They will be convicted. And so, to ensure his daughter goes free, Sam does what he must: he confesses. But in the future, murderers aren't sent to prison. Thanks to a machine Sam helped invent, the world's worst criminals are now sent to the past – approximately 200 million years into the past, to the dawn of the time of the dinosaurs – where they must live out their lives alone, in exile from the human race. Sam accepts his fate. But his daughter doesn't. Adeline Anderson has already lost her mother to a deadly, unfair disease. She can't bear to lose her father as well. So she sets out on a quest to prove him innocent. And to get him back. People around her insist that both are impossible tasks. But Adeline doesn't give up. She only works harder.She soon learns that impossible tasks are her specialty. And that she is made of tougher stuff than she ever imagined. As she peels back the layers of the mystery that tore her father from this world, Adeline finds more questions than answers. Everyone around her is hiding a secret. But which ones are connected to the murder that exiled her father? That mystery stretches across the past, present, and future – and leads to a revelation that will change everything.

The award-winning and critically-acclaimed master of horror returns with a pair of chilling tales that examine the violence and depravity of the human condition. Bringing together his acclaimed novella "The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky" and an all-new short novel "My Heart Struck Sorrow," John Hornor Jacobs turns his fertile imagination to the evil that breeds within the human soul. A brilliant mix of the psychological and supernatural, blending the acute insight of Roberto Bolaño and the eerie imagination of H. P. Lovecraft, The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky examines life in a South American dictatorship. Centered on the journal of a poet-in-exile and his failed attempts at translating a maddening text, it is told by a young woman trying to come to grips with a country that nearly devoured itself. In My Heart Struck Sorrow, a librarian discovers a recording from the Deep South—which may be the musical stylings of the Devil himself. Breathtaking and haunting, A Lush and Seething Hell is a terrifying and exhilarating journey into the darkness, an odyssey into the deepest reaches of ourselves that compels us to confront secrets best left hidden.

A quirky collection of Earth’s most compelling animals who give mythical creatures a run for their money. The Modern Bestiary: A Curated Collection of Wondrous Wildlife mirrors the medieval tradition of an encyclopedia of incredible beasts, only this charming book with ornamental illustrations features 100 real animals who are stranger than fiction. Organized by the elements Earth, Water, and Air, the book introduces both unfamiliar creatures, like deep-sea harp sponges who catch prey in their barbs and digest them whole, as well as ones that have made headlines, such as cicadas who emerge from the ground in noisy broods every thirteen or seventeen years. Step right up and meet these delightful, unbelievable, and deliciously horrific animals.

Homicide detective Harry Picard has seen a lot of violent deaths . . . but never like this. Three bodies-blond, female, strangely emaciated-have been found in the Potomac River with their throats brutally slashed. Each victim was last seen in the company of a huge, hulking man dressed in black. Picard's investigation catapults him into a roiling morass of passion, sexual intrigue, violence, and primordial fear ... as he faces an enemy as powerful, and as horrifying, as mankind's oldest superstitions! First published in 1965, Leslie H. Whitten's Progeny of the Adder updated the traditional vampire tale by bringing the undead out of the Old World and into a police investigation in a large American city for the first time-a formula often imitated in the decades since.

Survival Has Consequences. Seven years ago, the last survivor of Earth crashed through uncountable dimensions to a strange new world. Nick Prasad found shelter, and a living, as a prophet for the ruling family—servants of the Ancient Ones who destroyed his home. Now, he's been offered a chance to rid the multiverse of the Ancient Ones, past and present and forever, although he'll have to betray his new masters to do it. The first step is jailbreaking a god—and that's the easy part...

There is a place where gods are born and stories are spun. Today its walls lie slashed and bleeding. Twenty-three years after he was anointed as its master, the lord of dreams has inexplicably abandoned his domain. Lord Daniel's absence triggers a series of crimes and calamities that consume the lives of those already tangled in his fate. Until he is found, his realm's residents must protect its broken borders alone. But the most senior storytellers are tormented by invasive secrets, the warden Lucien is doubting his own mind, and beyond the gates, something horrific awaits with tooth and talon. Only Dora, the monstrous, finds opportunity in madness, stealing dreams for the highest bidder. But she has no idea how deep the danger lies. Meanwhile, in Daniel's gallery, something new is growing...

As his kingdom crumbles and his subjects search for him in desperation, Dream of the Endless wanders the Earth as an exile from the realm he is meant to embody. Here, far from the Gates of Horn and Ivory, there are wonders and horrors that even an immortal cannot imagine—until they experience them firsthand. When an ill-fated romance collapses, Dream is vulnerable to exploitation by sinister forces. And when the heart of an Endless breaks, worlds break with it. Meanwhile, as the Dreaming's abandoned inhabitants hunt their absent sovereign, the realm's reluctant new ruler strains against the confines of its throne, threatening to undo the very reality that supports it. What happens to a fairy tale's inhabitants when their author goes missing?

The first murder in 500 years. Twenty billion suspects. One hope. The City Enduring, a booming metropolis at the edge of the universe, hasn't experienced a violent crime in generations. The Emotion Exploit has erased its citizens' full range of feelings, allowing three resident races to overlook their turbulent history and coexist peacefully—until now. Rookie Green Lantern Sojourner "Jo" Mullein is still adjusting to her assignment to protect this strange world when a brutal murder rattles its social order, threatening to undo centuries of controversial progress . As the populace rises up against the legacy of the Emotion Exploit and leaders grapple for power under threat of a new war, Jo must rely on her unique instincts—as a Green Lantern and the only human in this sector—to solve the crime and guide the City Enduring toward a more promising future.

An ancient battle of the sexes has raged for centuries, but a strange calm has befallen the age-old conflict as of late. How were the witches subdued, and what will happen when they remember how to wield their true power? "The women are too powerful. They must be tamed." For hundreds of years a war has been waged between a coven of perpetually reincarnating witches and the all-male conspiracy known as the Architects. After the death of the lead Architect in 2005, it seemed the witches had finally defeated their foes. Now, 13 years later, waking up in a perfect cookie-cutter home at the end of a cul-de-sac in a sunny corner of suburbia, Isadora has no recollection of her past life as the leader of a witch coven, nor her soul mate Nadiya, let alone the centuries-old war she has waged in defense of the soul of America...

The Eisner Award Nominee for Best Limited Series, Naomi, begins a unique quest for self-discovery when a fight between Superman and Mongul crashes into Naomi's small northwestern town. Follow Naomi on her journey as she discovers her significant origins. A local teenager named Naomi starts looking into what happened the last time a super-being visited her hometown—and how that visit might tie into her own origins as an adopted child. But Naomi's seemingly harmless curiosity exposes more than just her family's startling secrets—it attracts the attention of forces that could threaten the Earth itself! Learning the truth about her heritage will turn Naomi's life upside down. Can she learn to control her uncanny new abilities and come to terms with her strange new place in the world before it's too late? Find out as this remarkable young woman begins her unique hero's journey.

Providing tantalizing glimpses into the fantastical worlds he would create and nurture, Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days collects some of the accomplished author's earliest work, including tales featuring John Constantine, Swamp Thing and the first and only meeting between The Golden Age Sandman and The Sandman of the Endless.

This is the story of how I became Anne of Greenville. It's also the story of how I found my true true, and how I needed to maybe come to Greenville, of all places, to make that happen. In this modern reimagining of Anne of Green Gables, Anne is an ABBA-loving singer/actor/writer of disco-operas, queer, Japanese-American who longs to be understood for her artistic genius. Recently relocated to middle-of-nowhere Greenville and starting at a new school, Anne has a tendency to A) fall in love quickly, deeply, and effervescently and B) fly off the handle in the face of jerks. Both personality quirks quickly come into play when the soccer team boos the premiere of her disco performance, which—in a roundabout way—introduces her to her new BFF, Berry, and she soon after meets the girl of her dreams, Gilly. Falling quickly into that age-old trap of ignoring the best friend for the new crush, Anne soon becomes embroiled in a series of dramatic and unfortunate events, and quickly finds herself wrapped up in a love triangle she never expected. Is she MTB with Gilly? Or is Berry her true soul mate? Only time (or 304 pages) will tell. In this coming-of-age novel by fan-favorite author Mariko Tamaki, see the classic tale in a whole new light. Refreshingly bold and unapologetically unique, Anne of Greenville will make you want to stand up and sing!

A lively, spellbinding tale about the extraordinary women within a Vietnamese immigrant family—and the ancient zodiac legend that binds them together. What does the future hold for those born in the years of the Dragon, Tiger, and Goat? In present day New Orleans, Xuan Trung, former beauty queen turned refugee after the Fall of Saigon, is obsessed with divining her daughters' fates through their Vietnamese zodiac signs. But Trac, Nhi and Trieu diverge completely from their immigrant parents' expectations. Successful lawyer Trac hides her sexuality from her family; Nhi competes as the only woman of color on a Bachelor-esque reality TV show; and Trieu, a budding writer, is determined to learn more about her familial and cultural past. As the three sisters begin to encounter strange glimpses of long-buried secrets from the ancestors they never knew, the story of the Trung women unfurls to reveal the dramatic events that brought them to America. Moving backwards in time, E.M. Tran takes us into the high school classrooms of New Orleans, to Saigon beauty pageants, to twentieth century rubber plantations, traversing a century as the Trungs are both estranged and united by the ghosts of their tumultuous history. A "haunted story of resilience and survival", Daughters of the New Year is an addictive, high-wire act of storytelling that illuminates an entire lineage of extraordinary women fighting to reclaim the power they've been stripped of for centuries.

In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different and equally unforgettable characters who discover—and in some cases even make and unmake—the various uncharted parts of existence. In "A Hypothetical Lizard," two concubines in a brothel of fantastical specialists fall in love with tragic ramifications. In "Not Even Legend," a paranormal study group is infiltrated by one of the otherworldly beings they seek to investigate. In "Illuminations," a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the monumental novella "What We Can Know About Thunderman," which charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry's major players over the last seventy-five years, Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business. From ghosts and otherworldly creatures to theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang, Illuminations is exactly that—a series of bright, startling tales from a contemporary legend that reveal the full power of imagination and magic.

1910, Mexico. As the country's revolution spreads, Dolores, the daughter of a wealthy banker, must flee her comfortable life in Durango or risk death. Her family settles in Mexico City, where, at sixteen, she marries the worldly Jaime del Río. But in a twist of fate, at a party she meets an influential American director who recognizes in her a natural performer. He invites her to Hollywood, and practically overnight, the famous Miss del Río is born. Dolores's star quickly rises, and her days become a whirlwind of moviemaking and glamorous events. Swept up in L.A.'s glitzy inner circle, she takes her place among film royalty such as Marlene Dietrich and Orson Welles. But as her career soars, her personal life becomes increasingly complicated, with family tragedy, divorce, and real heartache. And when she's labeled box office poison amid growing prejudice before WWII, Dolores must decide what price she's willing to pay to achieve her dreams and if her heart and future instead lie where it all began...in Mexico. Spanning half a century and narrated by Dolores's fictional hairdresser and longtime friend, Miss del Río traces the life of a trailblazing woman whose legacy in Hollywood and in Mexico still shines bright today.

WHAT'S RIGHT IS RIGHT. Sonya Kantor knows this slogan--she lived by it for most of her life. For decades, everyone in the Seattle-Portland megalopolis lived under it, as well as constant surveillance in the form of the Insight, an ocular implant that tracked every word and every action, rewarding or punishing by a rigid moral code set forth by the Delegation. Then there was a revolution. The Delegation fell. Its most valuable members were locked in the Aperture, a prison on the outskirts of the city. And everyone else, now free from the Insight's monitoring, went on with their lives. Sonya, former poster girl for the Delegation, has been imprisoned for ten years when an old enemy comes to her with a deal: find a missing girl who was stolen from her parents by the old regime, and earn her freedom. The path Sonya takes to find the child will lead her through an unfamiliar, crooked post-Delegation world where she finds herself digging deeper into the past—and her family's dark secrets—than she ever wanted to. With razor sharp prose, Poster Girl is a haunting dystopian mystery that explores the expanding role of surveillance on society—an inescapable reality that we welcome all too easily.

Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in space with her talent for creating glittering high-society in this stylish SF mystery, The Spare Man. Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She's traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again.

Alene Adele Sterling does not want to fall off the Rockies, freeze in a monster blizzard, or have any adventures at all. But she went to Colorado anyway. After teaching for twenty years, steady, reliable Professor Sterling flips out in front of her literature class. Time for a change? Definitely! So when her dad—already battling Alzheimer's—has to start cancer treatment, Alene breaks out of her routine life. She travels to Colorado to buy cannabis where it is legal, and sneak it home to Texas, where it is not. Arriving at the height of the marijuana Green Rush, Alene discovers the glitzy world of pot dispensaries below the gritty streets of downtown Denver.Since cannabis soon works wonders for her dad, she has to get more. To do that, she must reach out to her best friend Mitch, rebel sister Tessa, and two old college buddies: super-genius Nolan and angelically beautiful Nicoletta. For the first time in decades, Alene has to 'brave up.' Then maybe she can avoid being robbed by mailmen, arrested in Amarillo, frisked by the TSA, fired from her job, and ambushed in a chipmunk fist fight.Authentic, dramatic, and sparkling with laughter, Laying It All Out There shows you how to crush fear, hug friends, love family, and fight for what's right. Oh, and smuggle weed!

What goes on tour stays on tour — unless you're the the first woman roadie in the world At just fifteen, Tana Douglas ran away to the circus that was rock 'n' roll in the 1970s, taking a job with a young and upcoming band called AC/DC. While still a teenager she headed to the UK and later the US to work for a who's who of bands and artists. Life on the road was exhilarating, hard work, occasionally surreal but never dull, particularly when you're the only woman in the road crew and the #metoo movement is still 40 years away. Whether wrangling Iggy Pop across Europe, climbing trusses while seven months pregnant, drinking shots of JD with Bon Scott backstage at Wembley, or donning a tailor-made suit to do lights for Elton at Windsor Castle, Tana did it all. Loud is rock 'n' roll like you've never seen it before, by a woman who not only survived the all-male world on the road but climbed to the top and lived to tell the tale.

It's a 1920s version of Sex and the City, as Dorothy Parker—one of the wittiest women who ever wielded a pen—and her three friends navigate life, love, and careers in New York City. New York City, 1921: The war is over, fashions are daring, and bootleg liquor is abundant. Here four extraordinary women form a bridge group that grows into a firm friendship. Dorothy Parker: renowned wit, member of the Algonquin Round Table, and more fragile than she seems. Jane Grant: first female reporter for the New York Times, and determined to launch a new magazine she calls The New Yorker. Winifred Lenihan: beautiful and talented Broadway actress, a casting-couch target. And Peggy Leech: magazine assistant by day, brilliant novelist by night. Their romances flourish and falter while their goals sometimes seem impossible to reach and their friendship deepens against the backdrop of turbulent New York City, where new speakeasies open and close, jazz music flows through the air, and bathtub gin fills their glasses. They gossip, they comfort each other, and they offer support through the setbacks. But their biggest challenge is keeping their dear friend Dottie safe from herself. In this brilliant new novel from the bestselling and acclaimed author of Jackie and Maria and The Secret Wife, readers will fall right into Jazz Age New York and into the inner lives of these groundbreaking, influential women.

On an ordinary working day... Leila Syed receives a call that cleaves her life in two. Her brother-in-law's voice is filled with panic. His son's nursery has called to ask where little Max is. Your worst nightmare... Leila was supposed to drop Max off that morning. But she forgot. Racing to the carpark, she grasps the horror of what she has done. Is about to come true... What follows is an explosive, high-profile trial that will tear the family apart. But as the case progresses it becomes clear there's more to this incident than meets the eye... A gripping, brave and tense courtroom drama, Next of Kin will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final, heart-stopping page.

The Truth About Things That Suck (and How to Make Them Suck Less) is a book of wit and wisdom that encourages readers who are currently struggling to overcome an obstacle, or preparing to face one down the road. It's a book about what's possible, what's attainable, supported by scientific research and interviews with psychologists, New York Times best-selling authors, and other experts. Mindy Henderson brings the enthusiasm of her podcast to every page of this book, inspiring readers to overpower their so-called limitations.

“We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don’t want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets.” With wit and irreverence, lexicographer Kory Stamper cracks open the obsessive world of dictionary writing, from the agonizing decisions about what to define and how to do it to the knotty questions of ever-changing word usage. Filled with fun facts—for example, the first documented usage of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill—and Stamper’s own stories from the linguistic front lines (including how she became America’s foremost “irregardless” apologist, despite loathing the word), Word by Word is an endlessly entertaining look at the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of the English language.