Never was there a tale of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo... But true love never dies. Though they're parted by the veil between the world of mortals and the land of the dead, Romeo believes he can restore Juliet to life, but he'll have to travel to the underworld with a thoroughly infuriating guide. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, may not have inherited his father's crown, but the murdered king left his son a much more important responsibility---a portal to the Afterjord, where the souls of the dead reside. When the determined Romeo asks for help traversing the treacherous Afterjord, Hamlet sees an opportunity for adventure and the chance to avenge his father's death. In an underworld filled with leviathan monsters, ghoulish shades, fire giants, and fierce Valkyrie warriors, Hamlet and Romeo must battle their way through jealousy, despair, and their darkest fears to rescue the fair damsel. Yet finding Juliet is only the beginning, and the Afterjord doesn't surrender souls without a price...

Managing a dysfunctional relationship with food can be challenging. Thankfully, even when food and disordered eating have become the connection to self, it is possible to transform a conflict-ridden relationship with food to a more balanced, optimistic, and loving one. Within a comprehensive guide tailored for anyone struggling with eating challenges, Dr. Louise Parente relies on her extensive background as a certified eating disorder specialist and psychotherapist to provide a roadmap to permanent, positive change. Through a six-step process, Dr. Parente addresses the problem itself, the associated emotions that include shame, anger, fear, and anxiety; the inner-voices that regularly speak to us; and the subsequent belief and acceptance that follows this type of positive transformation. Included are case examples, introspective questions that encourage a look inward, and points to remember that highlight important takeaways from each chapter. Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow shares tips, wisdom, and a detailed roadmap that will help anyone struggling with eating challenges to both attain and maintain a healthy relationship with food.

On the verge of marriage and a fresh start, Charlie Lewis can't stop thinking about the past, and the events of one particular summer. At sixteen he was failing his classes, and looking after his depressed father. If he thought about the future at all, it was with dread. Then Fran Fisher burst into his life. In order to spend time with Fran, Charlie became a different person: he joined the Company. The price of hope, it seems, is Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet learned and performed in a theater troupe over the course of a summer. Now Charlie can't go the altar without coming to terms with his relationship with Fran, his friends, and his former self. -- adapted from jacket

This book defines the centrality of love and loss in human life and in human meaning. Bowlby's Attachment theory forms the basis for understanding our selves and our relationships. The author proposes that love is the subjective experience of attachment and that dyadic relationships are the source of ultimate meaning. He supports his theses with a tour de force integration of ideas from attachment theory, psychoanalysis, neuroscience and existential philosophy. He argues that the quality of attachment between mother and infant lays the foundation for the formation of individual identity and ultimately shapes our capacity to engage in relationships with others. The author describes loss as the reciprocal of attachment and considers the enormous influence of loss on our moods, sense of identity, and our desire to live or die. The final segments of the book describe the implications of this analysis and links it to the meaning and purpose of human life. All of us seek to understand the meaning of life, and especially the meaning of our own lives.

“Kirby has mastered the art of short fiction…A stunning collection from a writer whose talent and creativity seem boundless.” —NPR “Kirby takes joy in subverting the reader’s expectations at every turn. Her characters might be naïve, even reckless, but they aren’t about to be victims: They’re strong, and brave, and nearly always capable of rescuing themselves.” —New York Times Book Review Margaret Atwood meets Buffy in these funny, warm, and furious stories of women at their breaking points, from Hellenic times to today. Cassandra may have seen the future, but it doesn't mean she's resigned to telling the Trojans everything she knows. In this ebullient collection, virgins escape from being sacrificed, witches refuse to be burned, whores aren't ashamed, and every woman gets a chance to be a radioactive cockroach warrior who snaps back at catcallers. Gwen E. Kirby experiments with found structures--a Yelp review, a WikiHow article--which her fierce, irreverent narrators push against, showing how creativity within an enclosed space undermines and deconstructs the constraints themselves. When these women tell the stories of their triumphs as well as their pain, they emerge as funny, angry, loud, horny, lonely, strong protagonists who refuse to be secondary characters a moment longer. From "The Best and Only Whore of Cym Hyfryd, 1886" to the "Midwestern Girl Is Tired of Appearing in Your Short Stories," Kirby is playing and laughing with the women who have come before her and they are telling her, we have always been this way. You just had to know where to look.

This remarkable book-at times heart-breaking, at times humorous-is dazzling for its profound honesty. Like most of us, Mark Wakely had always put death in the too-hard basket. Around death he was painfully awkward, strangely self-conscious: death-shy. He was curiously distanced from his own parents' deaths. Thirty years later, he went on a journey to confront one of the most intensely personal yet universal experiences: our own mortality. With Mark as our guide, we are introduced to morticians and embalmers, rabbis and doctors, coffin makers and gravediggers. He reveals the fashions and the fads, the rituals and the deep emotion in a heartfelt and whimsical investigation into this timeless subject. All you need to pack for the trip is a curiosity about life.