"For the latest exam blueprint ... full-length practice tests with detailed answer explanation ... detailed content reveiw and practice for all topics on the exam, Expert advice on exam scoring, recertification, and more"--2022 (3rd?) edition, page 1 of cover

In The King Is Coming, John Bevere examines the theological significance of the Second Coming of Christ within Christian belief and practice. Drawing on New Testament passages and early Christian writings, Bevere explores eschatology as a central theme of the Christian faith and reflects on his own evolving understanding of end-times teaching. The book combines biblical interpretation, personal testimony, and practical guidance intended to encourage readers to live with spiritual attentiveness, moral discipline, and an eternal perspective. Each chapter concludes with structured reflection elements designed to support devotional study and application

"The Art Escapes Atlas is a guide to the world's most captivating art destinations--tucked away in forests, woven into cityscapes, or standing in quiet solitude across remote landscapes. From the homes of iconic artists like Georgia O'Keeffe and Frida Kahlo to awe-inspiring land art and visionary architecture, this book reveals places where art breaks free from traditional museum spaces."--

"A daily chronicle by two veteran Vatican correspondents from the death of Pope Francis to the first days of Pope Leo's papacy"-- Provided by publisher

"If you've ever wished your flowers could last forever in all of their colourful glory, this book will teach you how. Learn how to dry flowers while retaining their vibrancy, then create statement wreaths, mantel arrangements, wall hangings and even lampshades to weave the magic of forever flowers into your home decor for years to come. Layla Robinson is a floral artist who creates colourful dried flower arrangements that harnesses nature's wild beauty into unique sustainable pieces which will bring the joy of spring and summer into your home even through the depths of winter. Dried flowers and foliage can often look brown and crispy, whereas Layla's technique preserves the bright hues of high summer in a dazzling array of textures and colours that will bring any space alive with its detail and vibrancy. In this book, you'll learn the basics of how to cut and prepare flowers, and craft stunning floral arrangements to decorate your home without fading the flowers' vibrant natural beauty"--Publisher's description

"Hot flashes, mood swings, anxiety, weight gain, brain fog--the hormonal flux that comes with menopause and perimenopause may bring some notorious side effects, but that doesn't mean you have to feel miserable or settle for debilitating symptoms. This isn't your mother's menopause! Double-board certified medical doctor Amy Shah shows you the power of targeted nutrition to manage the chaos that perimenopause and menopause can bring. There's a growing awareness about perimenopause, the period of hormonal changes leading up to menopause that can begin as early as your late 30s. Starting in perimenopause and continuing through menopause, your immune system, gut, and metabolism get out of balance as your hormones shift. Dr. Shah's protocol supports your hormones by increasing key nutrients--including protein, fiber, probiotics, and vitamins and minerals--to realign and nourish your body and heal your gut-brain connection, helping to reduce and relieve unpleasant menopause symptoms while dramatically decreasing the risk of serious diseases from heart disease to depression to osteoporosis." -- Provided by publisher

"One August day, months after the fallout of her marriage, a heart-shaped cake tin fell at Bee Wilson's feet. Not just any cake tin--the one she had used to bake her wedding cake twenty-three years ago. This sudden discovery strikes a wave of emotion that will steer her on a sprawling exploration of kitchen objects and our emotional responses to them. Wilson finds others who have also invested objects with strong meanings and emotions, discovering the ways in which kitchen utensils can become symbols of love and friendship, steadfast household companions, tools of whimsy and joy, and even emblems of political resistance. From a grandmother's prized china collection to a Ukrainian kitchen cabinet which withstood Russian bombing to Queen Elizabeth I's penchant for sieves, Wilson explores how we attach profound meanings to spoons and pots, whisks and washing-up bowls, and, ultimately, how they impact our memories and emotional well-being. The central heart-shaped tin, in the end, becomes a moving reminder of the power of new beginnings. Crossing continents, cultures, and time periods, Wilson weaves her own experiences into a wider narrative that reaches back to the earliest human civilizations. Thoughtful, sharp, and beautifully written, The Heart-Shaped Tin is a profoundly moving examination of our relationship to the physical world--and the people around us--in an increasingly rational and secular age"-- Provided by publisher

"Perl Programming in easy steps, 2nd edition illustrates programming basics with variables, operators, and functions before moving on to demonstrate the creation of reusable Perl modules. It then shows how Perl can read and write files on your system. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) with Perl is demonstrated next to emulate real-world object properties and behaviours. The examples in Perl Programming in easy steps, 2nd edition demonstrate how to store and retrieve data with the SQLite database module that is often bundled alongside the standard Perl library. The book then moves on to illustrate how Perl is used for server-side CGI scripting on the internet. A final example brings together Perl for CGI and SQLite to create an online shop. [...] This book makes no assumption that you have previous knowledge of any programming language, so is suitable for a beginner or a programming guru." --

"Sara Vladic, New York Times bestselling author of Indianapolis, reveals the gripping, untold history of the United States under attack during World War II and the improbable patriots who stepped up to defend their country in her hour of need."--Amazon

A lavishly illustrated and meticulously guided excursion through the mapping of historic Palestine from the earliest record through to the twenty-first century. Palestine is as much a place in the psyche of those who mapped it as it is a region of the earth. An authority on the history of cartography who has also written extensively on Palestine, Thomas Suarez is uniquely qualified to address the mapping of this region "from the river to the sea." Richly illustrated, Palestine Mapped guides the reader through the Greek and Roman concepts of Palestine, those of various medieval Mediterranean civilizations, and the European "Holy Land" mapping that has dominated for half a millennium and continues to inform modern political thought. Suarez dissects that prevailing mindset rather than viewing the land through its lens, setting the book apart from all others on the mapping of the region

"In just 21 days, you'll go from complete beginner to confident knitter! You'll learn the essential techniques and stitches through clear, illustrated, step-by-step tutorials. Create your first cozy projects, such as mugs, mittens, hats, and shawls, while building the skills you need to tackle any pattern with ease. Whether you've never picked up needles before or want a fun, structured way to learn, this guide is designed to help you master knitting in 21 days." -- Publisher description

A selection of dispatches written by the author from England, Africa, and Italy at the height of World War II

"Dannah Eve has always been street smart, and for the past several years, she has been sharing her advice, self-defense strategies, and safety tips with millions of engaged social media followers. With the encouraging tone of a savvy older sister, she has built a platform that teaches women how to think like a threat--mastering situational awareness, calculated deception, and the art of always being ready. This is survival on your terms."--Amazon

"Fourteen beloved authors celebrate the life-changing bond with their canine companions in this heartwarming essay collection..."--Provided by publisher

Kluski to comfort food - jedzenie, które otula i poprawia nastrój. To ciepłe wspomnienia przywodzące na myśl kuchnię ukochanej babci. To temat równie emocjonujący, co bigos czy sałatka jarzynowa - każdy ma swoją faworytkę, nazewnictwo, przepisy i opinię o tym, czym jest, a czym nie jest kluska. By je przygotować, zazwyczaj potrzeba tylko kilku niedrogich składników, podczas gdy możliwości są nieskończone. Do tego doskonale poddają się weganizowaniu, są niezwykle plastyczne i dobrze komponują się nie tylko ze swojskimi, ale także z egzotycznymi dodatkami. W książce znajdziemy przepisy na dobrze znane kluski śląskie, knedle ze śliwkami czy kopytka dyniowe, odkopiemy nieco już zapomniane receptury na francuskie kluski z ziemniakami, kluski saskie czy kluski fasolowe i spróbujemy niemalże heretyckich wersji z klusek podanych z kimchi, pikantnym sosem orzechowym czy polskim pesto

An iconic figure in the history of rock and pop culture (inducted not once but twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), Neil Young has written his eagerly awaited memoir

"The Long family's love was fierce, their lifestyle bizarre, and their deceptions countless. Once her parents were gone, Amanda Uhle realized she was closer to them than anyone else, yet she found herself utterly confounded by the lives they had led. Amanda's striving fashion designer mother and her charismatic wheeler-dealer father wove a complex life together that spanned ten different homes across five states over forty perplexing years. Throughout her childhood, as her mother's hoarding disorder flourished and her father's schemes crumbled, contradictions abounded. They bartered for dental surgery and drove their massive Lincoln Town Car to the food bank. When financial ruin struck, they abandoned their repossessed mansion for humble parish housing, and Amanda's father became a preacher. They swung between being filthy rich and dirt poor, devious and virtuous, lonely and loved, fake and real. In Destroy This House, Amanda sets out to document her parents' unbelievable exploits and her own hard-won escape into independence. With humor and tenderness, Uhle has crafted a heartfelt and utterly unique memoir, capturing the raucousness, pain, joy, and ultimately, the boundless love that exists between all parents and children." --

When Robyn Davidson first set out to make her journey across the deserts of Australia, alone but for her dog and four camels, she was called a lunatic, a would-be suicide, and a shameless publicity seeker. But this high-spirited, engrossing book reveals that she is something more: a genuine traveler driven by a love of Australia's landscape, an empathy for its indigenous people, and a willingness to cast away the trappings of her former identity

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. This is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. This story will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world. -- Publisher's description

"An urgent warning about the growing threat to our democracy from a twenty-year police veteran and former diehard Trump supporter who nearly lost his life during the insurrection of January 6th. When Michael Fanone self-deployed to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, he had no idea his life was about to change. When he got to the front of the line, he urged his fellow officers to hold it against the growing crowd of insurrectionists-until he found himself pulled into the mob, tased until he had a heart attack, and viciously beaten with a Blue Lives Matter flag as shouts to kill him rang out. Now, Fanone is ready to tell the full story of that fateful day, along with exploring our country's most critical issues as someone who has had firsthand experience with many of them. A self-described redneck who voted for Trump in 2016, Fanone's closest friend was an informant-a Black, transgender, HIV-positive woman who has helped him mature and rethink his methods as a police officer. With his unique insight as an undercover detective and intense desire to do the right thing no matter the cost, Fanone provides a nuanced look into everything from policing to race to politics in a way that is accessible across all party lines. Determined to make sure no one forgets what happened at the Capitol on January 6th, Fanone has written a timely call to action for anyone who wants to preserve our democracy for future generations"--

"A memoir about a woman who was diagnosed with autism at thirty-four years old. The book also discusses the cultural dynamics that make it difficult women and girls to get diagnosed and why so many people end up masking their differences for years or decades"--

"Tom Brokaw is known as one of the hardest-working, most successful people in broadcast journalism. His success is attributed to his work ethic, his instinct for identifying the significance of the news in the lives of ordinary people, and his reputation for always showing up for others. In this heartfelt family story, Tom shows the values and lessons he absorbed from his ancestors, parents, and others who settled in South Dakota and worked hard to build lives on the prairie during the first half of the twentieth century. At the center of this story is Red Brokaw, Tom's father, who left school in the third grade. At the end of his life, Red surprised his family by recording his memories about the Brokaw ancestors who obtained land in South Dakota under the Lend-Lease plan and started a hotel called the Brokaw House. As a boy Red worked there, and then on construction jobs, developing a talent for machines. At a high school play, he fell in love with the girl playing the lead, Jean, whose father had lost the family farm during the Depression. They married, and struggled financially. Their son Tom was born in 1940, and two other sons followed. Red had a philosophy: Never give up. Never complain. After the war, Red got his big break. The Army Corps of Engineers began to build great projects, including dams across the Missouri River, magnificent structures like the Fort Randall and the Gavins Point dams. Red rose to become a Foreman on the dam project, and the Brokaws moved to towns created to house workers, where the family became part of a vibrant community life"--

"Frank Miller came to New York City in the winter of 1976. 'I was a cold-bellied youngster from cold Vermont, a lot bigger in ambition than prospects.' So begins a guide to creative success by the most influential American cartoonist and writer of our time, whose bestselling work has helped to shape popular culture in comics and film for decades. Frank Miller shares his life and, through it, his artistic process. Miller's artistic influence is evident in much of our popular culture, perhaps most notable with BATMAN, whose every film adaptation from the past forty years has been influenced by Miller's work. Simply put, Frank Miller has transformed the way comics are told. PUSH THE WALL's mix of autobiographical lessons evokes Pattie Smith's Just Kids and Stephen King's On Writing, as it weaves Miller's struggles as a seventeen-year-old fresh from Vermont in seedy 1970s New York City with his eventual success in reimagining DAREDEVIL and WOLVERINE. From there Miller recounts his rescue and revitalization of BATMAN, his time in Hollywood, the SIN CITY comics and the film adaptations he codirected, and his retelling of the Spartans' last stand in 300. By constantly challenging himself as an artist and writer, on his terms, Miller built an iconoclastic career, sharing his path so you can begin to find your own."--Book jacket flap

"Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has raised global concern over the capacity of International law to bring the perpetrators to justice and accountability for war crimes. No Place Left to Go is a tour de force of one man's metamorphosis from Christian zionism to a series of personal encounters with Palestinians--in Chicago, Beirut, and Jerusalem--including Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the Sabra' & Shatila massacre, and the initial hope inspired by the First Intifada of 1987-93. After serving for five years as a pastor in a remarkable Black church, Donald Wagner comes to fully understand the original sin of racism. As his journey continues, he encounters another marginalized people--the Palestinians--and witnesses their struggle for justice and equality. Touched by their resilience and fight against injustice, he leaves the pastorate to assume full time work as an advocate for Palestinian political and human rights. The memoir begins in mid-September 1982, with a gut-wrenching day interviewing survivors of the Sabra-Shatila massacre in Lebanon, as they wept and waited for the bodies of family members to be pulled from the rubble. Donald Wagner's conversation with the local Imam ended with a challenge: " You must return home and tell what you have seen. This is all we ask. Go back and tell the truth." The memoir touches on history and includes a timely political analysis--from the Nakba to the genocide in Gaza. In it, Donald Wagner describes Israel's continued colonization and destruction of Palestinian lives and chronicles his involvement in a grassroots movement of resistance that demands justice based on full equality, an end to the Israeli military occupation and settler colonization project, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and full political rights for the Palestinian people. Filled with stories--some humorous and some shocking--as well as encounters with people of every race, gender, and religious affiliation working below the radar, this book will inspire, challenge, and offer a narrative that envisions a transformed "unholy land," where justice, liberation, and equality for all is the reality for every citizen." -- Back cover

"From bestselling author of She's Not There, New York Times opinion columnist, and human rights activist Jennifer Finney Boylan, Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs, a memoir of the transformative power of loving dogs. This is a book about dogs: the love we have for them, and the way that love helps us understand the people we have been. It's in the love of dogs, and my love for them, that I can best now take the measure of the child I once was, and the bottomless, unfathomable desires that once haunted me. There are times when it is hard for me to fully remember that love, which was once so fragile, and so fierce. Sometimes it seems to fade before me, like breath on a mirror. But I remember the dogs. In her New York Times opinion column, Jennifer Finney Boylan wrote about her relationship with her beloved dog Indigo, and her wise, funny, heartbreaking piece went viral. In Good Boy, Boylan explores what should be the simplest topic in the world, but never is: finding and giving love. Good Boy is a universal account of a remarkable story: showing how a young boy became a middle-aged woman-accompanied at seven crucial moments of growth and transformation by seven memorable dogs. 'Everything I know about love,' she writes, 'I learned from dogs.' Their love enables us pull off what seem like impossible feats: to find our way home when we are lost, to live our lives with humor and courage, and above all, to best become our true selves"--

"Feels Like Home is a love letter to Ronstadt's Mexican American roots. It tells of her coming of age in the world between Tucson and the Rio Sonora region of northern Mexico, presented through stories, photographs, and recipes"--

"Many have called our time dystopian. But The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On reminds us that apocalypse has already come in myriad ways for marginalized peoples. With lyric and tonal dexterity, these poems spin backwards and forwards in time--from Korean comfort women during World War II, to the precipice of climate crisis, to children wandering a museum in the future. They explore narrative distances and queer linearity, investigating on microscopic scales before soaring towards the universal. Wrestling with the griefs and distances of this apocalyptic world, Choi also imagines what togetherness--between Black and Asian and other marginalized communities, between living organisms, between children of calamity and conquest--could look like. Bringing together Choi's signature speculative imagination with even greater musicality than her previous work, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On ultimately charts new paths toward hope""--Front dust jacket flap

"A fresh and faithful translation of Vergil's Aeneid restores the epic's spare language and fast pace and sheds new light on one of the cornerstone narratives of the west. For two thousand years, the epic tale of Aeneas' dramatic flight from Troy, his doomed love affair with Dido, his descent into the underworld, and the bloody story behind the establishment of Rome has electrified audiences around the world. In Vergil's telling, Aeneas' heroic journey not only gave Romans and Italians a thrilling origin story, it established many of the fundamental themes that shape human existence--the role of duty and self-sacrifice, the place of love and passion in human life, the relationship between art and violence, the tension between immigrant and indigenous people, and the way new foundations are so often built upon the wreckage of those who came before .." --Inside jacket

"Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver presents a personal selection of her best work in this definitive collection spanning more than five decades of her esteemed literary career. Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best selling poet" by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last fifty years. Carefully curated, these 200 plus poems feature Oliver's work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world"--

"Herman Melville ranks with Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson as one of the three great American poets of the nineteenth century. Whether meditating on the bloody battlefields of the Civil War, the mysteries of faith and doubt in the Holy Land, or the strange relationship between the Maldive Shark and the pilot fish that glide before "his Gorgonian head," Melville's verse combines precise physical detail and rich metaphysical speculation in an unorthodox style and with a compressed power uniquely his own. The fruit of decades of textual scholarship, this fourth and final volume of the Library of America Melville edition gathers for the first time in one volume all of Melville's poems: the four books of poetry published in his lifetime, his uncollected poems, and the poems from two projected volumes of poetry and prose left unfinished at his death. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War is both a deeply philosophical work of mourning for the Civil War dead and a fascinating record of campaigns and battles and the war's immediate aftermath. With a cast of characters to rival Moby-Dick, the epic poem Clarel, about a young American divinity student's pilgrimage to the Holy Land, plumbs the profound existential and religious questions that haunted Melville throughout his life. In two late privately issued books, the retrospective John Marr and Other Sailors and Timoleon Etc., the aging poet returns to the nautical scenes and reading of his youth. Many of the poems in the two manuscripts left unfinished at Melville's death, Weeds and Wildings and Parthenope, have not been previously available in a reliable trade edition."--Publisher

"The definitive collection of works on a subject that inspired and haunted Charles Bukowski for his entire life: alcohol. Charles Bukowski turns to the bottle in this revelatory collection of poetry and prose that includes some of the writer's best and most lasting work. A self-proclaimed "dirty old man," Bukowski used alcohol as muse and as fuel, a conflicted relationship responsible for some of his darkest moments as well as some of his most joyful and inspired. In On Drinking, Bukowski expert Abel Debritto has collected the writer's most profound, funny, and memorable work on his ups and downs with the hard stuff--a topic that allowed Bukowski to explore some of life's most pressing questions. Through drink, Bukowski is able to be alone, to be with people, to be a poet, a lover, and a friend--though often at great cost. As Bukowski writes in a poem simply titled "Drinking," "for me/it was or/is/a manner of/dying/with boots on/and gun/smoking and a/symphony music background." On Drinking is a powerful testament to the pleasures and miseries of a life in drink, and a window into the soul of one of our most beloved and enduring writers."--Jacket flap

"'The poet's measures serve anarchic joy. / The story-teller tells one story: freedom.' Throughout a celebrated career that spanned genres, Ursula K. Le Guin was first and last a poet. This sixth volume in the definitive Library of America Le Guin edition presents for the first time an authoritative gathering of her verse -- from the earliest collection, Wild Angels, through her final publication, So Far So Good, which she delivered to her editor a week before her death. The major themes of Le Guin's work find their most refined expression here: exploration as a metaphor for both human bravery and creativity, the mystery and fragility of nature, the Tao Te Ching, marriage, aging, and womanhood. Features include a new introduction by Harold Bloom written in 2019, sixty-eight uncollected poems, a selection of Le Guin's prose writing about poetry, and helpful notes." -- Back cover

From the joy and anguish of her own experience, Sexton fashioned poems that told truths about the inner lives of men and women. This book comprises Sexton's ten volumes of verse, including the Pulitzer Prize-winner Live or Die, as well as seven poems form her last years

A stunning new volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, informed by her tribal history and connection to the land

"Introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen-- A unique collection of 44 groundbreaking essays, poems, and artwork by migrants, refugees and Dreamers-including award-winning writers, artists, and activists-that illuminate what it is like living undocumented today. A unique collection of 44 groundbreaking essays, poems, and artwork by migrants, refugees and Dreamers-including award-winning writers, artists, and activists-that illuminate what it is like living undocumented today. In the overheated debate about immigration, we often lose sight of the humanity at the heart of this complex issue. The immigrants and refugees living precariously in the United States are mothers and fathers, children, neighbors, and friends. Individuals propelled by hope and fear, they gamble their lives on the promise of America, yet their voices are rarely heard. This anthology of essays, poetry, and art seeks to shift the immigration debate-now shaped by rancorous stereotypes and xenophobia-towards one rooted in humanity and justice. Through their storytelling and art, the contributors to this thought-provoking book remind us that they are human still. Transcending their current immigration status, they offer nuanced portraits of their existence before and after migration, the factors behind their choices, the pain of leaving their homeland and beginning anew in a strange country, and their collective hunger for a future not defined by borders. Created entirely by undocumented or formerly undocumented migrants, Somewhere We Are Human is a journey of memory and yearning from people newly arrived to America, those who have been here for decades, and those who have ultimately chosen to leave or were deported. Touching on themes of race, class, gender, nationality, sexuality, politics, and parenthood, Somewhere We Are Human reveals how joy, hope, mourning, and perseverance can take root in the toughest soil and bloom in the harshest conditions"--

"In March 2015, Naja Marie Aidt's son Carl died at twenty-five years old in a tragic accident. When Death Takes Something from You, Give It Back describes the first year after that devastating phone call, until the shock slowly wears off. It is at once a sober account of life after losing a child--showing how grief transforms your relationship to reality, your loved ones, and time--and a book about the language of poetry, loss, and love. How do you approach the impossible to write about your deceased child? The book's complex form enacts the rupture and process of assembling the pieces. There are short prose sections addressed to Carl and intense lyric passages. There are fragments from the present that merge with flashbacks and journal entries from the past. Quotes appear throughout from an array of literary voices, woven together with Naja Marie Aidt's own voice. This multifarious book defies genre or any singular description"--

"Half biography and half criticism, Love and Need is a novel interpretation of Robert Frost's work and legacy as a poet"--

Essays, poetry, and art included in this anthology celebrate the one-hundredth birthday of the late poet and cultural icon Gwendolyn Brooks

"Billy Collin's first new book in three years contains more than forty new poems that showcase the generosity, playfulness, and wisdom that have made him one of our most beloved poets"--

"Oxford, Mississippi, 1933. Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable 'big girls' at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she's left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister's seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies. Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates--and Meg's--converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan to claim what's rightfully theirs. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women's freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences"--Inside jacket flap

"Questions linger about Theo, a pleasant but mysterious stranger, after his arrival in the southern city of Golden. Who is he, and why is he here? He arrives early one spring and by chance -- or is it? -- he visits a coffee shop where 92 framed pencil portraits are on display. Inspired, Theo sets out on a mission of purchasing all the portraits one at a time and quietly bestowing them on their 'rightful owners.' Stories are told; friendships are born; and lives are changed. Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted story about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the far-reaching possibilities of anonymous kindness."--

"You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Getting stuck on a sadistic alien game show with her cat"--Page 4 of cover

Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry

"#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, who "captures the messy essence of being human" (The Washington Post), returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger's life twenty-five years later. Most people don't even notice them-three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it's just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There's Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there's the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream. Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa's care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting's birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don't always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art"--

"Twice-widowed, Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley is solely responsible for her two children, a priggish stepdaughter, a razor-taloned peregrine falcon, and a crumbling manor. Fierce and determined, Ethel clings to the respectability her deceased husband's title affords her, hoping it will secure her daughters' future through marriage. When a royal ball offers the chance to change everything, Ethel risks her pride in pursuit of an invitation for all three of her daughters--only to see her hopes fulfilled by the wrong one. As an engagement to the future king unfolds, Ethel discovers a sordid secret hidden in the depths of the royal family, forcing her to choose between the security she craves and the wellbeing of the stepdaughter who has rebuffed her at every turn. As if Bridgerton met Circe, and exhilarating to its core, Lady Tremaine reimagines the myth of the evil stepmother at the heart of the world's most famous fairy tale. It is a battle cry for a mother's love for her daughters, and a celebration of women everywhere who make their own fortunes"-- Provided by publisher

"A social media celebrity, a wife and mother who sells her fantasy pioneer lifestyle of sourdough and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of followers, suddenly wakes up cold, dirty, and hungry in the year 1805 and must uncover the nature - hoax, reality show, test from God - of her terrifying new existence in this sensational debut novel. "My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive." Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie's followers - all 8 million of them - don't know won't hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an anti-feminist iconoclast? They're sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn't simply living the good life, she's living the ideal - and just so happens to be building an empire from it. Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn't hers. Her home, her husband, her children - they're all familiar, but something's off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she's expected to haul firewood andhand washh clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible. A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood"-- Provided by publisher

Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord

"If they start by pretending, can they end with something real? Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn't solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home. So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield: annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family: with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it's in her nature to help. But Stewart's proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She's never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now?"--Provided by publisher

"If they start by pretending, can they end with something real? Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn't solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home. So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield: annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family: with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it's in her nature to help. But Stewart's proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She's never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now?"--Provided by publisher

"For fans of A Man Called Ove, a luminous debut novel about a widow's unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium-and the truths she finally uncovers about her son's disappearance 30 years ago"--

When the Chamber of Secrets is opened again at the Hogswart School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, second-year student Harry Potter finds himself in danger from a dark power that has once more been released on the school

With Aelin locked in an iron coffin by Queen of the Fae Maeve, Aedion and Lysandra struggle to defend Terrasen, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian face their own fates, and Rowan seeks his captured wife and queen. The series concludes in a final epic battle

"When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn't trust... from bestselling author Isabel Cañas. In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family's isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong. Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family's legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin's betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can't help but notice her every time she enters a room or the growing tension between them... and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon's thirst for blood grows stronger. In the fight for her life, Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets, and one another... not knowing that one of these things will spell their doom"--

"In San Francisco in 1866, an Irish nun, abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman. To pursue her passion for writing, she is willing to defy societal norms. At the age of seventeen, she begins to publish pulp fiction using a man's pen name. When these fictional worlds can no longer satisfy her sense of adventure, she turns to journalism, convincing an editor at The Daily Examiner to hire her. There she is paired with another talented reporter, Eric Whelan. As she proves herself, her restlessness returns, until an opportunity arises to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. She seizes it, as does Eric, and while there, she meets her estranged father and delves into the violent confrontation in the country where her roots lie. As she and Eric discover love, the war escalates and Emilia finds herself in extreme danger, fearing for her life and questioning her identity and her destiny." --

"The Grand Paloma Resort is a lush paradise in the Dominican Republic where the guests enjoy incredible luxury, and the staff is always eager to please-that is, until they are pushed to the brink"-- Provided by publisher

"A novel by a brilliant new voice, Hombrecito is a queer coming-of-age story about a young immigrant's complex relationships with his mother and his motherland."--

"Catalina is trying to work out her own life as she leaves her undocumented family behind to enter Harvard. Suffering from bouts of PTSD, she struggles to connect to her new world just as she struggled to make sense of her old one. She infiltrates the subcultures of elite undergrads-internships and college newspapers, parties and secret societies-and observes them like an anthropologist, but then falls in love, or something like love, with a fellow student, an actual anthropology scholar who wants to teach her about the Andean world she was born in but never knew. They are drawn to each other by the strange attraction of exocticized fascination-she, a real live Latin American, becomes a subject of academic interest; he, in turns, draws her fascination as a white legacy admit born into the strange world she now navigates. Catalina is uncertain: should she let herself become what he wants her to be and take up residence in his secure and privileged world? Or should she return to the life she's known, with all its thorny precarity? Who is she anyway?"--

"After years apart, three high school friends return to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where an intense love triangle once left an indelible mark on their adolescence. The city, surrounded by a ring of claustrophobic wildfires, brings out the past and confronts them with their present: they must once again face the entanglement of friendship and desire, the seemingly distant discovery of sexuality, complex parental relationships, and the daunting task of artistic fulfillment. In the background, two forces of chaos and destruction are a constant presence. As fires ravage the physical landscape, one of the friends begins choreographing an ecstatic dance inspired by the German expressionist Mary Wigman and medieval Danse Macabre. What starts as a coping mechanism for the anxieties of youth and climate catastrophe becomes an overpowering, all-consuming hysteria. Mysterious powers are awakened, the boundary between reality and myth begins to blur, and the friends find themselves immersed in an increasingly turbulent and uncertain universe"--

"It's 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he's held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she'd escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo's worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other." --

"What does it mean to call a place home? From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jeanine Cummins comes a deeply felt multigenerational family story On her wedding day in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1968, Rafaela Acuña y Daubón has mild misgivings, but she marries Peter Brennan Jr. anyway in a blaze of romantic optimism. She has no way of knowing how dramatically her life will change when she uproots her young family to start over in the American Midwest, unleashing a fleet of disappointments. In the 1980s, against the backdrop of her mother's isolation in St. Louis, Missouri, Rafaela's daughter, Ruth Brennan, wants only to belong. Eager to fit in, Ruth lets go of her language, habits, and childhood memories of Puerto Rico. It's not until decades later when Ruth's own daughter, Daisy, returns to San Juan that her mother and grandmother begin to truly reflect on the choices that have come to define their lives. When a hurricane ravages the island in 2023, leaving Daisy critically injured, Rafaela and Ruth return to the city where it all began. As they gather at Daisy's bedside, we follow them back into the pasts that brought them to this point: we watch as they come of age, fall in love, take risks, and contend with all the heartbreaks, triumphs, and reversals of fortune--both good and bad--that make up a meaningful life. As old memories come to light, so do buried secrets, leaving everyone in the family wondering exactly where it is that they belong. A striking, resonant examination of marriage, family, and identity, Speak to Me of Home is ultimately a story of mothers and daughters that asks: How can three women who share geography and genetics have such wildly different ideas of where they come from? And, more importantly, can they discover a common language to find their way back home?"--

"Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won't last forever, and he's desperate to get his hands on a real fortune. He thinks he's found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didn't expect. The woman has a niece, Inés, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt's household. When Inés discovers Ulises' true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They'll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast and clean. But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Inés is more alluring than he bargained on. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated. Venture into the streets of a small town where the patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust"--

"New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a captivating story about a young woman whose life becomes ensnared in her glamorous neighbor's secret past, laying bare the mounting tensions at play in a rapidly gentrifying, early 2000's Fort Greene, Brooklyn. SPRING, 2007 At twenty-six, Alicia Canales Forten feels smothered by her future. She's in a long-distance relationship, living at home with her mother's beliefs, saving up for her wedding to a future doctor. But after Alicia ventures out one night in the neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, she finds herself lured by the siren song of youth and possibility that the striving crowd of creatives holds, and moves in. No one embodies this more than La Garza, a larger-than-life, up-and-coming fashion designer whose epic house parties fuel neighborhood lore. La Garza's life, observed by Alicia from her apartment across the street, seems to hold the allure and fearlessness Alicia has never dared to imagine for herself. But when Alicia's wealthy banker cousin moves to the neighborhood, she finds herself increasingly drawn into both his and La Garza's precarious lives. Against the backdrop of a potentially life-changing presidential election and a looming once-in-a-generation fiscal crisis, Last Night in Brooklyn explores the dark compromise of the American Dream for people of color living, unknowingly, in the twilight of a cultural moment. It is a story about everything money can buy--and the destruction of what it can't"--

"In his final novel, the Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa returns to his native Peru"-- Provided by publisher

"In 1934, a young Jose Revueltas traveled to Tamaulipas to support the cotton workers' strike in Estacion Camaron, which became the basis of his landmark novel Human Mourning. In her own groundbreaking novel, Autobiography of Cotton, Cristina Rivera Garza recounts her grandparents' journey from mining towns to those same cotton fields as it intersects with Revueltas's life in a vivid and evocative history of cotton cultivation along the Mexico-US border. Through archival research and personal narrative, Rivera Garza chronicles the way cotton transformed the borderlands by reconstructing the cotton workers' strike and reveals how cycles of deprivation and ecocide persist across generations. Deeply personal and politically acute, Rivera Garza crafts a new kind of border novel that tells how a brittle land radically altered her grandparents' lives and the territories they helped develop. An intimate fictionalization, Autobiography of Cotton reveals a rich social history of agricultural colonization, labor activism, environmental degradation, and cross-border migration"-- Provided by publisher

"This colorful, emotive historical debut whisks us to the home of Frida Kahlo, where food, art, and love weave together an unforgettable story of friendship and loyalty, with a bright Coyoacán as a vivid background. A hidden painting. A buried past. A legacy waiting to be uncovered. Mexico City, 1939: Young and determined Nayeli Cruz flees from her Oaxaca home to arrive in Mexico City with neither friends nor prospects. Alone and armed only with her sharp wit and extraordinary talent in the kitchen, she finds herself in front of La Caza Azul, the home of Frida Kahlo. As she begins work as the artist's cook, Nayeli is pulled into Frida's world of pain, passion, and defiance. But it isn't long before amid the vibrant tapestry of flavors, scents, and colors, the two women form a deep bond--one that will shape the course of Nayeli's life and leave behind a secret buried in art. Buenos Aires, Present Day: Paloma, Nayeli's granddaughter, stumbles upon a mysterious painting depicting her grandmother as a young woman. The artist's identity is unknown, but the artwork's existence threatens to unravel long-held family secrets. As Paloma delves into her grandmother's past, she uncovers a tale of passion, betrayal, and resilience that challenges everything she thought she knew about the one woman who raised her"--

"In San Francisco in 1866, an Irish nun, abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman. To pursue her passion for writing, she is willing to defy societal norms. At the age of seventeen, she begins to publish pulp fiction using a man's pen name. When these fictional worlds can no longer satisfy her sense of adventure, she turns to journalism, convincing an editor at The Daily Examiner to hire her. There she is paired with another talented reporter, Eric Whelan. As she proves herself, her restlessness returns, until an opportunity arises to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. She seizes it, as does Eric, and while there, she meets her estranged father and delves into the violent confrontation in the country where her roots lie. As she and Eric discover love, the war escalates and Emilia finds herself in extreme danger, fearing for her life and questioning her identity and her destiny." --

"One hundred years after the shipwreck of the Valbanera, known to history as the 'poor man's Titanic', Mara Denis gets an assignment to report on the Canary Islands, where her ancestors lived before they moved to Cuba. Unexpectedly, she discovers that the grandmother her mother cherished was listed among the dead of the Valbanera, years before Mara's mother was even born. This fateful twist changes everything Mara thought she knew about her family and herself, and sends her on a quest to find the truth. If her great grandmother is a ghost, who is she and where did she come from?"--

An imaginative retelling of the triumphs and sorrows of one of the most controversial and misunderstood women in Mexico's history and mythology

"New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a captivating story about a young woman whose life becomes ensnared in her glamorous neighbor's secret past, laying bare the mounting tensions at play in a rapidly gentrifying, early 2000's Fort Greene, Brooklyn. SPRING, 2007 At twenty-six, Alicia Canales Forten feels smothered by her future. She's in a long-distance relationship, living at home with her mother's beliefs, saving up for her wedding to a future doctor. But after Alicia ventures out one night in the neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, she finds herself lured by the siren song of youth and possibility that the striving crowd of creatives holds, and moves in. No one embodies this more than La Garza, a larger-than-life, up-and-coming fashion designer whose epic house parties fuel neighborhood lore. La Garza's life, observed by Alicia from her apartment across the street, seems to hold the allure and fearlessness Alicia has never dared to imagine for herself. But when Alicia's wealthy banker cousin moves to the neighborhood, she finds herself increasingly drawn into both his and La Garza's precarious lives. Against the backdrop of a potentially life-changing presidential election and a looming once-in-a-generation fiscal crisis, Last Night in Brooklyn explores the dark compromise of the American Dream for people of color living, unknowingly, in the twilight of a cultural moment. It is a story about everything money can buy--and the destruction of what it can't"--