U UP?


Book Description

A New York Times Best Mystery Book of 2021 "This heady, sexy novel is filled with the carefree wildness of youth....Eve’s voice is enticing and compelling, and readers will be carried along with her as she learns more about herself than she ever planned." —Booklist A young woman investigates her best friend's disappearance while navigating codependent friendships, toxic exes, and witchy rituals. Eve has a carefully curated online life, works occasionally, and texts constantly with her best friend, Ezra. Basically, she is an archetypal L.A. millennial. She has also been carrying on a year-long conversation with her deceased friend Miggy over text. But when Ezra goes missing on the anniversary weekend of Miggy's death, Eve feels like her world is shattering. Over a frantic weekend Eve investigates Ezra's disappearance, scouring social media for clues, while drowning her anger and anxiety in drinks, drugs, and spiritual cleansing. Eve starts to spiral as her friends try to convince her that she's overreacting, and ghosts--both real and metaphorical--continue to haunt her. When she uncovers clues to a life Ezra kept hidden, Eve starts to question how much she really knows about her best friend...and herself. In U UP? Catie Disabato holds a mirror to the ways the phantom selves we create online permeate our emotional lives and hide our worst traits from everyone, including ourselves.




HEY, U UP? (For a Serious Relationship)


Book Description

Humorous dating advice from two married comedians, former CollegeHumor writers and stars of the Hot Date tv series. Who better to write a very humorous manual about evolving modern relationships than two CollegeHumor veterans and viral-video stars who happen to be a real-life husband-and-wife team? With candor, bite, and charm, HEY, U UP? takes readers on an eight-chapter journey through the trials of hooking up to the foibles of marriage, and combines the authors’ prescriptive advice with the unfolding story of their own relationship. HEY, U UP? tackles all the milestones of relationships today—both glorious and embarrassing—with sections ranging from “How to Ask Someone Out After You’ve Slept with Them” all the way to “Establish Your Family as the Christmas Family by Turning Your Significant Other Against Their Own Parents.” In addition to the laugh-out-loud essays, lists, questionnaires, and even flowcharts further enliven the pages.




You Hold Me Up


Book Description

Encourage children to show love and support for each other and to consider each other’s well-being in their everyday actions. Consultant, international speaker and award-winning author Monique Gray Smith wrote You Hold Me Up to prompt a dialogue among young people, their care providers and educators about reconciliation and the importance of the connections children make with others. With vibrant illustrations from celebrated artist Danielle Daniel, this is a foundational book about building relationships, fostering empathy and encouraging respect between peers, starting with our littlest citizens.




Made You Up


Book Description

Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. For fans of Silver Linings Playbook and Liar, this thought-provoking debut tells the story of Alex, a high school senior—and the ultimate unreliable narrator—unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. Alex fights a daily battle to figure out what is real and what is not. Armed with a take-no-prisoners attitude, her camera, a Magic 8 Ball, and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college. She's pretty optimistic about her chances until she runs into Miles. Didn't she imagine him? Before she knows it, Alex is making friends, going to parties, falling in love, and experiencing all the usual rites of passage for teenagers. But Alex is used to being crazy. She's not prepared for normal. Can she trust herself? Can we trust her?




Waking Up


Book Description

Spirituality.The search for happiness --Religion, East and West --Mindfulness --The truth of suffering --Enlightenment --The mystery of consciousness.The mind divided --Structure and function --Are our minds already split? --Conscious and unconscious processing in the brain --Consciousness is what matters --The riddle of the self.What are we calling "I"? --Consciousness without self --Lost in thought --The challenge of studying the self --Penetrating the illusion --Meditation.Gradual versus sudden realization --Dzogchen: taking the goal as the path --Having no head --The paradox of acceptance --Gurus, death, drugs, and other puzzles.Mind on the brink of death --The spiritual uses of pharmacology.




Shut Up You're Pretty


Book Description

Winner, Trillium Book Award In Téa Mutonji’s disarming debut story collection, a woman contemplates her Congolese traditions during a family wedding, a teenage girl looks for happiness inside a pack of cigarettes, a mother reconnects with her daughter through their shared interest in fish, and a young woman decides on shaving her head in the waiting room of an abortion clinic. These punchy, sharply observed stories blur the lines between longing and choosing, exploring the narrator’s experience as an involuntary one. Tinged with pathos and humor, they interrogate the moments in which femininity, womanness, and identity are not only questioned but also imposed. Shut Up You’re Pretty is the first book to be published under VS. Books, a series of books curated and edited by writer-musician Vivek Shraya featuring work by new and emerging Indigenous or Black writers, or writers of color. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.




The Ghost Network


Book Description

Has the world’s hottest pop star been kidnapped, joined a secret sect, or simply gone into hiding? The answer lies in the abandoned subway stations of Chicago . . . One minute insanely famous pop singer Molly Metropolis is on her way to a major performance in Chicago, and the next, she’s gone. A journalist who’s been covering Molly joins the singer's personal assistant in an increasingly desperate search to find her, guided by a journal left behind in her hotel room, and possible clues hidden in her songs—all of which seem to point to an abandoned line in the Chicago subway system. It leads them to a map of half-completed train lines underneath Chicago, which in turn leads them to the secret, subterranean headquarters of an obscure intellectual sect—and the realization that they’ve gone too far to turn back. And if a superstar can disappear without a trace . . . what can happen to these young women? Suspenseful and wildly original, The Ghost Network is a novel about larger-than-life fantasies—of love, sex, pop music, amateur detective work, and personal reinvention. Debut novelist Catie Disabato bursts on the scene with an ingeniously plotted, witty, haunting mystery.




U Can’T Make This Stuff Up


Book Description

The reason I wrote this book was to make available stories that prove it is not too late. I had discernment that I should write short stories and mix various topics with both humor and eternal consequences. On October 30, 2012, I was on an elevator flirting with several women. I walked off that elevator with an idea: a book about flirting. During the first week of November 2012, I asked Jesus to give me ideas for a book. In 48 hours, the Holy Spirit gave me 130 ideas for a book. Sixty weeks and 950 hours of work later, I have a complete manuscript. The Bible says Im just a filthy rag. Im not a preacher because Im not called and would be unworthy. Im not a teacher because I would have no patience, and Im not a speaker because Im very shy with large groups. Therefore, the printed virgin*. Maybe Im an explainer. I prefer to explain my faults and sins rather than point at others. There is a fine line between being judgmental and attempting to explain the truth. I once was told from an old-fashioned fire and brimstone preacher that he did not judge people, but people judged themselves with their actions. If U are truly told by the Son of God to give someone a message, U better do it. U are not going to like your life for being disobedient. However, U may temporarily not like your life for being obedient. It is a strange dichotomy in the dilemma of life. We have to not wither but have planted seeds in the good ground of life to withstand the persecution. I truly hope those who may feel offended by my humor or Bibles truths . . . will understand that Im speaking from my heart and only want to help, and Im incapable of expressing the right words at the right time in person. Please remember Im in this struggle too. Just because I have written a book . . . does not mean I am exempted from hell. A walk with Jesus and temptation from the devil is a daily battle. I need your prayers. Im a long ways from where I want to be in Christ. Larry




Brayden Speaks Up


Book Description

Brayden Harrington, a thirteen-year-old boy who stutters, gives an incredible speech that electrifies the nation in this timely and extraordinary nonfiction picture book that celebrates the importance of speaking up and using your voice—for everyone deserves to be heard. When Brayden talks, his words get caught in his mouth. He has bumpy speech—and that’s okay! Sometimes, though, he doesn’t feel anyone really understands what it feels like to be a person who stutters. Then Brayden meets Joe Biden, who knows exactly how he feels and inspires him to be more confident. But when Mr. Biden asks Brayden to give a big speech in front of the whole nation, will Brayden be brave enough to speak up and speak out? Brayden Speaks Up is the incredible true story of one extraordinary boy’s perseverance and the importance of celebrating yourself just as you are. For after all, your biggest challenge just might be your greatest gift.




Hey You!


Book Description

This remarkable picture book is a lyrical, inspirational exploration of growing up Black, written by award-winning illustrator Dapo Adeola, and brought to life by some of the most exciting Black artists of today. Remember to dream your own dreams Love your beautiful skin You always have a choice This book addresses--honestly, yet hopefully--the experiences Black children face growing up with systemic racism, as well as providing hope for the future and delivering a message of empowerment to a new generation of dreamers. It's a message that is both urgent and timeless--and offers a rich and rewarding reading experience for every child. To mirror the rich variety of the Black diaspora, this book showcases artwork from Dapo Adeola and eighteen more incredible Black illustrators in one remarkable and cohesive reading experience.