"And it’s true, I’ve surpassed my old self in writing poetry because of you." My purpose for this book is to share the happiness of being in love, the sorrow of unloving a person who’s dear to our hearts and finally understand what the words “letting go and letting God” really meant.

In her debut book, Indiana writer Amy McVay Abbott offers thirty insightful and humorous essays about life transitions. In 2009, Abbott lost her job shortly after her only child left for college. Her mother was diagnosed with multi-infarct dementia, and what seemed logical for Abbott was to start writing it all down. Through humor, Abbott weaves together past and present with future hopes and dreams after turning fifty. Mothers, daughters, aunts,and nieces will enjoy this spiritual and comedic journey. Abbott also writes a bi-weekly newspaper column The Raven Lunatic for several Indiana newspapers. Visit her online at http://poetryfan.blogspot.com or contact her at [email protected].

"a Constellation of Almosts" offers a unique perspective on the human experience of love, loss, and introspection. Bella Coronel's language captures the complexity of the human psyche and the struggles that we all face while attempting to navigate the world. Some of our life's almosts may hurt us the most. Bringing pain in our hearts, wearing out our souls. We find ourselves recognizing situations which are already over. You thought your dream was closer— instead you got closure. Sad, isn't it? But then after such an exhausting struggle, there’s the “thank God, it didn’t happen”. You realize something better is coming, more than what you can imagine. May this book allow you to overcome all of your life’s almosts. May we both find our lost and lonely souls.

Quicklets: Learn More. Read Less. David Sedaris is an American writer and comedian. In 1994, National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast his autobiographical essay, SantaLand Diaries, after radio host Ira Glass discovered Sedaris doing a bit in a Chicago club. Sedaris went on to write several bestselling essay collections including "Naked", "Holidays on Ice" and "Me Talk Pretty One Day". In 2010, he released his latest collection of stories, "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary". Sedaris also frequently contributes to The New Yorker and Esquire. Me Talk Pretty One Day is a collection of autobiographical stories from author David Sedaris. Published in 2000, it quickly became a New York Times Best Seller. Prior to publication, several of the essays were featured on the radio program, This American Life. The stories are loosely chronological and draw heavily on humorous observations of his close family and friends. The collection was critically well-received and, in 2001, Sedaris was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor. It is dedicated to his father, Lou, who figures prominently in many of the stories. Quicklets: Learn More. Read Less.

A sweeping, unique graphic memoir about an artist’s year abroad in Paris and how it gave way to an all-encompassing love affair and crushing heartbreak as he wrestled with trauma, masculinity, and the real possibility of hope. Renowned graphic artist Timothy Goodman planned to do what every young artist dreams of and spend a year abroad in Paris. While there, he fell in love in a way he never had before. For the first time in his life, he let himself be loved and finally, truly loved someone else. But the deeper the love, the more crushing the heartbreak when the relationship eventually fell apart, forcing him to look inwards. He confronted traumas of his past as well as his own toxic masculinity, and he learned to finally show up for himself. I Always Think It’s Forever is a one-of-a-kind graphic memoir that chronicles it all—the ups, the downs, love lost, and love found—all in the bold illustration style Goodman is best known for, with poetic prose and handwritten wording to accompany the artwork with a touch of humor added as well. It’s a glimpse inside the heart and mind of a man, first focusing on the time Goodman spent in Paris, including diary entries relating his experiences learning about French food, culture, and language. This touching memoir also explores the painful break-up just six months later in Rome. Goodman artfully describes his attempts at learning to love himself in the end, his scars, cuts, warts, and all in a way no book ever has before.

This is a book about the advice I've read, mainly on the bus, on how to become a bit happier, calmer, kinder, and wiser, and how to get a slightly different perspective on life. I'm aiming this advice mostly at my children, and I've written this book with them in mind... but it’s helpful for anyone! I cover the wisdom of the Taoists, Zen Buddhists and Stoics and then some modern psychology, before I move on to some practical advice to increase your happiness based on the philosophies, books and articles that I’ve read. The BUS route is an abbreviation of: be here now, understanding empathy and compassion, and shrink desires. The book title is a happy coincidence, isn’t it? Throughout history we’ve had to deal with fear, anxiety, dissatisfaction, uncertainty, stress and lack of control. Our age is no different. I offer ways to cope, which includes: being more aware of life in the present moment, being more compassionate to yourself and others, looking at things more positively or realistically, looking at the big picture, and finding ways to manage your wants. This is a light-hearted look at how to be a little happier on the metaphorical bus journey of life, no matter what bumps in the road you’ll find.

He is one of the most controversial and important world leaders currently in power. In this international bestseller, at last available in English, Hugo Chávez is captured in a critically acclaimed biography, a riveting account of the Venezuelan president who continues to influence, fascinate, and antagonize America. Born in a small town on the Venezuelan plains, Chávez found his interests radically altered when he entered the military academy in Caracas. There, as Hugo Chávez reveals in dramatic detail, he was drawn to leftist politics and a new sense of himself as predestined to change the fortunes of his country and Latin America as a whole. Portrayed as never before is the double life Chávez soon began to lead: by day he was a family man and a military officer, but by night he secretly recruited insurgents for a violent overthrow of the government. His efforts would climax in an attempted coup against President Carlos Andrés Pérez, an action that ended in a spectacular failure but gave Chávez his first irresistible taste of celebrity and laid the groundwork for his ascension to the presidency eight years later. Here is the truth about Chávez’s revolutionary “Bolivarian” government, which stresses economic reforms meant to discourage corruption and empower the poor–while the leader spends seven thousand dollars a day on himself and cozies up to Arab oil elites. Venezuelan journalists Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka explore the often crude and comical public figure who condemns George W. Bush in the most fiery language but at the same time hires lobbyists to improve his country’s image in the West. The authors examine not only Chávez’s political career but also his personal life–including his first marriage, which was marked by a long affair and the birth of a troubled son, and his second marriage, which produced a daughter toward whom Chávez’s favoritism has caused private tension and public talk. This seminal biography is filled with exclusive excerpts from Chávez’s own diary and draws on new research and interviews with such insightful subjects as Herma Marksman, the professor who was his mistress for nine years. Hugo Chávez is an essential work about a man whose power, peculiarities, and passion for the global spotlight only continue to grow.