An exuberant, expansive cataloging of the intimate physical relationship between a reader and a book A way to leave a trace of us, who we were or wanted to be, what we read and could imagine, what we did and what we left for you. Readers of physical books leave traces: marginalia, slips of paper, fingerprints, highlighting, inscriptions. All books have histories, and libraries are not just collections of books and databases but a medium of long-distance communication with other writers and readers. Letter to a Future Lover collects several dozen brief pieces written in response to library ephemera—with "library" defined broadly, ranging from university institutions to friends' shelves, from a seed library to a KGB prison library—and addressed to readers past, present, and future. Through these witty, idiosyncratic essays, Ander Monson reflects on the human need to catalog, preserve, and annotate; the private and public pleasures of reading; the nature of libraries; and how the self can be formed through reading and writing.

This is not a poetry book. ItÕs a collection of love notes and love letters for the soulmate of the future. The letters, eventhough short and simple, contains so many emotions, ranging from love, affection, missing times, sadness and breakups, to proud moments.

"[A] long, beautiful, heart-breaking love letter to potential and possibilities and hope, to the pain we survive in youth and carry with us into adulthood."--NPR Book Reviews One week. That's all Jessie said. A one-week break to get some perspective before graduation, before she and her boyfriend, Chris, would have to make all the big, scary decisions about their future -- decisions they had been fighting about for weeks. Then, Chris vanishes. The police think he's run away, but Jessie doesn't believe it. Chris is popular and good-looking, about to head off to college on a full-ride baseball scholarship. And he disappeared while going for a run along the river -- the same place where some boys from the rival high school beat him up just three weeks ago. Chris is one of the only black kids in a depressed paper mill town, and Jessie is terrified of what might have happened. As the police are spurred to reluctant action, Jessie and others speak up about the harassment Chris experienced and the danger he could be in. But there are people in Jessie's town who are infuriated by the suggestion that a boy like Chris would be a target of violence. They smear Chris's character and Jessie begins receiving frightening threats. Every Friday since they started dating, Chris has written Jessie a love letter. Now Jessie is writing Chris a letter of her own to tell him everything that's happening while he's gone. As Jessie searches for answers, she must face her fears, her guilt, and a past more complicated than she would like to admit.

Moyes delivers a sophisticated, page-turning double love story spanning 40 years--an unforgettable "Brief Encounter" for modern times.

"A rousing call to action for more racially diverse children's literature." -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW In this book a young girl pens a love letter to libraries and books, and powerfully expresses the need for diversity and the importance of representation in stories! There was just this one thing, this nagging suspicion, that I didn't meet the criteria for a heroine's condition. In the books that I read, an absence of melanin was a clear omission. A voracious young reader loves nothing more than going to the library and poring through books all day, making friends with characters and going off on exciting adventures with them. However, the more she reads, the more she notices that most of the books don't have characters that look like her, and the only ones that do tell about the most painful parts of their history. Where are the heroines with Afros exploring other planets and the superheroes with 'locs saving the day?

The world-renowned Zen monk argues for a more mindful, spiritual approach to environmental protection and activism—one that recognizes people and planet as one and the same While many experts point to the enormous complexity in addressing issues ranging from the destruction of ecosystems to the loss of millions of species, Thich Nhat Hanh identifies one key issue as having the potential to create a tipping point. He believes that we need to move beyond the concept of the “environment,” as it leads people to experience themselves and Earth as two separate entities and to see the planet only in terms of what it can do for them. Thich Nhat Hanh points to the lack of meaning and connection in peoples’ lives as being the cause of our addiction to consumerism. He deems it vital that we recognize and respond to the stress we are putting on the Earth if civilization is to survive. Rejecting the conventional economic approach, Nhat Hanh shows that mindfulness and a spiritual revolution are needed to protect nature and limit climate change. Love Letter to the Earth is a hopeful book that gives us a path to follow by showing that change is possible only with the recognition that people and the planet are ultimately one and the same.

A small book of very big poems. Drew Dellinger's poetry reaches out to the far ends of the Milky Way and to the inner depths of the soul. His poetry and performances have captivated thousands across six continents. He is, in the words of Cornell West, "one of the most creative, courageous and prophetic poets of his generation." This power of his poetry is tied to his passion for ecological survival and social justice movements. The Rev. Osagyefo Sekou calls Dellinger "the poet laureate of the global justice democracy movement." it's 3:23 in the morning and I'm awake because my great great grandchildren won't let me sleep my great great grandchildren ask me in my dreams what did you do while the planet was plundered? what did you do when the earth was unraveling? from the poem "hieroglyphic stairway" read on the floor of Congress during climate change hearings