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Kurt Vonnegut and humanism go hand in hand. In BEHAVING DECENTLY: KURT VONNEGUT'S HUMANISM, Wayne Laufert examines how Vonnegut revealed his moral philosophy through the themes and characters in his work and through his public comments.

Topic by topic, Vonnegut's written and spoken views are explored, from his first novel, Player Piano (1952), through his antiwar masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), to the collections of his fiction and nonfiction that appear up till today, long after his death in 2007. His speeches, essays, interviews, and journalism, which support and expand upon the sentiments in his novels, receive proper consideration in this conversational overview of Vonnegut's life and career.

Religion, war, politics, science, art-these subjects and more are seen through Vonnegut's perspective and are placed within a larger humanistic outlook. His most famous creation, the old science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, gets his own chapter too.

Vonnegut called himself a "Christ-worshiping agnostic," a term that BEHAVING DECENTLY analyzes in the context of his upbringing as a freethinker, his wartime experience, his time in the corporate world, and other factors that formed his values.

Those values are perhaps best expressed by his character Eliot Rosewater, the damaged, super-rich philanthropist: "God damn it, you've got to be kind."

Vonnegut's real and imagined selves were incorporated into Kurt Vonnegut the author, the public speaker, the interview subject, and even the character that appears in some of his books. After all, he wrote, "I myself am a work of fiction."

That funny, wise, sometimes depressed persona was humanistic. BEHAVING DECENTLY shows the reader how Kurt Vonnegut reminded us to take small steps along hopeful paths to kindness and community and dignity and art-and farting around.

A wondrous, deeply affecting portrait of the interlocking lives at an adult day care center in Southern California, depicting an often overlooked community with extraordinary wit and grace--by a major new literary voice hailed as a "groundbreaking debut novelist" (Publishers Weekly)

"Implosive and wonderfully inspirational."--Paul Beatty
"Great characters, great pace, great story--reading Upward Bound is a complicated joy."--Roddy Doyle
"It will change the way you look at the world."--Angie Kim
"Woody Brown accomplishes the seemingly impossible."--Mona Simpson
"This captivating work illuminates a world too often ignored."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A LIT HUB AND PUBLISHERS LUNCH MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR

Upward Bound is not a place anyone dreams of spending their days. The dreary adult daycare center for Los Angeles's disabled community is, for many of its clients and staff, a place of last resort. This includes Carlos, a young aide who lost his mother as a boy and now works there alongside his beloved sister, Mariana; Jorge, the gentle nonspeaking giant whom Carlos seeks to befriend (and prevent from escaping); Tom, a beautiful young man with cerebral palsy who pines for Ann, the summer lifeguard at the center's pool who feels out of her depth. Then there's Dave, Upward Bound's director, who came to L.A. to pursue an acting career but now channels his passion into staging an overly ambitious holiday show starring the center's irrepressible clients. Framing these intertwined narratives--and connecting them in surprising, shattering ways--is the riveting and sometimes ironic testimony of Walter, a recent community college graduate who, after a family tragedy, must return to the company of his disabled peers.

In Upward Bound, Woody Brown has created an indelible, authentic, and profoundly moving group portrait of autism and other disabilities, all illuminated by his empathy, sly sense of humor, and enormous gifts as a novelist. With remarkable sophistication, insight, and creativity, Brown depicts a community too-often invisible in literature and society. Filled with characters you won't soon forget, Upward Bound will inspire and touch you, teaching you as much about yourself as the tender, miraculous world behind the center's doors.

For fans of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Miranda July comes a whip-smart, irresistible novel about a college senior who has 48 hours to sell her recently deceased mother's surprise stash of rare pills, or suffer the consequences.

Arvy Keening is just trying to get through the week. Tantalizingly close to leaving her college years at Westheimer University behind, all she has to do is pass her finals, pack up her life, and ship off to San Francisco for a prestigious Big Pharma internship. The problem? Arvy just found 200 hits of Molly in her dead mother's closet. And when two drug dealers come to collect what they are owed, they reveal that the pills are not Molly, but Mona--a rare pharmaceutical that induces intense orgasms. The dealers give Arvy an ultimatum: Sell 200 Monas in 48 hours or die.

To aid in her seemingly impossible quest, Arvy recruits Wolf, Westheimer's resident drug dealer who also happens to be infuriatingly charming and distractingly sexy. In a race against the clock, Arvy and Wolf barrel through their college town, leaving a series of erotic shenanigans in their wake; appealing to horny co-eds, lonely barflies, and a mysterious sorority whose sisters have their own ideas for Mona's potential uses. But if Mona has a knack for unleashing visceral reactions in the body, what will it unlock in Arvy, who has been repressing grief over her mother's death for weeks?

Unashamedly brash, bold, and blistering, 200 Monas is a truly one-of-a-kind read, a playful and honest examination of sexuality and grief, and a sharp, searing love letter on how to release all that's inside you.

Two women living centuries apart are bound by the same dark secret in this haunting novel that "upends everything you think you know about ghost stories" (Jennifer McMahon, author of The Winter People).

"A delightful twist on both the haunted-house and beach-read genres." --Carissa Orlando, author of The September House

The Devil enters through doors left open...

On the isolated Eastern Shore of Virginia, Edith is a healer, a woman of knowledge--and a woman watched. Shadows move where they shouldn't. Whispers creep through the dark. Terrified she has opened her home to the Devil, Edith makes a desperate choice.

Claire doesn't believe in ghosts--until she returns home to care for her dying father and finds her childhood house... listening. As one sleepless night bleeds into the next, she becomes convinced something is stirring beneath the floorboards. Something that has waited a long time to rise.

Is the house haunted? What compels this lurking darkness? As the danger mounts, Edith and Claire will discover they'll need each other to survive. But they are separated by four hundred years. And time is running out for them both.

Roll the dice, strike up the band, and get ready for a swoon-worthy summer! A charming gaming romance that blends the magic of D&D with the camaraderie of band camp--from the bestselling author of Dating and Dragons!

Questing for love . . .

Hazel Buchanan has her senior year mapped out: Win respect as color guard captain, kick off her first D&D campaign, and steer clear of distractions. But her plan takes a critical hit when Max--her former best friend and longtime crush--returns to town with drumsticks in hand and an unexplained chip on his shoulder.

Hazel and Max can't help bickering every time they're together, and thanks to meddling parents, he's invading her D&D game too. As Dungeon Master, she's ready to shut him down, but D&D has a way of bringing people together like nothing else. Is this rivalry masking something more? With dice rolling and emotions spinning, Hazel might be in for more than she planned . . .

The Ethiopian Bible: An Ancient Faith Restored. A Sacred Legacy Reclaimed. A Spiritual Journey Awakened.

For the first time in generations, the complete sacred canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church-the oldest and most comprehensive Bible in Christian history-is available in English with reverence, clarity, and depth.

Unlike most Western Bibles with 66 or 73 books, this edition preserves the full 88-book canon recognized since the earliest centuries of Christianity. It also restores extraordinary apocryphal and extracanonical works long hidden from modern readers, including Enoch, Jubilees, 1-3 Meqabyan, Joseph and Asenath, The Sibylline Oracles, and many more-texts once forgotten, now reclaimed.

This collection unites 88 printed books with lifetime access to 1,400+ digital sacred texts from an expanding library of Ethiopian scripture. Translations are drawn from the most faithful English renderings of the ancient Geʽez manuscripts, ensuring authenticity and spiritual depth. Enriching the edition are an introduction and conclusion by Rev. Dr. Rance Settle (MDiv, DMin), whose pastoral insight and theological expertise guide readers through this remarkable tradition.

Whether you are a believer, pastor, scholar, or seeker, this Bible offers a profound encounter with one of Christianity's oldest and most enduring canons. With beautiful typesetting, large readable font, and biblical illustrations, it delivers both scholarly value and devotional richness-an entire spiritual library in one volume.

What Makes This Edition Unique

-Authentic 88-Book Canon - The full Ethiopian Orthodox canon, preserved in print for study and devotion.

-Expanded Digital Library - Lifetime access to 1,400+ sacred texts, lost books, ancestral prayers, and early teachings.

-Enhanced Readability - Clear, large-print formatting designed for immersive, comfortable reading.

-Bonus Multimedia - Over 150 hours of video teachings, 100+ hours of audio narration, and sacred content via QR codes.

-A Living Archive - A continually growing platform where new texts and insights are added over time.

Rediscover what was lost. Reconnect with what is sacred. Own the most complete Bible ever preserved.

Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, showcases his wit, sophistication, and deep knowledge of focaccia in this magical and madcap tale of a young man who takes an unspecified job with a charismatic elderly Baronessa at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: People, TIME, Esquire, Oprah Daily, Lit Hub, Seattle Times

"No one writing in English is funnier or more charming than Andrew Greer. Every sentence in this novel sings." --David Sedaris

Broke and directionless, our young man (the chosen moniker of Villa Coco's narrator) takes a job in the Italian countryside as the all-purpose assistant (technically, the employment ad asked for "adjutant") to Lisabetta, known to her friends as Coco, a strong-willed, wealthy widow of great local renown. Technically, our young man is an archivist, charged with cataloguing Coco's extensive and eclectic collection of art and artifacts, but what are his actual duties? He is charged with ridding the house of a marten, whatever that is, locating the antediluvian septic system, entertaining an endless carousel of guests (from bohemian painters to elderly princesses to handsome nephews), attending a funeral in order to make off with the urn, and not inadvertently sabotaging Coco's great and final plan--to locate the lost love of her life and be reunited before it's too late.

Told with the signature wit, insight, and deeply felt humanity that made Less an international phenomenon, Villa Coco is a dazzling, sun-soaked ode to life itself--a romp through a youthfully self-constructed emotional obstacle course, a meditation on what we give and take from others, and a bawdy Mediterranean ballad about becoming who you've always wanted to be.

The scientist is the close cousin of the poet and Karen Donovan is both. In her witty and engaging Letters to Boulders 45 stunning photographs of stones are paired with prose pieces inspired by their appearance or origins. Geographic forces-erratics, tarns, glaciers, and xenoliths-mirror social forces, as the author ponders how we are constructed, what adheres, moves around, holds up or crumbles. The collection concludes with a field guide to the stones-a brilliant new take on the glossary, in which definition itself becomes a kind of poem. Occupying a new niche in nature writing Letters to Boulders is both a poetic meditation on the mutable qualities of the earth we tread upon and a visual study of their beauty.

Goodnight, sleep tight-don't let the dragons bite.

After Ambrose Beake's kidnapping two years ago, he's determined to return to normal life. A simple routine of running his potion shop, training his apprentice, daydreaming about his boyfriend Eli's pending proposal...

(Eli tries to hide it. Ambrose knows he bought the ring months ago.)

But when an angry dragon trapped beneath the city demands help through Ambrose's dreams, he realizes his adventure isn't yet finished.

He quickly concocts a plan: shrink the dragon with a potion and smuggle it to safety before the city discovers its presence. To retrieve the needed ingredients, however, he must take a cue from his customers...and go on a quest himself.

While Ambrose, Eli, and friends fumble through heroics abroad, his apprentice Nat takes control of the shop. Before long, she struggles to keep the dragon problem-and her feelings for another apprentice-under wraps. Magical merchants both near and far must pull themselves together...before the city goes on its own quest to slay the dragon.

A magnificent new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of An American Marriage--Tayari Jones has written an unforgettable novel that sparkles with wit and intelligence and deep feeling about two lifelong friends whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of a devastating tragedy.

"Kin is the kind of all-encompassing reading experience I'm always hoping to find: smart and funny and deftly profound. This is Tayari Jones's very best work." --Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake

Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother's death, Vernice leaves Honeysuckle at eighteen for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and discovers a world of affluence, manners, aspiration, and inequality. Annie, abandoned by her mother as a child and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, culminating in a battle for her life.

A novel about mothers and daughters, friendship and sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South, Kin is an exuberant, emotionally rich, unforgettable work from one of the brightest and most irresistible voices in contemporary fiction.

Two women, two cursed contracts, and a romance that could burn down heaven and hell.

Mercedes Midnight is a reaper in debt with exactly one year left before hell comes to collect.

Lucy Corvine, the devil's daughter and revered professor, is imprisoned by a contract she never agreed to.

For nine long years, Midnight scoured graveyards and grimoires for a loophole, while Lucy wore a gilded smile and dreamed of revolt...

Until a chance encounter sparks a pact neither of them can afford to break.

When Midnight claws her way into Finis Academy, she and Lucy strike a perilous bargain: Lucy will train Midnight to win the academy's coveted demon favour and Midnight will break Lucy's contract.

But this is no simple deal. Not when a secret cult is scheming to resurrect a fallen angel and the city is veering toward celestial war.

They're going to have to trust each other... not easy when they're both hiding dangerous secrets.

Harder still when stolen glances in candlelit libraries ignite a forbidden desire neither woman can resist.

Now, they must decide: shatter the contract... or surrender to a love that damns them both.

One year. One soul. One impossible choice-their love or their own damnation.

This is a dark and very steamy lesbian demon romance featuring forbidden professor-student tension, dark academia vibes, soul-reaping bargains, morally grey heroines, found family, gothic campuses, and ruthless devils. 18+ readers only.

From the Author of Man's Country: More Than a BathhouseA Very Queer Street-Before there was North Halsted, there was 1300 N. Wells

Long before the rainbow flags flew high on Chicago's North Side, a single block on Wells Street pulsed with the heat and heart of gay liberation. Carol's Speakeasy, Den One, the notorious Bijou Theater, Glory Hole Tavern, adult bookstores, backrooms, and cruising alleys-it was all there, hidden in plain sight on the east side of the 1300 block. And then it vanished.

In Chicago Memories: 1300 N. Wells, the lost world of 1970s and '80s queer nightlife roars back to life. Through candid interviews with patrons, bartenders, and performers, plus unearthed ads, articles, and forgotten ephemera, author Owen Keehnen uncovers the stories behind the storefronts. This is more than nightlife nostalgia-it's a raw, riveting portrait of a revolutionary era in Chicago's gay community.

From the acclaimed author of Man's Country: More Than a Bathhouse and Dugan's Bistro and the Legend of the Bearded Lady comes a thrilling excavation of LGBTQ+ history, sex, joy, danger, and resilience-just one block south of forgotten.

TWO LIFETIMES, FOREVER YOURS

The great battle between worlds is over, but Mo Ran and Chu Wanning's story continues.

Chu Wanning's birthday is fast approaching, and Mo Ran is on the hunt for the perfect present. What he doesn't expect is for his greatest competition to be his other self, Taxian-jun! Once a group of mischievous rice-cake spirits take the battle from mundane to magical, chaos is bound to ensue.

Later, Xue Meng tries out a magical device meant to match cultivators with their true love. But why do so many of his dates seem...strangely familiar? When Xue Meng's disastrous love life threatens to cause mayhem throughout the cultivation realm, only the Mei twins--and a few old friends--can get him out of his predicament.

This unforgettable series finale features an exclusive new afterword from the author!

This limited Special Edition of Volume 11 contains the Regular Edition with bonus merchandise shrinkwrapped to the book. Don't miss the new art from guest artists included in this special merch!

FINAL VOLUME