Charles Yu

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

California

A Novel

Willis Wu doesn't perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: He's merely Generic Asian man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but he is always relegated to a prop. Yet every day he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He's a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy--the most respected old that anyone who looks like him can attain. At least that's what he has been told, time and time again. Except by one person, his mother. Who says to him: Be more. Playful but heartfelt, a send-up of Hollywood tropes and Asian stereotypes, Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu's most moving, daring, and masterly novel yet.

Interior Chinatown

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Tembi Locke

Small wrinkle in top right corner of cover

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home

This Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller is “a captivating story of love lost and found” (Kirkus Reviews) set in the lush Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hours. It was love at first sight when actress Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just one problem: Saro’s traditional Sicilian family did not approve of his marrying a black American woman. However, the couple, heartbroken but undeterred, forged on. They built a happy life in Los Angeles, with fulfilling careers, deep friendships, and the love of their lives: a baby girl they adopted at birth. Eventually, they reconciled with Saro’s family just as he faced a formidable cancer that would consume all their dreams. From Scratch chronicles three summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as she begins to piece together a life without her husband in his tiny hometown hamlet of farmers. Where once Tembi was estranged from Saro’s family, now she finds solace and nourishment—literally and spiritually—at her mother-in-law’s table. In the Sicilian countryside, she discovers the healing gifts of simple fresh food, the embrace of a close knit community, and timeless traditions and wisdom that light a path forward. All along the way she reflects on her and Saro’s romance—an incredible love story that leaps off the pages. In Sicily, it is said that every story begins with a marriage or a death—in Tembi Locke’s case, it is both. “Locke’s raw and heartfelt memoir will uplift readers suffering from the loss of their own loved ones” (Publishers Weekly), but her story is also about love, finding a home, and chasing flavor as an act of remembrance. From Scratch is for anyone who has dared to reach for big love, fought for what mattered most, and those who needed a powerful reminder that life is...delicious.

From Scratch

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Nell Casey

Writers on Depression

Unholy Ghost is a unique collection of essays about depression that, in the spirit of William Styron's Darkness Visible, finds vivid expression for an elusive illness suffered by more than one in five Americans today. Unlike any other memoir of depression, however, Unholy Ghost includes many voices and depicts the most complete portrait of the illness. Lauren Slater eloquently describes her own perilous experience as a pregnant woman on antidepressant medication. Susanna Kaysen, writing for the first time about depression since Girl, Interrupted, criticizes herself and others for making too much of the illness. Larry McMurtry recounts the despair that descended after his quadruple bypass surgery. Meri Danquah describes the challenges of racism and depression. Ann Beattie sees melancholy as a consequence of her writing life. And Donald Hall lovingly remembers the "moody seesaw" of his relationship with his wife, Jane Kenyon. The collection also includes an illuminating series of companion pieces. Russell Banks's and Chase Twichell's essays represent husbandand-wife perspectives on depression; Rose Styron's contribution about her husband's struggle with melancholy is paired with an excerpt from William Styron's Darkness Visible; and the book's editor, Nell Casey, juxtaposes her own essay about seeing her sister through her depression with Maud Casey's account of this experience. These companion pieces portray the complicated bond -- a constant grasp for mutual understandingforged by depressives and their family members. With an introduction by Kay Redfield Jamison, Unholy Ghost allows the bewildering experience of depression to be adequately and beautifully rendered. The twenty-two stories that make up this book will offer solace and enlightenment to all readers.

Unholy Ghost

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Tasha Eurich

The Surprising Truth about How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think

Learn how to develop self-awareness and use it to become more fulfilled, confident, and successful.

Most people feel like they know themselves pretty well. But what if you could know yourself just a little bit better--and with this small improvement, get a big payoff...not just in your career, but in your life?
 
Research shows that self-awareness--knowing who we are and how others see us--is the foundation for high performance, smart choices, and lasting relationships. There's just one problem: most people don't see themselves quite as clearly as they could.
 
Fortunately, reveals organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich, self-awareness is a surprisingly developable skill. Integrating hundreds of studies with her own research and work in the Fortune 500 world, she shows us what it really takes to better understand ourselves on the inside--and how to get others to tell us the honest truth about how we come across.
 
Through stories of people who have made dramatic gains in self-awareness, she offers surprising secrets, techniques and strategies to help you do the same--and how to use this insight to be more fulfilled, confident, and successful in life and in work.  

In Insight, you'll learn:

* The 7 types of self-knowledge that self-aware people possess.
* The 2 biggest invisible roadblocks to self-awareness.
* Why approaches like therapy and journaling don't always lead to true insight
* How to stop your confidence-killing habits and learn to love who you are.
* How to benefit from mindfulness without uttering a single mantra.
* Why other people don't tell you the truth about yourself--and how to find out what they really think.
* How to deepen your insight into your passions, gifts, and the blind spots that could be holding you back.
* How to hear critical feedback without losing your mojo.
* Why the people with the most power can often be the least-self-aware, and how smart leaders avoid this trap.
* The 3 building blocks for self-aware teams.
* How to deal with delusional bosses, clients, and coworkers.

Insight

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Shani Silver

Don't Look for a Match. Light One

Shani Silver is not an advocate for singlehood. She's an advocate for single women feeling good while single-and there's a difference. A Single Revolution is one book for single women that won't approach you like you're unfinished. It's for those who are exhausted, frustrated, confused, or angry-who want relationships but don't deserve to be miserable in the meantime. A grueling dating grind isn't a prerequisite for partnership. You can be happily single and still meet someone-that's allowed. It's possible to value your single time so much that you refuse to give it up for anything less than the amazing relationships you deserve. It's also possible to stop searching for them so relentlessly that you ignore every other aspect of your valid, beautiful life. This isn't a book about dating. It's a book about living. You can choose how you feel about being single. You can choose to feel wrong, or you can choose to feel free. A Single Revolution isn't about changing yourself-it's about changing your mind.

A Single Revolution

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Sherman Alexie

My name and some markings inside from my college days :-)

Offers a fictional portrait of the characters, language, traditions, and daily life of those living on the Spokane Indian Reservation

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

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Megan Mullally

Nick Offerman

Small crinkle in top right corner, otherwise like new. This book was such a delight!

An Oral History

*A New York Times Bestseller* Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman reveal the full story behind their epic romance—presented in a series of intimate conversations between the couple, including photos, anecdotes, and the occasional puzzle. The year: 2000. The setting: Los Angeles. A gorgeous virtuoso of an actress agreed to star in a random play, and a basement-dwelling scenic carpenter said he would assay a supporting role in the selfsame pageant. At the first rehearsal she surveyed her fellow cast members, determining if any of the men might qualify to provide her with a satisfying fling. Her gaze fell upon the carpenter, and like a bolt of lightning the thought struck her: no dice. Moving on. Yet, unbeknownst to our protagonists, Cupid had merely set down his bow and picked up a rocket launcher...that fired a love rocket (not a euphemism). The players were Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, and the resulting romance, once ignited, was...epic. Beyond epic. It resulted in a coupling that has endured to this day; a sizzling, perpetual tryst that has captivated the world with its kindness, athleticism, astonishingly low-brow humor, and true (fire emoji) passion. How did they do it? They came from completely different families, ignored a significant age difference, and were separated by the gulf of several social strata. Megan loved books and art history; Nick loved hammers. But much more than these seemingly unsurpassable obstacles were the values they held in common: respect, decency, the ability to mention genitalia in almost any context, and an abiding obsession with the songs of Tom Waits. Eighteen years later, they're still very much in love and have finally decided to reveal the philosophical mountains they have conquered, the lessons they've learned, and the myriad jigsaw puzzles they've completed. Presented as an oral history in a series of conversations between the couple, the book features anecdotes, hijinks, photos, and a veritable grab bag of tomfoolery. This is not only the intoxicating book that Mullally's and Offerman's fans have been waiting for, it might just hold the solution to the greatest threat facing our modern world: the single life.

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

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Ann Patchett

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gunwielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.

Bel Canto

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Alice Steinbach

Adventures of a Curious Woman

This funny and tender book combines three of Alice Steinbach’s greatest passions: learning, traveling, and writing. After chronicling her European journey of self-discovery in Without Reservations, this Pulitzer Prize—winning columnist for the Baltimore Sun quit her job and left home again. This time she roamed the world, taking lessons and courses in such things as French cooking in Paris, Border collie training in Scotland, traditional Japanese arts in Kyoto, and architecture and art in Havana. With warmth and wit, Steinbach guides us through the pleasures and perils of discovering how to be a student again. She also learns the true value of this second chance at educating herself: the opportunity to connect with and learn from the people she meets along the way.

Educating Alice

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The Travels of an Independent Woman

"In many ways, I was an independent woman," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alice Steinbach. "For years I'd made my own choices, paid my own bills, shoveled my own snow." But somehow she had become dependent in quite another way. "I had fallen into the habit of defining myself in terms of who I was to other people and what they expected of me." But who was she away from the people and things that defined her? In this exquisite book, Steinbach searches for the answer to this question in some of the most beautiful and exciting places in the world: Paris, where she finds a soul mate; Oxford, where she takes a course on the English village; Milan, where she befriends a young woman about to be married. Beautifully illustrated with postcards from Steinbach's journeys, this revealing and witty book transports you into a fascinating inner and outer journey, an unforgettable voyage of discovery.

Praise for Without Reservations:

"A rich account of one woman's journey through Europe and into the self."
--Us Weekly

"I loved going along with Alice Steinbach as she goes off on this rare, wonderful adventure, an escape into discovering herself and some of the truly magical places in this world." --DOMINICK DUNNE

"More than a chronicle of the writer's search for self-discovery, Without Reservations is a lovely travelogue."
--Chicago Tribune

"The best books, like the best vacations, contain unexpected delights, surprises that enrich the soul as well as the senses. This is a book about love, and longing, and the passage of time. It's about hope, and courage, and the resiliency of memory. This book is a feast. Bon appétit!"
--The Des Moines Register

"Beautifully written, clear, insightful, thoughtful . . . Steinbach's book should be taken in slowly and savored all the way."
--St. Petersburg Times

Without Reservations

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Joanne Harris

Even before it was adapted into the Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, Joanne Harris' New York Times bestselling novel Chocolat entranced readers with its mix of hedonism, whimsy, and, of course, chocolate. In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival. Chocolat's every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere. It's a must for anyone who craves an escapist read, and is a bewitching gift for any holiday.

Chocolat

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Stieg Larsson

Forty years after the disappearance of Harriet Vanger from the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family, her octogenarian uncle hires journalist Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, an unconventional young hacker, to investigate.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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The wind has always dictated Vianne Rocher's every move, buffeting her from the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to the crowded streets of Paris. Cloaked in a new identity, that of widow Yanne Charbonneau, she opens a chocolaterie on a small Montmartre street, determined to still the wind at last and keep her daughters, Anouk and baby Rosette, safe. But the weather vane soon turns, and Zozie de l'Alba blows into their lives. Charming and enigmatic, Zozie provides the brightness that Yanne's life needs—as her vivacity and bold lollipop shoes dazzle rebellious and impressionable preadolescent Anouk. But beneath their new friend's benevolent façade lies a ruthless treachery—for devious, seductive Zozie has plans that will shake their world to pieces.

The Girl with No Shadow

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Joe Toplyn

How to Write Monologue Jokes, Desk Pieces, Sketches, Parodies, Audience Pieces, Remotes, and Other Short-Form Comedy

He has written and produced comedy/talk shows for over fifteen years. Now four-time Emmy winner Joe Toplyn reveals his proven methods of writing for late-night television in this one-of-a-kind insider's guide. Toplyn analyzes each type of comedy piece in the late-night TV playbook and takes you step-by-step through the process of writing it. His detailed tips, techniques, and rules include: * 6 characteristics every good monologue joke topic must have* 6 specific ways to generate punch lines* 12 tools for making your jokes their funniest* 7 types of desk pieces and how to create them* 9 steps to writing parodies and other sketches * How to go after a writing job in late night* PLUS a complete sample comedy/talk show submission packetAlso use this comprehensive manual to write short-form comedy for the Internet, sketch shows, magazines, reality shows, radio, advertising, and any other medium.

Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV

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Jonathan Eig

Small crinkle in bottom right corner of the cover, otherwise in great condition!

How Four Crusaders Revinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution

Documents the pivotal contributions of a feminist birth-control campaigner, a wealthy schizophrenic's wife, a disgraced Harvard scientist and a boundary-breaking Catholic doctor in the development of the birth-control pill. 40,000 first printing.

The Birth of the Pill

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Thomas Moore

A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals

Every human life is made up of the light and the dark, the happy and the sad, the vital and the deadening. How you think about this rhythm of moods makes all the difference. Our lives are filled with emotional tunnels: the loss of a loved one or end of a relationship, aging and illness, career disappointments or just an ongoing sense of dissatisfaction with life. Society tends to view these “dark nights” in clinical terms as obstacles to be overcome as quickly as possible. But Moore shows how honoring these periods of fragility as periods of incubation and positive opportunities to delve the soul’s deepest needs can provide healing and a new understanding of life’s meaning. Dark Nights of the Soul presents these metaphoric dark nights not as the enemy, but as times of transition, occasions to restore yourself, and transforming rites of passage, revealing an uplifting and inspiring new outlook on such topics as: • The healing power of melancholy • The sexual dark night and the mysteries of matrimony • Finding solace during illness and in aging • Anxiety, anger, and temporary Insanities • Linking creativity, spirituality, and emotional struggles • Finding meaning and beauty in the darkness

Dark Nights of the Soul

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Antoine Wilson

"[An] enthralling literary puzzle...Powerful, intoxicating, [and] shocking." --The New York Times
"[A] taut, compulsive chamber piece of a novel, which you'll struggle not to rip through in one sitting." --Vogue
"Gloriously addicting." --BuzzFeed

A successful art dealer confesses the story of his meteoric rise in this "sleek, swift, and graceful" novel "with unexpectedly sharp teeth" (Lauren Groff, New York Times bestselling author).

In a first-class lounge at JFK airport, our narrator listens as Jeff Cook, a former classmate he only vaguely remembers, shares the uncanny story of his adult life--a life that changed course years before, the moment he resuscitated a drowning man.

Jeff reveals that after that traumatic, galvanizing morning on the beach, he was compelled to learn more about the man whose life he had saved, convinced that their fates were now entwined. But are we agents of our fate--or are we its pawns? Upon discovering that the man is renowned art dealer Francis Arsenault, Jeff begins to surreptitiously visit his Beverly Hills gallery. Although Francis does not seem to recognize him as the man who saved his life, he nevertheless casts his legendary eye on Jeff and sees something worthy. He takes the younger man under his wing, initiating him into his world, where knowledge, taste, and access are currency; a world where value is constantly shifting and calling into question what is real, and what matters. The paths of the two men come together and diverge in dizzying ways until the novel's staggering ending.

Sly, suspenseful, and engrossing, Mouth to Mouth masterfully blurs the line between opportunity and exploitation, self-respect and self-delusion, fact and fiction--exposing the myriad ways we deceive each other, and ourselves.

Mouth to Mouth

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Denise Duffield-Thomas

Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First-Class Life

Why do most women settle for pennies instead of embracing true wealth? It's not because you're not smart or ambitious enough. In this book you'll learn how to unlock your hidden potential for abundance and upgrade your life forever

Browse by categories

Charles Yu

Interior Chinatown

Tembi Locke

From Scratch

Nell Casey

Unholy Ghost

Tasha Eurich

Insight

Shani Silver

A Single Revolution

Sherman Alexie

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Megan Mullally; Nick Offerman

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

Ann Patchett

Bel Canto

Alice Steinbach

Educating Alice

Alice Steinbach

Without Reservations

Joanne Harris

Chocolat

Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Joanne Harris

The Girl with No Shadow

Joe Toplyn

Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV

Jonathan Eig

The Birth of the Pill

Thomas Moore

Dark Nights of the Soul

Antoine Wilson

Mouth to Mouth

Denise Duffield-Thomas

Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!

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