For Once

"Follow [vintage clothes-obsessed stockbroker] Tess and [jazz musician] George through a decade of bad dates, chaotic dinner parties, magical birthdays, dead-end jobs, romantic misalliances, and lots of starting over"--Page 4 of cover.

You've been deceived with sweet-sounding lies all this time (all those other books, except this one, of course). In this one, I'll tell you the unvarnished truth. Because of those lies you believed about happiness, motivation, and personal growth, you've continuously acted like a victim. They filled your ears with flawed concepts that sounded enlightening and which you liked hearing. But tell me, how much have you grown since the last self-help book you read? How much more do you love yourself since that self-esteem and motivation course? Probably not much. And do you know why? Because you're likely like me: someone who wants to grow, but dislikes being spun around with cheesy words, lies, and fantasies. Someone who can only work on their personal development based on accepting the hard truth, and who wants to understand the real reasons for their failure, not unproven tales we have no control over.You have two options:Move on and read another self-help book with those clichéd titles that almost coddle you, telling you it's not your fault, that you should spread love to the world, float in the air while meditating on a cloud of joy and happiness, thinking positive thoughts to attract a mansion, a private jet, fame, and the perfect family...For once, take control of your destiny, brace yourself for what this book has to say, and courageously assume responsibility for your circumstances because that's the only way to grow.The self-help book that tells you exactly what you don't want to hear. It's time someone confronted you with the truth; stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop acting like a pathetic victim of life, and start taking control of your destiny. This book won't offer indulgence or soothing words, only the emotional slap that will jolt you out of your comfort zone and push you towards the life you deserve... But if you prefer to keep playing the victim, go ahead, nothing's stopping you... Victims never succeed; they just get fleeting attention. What do you prefer? A sympathetic pat on the back or reaching the peak of your potential? It's your choice...

“Tender, comforting, and complex.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Drawn with exquisite precision and quiet dashes of humor.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A lovely, ruminative selection.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “A blueprint for mindfulness and gratitude for the homes in which we…live.” —The New York Times Book Review Deborah Freedman’s masterful new picture book is at once an introduction to the pieces of a house, a cozy story to share and explore, and a dreamy meditation on the magic of our homes and our world. Before there was this house, there were stones, and mud, and a colossal oak tree— three hugs around and as high as the blue. What was your home, once? This poetically simple, thought-provoking, and gorgeously illustrated book invites readers to think about where things come from and what nature provides.

Beloved author Sarah Dessen's latest novel set in the exciting and romantic world of wedding planning is now in paperback. A #1 New York Times bestseller. Is it really better to have loved and lost? Louna's summer job is to help brides plan their perfect day, even though she stopped believing in happily-ever-after when her first love ended tragically. But charming girl-magnet Ambrose isn't about to be discouraged now that he's met the one he really wants. Maybe Louna's second chance is standing right in front of her. Sarah Dessen’s many fans will adore this latest novel, a richly satisfying, enormously entertaining story with humor, romance, and an ending that is so much more than happily-ever-after.

A brilliant, genre-defying work—both memoir and epic poem—about the struggle for wisdom, grace, and ritual in the face of unspeakable loss “A bruised and brave love letter from a brother right here to a brother now gone . . . a soaring, unblinking gaze into the meaning of life itself.”—Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf my father said david has taken his own life Adam is in the middle of his own busy life, and approaching a career high in the form of a #1 New York Times bestselling book—when these words from his father open a chasm beneath his feet. I Had a Brother Once is the story of everything that comes after. In the shadow of David’s inexplicable death, Adam is forced to re-remember a brother he thought he knew and to reckon with a ghost, confronting his unsettled family history, his distant relationship with tradition and faith, and his desperate need to understand an event that always slides just out of his grasp. This is an expansive and deeply thoughtful poetic meditation on loss and a raw, darkly funny, human story of trying to create a ritual—of remembrance, mourning, forgiveness, and acceptance—where once there was a life.

Felix, a Jewish boy in Poland in 1942, is hiding from the Nazis in a Catholic orphanage. The only problem is that he doesn't know anything about the war, and thinks he's only in the orphanage while his parents travel and try to salvage their bookselling business. And when he thinks his parents are in danger, Felix sets off to warn them--straight into the heart of Nazi-occupied Poland. To Felix, everything is a story: Why did he get a whole carrot in his soup? It must be sign that his parents are coming to get him. Why are the Nazis burning books? They must be foreign librarians sent to clean out the orphanage's outdated library. But as Felix's journey gets increasingly dangerous, he begins to see horrors that not even stories can explain. Despite his grim suroundings, Felix never loses hope. Morris Gleitzman takes a painful subject and expertly turns it into a story filled with love, friendship, and even humor.

"Emmy Award-winning NPR journalist Maria Hinojosa shares her personal story interwoven with American immigration policy's coming-of-age journey at a time when our country's branding went from "The Land of the Free" to "the land of invasion.""--

AN NYRB CLASSICS ORIGINAL Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Young Once is a crucial book in the career of Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano. It was his breakthrough novel, in which he stripped away the difficulties of his earlier work and found a clear, mysteriously moving voice for his haunting stories of love, nostalgia, and grief. It has also been called “the most gripping Modiano book of all” (Der Spiegel). Odile and Louis are leading a happy, bucolic life with their two children in the French countryside near the Swiss mountains. It is Odile’s thirty-fifth birthday, and Louis’s thirty-fifth birthday is a few weeks away. Then the story shifts back to their early years: Louis, just freed from his military service and at loose ends, is taken up by a shady character who brings him to Paris to do some work for a friend who manages a garage; Odile, an aspiring singer, is at the mercy of the kindness and unkindness of strangers. In a Paris that is steeped in crime and full of secrets, they find each other and struggle together to create what, looking back, will have been their youth.

The No.1 bestselling series from current Waterstones Children's Laureate and author of How To Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell. Enter a land of wizards, warriors, mythical creatures and powerful Magic in an exciting fantasy adventure. Wish and Xar are outlaws on the run, hunted by Warriors, Wizards and worst of all by WITCHES ... Can they find the ingredients for the spell to get rid of Witches before the Kingwitch gets his talons on the Magic-that-Works-on-Iron? Their next Quest is the most terrifying and treacherous of all ... and someone is going to betray them. Are you ready to KNOCK THREE TIMES? 'A rollercoaster of suspense and surprise' GUARDIAN 'Cowell is moving towards national treasure' BIG ISSUE 'Another coup from Cowell' SUNDAY TIMES

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