You Take It From Here

Just because you’d give your best friend everything doesn’t mean she has to take it. On the heels of a divorce, all Danielle Meyers wants is her annual vacation with sassy, life-long best friend, Smidge—complete with umbrella cocktails by an infinity pool—but instead she’s hit with the curveball of a lifetime. Smidge takes Danielle to the middle of nowhere to reveal a diagnosis of terminal cancer, followed by an unusual request: “After I’m gone, I want you to finish the job. Marry my husband. Raise my daughter. I’m gonna teach you to how to be Smidge 2.0.” As Danielle wrestles with this major life decision, she finds herself torn between being true to her best friend’s wishes and being honest with herself. Parenting issues aside, Smidge’s small-town Louisiana world is exactly the one Danielle made sure to escape. Danielle isn’t one for playing the social butterfly, or being the center of attention. And when your best friend tries to set you up on a date night with her husband, it might be time to become the bossy one for a change. In the spirit of Beaches and Steel Magnolias, You Take It from Here is an honest, hilarious, and heartbreaking novel that ultimately asks: How much should we sacrifice for the ones we love the most?

"Smart Cookies" and "Men are Just Desserts" were "New York Times" bestsellers. Now author Friedman, the star of CNN's "Sonya Live," continues her journey of the smart self.

Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. Habakkuk 2:2 “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong; but time and chance happen to them all.” (King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 9:11) But- he who endures to the end will be saved. Matthew 10:21-22 Dana’s journey, which began in The Fine Print, is far from over. Her travels, however, have caused her to be confronted with numerous detours, as well as encounter new, unwilling, and perhaps, unwelcomed companions traveling on the road with her which has created road hazards and propelled her to wonder whether the destination she sought will ever be reached or, if the signs she followed were pointing her towards the wrong direction?

An emotional, page-turning account of unhealed trauma and personal transformation that will break your heart and change your mind, in the tradition of Somebody's Daughter, A Piece of Cake, and Jesmyn Ward's Men We Reaped Riveting, honest, and raw, I Can Take It From Here recounts Lisa Forbes's harrowing journey into darkness — including a fourteen-year-long stint in a maximum-security prison — and her fierce resolve to understand the effects of the trauma she endured, to take personal responsibility for her actions, and to ensure that her history does not dictate her destiny. The youngest of six children, Lisa grew up in a Chicago housing project where she endured sexual, religious, and emotional abuse as a little girl. A voracious reader, she graduated high school at 15 and went to work as a secretary in a downtown insurance office, became pregnant at 16 and, at 19, unexpectedly and uncharacteristically committed a violent act, stabbing and killing the father of her daughter. Providing powerful insights into what we as a society need to learn and confront in the ongoing epidemic of mass re-incarceration, Lisa is a stunning example of an individual who through determination, knowledge, and hard work has been able to reclaim her own life. The book ends with Lisa's rousing call to action to support the people—as well as the shorthanded employers—who need the help, and need each other, more than ever.

The constant playback of "What the hell are you doing with your life?" was my 3 am monster that woke me up daily and kept me from having a full night's sleep. Why was I unable to find my life's purpose while others around me seemed to be doing that just fine?Fear crept in daily, overwhelming me with confusion and second-guessing every decision I was about to make. You are not good enough, not educated enough, not interesting or important enough, and mostly I heard "you are not enough."The messages at 3 am were a constant playback in my mind until I started to listen to what they were saying. I began to question how all this self-doubt arrived in my life after all and began to do the work that required me to put my ear to my heart.In Thank You, Fear - I'll Take It From Here, I share my journey from being locked in my self-sabotage to unlocking my true potential. I did this by listening to the real message I was receiving from my fear. The messages of "you are not good enough" began to fade as I uncovered the power within the passage.The messages were my higher self nudging me towards greatness. Once I began to see the opportunities unfold in front of me by embracing the fear, I had a deeper understanding of truly knowing what my higher self was leading me toward - greatness.Fear has the power we give it. We can take an opportunity and attach fear to it, or we can take an opportunity and see possibilities, it's a choice. We can own our greatness and step into the unknown with courage and self-confidence or we can choose self-sabotage and defeatism.Thank You, Fear - I'll Take It From Here is an opportunity to:* Own your greatness* Unlock your true potential* Live your life authenticallyby learning the language of fear and deciding how to interpret it. Leaning into the discomfort is the beginning of great opportunity, adventure, and living your life's purpose.

Vashti believes that she cannot draw, but her art teacher's encouragement leads her to change her mind and she goes on to encourage another student who feels the same as she had.

“I loved this novel truly, madly, deeply.” —Nina George, bestselling author of The Book of Dreams and The Little Paris Bookshop In this international bestseller by the award-winning novelist Mariana Leky, a heartwarming story unfolds about a small town, a grandmother whose dreams foretell a coming death, and the young woman forever changed by these losses and her loving, endearingly oddball community On a beautiful spring day, a small village wakes up to an omen: Selma has dreamed of an okapi. Someone is about to die. Luisa, Selma’s ten-year-old granddaughter, looks on as the predictable characters of her small world begin acting strangely. Though they claim not to be superstitious, each of her neighbors newly grapples with buried secrets and deferred decisions that have become urgent in the face of death. Luisa’s mother struggles to decide whether to end her marriage. An old family friend, known only as the optician, tries to find the courage to tell Selma he loves her. Only sad Marlies remains unchanged, still moping around her house and cooking terrible food. But when the prophesied death finally comes, the circumstances fall outside anyone’s expectations. The loss forever changes Luisa and shapes her for years to come, as she encounters life’s great questions alongside her devoted friends, young and old. A story about the absurdity of life and death, a bittersweet portrait of small towns and the wider world that beckons beyond, this charmer of a novel is also a thoughtful meditation on the way loss and love shape not just a person but a community. Mariana Leky’s What You Can See from Here is a moving tale of grief, first love, reluctant love, late love, and finding one’s place in the world, even if that place is right where you started.

"take it from here is an exhibition catalog featuring artworks by ten emerging photographers who use the camera as a multifaceted site of imagination, play, and self-exploration. Considering photography’s sordid relationship with the politics of representation, the selected artists collectively highlight new freedoms and visual possibilities of self-expression alive within the medium. The catalog is associated with an exhibition, curated by Rana Young and Zora J Murff, was exhibited from Aug. 6th through September 11th 2021 at Filter Photo in Chicago, IL The catalog, designed and printed by Travis Shaffer of theretherenow. contains 32 loose 10” x 12.5” pages collected in a full height belly band and is risograph printed in a limited run of 200 copies in lake, sunflower, and fluorescent pink ink on grey paper"--Publisher's website.

What if practical inspiration could be as simple as an eye-opening, heartfelt song? From Grammy-winning star performer, husband, and father, Tim McGraw, comes a beautiful keepsake book, inspired by his uplifting hit, "Humble and Kind." Humble and Kind is the keepsake hardcover volume that combines the emotional power of Tim McGraw's uplifting #1 single and video "Humble and Kind" to elegant line illustrations in a gift book for all seasons. Inspired by McGraw's own life experience as his eldest child embarked on her college career, every parent and graduate can relate to Humble and Kind; with tender clarity, the words reinforce lessons for mindful, compassionate living. The song's pure poetry not only propelled the single up the charts, but its accompanying video-gorgeously produced with images courtesy of Oprah Winfrey's documentary "Belief" -has been viewed by tens of millions since its release, and inspired a community movement at stayhumbleandkind.com. Featuring an introduction from McGraw and an epilogue by the songwriter Lori McKenna, Humble and Kind is a deeply affecting call to action, and the perfect memento for millions of graduates, parents, and children across the continent.