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Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool
From the author of Expecting Better and The Family Firm, an economist's guide to the early years of parenting. "Both refreshing and useful. With so many parenting theories driving us all a bit batty, this is the type of book that we need to help calm things down." --LA Times "The book is jampacked with information, but it's also a delightful read because Oster is such a good writer." --NPR With Expecting Better, award-winning economist Emily Oster spotted a need in the pregnancy market for advice that gave women the information they needed to make the best decision for their own pregnancies. By digging into the data, Oster found that much of the conventional pregnancy wisdom was wrong. In Cribsheet, she now tackles an even greater challenge: decision-making in the early years of parenting. As any new parent knows, there is an abundance of often-conflicting advice hurled at you from doctors, family, friends, and strangers on the internet. From the earliest days, parents get the message that they must make certain choices around feeding, sleep, and schedule or all will be lost. There's a rule--or three--for everything. But the benefits of these choices can be overstated, and the trade-offs can be profound. How do you make your own best decision? Armed with the data, Oster finds that the conventional wisdom doesn't always hold up. She debunks myths around breastfeeding (not a panacea), sleep training (not so bad!), potty training (wait until they're ready or possibly bribe with M&Ms), language acquisition (early talkers aren't necessarily geniuses), and many other topics. She also shows parents how to think through freighted questions like if and how to go back to work, how to think about toddler discipline, and how to have a relationship and parent at the same time. Economics is the science of decision-making, and Cribsheet is a thinking parent's guide to the chaos and frequent misinformation of the early years. Emily Oster is a trained expert--and mom of two--who can empower us to make better, less fraught decisions--and stay sane in the years before preschool. -
The Society of the Spectacle
'The Debordian analysis of modern life resonates more deeply and darkly than perhaps even its creator thought possible...' - The New Yorker
'Never before has Debord's work seemed quite as relevant as it does now' - The Guardian
'Guy Debord is a time bomb, and a difficult one to defuse.' - Michael Löwy
First published in 1967, Guy Debord's stinging revolutionary critique of contemporary society, The Society of the Spectacle has since acquired a cult status. The Das Kapital of the 20th century. An essential text, and the main theoretical work of the Situationists. Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative. From its publication amid the social upheavals of the 1960's up to the present, the volatile theses of this book have decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism, and everyday life.
'In Society of the Spectacle, Debord sets out his best-known statement of how the categories of capitalism colonise everyday life to such an extent that we can barely imagine an existence beyond them.' - Sydney Review of Books
'The Society of the Spectacle [is] about not just the clamor of images but also the silence of power, a silence which, since the seventies, has become deafening.' - McKenzie Wark
'Never before has Debord's work seemed quite as relevant as it does now, in the permanent present that he so accurately foretold? Open his book, read it, be amazed, pour yourself a glass of supermarket wine - as he would wish - and then forget all about it, which is what the Spectacle wants.' - Will Self
'In The Society of the Spectacle, Debord made plain that a 'unified critique of culture' implied a critique of the social totality. This was his practico-theoretical method throughout his career as a revolutionary: he saw no distinction between cultural work and political work.' - Bruce Russell
'I read [The Society of the Spectacle] again and I thought, "This is a fucking amazing book!" I had forgotten how terrific it was, and it was actually quite different to how I remembered it. I insist that the key chapter is not the first one, on the spectacle itself, but the second to last - the chapter on détournement. To me, that concept is the great gift of the Situationists. [They] realized that one can exploit this critically - one can copy and correct in the direction of hope.' - Los Angeles Review of Books
About the author
Guy Debord (1931-1994) was a Marxist theorist, writer, poet, filmmaker, hypergraphist, cultural revolutionary and a founding member of the Lettrist International and Situationist International - groups that fused avant-garde art and politics as an anti-capitalist weapon. Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative as Debord's Society of the Spectacle, which decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism and contemporary life.
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Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship
Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award * 2022 Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner * Shortlisted for the John Burroughs Medal * Finalist for the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize * Shortlisted for a Reading the West Book Award
Instant New York Times Bestseller * A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year * 2021 Summer Reading Pick by Buzzfeed * New York Times Book Review * Kirkus * Time * Good Morning America * People * Washington Post "The book everyone will be talking about. . . . Full of tenderness and understanding."--New York Times An "extraordinary" (Oprah Daily) memoir about the friendship between a solitary woman and a wild fox.When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She was as emotionally isolated as she was physically, but she viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park.
Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m. She had never had a regular visitor before. How do you even talk to a fox? She brought out her camping chair, sat as close to him as she dared, and began reading to him from The Little Prince. Her scientific training had taught her not to anthropomorphize animals, yet as she grew to know him, his personality revealed itself and they became friends.
From the fox, Catherine learned the single most important thing about loneliness: we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world. Friends, however, cannot save each other from the uncontained forces of nature.
Fox and I is a poignant and remarkable tale of friendship, growth, and coping with inevitable loss--and of how that loss can be transformed into meaning. It is both a timely tale of solitude and belonging as well as a timeless story of one woman whose immersion in the natural world will change the way we view our surroundings--each tree, weed, flower, stone, or fox.
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The Yellow Wallpaper
2018 Reprint of 1892 Edition. This short story is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's health, both physical and mental. Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband (John) has rented an old mansion for the summer. Forgoing other rooms in the house, the couple moves into the upstairs nursery. As a form of treatment, the unnamed woman is forbidden from working, and is encouraged to eat well and get plenty of exercise and air, so she can recuperate from what he calls a "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency", a diagnosis common to women in that period. Gilman used her writing to explore the role of women in America at the time. She explored issues such as the lack of a life outside the home and the oppressive forces of the patriarchal society. Through her work Gilman paved the way for writers such as Alice Walker and Sylvia Plath.
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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
Now a major motion picture starring Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates!
A Time Best YA Book of All Time Margaret shares her secrets and her spirituality in this iconic Judy Blume novel, beloved by millions. Margaret Simon, almost twelve, likes long hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain, and things that are pink. She's just moved from New York City to Farbook, New Jersey, and is anxious to fit in with her new friends--Nancy, Gretchen, and Janie. When they form a secret club to talk about private subjects like boys, bras, and getting their first periods, Margaret is happy to belong. But none of them can believe Margaret doesn't have religion, and that she isn't going to the Y or the Jewish Community Center. What they don't know is Margaret has her own very special relationship with God. She can talk to God about everything--family, friends, even Moose Freed, her secret crush. Margaret is funny and real, and her thoughts and feelings are oh-so-relatable--you'll feel like she's talking right to you, sharing her secrets with a friend. -
Becoming
Now in paperback--the intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States, featuring a new introduction by Michelle Obama, a letter from the author to her younger self, and a book club guide with 20 discussion questions and a 5-question Q&A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY - OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK - NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER - ONE OF ESSENCE'S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America--the first African American to serve in that role--she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her--from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it--in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations--and whose story inspires us to do the same. -
Pop-Up Peekaboo! Baby Dinosaur
Roar! Can you help baby T-rex find its mom? Travel back in time to play hide-and-seek, look behind the logs and under the rocks to find where all the dinosaurs are hiding! Get to know a little T-rex, a baby Ankylosaurus and more of their friends. Just lift the flaps for a pop-up surprise! Read the lively rhymes for a fun story time book. Follow the beautifully illustrated dinosaur escapade through the lands before time, as baby T-rex goes in search of mommy T-rex. There are many places to look and many other dinosaurs to find. Each one has its name written phonetically, so you and your child can sound them out together. Babies and toddlers will be enchanted by finding the surprises behind each flap. This interactive book helps teach young children object permanence, which is an important step in childhood development. Turning the pages and moving the pop-ups help toddlers learn motor control for improved dexterity. This book has been designed as an all-round activity learning experience, to get the most out of story time. Read the lively rhymes aloud and create an amusing story for your kids to follow and guess who is behind the flap! The rhymes and easy to read text help preschoolers remember the new words they are learning, for early language development. Peeka...Rawr! Bold, brightly colored pictures, lift-the-flap pages and entertaining rhymes. This book provides lots of opportunities for parent-and-child interaction and hours of dinosaur entertainment. It's a fantastic gift for birthdays. Inside the pages of this pop-up adventure book, you'll find: - Hands-on play that builds confident book skills
- Look-and-find peekaboo games that reward curiosity
- Rhythmic, read-aloud text that aids language development Surprise! The peekaboo fun doesn't stop here! Your little one will enjoy hours of hide-and-seek surprises with The My Pop-Up Series. Find your farmyard friends with Pop-Up Peekaboo! Farm, search the oceans in Pop-Up Peekaboo! Under the Sea and travel into the rainforest to find sloths and elephants in Pop-up Peekaboo! Baby Animals and more! DK's Pop-up Peekaboo! series has been shortlisted for the Best Preschool Reading Range in The Progressive Preschool Awards 2018 -
Swordcrossed
Low stakes. High heat. Sharp steel.
"Clever, sparkling, and perfectly indulgent, Swordcrossed feels like stepping into a party already in full swing. Everything is possible; everything is wondrous. This is fantasy romance at its very best."--Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author of Portrait of a Thief A LitHub most anticipated book of 2024 Mattinesh Jay, dutiful heir to his struggling family business, needs to hire an experienced swordsman to serve as best man for his arranged marriage. Sword-challenge at the ceremony could destroy all hope of restoring his family's wealth, something that Matti has been trying--and failing--to do for the past ten years. What he can afford, unfortunately, is part-time con artist and full-time charming menace Luca Piere. Luca, for his part, is trying to reinvent himself in a new city. All he wants to do is make some easy money and try to forget the crime he committed in his hometown. He didn't plan on being blackmailed into giving sword lessons to a chronically responsible--and inconveniently handsome--wool merchant like Matti. However, neither Matti's business troubles nor Luca himself are quite what they seem. As the days count down to Matti's wedding, the two of them become entangled in the intrigue and sabotage that have brought Matti's house to the brink of ruin. And when Luca's secrets threaten to drive a blade through their growing alliance, both Matti and Luca will have to answer the question: how many lies are you prepared to strip away, when the truth could mean losing everything you want? -
The Lotus Empire
The Lotus Empire brings Tasha Suri's acclaimed Burning Kingdoms trilogy to a heart-stopping close. As an ancient magic returns to Ahiranya and threatens its very foundations, Empress Malini and priestess Priya will stop at nothing to save their kingdoms--even if it means they must destroy each other. Malini has claimed her rightful throne as the empress of Parijatdvipa, just as the nameless gods prophesied. Now, in order to gain the support of the priesthood who remain loyal to the fallen emperor, she must consider a terrible bargain: Claim her throne and burn in order to seal her legacy--or find another willing to take her place on the pyre. Priya has survived the deathless waters and now their magic runs in her veins. But a mysterious yaksa with flowering eyes and a mouth of thorns lies beneath the waters. The yaksa promises protection for Ahiranya. But in exchange, she needs a sacrifice. And she's chosen Priya as the one to offer it. Two women once entwined by fate now stand against each other. But when an ancient enemy rises to threaten their world, Priya and Malini will find themselves fighting together once more - to prevent their kingdoms, and their futures, from burning to ash.
Praise for the Burning Kingdoms Trilogy "Will undoubtedly reshape the landscape of epic fantasy for years to come." --Booklist, starred review "Alluring, action-packed, and gut-wrenching." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "More than lives up to the hype with its rich and expansive world, compelling characters, cool magic system and Suri's excellent writing." --BookPage, starred review -
The Wild Robot Field Guide
Dive into the official companion to the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Wild Robot! This guide to Roz's wonderful world is loaded with full-color illustrations and fascinating facts - the perfect gift for Wild Robot fans new and old!
Get lost in this colorful illustrated guide to the The Wild Robot series, where you can learn all about Roz, the wild world she inhabits, and all of the interesting creatures she meets!
This official companion book brings together the beloved stories and the real environmental science behind Peter Brown's bestselling books. From mountaintops to the deep sea, The Wild Robot Field Guide gives readers a detailed glimpse into the lives of their favorite Wild Robot characters, while also exploring the series' themes of climate change, technology, and hope for a better world. As entertaining as it is educational, this ultimate guide is both the ideal introduction for readers new to the Wild Robot series and the perfect gift for fans who want a closer look at the world they love. Among Peter Brown's brilliant illustrations, find incredible facts and stories about the Wild Robot's world (and our real one too!)- and learn how readers of any age can do their part on a wild, changing planet! -
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern
The JSA's greatest hero faces his greatest villain, in a powerful story of courage showcasing DC's original Green Lantern in an all-new light! The Green Lantern is the most powerful member of the JSA, beloved by all of America, but his personal life is a well-kept secret. Both his public and private life are threatened when he's framed by a mysterious killer, and the victims are people from his past! This is a story about love, about fear, and most of all about courage to stand up to that fear. Alan Scott's past is the key to his future when the Red Lantern appears, ready to strike down the mighty Green Lantern! Can Alan Scott stop his enemy's monstrous plans? Alan Scott: The Green Lantern by Tim Sheridan and artist Cian Tormey is the first solo series starring DC's first Green Lantern in decades, telling an emotional story of a closeted gay hero in the 1940s. Alan Scott: The Green Lantern is part of DC's The New Golden Age initiative, alongside Wesley Dodds: The Sandman and Jay Garrick: The Flash, reinvigorating some of DC's most enduring characters. This volume collects Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #1-6. -
Sold outThe Wisdom of Guncles
Are you the black sheep in your family who chafes at traditions and seeks examples of how to redefine them?
The Wisdom of Guncles is about queer people and their relationship with family - however they choose to define it. Featuring a diverse pantheon of gay uncles ("guncles") and other queer mentors, their stories offer unique perspectives about life, love, and personal empowerment.
With each chapter, Dumlao examines what various LGBTQ+ experiences teach about disrupting norms, exploring identity, and creating chosen families that affirm one's truth. Readers will ponder questions such as:
- How do I challenge and change traditions that hide those that are different?
- If I choose to never dim my light, will I become a beacon for others lost in the dark?
- How will recovering past stories and unsung heroes help us create a better future?
- How can I leave a space more welcoming than how I found it?
The Wisdom of Guncles shares ten powerful journeys, each bearing knowledge honed through struggle and triumph, on living with audacious authenticity and compassion. While these narratives are unapologetically queer, they hold universal lessons about the human condition that, like all stories about family, are grounded in love.
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The Default World
A trans woman sets out to exploit a group of wealthy roommates, only to fall under the spell of their glamorous, hedonistic lifestyle in tech-bubble San Francisco.
Years after fleeing San Francisco and getting sober, Jhanvi has made a life for herself working at a grocery co-op and saving for her surgeries. But when her friend (and sometimes more) Henry mentions that he and his techie festival-goer friends spent $100,000 to transform a warehouse basement into a sex dungeon, Jhanvi starts wondering if there's a way to exploit these gullible idiots. She returns to San Francisco, hatching a plan to marry Henry for his company's generous healthcare benefits.
Jhanvi enters a world of beautiful, decadent fire eaters and their lavish sex parties. But as her pretensions to cynicism and control start to fade, she develops a Gatsbyesque attraction to these happy young people and their bold claims of unconditional love. But do any of her privileged new friends really like or accept her? Her financial needs expose the limits of a community built on limitless self-expression, and soon she has to choose between doing what's right, and doing what's right for her.
This darkly funny novel skewers privileged leftist millennial tech culture, and asks whether "found family" is just another of the 21st-century's broken promises.
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Banal Nightmare
A ferocious novel by one of the boldest voices in American fiction and the author of The New Me, the "definitive work of millennial literature" (The New Yorker) "Butler has crafted a novel in which every character proves to be completely, uniquely crazy. Her perverse sense of humor should be studied and celebrated."--David Sedaris Margaret Anne "Moddie" Yance had just returned to her native land in the Midwestern town of X, to mingle with the friends of her youth, to get back in touch with her roots, and to recover from a stressful decade of living in the city in a small apartment with a man she now believed to be a megalomaniac or perhaps a covert narcissist. So begins Halle Butler's sadistically precise and hilarious Banal Nightmare, which follows Moddie as she abruptly ends her long-term relationship and moves back to her hometown, throwing herself at the mercy of her old friends as they, all suddenly tipping toward middle age, go to parties, size each other up, obsess over past slights, dream of wild triumphs, and indulge in elaborate revenge fantasies. When her friend Pam invites a mysterious East Coast artist to take up a winter residency at the local university, Moddie has no choice but to confront the demons of her past and grapple with the reality of what her life has become. As the day of reckoning approaches, friends will become enemies, enemies will become mortal enemies, and old loyalties will be tested to their extreme. Banal Nightmare is filled with complicated characters who will dazzle you in their rendering just as often as they will infuriate you with their decisions. Halle Butler singularly captures the volatile, angry, aggrieved, surreal, and entirely disorienting atmosphere of the modern era. -
The Quiet Damage: Qanon and the Destruction of the American Family
The riveting story of QAnon's devastating impact on the American family, grappling with the seductive allure of disinformation, the trauma it causes, and how we might set ourselves free.
The QAnon conspiracy theories--which posit that a nefarious cabal of elites is secretly ruling our society, poisoning our bodies, and harming our children--have come to represent the peculiar mania driven by social media disinformation campaigns and its dire consequences on our politics. But what's often overlooked is the raw destructive power these theories have on the American family. In an age in which partisanship has created deep divides within the home--between parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives--the extreme belief structure of QAnon widens those divides into seemingly insurmountable chasms, leaving people lost, confused, and broken. With studies showing that nearly 19% of Americans believe in QAnon-related theories, the true toll of QAnon on our mental and social health is as vast as it is urgent to confront. In The Quiet Damage, celebrated reporter Jesselyn Cook unfolds the heartbreaking stories of five representative families from couples young and old to rural white parents to urban Black siblings, to show how QAnon shattered bonds once believed unbreakable. Cook paints a portrait of American suffering, of the vulnerabilities that have left people susceptible to outrageous theories promising order and control in a world where both are increasingly in short supply. Charting the arc of each believer's path from their first intersection with QAnon to the depths of their cultish conviction in the theory's promise, to--in some fortunate cases--their rejection of conspiracy thinking and the mending of broken bonds, Cook offers a fascinating look into the psychology of how and why ordinary people come to believe the unbelievable. Her reporting lays bare how we have been taken hostage by grifters who profit from a network built on false hope--and how we might eventually release our loved ones, and ourselves, from their grasp. At once a riveting account of the American family in crisis and a sociological exploration of the hidden costs of our global crisis of disinformation, The Quiet Damage is profound, brilliantly researched, and beautifully written. -
The Prophet and the Idiot
Obsessed by what they are certain is the impending apocalypse, a mismatched trio set off on a globetrotting road-trip in the latest feel-good adventure from the internationally bestselling author of The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.
In the fading days of late summer, 2011, self-taught astrophysicist Petra has calculated that the atmosphere will collapse in a few weeks' time--on September 21, at approximately 9:20 pm--ending the world as we know it.
But the distraught Petra will not have to carry the burden of this terrible news alone for long. Fate intervenes, bringing her into the orbit of a pair of unlikely companions: Johan, a man whose intellectual prowess is remarkably overshadowed by his culinary skills, and Agnes, a seventy-five-year-old widow who has made a fortune posing as a young influencer on social media. Convincing them of the impending doom, Petra, Johan, and Agnes embark on a wild adventure in a camper van that will take them from their homes in Sweden, through Europe, to their destination: Rome.
Johan plans to make the most of the time he has left. He has decided at last to stand up to his heinous big brother, promising to deliver a swift yet brutal blow in more ways than one. But, of course, nothing ever goes as planned. Not even the end of the world. . . .
In this, his sixth novel, Jonas Jonasson takes us on a dazzling odyssey across the globe-from Sweden, through Europe, across Africa, and all the way to the US. The Prophet and the Idiot is an immensely funny, socially conscious, and life-affirming yarn about what happens when three odd yet fully reasonable characters come together and find cause to make mutual plans, all relayed in Jonasson's classically hilarious style.
Translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles