Rage Against the Minivan


Book Description

“Howerton writes unflinchingly about what it means to be raising children in today’s world and how to liberate ourselves from the myth of perfect motherhood.”—Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed and Love Warrior, founder of Together Rising In this smart and subversively funny memoir, Kristen Howerton navigates the emotional and sometimes messy waters of motherhood and challenges the idea that there’s a “right” way to raise kids. Recounting her successes, trials, mishaps, and hard-won wisdom, this mother of four advocates for letting go of the expectations, the guilt, and the endless race to be the perfect parent to the perfect child in the perfect family. This book is for ● the parent who loves their kids like crazy but feels like parenting is making them crazy, too ● the parent who said “I will never . . .” and now they have ● the parent who looks like they have it all together but feels like a hot mess on the inside ● the parent who looks like a hot mess on the outside, too ● the parent who asks Am I good enough? Doing enough? Doing it right? What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with these children? Are they eighteen yet? With her signature blend of vulnerability, sarcasm, and insight, Howerton shares her unexpected journey from infertility to adoption to pregnancy to divorce to dealing with the shock and awe of raising teens. As a mom of a multiracial family and as a marriage and family therapist, she tackles the thorny issues parents face today, like hard conversations about racism, disciplining other people’s kids, the reality of Dad Privilege, and (never) attaining that elusive work/life balance. Rage Against the Minivan is a permission slip to let it go and allow yourself to be a “good enough” parent, focused on raising happy, kind, loving humans.





Book Description




You Can't F*ck Up Your Kids


Book Description

Cribsheet meets The Sh!t No One Tells You in this no-holds-barred, judgment-free parenting guide that sets the record straight on every hot-button parenting topic by longtime journalist and founder of the viral #NoShameParenting movement. What if you could do more for your kids, by doing a whole lot less? Parenting today has become a competitive sport, and it seems that everyone is losing. From the very moment that little line turns blue, parents-to-be find themselves in a brave new world where every decision they make is fraught, every action they take is judged, and everything they do seems to be the wrong thing. Formula feed? Breast is best. Breastfeed in public? That’s indecent. Cry it out? You’re causing permanent harm to your child. Don’t sleep train? Your child will never learn to sleep on his or her own. Stay home? You’re setting a bad example for your kids. Go back to work? Don’t you love your kids more than your job? Lindsay Powers—former editor-in-chief of Yahoo! Parenting, creator of the #NoShameParenting movement, and mom of two—is here to help parents everywhere breathe a collective sigh of relief. This laugh-out-loud funny, accessible, and reassuring book sets the record straight on all of the insane conflicts that parents face—from having a glass of wine while pregnant to sleep training, childcare, feeding, and even sex after baby. Drawing on the latest research and delivered in a relatable, comforting voice, You Can’t F*ck Up Your Kids demonstrates that it is possible to take the stress out of parenting and sit back and enjoy the ride.




Okayest Mom


Book Description

Natalie Gwyn uses humor to brilliantly capture how God led and helped this mother of two to adopt four children from Ethiopia and successfully bond her blended family. A happy, working wife, already birth mother of two healthy young children -- a boy and a girl -- doubled the size of her family by adopting four Ethiopian children. Why? Her answer: "God." Popular blogger Natalie Gwyn has been cited widely for her candid, insightful, often humorous writing on cross-cultural adoptive Christian families (which number more than 4 million). HuffPo has linked to her controversial posts and celebrities like Kathie Lee Gifford have quoted and pictured her on social media. Here Natalie tells her whole mom story, including the only-God-could-do-this backstory. Her lighthearted narrative begins with the nudge of God toward the uncomfortable. She and her husband are almost certain they have misunderstood what the Almighty is asking of them, and with self-deprecating humor Natalie allows readers a glimpse into the process by which this already imperfect mom agreed to transnational, transracial adoption of more children than she already has. Natalie then takes the reader on her family's adventure to Ethiopia to legally adopt the three siblings God has chosen to add to their family. With the skill of a detective novelist, she reveals their discovery of a fourth sibling, their critical decision not to leave this child behind, and their harrowing quest to find, woo and legally adopt her, too. Similar to the laugh-out-loud humor of books on blended step-families, Natalie shares the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen scenes of this adoptive family's huge adjustments. She brilliantly captures each child's and each parent's perspective and, in doing so, reveals God in their midst.




How to Find a Missing Girl


Book Description

"The voice that this generation's mystery readers have been waiting for...How to Find a Missing Girl is edge-of-your-seat compelling from beginning to end." —#1 New York Times bestselling author Chloe Gong For fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Veronica Mars, this whip-smart thriller follows a sapphic detective agency as they seek the truth behind a growing trail of missing girls in small-town Louisiana. A year ago, beloved cheerleader Stella Blackthorn vanished without a trace. Devastated, her younger sister, Iris, launched her own investigation, but all she managed to do was scare off the police’s only lead and earn a stern warning: Once she turns eighteen, more meddling means prison-level consequences. Then, a year later, the unthinkable happens. Iris’s ex-girlfriend, Heather, goes missing, too—just after dropping the polarizing last episode of her true crime podcast all about Iris’s sister. This time, nothing will stop Iris and her amateur sleuthing agency from solving these disappearances. But with a suspicious detective watching her every move, an enemy-turned-friend-turned-maybe-more to contend with, and only thirty days until she turns eighteen, it’s a race against the clock for Iris to solve the most dangerous case of her life.




Splunk 9.x Enterprise Certified Admin Guide


Book Description

Find all the information, exercises, and tools to ace the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin exam in one place Key Features Explore various administration topics including installation, configuration, and user management Gain a deep understanding of data inputs, parsing, and field extraction Excel in the Splunk Enterprise Admin exam with the help of self-assessment questions and mock exams Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Book DescriptionThe IT sector's appetite for Splunk and skilled Splunk developers continues to surge, offering more opportunities for developers with each passing decade. If you want to enhance your career as a Splunk Enterprise administrator, then Splunk 9.x Enterprise Certified Admin Guide will not only aid you in excelling on your exam but also pave the way for a successful career. You’ll begin with an overview of Splunk Enterprise, including installation, license management, user management, and forwarder management. Additionally, you’ll delve into indexes management, including the creation and management of indexes used to store data in Splunk. You’ll also uncover config files, which are used to configure various settings and components in Splunk. As you advance, you’ll explore data administration, including data inputs, which are used to collect data from various sources, such as log files, network protocols (TCP/UDP), APIs, and agentless inputs (HEC). You’ll also discover search-time and index-time field extraction, used to create reports and visualizations, and help make the data in Splunk more searchable and accessible. The self-assessment questions and answers at the end of each chapter will help you gauge your understanding. By the end of this book, you’ll be well versed in all the topics required to pass the Splunk Enterprise Admin exam and use Splunk features effectively.What you will learn Explore Splunk Enterprise 9.x features and usage Install, configure, and manage licenses and users for Splunk Create and manage indexes for data storage Explore Splunk configuration files, their precedence, and troubleshooting Manage forwarders and source data into Splunk from various resources Parse and transform data to make it easy to use Extract fields from data at search and index time for data analysis Engage with mock exam questions to simulate the Splunk admin exam Who this book is for This book is for data professionals looking to gain certified Splunk administrator credentials. It will also help data analysts, Splunk users, IT experts, security analysts, and system administrators seeking to explore the Splunk admin realm, understand its functionalities, and become proficient in effectively administering Splunk Enterprise. This guide serves as both a valuable resource for learning and a practical manual for administering Splunk Enterprise, encompassing features beyond the scope of certification preparation.




Sweet Summer Breezes: A Romance Sampler


Book Description

Enjoy this FREE sampling of some of the most romantic and unputdownable stories available this summer! Dive into the first chapters of these eight unforgettable stories. There’s something for everyone in this sampler featuring top authors, swoon-worthy tales, secrets and lies, and undeniable chemistry. From small-town romance to paranormal escapades, kick back and let the love flow. Featuring extended excerpts from When We Found Home by Susan Mallery, Fade to Black by Heather Graham, Cooper’s Charm by Lori Foster, The Cottages on Silver Beach by RaeAnne Thayne, Welcome to Moonlight Harbor by Sheila Roberts, How to Keep a Secret by Sarah Morgan, Herons Landing by JoAnn Ross and The Darkest Warrior by Gena Showalter.




A Pie to Die For


Book Description

For fans of Sofie Kelly and Joanne Fluke, it’s the end of the tourist season in Split Pine– but a murder at the Lucky Pie Diner stirs up trouble for the sleepy town in this series debut. Este March runs the family-owned Lucky Pie Diner on Split Pine Island in Northern Michigan. The pies at Lucky Pie aren’t just good, they’re magical, with a family recipe that grants certain customers their greatest hopes and dreams when they eat the pie. The remote island is closed to outsiders over the winter months, but on the last day of the season, the unpopular new produce vendor, Jeff, turns up dead on his boat, and Split Pine Island’s peace goes up in smoke. Tom Cunningham, the local sheriff, casts suspicion onto Este, who may have been the last person to see Jeff alive. Not to mention several people witnessed her getting into an argument with the rude vendor in some of his final hours. Este decides to clear her name and her diner’s reputation by launching her own investigation, which means she must turn suspicion on her friends and neighbors, because only a local could have murdered the victim. As Este investigates, she uncovers a deeper web of secrets, finding that many of the locals had reason to either frame her, or kill the victim. The clock is ticking to figure out the killer, and the clues in the case are flakier than an apple pie. Este will have to uncover the killer before her future crumbles.




Edge


Book Description

Laura Huang, an award-winning Harvard Business School professor, shows that success is about gaining an edge: that elusive quality that gives you an upper hand and attracts attention and support. Some people seem to naturally have it. Now, Huang teaches the rest of us how to create our own from the challenges and biases we think hold us back, and turning them to work in our favor. How do you find a competitive edge when the obstacles feel insurmountable? How do you get people to take you seriously when they're predisposed not to, and perhaps have already written you off? Laura Huang has come up against that problem many times--and so has anyone who's ever felt out of place or underestimated. Many of us sit back quietly, hoping that our hard work and effort will speak for itself. Or we try to force ourselves into the mold of who we think is "successful," stifling the creativity and charm that makes us unique and memorable. In Edge, Huang offers a different approach. She argues that success is rarely just about the quality of our ideas, credentials, and skills, or our effort. Instead, achieving success hinges on how well we shape others' perceptions--of our strengths, certainly, but also our flaws. It's about creating our own edge by confronting the factors that seem like shortcomings and turning them into assets that make others take notice. Huang draws from her groundbreaking research on entrepreneurial intuition, persuasion, and implicit decision-making, to impart her profound findings and share stories of previously-overlooked Olympians, assistants-turned-executives, and flailing companies that made momentous turnarounds. Through her deeply-researched framework, Huang shows how we can turn weaknesses into strengths and create an edge in any situation. She explains how an entrepreneur scored a massive investment despite initially being disparaged for his foreign accent, and how a first-time political candidate overcame voters' doubts about his physical disabilities. Edge shows that success is about knowing who you are and using that knowledge unapologetically and strategically. This book will teach you how to find your unique edge and keep it sharp.




Death is My BFF


Book Description

When Faith Williams almost loses her life during a robbery, Death is there. While he spares her soul, he makes a promise to return when she’s eighteen and collect it. Now it’s the eve of that special birthday, and Faith has no recollection of that fateful day. But echoes of Death appear in her art—his intense eyes, his intriguing demeanor—and she can’t get him out of her head. When he arrives in person, Faith is drawn into an epic supernatural battle where her very existence is questioned at every turn. To add angst to agony, she meets the infamous David Star at a Halloween party, and he begins to show an interest in her. He’s handsome, rich, ambitious, and every girl’s dream, but Faith doesn’t know if she can trust him. As Faith learns more about who David really is, and as Death pushes harder for her soul, an ancient prophecy emerges. When she discovers the secrets that bind all three together . . . all hell breaks loose.