I Heart My Little A-Holes


Karen Alpert - 2013
    because he wants to watch Caillou, he’s an a-hole. When your daughter outlines every corner of your living room with a purple crayon, she’s an a-hole. When your rug rats purposely decorate the kitchen ceiling with their smoothies, they’re a-holes. So it’s only natural to want to kill them sometimes. Of course you can’t because you’d go to prison, and then you’d really never get to poop alone again. Plus, there’s that whole loving them more than anything in the whole world thing. Karen Alpert is the writer of the popular blog Baby Sideburns. You may have seen some of her more viral posts like “Ten Things I Really F’ing Want for Mother’s Day,” “Daddy Sticker Chart” and “What NOT to F’ing Buy My Kids this Holiday.” Or you may know her from her Facebook page that has over 130,000 followers. I Heart My Little A-Holes is full of hilarious stories, lists, thoughts and pictures that will make you laugh so hard you’ll wish you were wearing a diaper.

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey


Jill Bolte Taylor - 2006
    Through the eyes of a curious scientist, she watched her mind deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of the brain, her respect for the cells in her body, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered. In My Stroke of Insight, she shares her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the two halves of her brain. When she lost the skills of her left brain, her consciousness shifted away from normal reality where she felt "at one with the universe." Taylor helps others not only rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us with normal brains better understand how we can consciously influence the neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel and how we react to life's circumstances.

The Smart Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want: How to be assertive with wit, style and grace


Mary Hartley - 2014
    Mary reveals the simple steps you can take to help you relate to other people honestly and openly in every area of your life – at work, with your friends and family and in your love life. You will discover that you can be true to yourself and your needs without hurting or diminishing other people.    • What assertiveness is and why it matters   • How to avoid aggression, passivity and manipulation    • Tips for handling tricky situations including put-downs and dealing with bullies    • Mastering assertive body language and communication Packed with practical strategies and exercises, this book will show you how to be confident, assured and proactive – with style.

On Trails: An Exploration


Robert Moor - 2016
    He learned the tricks of master trail-builders, hunted down long-lost Cherokee trails, and traced the origins of our road networks and the Internet. In each chapter, Moor interweaves his adventures with findings from science, history, philosophy, and nature writing—combining the nomadic joys of Peter Matthiessen with the eclectic wisdom of Lewis Hyde’s The Gift.Throughout, Moor reveals how this single topic—the oft-overlooked trail—sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanity’s relationship with nature and technology shaped world around us? And, ultimately, how does each of us pick a path through life?Moor has the essayist’s gift for making new connections, the adventurer’s love for paths untaken, and the philosopher’s knack for asking big questions. With a breathtaking arc that spans from the dawn of animal life to the digital era, On Trails is a book that makes us see our world, our history, our species, and our ways of life anew.

The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian


Phil Doran - 2005
    Just as he and his peers had replaced the older guys when he was coming up the ranks, it was now happening to him. And it was freaking him out. He came home every night angry, burned- out, and exhausted. After twenty-five years of losing her husband to Hollywood, Doran’s wife decided it was finally time for a change—so on one of her many solo trips to Italy she surprised her husband by purchasing a broken-down 300-year-old farmhouse for them to restore. The Reluctant Tuscan is about the author’s transition from being a successful but overworked writer-producer in Hollywood to rediscovering himself and his wife while in Italy, and finding happiness in the last place he expected. In the witty tone that made him a success as a writer in Hollywood, The Reluctant Tuscan captivates those who simply love a good travel narrative as well as anyone who loves the quirky humor of Bill Bryson, Dave Barry, and Jerry Seinfeld.

It's Only the Himalayas


S. Bedford - 2016
    . . don’t do anything stupid.” —My MotherDuring her yearlong adventure backpacking from South Africa to Singapore, S. Bedford definitely did a few things her mother might classify as "stupid." She swam with great white sharks in South Africa, ran from lions in Zimbabwe, climbed a Himalayan mountain without training in Nepal, and watched as her friend was attacked by a monkey in Indonesia.But interspersed in those slightly more crazy moments, Sue Bedfored and her friend "Sara the Stoic" experienced the sights, sounds, life, and culture of fifteen countries. Joined along the way by a few friends and their aging fathers here and there, Sue and Sara experience the trip of a lifetime. They fall in love with the world, cultivate an appreciation for home, and discover who, or what, they want to become.It's Only the Himalayas is the incredibly funny, sometimes outlandish, always entertaining confession of a young backpacker that will inspire you to take your own adventure.

Living the RV Life: Your Ultimate Guide to Life on the Road


Marc Bennett - 2018
    Do you love traveling? Meeting new people and seeing new places? Are you craving a life that feels meaningful and new? The RV lifestyle could be the answer. Both aspirational and practical, Living the RV Life is your ultimate guide to living life on the road—for people of all ages looking to downsize, travel, or work on the go. Learn if life in a motor home is right for you, with insightful details on the experiences of full-time RV-ers, tips for how to choose an RV (how big? new or used?), whether to sell your home (and if not, what to do with it), model costs, sample routes and destinations, basic vehicle maintenance, legal and government considerations—and much more! Written in a light and an easy-to-understand style, Living the RV Life is your bible to living a mobile life.

Get A Life! 8 Steps to Create Your Own Life List


Stephanie Bond - 2012
    Praise for GET A LIFE! 8 STEPS TO CREATE YOUR OWN LIFE LIST: "Introspection and reflection are critical aspects of my executive coaching practice in the corporate world. Stephanie Bond's Life List is a perfect use of similar techniques in order to achieve personal hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Her process is fun and it works--give it a try." --Grace P. Waldrop, President, Grace P. Waldrop Consulting, Inc., Atlanta, GA "Stephanie Bond has guided her life in an incredible direction-accomplishing so many things most people only talk about. I am excited that she is sharing her Life List process. It is such a useful tool for anyone who wants to put their life-personally and professionally-on a rewarding path. It works!" --Jacki Jaynes, President, TCM, Inc., a project management firm in Atlanta, GASo what are you waiting for? Get a Life List!

Nothing Personal: My Secret Life in the Dating App Inferno


Nancy Jo Sales - 2021
    What followed was a raucous ride through the world of online dating. Sales, an award-winning journalist and single mom, became a leading critic of the online dating industry, reporting and writing articles and making her directorial debut with the HBO documentary Swiped: Hooking Up in the Digital Age. Meanwhile, she was dating a series of younger men, eventually falling in love with a man less than half her age. Nothing Personal is Sales’s memoir of coming-of-middle-age in the midst of a new dating revolution. She is unsparingly honest about her own experience of addiction to dating apps and hilarious in her musings about dick pics, sexting, dating FOMO, and more. Does Big Dating really want us to find love, she asks, or just keep on using its apps? ​Fiercely feminist, Nothing Personal investigates how Big Dating has overwhelmed the landscape of dating, cynically profiting off its users’ deepest needs and desires. Looking back through the history of modern courtship and her own relationships, Sales examines how sexism has always been a factor for women in dating, and asks what the future of courtship will bring, if left to the designs of Silicon Valley’s tech giants—especially in a time of social distancing and a global pandemic, when the rules of romance are once again changing.

Year of No Clutter


Eve O. Schaub - 2017
    Too much stuff and too easily acquired, it confronts her in every corner and on every surface in her house. When she pledges to tackle the worst offender, her horror of a "Hell Room," she anticipates finally being able to throw away all of the unnecessary things she can't bring herself to part with: her fifth-grade report card, dried-up art supplies, an old vinyl raincoat.But what Eve discovers isn't just old CDs and outdated clothing, but a fierce desire within herself to hold on to her identity. Our things represent our memories, our history, a million tiny reference points in our lives. If we throw our stuff in the trash, where does that leave us? And if we don't...how do we know what's really important?Everyone has their own Hell Room, and Eve's battle with her clutter, along with her eventual self-clarity, encourages everyone to dig into their past to declutter their future. Year of No Clutter is a deeply inspiring--and frequently hilarious -- examination of why we keep stuff in the first place, and how to let it all go.

The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance


Ben Sasse - 2017
    Senator Ben Sasse warns the nation about the existential threat to America's future. Raised by well-meaning but overprotective parents and coddled by well-meaning but misbegotten government programs, America's youth are ill-equipped to survive in our highly-competitive global economy. Many of the coming-of-age rituals that have defined the American experience since the Founding: learning the value of working with your hands, leaving home to start a family, becoming economically self-reliant—are being delayed or skipped altogether. The statistics are daunting: 30% of college students drop out after the first year, and only 4 in 10 graduate. One in three 18-to-34 year-olds live with their parents. From these disparate phenomena: Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse who as president of a Midwestern college observed the trials of this generation up close, sees an existential threat to the American way of life.In The Vanishing American Adult, Sasse diagnoses the causes of a generation that can't grow up and offers a path for raising children to become active and engaged citizens. He identifies core formative experiences that all young people should pursue: hard work to appreciate the benefits of labor, travel to understand deprivation and want, the power of reading, the importance of nurturing your body—and explains how parents can encourage them.Our democracy depends on responsible, contributing adults to function properly—without them America falls prey to populist demagogues. A call to arms, The Vanishing American Adult will ignite a much-needed debate about the link between the way we're raising our children and the future of our country.

A Year Off: A Story about Traveling the World—and How to Make It Happen for You


Alexandra Brown - 2018
    Who knew these three words said to a near stranger would start an international travel adventure?A Year Off is one part travel guide, one part travel essays and photos, and one part memoir documenting the story of Alexandra and David Brown, a couple who decided to take a year off from their jobs and 'regular lives' to travel the world together after only knowing each other for a few months. With many gorgeous photographs and actionable travel advice, A Year Off captures all the beauty and magic of the wanderlust spirit, guiding readers on how to take the same leap and showing them just how doable a journey this type of round-the-world travel is. Each chapter provides perspectives from both authors and tackles a different part of the journey, including:A look into David and Alexandra's story as they traveled the world together and got to know one another.Colorful essays about adventure travel and all the life-changing moments that come along with it.A practical travel guide providing tips on how to leave your job, budget, pack, plan your route, pace yourself, adjust to culture shock, and re-enter.Turn your travel daydreams into reality with the help of the inspiring journey towards fulfillment, adventure, and learning to be present in the moment.This inspirational book is a great gift for all the dreamers, would-be adventurers, and endearingly practical professionals looking to scratch the travel itch and take a risk on what may be the best time of their lives.

The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America


Tommy Tomlinson - 2019
    My BMI is 60.7. My shirts are size XXXXXXL, which the big-and-tall stores shorten to 6X. I’m 6-foot-1, or 73 inches tall. My waist is 60 inches around. I’m nearly a sphere. Those are the numbers. This is how it feels… So begins The Elephant in the Room, Tommy Tomlinson’s remarkably intimate and insightful memoir of his life as a fat man. When he was almost fifty years old, Tomlinson weighed an astonishing—and dangerous—460 pounds, at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, unable to climb a flight of stairs without having to catch his breath, or travel on an airplane without buying two seats. Raised in a family that loved food, he had been aware of the problem for years, seeing doctors and trying diets from the time he was a preteen. But nothing worked, and every time he tried to make a change, it didn’t go the way he planned—in fact, he wasn’t sure that he really wanted to change.In The Elephant in the Room, Tomlinson chronicles his lifelong battle with weight in a voice that combines the urgency of Roxane Gay’s Hunger with the intimacy of Rick Bragg’s All Over but the Shoutin’. He also hits the road to meet other members of the plus-sized tribe in an attempt to understand how, as a nation, we got to this point. From buying a FitBit and setting exercise goals to contemplating the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, America’s “capital of food porn,” and modifying his own diet, Tomlinson brings us along on a candid and sometimes brutal look at the everyday experience of being constantly aware of your size. Over the course of the book, he confronts these issues head-on and chronicles the practical steps he has to take—big and small—to lose weight by the end.Affecting and searingly honest, The Elephant in the Room is a powerful memoir that will resonate with anyone who has grappled with addiction, shame, or self-consciousness. It is also a literary triumph that will stay with readers long after the last page.

52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust


William Alexander - 2010
    He tasted it long ago, in a restaurant, and has been trying to reproduce it ever since. Without success. Now, on the theory that practice makes perfect, he sets out to bake peasant bread every week until he gets it right. He bakes his loaf from scratch. And because Alexander is nothing if not thorough, he really means from scratch: growing, harvesting, winnowing, threshing, and milling his own wheat.   An original take on the six-thousand-year-old staple of life, 52 Loaves explores the nature of obsession, the meditative quality of ritual, the futility of trying to re-create something perfect, our deep connection to the earth, and the mysterious instinct that makes all of us respond to the aroma of baking bread.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost


Rebecca Solnit - 2005
    A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Solnit's own life to explore the issues of wandering, being lost, and the uses of the unknown. The result is a distinctive, stimulating, and poignant voyage of discovery.