This is the first book in the (My Life) series. This book is about two best friends growing up in their teenage years in a small town. All the wild adventures and stories from my childhood, after my parents divorced and we went on the run for 11 years. This book includes my first job, girlfriend, prom, driver's license, my first car and many other first we all did in our teenage years. It's a fun-filled adventure about being a teenager, epic road trips and best friends. But really this book is just about LIFE. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. Please enjoy

Leadership lessons from Captain Sandy Yawn, a renowned superyacht captain with over 30 years of international maritime experience, and star of the reality show Below Deck Mediterranean. Everyone experiences a moment in life when they need to lead. Sometimes it's a team, sometimes it's a company, a classroom, a patient ward, a family, or simply your own individual self. Based on the leadership lessons she's gathered from her resourceful and resilient life, Captain Sandy, a superyacht captain and star of Bravo's Below Deck Mediterranean, shares the leadership skills and critical thinking inherent to being a captain that can empower anyone to navigate their way to a successful life. Among some of the stories/lessons she'll share: How she selects and sizes up her crew even before embarking on a charter, deciding who to invest in and how to bring out their best. Things happen at sea. No matter how much you plan and train, so much can go wrong so she'll discuss the level of persistence and faith that's required in solving an especially knotty problem. Authority and discipline are required to lead, but they must be leavened with compassion, understanding, and a desire to see your crew succeed. She describes the seamless flow that happens in great teamwork and how she loves seeing the way her deckhands pitch in with the stews when needed. For Captain Sandy, this represents leading with empathy, figuring out who your teammates are and what motivates them, then communicating in a way that motivates and makes them feel understood. As a captain, Sandy is constantly upgrading her knowledge and skill set, which is as much a part of her job as steering a vessel. Sustaining excellence requires constant effort, whether you find yourself at the end of a journey, halfway through or at the start of a new one. And the learning never stops. Woven throughout her stories are Captain Sandy's optimism and abiding faith that, given the right tools and opportunities, individuals are capable of so much more than they realize, especially when they can find someone to believe in them.

*Finalist for the National Book Award* *Finalist for the Kirkus Prize* *Instant New York Times Bestseller* *Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, New York Post, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly* An essential read for our times: an eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in America that will deepen our understanding of the ways in which class shapes our country and “a deeply humane memoir that crackles with clarifying insight”.* Sarah Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side, and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side. Through her experiences growing up on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita, we are given a unique and essential look into the lives of poor and working class Americans living in the heartland. During Sarah’s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, she enjoyed the freedom of a country childhood, but observed the painful challenges of the poverty around her; untreated medical conditions for lack of insurance or consistent care, unsafe job conditions, abusive relationships, and limited resources and information that would provide for the upward mobility that is the American Dream. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves with clarity and precision but without judgement, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country. Beautifully written, in a distinctive voice, Heartland combines personal narrative with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, challenging the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less. “Heartland is one of a growing number of important works—including Matthew Desmond’s Evicted and Amy Goldstein’s Janesville—that together merit their own section in nonfiction aisles across the country: America’s postindustrial decline...Smarsh shows how the false promise of the ‘American dream’ was used to subjugate the poor. It’s a powerful mantra” *(The New York Times Book Review).

A mother's heart races so quickly, she feels as if it could jump right out of her chest. A few scant moments earlier, she had been completely at peace with God. It only took a sudden phone call that particular Sunday evening to shatter her peacetime. Her son, Graham, had been in a horrific automobile accident. EMS suspected multiple brain injuries. This high school senior, known for his friendliness, popularity and activities in his church, faced a dim future. Her son's coma lasted for weeks, with Mom by his side as much as allowed. The doctors had warned that her son's life was not looking hopeful. One day, Graham's mother noticed his toes were moving. The physicians said it was an involuntary move and it meant nothing, but don't ever tell a parent her child doesn't know what he is doing. After some time, it was obvious, he did understand. God can take us from our lowest point to our highest, and He certainly has done that for Graham and his family and friends. He was told to go home and watch television and not worry about continuing his education. These words were just what he needed to be determined to finish school. This story includes his trials and triumphs through education and family tragedies. His life is an inspiration to those who feel God has forgotten them or life has beaten them down. God is good all the time./p>

Jill Winger, creator of the award-winning blog The Prairie Homestead, introduces her debut The Prairie Homestead Cookbook, including 100+ delicious, wholesome recipes made with fresh ingredients to bring the flavors and spirit of homestead cooking to any kitchen table. With a foreword by bestselling author Joel Salatin The Pioneer Woman Cooks meets 100 Days of Real Food, on the Wyoming prairie. While Jill produces much of her own food on her Wyoming ranch, you don’t have to grow all—or even any—of your own food to cook and eat like a homesteader. Jill teaches people how to make delicious traditional American comfort food recipes with whole ingredients and shows that you don’t have to use obscure items to enjoy this lifestyle. And as a busy mother of three, Jill knows how to make recipes easy and delicious for all ages. "Jill takes you on an insightful and delicious journey of becoming a homesteader. This book is packed with so much easy to follow, practical, hands-on information about steps you can take towards integrating homesteading into your life. It is packed full of exciting and mouth-watering recipes and heartwarming stories of her unique adventure into homesteading. These recipes are ones I know I will be using regularly in my kitchen." - Eve Kilcher These 109 recipes include her family’s favorites, with maple-glazed pork chops, butternut Alfredo pasta, and browned butter skillet corn. Jill also shares 17 bonus recipes for homemade sauces, salt rubs, sour cream, and the like—staples that many people are surprised to learn you can make yourself. Beyond these recipes, The Prairie Homestead Cookbook shares the tools and tips Jill has learned from life on the homestead, like how to churn your own butter, feed a family on a budget, and experience all the fulfilling satisfaction of a DIY lifestyle.

Fresh out of high school, Babe Vogel should be thrilled to have the whole summer at her fingertips. She loves living in her lighthouse home in the sleepy Maine beach town of Oar’s Rest and being a barista at the Busy Bean, but she’s totally freaking out about how her life will change when her two best friends go to college in the fall. And when a reckless kiss causes all three of them to break up, she may lose them a lot sooner. On top of that, her ex-girlfriend is back in town, bringing with her a slew of memories, both good and bad. And then there’s Levi Keller, the cute artist who’s spending all his free time at the coffee shop where she works. Levi’s from out of town, and even though Babe knows better than to fall for a tourist who will leave when summer ends, she can’t stop herself from wanting to know him. Can Babe keep her distance, or will she break the one rule she’s always had - to never fall for a summer boy?

A National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize Finalist Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Named a Best Book of the Year by Vogue, BuzzFeed, The Washington Post, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, NPR, NYLON, Huffington Post, Kirkus Reviews, Barnes & Noble Chosen for the Book of the Month Club, Nylon Book Club, and Belletrist Book Club Named an Indie Next Pick and a Barnes and Noble Discover Pick The story of two girls and the wild year that will cost one her life, and define the other’s for decades Everything about fifteen-year-old Cat’s new town in rural Michigan is lonely and off-kilter until she meets her neighbor, the manic, beautiful, pill-popping Marlena. Cat is quickly drawn into Marlena’s orbit and as she catalogues a litany of firsts—first drink, first cigarette, first kiss, first pill—Marlena’s habits harden and calcify. Within the year, Marlena is dead, drowned in six inches of icy water in the woods nearby. Now, decades later, when a ghost from that pivotal year surfaces unexpectedly, Cat must try again to move on, even as the memory of Marlena calls her back. Told in a haunting dialogue between past and present, Marlena is an unforgettable story of the friendships that shape us beyond reason and the ways it might be possible to pull oneself back from the brink.