I usually talk to God but these days angels forget my mails. I'm not sad, I'm fine. I need someone to listen to my broken lies and empty smiles. Silence is the thirstiest of all emotions, I've been on my own all these times praying for someone to find me. I need someone to say me something, someone to keep loving as habit. I usually talk to God about these because I'm lonely and ashamed. I tried so hard to hold all these back but these words are like memories, worth a frame on the wall. I've enveloped them inside for long but I can't keep denying smiles dimples. I'm glad you found this, these words are thirsty to be read.

Fiction. Women's Studies. Finalist for the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award. Finalist for CLMP's Firecracker Awards in the category of Fiction. In the twelve stories in this engrossing collection, Sara Schaff introduces us to characters at turning points in their lives; in doing so, she charts the way we take risks--or create illusions--in the face of the unknown. A newly blended family's vacation is upended by one daughter's mythmaking and another's eagerness to believe her. A young couple on the verge of breaking up take one last trip together, only to have their reconciliation disrupted by uninvited guests. A woman faces accusations of theft by the very people who think they have saved her from a troubled past. In beautiful prose that is sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, Schaff's stories grapple with class, sexuality, and relationships in ways that feel revelatory and yet deeply true. Awkward, flawed, and hopeful, these characters' stories hum with the regrets and desires that drive us--sometimes closer to our goals, sometimes heartbreakingly further away. "The stories in Sara Schaff's collection intertwine in complex and fascinating patterns. They are all explorations of the meaning of human connection--what is a mother, a father, a child, a wife, a sister, a friend, a lover? How does it feel to wear the roles we choose to take on? The roles that are forced upon us? SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT ME is a thoughtful and provoking book, the beginning to a great career!"--Dan Chaon "Sara Schaff has written a simmering, quietly explosive collection of stories about innocence and desire, frailty and power, love and doubt. Her prose is subtle and full of grace, her characters clumsy and lovable, her grasp of human connection astonishing. A masterful, moving debut."--Anna Solomon "I devoured Sara Schaff's SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT ME over the course of one weekend. Schaff's stories come with a precision and momentum reminiscent of Maggie Nelson's BLUETS and Katherine Heiny's Single, Carefree, Mellow. Page after page, sometimes by way of a trailer park tragedy, sometimes by way of a beach-condo vacation gone awry, Schaff delights and surprises her readers with universal insights by way of exquisite particulars. This is a gut-wrenching debut collection."--Hannah Pittard "Here's a collection to decisively refute those who would dismiss 'domestic fiction.' These are stories of a devastated domesticity, of families and homes undermined by loss (of parents, of lovers, of jobs), and of their survivors clinging to one another. Schaff writes with great compassion and bracing honesty of the desperation of middle class lives suspended over the pit of poverty while taunting examples of affluence dance overhead. This is domestic fiction torn down, laid bare, stripped to the studs. These are stories about where we live now."--Peter Ho Davies

Say Something Back will allow readers to see just why the name of Denise Riley has been held in such high regard by her fellow poets for so long. The book reproduces A Part Song, a profoundly moving document of grieving and loss, and one of the most widely admired long poems of recent years. Elsewhere these poems become a space for contemplation of the natural world and of physical law, and for the deep consideration of what it is to invoke those who are absent. But finally, they extend our sense of what the act of human speech can mean - and especially what is drawn forth from us when we address our dead. Lyric, intimate, acidly witty, unflinchingly brave, Say Something Back is a deeply moving book by one of our finest poets, and one destined to introduce Riley's name to a wide new readership.

At this school, there are some children who push and tease and bully. Sometimes they hurt other kids by just ignoring them. The girl in this story sees it happening, but she would never do these mean things herself. Then one day something happens that shows her that being a silent bystander isn't enough. Will she take some steps on her own to help another kid? Bright, fluid, realistic watercolors illustrate the story, set in a school with lots of diversity. Resources at the end of the book will help parents and children talk about teasing and bullying and find ways to stop it at school. One child at a time can help change a school.

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know is a collection of original dialogues in epistemology, suitable for student readers but also of interest to experts. Familiar problems, theories, and arguments are explored: second-order knowledge, epistemic closure, the preface paradox, skepticism, pragmatic encroachment, the Gettier problem, and more. New ideas on each of these issues are also offered, defended, and critiqued, often in humorous and entertaining ways.

A novel about public shaming in the internet age, the power of words, the cumulative destructiveness of microaggressions, and the pressing need for empathy. Before we go any further, I want you to understand this: I am not a good person. We all want to be seen. We all want to be heard. But what happens when we’re seen and heard saying or doing the wrong things? When Winter Halperin—former spelling bee champion, aspiring writer, and daughter of a parenting expert—gets caught saying the wrong thing online, her life explodes. All across the world, people know what she’s done, and none of them will forgive her. With her friends gone, her future plans cut short, and her identity in shambles, Winter is just trying to pick up the pieces without hurting anyone else. She knows she messed up, but does that mean it’s okay for people to send her hate mail and death threats? Did she deserve to lose all that she’s lost? And is “I’m sorry” ever good enough? Decide for yourself.

Phil M. Jones has trained more than two million people across five continents and over fifty countries in the lost art of spoken communication. In Exactly What to Say, he delivers the tactics you need to get more of what you want.