Discusses how to live with difficult persons.

“It’s wild writing: sexy, unguarded, raw, and ardent … highly recommended.”—The Millions After a decade of heavy partying and hard drinking in London, Amy Liptrot returns home to Orkney, a remote island off the north of Scotland. The Outrun maps Amy’s inspiring recovery as she walks along windy coasts, swims in icy Atlantic waters, tracks Orkney’s wildlife, and reconnects with her parents, revisiting and rediscovering the place that shaped her. A Guardian Best Nonfiction Book of 2016 Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller New Statesman Book of the Year

“Allende can spin a yarn with the grace of a poet.”—Entertainment Weekly AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NOW WITH A NEW DEAR READER LETTER From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and The House of the Spirits, an enthralling and suspenseful coming-of-age story about a teenage girl who must unravel the mysteries of her past in order to save herself. Nineteen-year-old Maya Vidal grew up in a rambling old house in Berkeley with her grandmother Nini—a force of nature whose formidable strength helped her build a new life after she emigrated from Chile in 1973—and Popo, an African-American astronomer and professor whose solid, comforting presence helps calm the turbulence of Maya's adolescence. When Popo dies of cancer, Maya comes undone and turns to drugs, alcohol, and petty crime. When she becomes lost in the dangerous underworld of Las Vegas, Maya becomes caught in the crosshairs of deadly warring forces. Her one chance for survival is Nini, who helps her escape to a remote island off the coast of Chile. Here, Maya tries to make sense of the past to discover the truth about her life and her family, and embarks on her greatest adventure: a journey of self-discovery and forgiveness.

John and Erica Mason-Grey are hard-working artists and loving parents—but when John dies, their teenage daughter Mona’s casual drug use spirals into heroin addiction. She and her mother soon begin an anguished game of hide-and-seek leading to countless arguments, arrests, thefts, rehabs, and relapse, a recurring nightmare that seems to have no end. Ultimately, it’s only when each of them finds a way to accept their new reality—Mona by taking charge of her own recovery, and Erica by focusing on her own vitality—that each experiences the unexpected joy and renewal that await those who decide to stop living in the bad dream of addiction. Unflinching about the ways the disease of addiction can torpedo a family yet leavened with dollops of humor, The Bad Dream Notebook will resonate with anyone who has lived through the agony of a loved one’s drug dependency.

US forces invaded Iraq in March 2003. Simultaneous with the invasion the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad was ransacked and almost all of the world's greatest historical treasures of inestimable value were stolen...or were they? Baghdad Plunder is an addictive, page-turning, action-packed, thoroughly researched historical fiction novel that weaves fictional characters into the factual fabric of what actually happened to the vast treasures of the Iraq National Museum. It is either the largest robbery or the most heroic save the world has ever experienced. At the beginning of the US military occupation of Baghdad Special Forces Captain Tom Murphy is given a secret order to commence Operation Guardian. The initial assignment is to escort the head curator of the Iraq National Museum to wherever he directs. From the moment the head curator leaves the museum events never go as anticipated and a web of suspenseful intrigue is created surrounding the greatest treasures the world has ever known. Jeff Prentice is jogging on the beach just before sunrise when his foot is snagged on the strap of a locked backpack buried in the sand. He decides to hide the backpack and return for it later. During breakfast with his best friend Bob, they are invited to attend a memorial service for a past acquaintance, Captain Tom Murphy, who was killed in action in Baghdad. At the memorial service Jeff meets beautiful Linda Murphy, the sister of deceased Tom Murphy. Jeff also meets Sergeant Tyler Murphy, the brother who escorted Tom's body back from Baghdad. Jeff and Linda find themselves intensely attracted to each other. The next day, during a drive along the Santa Barbara coast, Linda reveals to Jeff the details of a secret letter from her dead brother Tom. The details revolve around a backpack she was instructed first to hide and then to bury on the beach near the Murphy family home. Jeff is astonished, conflicted, and chooses to says nothing about the backpack he has found and hidden. Neither of them knows what is in the backpack. Early the next morning Jeff retrieves the backpack from where he hid it. When Jeff arrives at his home the police are there because two unknown men have just broken into Jeff's apartment. The tension notches up. Jeff arranges to safely store the backpack in a locked cellar at Bob's home. After Jeff, Bob, and Tyler play in a league basketball game they meet Linda and Teri (Bob's romantic interest and Linda's best friend) at The Brew House in Santa Barbara. When Jeff and Linda leave the bar two men follow them. Jeff discovers they are being followed, successfully evades them and calls Bob to arrange an emergency meeting. When Jeff, Linda, and Bob discover the contents of the backpack they are shocked and presented with a difficult life-changing dilemma. The action next rolls back six weeks to the day Special Forces Lieutenant Tom Murphy received his top secret assignment to Operation Guardian. He is to go to the Iraq National Museum to rendezvous with the head curator, Mustafa, and safely escort him to wherever he directs. He is secretly known as The Guardian. It was previously arranged for Tom's brother, Tyler, to be assigned to patrol the museum area where Tom will rendezvous with Mustafa. When Mustafa exits the museum an attack erupts. The adventures continue to unfold as Tom attempts to save Mustafa's life, evade Hassan the Sunni terrorist, and discover the real mission objective of Operation Guardian. After several thrilling twists and turns of the unfolding mystery Tom concludes he must make the supreme sacrifice to complete Operation Guardian - he must die. Action segues from Baghdad to Santa Barbara, and then a return to Iraq with a surprise conclusion. The Iraq War significantly impacts each character and their integrity is challenged throughout the novel. The obsessive lure of vast riches blurs moral judgment as competing entities collide in the quest for possession of the contents of Captain Murphy's backpac

When he was a boy, Aga Akbar, the illegitimate, deaf son of a Persian nobleman, travelled with his uncle to a cave on nearby Saffron Mountain. Once there, he was to transcribe a cuneiform inscription over three thousand years old. Decades later, his son, Ishmael – a political dissident in exile – attempts to translate a notebook filled with a private language made from this ancient script . . . and in the process tells his father’s story, his own, and the story of twentieth-century Iran. My Father’s Notebook is at once a masterful chronicle of a culture’s troubled voyage into modernity and the heart-rending, timeless tale of a son’s enduring love.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers and Beach Read comes a sparkling novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations. Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong? Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ The Skimm ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ The Wall Street Journal ∙ Chicago Tribune ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ Business Insider ∙ Real Simple ∙ Frolic ∙ and more!