Building on the principles developed during her long career as a licensed marriage and family therapist, and addressing the chronic struggles of so many of her listeners and readers, Dr. Laura encourages "whiners" to reject negative thoughts, emotions, and attitudes; shift perspective; open up to gratitude and goodness; and embrace obligations to loved ones and the world in general.--From amazon.com.

Today's definition of family is completely unrecognizable from what it was forty, thirty, even twenty years ago. Into the chaos that has become typical of the modern American family, judge Judy Sheindlin attempts to bring some order. With Keep It Simple, Stupid, Judge Judy addresses how convoluted family life has become. The traditional nuclear family has expanded to include exes and parents of exes, merging families, stepchildren, lovers, adopted children, in-laws the list goes on and on. Complex issues naturally arise from the enlarged families into which we're born. There is the ex-wife who wants more child support from husband number one so she can stay home with new baby by husband number two. There are the parents who gave their daughter thirty thousand dollars as a wedding gift only to watch the marriage quickly crumble and their former son-in-law claim half the money. How about the adult son who runs out on his kids, leaving his parents to pay his child support? When it comes to families, Judge Judy has seen it all in her courtroom, and she knows stupidity when she sees it. Tackling all the explosive issues that drive families crazy -- and into court -- Judge Judy shares her on-target, brutally honest thoughts on the chaos that is characteristic of today's American family and gives no-holds-barred advice on how to resolve conflicts and repair relationships.

The perfect graduation gift: a wry look at the pleasures and anxieties of leaving home, penned with Judith Viorst's trademark blend of insight and humor. Millions of young people grew up with Viorst's bestselling children's book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." Now they can take her tongue-in-cheek advice for the next stage in their lives. Warm, funny, compassionate, and reassuring, "You're Officially a Grown-Up" describes -- in verse and illustrations -- all those terrifying but eagerly anticipated freedoms that go hand in hand with venturing out on your own and trying to make your way in the world. Ranging from the quandaries of giving up room, board, and the keys to the Ford to the thrills of playing by your own rules, Viorst will touch a nostalgic chord in those "official" grown-ups who have loved her other books about life's milestones. This special keepsake -- written from a loving parent's perspective -- is just the ticket high school and college graduates need for a one-way passage to adulthood.

Now in paperback for the first time, the story of Charlie, a kid who knows how to be ready for any situation…. Just in Case . If a downpour turns into a flash flood or the grocery store should close indefinitely, Charlie knows exactly what he’ll do. But as Charlie is about to discover, sometimes not being ready is even better than being prepared for everything. She wants them. She needs them. She loves them. Earrings! What won’t a girl do to finally get her ears pierced? Find out in this delightful tale that perfectly captures the yearnings of a young girl in desperate need of beautiful, glorious earrings! According to Olivia—who is practically perfect—her younger sister Sophie isn’t very neat. But she’s not just messy, either…. She’s Super-Completely and Totally the Messiest! Olivia’s family tries to show her that Sophie is plenty of things besides a slob, but Olivia is unconvinced. Pictures from Robin Preiss Glasser, illustrator of Fancy Nancy , make this book super-completely and totally fun!

Judith Viorst is known and loved by readers of all ages, for children’s books such as Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; nonfiction titles, including the bestseller Necessary Losses; and her collections of humorous poetry, which make perfect gifts for birthdays, Mother’s Day, graduation, Christmas, Chanukah, or at any time of year. Whatever became of Alexander after that famously bad day? And did you know that Judith Viorst is his mother? And what happens to her passion for household neatness and orderliness, her deep devotion to schedules, her compulsive yearning to offer helpful advice when Alexander— now grown up, married, and the father of three—moves his family into his parents’ house? What happens is controlled, and sometimes not so controlled, chaos, as lives and routines are turned upside down and the house is overrun with scattered toys, pacifiers, baby bottles, sippy cups, pink-sequined flip-flops, jigsaw puzzles, and fishy crackers. With her characteristic sparkle and wit, Viorst relates her efforts to (graciously) share space, to become (if only a little bit) more flexible, to (sort of) keep her opinions to herself, and even to eventually figure out how to unlock the safety locks of the baby's (expletives deleted) bouncy seat. She describes how she and her husband, while sometimes longing for the former peace and tranquility of unravished rooms and quiet dinners for two unaccompanied by cries of “Oh, yuck!” survived and relished the extended visit of the Alexander Five. She also opens our eyes to the joys of multigenerational family living and to the unexpected opportunities to grow that life presents—even under the most unlikely circumstances. Several generations of readers surely will relate to this funny and loving book, enhanced throughout by Laura Gibson’s delightful two-color drawings.

Arthur Pfefferkorn, is a middle-aged college professor with long dead literary aspirations. When his oldest friend, successful thriller writer William de Vallee, is lost at sea, Pfefferkorn is torn between envy and grief, for de Vallee not only outshone Pfefferkorn professionally, but married the woman Pfefferkorn loved. He struggles with his failed ambitions while reflecting on his late friend's successes and marriage. He decides to take the best-selling author's latest manuscript and publish it as his own. Although the novel brings him great success, his life soon spirals into a series of betrayals and double-crosses torn straight from the pages of his plagiarized work. His decision to reconnect with de Vallee's widow sets in motion a surreal chain of events, plunging him into a shadowy realm of intrigue, a world where no one can be trusted, and nothing can be taken seriously.

"We think we know Emily Dickinson: the Belle of Amherst, virginal, reclusive, and possibly mad. But in A Loaded Gun, Jerome Charyn introduces us to a different Emily Dickinson: the fierce, brilliant, and sexually charged. Through interviews with contemporary scholars, close readings of Dickinson's correspondence and handwritten manuscripts, and a suggestive, newly discovered photograph that is purported to show Dickinson with her lover, Charyn's literary sleuthing reveals the great poet in ways that have only been hinted at previously: as a woman who was deeply philosophical, intensely engaged with the world, attracted to members of both sexes, and able to write poetry that disturbs and delights us today" -- Publisher's description

Voted Britain's favourite poem in 1996, 'Warning', written in 1961, is known and loved the world over. Its declaration of defiance, so vividly and cleverly expressed, appeals to the rebel in all of us as we secretly yearn to throw off the shackles of propriety and enjoy the gleeful freedom of cocking a snook at the rest of the world. In the poem's respectable middle-aged woman, as she indulges in her fantasy of the gabby old crone with her outrageous clothes and dotty behaviour, Jenny Joseph has created a character whose thoughts have been quoted at conferences and funerals, used to cheer up sick friends, remembered with pleasure by children and adults alike. Found in schoolbooks from Alaska to Singapore, the poem has been stitched, stamped, quilted, set to music, printed on cards, written on cakes and made into films. Now, for the first time, 'Warning' appears as an illustrated book with drawings by Pythia Ashton-Jewell specially designed to suit its unique character.

Yahoo’s lead baseball columnist offers an in-depth look at the most valuable commodity in sports—the pitching arm—and how its vulnerability to injury is hurting players and the game, from Little League to the majors. Every year, Major League Baseball spends more than $1.5 billion on pitchers—five times more than the salary of every NFL quarterback combined. Pitchers are the game’s lifeblood. Their import is exceeded only by their fragility. One tiny band of tissue in the elbow, the ulnar collateral ligament, is snapping at unprecedented rates, leaving current big league players vulnerable and the coming generation of baseball-playing children dreading the three scariest words in the sport: Tommy John surgery. Jeff Passan traveled the world for three years to explore in-depth the past, present, and future of the arm, and how its evolution left baseball struggling to wrangle its Tommy John surgery epidemic. He examined what compelled the Chicago Cubs to spend $155 million on one arm. He snagged a rare interview with Sandy Koufax, whose career was cut short by injury at thirty, and visited Japan to understand how another baseball-mad country treats its prized arms. And he followed two major league pitchers, Daniel Hudson and Todd Coffey, throughout their returns from Tommy John surgery. He exposes how the baseball establishment long ignored the rise in arm injuries and reveals how misplaced incentives across the sport stifle potential changes. Injuries to the UCL start as early as Little League. Without a drastic cultural shift, baseball will continue to lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually to damaged pitchers, and another generation of children will suffer the same problems that vex current players. Informative and hard-hitting, The Arm is essential reading for everyone who loves the game, wants to keep their children healthy, or relishes a look into how a large, complex institution can fail so spectacularly.

“An original, compelling, and provocative exploration of ethical issues in our society, with thoughtful and balanced commentary. I have not seen anything like it.” —Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams Drawing upon the author’s two decades teaching medical ethics, as well as his work as a practicing psychiatrist, this profound and addictive little book offers up challenging ethical dilemmas and asks readers, What would you do? A daughter gets tested to see if she’s a match to donate a kidney to her father. The test reveals that she is not the man’s biological daughter. Should the doctor tell the father? Or the daughter? A deaf couple prefers a deaf baby. Should they be allowed to use medical technology to ensure they have a child who can’t hear? Who should get custody of an embryo created through IVF when a couple divorces? Or, when you or a loved one is on life support, Who says you’re dead? In short, engaging scenarios, Dr. Appel takes on hot-button issues that many of us will confront: genetic screening, sexuality, privacy, doctor-patient confidentiality. He unpacks each hypothetical with a brief reflection drawing from science, philosophy, and history, explaining how others have approached these controversies in real-world cases. Who Says You’re Dead? is designed to defy easy answers and to stimulate thought and even debate among professionals and armchair ethicists alike.

This panoramic exploration of French life between the wars reads like a prequel to Irène Némirovsky’s international bestseller Suite Française. At the end of the First World War, Bernard Jacquelain returns from the trenches a changed man. Broken by the unspeakable horrors he has witnessed, he becomes addicted to the lure of wealth and success. He wallows in the corruption and excess of post-war Paris, but when his lover abandons him, Bernard turns to a childhood friend for comfort. For ten years, he lives the good bourgeois life, but when the drums of war begin to sound again, everything around which he has rebuilt himself starts to crumble, and the future—of his marriage and of his country—suddenly becomes terribly uncertain. Written after Némirovsky fled Paris in 1940, just two years before her death, and first published in France in 1957, The Fires of Autumn is a coruscating, tragic novel of war and its aftermath, and of the ugly color it can turn a man's soul.

THE CLIMACTIC CONCLUSION OF A WORLD WAR As the Derlavian War rages into its last and greatest battles, allied nations maneuver for advantage over one another in the postwar world. But before that time can come, the forces of Algarve, Unkerlant, and their allies must clash a final time, countering army with army and battle magic with ever-more-powerful battle magic. In the midst of it all, the people the war has battered and reshaped must struggle to face their greatest individual challenges, as loves are shattered and found, terrible crimes avenged...and some journeys end forever. Nor will the end of war bring lasting peace...

First published in the US in 1959 by Bernard Geis Associates, New York. The "Me" in the title is a comparatively unknown Marx named Julius (1895-1977), who, under the nom de plume of Groucho, enjoyed a sensational career on Broadway and in Hollywood with such comedy classics as Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, and A Day at the Races. His solo career included work as a film actor, television game show emcee, and author of The Groucho Letters, Memoirs of a Mangy Lover, and his classic autobiography, Groucho and Me. With impeccable timing, outrageous humor, irreverent wit, and a superb sense of the ridiculous, Groucho tells the saga of the Marx Brothers: the poverty of their childhood in New York's Upper East Side; the crooked world of small-time vaudeville (where they learned to carry blackjacks); how a pretzel magnate and the graceless dancer of his dreams led to the Marx Brothers' first Broadway hit, I'll Say She Is!, how the stock market crash in 1929 proved a godsend for Groucho (even though he lost nearly a quarter of a million dollars); the adventures of the Marx Brothers in Hollywood, the making of their hilarious films, and Groucho's triumphant television series, You Bet Your Life!. Here is the life and lunatic times of the great eccentric genius, Groucho, a.k.a. Julius Henry Marx. "The book is never less than readable and its glimpses of American show business at its least glamorous are simple, true and sometimes rather touching."-Times Literary Supplement "My advice is to ration yourself to a chapter a night-it's that delectable."-Chicago Sunday Tribune

Still recovering from the death of her co-worker and lover, Tara Chace is granted a brief reprieve from London's rain and MI6's bureaucracy. This emotionally charged vacation takes Chace to the slopes of Switzerland for a visit with old friends and family. But being an agent for Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service leaves little time for rest. A junior minister with close ties to the Prime Minister appears to be selling state secrets to the Russians, and the Minders are assigned to quietly investigate. Tara is forced to walk a tight rope between the violent dangers inherent in the field of espionage and the discretion inherent in the bureaucracy of the government, all the while assuming the new position of Minder One and field-testing a new agent. Operation: Saltlick takes the Special Section from the safety and comfort of Great Britain to the St. Petersburg underworld.

The Ends of the Earth is an elegant boxed set of two hardcover books featuring a selection of the greatest writing about the Arctic and the Antarctic. Contributors include: Roald Amundsen, Beryl Bainbridge, Andrea Barrett, James Buchan, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Jenny Diski, Tim Flannery, Jon Krakauer, Haldor Laxness, Ursula LeGuin, Jack London, H.P. Lovecraft, Barry Lopez, Fridtjof Nansen, Robert Peary, Knud Rasmussen, Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Jules Verne, Sara Wheeler and many more.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY HARPER’S BAZAAR • In this candid memoir, featuring a foreword by Barbra Streisand, renowned designer Donna Karan shares intimate details about her lonely childhood, her four-plus decades in the fashion industry, her two marriages, motherhood, and her ongoing quest for self-acceptance and spiritual peace. Donna Karan was born into the fashion business—her father was a tailor, and her mother was a showroom model and Seventh Avenue saleswoman—yet Karan dreamed of becoming a dancer like Martha Graham or a singer like Barbra Streisand. Fashion was her destiny, though. My Journey traces Karan’s early days as an intern at Anne Klein, the creation of her Seven Easy Pieces (which forever changed the way working women dressed), and the meteoric rise of her company. Along with juicy industry stories, Karan candidly discusses her difficult mother and traumatic childhood, her turbulent romantic life, all the loved ones she has lost over the years, and the personal awakening that occurred just as she reached the height of professional and financial success. That awakening set Karan down a path of spiritual discovery and self-improvement. From est to Kabbalah, from silent retreats to leech therapy, Karan tried everything to find, as she writes, “calm in the chaos.” But she also reveals how a chaotic life, fueled by endless curiosity and childlike impulses, helped her design seminal collections season after season for global powerhouse brands Donna Karan New York and DKNY. She also details how she has channeled her creativity (and her urge to solve problems and nurture others) into philanthropic work, particularly her early outspoken advocacy for AIDS awareness and research, and the creation of her Urban Zen Foundation, focusing on integrated healthcare and education as well as preservation of culture, which led to her current efforts in Haiti. Karan’s life has been crowded with glamorous characters and adventures around the world. But she sometimes still feels like that awkward teen from Long Island who never fit in—which makes her all the more endearing. Brimming with Karan’s infectious energy, My Journey is about much more than the fashion world: It is the story of a young woman whose vision and hard work made her a role model for women everywhere—a woman who dreamed big, fought to have it all, broke the rules, and loved passionately along the way. Praise for My Journey “By turns moving, insightful, and hilarious, yet always, always heartfelt . . . When you’re a true force of fashion, nothing holds you back.” — Vogue “When Donna Karan stepped down . . . it was the end of an era, so consider this autobiography her parting gift. . . . Expect a holistic view of the woman behind one of the most influential American labels.” — StyleCaster “Donna’s creativity and passion as a committed philanthropist are matched only by her gift for friendship. Whether she’s making the world more beautiful or giving a Haitian artisan the tools to create a sustainable business, Donna has always led with great heart and wonderful humor.” —President Bill Clinton “What we take for granted often comes from the most revolutionary of sources. In New York in the 1980s, no one was more radical than Donna Karan. She created a way of dressing that was womanly, practical, and empowering.” —Anna Wintour “An extraordinary personal, professional, and spiritual life . . . defined by Donna’s incredible resilience, her inward search for calm in the midst of success, and her insistence on always following her heart.” —Arianna Huffington

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) -- William Shakespeare (1564-1616) -- Scarborough Fair -- Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) -- Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593) -- Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) -- Greensleeves -- Francis Bacon (1561-1626) -- John Donne (1572 - 1631) -- Ben Jonson (1573 - 1637) -- Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) -- King James Bible (1611) -- Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674) -- George Herbert (1593 - 1633) -- Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) -- Barbara Allen -- John Milton (1608 - 1674) -- Jeremy Taylor (1613 - 1667) -- The two brothers -- Richard Lovelace (1618-1657) -- Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678) -- John Bunyan (1628-1688) -- Lord Randal -- John Dryden (1631 - 1700) -- John Locke (1632 - 1704) -- The girl i left behind me -- Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) -- Our God, our help in ages past -- Joy to the world -- Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745) -- Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) -- Rule, Brittania -- John Wesley (1703 - 1791) -- Jesus, lover of my soul -- William Pitt (1708 - 1778) -- Heart of Oak -- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784) -- Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771) -- Adam Smith (1723 - 1790) -- God save the queen -- Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) -- Oliver Goldsmith (1730 - 1774) -- William Cowper (1731 - 1800) -- William Blake (1757 - 1827) -- Mary Wollstonecraft (1859 - 1897) -- Robert Burns (1759 - 1796) -- Auld lang syne -- William Wilberforce (1759 - 1833) -- Amazing Grace -- William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) -- Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832) -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) -- Walter Savage Landor (1775 - 1824) -- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830) -- Lord Byron (1788 - 1824) -- Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822) -- John Clare (1793 - 1864) -- Felicia Hemans (1793 - 1835) -- John Keats (1795 - 1821) -- Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881) -- Thomas Hood (1799-1845) -- John Henry Newman (1801 - 1890) -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861) -- John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873) -- Edward Fitzgerald (1809 - 1883) -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892) -- Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) -- Edward Lear (1812 - 1888) -- Robert Browning (1812 - 1889) -- Emily Bronte (1818 - 1848) -- John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) -- Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888) -- Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 - 1895) -- I know where I'm going -- Walter Bagehot (1826 - 1877) -- Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894) -- Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898) -- William Morris (1834 - 1896) -- Walter Pater (1839 - 1894) -- Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928) -- Algernon Charles Swinburne (1843 - 1909) -- Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889) -- W. E. Henley (1849 - 1903) -- The Major General's song -- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) -- Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) -- Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928) -- A. E. Houseman (1859 - 1936) -- David Lloyd George (1863 - 1945) -- There'll always be an England -- Roger Casement (1864 - 1916) -- Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936) -- William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939) -- G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) -- Edward Thomas (1878 - 1917) -- E. M. Forster (1879 - 1970) -- Virginia Woolf (1881 - 1941) -- D. H. Lawrence (1885 - 1930) -- Rupert Brooke (1887 - 1915) -- Keep the home fires burning -- T.S Eliot (1888 - 1965) -- Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918) -- George Orwell (1903 - 1950) -- W.H. Auden (1907-1973) -- Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) -- Phillip Larkin (1922- 1985) -- Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965).

From legendary Olympic gold medalist Dara Torres comes a motivational, inspirational memoir about staying fit, aging gracefully, and pursuing your dreams. Dara Torres captured the hearts and minds of Americans of all ages when she launched her Olympic comeback as a new mother at the age of forty-one - years after she had retired from competitive swimming and eight years since her last Olympics. When she took three silver medals in Beijing - including a heartbreaking .01-second finish behind the gold medalist in the women's 50-meter freestyle - America loved her all the more for her astonishing achievement and her good-natured acceptance of the results. Now, in Age Is Just a Number, Dara reveals how the dream of an Olympic comeback first came to her - when she was months into her first, hard-won pregnancy. With humor and candor, Dara recounts how she returned to serious training - while nursing her infant daughter and contending with her beloved father's long battle with cancer. Dara talks frankly about diving back in for this comeback; about being an older athlete in a younger athletes' game; about competition, doubt, and belief; about working through pain and uncertainty; and finally - about seizing the moment and, most important, never giving up. A truly self-made legend, her story will resonate with women of all ages - and with anyone daring to entertain a seemingly impossible dream.

Now in print for the first time in almost 40 years, The New Lifetime Reading Plan provides readers with brief, informative and entertaining introductions to more than 130 classics of world literature. From Homer to Hawthorne, Plato to Pascal, and Shakespeare to Solzhenitsyn, the great writers of Western civilization can be found in its pages. In addition, this new edition offers a much broader representation of women authors, such as Charlotte Brontë, Emily Dickinson and Edith Wharton, as well as non-Western writers such as Confucius, Sun-Tzu, Chinua Achebe, Mishima Yukio and many others. This fourth edition also features a simpler format that arranges the works chronologically in five sections (The Ancient World; 300-1600; 1600-1800; and The 20th Century), making them easier to look up than ever before. It deserves a place in the libraries of all lovers of literature.

Because Alonzo King was born on Halloween, he has always loved monsters. But no one would ever guess that he lives in a haunted house with a graveyard out back, communicates with the dead, turns into a six-armed, slime-covered creature, or is a walking encyclopedia on horror films! However, when The Beast arrives, not even Alonzo can track it down. Will he be able to solve the mystery of the creature stalking his town and make his dream of becoming The Boy of a Thousand Faces come true? 01-02 TX Bluebonnet Award Masterlist 01-02 TX Bluebonnet Award Masterlist