Collection: Self-Development

OPRAH MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023 NAMED ONE OF 6 VITAL NEW WORKS OF LGBTQ+ NONFICTION BY KIRKUS A BOOKLIST TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS OF 2023 SELECTION Marriage doesn't define a relationship. Unless you want it to. In Marry Me a Little, Rob Kirby recounts his experience of marrying his longtime partner, John, just after same-sex marriage was legalized in Minnesota in 2013, and two years before the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges made same-sex marriage the law of the land. This is a personal story--about Rob's ambivalence (if not antipathy) toward the institution of marriage, his loving relationship with John, and the life that they share together--set against the historical and political backdrop of shifting attitudes toward LGBTQ+ rights and marriage. With humor, candor, and a near-whimsical drawing style, Rob relates how he and John navigated this changing landscape, how they planned and celebrated their wedding, and how the LGBTQ+ community is now facing the very real possibility of setbacks to marriage equality. Heartwarming, honest, and slyly humorous, Marry Me a Little is a wonderfully illustrated celebration of a romantic partnership between two men and a personal account of a momentous and historic moment in the fight for gay rights.

Poems to Turn to Again and Again - from Amanda Gorman, Sharon Olds, Kate Baer, and More

Created and compiled just for young women, You Don't Have to Be Everything is filled with works by a wide range of poets who are honest, unafraid, and skilled at addressing the complex feelings of coming-of-age, from loneliness to joy, longing to solace, attitude to humor. These unintimidating poems offer girls a message of self-acceptance and strength, giving them permission to let go of shame and perfectionism.

The cast of 68 poets is extraordinary: Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, who read at Joe Biden's inauguration; bestselling authors like Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sharon Olds, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Mary Oliver; Instagram-famous poets including Kate Baer, Melody Lee, and Andrea Gibson; poets who are LGBTQ, poets of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, poets who sing of human experience in ways that are free from conventional ideas of femininity. Illustrated in full color with work by three diverse artists, this book is an inspired gift for daughters and granddaughters--and anyone on the path to becoming themselves.

No matter how old you are,
it helps to be young
when you're coming to life,
to be unfinished, a mysterious statement,
a journey from star to star.
--Joy Ladin, excerpt from "Survival Guide"

The New York Times bestselling author of Dying to Be Me returns with "a gorgeous and powerful field guide to the empath living in today's wild world" (Laura Berman, PhD, author of Quantum Love) and how they can fully embrace their gifts of intuition and empathy.

Empaths not only sense other people's emotions, but also absorb them--sometimes to their own disadvantage, often leading to overwhelming sensory overload and feelings of confusion or low self-esteem. Their willingness to help and please others might make them prey to opportunists or cause them to give away more energy than they can afford.

But Anita Moorjani argues that it's possible to turn this onslaught of emotional burden into a powerful tool. In a time when traits like sensitivity, kindness, and compassion are sorely undervalued, Moorjani helps empaths--whether emerging or acknowledged--navigate obstacles they may face and identify what makes them unique. She teaches them how to claim their true powers as empaths and to be their most authentic selves.

"Sensitive Is the New Strong is a book that provides you with groundbreaking information, tools, and exercises in understanding the challenges faced by empaths. You can learn how to protect your energy and thrive. A definite must-read for empaths and their loved ones" (Nick Ortner, New York Times bestselling author).

A deeply personal, paradigm-shifting book rethinking traditional therapy and self-care, creating much-needed space for those left out of the narrative

Writer and therapist Sahaj Kaur Kohli grew up knowing exactly what it means to straddle multiple cultures at once. Like many children of immigrants, she has often found herself plagued by questions: Can I establish my own values and embrace where I come from? Is prioritizing my mental health really rejecting my culture? How do I set boundaries and care for myself when family and community mean everything? Even after becoming a therapist herself, she saw those same gaps in the mental health world, leading her to wonder, like so many children of immigrants: what about us?

While conversations around mental health are becoming increasingly open, our models remain largely Eurocentric and focused on individuality. Sahaj has sought to challenge these long-held models, using deep personal reflection, therapy, community building, and a whole lot of trial and error, eventually navigating her own way to understanding and acceptance. Here, she shows us how to get there, all the while reminding us that personal healing is inextricably connected to collective healing.

But What Will People Say? elegantly weaves together personal narrative, anecdotal analysis, and comprehensive research. Sahaj offers advice and tools for everything from navigating generational trauma, guilt, and boundaries, to breaking down stigmas around therapy and celebrating cultural duality. Democratizing and decolonizing the way we think about mental health and self-help, Sahaj's incredible work is nothing short of a revolution.

From the authors of The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline, an indispensable guide to unlocking your child's innate capacity for resilience, compassion, and creativity.

When facing contentious issues such as screen time, food choices, and bedtime, children often act out or shut down, responding with reactivity instead of receptivity. This is what New York Times bestselling authors Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson call a No Brain response. But our kids can be taught to approach life with openness and curiosity. When kids work from a Yes Brain, they're more willing to take chances and explore. They're more curious and imaginative. They're better at relationships and handling adversity. In The Yes Brain, the authors give parents skills, scripts, and activities to bring kids of all ages into the beneficial "yes" state. You'll learn

- the four fundamentals of the Yes Brain--balance, resilience, insight, and empathy--and how to strengthen them
- the key to knowing when kids need a gentle push out of a comfort zone vs. needing the "cushion" of safety and familiarity
- strategies for navigating away from negative behavioral and emotional states (aggression and withdrawal) and expanding your child's capacity for positivity

The Yes Brain is an essential tool for nurturing positive potential and keeping your child's inner spark glowing and growing strong.

Praise for The Yes Brain

"This unique and exciting book shows us how to help children embrace life with all of its challenges and thrive in the modern world. Integrating research from social development, clinical psychology, and neuroscience, it's a veritable treasure chest of parenting insights and techniques."--Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., author of Mindset

"I have never read a better, clearer explanation of the impact parenting can have on a child's brain and personality."--Michael Thompson, Ph.D.

"Easily assimilated and informative, the book will help adults enable children to lead physically and emotionally satisfying and well-rounded lives filled with purpose and meaningful relationships. Edifying, easy-to-understand scientific research that shows the benefits that accrue when a child is encouraged to be inquisitive, spirited, and intrepid."--Kirkus Reviews

For readers of adrienne maree brown, Staci K. Haines, and Robin Wall Kimmerer

A body-based healing model that interrogates what we've been wrongly taught about hierarchies of nature and the body--and pushes back against the white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalism embedded in modern embodiment practices.

Pushing back against a consumerist, pleasure-centric somatics industry that privileges product over process, Abigail Rose Clarke reminds us that truly meaningful embodiment practice nurtures our relationships among self, nature, and community.

Combining the rigor of the scientific method with the poetry and lyricism of movement and somatic studies, Clarke's somatic learning system--The Embodied Life Method--centers the body as a guide through today's most seemingly intractable social and environmental challenges, reclaiming the body as a source of liberatory comfort in times of great uncertainty and yet, possibility.

With tools and practices to help us better understand and dismantle the many ways our bodies are weaponized to serve domination systems, topics covered include:

• Harnessing the vitality of curiosity and experimentation
• Using nature as a guide to possibility
• Embracing the necessity of difference
• Exposing the lie of universal isolation
• Dismantling the fallacy of hierarchy
• Uncovering the truth of endless capacity
• Awe as a driving force for transformation

With methods honed over decades of inquiry, teaching, and practice, Returning Home to Our Bodies provides a lucid, body-based model of healing and restoration--one that imagines a world beyond systems of domination, marginalization, and isolation to nurture embodied, whole-community liberation.

Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner in LGBT . "An important resource for readers of any age who are struggling to understand their sexual orientation, or those who would like to better understand asexuality." --Library Journal, starred review
Julie Sondra Decker's book functions as a starting point for people interested in asexuality. It covers the basics of what asexuality is and isn't, explores the most common issues asexual people may be dealing with, presents some pointers for newly asexual-identified people and the people who love them, and includes some resources to find out more. It's for the layperson, written in everyday language.

She writes for people who are on the asexual spectrum, people who think they might be asexual, friends and family and partners of people who have come out as asexual, curious parties, and those looking for information on the subject for their school papers, sexuality studies, and alternative sexuality resources. And it's for people who think asexuality doesn't exist. Chapters include:

• Asexuality as a Sexual Orientation
• Romantic Orientation
• Libido and Masturbation
• Intimate and Sexual Activity
• Asexual Relationships
• Asexual Community
• Should Asexual People Get Therapy and Be Fixed
• Am I Asexual?
• Should I Come Out?
• And much more

If you think you may be asexual, or if you have a friend or partner who may be a sexual, this personal book will help you better understand what it means to be asexual in a world dominated by sexuality.

In "Liquid Soapmaking" you will find clear explanations accompanied by full color photography, tables and charts illustrating how to: a) Successfully create sparkling clear soaps quickly and easily every time. b) Formulate liquid soap so you never have to dissolve a stubborn soap paste again. c) Make the most luxuriously thick shower gels ever. d) Color, fragrance and thicken your liquid soap. e) Add nutritive value with herbal extracts and infusions. f) Extend the shelf life and stability of your soap. g) Formulate your own recipes.

A clear explanation of what empathy is, and understanding the emotions of those around you.

This is a book about empathy. Feelings aren't always easy, especially when they are other people's. This book teaches kids (and grownups) how to feel "with" someone, and not just for them.

This book teaches kids aged 5-9 to understand the importance of empathy, and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. Teaching about emotions can reduce conflict, miscommunications and misunderstandings, which can be helpful in life.

A Kids Book About Empathy features:

- A large and bold, yet minimalist font design that allows kids freedom to imagine themselves in the words on the pages.
- A friendly, approachable, yet empowering, kid-appropriate tone throughout.
- An incredible and diverse group of authors in the series who are experts or have first-hand experience of the topic.

Tackling important discourse together!

The A Kids Book About series are best used when read together. Helping to kickstart challenging, empowering, and important conversations for kids and their grownups through beautiful and thought-provoking pages. The series supports an incredible and diverse group of authors, who are either experts in their field, or have first-hand experience on the topic.

A Kids Co. is a new kind of media company enabling kids to explore big topics in a new and engaging way. With a growing series of books, podcasts and blogs, made to empower. Learn more about us online by searching for A Kids Co.

How to live a morally decent life in the midst of today's constant, complex choices

In a world of often confusing and terrifying global problems, how should we make choices in our everyday lives? Does anything on the individual level really make a difference? In Catastrophe Ethics, Travis Rieder tackles the moral philosophy puzzles that bedevil us. He explores vital ethical concepts from history and today and offers new ways to think about the "right" thing to do when the challenges we face are larger and more complex than ever before.

Alongside a lively tour of traditional moral reasoning from thinkers like Plato, Mill, and Kant, Rieder posits new questions and exercises about the unique conundrums we now face, issues that can seem to transcend old-fashioned philosophical ideals. Should you drink water from a plastic bottle or not? Drive an electric car? When you learn about the horrors of factory farming, should you stop eating meat or other animal products? Do small commitments matter, or are we being manipulated into acting certain ways by corporations and media? These kinds of puzzles, Rieder explains, are everywhere now. And the tools most of us unthinkingly rely on to "do the right thing" are no longer enough. Principles like "do no harm" and "respect others" don't provide guidance in cases where our individual actions don't, by themselves, have any effect on others at all. We need new principles, with new justifications, in order to navigate this new world.

In the face of consequential and complex crises, Rieder shares exactly how we can live a morally decent life. It's time to build our own catastrophe ethics.

"This permaculture primer is fresh and vibrant. Bring it on!" --Permaculture Magazine

Permaculture is more popular than ever, but it can still be a daunting concept. If you are new to permaculture and interested in learning more, Practical Permaculture offers authoritative, in-depth, and hands-on advice for a more holistic approach to sustainable living. Jessi Bloom and Dave Boehnlein, two dynamic leaders in the permaculture community, explain the basics of permaculture, share their design process, and explore various permaculture systems including soil, water, waste, energy, shelter, food and plants, and animals and wildlife. They also profile the fifty most useful plants for permaculture landscapes.

This title is a simple introduction to mindfulness. During challenging times, children can feel quite anxious. Learning mindfulness techniques from a young age will help them build resilience and reduce anxiety and stress as they grow into adulthood. Discussion questions for parents, caregivers and educators included. Suitable for ages 2 to 6. This book is part of the Little BIG Chats series.

The Little BIG Chats series has been written to assist parents, caregivers and educators to have open and age-appropriate conversations with early learners around crucial, and yet at times, 'tough' topics. And what better way than using children's picture books! Some pages will have questions for your child to interact with and discuss. Feel free to use these questions and the Discussion Questions provided on the inside back cover of each book to help you assist your child with the topic being explored. Stop at any time to unpack the text together; and try to follow your child's lead wherever that conversation may take you!

Suitable for ages 2 to 6.

There are 12 books in the Little BIG Chats series:

• Empathy: Exploring the meaning of empathy and kindness
• I Always Try: Developing a growth mindset of resilience and persistence
• Feelings: Understanding different feelings and emotions
• Everyone is Equal: Introducing the importance of gender equality and diversity
• Around the World: Celebrating the importance of racial equality and diversity
• Mindfulness: Exploring the importance of mindfulness and learning calming skills
• Families: Celebrating diversity in families
• Consent: Introducing consent and body boundaries
• My Safety Network: Introducing a Safety Network (3 to 5 trusted adults a child can go to if they feel unsafe)
• My Early Warning Signs: Exploring Early Warning Signs and what to do if a child experiences these signs
• Private Parts are Private: Learning private parts are private and what to do if touched inappropriately
• Secrets and Surprises: Learning the difference between secrets and surprises

The Body Safety titles should ideally be read in the following order:

Consent, My Safety Network, My Early Warning Signs,

Private Parts are Private, and Secrets and Surprises.

The remaining titles can be read in any order.

"When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction." -Mark Twain

The cat lover is in highly esteemed company with famous fans of felines including Mark Twain, Salvador Dali, and Freddie Mercury. This collection of more than 100 puzzles, all featuring our beloved feline friends, is the ideal treat for any cat lover.

Inside you will find a variety of themed puzzles on subjects such as cat mascots, cats of mythology, animated cats, and films featuring cats, as well as excerpts from literature and poetry that feature all manner of cats. There are also puzzles which focus on specific members of the cat family, from the well-known big cats such as tigers and lions, to lesser-known felines such as the margay and Geoffroy's cat.

You're sure to learn something new about our fascinating and mysterious cat companions!

Circle processes offer a way of bringing people together to understand one another, strengthen bonds, and solve community problems--a necessity in an era of division, polarized politics, and angry debate.

Our ancestors gathered around a fire in a circle, families gather around their kitchen tables in circles, and now we are gathering in circles as communities to solve problems. This peacemaking practice draws on the ancient Native American tradition of a talking piece and combines that with concepts of democracy and inclusivity.

Peacemaking circles are used in neighborhoods to provide support for those harmed by crime and to decide sentences for those who commit crime, in schools to create positive classroom climates and resolve behavior problems, in the workplace to deal with conflict, and in social services to develop more organic support systems for people struggling to get their lives together. The circle process hinges on storytelling. It is an effort bringing astonishing results around the country. Chapters include:

• Circles in Practice
• A Circle Story--Finding a Way to Move Forward after a Workers Strike
• Foundations of Circles
• A Circle Story--Finding Understanding in the Classroom
• Key Elements of Circles
• A Circle Story--Finding Healing from Violent Crime
• Organizing a Talking Circle
• A Circle Story--Finding Respect Across Generations
• Circles in Perspective
• A Circle Story--Finding Connection within Family

A title in The Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding Series.

Prayers of Honoring was written for sharing from the heart in community. In western culture, we keep many things to ourselves. Prayer, among other things, has become a private practice for those of us who don't congregate for spiritual purposes. Our language for connection to something greater than ourselves has become truncated to basic iterations and generalized affirmations. These prayers were written to honor the things which are easy to celebrate, and also those things which require more practice. It was written as a reminder of the process of honoring, which is to show high respect. It's my thought that respect and reverence have all but gone missing from western culture. To cultivate these things through the rhythm of prayer is to demonstrate devotion to the unfathomable energies which suspend us between the divine energies of Earth and Sky every day and night. It's my belief that creating our own family practice of prayerfulness brings us closer as we travel forth.

"Prayers of Honoring has supported my personal practice and allowed me to ground in an entirely new way." - Trace K.

"Prayers of Honoring was a gift from a fellow yoga teacher in Montana. I've carried it with me around the world and continually seek comfort in the beautiful words and phrases. I am so grateful that you are sharing your heart song, it's beautiful." - Emily S.

"Love Prayers of Honoring. As I entered my shamanic path, these prayers really helped with all of the energy I was calling in, and the energy I was letting go. I felt it was one of my strongest tools, especially when my closest cousin left earth side during it all. Thank you." - Leigh

From craft sensation Molla Mills and Laine Publishing, Crochet Crush features 23 contemporary patterns for incredible home decor and accessory pieces that you will use, wear and love for years to come.

Crochet has certainly made a comeback, and no wonder - it's a playful, mindful and easy craft; its sturdiness allows you to create wear-intensive items like carpets and bags; and the results are nothing short of stunning. In this amazing collection, Molla Mills brings together the best in modern crochet design, with projects including a duffel bag, cushion, sun visor and picnic blanket. The colorful designs incorporate modern practicality and unique style, inspired by flowers, nostalgic summers and Brooklyn neighborhoods. There is also a comprehensive section on getting started with crochet, including choosing yarns and using tools to create a range of stitches and effects.

Instead of ready-to-buy, Molla encourages readers to make their own pieces with quality materials, combine patterns and vary the colors to their liking, and enjoy the slow process. Featuring the beautiful photography and design that Laine are known for, Crochet Crush will be loved by new and experienced crocheters alike.