Staff Picks
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What Was Reconstruction?
In the same style as the New York Times Best-Selling Who Was? series, What Was? focuses on compelling historical events, great battles, protests, and discoveries.
Learn about a pivotal time in American history and its momentous effects on civil rights in America in this enlightening title about Reconstruction.
Reconstruction -- the period after the Civil War -- was meant to give newly freed Black people the same rights as white people. And indeed there were monumental changes once slavery ended -- thriving new Black communities, the first Black members in Congress, and a new sense of dignity for many Black Americans. But this time of hope didn’t last long and instead, a deeply segregated United States continued on for another hundred years. Find out what went wrong in this fascinating overview of a troubled time. -
That Self-Same Metal (The Forge & Fracture Saga, Book 1)
Brittany N. Williams’s That Self-Same Metal “seamlessly weaves together history, fantasy, culture, magic, and love” (New York Times bestselling author Daniel José Older), in a stunning YA fantasy debut, first in the Forge & Fracture Saga, perfect for fans of Holly Black and Justina Ireland, about a Black girl (and sword expert) fighting a Fae uprising in Shakespearean London.
Sixteen-year-old Joan Sands is a gifted craftswoman who creates and upkeeps the stage blades for William Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men. Joan’s skill with her blades comes from a magical ability to control metal—an ability gifted by her Head Orisha, Ogun. Because her whole family is Orisha-blessed, the Sands family have always kept tabs on the Fae presence in London.
Usually that doesn’t involve much except noting the faint glow around a Fae’s body as they try to blend in with London society, but lately, there has been an uptick in brutal Fae attacks. After Joan wounds a powerful Fae and saves the son of a cruel lord, she is drawn into political intrigue in the human and Fae worlds.
Swashbuckling, romantic, and full of the sights and sounds of Shakespeare’s London, this series starter delivers an unforgettable story—and a heroine unlike any other. -
Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter
Booklist Star
A tender and powerful affirmation that Black lives have always mattered.
Black lives matter. That message would be self-evident in a just world, but in this world and this America, all children need to hear it again and again, and not just to hear it but to feel and know it.
This book affirms the message repeatedly, tenderly, with cumulative power and shared pride. Celebrating Black accomplishments in music, art, literature, journalism, politics, law, science, medicine, entertainment, and sports, Shani King summons a magnificent historical and contemporary context for honoring the fortitude of Black role models, women and men, who have achieved greatness despite the grinding political and social constraints on Black life. Frederick Douglass, Toni Morrison, Sojourner Truth, John Lewis, Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Aretha Franklin, and many more pass through these pages. An America without their struggles, aspirations, and contributions would be a shadow of the country we know. A hundred life sketches augment the narrative, opening a hundred doors to lives and thinking that aren’t included in many history books. James Baldwin’s challenge is here: “We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.” Actress Viola Davis’s words are here, too: “When I was younger, I did not exert my voice because I did not feel worthy of having a voice. I was taught so many things that didn’t include me. Where was I? What were people like me doing?”
This book tells children what people like Viola were and are doing, and it assures Black children that they are, indisputably, worthy of having a voice.
Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter? is a book for this time and always. It is time for all children to live and breathe the certainty that Black lives matter.
Endorsements:
“A beautiful and powerful story and a way to engage and teach children—on Black history, which is American history, and on the legacy of Black struggle and achievement in this nation.” —Khary Lazarre-White, Executive Director & Co-Founder, The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, and author of Passage
“The world needs this yesterday.” —James Forman Jr., Pulitzer Prize – winning author of Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America
“Fantastic.”—Janai S. Nelson, Associate Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
“Black children grow up being treated differently because of the color of their skin. This loving and positive book acknowledges that reality while also celebrating the resilience of Black people and the accomplishments, leadership, and fortitude of Black Americans. We need this book.”—Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, Director of the Harvard Medical School Center of Excellence in Women’s Health and former Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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Overground Railroad
This historical exploration of the Green Book offers “a fascinating [and] sweeping story of black travel within Jim Crow America across four decades” (The New York Times Book Review).
Published from 1936 to 1966, the Green Book was hailed as the “black travel guide to America.” At that time, it was very dangerous and difficult for African-Americans to travel because they couldn’t eat, sleep, or buy gas at most white-owned businesses. The Green Book listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that were safe for black travelers. It was a resourceful and innovative solution to a horrific problem.
It took courage to be listed in the Green Book, and Overground Railroad celebrates the stories of those who put their names in the book and stood up against segregation. Author Candacy A. Taylor shows the history of the Green Book, how we arrived at our present historical moment, and how far we still have to go when it comes to race relations in America.
A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 -
When We Say Black Lives Matter
In a powerful, poetic missive, award-winning author-illustrator Maxine Beneba Clarke celebrates the meaning behind the words Black Lives Matter.
Little one, when we say Black Lives Matter,
we’re saying Black people are wonderful-strong.
That we deserve to be treated with basic respect,
and that history’s done us wrong. . . .
Darling, when we sing that Black Lives Matter,
and we’re dancing through the streets,
we’re saying: fear will not destroy our joy,
defiance in our feet.
In this joyful exploration of the Black Lives Matter motto, a loving narrator relays to a young Black child the strength and resonance behind the words. In family life, through school and beyond, the refrains echo and gain in power, among vignettes of protests and scenes of ancestors creating music on djembe drums. With deeply saturated illustrations rendered in jewel tones, Maxine Beneba Clarke offers a gorgeous, moving, and essential picture book. -
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People
A National Book Award Finalist
A Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor Book
A Michael L. Printz Honor Book
A Walter Dean Myers Honor Book
With passion and precision, Kekla Magoon relays an essential account of the Black Panthers—as militant revolutionaries and as human rights advocates working to defend and protect their community.
In this comprehensive, inspiring, and all-too-relevant history of the Black Panther Party, Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers’ community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers’ story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew thousands of members—mostly women—and became the target of one of the most sustained repression efforts ever made by the U.S. government against its own citizens.
Revolution in Our Time puts the Panthers in the proper context of Black American history, from the first arrival of enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter movement of today. Kekla Magoon’s eye-opening work invites a new generation of readers grappling with injustices in the United States to learn from the Panthers’ history and courage, inspiring them to take their own place in the ongoing fight for justice. -
Black Birds in the Sky
A searing new work of nonfiction from award-winning author Brandy Colbert about the history and legacy of one of the most deadly and destructive acts of racial violence in American history: the Tulsa Race Massacre. Winner, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.
In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District—a thriving, affluent neighborhood known as America's Black Wall Street. They brought with them firearms, gasoline, and explosives.
In a few short hours, they'd razed thirty-five square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in US history. But how did it come to pass? What exactly happened? And why are the events unknown to so many of us today?
These are the questions that award-winning author Brandy Colbert seeks to answer in this unflinching nonfiction account of the Tulsa Race Massacre. In examining the tension that was brought to a boil by many factors—white resentment of Black economic and political advancement, the resurgence of white supremacist groups, the tone and perspective of the media, and more—a portrait is drawn of an event singular in its devastation, but not in its kind. It is part of a legacy of white violence that can be traced from our country's earliest days through Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement in the mid–twentieth century, and the fight for justice and accountability Black Americans still face today.
The Tulsa Race Massacre has long failed to fit into the story Americans like to tell themselves about the history of their country. This book, ambitious and intimate in turn, explores the ways in which the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre is the story of America—and by showing us who we are, points to a way forward.
YALSA Honor Award for Excellence in Nonfiction
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28 Days
Each day features a different influential figure in African-American history, from Crispus Attucks, the first man shot in the Boston Massacre, sparking the Revolutionary War, to Madame C. J. Walker, who after years of adversity became the wealthiest black woman in the country, as well as one of the wealthiest black Americans, to Barack Obama, the country's first African-American president.
With powerful illustrations by Shane Evans, this is a completely unique look at the importance and influence of African Americans on the history of this country. -
Little Leaders
'Athletes, especially black athletes, must use every resource at their command to right things that are wrong' - Arthur Ashe
FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, VASHTI HARRISON
Meet the little leaders. They're brave. They're exceptional. They changed the world.
Did you know that the father of African cinema was originally a bricklayer?
Or that Vogue's editor-at-large read his first Vogue magazine in his local library?
Learn all about the exceptional black men who broke barriers and fought injustice to realise their dreams and make the world a better place.
With Vashti Harrison's beautiful illustrations and illuminating writing, discover the stories of black men from all walks of life, including:
Doctor Harold Moody
Diplomat Kofi Annan
Activist Paul Stephenson
Architect Sir David Adjaye
Comic book author Dwayne McDuffie
Musician Prince
Your own little leaders will be inspired to take on the world after learning about these incredible men. -
ABC Black History and Me
ABC Black History and Me presents 26 historical concepts, events, and people—from A to Z—that are important in Black American history.
From A is for Advocate to Z is for Zest, each letter of the alphabet is paired with inspirational historical concepts in this 9x9-inch board book. Along with the upbeat, rhyming text covering both well-known and more obscure topics, are colorful illustrations that promote an excitement and curiosity about Black American history. Covering trailblazers from A to Z but also chronologically, this book features a visual timeline with additional information for more in-depth learning on the people, places, and events discussed.
From Harriet Tubman and Fanny Jackson Coppin to Amanda Gorman and Ketanji Brown Jackson, ABC Black History and Me covers more than 170 years in a short board book appropriate for the little ones. This book is not only perfect for getting toddlers comfortable with their ABCs, but also for reflecting on how we are all affected by this history and how even the youngest of children will affect the future.
With age-appropriate concepts and visuals, ABC Black History and Me is a perfect discussion starter for the whole family. Even adults will find something to learn in this board book!
The ABC for Me series presents a world of possibilities from A to Z and everything in between! For all little kids with big dreams, the endearing illustrations and mindful concepts in this series pair each letter of the alphabet with words that promote big dreams, inclusion, acceptance, healthy living, and other key concepts important to emotional well-being. Other books in this series include:
- ABC Love (2017)
- ABC What Can She Be? (2018)
- ABC Let’s Celebrate You & Me (2021)
- ABC Bedtime (2022)
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Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History
A NEW YORK TIMES INSTANT BESTSELLER!A USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
This beautifully illustrated New York Times bestseller introduces readers of all ages to 40 women who changed the world.
An important book for all ages, Little Leaders educates and inspires as it relates true stories of forty trailblazing black women in American history. Illuminating text paired with irresistible illustrations bring to life both iconic and lesser-known female figures of Black history such as abolitionist Sojourner Truth, pilot Bessie Coleman, chemist Alice Ball, politician Shirley Chisholm, mathematician Katherine Johnson, poet Maya Angelou, and filmmaker Julie Dash.
Among these biographies, readers will find heroes, role models, and everyday women who did extraordinary things - bold women whose actions and beliefs contributed to making the world better for generations of girls and women to come. Whether they were putting pen to paper, soaring through the air or speaking up for the rights of others, the women profiled in these pages were all taking a stand against a world that didn't always accept them.
The leaders in this book may be little, but they all did something big and amazing, inspiring generations to come.
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The ABCs of Black History
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
B is for Beautiful, Brave, and Bright! And for a Book that takes a Bold journey through the alphabet of Black history and culture.
Letter by letter, The ABCs of Black History celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy.
It’s a story of big ideas––P is for Power, S is for Science and Soul. Of significant moments––G is for Great Migration. Of iconic figures––H is for Zora Neale Hurston, X is for Malcom X. It’s an ABC book like no other, and a story of hope and love.
In addition to rhyming text, the book includes back matter with information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, and the Little Rock Nine to DJ Kool Herc.
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Timelines from Black History
Amazing visual timelines take readers through the people and the issues that have shaped Black history
Erased. Ignored. Hidden. Lost. Underappreciated. No longer. Delve into the unique, inspiring, and world-changing history of Black people.
From Frederick Douglass to Oprah Winfrey, and the achievements of ancient African kingdoms to those of the US Civil Rights Movement, Timelines From Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies takes kids on an exceptional journey from prehistory to modern times.
This DK children's ebook boasts more than 30 visual timelines, which explore the biographies of the famous and the not-so-famous - from royalty to activists, and writers to scientists, and much, much more. Stunning thematic timelines also explain the development of Black history - from the experiences of black people in the US, to the story of postcolonial Africa.
Did you know that the richest person ever to have lived was a West African? Or that the technology that made the lightbulb possible was developed by African American inventor, and not Thomas Edison? How about the fact that Ethiopia was the only African country to avoid colonization, thanks to the leadership of a brave queen?
Stacked with facts and visually vibrant, Timelines From Black History: Leaders, Legacies, Legends is an unforgettable and accessible hive of information on the people and the issues that have shaped Black history. -
Heads Up
★ “Informative, diverse, and highly engaging; a much-needed addition to the realm of mental health.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Featuring real-life stories of people who have found hope and meaning in the midst of life’s struggles, Heads Up: Changing Minds on Mental Health is the go-to guide for teenagers who want to know about mental health, mental illness, trauma and recovery. For too long, mental health problems have been kept in the shadows, leaving people to suffer in silence, or worse, to be feared, bullied or pushed to the margins of society where survival is difficult.
This book shines a light on the troubled history of thinking about and treating mental illness and tells the stories of courageous pioneers in the field of psychiatry who fought for more compassionate, respectful and effective treatments. It provides a helpful guide to the major mental health diagnoses along with ideas and resources to support those who are suffering. But it also moves beyond a biomedical focus and considers the latest science that shows how trauma and social inequality impact mental health. The book explores how mental health is more than just “in our heads” and includes the voices of Indigenous people who share a more holistic way of thinking about wellness, balancing mind, body, heart and spirit. Highlighting innovative approaches such as trauma-informed activities like yoga and hip-hop, police mental health teams, and peer support for youth, Heads Up shares the stories of people who are sparking change.
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Where to Start
A comforting and useful resource for anyone who’s struggling emotionally and looking for help―from the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit that addresses the needs of those living with mental illness
It can be extremely hard to figure out what’s going on in our own heads when we are suffering—when we feel alone and unworthy and can’t stop our self-critical inner voice. And it’s even more difficult to know where to go for answers.
This book is a perfect first step. Here you’ll find clear, honest, reassuring information about all the most common mental illnesses and what you can do to find help and to practice self-care.
Where to Start features:- jargon-free information about all the most common mental illnesses, including a first self-assessment test;
- tips on how to get professional help and how to talk about your mental health with friends and family;
- essential tools, including handy worksheets and DIY mental health content; and
- insightful, funny drawings by acclaimed cartoonist Gemma Correll.
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Stress Less
Stress Less teaches concrete skills for managing stress and anxiety, organized into common "stress domains" such as family, friends, dating, school, and media.
Let’s get real. Stress is part of every teen’s life—stress of exams, college applications, a big game, difficult teachers, difficult friends, parents who don’t always get you, not to mention the dating and social scenes. Stress like this tends to build over time—week after week—and takes a toll on your mental health. But, great news! Learning stress-busting skills doesn’t take much time at all. Just 20 minutes a day is probably all it takes. The skills in this book are easy to learn and can be practiced anywhere—on the bus, before bed, or during lunch. Once you see that it helps, you’ll adjust and be ready to bust more stress. And then before you realize it—you’ve got it!
Written by cognitive-behavioral therapist and stress-busting expert, Michael A. Tompkins, PhD, Stress Less teaches concrete skills for managing stress and anxiety, organized into “stress domains” such as family, friends, dating, school, and tech/media. And because stress doesn’t go away when teens hit adulthood, Stress Less will help readers maintain balance and calm as they deal with the ups and downs of life in the months and years to come. -
Imperfect: A Story of Body Image
Dounya, a Muslim girl living in Las Vegas, Nevada, shares her very personal story of battling eating disorders when she was a teenager, in order to help other young people suffering from this affliction.
Imperfect: A Story of Body Image is the fourth in a series of graphic novels written by young adults for their peers.
Dounya Awada is a 24-year-old, devout Muslim, happy, healthy, and very much alive. But just a few years before, she nearly starved to death.
Her struggle began when she was six years old.
Little Dounya wanted nothing less than to be perfect, like her mother. She pushed herself hard every day, excelling in schoolwork and at home. She had to be the cutest, prettiest, smartest girl in the room. The slightest hint of imperfection led to meltdowns and uncontrollable tantrums. Her parents loved her fiercely but were unable to understand what was happening to their little girl.
Being perfect all the time was exhausting. In Dounya’s culture, food is nearly synonymous with love. Food is nourishment, nourishment is love, love is life. Dounya began to eat to fill the growing need within her. She grew in size, eventually hitting over 200 pounds at just age 15. Food became her only friend. Her peers mocked her. She felt utterly alone.
As is the case for someone with dysmorphia, Dounya’s obsession with food did a turnabout, and she began rigorous exercising and dieting. But even a substantial weight loss didn’t satisfy her. She looked in the mirror and still saw the fat girl she used to be. She began the ugly cycle of bingeing and purging, eventually hitting a low weight of just 73 pounds.
Dounya’s horrific struggle with eating disorders has led her to advocate for boys and girls facing the same hurdles with which she struggled. She is now studying clinical psychology, and hopes to open an eating and dysmorphia disorder facility in Las Vegas for boys and girls with her disorder. If her story helps just one person to recognize the beauty of their imperfection, then her pain will have been worthwhile.
Zuiker Press is proud to publish stories about important current topics for kids and adolescents, written by their peers, that will help them cope with the challenges they face in today’s troubled world. -
Be More Vegan
"From soups to pasta to curries, these plant-based dishes (containing no meat, eggs, or dairy) cover a range of tempting options for all tastes, and each recipe is accompanied by a bright, colorful photo. No boring salads to be seen here...a fine choice." --Kirkus Reviews
We all want to be a bit more vegan...and this book shows you how.
Whether you're ready to commit to a fully plant-based lifestyle or you'd just like to add a few meat-free dishes to your weekly meal plan, this is the ideal guide.
It explains the reasons behind going vegan, including environmental, health and animal welfare benefits, in clear and simple language that helps young people make up their own minds. It answers all the nagging questions about nutrition and ethics, as well as giving bang-up-to-date information about the best vegan ingredients, substitutions and food hacks.
Best of all, it contains mouthwatering recipes for every situation, from lunchbox staples to midweek meals, and tasty snacks to amazing cakes and desserts. There's so much to love about the vegan life, so get Be More Vegan and start making a difference in the most delicious way possible!
Get your teenager cooking with:
- Over 50 delicious (and easy) vegan recipes: Pecan Pie Granola, Sweet morning banana pancakes, Pesto pasta salads, Creamy sweet potato soup, Loaded tofu fajitas, Harissa falafel burgers, Hoisin jackfruit burritos, Super summer rolls, Gooey caramel choc pots, Carrot cake mug cake and more...
- An insightful introduction to veganism: Explore the vegan lifestyle, what it means to be vegan and how that affects the world, how to include veganism in fashion and answers to the awkward and common questions people have about being vegan
- Learn about vegan substitutes & being more hands on in the kitchen: A huge selection of plant-based substitutes for popular ingredients like milk, eggs and yogurt take the stress out of shopping for each recipe, and a helpful list of pantry essentials for vegan meals means you can always whip up a meal in a jiffy! Helpful hints about interpreting recipes, staying safe and clean in the kitchen and a glossary of useful terms and techniques will have you cooking like a pro!
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Highs & Lows of Type 1 Diabetes
Valuable tips, tricks, and advice from a veteran young adult with Type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) can be a daunting diagnosis, especially for a young kid or a teen. Patrick McAllister knows. Diagnosed with T1D at age twelve, McAllister’s life changed forever, and he faced an uncertain future of insulin shots, diet regulations, and high school. If only I had a roadmap, he thought. So, years after he learned things the hard way, he decided to write one.
Whether it is managing mood swings, hormones, or blood sugar levels, Highs & Lows of Type 1 Diabetes is the ultimate teenager’s and young adult’s handbook for surviving, thriving, and flourishing with T1D during one of the most terrifying, yet exciting, phases of your life. Many think of T1D as a scary disease that is sporadic and uncontrollable, but after eight years of dealing with the literal and figurative highs and lows of T1D, McAllister has learned that it is more a lifestyle change.
These pages detail a framework for every situation you could possibly imagine involving T1D, from coming home from the hospital after your diagnosis to preparing to leave your nest for freshman year at college. Learn how to:- Count carbohydrates, pump insulin like a pro, and correct irregular blood sugar levels
- Tell your friends, get good grades, and survive school
- Play sports with the right game-plan
- Navigate sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll
- And more!
Type 1 diabetes stinks, but you don’t have to go through it blind and alone! Some have learned it the hard way, but Highs & Lows of Type 1 Diabetes will ensure that you will take control of your T1D diagnosis, conquer your adolescent years, and live a healthy and fulfilling life.
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The Girl's Guide to Relationships, Sexuality, and Consent
Are you looking for clear and reliable information about relationships, sexuality, safety, and consent? You can find it in this essential guide—just for teen girls.
As a teen girl, you probably have a ton of questions about sex and relationships. For example, what do you do if someone sends or asks you to send an explicit picture or text? How do you know if you are straight, bi, pan, or gay? What do you do if you are being pressured to do something you don’t want to do? This book has all the answers you seek.
Written by two experts in teen mental health, this go-to guide offers empowering tools to help you build self-esteem, clarify your values, understand your sexual identity and boundaries, decide what feels right for you, and know what to do when things go wrong. And by practicing the simple evidence-based skills in this book, you’ll learn how to handle any situation that you may encounter—whether online or IRL.
As a teen girl navigating the world of sex, dating, and relationships, you need to feel empowered and confident to make important decisions for yourself that are grounded in self-respect and safety. This book can help, every step of the way.
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It's All Love
An empowering collection written by Jenna Ortega, the award-winning actress starring in the hit Netflix series WEDNESDAY. These deeply personal stories and quotes are accompanied by beautiful illustrations that explore Jenna's struggles with depression, experiences falling in—and out of—love, the loss of close family members, and growing up Latina in Hollywood.
You are not alone.
We are in this together.
This collection from actress Jenna Ortega is filled with her own original quotes and affirmations that will inspire you to lean into faith and love and family during life's most difficult, and most joyous, moments.
Jenna has had to balance her acting career, her private life, and public expectations from a young age, and she’s learned that the only way to get through it all is to wake up every morning and affirm her commitment to herself, her faith, her mental health, and her family. In this honest and moving debut, she shares openly and intimately what it means to live this life of self-appreciation.
Jenna's vulnerability in her writing will remind readers that there’s power within us all and we are not alone in our struggles. -
Better Than We Found It: Conversations to Help Save the World
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Black Friend and a seasoned activist comes an indispensable guide to social and political progressivism for young people and anyone wanting to get more involved.
Every generation inherits the problems created by the ones before them, but no generation will inherit as many problems—as many crises—as the current generation of young people. From the devastations of climate change to the horrors of gun violence, from rampant transphobia to the widening wealth gap, from the lack of health care to the lack of housing, the challenges facing the next generation can feel insurmountable. But change, even revolution, is possible; you just have to know where to start. In Better Than We Found It, best-selling author Frederick Joseph and debut author Porsche Joseph make the case for addressing some of the biggest issues of our day. Featuring more than two dozen interviews with prominent activists, authors, actors, and politicians, this is the essential resource for those who want to make the world better than we found it.
Featuring interviews with:
Mehcad Brooks
Keah Brown
Julián Castro
Sonja Cherry-Paul
Chelsea Clinton
Charlotte Clymer
Mari Copeny, aka Little Miss Flint
Greg D’Amato
Jesse Katz
Amed Khan
Daniel Alejandro Leon-Davis
Willy and Jo Lorenz
Ben O’Keefe
Brittany Packnett Cunningham
Anna Paquin
Robert Reich
Brandon T. Snider
Nic Stone
Anton Treuer
Andrea Tulee
David Villalpando
Elizabeth Warren
Shannon Watts
Natalie Weaver
Brandon Wolf -
Your Life, Your Way
The ultimate teen guide to handling all the pressures and challenges of life—your own way!
Being a teen in today’s world is tough. Between school pressure, family, friends, and extracurricular activities—sometimes it can feel like you’re being pulled in a dozen different directions, and none of them are your way. On top of that, you may feel lonely, angry, or depressed; or you may wonder if you’re good enough, smart enough, or attractive enough. So, how can you overcome these self-doubts, and cultivate the strength to face life’s challenges and reach your full potential?
In Your Life, Your Way, you’ll learn how to deal with all the changes and challenges of the teen years—and how to grow into the person you want to be. You’ll learn doable skills grounded in mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and positive psychology to help you form positive friendships, manage difficult emotions, and get unstuck from bad habits. You’ll also learn real tips for dealing with several life challenges, including:
- Feelings of uncertainty
- Concerns about your looks
- Deadlines
- School/college/work
- Family
- Worries about the future
- Relationship stress
Once you identify your own personal struggles, you can decide how you want to face them—as strong, assertive, kind, honorable, caring, fun, supportive, friendly, agreeable, bold, persistent, or giving.
If you’re ready to take charge of your destiny and face problems head on in your own way, this fun and illustrated book has everything you need to get started today!
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On a Scale of One to Ten
Tamar is admitted to Lime Grove, a psychiatric ward for teenagers, where the psychologists ask her endless questions. But there's one question Tamar can't - won't - answer: What happened to her friend Iris? A uniquely powerful, devastating novel of friendship, fragility and forgiveness.
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Beneath the Surface
YOU DON’T HAVE TO COPE ALONE
Depression and mental illness don’t discriminate. Even in the most picture-perfect life, confusion and turmoil are often lurking beneath the surface. For a teenager in a world where anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses are commonplace, life can sometimes feel impossible. Whether or not you or someone you love is suffering from any of these issues, it’s important to be able to recognize the warning signs of mental illness and know where to turn for help. This comprehensive guide provides the information, encouragement, and tactical guidance you need to help yourself or others experiencing:
• Depression • Academic or parental pressures • Eating disorders • Bullying • Self-harm • PTSD • Peer pressure • Anxiety • Substance abuse • Technology addiction • Suicidal thoughts or actions -
Sick Kids In Love
An ALA Sydney Taylor Award Honoree
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Isabel has one rule: no dating.
It’s easier—
It’s safer—
It’s better—
—for the other person.
She’s got issues. She’s got secrets. She’s got rheumatoid arthritis.
But then she meets another sick kid.
He’s got a chronic illness Isabel’s never heard of, something she can’t even pronounce. He understands what it means to be sick. He understands her more than her healthy friends. He understands her more than her own father who’s a doctor.
He’s gorgeous, fun, and foul-mouthed. And totally into her.
Isabel has one rule: no dating.
It’s complicated—
It’s dangerous—
It’s never felt better—
—to consider breaking that rule for him. -
Kenzie's Rules for Life
INSPIRATIONAL AND UPBEAT COLLECTION OF LIFE LESSONS FROM TEEN SENSATION, MACKENZIE ZIEGLER
The only rule that you should never break is to be true to yourself.
Growing up is hard-and growing up in the spotlight is even harder-but Mackenzie Ziegler is taking it all in stride. Thanks to her positive attitude on life, Mackenzie is able to tackle even the toughest of growing pains. From getting her start on Dance Moms to her sold-out tour alongside Johnny Orlando to a killer clothing collection, there's nothing that she can't do!
In Kenzie's Rules for Life, the dance prodigy, singer/songwriter, actress, and model offers her advice on friendship, family, fitness, style, and positivity. Drawing from her own experiences, she shares lessons for those navigating their tween years on how to be happy, healthy, and confident in all aspects of their lives. In her book filled with recipes, craft ideas, exercise tricks, travel ideas, and so much more, Kenzie shows her fans how you can work hard and still find time to just be a kid.
Kenzie's Rules for Life is the upbeat, playful guidebook to always looking at the glass half full.
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Ikigai for Teens: Finding Your Reason for Being
A bestselling motivational book based on the Japanese concept of finding happiness in everyday life, now for young readers!
The Japanese people say everybody has an "Ikigai," or a reason to live. Some people have found their Ikigai and are aware of it. Other people have it inside, but have not found it yet. This concept, Ikigai, is one of the secrets for a long, active, and happy life.
Héctor García and Francesc Miralles visited Ogimi, a town on the north of Okinawa in Japan that has the highest longevity in the world. They spent weeks living with the residents of Ogimi and interviewing dozens of the villagers. These people all had lived to be more than a hundred years old, and they were all in great physical (and spiritual) shape. After their trip, Héctor and Francesc wrote a book examining the centennials' keys to an optimistic and vital existence. What do the oldest people in the world eat, what do they work on, how do they connect with others, and-the best-kept secret-how do they find their Ikigai? Ikigai is what gives them satisfaction and happiness, and brings real meaning to their lives.
The result was Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, an international bestseller which has been translated into over 49 languages.
With the book, García and Miralles made it their mission to help its readers find their own Ikigai and discover many keys of Japanese philosophy to a healthy body, mind, and spirit.
They have now adapted their bestselling book for young readers. Young adults can find their Ikigai too!
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Real Talk About Sex and Consent
"A truly vital and nuanced guide that is as empowering as it is educational."
—School Library Journal (starred review)
You deserve clear, accurate information about sexual consent! Let this honest and empowering book be your go-to guide.Let’s get real: Sex is complicated. Like, really complicated. And as a teen, you need trusted resources to help you navigate sexual issues without shame, guilt, or judgment. But if you’re like many teens, you may not have someone in your life that you can talk to openly about complicated sexual situations, and what consent really means—and this information is crucial for your health, safety, and happiness.
Real Talk About Sex and Consent is a comprehensive guide with essential information about setting boundaries, coercion, reciprocity, and communication. You’ll also find hard facts about sex and trauma, the effects of pornography and cultural expectations, and much more. With this book, you’ll learn how to make sexual decisions that honor your sense of values and cultivate rewarding and emotionally supportive relationships throughout your life.
This book goes past simple definitions of sex and consent and explores the hidden pressures, misrepresented expectations, and realities of sex—and what to do about it all.
It’s time to get informed and take control of your sexual self. This book will give you the tools you need to make decisions that are right for you.
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Life Inside My Mind
“Who better to raise teens’ awareness of mental illness and health than the YA authors they admire?” —Booklist (starred review)
“[A] much-needed, enlightening book.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
Your favorite YA authors including Ellen Hopkins, Maureen Johnson, and more recount their own experiences with mental health in this raw, real, and powerful collection of essays that explores everything from ADD to PTSD.
Have you ever felt like you just couldn’t get out of bed? Not the occasional morning, but every day? Do you find yourself listening to a voice in your head that says “you’re not good enough,” “not good looking enough,” “not thin enough,” or “not smart enough”? Have you ever found yourself unable to do homework or pay attention in class unless everything is “just so” on your desk? Everyone has had days like that, but what if you have them every day?
You’re not alone. Millions of people are going through similar things. However issues around mental health still tend to be treated as something shrouded in shame or discussed in whispers. It’s easier to have a broken bone—something tangible that can be “fixed”—than to have a mental illness, and easier to have a discussion about sex than it is to have one about mental health.
Life Inside My Mind is an anthology of true-life events from writers of this generation, for this generation. These essays tackle everything from neurodiversity to addiction to OCD to PTSD and much more. The goals of this book range from providing a home to those who are feeling alone, awareness to those who are witnessing a friend or family member struggle, and to open the floodgates to conversation. -
(Don't) Call Me Crazy
Who’s Crazy?
What does it mean to be crazy? Is using the word crazy offensive? What happens when a label like that gets attached to your everyday experiences?
To understand mental health, we need to talk openly about it. Because there’s no single definition of crazy, there’s no single experience that embodies it, and the word itself means different things—wild? extreme? disturbed? passionate?—to different people.
In (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, thirty-three actors, athletes, writers, and artists offer essays, lists, comics, and illustrations that explore a wide range of topics:
their personal experiences with mental illness,
how we do and don’t talk about mental health,
help for better understanding how every person’s brain is wired differently,
and what, exactly, might make someone crazy. If you’ve ever struggled with your mental health, or know someone who has, come on in, turn the pages . . . and let’s get talking. -
Iveliz Explains It All
NEWBERY HONOR AWARD WINNER • In this timely and moving novel in verse, a preteen girl navigates seventh grade while facing mental health challenges. A hopeful, poetic story about learning to advocate for the help and understanding you deserve.
"Powerful." —Lisa Fipps, Printz Honor-winning author of Starfish
How do you speak up when it feels like no one is listening?
The end of elementary school?
Worst time of my life.
And the start of middle school?
I just wasn’t quite right.
But this year?
YO VOY A MI.
Seventh grade is going to be Iveliz’s year. She’s going to make a new friend, help her abuela Mimi get settled after moving from Puerto Rico, and she is not going to get into any more trouble at school. . . .
Except is that what happens? Of course not. Because no matter how hard Iveliz tries, sometimes people say things that just make her so mad. And worse, Mimi keeps saying Iveliz’s medicine is unnecessary—even though it helps Iveliz feel less sad. But how do you explain your feelings to others when you’re not even sure what’s going on yourself?
Powerful and compassionate, Andrea Beatriz Arango’s debut navigates mental health, finding your voice, and discovering that those who really love you will stay by your side no matter what. -
Skinnytaste Simple
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A delectable collection of 120 healthy dishes that use seven ingredients or fewer to deliver big flavor without the fuss—the easiest, simplest recipes yet from #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Skinnytaste Cookbook
Gina Homolka knows how tough it can be to put a meal together when she’s tight for time and energy. Skinnytaste Simple is the solution: recipes with minimum ingredients but maximum flavor and nutrition. These game-changing, no-fuss dinners use no more than seven ingredients each, allowing you to put easy, healthy meals on the table with little-to-no effort.
From hearty breakfasts like Chilaquiles with Fried Eggs and Acai Berry Bowls to crowd-pleasing dinners including One Pan Shrimp and Saffron Orzo and Sheet Pan Eggplant Lasagna, you’ll find recipes the whole family will love. Plus, sweet indulgences are a snap with quick-and-easy chocolatey Flourless Sea Salt Brownies and make-ahead Strawberry and Cheese Turnovers. Each recipe features a gorgeous photo, icons that indicate recipes that may suit your dietary needs (such as gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian), and nutritional info, with the most up to date Weight Watchers points available on the Skinnytaste site.
With Skinnytaste Simple, cooking delicious, nutritious meals for your family is easier than ever! -
Come Hungry
From Melissa Ben-Ishay--the co-founder of Baked by Melissa and creator of the viral Green Goddess Salad--comes an irresistible, veggie-packed cookbook with over 100 flavorful, nourishing recipes to inspire you to eat delicious meals that make you feel great.
When Melissa Ben-Ishay, the co-founder and CEO of bite-size cupcake empire Baked by Melissa, posted her vegan Green Goddess Salad on TikTok, it became a viral sensation. The recipe exploded online, gaining over 25 million views, landing Melissa on the TODAY Show, and inspiring fans like Cardi B and Lizzo to make their own version of the salad.
After the success of the Green Goddess Salad, Melissa continued to share her finely chopped, vegetable-focused recipes and inspired millions of fans to eat more greens with her flavorful, fresh creations. The meals all highlight Melissa's food philosophy: if you get your nourishment from mealtime, you can absolutely indulge in dessert every day, just like she does.
In Come Hungry, Melissa shares her favorite everyday recipes and tips for creating nourishing, delicious meals the whole family will love. With flavorful ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions, Melissa encourages home cooks of all levels to cook outside of their comfort zones and reveals her go-to techniques for creating the perfect bite. Packed with colorful, craveable recipes, Come Hungry offers a wide range of simple dishes for any diet, including:
- Mediterranean Grain Salad
- Coffee Shop Sesame Chicken Salad
- Crunchy Ramen Slaw with Grilled Ribeye
- Green Veggie Pizza
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake
From her grandmother's kitchen in the Catskills to her in-laws' home on the Mediterranean, Melissa features recipes inspired by meals that have shaped her as a cook and promote a veggie-packed way of eating, from mouthwatering toasts topped with leftovers to filling a pita with flavorful small plates. Ultimately, each and every recipe encourages creativity in the kitchen and invites the reader--as Melissa's family says to guests on their way for dinner--to come hungry.
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Bountiful Cooking
Come Home to Your Kitchen
I want you to close your eyes as you hold this book in your hands and understand that it is yours to create magic, to reinvent yourself in the kitchen in ways you never thought possible. It doesn't matter if you weren't raised in a home with skilled cooks or entrenched in healthy food traditions as I was. It doesn't matter if you have no culinary experience at all. I am sharing my kitchen, my mami's kitchen, my grandma's bare-bones, gadget-free kitchen that produced the healthiest, most mouthwatering meals. This book you are holding--full of recipes, knowledge, life stories, and tips I share with my own family and clients--is an extension of who I am. I hope it helps and brings you joy, too.
--from the Introduction
When Agatha Achindu came to the US from Cameroon, West Africa, for university, she didn't know what to make of the aisles and aisles of canned foods in the grocery store. She started making meals with fresh ingredients for her roommate; after her first community dinner for fifty fellow students, word spread. Fast-forward thirty years: What started as small dinners and workshops teaching moms how to make nutritious meals blossomed into a career dedicated to helping families live life unprocessed, and eat flavorful, nutrient‑dense foods that can help prevent chronic disease and other food-related health concerns. No matter what Agatha does, her dishes are always based on one fundamental principle she learned from her mami: You are what you eat. Throughout her career, she has shared this ethos: for each and every person--no matter their age, background, or locale--to grow and thrive without the daily aggravation and hardship (and expense!) of preventable chronic diseases. Agatha has been on an unrelenting mission to make families and communities healthier, to live a life that is bursting with vibrant energy, age gracefully and in good health. It is never too late to start eating food that will nourish our body, mind and soul.
Bountiful Cooking celebrates these matrilineal culinary philosophies with 100 recipes packed with life-giving nutrients. Not only are these recipes healthy, but with global flavors, they also serve as cultural nutrition for the whole family. Agatha's recipes will make you fall in love with food--and recognize that food, a sacred source of life and feeding, is the highest expression of love. -
Forever Strong
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
Learn how to reboot your metabolism, build strength, and extend your life with this accessible new guidebook that demonstrates the importance of muscle for health and longevity from the founder of the Institute for Muscle-Centric Medicine®.
After years of watching patients cycle through her practice, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon noticed a pattern. While her patients struggled with a wide range of conditions, they all suffered from the same core problem: they had too little muscle rather than too much fat.
When we think about muscle, we tend to think about strength or aesthetics, but in reality, muscle accounts for so much more than that. As the body’s largest endocrine organ, muscle actually determines everything about the trajectory of health and aging. Many of the conditions Dr. Lyon’s patients were experiencing were actually symptoms of underdeveloped or unhealthy muscle.
Now, Dr. Lyon offers an easy-to-follow food, fitness, and self-care program anchored in evidence and pioneering research that teaches you how to optimize muscle—no matter your age or health background. Discover how to overcome everything from obesity to autoimmune disorders and avoid diseases like Alzheimer’s, hypertension, and diabetes by following Dr. Lyon’s powerful new approach to becoming forever strong. -
Black Cake
NOW A HULU STERAMING SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake—in this immersive family saga, “a character-driven, multigenerational story that’s meant to be savored” (Time).
“Wilkerson transports you across the decades and around the globe accompanied by complex, wonderfully drawn characters.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & The Six, and Malibu Rising
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, NPR, BuzzFeed, Glamour, PopSugar, Book Riot, She Reads
We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?
In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.
Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?
Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch. -
The Queen of Sugar Hill
Bestselling author ReShonda Tate presents a fascinating fictional portrait of Hattie McDaniel, one of Hollywood's most prolific but woefully underappreciated stars--and the first Black person ever to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in the critically acclaimed film classic Gone With the Wind.
It was supposed to be the highlight of her career, the pinnacle for which she'd worked all her life. And as Hattie McDaniel took the stage in 1940 to claim an honor that would make her the first African-American woman to win an Academy Award, she tearfully took her place in history. Between personal triumphs and tragedies, heartbreaking losses, and severe setbacks, this historic night of winning best supporting actress for her role as the sassy Mammy in the controversial movie Gone With the Wind was going to be life-changing. Or so she thought.
Months after winning the award, not only did the Oscar curse set in where Hattie couldn't find work, but she found herself thrust in the middle of two worlds--Black and White--and not being welcomed in either. Whites only saw her as Mammy and Blacks detested the demeaning portrayal. As the NAACP waged an all-out war against Hattie and actors like her, the emotionally conflicted actor found herself struggling daily.
Through it all, Hattie continued her fight to pave a path for other Negro actors, while focusing on war efforts, fighting housing discrimination, and navigating four failed marriages. Luckily, she had a core group of friends to help her out--from Clark Gable to Louise Beavers to Ruby Berkley Goodwin and Dorothy Dandridge.
The Queen of Sugar Hill brings to life the powerful story of one woman who was driven by many passions--ambition, love, sex, family, friendship, and equality. In re-creating Hattie's story, ReShonda Tate delivers an unforgettable novel of resilience, dedication, and determination--about what it takes to achieve your dreams--even when everything--and everyone--is against you.
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Master Slave Husband Wife
One of The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2023
New York Times Bestseller
Named a best book of 2023 by The New Yorker, Time, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, Boston, Chicago Public Library, Oprah Daily, and People
The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as “his” slave.
In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.
Along the way, they dodged slave traders, military officers, and even friends of their enslavers, who might have revealed their true identities. The tale of their adventure soon made them celebrities, and generated headlines around the country. Americans could not get enough of this charismatic young couple, who traveled another 1,000 miles criss-crossing New England, drawing thunderous applause as they spoke alongside some of the greatest abolitionist luminaries of the day—among them Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.
But even then, they were not out of danger. With the passage of an infamous new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans became accountable for returning refugees like the Crafts to slavery. Then yet another adventure began, as slave hunters came up from Georgia, forcing the Crafts to flee once again—this time from the United States, their lives and thousands more on the line and the stakes never higher.
With three epic journeys compressed into one monumental bid for freedom, Master Slave Husband Wife is an American love story—one that would challenge the nation’s core precepts of life, liberty, and justice for all—one that challenges us even now. -
How to Say Babylon
A New York Times Notable Book
A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
A Best Book of 2023 by the New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, Vulture, Shelf Awareness, Goodreads, Esquire, The Atlantic, NPR, and Barack Obama
With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.
Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.
In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.
How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about. -
The Reformatory
A New York Times Notable Book
“You’re in for a treat. The Reformatory is one of those books you can’t put down. Tananarive Due hit it out of the park.” —Stephen King
A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.
Gracetown, Florida
June 1950
Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.
Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.
The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel. -
Let Us Descend
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • Instant New York Times Bestseller • Shortlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence
From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow—comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War.
“‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” —Inferno, Dante Alighieri
Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.
Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.
From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.
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Forest Bathing
The definitive--and by far the most popular--guide to the therapeutic Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or the art and science of how trees can promote health and happiness
Notice how a tree sways in the wind. Run your hands over its bark. Take in its citrusy scent. As a society we suffer from nature deficit disorder, but studies have shown that spending mindful, intentional time around trees--what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing--can promote health and happiness.
In this beautiful book--featuring more than 100 color photographs from forests around the world, including the forest therapy trails that criss-cross Japan--Dr. Qing Li, the world's foremost expert in forest medicine, shows how forest bathing can reduce your stress levels and blood pressure, strengthen your immune and cardiovascular systems, boost your energy, mood, creativity, and concentration, and even help you lose weight and live longer.
Once you've discovered the healing power of trees, you can lose yourself in the beauty of your surroundings, leave everyday stress behind, and reach a place of greater calm and wellness. -
Enchantment
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“When I tell you that I dogeared almost every page in this book, I'm telling God's honest truth. I didn't know how much I needed someone else to validate what I was going through. The sense that I had lost my curiosity, my imagination, my ability to make meaning.” – NPR Morning Edition host Rachel Martin
"Such a teacher for every single person who is trying to live closer to who they were born to be and not who the world tamed them to be.” – New York Times bestselling author Glennon Doyle on We Can Do Hard Things
“I love Katherine May’s new book, Enchantment.…It’s a beautiful offering of light, truth and charm in these strange, dark times.” – New York Times bestselling author Anne Lamott
“Katherine May gave so many of us language and vision for the long communal ‘wintering’ of the last years. Welcome this beautiful meditation for the time we've now entered. I cannot imagine a more gracious companion. This book is a gift.” – New York Times bestselling author Krista Tippett
“Gentle inspiration for those who feel exhausted or helpless… May shows how paying deliberate attention to what’s around us can surprise us with insights and reveal new connections that deepen our appreciation for the world.” – Washington Post
From the New York Times–bestselling author of Wintering, an invitation to rediscover the feelings of awe and wonder available to us all
Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her wonder what she was missing. Could there be a different way to relate to the world, one that would allow her to feel more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet? Might there be a way for all of us to move through life with curiosity and tenderness, sensitized to the subtle magic all around?
In Enchantment, May invites the reader to come with her on a journey to reawaken our innate sense of wonder and awe. With humor, candor, and warmth, she shares stories of her own struggles with work, family, and the aftereffects of pandemic, particularly feelings of overwhelm as the world rushes to reopen. Craving a different way to live, May begins to explore the restorative properties of the natural world, moving through the elements of earth, water, fire, and air and identifying the quiet traces of magic that can be found only when we look for them. Through deliberate attention and ritual, she unearths the potency and nourishment that come from quiet reconnection with our immediate environment. Blending lyricism and storytelling, sensitivity and empathy, Enchantment invites each of us to open the door to human experience in all its sensual complexity, and to find the beauty waiting for us there. -
The Sleep Prescription
“Vastly knowledgeable and genuinely brilliant . . . An easy yet most effective how-to guide on sleep.” —Dr. Matthew Walker, New York Times bestselling author of Why We Sleep
From renowned sleep scientist Dr. Aric Prather, a book that offers a simple yet powerful plan to improve your sleep in seven days
We need sleep to survive. Sleep is as essential as food, water, and oxygen. So how can something that should be so instinctual and automatic be so hard? Dr. Prather runs one of the world’s most successful sleep clinics and has cracked the code to help even the most restless of sleepers get a good night’s rest.
In The Sleep Prescription, Dr. Prather shares the powerful solutions that he uses to help his patients at the clinic achieve healing and restorative sleep. Going beyond the obvious solutions, Dr. Prather shares surprisingly simple yet deeply effective techniques that will help you lie back and let sleep work its magic.
The seven-day prescription will lead you through these exercises:
Day 1: Set Your (Internal) Clock
Day 2: Ease Off the Gas
Day 3: Energize—But Do It Right
Day 4: Worry Early
Day 5: You Are Not a Computer; You Can't Just Shut Down
Day 6: (Re)Train Your Brain
Day 7: Stay Up Late
Over the course of seven days, this book will teach you how to get out of your own way, so that your body can do effortlessly what it was built to do: sleep well. -
The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy, Revised and Expanded
Completely updated, the best book on the topic available anywhere has just gotten better!
A necessary resource for anyone interested in alternative approaches to healing and lifestyle, this new edition contains more than 800 easy-to-follow recipes for essential oil treatments. No one has provided more thorough and accurate guidance to the home practitioner or professional aromatherapist than Valerie Ann Worwood.
In her clear and positive voice, Worwood provides tools to address a huge variety of health issues, including specific advice for children, women, men, and seniors. Other sections cover self-defense against microbes and contaminants, emotional challenges, care for the home and workplace, and applications for athletes, dancers, travelers, cooks, gardeners, and animal lovers. Worwood also offers us her expertise in the use of essential oils in beauty and spa treatments, plus profiles of 125 essential oils, 37 carrier oils, and more.
Since the publication of the first edition of this book 25 years ago, the positive impact of essential oil use has become increasingly recognized, as scientific researchers throughout the world have explored essential oils and their constituents for their unique properties and uses.
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Well at Work
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 OWL AWARDS
Full of science-backed tips on how to design any workspace for physical and emotional wellbeing, "Well at Work helps us thrive wherever we work." (Arianna Huffington)
Whether you work in a traditional office or a corner of your bedroom, staying well at work need not be a luxury. But wellness at work isn't just about staying physically healthy; it's also about reducing stress and improving mood, focus, energy, and productivity.
Well at Work reveals how to optimize our workspaces for wellbeing across the seven domains of integrative health: stress and resilience, movement, sleep, relationships, environment, nutrition, and spirituality, and even the air we breathe. You'll learn:- How the environment you work in all day can affect your sleep at night
- Optimal lighting and noise levels for reducing stress and improving focus
- How to adjust temperature and humidity to stay alert and protect against infection
- Why open-plan offices can keep you more active
- The myriad benefits of access to nature (and how to bring nature indoors)
- Office layouts that foster social interactions but not distraction
- Foods to enhance cognitive performance
- And more
Along the way, you'll meet the scientists and doctors, designers and architects, and building science professionals who are striving to make workplaces more conducive to wellbeing. And you'll glimpse into the future of the workplace, where artificial intelligence and the metaverse will help us create environments that respond to our individual needs.
Above all, you'll come away with a menu of simple, "innovative, and often overlooked" (Dr. Richard Carmona) steps anyone can take to be--and stay--well at work. -
Home Detox
From the bedroom mattress and pillows to daily cleaning products for the kitchen and bath, toothbrushes, and even furniture and clothing, toxins are embedded in many products and items used regularly in the home—and they are making us sick. Home Detox is a practical, accessible guide to understanding the problem and how we can address it in our own homes in a manageable and affordable way. Daniella Chace, a professional toxicologist and health writer, teaches readers how to identify potential toxins, with an easy-to-follow, room-by-room evaluation of the "Toxic Ten" in each space. She explains the connection between toxins in everyday objects and chronic health issues such as headaches, asthma, high cholesterol, skin problems, and sleep problems and offers strategies for eliminating toxins, along with easy recipes for effective homemade cleaning solutions using essential oils, baking soda, vinegar, and other ingredients that are natural, affordable, and effective.
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The Wellness Trap
AS SEEN ON CBS MORNINGS, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE CUT, AND MORE
SELF MAGAZINE'S #1 WELLNESS BOOK OF 2023
A NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB MUST-READ BOOK FOR APRIL 2023A searing critique of modern wellness culture and how it stands in the way of true well-being that "will change the way you think about your health--in all the best ways." (Casey Gueren)
"It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle." You've probably heard this phrase from any number of people in the wellness space. But as Christy Harrison reveals in her latest book, wellness culture promotes a standard of health that is often both unattainable and deeply harmful.
Many people with chronic illness understandably feel dismissed or abandoned by the healthcare system and find solace in alternative medicine, as Harrison once did. Yet the wellness industry promotes practices that often cause even more damage than the conventional approaches they're meant to replace. From the lack of pre-market safety testing on herbal and dietary supplements, to the unfounded claims made by many wellness influencers and functional-medicine providers, to the social-media algorithms driving users down rabbit holes of wellness mis- and disinformation, it can often feel like no one is looking out for us in the face of the $4.4 trillion global wellness industry.
The Wellness Trap delves into the persistent, systemic problems with that industry, offering insight into its troubling pattern of cultural appropriation and its destructive views on mental health, and shedding light on how a growing distrust of conventional medicine has led ordinary people to turn their backs on science. Weaving together history, memoir, reporting, and practical advice, Harrison illuminates the harms of wellness culture while re-imagining our society's relationship with well-being.
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Organic Beauty
A beautifully illustrated guide to living organically.
Cottage-core, wellness, and sustainability collide with this playful, illustrated guide to organic skincare.
Learn what plants to use, how to collect and prepare them, and create your own masks, scrubs, balms, butter, hair lotions, and much more with detailed step-by-step instructions.
From helping you to decipher those complicated product labels and showing you how to make cosmetics from the plants in your own backyard, to how to use natural ingredients to help you care for your body, Organic Beauty is full of tips for building a healthy, natural lifestyle that fosters beauty from the inside out. -
To Dye For
A Silent Spring for your wardrobe, To Dye For is a jolting exposé that reveals the true cost of the toxic, largely unregulated chemicals found on most clothing today.
Many of us are aware of the ethical minefield that is fast fashion: the dodgy labor practices, the lax environmental standards, and the mountains of waste piling up on the shores of developing countries. But have you stopped to consider the dangerous effects your clothes are having on your own health? Award-winning journalist Alden Wicker breaks open a story hiding in plain sight: the unregulated toxic chemicals that are likely in your wardrobe right now, how they’re harming you, and what you can do about it.
In To Dye For, Wicker reveals how clothing manufacturers have successfully swept consumers’ concerns under the rug for more than 150 years, and why synthetic fashion and dyes made from fossil fuels are so deeply intertwined with the rise of autoimmune disease, infertility, asthma, eczema, and more. In fact, there’s little to no regulation of the clothes and textiles we wear each day—from uniforms to fast fashion, outdoor gear, and even the face masks that have become ubiquitous in recent years. Wicker explains how we got here, what the stakes are, and what all of us can do in the fight for a safe and healthy wardrobe for all. -
Recovery
“An essential book for our times, full of wisdom, compassion and sound advice. Every patient needs a copy of this gem.” –Katherine May, author of Wintering and Enchantment
A gentle, expert guide to the secrets of recovery, showing why we need it and how to do it better
For many of us, time spent in recovery—from a broken leg, a virus, chronic illness, or the crisis of depression or anxiety—can feel like an unwelcome obstacle on the road to health. Modern medicine too often assumes that once doctors have prescribed a course of treatment, healing takes care of itself. But recovery isn’t something that “just happens.” It is an act that we engage in and that has the potential to transform our lives, if only we can find ways to learn its rhythms and invest our time, energy, and participation.
Drawing on thirty years of medicine, and on insights from practitioners, psychologists, and writers across history, physician Gavin Francis delivers a profound, practical, and deeply hopeful guide to recovery. Rejecting the idea that healing is passive, Recovery offers tools and wisdom for convalescence, and shows how tending to our bodies, environments, and perspectives can help us move through the landscape of illness—and come out the other side whole. -
Well to the Core
You deserve to feel good--not just in your body, but in your whole being.
Robin Long, certified Pilates instructor and founder of Lindywell, is on a mission to help you reclaim your health, your fitness, and your body. In Well to the Core, join Robin on a journey toward holistic health and discover:- ten core components of an effective and realistic approach to healthy and balanced living;
- a grace-over-guilt mindset to release shame and develop helpful habits in every season of life;
- how breath, nature, rest, and play can improve your quality of life; and
- exclusive Pilates workouts, mindfulness exercises, and deliciously crafted recipes to nourish your mind, body, and soul.
It is possible to break free from constant stress about what you're eating, how you're exercising, or how much weight you need to lose in order to really start living. This is where true wellness begins. Let Robin Long show you the way in Well to the Core.
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How to Eat to Change How You Drink
"Scheller's practical guidance is elevated by her compassionate tone...The result is a solid guide to cutting back."--Publisher's Weekly
Let nutrition lead you to sobriety (or to just drinking a little less) with this guide and meal plan to reduce alcohol cravings and repair your health through food.
Trapped in alcohol's addictive grip, Dr. Brooke Scheller wanted a way out. For her, total sobriety was the answer to her problem, which she achieved by applying her skills as a doctor of nutrition, pairing her knowledge of nutrition with other integrative therapies to eliminate alcohol for good. Seeing the success in herself, she shifted her practice to help inspire others to explore a lifestyle with little to no alcohol.
How to Eat to Change How You Drink is a revolutionary guide to leverage food and nutrition to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption, develop mindfulness, and promote a healthier relationship with alcohol. Working through the book, readers will identify their drinking archetype and then learn the types of nutritional changes they can make to reduce alcohol cravings alongside behavior modification; they'll learn how alcohol affects their nutritional status and can contribute to health symptoms ranging from fatigue, to hormonal imbalances, digestive irregularities, weight gain, thyroid disorders, autoimmune diseases and more; and they'll restore their nutritional status and repair key body systems after moderate to heavy alcohol consumption.
This book will change the way we think about and address alcohol intake in our society-- through the lens of nutrition. -
Strong Like Water
There's a cost to being a certain kind of strong.
When it comes to difficult circumstances, we've all heard the platitudes: "No pain, no gain." "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." But if we spend our lives trying to be "the strong one," we become exhausted, burned-out, and disconnected from our truest selves.
What if it were different? Could there be a different way to be strong? Could strength mean more than pushing on and pushing through pain, bearing every heavy burden on our own? What if, instead, true strength were more like the tide: soft and bold, fierce and gentle, moving together as one powerful force?
In Strong like Water, author and trauma therapist Aundi Kolber offers a framework for true flourishing. With each page, you'll:- Learn how your nervous system shapes your experience so that we can move through pain instead of being stuck in it.
- Explore various practices, rhythms, and resources to support you in challenging circumstances with compassion and hope.
- Discover how to internalize connection, love, and safety--empowering you with greater resilience.
A different, more expansive way of healing, wholeness, and possibly--especially--strength is possible. We were made to be strong like water.
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The Stress Prescription
“A preeminent expert sheds light on how to handle the daily hassles of life. It’s not just a manual for managing stress—it’s a toolkit for preventing it.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again
From world-renowned psychologist and New York Times–bestselling author Dr. Elissa Epel, a simple yet powerful plan to turn your stress into your strength in just seven days
We can’t avoid stress. But we can embrace it and transform it.
Whether we’re facing deadlines, difficulties with family or friends, personal crises, or just the uncertainty of the world—stress is the ocean we swim in. Even our negative thoughts can trigger our body’s stress response so we rarely experience periods of ease and deep restoration.
In The Stress Prescription, Dr. Epel distills decades of research, infused with wisdom, into a practical yet transformative seven-day plan of science-based techniques that can help you harness stress through more positive challenge and purpose.
The seven-day prescription will lead you through these exercises:
Day 1: Things Will Go Wrong . . . And That’s All Right
Day 2: Control What You Can . . . And Put Down the Rest
Day 3: Be the Lion
Day 4: Train for Resilience
Day 5: Let Nature Do the Work
Day 6: Don’t Just Relax . . . Restore
Day 7: Start Full, End Full
Dr. Epel shows us how we can “stress better”—by training our minds and bodies to shift towards a flexible, beneficial stress response that can actually enhance health. You will develop a more robust mindset, build the resources you need to turn stress into strength, and fill your days with more joy, connection, and ease. -
Slow AF Run Club
A practical guide and a celebration of running for runners of all sizes and athletic ability, from the founder of the Slow AF Run Club.
Ten years ago, Martinus Evans got some stern advice from his doctor: “Lose weight or die.” First defensive, but then defiant, Evans vowed that day to run a marathon, though his doctor thought he was crazy. Since then, Evans has run eight marathons and hundreds of other distances in his 300-something pound body, created his own devoted running community, and has been featured on the cover of Runner’s World.
This book is a blueprint for those who may not fit the image of a “traditional” runner—that is, someone who is larger in size, less athletic, out of shape, or dealing with any kind of health issue that slows them down—to feel empowered to lace up their shoes and embrace the body they have right now.
As Evans says, the incredible benefits of running—better sleep, strong muscles and bones, better cardiovascular and mental health, and a sense of community—can and should be available to all of us. This practical handbook contains specialized advice to make getting started less intimidating, covering everything from gear and nutrition to training schedules, recovery tips, races (it’s okay to come in DFL! [i.e., dead f*cking last]), and finding a running group. Full of essential advice and humor from a former newbie who fell off a treadmill on his first run (literally), The Slow AF Run Club is for anyone who wants to pick up running for the sheer joy of it. -
Science of Stretch
Explore new movements and alleviate stiff joints with more than 100 exercises designed to keep you flexible, energized, and active for life.
Pain and stiffness can create fear and uncertainty in our ability to move, affecting quality of life. Exercise has continuously proven to be beneficial against disease, yet people are becoming increasingly sedentary.
More than a quarter of the world's population is insufficiently active and it's time we remove barriers to exercise and encourage movement exploration. The Science of Stretch is your guide to understanding the human body's resilient and adaptable nature and how stretching can play a role in achieving your highest well-being.
Inside the pages of this book you'll learn about:
-The latest research on stretching
-Human anatomy and physiology
-The nervous system and pain science
-How to reduce injury risk with exercise
-Managing a lifestyle catered towards healthy aging
-What happens to the body when we stretch
-Different types of stretching and how to implement them to best compliment your daily life or sporting activities
-Finally, a series of suggested stretch routines are outlined, each with a progressive increase in challenge and tailored to different abilities and fitness objectives-alongside the tools to create your own bespoke workouts.
Every exercise is anatomized in detail to make movement easily understood using CGI artworks to show how each muscle is correctly activated and each joint aligned. Whether you're taking a walk around the park or running a marathon, Science of Stretch will help you stay flexible, keep active, and remove the uncertainty from stretching.
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Built to Move
The innovators behind The Ready State and the movement bible Becoming a Supple Leopard present 10 practices proven to enhance mobility, make you feel energetic and alive, and, like a good 401(K), prepare your body for whatever comes its way in the future.
After decades spent working with pro-athletes, Olympians, and Navy Seals, mobility pioneers Kelly and Juliet Starrett began thinking about the physical well-being of the rest of us. What makes a durable human? How do we continue to feel great and function well as we age? And how do we counteract the effects of technology-dependence, sedentary living, and other modern ways of life on our body’s natural need for activity? Our bodies, after all, were built to move.
The answers lie in a simple formula for basic mobility maintenance: 10 tests + 10 physical practices = 10 ways to make your body work better.
Organized around ten assessments and ten physical practices that anyone can do, Built to Move is designed to improve the way your body feels—less stiffness! fewer aches and pain!— and boost the overall quality of your life, no matter how you spend your time. The book offers:- Easy mobilization practices to increase range of motion and avoid injury
- Uncomplicated guidelines for improving nutrition and sleep
- Breathing strategies to help you move more freely and manage stress and pain
- Advice on easy ways to change sedentary habits and integrate more movement into your daily life.
This is the first body book written for exercisers and nonexercisers alike. It’s full of foundational wisdom for everyone from professional athletes to gym haters and everyone in between. Built to Move introduces readers to a set of simple principles and practices that are undemanding enough to work into any busy schedule, lead to greater ease of movement, better health, and a happier life doing whatever it is you love to do—and want to continue doing as long as you live. This book is your game plan for the long game.
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Ultra-Processed People
It's not you, it's the food.
We have entered a new age of eating. For the first time in human history, most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food. There's a long, formal scientific definition, but it can be boiled down to this: if it's wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn't find in your kitchen, it's UPF.
These products are specifically engineered to behave as addictive substances, driving excess consumption. They are now linked to the leading cause of early death globally and the number one cause of environmental destruction. Yet almost all our staple foods are ultra-processed. UPF is our food culture and for many people it is the only available and affordable food.
In this book, Chris van Tulleken, father, scientist, doctor, and award-winning BBC broadcaster, marshals the latest evidence to show how governments, scientists, and doctors have allowed transnational food companies to create a pandemic of diet-related disease. The solutions don't lie in willpower, personal responsibility, or exercise. You'll find no diet plan in this book--but join Chris as he undertakes a powerful self-experiment that made headlines around the world: under the supervision of colleagues at University College London he spent a month eating a diet of 80 percent UPF, typical for many children and adults in the United States. While his body became the subject of scientific scrutiny, he spoke to the world's leading experts from academia, agriculture, and--most important--the food industry itself. But more than teaching him about the experience of the food, the diet switched off Chris's own addiction to UPF.
In a fast-paced and eye-opening narrative he explores the origins, science, and economics of UPF to reveal its catastrophic impact on our bodies and the planet. And he proposes real solutions for doctors, for policy makers, and for all of us who have to eat. A book that won't only upend the way you shop and eat, Ultra-Processed People will open your eyes to the need for action on a global scale.
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Sugarless
Break free from sugar addiction and take control of your health. In Sugarless, pioneering neuroscientist Dr. Nicole Avena provides a revolutionary step-by-step plan to help readers curb sweet cravings and quit sugar once and for all. With surprising sources of hidden sugars exposed, Dr. Avena's 7-step program empowers you to overcome sugar addiction by identifying sugar traps, taming your sweet tooth, and breaking the vicious diet cycle.
Backed by over 100 studies, Dr. Avena reveals how processed foods with refined sugars can be even more addictive than illicit drugs. She dispels myths blaming lack of willpower, and proves biologically how sugar affects the brain. With a foreword by Dr. Daniel Amen and 30 sugar-free recipes, this book provides the perfect blueprint for your sugar detox.
Hailed as the first to study sugar addiction, Dr. Avena is the world's foremost authority on the topic. Her blend of compelling research and actionable solutions makes embarking on your own sugar detox for beginners straightforward. Simply follow her advice to feel more in control, stop craving sugar, and start feeling healthier.
Key Features:- Science-backed 7-step program to reduce sugar consumption
- 30 delicious sugar-free recipes
- Foreword by Dr. Daniel Amen, 12-time New York Times bestselling author and integrative psychiatrist
- Surprising sources of hidden sugars revealed
- Tools to resist sweet cravings and manage sugar withdrawal
- Practical plan to break the cycle for good
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The Comfort Crisis
Discover the evolutionary mind and body benefits of living at the edges of your comfort zone and reconnecting with the wild—from the New York Times bestselling author of Scarcity Brain.
“If you’ve been looking for something different to level up your health, fitness, and personal growth, this is it.”—Melissa Urban, Whole30 CEO and author of The Book of Boundaries
“Michael Easter’s genius is that he puts data around the edges of what we intuitively believe. His work has inspired many to change their lives for the better.”—Dr. Peter Attia, author of Outlive
In many ways, we’re more comfortable than ever before. But could our sheltered, temperature-controlled, overfed, underchallenged lives actually be the leading cause of many our most urgent physical and mental health issues? In this gripping investigation, award-winning journalist Michael Easter seeks out off-the-grid visionaries, disruptive genius researchers, and mind-body conditioning trailblazers who are unlocking the life-enhancing secrets of a counterintuitive solution: discomfort.
Easter’s journey to understand our evolutionary need to be challenged takes him to meet the NBA’s top exercise scientist, who uses an ancient Japanese practice to build championship athletes; to the mystical country of Bhutan, where an Oxford economist and Buddhist leader are showing the world what death can teach us about happiness; to the outdoor lab of a young neuroscientist who’s found that nature tests our physical and mental endurance in ways that expand creativity while taming burnout and anxiety; to the remote Alaskan backcountry on a demanding thirty-three-day hunting expedition to experience the rewilding secrets of one of the last rugged places on Earth; and more.
Along the way, Easter uncovers a blueprint for leveraging the power of discomfort that will dramatically improve our health and happiness, and perhaps even help us understand what it means to be human. The Comfort Crisis is a bold call to break out of your comfort zone and explore the wild within yourself. -
Calm Your Mind with Food
Relieve your anxiety through food with this "groundbreaking," full-body approach to mental health (Mark Hyman, MD), from bestselling author and nutritional psychiatrist Uma Naidoo, MD
In this groundbreaking guide, Dr. Uma Naidoo presents cutting-edge research about the ways anxiety is rooted in the brain, gut, immune system, and metabolism. Drawing on the latest science on the connection between diet and anxiety, Dr. Naidoo shows us how to effectively use food and nutrition as essential tools for calming the mind.
In Calm Your Mind with Food, you'll learn:- How inflammation affects everything from anxiety and depression to Alzheimer's disease
- How the trillions of bacteria living in your gut are key to controlling anxiety
- The six pillars for calming the mind
- What to eat to balance leptin, a key link between the central nervous system and metabolic processes
- How to incorporate anxiety-busting foods into your diet, from the obscure (ashwagandha) to the ubiquitous (vitamin C)
- The best diets for managing symptoms of anxiety and depression
Along with guidelines for creating your own personal anti-anxiety meal plan and dozens of supernutrient-forward, delicious recipes, Calm Your Mind with Food will help you boost your immunity, reduce anxiety, and enhance your overall mental well-being.
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Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind
Combine the surprising truth about brain food with the cutting-edge science of brain metabolism to achieve extraordinary improvements to your emotional, cognitive, and physical health.
Are you struggling with attention problems, mood swings, food obsession, or depression? Whatever the issue, you have far more control over your thoughts, feelings, and behavior than you realize. Although medications may bring some relief, in Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind, Dr. Georgia Ede reveals that the most powerful way to change brain chemistry is with food, because that's where brain chemicals come from in the first place.
In this provocative, illuminating guide, Dr. Ede explains why nearly everything we think we know about brain-healthy diets is wrong. We've been told the way to protect our brains is with superfoods, supplements, and plant-based diets rich in whole grains and legumes, but the science tells a different story: not only do these strategies often fail, but some can even work against us. The truth about brain food is that meat is not dangerous, vegan diets are not healthier, and antioxidants are not the answer.
Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind will empower you to:- understand how unscientific research methods drive fickle nutrition headlines and illogical dietary guidelines
- weigh the risks and benefits of your favorite foods so you can make your own informed choices about what to eat
- evaluate yourself for signs of insulin resistance--the silent metabolic disease that robs your brain of the energy it needs to thrive
- improve your mental health with a choice of moderate-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets that you can personalize to your food preferences and health goals
Drawing on a wide range of scientific disciplines including biochemistry, neuroscience, and botany, Dr. Ede will ignite your curiosity about the fascinating world of food and its role in nourishing, protecting, and energizing your brain.
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Eat the Weeds
Forage all across the country with this informative guide to 274 edible plants, presented by expert Green Deane.
Eating wild edibles is in our genes, and it can be healthy fun! It's seasonal, sufficient, varied, and provides plenty of nutrients. It yields the satisfaction born of food independence and competence. There's no packaging, no labeling, no advertising, and no genetic tinkering involved. But which plants should you eat--and when should you eat them?
Let "Green Deane" Jordan guide you with Eat the Weeds. Green Deane teaches foraging classes and runs a popular foraging website (also called Eat the Weeds). Now he's sharing his expertise with you. Eat the Weeds presents 274 wild foods and helps you to find, identify, and harvest them. The book begins with an introduction that includes tips for using this comprehensive book. The weeds are organized alphabetically, and an extensive index further helps you find what you're looking for. Plus, a fascinating and informative table aids in choosing plants based on their notable nutrients!
Perhaps you recognize a shortage in your diet of a specific vitamin and/or mineral. This guide points you to the plants that could remedy it. The information appeals to everyone from foragers, gardeners, and nature-lovers to raw food enthusiasts, vegans, and survivalists. Each entry includes an introduction to the plant and recommended methods for preparing it, as well as its nutritional information. Yes, nearly every featured wild edible includes a full nutrition table! Color photographs and visual descriptions assist you in field identification, and Green Deane's insights are invaluable, whether you're a beginning forager or someone with plenty of experience.
Foraging is a treasure hunt, so eat healthier, save money, and have fun while enjoying Earth's delicious and nutritious bounty.
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How Not to Age
Instant New York Times Bestseller
Uncover the evidence-based science to slowing the effects of aging, from the New York Times bestselling author of the How Not to Die series
When Dr. Michael Greger, founder of NutritionFacts.org, dove into the top peer-reviewed anti-aging medical research, he realized that diet could regulate every one of the most promising strategies for combating the effects of aging. We don’t need Big Pharma to keep us feeling young—we already have the tools. In How Not to Age, the internationally renowned physician and nutritionist breaks down the science of aging and chronic illness and explains how to help avoid the diseases most commonly encountered in our journeys through life.
Physicians have long treated aging as a malady, but getting older does not have to mean getting sicker. There are eleven pathways for aging in our bodies’ cells and we can disrupt each of them. Processes like autophagy, the upcycling of unusable junk, can be boosted with spermidine, a compound found in tempeh, mushrooms, and wheat germ. Senescent “zombie” cells that spew inflammation and are linked to many age-related diseases may be cleared in part with quercetin-rich foods like onions, apples, and kale. And we can combat effects of aging without breaking the bank. Why spend a small fortune on vitamin C and nicotinamide facial serums when you can make your own for up to 2,000 times cheaper?
Inspired by the dietary and lifestyle patterns of centenarians and residents of “blue zone” regions where people live the longest, Dr. Greger presents simple, accessible, and evidence-based methods to preserve the body functions that keep you feeling youthful, both physically and mentally. Brimming with expertise and actionable takeaways, How Not to Age lays out practical strategies for achieving ultimate longevity. -
Fast Like a Girl
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!
WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER!
PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY BESTSELLER!
Includes a 30-Day fasting reset that uses the power of your cycle—even if you no longer have one!
A go-to fasting manual created specifically to address women's needs based on their hormones and menstrual cycle by Dr. Mindy Pelz, a well-known expert on women and fasting, whose fast-growing YouTube channel has become the destination for women who want to learn about fasting.
Are you among the many women who feel unheard and unseen by their doctors and health professionals? Have you become exhausted by the promise of quick-fix diets that only leave you disappointed? Well in Fast Like a Girl, Dr. Mindy helps you to take back control of your health by using the quickest path back to better health—fasting.
While most fasting advice has been a one-size-fits-all approach that leaves women with more questions than answers, in this book Dr. Mindy shares the proven strategies, specific protocols to use if you are trying to overcome a condition, fasting hacks, and tools that she has used to help hundreds of thousands of women thrive with their fasting lifestyles.
Dr. Mindy will teach you:- the rights steps on how to go from eating all day to intermittent fasting (13-15 hours)
- how to safely fast longer if you choose to do so (15-72 hours)
- how to time fasting according to your menstrual cycle (although if you don’t have a cycle, she has you covered)
- the best foods to break your fast to achieve better metabolic health
This book also includes more than 50 recipes based on the two food plans—ketobiotic and hormone feasting—she created to best support women’s hormones. And, it has recipes specifically created to break a fast such as her Coconut Cacao Chia Pudding.
Inspired by the thousands of women she has worked with who have reclaimed their health with fasting, Dr. Mindy wrote this book because, “once a woman knows how to build a fasting lifestyle around her cycle, she becomes unstoppable.” -
How Not to Die
New York Times Bestseller
“This book may help those who are susceptible to illnesses that can be prevented.”—His Holiness the Dalai Lama
“Absolutely the best book I’ve read on nutrition and diet” –Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones Solution
From the physician behind the wildly popular Nutrition Facts website, How Not to Die reveals the groundbreaking scientific evidence behind the only diet that can help prevent and reverse many of the causes of disease-related death.
In How Not to Die, Dr. Michael Greger, the internationally-renowned nutrition expert, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts.org, examines the fifteen top causes of premature death in America--heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson's, high blood pressure, and more--and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills and other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches to help prevent and reverse these diseases, freeing us to live healthier lives.
The simple truth is that most doctors are good at treating acute illnesses but bad at preventing chronic disease. The fifteen leading causes of death claim the lives of 1.6 million Americans annually. This doesn't have to be the case. By following Dr. Greger's advice, all of it backed up by strong scientific evidence, you will learn which foods to eat and which lifestyle changes to make to live longer.
History of prostate cancer in your family? Put down that glass of milk and add flaxseed to your diet whenever you can. Have high blood pressure? Hibiscus tea can work better than a leading hypertensive drug-and without the side effects. Fighting off liver disease? Drinking coffee can reduce liver inflammation. Battling breast cancer? Consuming soy is associated with prolonged survival. Worried about heart disease (the number 1 killer in the United States)? Switch to a whole-food, plant-based diet, which has been repeatedly shown not just to prevent the disease but often stop it in its tracks.
In addition to showing what to eat to help treat the top fifteen causes of death, How Not to Die includes Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen -a checklist of the twelve foods we should consume every day.Full of practical, actionable advice and surprising, cutting edge nutritional science, these doctor's orders are just what we need to live longer, healthier lives. -
Gut Check
In this groundbreaking addition to his New York Times bestselling Plant Paradox series, Steven R.Gundry, MD offers a definitive guide to the gut biome and its control over its home--us!--revealing the unimaginably complex and intelligent ecosystem controlling our health and teaching us how to heal our guts to prevent and reverse every type of disease.
We may believe that we are the masters of our fates, but in reality, we are at the mercy of hundreds of trillions of single-celled organisms that exert control over every aspect of how our minds and bodies function. These are the diverse species of microbes living in our guts, mouths, and skin that work together synergistically to communicate with each other and with every system in our bodies. You are your microbiome's home, and it wants to take care of you, but first you have to protect it.
In Gut Check, Dr. Steven Gundry reveals the emerging science proving that Hippocrates was right - all disease begins in the gut. When our microbiomes are out of balance, it affects our immune systems, our hormone levels, our mental health, our longevity, and our risk of developing autoimmunity, heart, and neurodegenerative disease, as well as arthritis, diabetes, and cancer. Yet, not all hope is lost: disease can also be healed in the gut if we choose to treat our microbes right. In Gut Check, Dr. Gundry shows us how.
In his warm, authoritative voice, Dr. Gundry provides us with the keys to unlocking our gut health, allowing our bodies, and its microbiome, to function at their highest potential. Sharing shocking new research as well as a detailed eating plan with food lists and recipes to heal and rebalance the microbiome, Gut Check provides the cutting-edge information and tools we need to repair our health and reclaim our lives.
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Cool Food
In Cool Food, celebrated actor and philanthropist Robert Downey Jr. and New York Times bestselling author Thomas Kostigen team up to discover how we can erase our carbon footprints--one bite at a time.
What we eat matters--to us, and to the planet. Cool food is a game-changing new food category and way of thinking that can help fix the climate. This engaging and persuasive book will show you how to make simple choices, starting today--in the supermarket, in your kitchen, and in the world--to reduce your environmental impact. Hundreds of cool foods exist, but until now have gone largely uncelebrated for their climate-positive powers. Some of these foods may already be on your shelf, and some are just on the horizon. But cool food is much more than just a shopping list: it's a way of life vitally important to our future.
Packed with eye-opening information, actionable items, and two dozen delicious recipes, Cool Food comes alive with engaging storytelling and refreshing humor. Robert and Tom have talked with experts around the globe--from farmers who are pioneering new pathways to more sustainable food, to cutting-edge, climate-friendly chefs. In seeking answers to what each of us can do, this intrepid duo discovered:
the power of ancient grains;
revolutionary farming techniques that create more sustainable foods;
the unexpected benefits of meal kits;
future foods that are made of thin air;
delicious and different recipes that do the world good, and much more.
What we choose to eat, where we shop, and how we plan our meals are daily choices that can have a wide impact on the world, whether we realize it or not. We have the power with each one of our daily purchases and our individual food habits to encourage a healthier and more sustainable food system for everyone.
Join Robert and Tom on this fun, exciting, and enlightening adventure and learn how to become part of the Cool Food revolution.
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And Then We Rise
From the multi-award-winning performer, author, and activist, a comprehensive program for addressing mental and physical health--and encouraging communities to do the same.
Common has achieved success in many facets of his life and career, from music to acting to writing. But for a long time, he didn't feel that he had found fulfillment in his body and spirit.
And Then We Rise is about Common's journey to wellness as a vital element of his success. A testimony to the benefits of self-care, this book is composed of four different sections, each with its own important lessons: "The Food" focuses on nutrition. "The Body" focuses on fitness. "The Mind" focuses on mental health. And "The Soul" focuses on perhaps the most profound thing of all--spiritual well-being.
Common's personal stories act as the backbone of his book, but he also wants to give his readers the gift of professional expertise. Here, he acts as the liaison to his own nutritionist and chef, his own physical trainer, and his own therapist, as well as to those who act as his spiritual influences.
Wise, accessible, and powerful, And Then We Rise offers a comprehensive, holistic approach to wellness that will allow readers to transform their thinking, their actions, and, ultimately, their lives.
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Breath
A New York Times Bestseller
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020
Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR
“A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love
No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.
There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.
Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.
Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.
Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again. -
Tremor
An “extraordinary, ambitious” (The Times UK) novel that masterfully explores what constitutes a meaningful life in a violent world—from the award-winning author of Open City
New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • “Cole’s mind is so agile that it’s easy to follow him anywhere.”—The New Yorker
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Vulture, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal
Life is hopeless but it is not serious. We have to have danced while we could and, later, to have danced again in the telling.
A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis.
We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus. He is a reader, a listener, a traveler, drawn to many different kinds of stories: stories from history and epic; stories of friends, family, and strangers; stories found in books and films. Together these stories make up his days. In aggregate these days comprise a life.
Tremor is a startling work of realism and invention that engages brilliantly with literature, music, race, and history as it examines the passage of time and how we mark it. It is a reckoning with human survival amidst “history’s own brutality, which refuses symmetries and seldom consoles,” but it is also a testament to the possibility of joy. As he did in his magnificent debut Open City, Teju Cole once again offers narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature. -
Vigilance
The remarkable and inspiring story of William Still, an unknown abolitionist who dedicated his life to managing a critical section of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia—the free state directly north of the Mason-Dixon Line—helping hundreds of people escape from slavery.
Born free in 1821 to two parents who had been enslaved, William Still was drawn to antislavery work from a young age. Hired as a clerk at the Anti-Slavery office in Philadelphia after teaching himself to read and write, he began directly assisting enslaved people who were crossing over from the South into freedom. Andrew Diemer captures the full range and accomplishments of Still’s life, from his resistance to Fugitive Slave Laws and his relationship with John Brown before the war, to his long career fighting for citizenship rights and desegregation until the early twentieth century.
Despite Still’s disappearance from history books, during his lifetime he was known as “the Father of the Underground Railroad.” Working alongside Harriet Tubman and others at the center of the struggle for Black freedom, Still helped to lay the groundwork for long-lasting activism in the Black community, insisting that the success of their efforts lay not in the work of a few charismatic leaders, but in the cultivation of extensive grassroots networks. Through meticulous research and engaging writing, Vigilance establishes William Still in his rightful place in American history as a major figure of the abolitionist movement. -
A Visit from the Goon Squad
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER • With music pulsing on every page, this startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption "features characters about whom you come to care deeply as you watch them doing things they shouldn't, acting gloriously, infuriatingly human" (The Chicago Tribune).
Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs.
“Pitch perfect.... Darkly, rippingly funny.... Egan possesses a satirist’s eye and a romance novelist’s heart.” —The New York Times Book Review -
The Complete Manual of Sewing
Become a proficient sewist today Gather up thread, fabric, a needle, or a sewing machine, and you are ready to take your first steps in sewing! Designed for beginner sewists and those who already have the basics, this book offers you the essential knowledge for using those fabrics that have been waiting for the perfect project. Have doubts about a part of your sewing machine? Have questions about the quality of your fabric? Are you confused about the best seam to use? Refer to this manual and get started with confidence! - This visual guide will teach you how to sew by hand or machine with 120 comprehensive lessons - Provides the basics and beyond, from supplies and first steps to sewing collars, sleeves, pockets, and more- Includes tips and tricks to solve pesky sewing issues - Sew confidently with this thorough guide for beginner and advanced sewists alike!
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The Sustainable Homestead
Join the permaculture revolution! Author Angela Ferraro-Fanning (Axe & Root Homestead) shares techniques and tips for a homestead with synergy between soil, plants, animals, and trees.
If you’re like most homesteaders, the dream is to make the most of your land by working with it, not against it. From capturing water and building strong soil to helping your animals live their best lives, The Sustainable Homestead is about making your homestead stronger by achieving synergy between what can seem like different parts.
In this book, new and veteran homesteaders alike can find detailed information to put to use this year, this month, even this week! Angela—also the co-host of the HOMESTEADucation podcast and author of the Little Homesteader/Little Country Cottage series of children’s books—has spent more than a decade building and strengthening her small acreage homestead and shares the lessons chapter by chapter:
- Site Selection: Evaluate the elements, water flow and management, wildlife considerations, effective layouts, land elevation, water access points, permaculture zones, considerations based on acreage, how to remedy site shortcomings
- Soil: The importance of soil, symptoms of poor soil, synthetics, water and erosion, healthier crops and animals, how to regenerate soil, cover crops, no-till method, perennial plantings
- Growing: Catching and storing water with swales, catchment ponds, and rain barrels; sunlight and garden design including mandala, terrace, and forest; plant choices; companion planting; holistic pest management including cultural, physical, and biological options
- Pasture: Design considerations, cover cropping, grazing, animal compatibility, pasture rotation, closed-loop grazing systems, maintenance, solar fencing
- Animals: Chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and the sustainable coop; sheep, goats, pigs, and sustainable living quarters; horses, cows, donkeys, and sustainable stable; natural remedies; livestock guardian dogs and barn cats
- Compost: What is compost?, hot vs. cold, decomposition and carbon to nitrogen ratios, creating a composting system, tier considerations, access and rotation, uses of compost, compost tea
- Overstory: Nut trees and permaculture contributions, pollinator groups, fruiting trees, planting in guilds, pest management, tree health
Wherever you want to start first, follow along and make your homestead more resilient by making it more sustainable. -
The Seven-Step Homestead
When faced with financial uncertainty or a potential disruption to the food supply, more people turn to vegetable gardening — for the joy, satisfaction, and sense of security that comes from growing food. Today’s gardeners want a bit of everything — vegetables, fruit, medicinal herbs, flowers for pollinators, and even chickens for eggs. The dream is to build a diverse landscape that serves multiple functions but achieving that goal can be intimidating and overwhelming. Homesteader Leah Webb shares her strategy for implementing a homestead plan in seven stages, starting small and gradually add more features each year. The Seven-Step Homestead takes readers through the process with a series of doable steps, beginning with establishing one or two raised beds of the easiest vegetables to grow, and gradually building up to the addition of fruit trees and berry bushes on hugelkulture mounds, a coop full of chickens, and a winter’s worth of storage crops. Step-by-step photos from the author's own homestead, accompanied by her hard-earned advice and instruction, make this a one-of-a-kind guide for anyone who aspires to free themselves from reliance on the commercial food system but doesn't know where to start or how to make it happen in a realistic way.
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Safe and Sound
#1 New York Times Bestseller
Don't panic--Mercury Stardust, AKA The Trans Handy Ma'am is here to help!
For too many people, the simple act of contacting a plumber or repair person can feel like a game of chance. As a transwoman and a professional maintenance technician, Mercury Stardust has discovered (the hard way) that we live in a world with much to fear. If you've ever felt panicked about opening your home to strangers in order to fix a maintenance issue, this book is for you.
Renting a home can be a complex process--from finding a safe and affordable space, to hiring help for moving in and out, and of course, managing any repairs that come up during your stay.
You deserve to feel empowered to take matters into your own hands--and it's not as hard as you might think. In this book, Mercury will show you how to tackle the projects that need improvement in your home--from how to properly fix a clog in your bathroom sink and safely hang things on your walls to patching small and medium drywall holes.
Safe and Sound includes:
- Guidance for over 50 simple home maintenance projects, such as replacing your showerhead and troubleshooting a faulty garbage disposal.
- Chapters covering basic and handy repairs for your plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and safety needs.
- Advice tailored to renters to minimize permanent changes.
- Helpful illustrations and QR code links to videos to help you on your journey.
Remember--a little bit of knowledge can go a long way toward making you feel more safe and in control of your own life. -
How Not to Kill Your Houseplant New Edition
How to keep alive 119 gorgeous indoor plants, then help them bloom and thrive.
You've welcomed a plant into the home: Now what? Your first job is to keep it alive, then after that help it bloom and thrive. Learn all the tips and tricks you need to become a proud plant parent--of more than 100 different plants (if you're up for it)!
Yellowed leaves, drooping leaves, dried leaves, even though you've watered it: What's going on? How Not to Kill Your Houseplant will explain--and fix--your houseplant woes.
Learn to spot the danger signs and take the proper action to rescue your sick plant.
Follow quick tips to understand what your plant does and doesn't like: how much light, water, food, heat, and humidity.
Discover the perfect plant for your unique space and needs. Bathrooms, cold rooms, at a desk, on a windowsill, or in a gloomy corner or hot suntrap--there are plants for every location to create your own indoor oasis.
This is your guide to every stage of plant parenting for beginners, from identifying exactly what's in the pot to keeping it in check when it grows too well! -
How to Win at Chess
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Learn chess from International Master and YouTube’s top chess teacher Levy Rozman (aka GothamChess) in this refreshing and fun guide for beginner and intermediate players.
Clever and informative, How to Win at Chess teaches you everything you need to know about the game, including all the important moves and strategies to start off strong and keep you thinking several steps ahead.
Full of Levy Rozman's signature charm and humor that have made him beloved by millions of fans, the first half of this unique guide introduces rising players (0-800 Elo rating) to the four key areas to consider when playing chess—openings, endings, tactics, and strategy—and the second half builds upon these core skills for more experienced players (800-1300 Elo rating). Brimming with practical and easy-to-follow tips for improving your game, How to Win at Chess includes over 500 instructional gameplay illustrations to help you better visualize the board, as well as chapter-specific QR codes for exclusive bonus content on Chessly, Rozman’s teaching platform.
Whether you want to become a recreational chess player or are training to be a Grandmaster, How to Win at Chess is the perfect interactive introduction to the world of chess! -
Dominoes Game Night
In this comprehensive guide, a 3-time World Domino Champion breaks down the fascinating history and culture of one of the world's most popular pastimes--and shares how-to instructions for playing 65 different domino games.
Featuring step-by-step, illustrated instructions, Dominoes Game Night will teach readers how to play 65 different domino games, including popular variations like Matador, Muggins, Chicken Foot, and Mexican Train.
In addition to providing the rules of standard game play, Dominoes Game Night also delves into the 1,000+ year history and culture of the game across the world, and it looks at modern day domino tournaments that are played both in person and online. Also touching on more idiosyncratic domino uses like toppling, Dominoes Game Night introduces readers to the countless benefits of playing Dominoes--like improved memory retention and concentration--while also teaching discipline and bolstering social interactions. With a breakdown of Dominoes terms, rules, and turn-by-turn examples, this book explains the reasoning behind making specific plays, and it takes an in-depth look at the critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills that are required to master the game. Whether you're a novice who is just learning to play, or an experienced player looking to elevate your game, Dominoes Game Night offers all the tools you need to consistently win games at a higher level. Written by a 3-time World Domino Champion, Dominoes Game Night is sure to become the go-to companion for both casual players and Domino die-hards. -
Field Guide to Outside Style
Make your outdoor space as comfortable and personal as the inside of your home with garden design and planting guidance from Field Guide to Outside Style.
Maybe you’ve just purchased your first home or you have an existing outdoor space that’s overgrown and old-fashioned, and you want to turn it into a place that blends perfectly with your sense of style and your life. But where should you start? How can you be sure to create a space you can sustain? Field Guide to Outside Style leads the way. You’ll learn to personalize your outdoor living space with the right plants, furnishings, and other design elements to create a space that reflects YOU perfectly, even if you’ve never sunk a shovel into the soil before.
The word “gardening” can be intimidating if you aren’t used to digging in the dirt, yet you want a gorgeous outdoor living area you feel proud of. Author and outdoor living pro Ryan McEnaney helps you make it happen by meeting you where you are. He cuts out the intimidating stuff, doesn’t use scary terms, and supports you through the entire process.
- Start with what you already love. Learn how to translate your choices in clothing, colors, furniture, and architecture into an understanding of how to design your outdoor areas.
- Next, set parameters and expectations. Learn how to plan smartly so you don’t get in over your head.
- Then, select your aesthetic. Decide which of three primary outdoor design styles—the classic, the modernist, and the naturalist—suit you best and use easy-to-digest, mix-and-match design suggestions and recipes to create an outdoor living area of your dreams.
- Plus, see your options in action. Through case studies accompanied by before-and-after illustrations of outdoor rehab projects, you’ll walk away with a clear understanding of the options for you and your space.
Close the book confident in your ability to select plants and design concepts that work in your region, fit within your abilities, and ultimately match the rest of your life perfectly. And to sweeten the deal, the long-term success of your new outdoor space is supported by information on seasonality, sticking to a budget, and creating a balanced space to ensure your newly discovered outside style shines for many years to come. -
Foolproof Sketching & Painting Techniques for Beginners
An inspiring guide to sketching and painting the world around you!
Packed with practical tips and advice, this book shows you how to fill your sketchbook or watercolor pad with a variety of everyday items that catch your eye, such as:- Kitchen items like cups, teapots and silverware
- Toys like Rubik's Cubes and model cars
- Tea sandwiches and roll cakes
- Colorful bottles and containers
- Household items like umbrellas, bottles and candles
- Clothing and acessories including shirts, hats and umbrellas
- And so much more!
Author Tomoko Kuramae provides clear step-by-step instructions on the proportions and perspective of basic objects and clearly explains how to draw dozens of items based on cubes, cylinders and flat shapes from a variety of angles. She then shows you how to bring your finished sketches alive with the use of brilliant transparent watercolors.
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Embrace Your Space
Organize and style your home using home-decorating and organization expert Katie Holdefehr’s modern, chic, and simple-to-achieve design tips and tricks.
Whether giving a studio apartment a makeover to maximize every inch of space for storage, creating a functional and streamlined kitchen, or revamping a bedroom into a relaxing sanctuary, home design expert Katie Holdefehr will be your personal designer throughout each step in Embrace Your Space. As an editor for top magazines and websites such as Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, Good Housekeeping, and Apartment Therapy, Katie Holdefehr honed her expertise in home design and organization writing hundreds of articles and styling dozens of tasteful, livable rooms that anyone on any budget can achieve.
Featuring real homes from across the country and accompanied by gorgeous photographs, Embrace Your Space shares Katie’s tools of the trade, as well as designer-insider tips and tricks, to give every living space a Wow! effect. Also included are simple and affordable design projects for creating unique and custom-looking décor details.
GORGEOUS PHOTOGRAPHY: More than 150 beautiful full-color photographs show designer tips and tricks in action
DESIGN PROJECTS: Simple, affordable, and easy-to-accomplish design projects are included in each chapter
HOME ORGANIZATIONAL HACKS: Dozens of home organization tips help keep areas clutter-free
DECLUTTERING TIPS: Learn easy-and-quick ways to declutter and streamline those common problem areas such as closets, kitchen cabinets, entryways, and more.
INSIDER TIPS AND TRICKS: Having worked as a magazine editor in the home decor space, Katie Holdefehr provides information for home design and organization
BEAUTIFUL GIFT: Whether you appreciate home design or are just looking to downsize your clutter, this books makes a gorgeous and helpful gift -
Oil Painting Landscapes
Capture the Splendor of the Outdoors with 12 Beginner-Friendly Oil Painting Projects
Your artistic ability to bring wondrous backdrops to life is just a brushstroke away with Sarah Mckendry’s Oil Painting Landscapes. Now you can create breathtaking scenery—even if you’ve never held a brush—with Sarah’s easy-to-follow instructions and guided photography that take you carefully through each step.
Sarah makes the process easier than ever by providing helpful tips for blending color and adjusting artistic blunders, as well as information on oil painting techniques and material recommendations. To lower the cost of art supplies, each project uses only a handful of colors and keeps the number of necessary tools to a minimum—reducing stress for the aspiring artist.
Inside you will find 12 stunning projects, all in Sarah’s unique, atmospheric style, including enchanting forests, tranquil sunsets, peaceful meadows and magnificent ocean waves. So pick up your brush and open your mind to a new creative journey: painting the world around you with soft, beautiful color. -
Tiny Felt Cuties & Creatures
Craft adorable, trendy felt miniatures with this book of step-by-step tutorials and projects, featuring beautiful photos that illustrate easy felting techniques.
From self-taught artist Delilah Iris, Sew Cute!: Tiny Felt Cuties & Creatures includes more than a dozen patterns for making tiny animals, dolls, dollhouses, props, adorable gifts, and miniature play sets. The projects can be created as stand-alone finished works, but they can also be used to complement each other in a complete set for use in a tiny miniature world!
If you have been looking for new crafting techniques to learn at home and don’t want to buy a lot of tools and materials, creating felt miniatures is the perfect choice. Felting does not require a sewing machine and can be done using simple hand stitches and embroidery, all of which are demonstrated in the book along with stylized photo tutorials. Also included are detailed doll patterns, suggestions for materials to have on hand, and much more.
Sew Cute!: Tiny Felt Cuties & Creatures will help you create your own tiny world of animals, dolls, fairy houses, and more. -
Simple Origami
With simple visual step-by-step instructions and hand-drawn illustrations, effortlessly create over 50 different paper creations, from sea lions to spinning tops, Christmas decorations and colorful flowers.
This is origami at its most simple and elegant. With a special focus on a very visual method of explanation, this collection brings together 50 traditional origami projects, accessible to experts and beginners alike. The folds are organized from the simplest to the most complex.
The projects range from sea lions to spinning tops, Christmas decorations and colorful flowers, to sailboats. Detailed illustrations show you exactly where to place your hands at every step of the process, and projects are given a difficulty rating for ease of reference. Simply follow the diagrams and watch origami creations of all kinds come to life at your fingertips.
Brought to you from the Parisian boutique of Adeline Klam, this book is full of beautiful designs, fun toys, useful tips and paper surprises of every shape and size. -
Watercolor Made Simple
Learn to paint in watercolor—with joy and confidence—as you explore simple techniques, popular subjects, and simple papercrafting projects.
Watercolor is a wonderful medium to explore your creativity, unwind, and have fun. Whether you’re new to watercolor painting or looking to expand your skills, Watercolor Made Simple will guide you to connect more personally with your watercolor practice and build your painting skills in a relaxing, welcoming way. Nicki Traikos, who teaches popular watercolor classes through life i design, wants to help you avoid the struggles and frustrations she experienced when learning to paint with watercolors by providing encouraging instruction, easy tutorials, and beautifully illustrated step-by-step projects.
Consider this your invitation to the world of watercolor as you:
- Get familiar with paints, brushes, and papers
- Learn fundamental watercolor washes and brushstrokes
- Explore simple color theory and color mixing
- Use a sketchbook to gather inspiration
- Paint more than 15 popular subjects, such as flowers, leaves, feathers, still lifes, and simple landscapes, step by step
You’ll also find:
- QR codes that link to helpful video tutorials
- Traceable line drawings that allow you to jump right into painting
- Charming papercrafting projects to feature your watercolor paintings
- Tips for storing and displaying your art—and even what to do with paintings you don’t love
With gentle encouragement and techniques she has honed through teaching tens of thousands of watercolor students, Nicki will soon have you painting your favorite subjects with ease and enjoyment. -
Soap Making for Beginners
The all-in-one guide to making 100% natural beauty and bath soaps at home!
This book makes it easy to create your own soaps using ingredients that you know and trust. Author Ayako Umehara is a certified herbal therapist, aromatherapy and Ayurveda instructor, and she shows you how to make your own soaps using pure and simple natural ingredients like olive oil, shea butter, rose hips, avocado, manuka honey and almonds as well as many and novel aromatic ingredients like Yuzu Matcha Mint, Lemon Eucalyptus and Salt, Seaweed and Clay.
The chapters in the book present 45 all-natural recipes using 100% pure essential oils and botanicals in the following categories:- Soaps That Are Gentle on the Skin including Manuka Honey Soap, Plain Olive Oil Soap and Skim Milk Soap for Kids
- Soaps That Nourish the Skin and Body such as Avocado and Sweet Almond Soap, Grape Seed Soap and Sesame Spice Scrub Soap
- Soaps that Soothe for example Lavender Marble Soap, Rosemary Soap and Linden Flower and Honey Soap
- Natural Soaps for Everyday Use like Tea Tree Hand Soap and Baking Soda Paste for Cleaning
- Special Occasion and Seasonal Soaps such as Valentine's Sweet Soap and Christmas Ornament Soap
A special section introduces basic techniques for bar soaps using the Cold Process and Melt-and-Pour Process as well as liquid soaps and how to vary the type and quantity of plant oils used. An extensive reference section covers everything you need to know about natural and botanical additives: plant and essential oils, herbs, dried flowers and other natural ingredients.
For all your cleansing needs, Soapmaking for Beginners has got you covered--in suds! -
Artfully Transforming Bottles & Plates
"Say yes to reclaiming creativity--environmentally friendly, beautiful, and innovative! Here are 75 projects that upcycle and elevate your discards. Transform not only wine bottles and teacups, but your living spaces--indoors and out. Use a wide assortment of craft materials and techniques, from marbling to chalkboard paints to kintsugi, to upcycle the bottles in your recycling bin or the plates that were dropped on the way to the table. Make lovely decorative and useful items that may even become heirlooms. Bring new treasures to life from discards and feel great about your crafting as you reclaim and upcycle. The first projects focus on glass bottle use; learn how to make elegant olive bowls, cocktail glasses, cookie jars, gorgeous illumination for your outdoor dining, and much more. The second group of projects transforms your china, porcelain, and other ceramic tableware, whether it's showing signs of wear, is broken, or just doesn't match. Learn to make clocks, charming signs, neon-marbled chargers, wedding keepsakes, and much more." --publisher's website.
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The 30-Minute Gardener
"There are lots of aspiring gardeners out there. But a large number of them-especially younger ones, with demanding jobs, growing families, and limited space-either don't have the time to garden traditionally, or are scared off from the very notion and have no idea where to start. Greg Loades comes to the rescue in this detailed, inspiring book. He shows the reader how much can actually be accomplished in no more than 30 minutes a day, from simple tasks such as renovating a rose bush or planting a layered bulb display to more complex ones like laying a patio or building a green roof. By laying out the details of the projects-which include both in-the-ground ornamental and vegetable gardening as well as container projects-he shows the reader exactly how to create a welcoming, rewarding haven that will quickly become an indispensable part of their family's lifestyle"--
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Macramé
Learn and Master the Art of Macramé
"A wonderful resource for beginning and advanced macramé artists." ―Elizabeth Majka, Library Journal
#1 New Release in Ribbons, Knots, Macrame & Rope Work
Learn the art of macramé and craft beautiful and practical creations such as wall hangings, plant hangers, jewelry, and much more.
Develop a new creative hobby or just improve your macramé skills. New to macramé or an accomplished macramé artist? Either way, with the expert guidance of author Nghi Ho, online macramé community star and founder of Miss Knottie Macramé supplies, you'll discover new macramé patterns and projects and a whole world of enjoyment and satisfaction.
Relax with macramé DIY crafts. Having a stressful day? Unwind with a macramé project that can be both gratifying and fun. If you are new to macramé, Nghi Ho will show you how to get started, explain the basic materials you'll need, and give you a good grounding in macramé knots.
Inside find:
- Tutorials on starting your own macramé projects, macrame kits, and basic knots
- Crafts to do at home and fun activities for the whole family
- Macramé projects that are unique and personalized
If you have read books like Macramè For Beginners, Statement Macramé, or Modern Embroidery, you'll love Nghi Ho's Macramè The Power of Knots.
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Polymer Clay Jewelry
Learn to make fun, colorful, modern, on-trend earrings from polymer clay.
In Polymer Clay Jewelry, Author Rachael Skidmore—owner of the popular online shop and social-media channels Made by Maeberry—takes a fresh, contemporary approach to this classic craft. Through her easy-to-follow photographic steps and clear instructions, you can make your own contemporary earrings in a variety of colors and styles.
Among the topics covered in the book:
- Tools and materials
- Clay conditioning
- Color mixing
- How to choose a color palette
- Clay curing and baking
- Painting clay
- How to add earring backs
Once you’re familiar with these important introductory topics, learn to make colorful abstract earrings, hoops of various sizes and styles, rainbows, shells, hammered “metal,”statement jewelry, and much more—all from polymer clay! Also included in the book are beautiful photographs of all of the pieces, suggestions for customizing colors and styles, images of color palettes and alternative ideas, and so much more.
Polymer clay is lightweight, inexpensive, and infinitely customizable. Polymer Clay Jewelry is perfect for makers and jewelry enthusiasts of all skill levels!
The Art Makers series is designed for beginning artists and arts-and-crafts enthusiasts who are interested in experiencing fun hands-on mediums, including polymer clay and embroidery.
Also available from the series: Polymer Clay for Beginners, Papier Mache, Empowered Embroidery, and Make Cute Stuff with Polymer Clay. -
The Beginner's Guide to Decorating Pottery
Join ceramic artist Emily Reinhardt to learn how to decorate pottery surfaces with glazes, gold luster, patterns and marks, inlay designs, dimensional shapes, and much more.
With an emphasis on learning new skills, having fun, and embracing imperfection, The Beginner’s Guide to Decorating Potterysupports your creative process as you explore:
- Basic information on working with clays as well as materials used for decorating.
- Tutorials on color theory, combining form and function, and the importance of keeping a sketchbook.
- Beginner-friendly projects that show how to apply surface-design techniques to simple pieces such as coasters, a cheeseboard, a wall hanging, plates, tumblers, vases, planters, and more.
Throughout the book, skill-building is front and center, with tips and tricks to help you crack the code and make pieces you’re proud of. Gallery work from some of today’s top ceramics artists is sure to inspire potters of all levels. What will you make first?
For beginners and those returning to ceramics, the Essential Ceramics Skills series from Quarry Books offer the fundamentals along with fresh, contemporary, and simple projects that build skills progressively.
Explore even more ceramics techniques with:The Beginner’s Guide to Wheel Throwing and The Beginner’s Guide to Hand Building. -
Making Wooden Toys
Learn to make fresh, fun, and whimsical wooden toys! Perfect for beginner to advanced scrollers, this must-have project guide will walk you through how to scroll saw 15 interactive wooden toys kids will love. Using minimal tools and food-safe finishes, the featured scroll saw projects have a contemporary aesthetic and are truly unique to engage children in new and exciting ways. Also included are helpful overviews on materials and tools, including how to use sandpaper, drills, a square, a plane, and more. With easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions and expert tips and tricks to assist you in accomplishing each exciting project, Making Wooden Toys is the ultimate guide to making one-of-a-kind interactive toys that are just as fun to make as they are to play with!
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A Sweet Floral Life
Learn how to create exquisite, lifelike sugar flowers to pair with fresh blooms in the floral arrangements of your dreams—regardless of season or availability.
Rising Instagram star Natasja Sadi's floral arrangements have a sumptuous, old-world look straight out of a classical painting. But the secret is that they often contain a surprise twist: handmade sugar flowers (traditionally used in cake decorating) that are indistinguishable from real ones and last forever.
A former fashion designer, Sadi began making flowers out of sugar to honor her African and Indonesian ancestors who worked in the sugarcane fields of Suriname. In A Sweet Floral Life, Sadi provides steps for sculpting sugar flowers, a versatile medium with limitless possibilities—they can be used in fresh floral arrangements, displayed on their own, or used to adorn cakes for weddings, anniversaries, or parties. And whether it’s the middle of summer or the dead of winter, sugar flowers are always in season and always in perfect full bloom.
In addition, Sadi guides you through the creative process of fresh flower arranging and developing a personal style, along with tutorials for seasonal arrangements, living and entertaining with flowers, and how to photograph flowers. Capture the romance, set the mood, and be swept away by gorgeous and inspiring floral art with A Sweet Floral Life. -
Botanical Dyes
Botanical Dyes features recipes and top tips on everything you need to know to make your own natural dyes.
The process of turning plants into print can help you reconnect with nature, find a creative outlet and develop a mindful sense of presence. It also promotes an awareness of sustainable practices and how to reduce our impact on the planet.
Extracting from and updating her book Botanical Inks, Babs talks the home crafter through everything from foraging for dyes, making mordants, creating an array of colors and then putting your new knowledge to the test through some simple projects.
With more than 10 dye recipes, clear step-by-step instructions, troubleshooting tips and explanations of what works and why, Botanical Dyes is the accessible handbook that modern makers everywhere have been waiting for.- By Hand is a new, how-to slow craft series that celebrates craft techniques
- Explores an on-trend craft that's part of the 'slow-living' movement
- Will appeal to people interested in foraging and sustainable practices
- A comprehensive guide that covers making the dyes and application techniques
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Crochet Cute Forest Friends
Stitch Up Your Newest Cuddle Companions
Crochet the cutest, cuddliest, coziest creatures of the forest with this beginner-friendly guide to amigurumi animals from Sarah Zimmerman, bestselling author of Crochet Cute Critters and creator of Repeat Crafter Me. These 26 simple patterns will transport you to a whimsical world of woodland animals begging to be snuggled and squeezed. Each endearing pattern requires only the simplest stitches, straightforward assembly and widely-accessible yarn so you can stitch up your squishiest new companion in record time.
From forest floor friends and treetop dwellers to riverside animals and nocturnal critters, there’s a pattern for every cherished creature of the woods. Sweeten your space with a smiling green Frog, or liven up your nest with a lovable Owl. Create a not-so-rascally Raccoon, a friendly Fox or a darling Deer to invite playful cheer into your everyday. Why not complete the whole collection by crocheting them all! Even if you’re new to crochet, these easiest-ever patterns are guaranteed to bring you boundless joy. -
The Beginner’s Guide to Urban Sketching
Taria Dawson, creator of Urban Sketching World, makes it easy to join the ever-growing community of urban sketchers--artists who draw on location to document loose, colorful impressions of where they live and travel. Her beginner's guide is packed with everything you need to know about urban sketching principles, drawing fundamentals and tips for creating captivating art with just a few basic supplies!
Each chapter breaks down a popular location into smaller subject lessons and practical exercises using the art form's most popular method: ink and watercolor. Learn to draw your morning breakfast at a local café, recreate the changing leaves at the neighborhood park, or report on the industrialization of your cityscape. Then practice putting these components together to tell a full visual story with Taria's "Sketching a Scene" walkthroughs featured at the end of every chapter. What's more, Taria shares different approaches such as beginning by blocking in shapes with watercolor vs starting with an ink outline, so you can really find a style that feels authentic to you.
Full of helpful techniques, detailed instructions, and plenty of visual examples, this book is the perfect guide to help you record your adventures no matter where you are (or where you go)!