The perfect Mother's Day gift: A collection of witty one-line advice New Yorker writer Patricia Marx heard from her mother, accompanied by full-color illustrations by New Yorker staff cartoonist Roz Chast. Every mother knows best, but New Yorker writer Patty Marx's knows better. Patty has never been able to shake her mother's one-line witticisms from her brain, so she's collected them into a book, accompanied by full color illustrations by New Yorker staff cartoonist Roz Chast. These snappy maternal cautions include: If you feel guilty about throwing away leftovers, put them in the back of your refrigerator for five days and then throw them out. If you run out of food at your dinner party, the world will end. When traveling, call the hotel from the airport to say there aren't enough towels in your room and, by the way, you'd like a room with a better view. Why don't you write my eulogy now so I can correct it? Every child will want to buy this for mom on Mother's Day!

The perfect Valentine’s Day or anniversary gift: An illustrated collection of love and relationship advice from New Yorker writer Patricia Marx, with illustrations from New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast. Everyone’s heard the old advice for a healthy relationship: Never go to bed angry. Play hard to get. Sexual favors in exchange for cleaning up the cat vomit is a good and fair trade. Okay, not that last one. It’s one of the tips in You Can Only Yell at Me for One Thing at a Time: Rules for Couples by the authors of Why Don’t You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It: A Mother’s Suggestions. This guide will make you laugh, remind you why your relationship is better than everyone else’s, and solve all your problems. Nuggets of advice include: If you must breathe, don’t breathe so loudly. It is easier to stay inside and wait for the snow to melt than to fight about who should shovel. Queen-sized beds, king-sized blankets. Why not give this book to your significant or insignificant other, your anti-Valentine’s Day crusader pal, or anyone who can’t live with or without love?

Nowhere will you find a more comprehensive, current, and detailed writing skills course designed specifically for writing children and teen books, written by a children's and young adult author who is in the field today. WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS: A CRASH COURSE is a ten-step course that relays all the nitty-gritty details of the business, beginning with how to evaluate your book idea all the way to pitching your book to editors and agents. Within each step, you'll find clear and specific information covering topics such as the children's book market, manuscript format, commonly made mistakes and editing tips to beef up your writing skills, finding the right literary agent or children's book publisher, and professional submission etiquette. This book will even tell you what kind of paper you should use and exactly how you should write your email or letter pitches to editors and agents. Bonus materials include templates for all of your submission needs as well as examples of real-life editorial letters sent to authors from editors today. You will get a complete inside peak to the children's and YA fiction writing market for those who want to write picture books, easy readers, chapter books, and middle grade or young adult/teen novels.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: VOGUE • FORBES • BOOKPAGE • NEW YORK POST • WIRED “I have not been as profoundly moved by a book in years.” —Jodi Picoult Even after she left home for Hollywood, Emmy-nominated TV writer Bess Kalb saved every voicemail her grandmother Bobby Bell ever left her. Bobby was a force—irrepressible, glamorous, unapologetically opinionated. Bobby doted on Bess; Bess adored Bobby. Then, at ninety, Bobby died. But in this debut memoir, Bobby is speaking to Bess once more, in a voice as passionate as it ever was in life. Recounting both family lore and family secrets, Bobby brings us four generations of indomitable women and the men who loved them. There’s Bobby’s mother, who traveled solo from Belarus to America in the 1880s to escape the pogroms, and Bess’s mother, a 1970s rebel who always fought against convention. But it was Bobby and Bess who always had the most powerful bond: Bobby her granddaughter’s fiercest supporter, giving Bess unequivocal love, even if sometimes of the toughest kind. Nobody Will Tell You This But Me marks the creation of a totally new, virtuosic form of memoir: a reconstruction of a beloved grandmother’s words and wisdom to tell her family’s story with equal parts poignancy and hilarity.

New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller shares the plan that led him to turn his life around. This actionable guide will teach you how to do the same through journaling prompts and goal-planning exercises. There are four characters in every story: The victim, the villain, the hero, and the guide. These four characters live inside us. If we play the victim, we’re doomed to fail. If we play the villain, we will not create genuine bonds. But if we play the hero or guide, our lives will flourish. The hard part is being self-aware enough to know which character we are playing. In this book, bestselling author Donald Miller uses his own experiences to help you recognize if the character you are currently surfacing is helping you experience a life of meaning. He breaks down the transformational, yet practical, plan that took him from slowly giving up to rapidly gaining a new perspective of his own life’s beauty and meaning, igniting his motivation, passion, and productivity, so you can do the same. In Hero on a Mission, Donald’s lessons will teach you how to: Discover when you are playing the victim and villain. Create a simple life plan that will bring clarity and meaning to your goals ahead. Take control of your life by choosing to be the hero in your story. Cultivate a sense of creativity about what your life can be. Move beyond just being productive to experiencing a deep sense of meaning. Donald will help you identify the many chances you have of being the hero in your life, and the times when you are falling into the trap of becoming the victim. Hero on a Mission will guide you in developing a unique plan that will speak to the challenges you currently face so you can find the fulfillment you have been searching for in your life and work.

In this issue, Gary Groth interviews Roz Chast, the New Yorker humor cartoonist turned graphic memoirist (Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?). TCJ #306 focuses on the intersections between comics and politics. It includes op-eds on the importance (and lack thereof) of modern political cartooning. Also featured is a meditation on the creator of the Dilbert newspaper comic strip, Scott Adams; a piece about Daisy Scott, the first African American woman political cartoonist; a gallery of underground cartoonist John Pound’s code-generated comics; portraits of mass shooting victims; a selection of Spider-Gwen artist Chris Vision’s sketchbook pages; and other essays and galleries.