The End of Your Life Book Club


Book Description

A profoundly moving memoir of caregiving, mourning, and love between a mother and her son—and about the joy of reading, and the ways that joy is multiplied when we share it with others. “A graceful, affecting testament to a mother and a life well lived.” —Entertainment Weekly, Grade A During her treatment for cancer, Mary Anne Schwalbe and her son Will spent many hours sitting in waiting rooms together. To pass the time, they would talk about the books they were reading. Once, by chance, they read the same book at the same time—and an informal book club of two was born. Through their wide-ranging reading, Will and Mary Anne—and we, their fellow readers—are reminded how books can be comforting, astonishing, and illuminating, changing the way that we feel about and interact with the world around us.




The Best Life Book Club


Book Description

"[With] a set of characters so vivid we want to be their best friends and a story that keeps us turning the pages, The Best Life Book Club is your book club book of the year… A novel of pure delight!" —Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Book of Flora Lea It started as a book club. It became a way to build a better life together. Karissa Newcomb is ready for a new start in a new neighborhood, as far away as she can get from Seattle, where her husband cheated on her with the neighbor who was supposed to be her best friend. She and her nine-year-old daughter are moving on to the city of Gig Harbor on the bay in Puget Sound. She even has a new job as an assistant at a small publishing company right in Gig Harbor. Her new boss seems like a bit of a curmudgeon, but a job is a job, she loves to read, and the idea of possibly meeting writers sounds fabulous. Soon she finds she’s not the only one in need of a refresh. Her new neighbors, Alice and Margot, are dealing with their own crises. Alice is still grieving her late husband and hasn’t been able to get behind the wheel of a car since a close call after his death. Margot is floundering after getting divorced and laid off in quick succession. They could all use a distraction, and a book club seems like just the ticket. Together, the three women, along with Alice’s grumpy older sister, Josie, embark on a literary journey that just might be the kick start they need to begin building their best lives yet.




Your Life Has Been Delayed


Book Description

How do you move forward when your entire life is stuck in the past? In this captivating YA debut, Michelle I. Mason tells the story of a girl who takes off on a flight and lands...twenty-five years later. After visiting her grandparents in New York City, Jenny Waters is ready for the perfect senior year. She's going to hang out with her best friend Angie, finally kiss her new boyfriend Steve, and convince her parents to let her apply to Columbia so she can become an award-winning journalist. But when her plane lands in St. Louis, Jenny and the other passengers are told their plane vanished into thin air. . . and then reappeared twenty-five years later. Suddenly, it's not 1995 anymore. Everyone in Jenny's life has spent the last twenty-five years mourning her death. Jenny has missed two decades of pop culture, and her high school is practically unrecognizable. Learning about cell phones and social media is difficult enough, but the unexplainable mystery of the flight has also thrust Jenny's entire life into the spotlight-which makes it extra-complicated when Jenny falls for a cute, kind classmate with an unusual connection to her past. Can Jenny figure out a way to move forward, or will she always feel stuck in the past?




I Liked My Life


Book Description

A husband and teen daughter are challenged to redefine their understandings of family when a devoted wife and mother commits suicide and begins meddling from beyond the grave.




This One Wild and Precious Life


Book Description

As seen in USA Today's hottest releases and The Washington Post's 10 New Books Spotlight “Sarah Wilson is a force of nature – quite literally. She has taken her pain and grief about our sick and troubled world and alchemized it into action, advocacy, adventure, poetry, and true love.” — ELIZABETH GILBERT Wake up and reclaim your one wild and precious life. New York Times bestselling author Sarah Wilson shows you how in this radical spiritual guidebook, the book we need NOW. Many of us are living with the sense that things are not right with the world and are in a state of spiritual PTSD. We have retreated, morally and psychologically; we are experiencing a crisis of disconnection—from one another, from our true values, from joy, and from life as we feel we are meant to be living it. Sarah Wilson argues that this sense of despair and disconnection is ironically what unites us—that deep down, we are all feeling that same itch for a new way of living. Drawing on science, literature, philosophy and the wisdom of some of the world’s leading experts, and her personal journey, Wilson offers a hopeful path forward to the life we love. En route, she shows us how to wake up and reconnect with life using “wild practices” that include: · Hike. Embrace the “walking cure” as great minds throughout history have. · Go to your edge. Do what scares you and embrace discomfort daily. · #Buylesslivemore. Break the cycle of mindless consumption and get light with your life. · Become a soul nerd. Light up your intellect with the arts. · Get “full-fat spiritual”. Have an active practice and use it to change the world. · Practice wild activism. Through sustained, non-violent protest we can create our better world. The time has come to boldly, wildly imagine better. We are being called upon, individually and as a society, to forge a new path and to find a new way of living. Will you join the journey?




Night Road


Book Description

From Kristin Hannah, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash-hit novels Firefly Lane, The Nightingale, and The Four Winds comes a novel about how one reckless night destroys the lives of three teenagers and their families. For eighteen years, Jude Farraday has put her children's needs above her own, and it shows—her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close-knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude. Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mia's best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable. Jude does everything to keep her kids out of harm's way. But senior year of high school tests them all. It's a dangerous, explosive season of drinking, driving, parties, and kids who want to let loose. And then on a hot summer's night, one bad decision is made. In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything. In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget...or the courage to forgive. Vivid, universal, and emotionally complex, Night Road raises profound questions about motherhood, identity, love, and forgiveness. It is a luminous, heartbreaking novel that captures both the exquisite pain of loss and the stunning power of hope. This is Kristin Hannah at her very best, telling an unforgettable story about the longing for family, the resilience of the human heart, and the courage it takes to forgive the people we love. "You cannot read Night Road and not be affected by the story and the characters. The total impact of the book will stay with you for days to come after it is finished." —The Huffington Post




My Second Impression of You


Book Description

Perfect for fans of Tweet Cute and Instant Karma, this YA romcom is a heartfelt story about a girl who thinks she knows everything about love -- until she relives a day and discovers she had it all wrong. Sixteen-year-old Maggie Scott is a little dramatic. Both in the over-the-top sense and in the involved-in-every-possible-performing-arts-activity sense. Life is just more fun when you're always putting on a show! But apparently her boyfriend, Theo, disagrees, because he unexpectedly dumps her. She's so distressed she breaks her foot, has to be rescued by the most obnoxious boy in school, Carson, and can no longer star in the school play. Now everything is terrible and Maggie doesn't understand where it all went wrong. So when she gets a mysterious text from an unknown number offering her a chance to relive the day when she and Theo met, Maggie can't help clicking (even though she knows what they say about suspicious links and clicking). Suddenly, she finds herself transported from her worst day ever to her best day ever-but on second review, Maggie realizes there are some details she overlooked. Maybe she was so focused on starring in the Maggie show that she didn't pay enough attention. Maybe Maggie doesn't know the people around her as well as she thought-particularly Carson. And maybe her worst day ever isn't quite as terrible as it seems. In this funny and relatable YA romcom, Michelle I. Mason explores how there's always another way of looking at the situations we find ourselves in . . . and sometimes the people we overlook end up being the best ones of all.




The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell


Book Description

Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Born with red pupils, he was called "Devil Boy" or Sam "Hell" by his classmates; "God's will" is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother's devout faith, his father's practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends.




When Life Gives You Pears


Book Description

The Big Sick meets Dad is Fat in this funny and heartfelt New York Times bestselling memoir from writer, director, wife, and mother, Jeannie Gaffigan, as she reflects on the life-changing impact of her battle with a pear-sized brain tumor. In 2017, Jeannie's life came to a crashing halt when she was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor. As the mother of 5 kids -- 6 if you include her husband -- sat in the neurosurgery department in star-covered sweats too whimsical for the seriousness of the situation, all she could think was "Am I going to die?" Thankfully, Jeannie and her family were able to survive their time of crisis, and now she is sharing her deeply personal journey through this miraculous story: the challenging conversations she had with her children; how she came to terms with feeling powerless and ferociously crabby while bedridden and unable to eat for a month; and how she ultimately learned, re-learned and re re-learned to be more present in life. With sincerity and hilarity, Jeannie invites you into her heart (and brain) during this trying time, emphasizing the importance of family, faith and humor as keys to her recovery and leading a more fulfilling life.




Breathing New Life Into Book Clubs


Book Description

Foreword / Cornelius Minor Gratitude -- Creating a culture of reading through book clubs -- Organizing and setting up book clubs -- Launching and managing book clubs -- Lighting the fire of discussion -- Resources at a glance -- Living with books all year long.