Daughter of the Deep


Book Description

A wedding to end a war. It's been four years since the blood feud between the Branwens and Mathonwys started. Four years of sunken ships and loved ones lost, four years of wounds both seen and unseen. Keira Branwen is no stranger to duty. As the first mate of a legendary pirate ship, blessed by the sea-god Lyr, and heir apparent to her clan, she would sail to the Otherworld and back to keep her family safe. But when the Council threatens banishment for her people, Keira is faced with a choice; she must either marry her father's alleged killer, the sea-snake Ronan Mathonwy, or curse her family to the deep. But in the Seven Isles of the Deyrnas, secrets sleep just beneath the surface of the water. Her father's death is still shrouded in mystery, and Ronan-her childhood friend, the man she once loved - is hell-bent on proving his innocence. As enemies become friends and friends become suspects, Keira must wade through the waters of doubt to expose the truth, save her family, and restore her father's legacy. But Keira soon learns that there are ties thicker than blood, and there is more than one way to sacrifice a life.




You Must Go and Win


Book Description

In the wickedly bittersweet and hilarious You Must Go and Win, the Ukrainian-born musician Alina Simone traces her bizarre journey through the indie rock world, from disastrous Craigslist auditions with sketchy producers to catching fleas in a Williamsburg sublet. But Simone offers more than down-and-out tales of her time as a struggling musician: she has a rapier wit, slashing and burning her way through the absurdities of life, while offering surprising and poignant insights into the burdens of family expectations and the nature of ambition, the temptations of religion and the lure of a mythical Russian home. Wavering between embracing and fleeing her outsized and nebulous dreams of stardom, Simone confronts her Russian past when she falls in love with the music of Yanka Dyagileva, a Soviet singer who tragically died young; hits the road with her childhood friend who is dead set on becoming an "icon"; and battles male strippers in Siberia. Hailed as "the perfect storm of creative talent" (USA Today, Pop Candy), Simone is poised to win over readers of David Rakoff and Sarah Vowell with her irresistibly funny and charming literary debut.




A Future Untold


Book Description

Why can’t you understand those people who think so differently from you? Why have we failed to meaningfully address climate change despite 40 years of clear climate science? Why are so many of our systems of social support failing us? At the root of the answers to these questions lies the extraordinary power of story. The world is built upon stories - stories we believe about ourselves and others, narratives about “the way things are”, and myths that define our relationship to the world around us. Many of the stories and narratives that we subconsciously believe have led us down the dark path to rising inequality, food insecurity, unprecedented levels of polarisation, and ecological instability on a planetary scale. And because it was us - humans - who collectively authored these stories, it is us who have the power to change them. An entertaining and inspiring rallying cry, A Future Untold urges us to return to the most fundamental driver of human behaviour and culture setting – story. Drawing heavily from her experience in environmental advocacy, activism, political communications, spoken word, and the entrepreneurial sector, New Zealand National Poetry Slam champion Alina Siegfried (AKA Ali Jacs) translates the fundamentals of narrative change into authentic stories, entertaining anecdotes, new myths for humanity, and a handful of powerful poems to provide a call to action for everyday citizens who believe that we can build a better future together.




What Urge Will Save Us


Book Description

Alina Pleskova gives us poetry that explores how relations, love, and even failed love are where the real answers await. Competing economies of intimacies, work, and cultural expectation circulate together around a speaker who resists definition(s). Off-handed insight and candor brew an extremely subtle defiance here, allowing Pleskova to ask in subways, on sidewalks, of partners and friends all the gorgeous questions about how to resist and persist.




Shadow and Bone


Book Description

The Grishaverse will be coming to Netflix soon with Shadow and Bone, an original series Enter the Grishaverse with Book One of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold--a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed. Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country's magical military elite--and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift. As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation. Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems. A New York Times Bestseller A Los Angeles Times Bestseller An Indie Next List Book This title has Common Core connections. Praise for the Grishaverse "A master of fantasy." --The Huffington Post "Utterly, extremely bewitching." --The Guardian "The best magic universe since Harry Potter." --Bustle "This is what fantasy is for." --The New York Times Book Review " A] world that feels real enough to have its own passport stamp." --NPR "The darker it gets for the good guys, the better." --Entertainment Weekly "Sultry, sweeping and picturesque. . . . Impossible to put down." --USA Today "There's a level of emotional and historical sophistication within Bardugo's original epic fantasy that sets it apart." --Vanity Fair "Unlike anything I've ever read." --Veronica Roth, bestselling author of Divergent "Bardugo crafts a first-rate adventure, a poignant romance, and an intriguing mystery " --Rick Riordan, bestselling author of the Percy Jackson series "This is a great choice for teenage fans of George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien." --RT Book Reviews Read all the books in the Grishaverse The Shadow and Bone Trilogy (previously published as The Grisha Trilogy) Shadow and Bone Siege and Storm Ruin and Rising The Six of Crows Duology Six of Crows Crooked Kingdom King of Scars The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic




In the Shadows of Love


Book Description

Many times in our lives we try to make sense of why God does the things he does. We ask him to reveal his plans to us, but he is silent, nowhere to be found. Set in the 1920’s, In the Shadows of Love is a faith-based story centered around Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (KJV). It’s the story of how God’s invisible hand never stops working, always shaping history for the good of his children, even when it doesn’t seem possible. Alina Foster lives a life of misery and despair from the moment she was brought into the world. Her mother died giving birth to her. Her father is hostile toward her, blaming her for his wife’s death. With no hopes of a brighter future, Alina trades one miserable life for another, enduring a long hard-filled life on the crime-ridden streets of Kirkville, a rural Midwestern town. After years of searching for purpose and meaning to her existence, God brings an extraordinary little gift into her life that changes the course of her destiny forever.




Note to Self


Book Description

A witty, keenly observant look at our Internet-obsessed culture Anna Krestler is adrift. The Internet has draped itself, kudzu-like, over her brain, which makes it even more difficult to confront the question of what to do when she is dismissed from her job as a cubicle serf at a midtown law firm. Despite the exhortations of Leslie, her friend and volunteer life coach, Anna seeks refuge in the back alleys of craigslist, where she connects with Taj, an adherent of a nebulous movement known as Nowism that occupies the most self-absorbed fringes of the art world. Art, Anna decides, is what will provide the meaningful life she's been searching for and knows she deserves. She joins Taj's "crew" and is drawn into his grand experimental film project. But making art is hard and microwaving pouch foods is easy. Soon enough Anna finds herself distracted by myriad other quests: remembering to ask Leslie "How are you?," reducing her intake of caloric drinks, and parrying her mother's insistence that she attend hairdressing school. But when Anna's twenty-seven-year-old roommate—a perpetual intern named Brie—announces her pregnancy, it forces Anna to confront reality, setting off a chain of events that lead to a horrifying climax of betrayal. Alina Simone's Note to Self is a shrewdly perceptive, hilarious, moving tale about friendship, art, and the search for a meaningful life in an era of rampant narcissism.




The Only Woman to Defy Him


Book Description

The fine line between professional…and personal! Standing outside legendary playboy Demyan Zukov's penthouse suite, shy personal assistant Alina Ritchi is shaking with nerves—she should never have agreed to this job. She's out of her depth, and that's before she's met her delicious new boss. Demyan's wicked reputation doesn't disappoint—she might be a virgin, but surely one hot glance from Demyan shouldn't make her feel so…naked? Exposed, she finds that his gaze ignites her defiance, and soon she's challenging him every step of the way! But when every shared touch sizzles, how long can Alina keep saying no when her body wants to scream yes…?




The Invisible Library


Book Description

Collecting books can be a dangerous prospect in this fun, time-traveling, fantasy adventure—the first in the Invisible Library series! One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction... Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself. Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself... FEATURING BONUS MATERIAL: including an interview with the author, a legend from the Library, and more!




Grateful


Book Description

You are the most beautiful version of yourself when you are unapologetically yourself, when you live as beautifully as you can, when you do your best and call it a day. You are so beautiful when you want to grow through all life’s experiences. Alina Adamut knows firsthand that we all have the power to change the way we look at and perceive our life’s challenges. We have the power to change the words and thoughts that surround those circumstances. Most importantly, we have the power to change the way we respond to them. In a collection of poems and other writings, Adamut invites others to fall in love with their messy beautiful lives, over and over again, while finding gratitude for every moment. Her inspirational poems remind others there is always room to be thankful for the simple gifts of life such as wake-up calls, memorable encounters, being okay with not being okay, change, and little glimpses of heaven. Grateful is a poetic journey through one woman’s messy yet beautiful life experiences as she learns to accept and be grateful for the simple gifts and beauty around her.