Lessons in Laughing Out Loud


Book Description

Internationally bestselling author Rowan Coleman delivers a heartwarming new tale about a recent divorcee who finds the courage to tackle her weight issues, her love life, and the dark family secret that has haunted her for years. Willow Briar (known as Will) is thirty-six-years old, five feet two, and a size eighteen. Now that she’s divorced, Will’s social life revolves around her job—working for her demanding talent agent boss Victoria Kincade—and her best friend Daniel Fayre, a successful fashion photographer for whom she harbors a secret crush. An identical twin, Will has struggled with her self-esteem for years—particularly when she looks at her slim, married, happy sister. One day she finds her luck suddenly turning around after buying a fabulous pair of vintage shoes that make her feel slimmer, taller, and sexier. These shoes seem to have a secret history, and Will starts to wonder if they are a little bit magic. Little does she know not even a magic eight ball could predict the shocking turn her life is about to take or that the courage she needs to confront her deep-seated issues will require more than a fashion makeover—it will take a life makeover. Armed with newfound confidence to begin her journey, Will finds the courage to face the dark family secrets of her past—and claim the future meant for her.




Lessons in Laughing Out Loud


Book Description

Willow Briars only has to glance at her identical twin sister, Holly?slim, happy, married with two beautiful children?to see how her life might have turned out differently. The divorced Willow, who works at a London talent agency, has all the outward trappings of success, yet her dissatisfaction is growing along with her dress size. Add in a long-term, fruitless crush on her friend Daniel, and Willow has started to feel invisible. Then she buys a mysterious pair of vintage shoes that make her feel sexy, daring, more confident. Since she?s also babysitting a disgraced starlet and caring for the ex-stepdaughter who just landed on her doorstep, her life is suddenly full. Willow must reevaluate everything she once believed about love, heartache, and her own worth. But can she learn how to stop running from her past and embrace whatever her future may hold?




Laugh Out Loud


Book Description

Get ready to Laugh Out Loud (a lot!) with James Patterson's illustrated middle grade story of a twelve-year-old boy starting his own book company for kids. Jimmy loves reading so much that he's inspired to start a book company for kids -- run by kids. It's a big dream for a twelve-year-old boy. Some would even say it's laugh-out-loud ridiculous! But that doesn't stop Jimmy from dreaming even bigger! His company will be as imaginative and fun as Willy Wonka's chocolate factory . . . with a Ferris wheel instead of an elevator, a bowling alley in the break room, and a river filled with floating books! He just has to believe in himself and his idea (and maybe win the Lotto). In this hilarious story filled with clever references to children's book favorites, James Patterson shows young readers that anything can be achieved if you believe in yourself no matter what!




A Porcupine Named Fluffy


Book Description

A porcupine named Fluffy is happier with his name after he meets a similarly misnamed rhinoceros. OThe humor is just absurd enough to make the picture-book set howl along with Hippo and Fluffy."N"The New York Times Book Review." Full color.




Life, Lessons and Laughter


Book Description

Witty, humorous, entertaining - all describe this mother's captivating memoir. When her son, Jared, bounced into the world with Down syndrome, she was surprised when this unexpected new journey turned out to be an amazing adventure loaded with priceless lessons - many of which included a hearty dose of laughter. This collection of stories is for everyone, whether or not your life has been touched with someone who has Downs. They will make you smile, laugh out loud, or touch your heart. Celebrate his life with her through these delightfully fun, and at times, poignant stories. Once you read a few, you'll find yourself saying, "Just one more..." Some chapter headings include: Futons and Post Diggers; Nix the Fish, Bring on the Cocktail; The Miracle; Silver Trumps Gold; Peanut Butter Shot Panic; A Proliferation of Problematical Stuff; Towels, Ear Rubs, and the Jitterbug.




Lessons From Lucy


Book Description

In this “little gem” (Washington Independent Review of Books), Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and New York Times bestselling author Dave Barry learns how to age happily from his old but joyful dog, Lucy. As Dave Barry turns seventy—not happily—he realizes that his dog, Lucy, is dealing with old age far better than he is. She has more friends, fewer worries, and way more fun. So Dave decides to figure out how Lucy manages to stay so happy, to see if he can make his own life happier by doing the things she does (except for drinking from the toilet). He reconnects with old friends and tries to make new ones—which turns out to be a struggle, because Lucy likes people a lot more than he does. And he gets back in touch with two ridiculous but fun groups from his past: the Lawn Rangers, a group of guys who march in parades pushing lawnmowers and twirling brooms (alcohol is involved), and the Rock Bottom Remainders, the world’s oldest and least-talented all-author band. With each new lesson, Dave riffs hilariously on dogs, people, and life in general, while also pondering Deep Questions, such as when it’s okay to lie. (Answer: when scallops are involved.) Lessons From Lucy shows readers a new side to Dave Barry that’s “touching and sentimental, but there’s still a laugh on every page” (The Sacramento Bee). The master humorist has written a witty and affable guide to joyous living at any age.




The Day You Begin


Book Description

A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Featured in its own episode in the Netflix original show Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices! National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belpré Illustrator Award winner Rafael López have teamed up to create a poignant, yet heartening book about finding courage to connect, even when you feel scared and alone. There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you. There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from; maybe it's what you eat, or something just as random. It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it. Jacqueline Woodson's lyrical text and Rafael López's dazzling art reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway. (This book is also available in Spanish, as El Día En Que Descubres Quién Eres!)




Living Out Loud


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Anna Quindlen, hailed by the New York Times as “America’s resident sane person,” offers a collection of “engaging, fresh, [and] funny” (Chicago Tribune) essays about growing up, becoming a parent, spirituality, and more. “The lightning bugs are back. They are small right now, babies really, flying low to the ground as the lawn dissolves from green to black in the dusk. There are constellations of them outside the window; on, off, on, off. At first the little boy cannot see them; then, suddenly, he does. ‘Mommy, it’s magic,’ he say. “This is why I had children; because of the lightning bugs.” The voice is Anna Quindlen’s. But we know the hopes, dreams, fears, and wonder expressed in all her nonfiction, for most of us share them. Quindlen first vaulted to national attention with her “Life in the 30s” columns for The New York Times, and this wonderful collection of her early work shows why this Pulitzer Prize–winning author remains in the spotlight.




I Can Only Draw Worms


Book Description

A hilarious picture book in bright, neon colors that is perfect for fans of The Book With No Pictures and The Day the Crayons Quit. This is part counting book, part introduction to worms, but all superbly silly. The fact that the author/illustrator can only draw worms will not take anything away from the laugh-out-loud adventure readers will have as they turn the pages of this slightly subversive picture book.




Laughing Matters


Book Description

Find Out What’s So Funny When Nothing’s Funny Sometimes life just stinks—people disappoint, bad things happen, and hardship comes. Laughing Matters is a collection of stories that shows the difference between those who resign and those who rejoice when reality bites. Readers will be encouraged to choose joy, to find hope, and to discover the abundant life Christ offers all who follow Him. Author and humorist Phil Callaway—once described as “Dave Barry with a message”—employs his revealing and hilarious style to remind readers that, “it’s always darkest just before the fridge door opens.” Do you resign or rejoice when reality bites? Sometimes life just stinks. People disappoint. Bad things happen. Hardship comes in double helpings. The last thing you want to do is laugh. So let hilarious humorist Phil Callaway show you—as only he can—that some of the darkest times are those just before the fridge door opens. *** ** *** ** “Everything Phil Callaway writes is full of life because he’s discovered a fabulous secret: The joy of Christ doesn’t go away, even when life is a mess.” Luis Palau, President of the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association “Phil really knows how to get in touch with his spiritual funny bone.” Janette Oke, Bestselling author “One page into this book and I’m quaking with laughter. Callaway has the uncanny ability to uncover the funny in any situation and report it with inspirational wit.” Paul L. Maier, Coauthor of The DaVinci Code: Fact or Fiction? “This book is an excellent source of encouragement for anyone in the midst of a crisis who may be asking God that hardest question of all: ‘Why?’” Martha Bolton, Author of Cooking with Hot Flashes and Didn’t My Skin Used to Fit? Story Behind the Book Phil Callaway wrote this book after a five-year journey he and his wife embarked upon when she began having seizures. He discovered that when life throws you curve balls, juices lemons in your eyes, scrunches you in a knuckle sandwich…the last thing you want to do is laugh. And at the moment we realize that life can just plain stink, “this book helps us know where to go from that point,” he says. Celebrities like Dave Dravecky, Barbara Johnson, Gloria Gaither, and Joni Eareckson Tada have endorsed Callaway’s positive approach to trials. “Everything Phil Callaway writes is full of life because he’s discovered a fabulous secret: The joy of Christ doesn’t go away, even when life is a mess,” says evangelist Luis Palau.