Welcome to my world. My story is written in diary format. I wrote it from June 16, 2013, to June 15, 2014. What I didn't know, as I was writing, was that I was capturing the last year of my son's life. Pat died, unexpectedly, on July 23, 2014, in a hospital psych ward. Suddenly, my diary morphed into a more poignant record than I'd anticipated, and after he died, I discovered Pat had been making regular posts on Facebook. I decided to add his comments to my own. I like stories where I can extrapolate from the singular to the universal--that is where I can identify with a common denominator in another person's experience. One early reader of my diary said, "Your story is so relatable." That's what I hope other readers will say. You may relate to my story if: You have a child (chilldren) you love more than your own life. You have a child who suffers from serious mental illness. You've lost a child--no matter what age. You're a member of the sandwich generation. You treasure conversations with children--especially when they're your grandchildren. Your cat or your dog is in charge of your household. Your bones are beginning to creak. You wake up each morning with a huge hole in your heart but you know, somehow, some way, you have to get up and put one foot in front of the other. You enjoy reading the other side of history--about ordinary people and their daily lives. You have a sense of humor. You've been thinking of leaving something for your descendants--a letter, story, diary, song, painting, or poem--but you haven't gotten around to it. Maybe my diary will spur you on. More notes about the format: I've added a Before section (Scenes from the Trenches). Going in, I want the reader to know "Yes, Houston, we really do have a problem." I've divided my diary into quarters--Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring. I introduce each with a poem--three of them are Pat's. I end with an After section I didn't see coming. As I was writing, I had no idea, from day to day, what stories were unfolding. I learn, right along with the reader, what will happen next. We're all on a journey. Thank you for going on this journey with me. Dede Dede posted her story in two-week increments at www.soonerthantomorrow.com. The following are readers' responses. Beautiful words with an undertone that has caught me . . . carrying me up and down. Such a good writer that I am grateful to be with you. I can borrow some courage here. --Janet So happy for the readers who will discover you. --Liz Dede, every one of your blog posts has a portion that I love so much that I take a screenshot and read it over and over. --Stacey Dede, I anxiously await each posting from your blog/book. You write with such skill, and not easy when it's so personal, but your passion sprinkled with humor are the reasons that this is successful. --Joan L. I've done this, the primal scream and the mother animal instinct. There can't be anything more painful, not even death. My son was a normal little boy and a normal young man until schizophrenia came calling. Now I feel so shattered. I love your diary. --J.H.D. I only this was a contrived drama. It's so visceral. You're an artist. --Heidi F.

From one of the original masters of romance, "New York Times"-bestselling author Small invites readers back to the magical, sensual world of Hetar. Reissue.

By the year 2050, Earth's population will double. If we continue with current farming practices, vast amounts of wilderness will be lost, millions of birds and billions of insects will die, and the public will lose billions of dollars as a consequence of environmental degradation. Clearly, there must be a better way to meet the need for increased food production. Written as part memoir, part instruction, and part contemplation, Tomorrow's Table argues that a judicious blend of two important strands of agriculture--genetic engineering and organic farming--is key to helping feed the world's growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. Pamela Ronald, a geneticist, and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, take the reader inside their lives for roughly a year, allowing us to look over their shoulders so that we can see what geneticists and organic farmers actually do. The reader sees the problems that farmers face, trying to provide larger yields without resorting to expensive or environmentally hazardous chemicals, a problem that will loom larger and larger as the century progresses. They learn how organic farmers and geneticists address these problems. This book is for consumers, farmers, and policy decision makers who want to make food choices and policy that will support ecologically responsible farming practices. It is also for anyone who wants accurate information about organic farming, genetic engineering, and their potential impacts on human health and the environment.

Looking ahead to the future face of the consumer society, this text provides a vision of a world radically different to our own and argues that such a world will require radically different tools and techniques for work, rest and play.

A loyal dog embarks on an odyssey across centuries in an epic fantasy “beautifully rich in perseverance, love . . . and memorable, evocative scents” (Kirkus Reviews). Venice, 1815. A two-hundred-year-old dog is searching for his lost master. So begins Tomorrow, a story of loyalty and love that spans the centuries, and of hope as the world collapses into war. Tomorrow is a dog who must travel through the courts and battlefields of Europe in search of the man who granted him immortality. His is a journey of loyalty and determination. Along the way he befriends both animals and humans, falls in love, marvels at the human ability to make music, and despairs at their capacity for destruction. Tomorrow is a spellbinding novel of courage and devotion, of humanity across the ages and of the eternal connection between two souls. A Book Riot Best Fantasy Book

In these snapshots from on-going sagas, you'll read about grim realities - terrible group homes, suicides, adult children killed by police, incarcerations, solitary confinement, lack of beds, family chaos, substance abuse, ineffective medications, heart-breaking HIPAA restrictions, hallucinations, homelessness, sorrow, hurt, and anger. Simultaneously, you'll read about profound love, caregiving, gratitude, forgiveness, hope, strength, persistence, resilience, generosity, leadership, courage, pursuing dreams, understanding, and heroism. Please read our stories. Set aside any conscious biases about serious mental illnesses (SMI) and the people and families who struggle with them. Imagine us as relatives or friends - people you care deeply about. We mothers, in Tomorrow Was Yesterday, are counting on you to help us use outrage and compassion to reach a tipping point for change. We're relying on your word of mouth support to get these stories out to the broader, unknowing public. It has no idea how abysmal things are. -Dede Ranahan "I am confident these stories will cause the world to wake up, take notice, and implement the change we so badly need." -Miriam Feldman, painter and author of He Came In with It: A Portrait of Motherhood and Madness "Reading these intimate accounts will change you. It changed me." -Steve Goldbloom, Emmy-nominated writer, producer, director, and creator of the Brief But Spectacular series for PBS NEWsHour. The show's mission is to invite viewers to walk in someone else's shoes. "If these stories can't convince policy makers, I don't know what will." -Mindy Greiling, Minnesota legislator for 20 years, and author of Fix What You Can: Schizophrenia and a Lawmaker's Fight for Her Son

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have read before. "Delightful and absorbing." —The New York Times • "Utterly brilliant." —John Green One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, GoodReads, Oprah Daily From the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts. Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.