Essays by popular children's authors reveal the books that shaped their personal and literary lives, explaining how the stories they loved influenced them creatively, politically, and intellectually.

“Taking Sexy Back is going directly on my top list of recommended sexuality readings.” —Esther Perel, author of Mating in Captivity and The State of Affairs It is time for a new sexual revolution. It’s time to take sexy back. As women, we’re expected to be sexy, but not sexual. We’re bombarded with conflicting, shame-inducing, and disempowering messages about sex, instead of being encouraged to connect with our true sexual selves. Sexy gets reduced to a performance, leaving us with little to no space to reckon with the complexities of sexuality. In a culture intent on telling you who and how to be, standing in your truth is revolutionary. From relationship expert Alexandra Solomon—author of Loving Bravely—Taking Sexy Back is a groundbreaking guide to deepening your connection to yourself, honoring your desires, and cultivating authentic intimate connections. On these pages, you’ll discover how to deepen your sexual self-awareness, and use that awareness to create experiences that not only pleasure, but elevate, expand, and heal you. You’ll learn to understand your boundaries, communicate what feels good, and bring mindfulness and self-compassion to sex. Most importantly, you’ll embrace your sexuality as an evolving, essential, and beautiful part of your life. Sex is about more than what your partner enjoys or finds sexy. It’s about more than having an orgasm or finding the “right” positions. It’s about you. It’s time to take your sexy back! Named one of Cosmopolitan's Best Nonfiction Books of 2020! 2020 Consumer Book Honorable Mention from The Society for Sex Therapy and Research (SSTAR) As featured on The Morning Show—Australia's top-rated morning program

"Invaluable for so many partners looking to reconnect and grow closer together." —Gwyneth Paltrow, founder and CEO of goop "Stan Tatkin can be entirely followed into the towering infernos of our most painful relationship challenges." —Alanis Morissette, artist, activist, and wholeness advocate The complete “insider’s guide” to understanding your partner’s brain, sparking lasting connection, and enjoying a romantic relationship built on love and trust—now with more than 170,000 copies sold. “What the heck is my partner thinking?” “Why do they always react like this?” “How can we get back that connection we had in the beginning?” If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, you aren’t alone, and it doesn’t mean that your relationship is doomed. Every person is wired for love differently—with different habits, needs, and reactions to conflict. The good news is that most people’s minds work in predictable ways and respond well to security, attachment, and routines, making it possible to neurologically prime the brain for greater love and connection and fewer conflicts. This go-to guide will show you how. Drawn from neuroscience, attachment theory, and emotion regulation, this highly anticipated second edition of Wired for Love presents cutting-edge research on how and why love lasts, and offers ten guiding principles that can improve any relationship. This fully revised and updated edition also includes new guidance on how to manage disagreements, as well as new exercises to help you create a sense of safety and security, establish healthy conflict ground rules, and deal with the threat of the third—any outside source which threatens the harmony in your relationship, including in-laws, alcohol, children, and affairs. You’ll find proven-effective strategies to help you strengthen your relationship by: Creating and maintaining a safe “couple bubble” Using morning and evening routines to stay connected Learning how to see your partner’s point of view Meeting each other halfway in a fight Becoming the expert on what makes your partner feel loved By using simple gestures and words, you’ll learn to put out emotional fires and help your partner feel appreciated and loved. You’ll also discover how to move past a “warring brain” mentality and toward a more cooperative “loving brain.” Most importantly, you’ll gain a better understanding of the complex dynamics at work behind love and trust in intimate relationships. While there’s no doubt that love is an inexact science, if you understand how you and your partner are wired differently, you can overcome your differences, and create a lasting intimate connection.

How would you like to go through life pretending you knew what love is? Although love is a familiar, often-used word, what we mean when we use it is not always clear. Obviously, "I love pizza" conveys a different feeling than does "I love God." This book views love as an action, as something we do. It is more than an emotion--it is the only human sentiment that is completely expressed in positive concern for the welfare of others. Four kinds of love are differentiated: these are eros, the language of romance; storge, family or parental love; philia, brotherly love; and agape, the love of and for God. Unfortunately, the English language uses only one word to describe all four kinds. Two descriptive aspects of love's relation to helping have evolved. First, love involves more or less sympathy with the loved one. Second, the one who loves manifests a desire to enhance the well-being and psychological growth of the beloved. Love has been more widely researched and written about than has helping. Love as a helping relationship has received even less attention. This book views love and helping as being synonymous. The first two chapters discuss the nature of human behavior and the purpose of our lives--i.e., God's plan for our lives. The next two chapters examine the nature of helping relationships, and the joy and benefits of helping others. Also discussed are helping in secret, helping others grieve, why we don't help others in need, and choosing our destiny.

In Book Love: Help Your Child Grow from Reluctant to Enthusiastic Reader award-winning educator and parent Melissa Taylor gives busy parents of kids ages three to ten engaging, playful, out-of-the box ideas for growing a reader, assisting kids who are learning to read, and gently encouraging reluctant readers. Just a few of the many helpful insights and strategies she shares include: - The most common reasons why kids find it hard to learn to read or may hate to read (too boring, too tricky, too blurry, too "sitty")-and what to do about them. - Activities and product recommendations to facilitate letter recognition, rhyming, sight word skills, phonics, and fluency. - Approaches for improving word attack and reading comprehension. - Book lists organized by kids' interests. - Printable sight word flashcards and word strategy bookmarks. Packed with practical, bite-sized ideas that get children reading and loving books, Book Love can be your go-to guide for reading help for kids.

As seen on The TODAY Show! “A godsend to anyone searching for, but struggling to find, true love in their lives.” —Kristin Neff, PhD, author of Self-Compassion "Empowering and compassionate, and its lessons are universal." —Publishers Weekly Real love starts with you. In order to attract a life partner and build a healthy intimate relationship, you must first become a good partner to yourself. This book offers twenty invaluable lessons that will help you explore and commit to your own emotional and psychological well-being so you can be ready, resilient, and confident in love. Many of us enter into romantic relationships full of expectation and hope, only to be sorely disappointed by the realization that the partner we’ve selected is a flawed human being with their own neuroses, history, and desires. Most relationships end because one or both people haven’t done the internal work necessary to develop self-awareness and take responsibility for their own experiences. We’ve all heard “You can’t love anyone unless you love yourself,” but amid life’s distractions and the myth of perfect, romantic love, how exactly do you do that? In Loving Bravely, psychologist, professor and relationship expert Alexandra H. Solomon introduces the idea of relational self-awareness, encouraging you to explore your personal history to gain an understanding of your own relational patterns, as well as your strengths and weaknesses in relationships. By doing so, you’ll learn what relationships actually require, beyond the fairytale notions of romance. And by maintaining a steady but gentle focus on yourself, you’ll build the best possible foundation for making a loving connection. By understanding your past relationship experiences, cultivating a strong sense of self-awareness, and determining what it is you really want in a romantic partner—you’ll be ready to find the healthy, lasting love your heart desires.