A girl thought to be a boy steals her sister's skirt, while a boy thought to be a girl refuses to wear a cornflower blue dress. One boy's love of a soldier leads to the death of a stranger. The present takes a bittersweet journey into the past when a man revisits the summer school where he had "an accidental romance." And a forgotten mother writes a poignant letter to the teenage daughter she hasn't seen for fourteen years.Poised between the past and the future are the stories of now. In nontraditional narratives, short stories, and brief graphics, tales of anticipation and regret, eagerness and confusion present distinctively modern views of love, sexuality, and gender identification. Together, they reflect the vibrant possibilities available for young people learning to love others—and themselves—in today's multifaceted and quickly changing world.

In the winter of 1951, a storyteller, the last practitioner of an honored, centuries-old tradition, arrives at the home of nine-year-old Ronan O'Mara in the Irish countryside. For three wonderful evenings, the old gentleman enthralls his assembled local audience with narratives of foolish kings, fabled saints, and Ireland's enduring accomplishments before moving on. But these nights change young Ronan forever, setting him on a years-long pursuit of the elusive, itinerant storyteller and the glorious tales that are no less than the saga of his tenacious and extraordinary isle.

He couldn’t listen to music or talk on the phone without her jumping all over him about what they listened to up in Maine, or how they talked up in Maine, or how he better not go up to Maine and start acting ghetto. Maine. Anthony’s mother didn’t even know where it was until he’d shown it to her on a map, but that still didn’t stop her from acting like she was born there.Anthony “Ant” Jones has never been outside his rough East Cleveland neighborhood when he’s given a scholarship to Belton Academy, an elite prep school in Maine.But at Belton things are far from perfect. Everyone calls him “Tony,” assumes he’s from Brooklyn, expects him to play basketball, and yet acts shocked when he fights back.As Anthony tries to adapt to a world that will never fully accept him, he’s in for a rude awakening: Home is becoming a place where he no longer belongs.In debut author Brian F. Walker’s hard-hitting novel about staying true to yourself, Anthony might find a way to survive at Belton, but what will it cost him?

Eva's life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination—an echo. She was made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her "other," if she ever died. Eva spends every day studying that girl from far away, learning what Amarra does, what she eats, what it's like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.But sixteen years of studying never prepared her for this.Now she must abandon everything and everyone she's ever known—the guardians who raised her, the boy she's forbidden to love—to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva. From debut novelist Sangu Mandanna comes the dazzling story of a girl who was always told what she had to be—until she found the strength to decide for herself.

When Was The Last Time You Felt Really Healthy?Now's the time to create the healthy, balanced life you want -- and become the truly vibrant, happy person you were meant to be. Combining good humor with solid science, Marilu Henner provides essential information on every aspect of health and fitness, including:Detoxing your bodyPreventing or alleviating health conditions from obesity to cancerThe secrets of stress reductionReal food and the organic way to fuel your bodyFree yourself forever from diets and disease-causing toxins, boost your energy, lower and maintain your weight -- and change your life.

Get that great taste of wood-smoked food using the top of your kitchen stove.Contains everything you need to know about smoking foods at home, using a stovetop smoker.Chris serves up 36 master recipes for smoking everything from whole chickens to shrimp, plus 95 recipes for soups, salads, and sides that use smoked ingredients. There's Tea-Smoked Duck; Smoked Eggplant Soup; and Fettuccine with Smoky Salmon, Peas, and Leeks to name just a few. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination and your love for smoky flavor. With Chris Styler's tips, techniques, and pointers, smoking food is simple, fast, and the taste speaks for itself. Smokin' -- it's well, smokin'.

Are you ready for the Badass Body of your dreams?Christmas Abbott is living proof that fitness is sexy, and a badass body is a birthright for one and all. A CrossFit star, professional athlete, former NASCAR pit crew member, Olympic weightlifter, and former unhealthy "skinny fat" woman herself, Christmas knows what real women need in order to get the butts and bodies of their dreams. In The Badass Body Diet, Christmas provides a quick and simple workout plan that tones everything—from booty to total body—and teaches you how to spot-reduce excess fat with targeted meal plans and recipes.Your glutes are the largest and most powerful muscle group in your body, not to mention one of the most beautiful. But they often go dormant, flat, and flabby due to poor lifestyle choices. The Badass Body Diet is the solution, packed with information on how to:Select the right proteins, fats, and carbs—otherwise known as "booty foods." Learn how to eat for your body type and fitness goals. Get targeted, powerful, total body workouts in just a few minutes a day. Improve your posture and functional mobility and enhance your overall health. Clear up cellulite with dietary advice, workout strategies, and other proven tips.Based on her work with hundreds of clients at her CrossFit gyms and nationwide fitness boot camps, Christmas offers specific, detailed plans for every goal, whether it's losing weight, taking an already fit frame to the next level, or building luscious curves on a "skinny fat" body. She'll give you the tools and motivation you need to build a healthy, vital body—with the tight, firm tush you've always wanted!

Ever wonder why movie stars, supermodels, and some of the most high-profile musicians and athletes look so camera-readyWhy they don't have poochy stomachs, puffy eyes, dull tired skin, and fatigue like most of the rest of usWhy do they look so vibrant, energetic, and slimHollywood's best-kept secret, A-list celebrity cleanse expert Tracy Piper, knows exactly how they got that way: It's internal fitness, and Tracy is the master. Now, in The Piper Protocol, Tracy makes her life-changing, body-transforming plan available to everyone!Tracy's cleanse program offers an amazing promise: lose up to twenty-five pounds in the first month. But weight loss is just the beginning. Her structured four-week eating plan will change the way you feel and the way you live. The Piper Protocol takes you on a journey to make your body, your mind, and your spirit feel better, look better, and function better on every level. Taking a holistic view, it focuses on weight loss and overall wellness. Here for the first time is the revolutionary four-week program Tracy's celebrity clients use to get red-carpet ready:Piper Protocol Week One: 50/50 Cleanse Initiation: Here you'll start exchanging bad habits for good, but don't worry—you won't have to do anything extreme. You can have your steak and eat it too during week one, as long as you fill 50% of your plate with raw veggies. You'll also learn about juicing!Piper Protocol Week Two: 80/20 Protein: During this week, Tracy ramps up the intensity—reduce your protein to 20% of your plate and increase your veggies to 80%. You'll immediately notice the difference in increased energy and dropped pounds and inches.Piper Protocol Week Three: 80/20 Carbs: It's time to experiment with a meat-free week. With 80% veggies and 20% whole grains on your plate, you'll stay full and keep getting slimmer.Piper Protocol Week Four: Liquid Feast Week: Now that your body is prepped for some serious celeb-level cleansing, try this all-liquid week. You'll fill up on nutrient-dense veggie-rich juices and smoothies with a hint of sweetness from fruit, and the weight loss you will experience during the week will amaze and inspire you to embrace your new, health-enhancing, beauty-boosting, radiant lifestyle.Including step-by-step instructions, more than sixty delicious recipes for cleansing and rejuvenating foods, powerful home remedies, and the inspiration to put it all into practice, The Piper Protocol will help you slim down, rev up, and get gorgeous.

In this coming-of-age novel perfect for fans of Susane Colasanti and Jandy Nelson, a straight-A student in a family of free-spirited artists must face the hard truths about those she loves most.Very Sayles-Woodruff could find the value of x with her eyes closed . . . but interpreting her mother's renowned paintings or her famous grandmother's poems don't come as easily. Even her younger sister, Ramona, has the same artistic leanings as the rest of their family. Very has always been the dependable, responsible one—until her grandmother becomes terminally ill, causing all of the pieces of Very's once-structured life to come crashing down. Now she's cast aside her steady boyfriend and started an unexpected fling with Dominic, a rebellious art student with a bad reputation.Things at home have also taken a turn. Very's mother drinks all day, her father is never around, and Ramona is constantly skipping school. And that's when the sculpture appears. Out of nowhere, a bottle cap design starts climbing up the stucco walls of the Sayles-Woodruff house, mysteriously growing by the day. With her grandmother nearing death and things heating up with Dominic, Very also has to confront the fact that the person behind the sculpture is struggling more than she could have imagined.

What if the world holds more dangers—and more wonders—than we have ever knownAnd what if there is more than one worldFrom Heather Dixon, author of the acclaimed Entwined, comes a brilliantly conceived adventure that sweeps us from the inner workings of our souls to the far reaches of our imaginations. Jonathan is perfectly ordinary. But then—as every good adventure begins—the king swoops into port, and Jonathan and his father are enlisted to find the cure to a deadly plague. Jonathan discovers that he's a prodigy at working with a new chemical called fantillium, which creates shared hallucinations—or illusions. And just like that, Jonathan is knocked off his path. Through richly developed parallel worlds, vivid action, a healthy dose of humor, and gorgeous writing, Heather Dixon spins a story that calls to mind The Night Circus and Pixar movies, but is wholly its own.

A riveting and powerful story of a runaway girl lured into prostitution in New York City, perfect for fans of Ellen Hopkins and Patricia McCormick.What do you do if you're in troubleWhen Michelle runs away from her drug-addicted mother, she has just enough money to make it to New York City, where she hopes to move in with a friend. But once she arrives at the bustling Port Authority, she is confronted with the terrifying truth: She is alone and out of options.Then she meets Devon, a good-looking, well-dressed guy who emerges from the crowd armed with a kind smile, a place for her to stay, and eyes that seem to understand exactly how she feels. But Devon is not who he seems to be, and soon Michelle finds herself engulfed in the world of child prostitution, where he becomes her "Daddy" and she is his "Little Peach." It is a world of impossible choices, where the line between love and abuse, captor and savior, is blurred beyond recognition.This hauntingly vivid story illustrates the human spirit's indomitable search for home and one girl's struggle to survive.

In this fast-paced, high-stakes debut novel, sixteen-year-old Sam McKenna discovers that becoming one of the first girls to attend a revered military academy means living with a target on her back. As Sam struggles to prove herself, she learns that a decades-old secret society is alive and active . . . and determined to force her out. Fans of Simone Elkeles and Trish Doller will love Rites of Passage’s perfect blend of?sizzling romance and edge-of-your-seat?suspense.

June Lyons, the FBI-agent-turned-small-town-cop introduced in the acclaimed debut Ice Shear, must solve two connected cases whose roots stretch back decades—and touch the lives of those closest to herAs a police officer in the Rust Belt town of Hopewell Falls, New York, June Lyons keeps an eye on the abandoned factories that line the Mohawk River. On patrol she spots a slick of gasoline running across the parking lot of an old apparel factory; inside, an unconscious woman lies near smoldering piles of old fabric. The fire destroys the building down to its subbasements, and the badly burned woman June rescued is in a coma. No one knows who she is or how she got there.Thirty years earlier, June's father made a name for himself when he arrested the factory's owner, Bernie Lawler, for killing his wife and child, though their bodies were never found. Sifting through the factory's ruins, June and her partner, Dave Batko, discover a woman's body sealed in a barrel. They're sure that the body will be Luisa Lawler's and her cold case file will finally be closed. But the body isn't Bernie's wife's, and the discovery opens old wounds and cuts fresh ones, triggering a new cycle of violence and revenge that threatens to destroy her family and friends.As June and her neighbors discover, beneath Hopewell Falls's small-town facade lie some unbearably ugly truths—secrets that are only beginning to surface. With the case growing more complex, June teams with FBI Special Agent Hale Bascom to find the truth—before everyone she loves, and the town itself, spins dangerously out of control.

A lively anecdotal history of Greenwich Village, the prodigiously influential and infamous New York City neighborhood, from the 1600s to the present The most famous neighborhood in the world, Greenwich Village has been home to outcasts of diverse persuasions from "half-free" Africans to working-class immigrants, from artists to politicians for almost four hundred years. In his magisterial new book, cultural commentator John Strausbaugh weaves an absorbing narrative history of the Village, a tapestry that unrolls from its origins as a rural frontier of New Amsterdam in the 1600s through its long reign as the Left Bank of America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from its seat as the epicenter of the gay rights movement to its current status as an affluent bedroom community and tourist magnet. Strausbaugh "a particularly gifted chronicler of New Yorkiana" (Atlantic Monthly ) traces the Village's role as a culture engine, a bastion of tolerance, freedom, creativity, and activism that has spurred cultural change on a national, and sometimes even international, scale. He brings to life the long line of famous nonconformists who have collided there, collaborating, fusing and feuding, developing the ideas and creating the art that forever altered societal norms. In these pages, geniuses are made and destroyed, careers are launched, and revolutions are born. Poe, Whitman, Cather, Baldwin, Kerouac, Mailer, Ginsberg, O'Neill, Pollock, La Guardia, Koch, Hendrix, and Dylan all come together across the ages, at a cultural crossroads the likes of which we may never see again. From Dutch farmers and Washington Square patricians to slaves and bohemians, from Prohibition-era speakeasies to Stonewall, from Abstract Expressionism to AIDS, and from the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to today's upscale condos and four-star restaurants, the connecting narratives of The Village tell the fresh and unforgettable story of America itself.

Perfect for fans of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak is Stonewall Award-winning author Brian Katcher's hilarious he said/she said romance about two teens discovering themselves on an out-of-this-world accidental first date at a sci-fi convention.When Ana Watson's brother ditches a high school trip to run wild at Washingcon, type-A Ana knows that she must find him or risk her last shot at freedom from her extra-controlling parents.In her desperation, she's forced to enlist the last person she'd ever want to spend time with—slacker Zak Duquette—to help find her brother before morning comes.But over the course of the night, while being chased by hordes of costumed Vikings and zombies, Ana and Zak begin to open up to each other. Soon, what starts as the most insane nerdfighter manhunt transforms into so much more. . . .

For goth-girl Raven, dating her dream boyfriend is complicated, especially because Alexander's secret means that they can see each other only at night.And now the pair must be extra wary in the dark with Alexander's archrival, Jagger, appearing around town. As if Jagger isn't enough cause for worry, Luna, his strikingly pale sister, has also surfaced and seems to have her sights set on Raven's longtime nemesis, Trevor. Together, Raven and Alexander must begin a terrifying search for Jagger and Luna's hideout to drive them away -- that is, if it's not already too late to save Dullsville from becoming Vampireville.In the latest installment of her popular Vampire Kisses books, Ellen Schreiber continues the startling story of two teen outsiders -- she from the mortal world and he from the Underworld -- who share a thrilling, extraordinary romance.

New from Helen Palmer, a "leading teacher and practitioner of the Enneagram" (San Francisco Chronicle), the first Enneagram book to give practical advice, in fascinating detail, on how to have the best possible relationships in love and business.

Right after "Is it a boy or a girl?" and "What's his/her name?," the next question people invariably ask new parents is "Are you getting any sleep?" Unfortunately, the answer is usually "Not much." In fact, studies show that approximately 25% of young children experience some type of sleep problem and, as any bleary-eyed parent will attest, it is one of the most difficult challenges of parenting.Drawing on her ten years of experience in the assessment and treatment of common sleep problems in children, Dr. Jodi A. Mindell now provides tips and techniques, the answers to commonly asked questions, and case studies and quotes from parents who have successfully solved their children's sleep problems.Unlike other books on the subject, Dr. Mindell also offers practical tips on bedtime, rather than middle-of-the-night-sleep training, and shows how all members of the family can cope with the stresses associated with teaching a child to sleep.

A landmark exploration of the vast and expanding impact of technology, rivetingly told through the lens of a deadly collisionOne of the year's most original and masterfully reported books, A Deadly Wandering by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Matt Richtel interweaves the cutting-edge science of attention with the tensely plotted story of a mysterious car accident and its aftermath to answer some of the defining questions of our time: What is technology doing to usCan our minds keep up with the pace of changeHow can we find balanceThrough Richtel's beautifully constructed narrative, a complex and far-reaching topic becomes intimate and urgent an important call to reexamine our own lives.On the last day of summer, an ordinary Utah college student named Reggie Shaw fatally struck two rocket scientists while texting and driving along a majestic stretch of highway bordering the Rocky Mountains. Richtel follows Reggie from the moment of the tragedy, through the police investigation, the state's groundbreaking prosecution (at the time there was little precedent to guide the court), and ultimately, Reggie's wrenching admission of responsibility. Richtel parallels Reggie's journey with leading-edge scientific findings regarding human attention and the impact of technology on our brains showing how these devices, now thoroughly embedded into all aspects of our lives, play to our deepest social instincts and prey on parts of the brain that crave stimulation, creating loops of compulsion, even addiction. Remarkably, today Reggie is a leading advocate who has helped spark a national effort targeting distracted driving, and the arc of his story provides a window through which Richtel pursues actionable solutions to help manage this crisis individually and as a society. A propulsive read filled with fascinating scientific detail, riveting narrative tension, and rare emotional depth, A Deadly Wandering is a book that can change and save lives.

The third volume of Thomas Merton's journals chronicles Merton's attempts to reconcile his desire for solitude and contemplation with the demands of his new-found celebrity status within the strictures of conventional monastic life.

In the months leading up to March 2003, fresh from its swift and heady victory in Afghanistan, the Bush administration mobilized the United States armed forces to overthrow the government of Iraq. Eight months after the president declared an end to major combat operations, Saddam Hussein was captured in a farmhouse in Al-Dawr. And yet neither peace nor democracy has taken hold in Iraq; instead the country has plunged into terrorist insurgency and guerrilla warfare, with no end in sight.What went wrong?In The Secret History of the Iraq War, bestselling author Yossef Bodansky offers an astonishing new account of the war and its aftermath a war that was doomed from the start, he argues, by the massive and systemic failures of the American intelligence community. Drawing back the curtain of politicized debate, Bodansky a longtime expert and director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare reveals that nearly every aspect of America's conflict with Iraq has been misunderstood, in both the court of public opinion and the White House itself. Among his revelations: The most authoritative account of Saddam Hussein's support for Islamic terrorist organizations including extensive new reporting on his active cooperation with al-Qaeda in Iraq long after the fall of Baghdad Extensive new information on Iraq's major chemical and biological weapons programs including North Korea's role in building still-undetected secret storage facilities and Iraq's transfer of banned materials to Syria, Iran, and Libya The first account of Saddam's plan for Iraq, Syria, and Iran to join Yasser Arafat's Palestinian forces to attack Israel, throw the region into turmoil, and upend the American campaign The untold story of Russia's attempt to launch a coup against Saddam before the war and how the CIA thwarted it by ensuring that Iraq was forewarned Dramatic details about Saddam's final days on the run, including the untold story of a near miss with U.S. troops and the stunning revelation that Saddam was already in custody at the time of his capture and was probably betrayed by members of his own Tikriti clan The definitive account of the anti-U.S. resistance and uprising in Iraq, as the American invasion ignited an Islamic jihad and Iran-inspired intifada, threatening to plunge the region into irreversible chaos fueled by hatred and revenge Revelations about the direct involvement of Osama bin Laden in the terrorism campaigns in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Middle East including the major role played by Iran and HizbAllah in al-Qaeda's operations Drawing upon an extraordinary wealth of previously untapped intelligence and regional sources, The Secret History of the Iraq War presents the most detailed, fascinating, and convincing account of the most controversial war of our times and offers a sobering indictment of an intelligence system that failed the White House, the American military, and the people of the Middle East.