If you could leave your true love one final gift, what would it be? This intense, moment-by-moment chronicle begins with the officer's words, "She is deceased." For the next thirteen days following the fatal automobile accident of his wife, renowned thought-leader Dr. Seana Lowe Steffen, the author draws on nearly forty years of study and training with gurus and meditation teachers to discover ecstatic love, save fractured relationships, and glimpse a greater arc and purpose for being alive. The Final Gift of the Beloved: Her Disappearance--13 Days is the story of one man's sudden, astonishing brush with devastation and the Divine under the most heartbreaking of circumstances. A love story disguised as a tragedy, Steffen weaves extraordinarily poignant and powerful experiences with honesty and revelations that will change lives. Along with intense pain and emotion, prepare yourself for great beauty and transcendent insight, for nothing is as it appears.

These letters between the pioneering environmentalist and her beloved friend reveal “a vibrant, caring woman behind the scientist” (Los Angeles Times). “Rachel Carson, author of The Silent Spring, has been celebrated as the pioneer of the modern environmental movement. Although she wrote no autobiography, she did leave letters, and those she exchanged—sometimes daily—with Dorothy Freeman, some 750 of which are collected here, are perhaps more satisfying than an account of her own life. In 1953, Carson became Freeman's summer neighbor on Southport Island, ME. The two discovered a shared love for the natural world—their descriptions of the arrival of spring or the song of a hermit thrush are lyrical—but their friendship quickly blossomed, as each realized she had found in the other a kindred spirit. To read this collection is like eavesdropping on an extended conversation that mixes the mundane events of the two women's family lives with details of Carson’s research and writing and, later, her breast cancer. . . . Few who read these letters will forget these remarkable women and their even more remarkable bond.” —Publishers Weekly “Darting, fresh, sensuous, pleasingly elliptical at times, these letters also serve to tether the increasingly deified Carson firmly to earth—just where she’d want to be.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “It is not often that a collection of letters reveals character, emotional depth, personality, indeed intellect and talent, as well as a full biography might; these letters do all that.” —The New York Times Book Review “Provides insight into the creative process and a look into the daily lives of two intelligent, perceptive women whose family responsibilities were, at times, almost crushing.” —Library Journal “Dotted with vivid observations of the natural world and perceptive commentary on friendship, family, fame, and life itself, Always, Rachel will appeal to readers interested in biography and women’s studies as well as those drawn to nature writing and the history of the environmental movement.” —Booklist Online

The story of one courageous woman--Louise Viola Swanson Wollenberg--and her tremendous love of life and family and her faith and resolve. But it is also the story of her equally courageous family who, in the process of rising to the occasion and observing Louise's long-held final wishes, not only overcame so many stigmas about the process of death, but, at the same time, rediscovered what it means to celebrate life itself.--p. 4 of cover.

The standout memoir from BBC broadcaster and podcast founder, Rachel Bland, who captured the nation's hearts with her cancer journey.

*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).

12-year-old twins Frankie and Tracy Considine are excited to be moving to Leams, Massachusetts to live in their grandmother's beautiful old house. Typical brother and sister, they're always fighting, pummeling each other and playing tricks. With their mutual thirteenth birthday looming near, Tracy and Frankie have much to look forward to--or so they believe. When their beloved dog, Muffin, disappears, they begin to wonder if this was the right move after all. Tracy's friend, Carol, is distant, odd--but she did just turn 13, so perhaps that's all it is. Tracy hears strange sounds coming from the woods, but everyone insists it's her imagination, and Frankie teases her mercilessly about it. Bizarre events begin to occur: Girlfriends turn up with frightening tattoos; a young boy abruptly disappears; a fortuneteller warns her that those she most trusts are not to be trusted. Tracy rationalizes away all her doubts, eagerly looking forward to her 13th birthday party. Frankie learns about Leams' unusual, horrifying history and realizes his sister's life is in danger. He must save her--and himself--from what is destined to happen. Will Tracy and Frankie escape their fate, or will they be the next victims of the town's tragic curse?