Maria Dismondy

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

California

Celebrating Diversity with Empathy 

Chocolate Milk, Por Favor!

71669d2b-6d14-4156-9744-85444460022a-0

Susan Cain

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Oregon

How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

The author of the bestselling phenomenon Quiet reveals the power of a bittersweet, melancholic outlook on life, and why our culture has been so blind to its value. With her mega-bestseller Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an untapped power hidden in plain sight. Now, she employs the same mix of research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and the surprising lessons these states of mind teach us about creativity, compassion, leadership, spirituality, mortality and love. Bittersweetness is a tendency to states of longing, poignancy, and sorrow; an acute awareness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy when beholding beauty. It recognizes that light and dark, birth and death--bitter and sweet--are forever paired. A song in a minor key, an elegiac poem, or even a touching television commercial all can bring us to this sublime, even holy, state of mind--and, ultimately, to greater kinship with our fellow humans. But bittersweetness is not, as we tend to think, just a momentary feeling or event. It's also a way of being, a storied heritage. Our artistic and spiritual traditions--amplified by recent scientific and management research--teach us its power. Cain shows how a bittersweet state of mind is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain. If we don't acknowledge our own sorrows and longings, she says, we can end up inflicting them on others via abuse, domination, or neglect. But if we realize that all humans know--or will know--loss and suffering, we can turn toward each other. And we can learn to transform our own pain into creativity, transcendence, and connection. At a time of profound discord and personal anxiety, Bittersweet brings us together in deep and unexpected ways.

Bittersweet

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

North Carolina

Frans de Waal

Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society

From an internationally renowned authority on primatology and psychology comes a fascinating investigation of empathy in both humans and animals.

The Age of Empathy

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Anne Tyler

Massachusetts

A Novel

From the beloved and best-selling Anne Tyler, a sparkling new novel about misperception, second chances, and the sometimes elusive power of human connection. Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit. A self-employed tech expert, superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building, cautious to a fault behind the steering wheel, he seems content leading a steady, circumscribed life. But one day his routines are blown apart when his woman friend (he refuses to call anyone in her late thirties a "girlfriend") tells him she's facing eviction, and a teenager shows up at Micah's door claiming to be his son. These surprises, and the ways they throw Micah's meticulously organized life off-kilter, risk changing him forever. An intimate look into the heart and mind of a man who finds those around him just out of reach, and a funny, joyful, deeply compassionate story about seeing the world through new eyes, Redhead by the Side of the Road is a triumph, filled with Anne Tyler's signature wit and gimlet-eyed observation.

Redhead by the Side of the Road

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Arkansas

A Memoir

From the beloved film star and best-selling author of Then Again--a heartfelt memoir about Diane Keaton's relationship with her younger brother, and a poignant exploration of the divergent paths siblings' lives can take.

When they were children in the suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1950s, Diane Keaton and her younger brother, Randy, were best friends and companions- they shared stories at night in their bunk beds; they swam, laughed, dressed up for Halloween. Their mother captured their American-dream childhoods in her diaries, and on camera. But as they grew up, Randy became troubled, then reclusive. By the time he reached adulthood, he was divorced, an alcoholic, a man who couldn't hold on to full-time work--his life a world away from his sister's, and from the rest of their family.

Now Diane is delving into the nuances of their shared, and separate, pasts to confront the difficult question of why and how Randy ended up living his life on "the other side of normal." In beautiful and fearless prose that's intertwined with photographs, journal entries, letters, and poetry--many of them Randy's own writing and art--this insightful memoir contemplates the inner workings of a family, the ties that hold it together, and the special bond between siblings even when they are pulled far apart. Here is a story about love and responsibility- about how, when we choose to reach out to the people we feel closest to--in moments of difficulty and loss--surprising things can happen. A story with universal echoes, Brother & Sister speaks across generations to families whose lives have been touched by the fragility and "otherness" of loved ones--and to brothers and sisters everywhere.

Brother and Sister

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All Because You Matter

#hardcover #struggle #tension #life #Divine  #consciousness #God #creation #compassion #empathy

Tennessee

Toward Sacredness, Personal Meaning and Spiritual Nourishment

From the acclaimed author of Fire Bearer comes a welcome friend on the journey of understanding the self, the world, and God. Here, Dwinell reflects on human life as nothing less than an ongoing God-birthing process. A moving and hopeful message. Author apperances.

God-Birthing

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Ali Smith

Please review photos. There is some underlining in this copy. 

South Carolina

From the Man Booker Prize Finalist comes the third novel in her Seasonal Quartet--a New York Times Notable Book and longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020

What unites Katherine Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, Shakespeare, Rilke, Beethoven, Brexit,  the present, the past, the north, the south, the east, the west, a man mourning lost times, a woman trapped in modern times?

Spring. The great connective.

With an eye to the migrancy of story over time and riffing on Pericles, one of Shakespeare's most resistant and rollicking works, Ali Smith tell the impossible tale of an impossible time. In a time of walls and lockdown, Smith opens the door.

The time we're living in is changing nature. Will it change the nature of story?

Hope springs eternal.

Spring

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David LaRochelle

Such a great book on how to apologize. It’s a children’s book, but I read it to my teens because it’s info everyone should know. 

Texas

From the team behind See the Cat: Three Stories About a Dog comes a funny and handy guide that explains just how (and how not!) to say "I'm sorry." Wouldn't the world be a better place if everyone knew how to apologize? Luckily, this humorous guidebook is full of practical tips about when, why, and how to say you're sorry. From a porcupine who accidentally popped his friend's balloon to a snail who was running so fast he stepped on a sloth's toes, hilarious examples and sweet illustrations abound. For both listeners who are just learning and older readers who need a refresher, this book will come as a welcome reminder that even though apologizing can be hard, it doesn't have to be complicated.

How to Apologize

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Pennsylvania

Mary Beth Keane

The triumphant New York Times Bestseller * The Tonight Show Summer Reads Pick * Named one of the best books of the year by People, Vogue, Parade, NPR, and Elle “This is one beautiful book. I was wowed by Keane’s writing and narrative skill—and by what she knows about trouble.” —Stephen King How much can a family forgive? Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, rookie NYPD cops, are neighbors in the suburbs. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the explosive events to come. In Mary Beth Keane's extraordinary novel, a lifelong friendship and love blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next thirty years. Heartbreaking and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes is a gorgeous and generous portrait of the daily intimacies of marriage and the power of forgiveness.

Ask Again, Yes

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Book jacket on back of book is stretched a bit. Please see picture for reference. 

Dorene O'Brien

Rated 4.3 out of 5 on Goodreads!
First printing.
Short stories crafted with the human element of hope weaved throughout.

Dorene O'Brien is a Detroit-based writer and teacher whose stories have won the Red Rock Review Mark Twain Award for Short Fiction, the Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award, the New Millennium Writings Fiction Prize, and the Wind Fiction Prize.

Maryland

"Dorene O'Brien's stories operate on a different plane and dimension of realism--flesh and blood, yet dipped in a neon wash perhaps. At once a scientist of sensory details and a heartfelt observer of the intricacies of the human psyche, O'Brien's prose possesses a particular cinema that will not just stay in your mind but your gut as well." -Porochista Khakpour, author of Sons and Other Flammable Objects, The Last Illusion and Sick

What It Might Feel Like to Hope

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Georgia

Simple Truths

Paula J. Fox

Utah

Heart of a Caregiver

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In this sweet short story, a little girl is having an extra grouchy day... but, she's convinced her mom is the one with the attitude! Enjoy this lovable, completely relatable tale of a "Grouchy Mom" just trying to hold it all together!

The Grouchy Mom

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Susan Verde

Kansas

A Book of Empathy

A child recognizes his own humanity, his capacity for doing harm and being harmed, his ability to feel joy and sadness, and his belief in hope and promise to keep learning.

I Am Human

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Harper Lee

An historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014. Go Set a Watchman features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Returning home to Maycomb to visit her father, Jean Louise Finch—Scout—struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society, and the small Alabama town that shaped her. Exploring how the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird are adjusting to the turbulent events transforming mid-1950s America, Go Set a Watchman casts a fascinating new light on Harper Lee’s enduring classic. Moving, funny and compelling, it stands as a magnificent novel in its own right.

Go Set a Watchman

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Angie Thomas

Amandla Stenberg

The book is in Fine condition; the dust jacket has a little bit of wear.

New York

8 starred reviews ∙ William C. Morris Award Winner ∙ National Book Award Longlist ∙ Printz Honor Book ∙ Coretta Scott King Honor Book ∙ #1 New York Times Bestseller! "Absolutely riveting!" —Jason Reynolds "Stunning." —John Green "This story is necessary. This story is important." —Kirkus (starred review) "Heartbreakingly topical." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A marvel of verisimilitude." —Booklist (starred review) "A powerful, in-your-face novel." —Horn Book (starred review) Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. And don't miss On the Come Up, Angie Thomas's powerful follow-up to The Hate U Give.

The Hate U Give

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Jennifer Finney Boylan

Rip on front cover that is taped as shown. Shelf wear as shown. Red dot on bottom

When the body of a college friend is discovered twenty years after her disappearance, Judith, the only witness who can testify to the innocence of the chief suspect, is forced to confront dark secrets from her past that compromise the healthy life she has built for her family.

Long Black Veil

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Limu the blue turtle

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Kate Jane Neal

This book is about your heart. (the little bit inside of you that makes you, you!) The words we listen to can affect how we feel. Some words can do amazing things and make us happy. And some words can really hurt us (we all know what sort of words those are). Our words have power, and we can choose to use them to make the world a better place. Simple, direct, and emotive, Words and Your Heart’s message is that words have extraordinary power–to harm and to heal; to create and to destroy; and to spread love.

Words and Your Heart

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#hardcover #raisingkids #nonfiction #unselfie #family #empathy 

Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World

Bestselling author Michele Borba offers a 9-step program to help parents cultivate empathy in children, from birth to young adulthood--and explains why developing a healthy sense of empathy is a key predictor of which kids will thrive and succeed in the future.

Is the Selfie Syndrome Undermining Our Kids' Future?

Teens today are 40 percent less empathetic than they were thirty years ago. Why is a lack of empathy--which goes hand-in-hand with the self-absorption epidemic Dr. Michele Borba calls the Selfie Syndrome--so dangerous? First, it hurts kids' academic performance and leads to bullying behaviors. Also, it correlates with more cheating and less resilience. And once children grow up, a lack of empathy hampers their ability to collaborate, innovate, and problem-solve--all must-have skills for the global economy.

In UnSelfie Dr. Borba pinpoints the forces causing the empathy crisis and shares a revolutionary, researched-based, 9-step plan for reversing it. Readers will learn:

-Why discipline approaches like spanking, yelling, and even time-out can squelch empathy

-How lavish praise inflates kids' egos and keeps them locked in "selfie" mode

-Why reading makes kids smarter and kinder

-How to help kids be Upstanders--not bystanders--in the face of bullying

-Why self-control is a better predictor of wealth, health, and happiness than grades or IQ

-Why the right mix of structured extracurricular activities and free play is key for teaching collaboration

-How to ignite a Kindness Revolution in your kids and community

The good news? Empathy is a trait that can be taught and nurtured. Dr. Borba offers a framework for parenting that yields the results we all want: successful, happy kids who also are kind, moral, courageous, and resilient. UnSelfie is a blueprint for parents and educators who want to kids shift their focus from I, me, and mine...to we, us, and ours.

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María Dismondy

Chocolate Milk, Por Favor!

Susan Cain

Bittersweet

Susan Cain

Bittersweet

Frans de Waal

The Age of Empathy

Anne Tyler

Redhead by the Side of the Road

Diane Keaton

Brother and Sister

Tami Charles

All Because You Matter

Michael Dwinell

God-Birthing

Ali Smith

Spring

David LaRochelle

How to Apologize

Susan Cain

Bittersweet

Mary Beth Keane

Ask Again, Yes

Susan Cain

Bittersweet

Dorene O'Brien

What It Might Feel Like to Hope

Susan Cain

Bittersweet

Simple Truths; Paula J. Fox

Heart of a Caregiver

Rebecca Ventre; Darya Shchegoleva (Illustrator)

The Grouchy Mom

Susan Verde

I Am Human

Harper Lee

Go Set a Watchman

Angie Thomas; Amandla Stenberg

The Hate U Give

Jennifer Finney Boylan

Long Black Veil

Kimo Armitage

Limu the blue turtle

Kate Jane Neal

Words and Your Heart

Michele Borba

UnSelfie