Bark compiles the 40 most powerful, affecting graduation speeches delivered in the last 10 years by popular speakers such as Toni Morrison, Judy Blume, Mister Rogers, Al Franken, Gloria Steinem, Jon Stewart, and many others.

For the Class of 2002 comes a smart and edgy collection of words to the wise from Spalding Gray, Fay Weldon, Tom Robbins, and dozens more of the most creative and visionary people on the planet. 50 photos throughout.

Just in time for graduation, a smart and edgy collection of advice for young people from dozens of the most creative and visionary people on the planet. Contributors include: Camille Paglia • Wayne Koestenbaum • Jonathan Ames • Jennifer Belle • Howard Zinn • Joe Dallesandro • Bruce LaBruce • Dr. Laura Schlessinger • Tom Robbins • Judith Butler • Martha Nussbaum Horst • William S. Burroughs • Larry Niven • Veruschka • Lydia Lunch • Spalding Gray • Eileen Myles • Roger Scruton • Ken Kesey Mary Gaitskill • Richard Powers • Mark Dery • Florence King • Mark Simpson • Bob Shacochis • Joanna Scott • Quentin Crisp • Carolyn Chute • Michael Thomas Ford • Alexander Theroux • George Saunders • Charles Baxter • Ian Shoales • Fay Weldon • Bruce Benderson • Scott Russell Sanders • John Shirley • Dr. John Money • Cindy Sherman • Richard Meltzer • Gene Wolfe • Abbie Hoffman • Diane Wakowski • Richard Taylor • Bette Davis • Arthur Nersesian • Jim Harrison • Martha Gellhorn • Lucius Shepard • Dan Jenkins • Steve Stern • Murray Bookchin • John Zerzan • Maurice Vellekoop • Joel-Peter Witkin • Stewart Home • Maxx Ardman • Katharine Hepburn • Bret Lott • Lynda Barry • Alain de Botton • Mary McCarthy • Hakim Bey • Anita O'Day • Chris Kraus • R. U. Sirius • C. D. Payne W. V. Quine • Rita Dove • Robert Creeley • Valerie Martin • Paul Krassner • Alphonso Lingis • Mark Helprin • John Rechy • Ram Dass • William T. Vollmann • Bettie Page

Coaching is an essential skill for leaders. But for most busy, overworked managers, coaching employees is done badly, or not at all. They're just too busy, and it's too hard to change. But what if managers could coach their people in 10 minutes or less? In Michael Bungay Stanier's The Coaching Habit, coaching becomes a regular, informal part of your day so managers and their teams can work less hard and have more impact. Coaching is an art and it's far easier said than done. It takes courage to ask a question rather than offer up advice, provide an answer, or unleash a solution. Giving another person the opportunity to find their own way, make their own mistakes, and create their own wisdom is both brave and vulnerable. It can also mean unlearning our ''fix it'' habits. In this practical and inspiring book, Michael shares seven transformative questions that can make a difference in how we lead and support. And, he guides us through the tricky part - how to take this new information and turn it into habits and a daily practice. -Brené Brown, author of Rising Strong and Daring Greatly Drawing on years of experience training more than 10,000 busy managers from around the globe in practical, everyday coaching skills, Bungay Stanier reveals how to unlock your peoples' potential. He unpacks seven essential coaching questions to demonstrate how---by saying less and asking more--you can develop coaching methods that produce great results. - Get straight to the point in any conversation with The Kickstart Question - Stay on track during any interaction with The AWE Question - Save hours of time for yourself with The Lazy Question, and hours of time for others with The Strategic Question - Get to the heart of any interpersonal or external challenge with The Focus Question and The Foundation Question - Finally, ensure others find your coaching as beneficial as you do with The Learning Question A fresh, innovative take on the traditional how-to manual, the book combines insider information with research based in neuroscience and behavioural economics, together with interactive training tools to turn practical advice into practiced habits. Dynamic question-and-answer sections help identify old habits and kick-start new behaviour, making sure you get the most out of all seven chapters. Witty and conversational, The Coaching Habit takes your work--and your workplace--from good to great.

From bestselling author and provocateur Christopher Hitchens, the classic guide to the art of principled dissent and disagreement In Letters to a Young Contrarian, bestselling author and world-class provocateur Christopher Hitchens inspires the radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, and angry young (wo)men of tomorrow. Exploring the entire range of "contrary positions"—from noble dissident to gratuitous nag—Hitchens introduces the next generation to the minds and the misfits who influenced him, invoking such mentors as Emile Zola, Rosa Parks, and George Orwell. As is his trademark, Hitchens pointedly pitches himself in contrast to stagnant attitudes across the ideological spectrum. No other writer has matched Hitchens's understanding of the importance of disagreement—to personal integrity, to informed discussion, to true progress, to democracy itself.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Soon to be a Hulu Original series • The internationally acclaimed author of Wild collects the best of The Rumpus's Dear Sugar advice columns plus never-before-published pieces. Rich with humor and insight—and absolute honesty—this "wise and compassionate" (New York Times Book Review) book is a balm for everything life throws our way. Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice.

Truman Capote’s first novel is a story of almost supernatural intensity and inventiveness, an audacious foray into the mind of a sensitive boy as he seeks out the grown-up enigmas of love and death in the ghostly landscape of the deep South. “Intense, brilliant . . . . Capote has an astonishing command . . . a magic all his own.” —The Atlantic At the age of twelve, Joel Knox is summoned to meet the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at the decaying mansion in Skully’s Landing, his father is nowhere in sight. What he finds instead is a sullen stepmother who delights in killing birds; an uncle with the face—and heart—of a debauched child; and a fearsome little girl named Idabel who may offer him the closest thing he has ever known to love.