Neubauer fled his family, trading coasts to provide himself three time zones of buffer space. Random email and social media posts yield all the contact he needs. Until a late-night phone call from his wistful father. Unaccustomed to hearing his dad say "I love you," C.J. freezes, vowing instead to reciprocate the next time they speak. But when the phone wakes him the following morning, it's his older brother informing him their father has committed suicide.Sporting a nagging conscience and a chip on his shoulder, C.J. books a flight home on his girlfriend's credit card. All he wants is to bury his father and try to make sense of what led him to take his own life. All he has to go on is a note that reads, "Sorry I wasn't what you needed." Was it intended for C.J. and his siblings? The mother who walked out on them twenty-five years ago? Or someone else altogether?Alternately heartfelt and laugh-out-loud funny, Sorry I Wasn't What You Needed explores the familial bonds that obligate us for life--and beyond.

    A personal essay about what makes Canada awesome from Neil Pasricha, the international-bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, and the Audible Original, How to Get Back Up.

    For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep, the first automobile any of the villagers has ever seen. Slowly, Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, begins to reject the customs that shaped her early life. When she has a baby out of wedlock she rejects the tradition that would compel her to give the child over to be killed, and instead leaves her, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds, near an orphanage in a nearby city. As Li-yan comes into herself, leaving her village for an education, a business, and city life, her daughter, Haley, is raised in California by loving adoptive parents. Despite her privileged childhood, Haley wonders about her origins. Across the ocean Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. Over the course of years, each searches for meaning in the study of Pu’er, the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for centuries.

    He controls her weight, her friends, and even her career path. And he doesn’t approve of anyone in their family thinking for themselves. When one impulsive decision ends in disaster, Astrid is grounded for the summer, forced to put her archery career on hold and take a menial job cleaning stalls at a posh dressage barn. It takes a little horse named Quarry and a quirky cast of characters to banish Astrid's unhappiness and show her that she is worth something. But when her father steps in, once again, everything Astrid has grown to love is threatened.

    Johanna Morrigan, fourteen, has shamed herself so badly on local TV that she decides that there’s no point in being Johanna anymore and reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde—fast-talking, hard-drinking Gothic hero and full-time Lady Sex Adventurer. She will save her poverty-stricken Bohemian family by becoming a writer—like Jo in Little Women, or the Bröntes—but without the dying young bit.By sixteen, she’s smoking cigarettes, getting drunk and working for a music paper. She’s writing pornographic letters to rock-stars, having all the kinds of sex with all kinds of men, and eviscerating bands in reviews of 600 words or less.But what happens when Johanna realizes she’s built Dolly with a fatal flaw? Is a box full of records, a wall full of posters, and a head full of paperbacks, enough to build a girl after all?Imagine The Bell Jar written by Rizzo from Grease. How to Build a Girl is a funny, poignant, and heartbreakingly evocative story of self-discovery and invention, as only Caitlin Moran could tell it.

    Set in the 1980s, she endures a sub-zero marriage to Mike, Assistant Manager of Friendly Finance, as well as the impossible role of mother to fifteen-and-a-half-year-old Kim and fourteen-year-old Molly. Adding to her misery, is the job she loathes at Big Brother Insurance Company. Life in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California is a soap opera. Kim and Molly skip school, smoke pot, and call each other bitch, while Mike loan sharks by day and guzzles Coors by night. Eventually a line is drawn across the matted shag carpet when Mike sides with the girls.Pushed to her limit when Kim's truancy draws the attention of the State Attorney's Office, Margie flees to San Francisco and a new life.

    So, armed with a stack of books that each guarantee to teach her the secret to living a clutter-free life, Kaye embarks on a journey that takes her from clutter bug to clutter free–and beyond.Her family doesn’t know what to think of her and her. While Jacob does enjoy the streamlined beauty of his new life, he is also just as frustrated as their sons as Kaye goes from clean up to clear out–including treasured possessions.Who knew that what started out as a survival technique would become an addiction?

    But if she can't find a way to bring more money into the struggling shelter, the sacrifices she's made will all be for nothing.Then her brother leaves her with an inheritance, with two stipulations: she must work with her estranged mother to host a successful charity event and find a loving home for Peter's dog, Kiwi.But Leslie's not sure she can forgive the woman who cowered in a corner while Leslie's father hit her.Kiwi was severely abused before Peter adopted her. No matter where Leslie places Kiwi, the nervous cockapoo keeps showing up on her doorstep. She seems determined to stay with Leslie, no matter what.Even though Kiwi is terrified of everything, the sweet little dog makes Leslie feel braver. With Kiwi by her side, can Leslie save the shelter, face down the demons of her past, and take the risk of forgiving the mother who let her down when Leslie needed her most?The Kiwi To My Heart is the sixth and final book in the Soul Mutts series, heartwarming stories of lost dogs finding new homes with the humans they were born to heal.

    To his shock, the child—wrapped in a sweater and wearing a tiny knitted hat—is still alive. To his wife’s shock, Nathan wants to adopt the boy…but the child’s grandmother steps in. Nathan makes her promise, however, that one day she’ll bring the boy to meet him so he can reveal that he was the one who rescued him. Fifteen years later, the widowered Nathan discovers the child abandoned once again—this time at his doorstep. Named Nat, the teenager has grown into a sullen delinquent whose grandmother can no longer tolerate him. Nathan agrees to care for Nat, and the two engage in a battle of wills that pans years. Still, the older man repeatedly assures the youngster that, unlike the rest of the world, he will never abandon him—not even when Nat suffers a trauma that changes both of their lives forever.From the bestselling author of Pay It Forward comes When I Found You, an exquisite, emotional tale of the unexpected bonds that nothing in life can break.

    A four-year-old boy named Romochka, abandoned by his mother and uncle, is left to fend for himself. Curious, he follows a stray dog to its home in an abandoned church cellar on the city's outskirts. Romochka makes himself at home with Mamochka, the mother of the pack, and six other dogs as he slowly abandons his human attributes to survive two fiercely cold winters. Able to pass as either boy or dog, Romochka develops his own moral code. As the pack starts to prey on people for food with Romochka's help, he attracts the attention of local police and scientists. His future, and the pack's, will depend on his ability to remain free, but the outside world begins to close in on him as the novel reaches its gripping conclusion. In this taut and emotionally convincing narrative, Eva Hornung explores universal themes of the human condition: the importance of home, what it means to belong to a family, the consequences of exclusion, and what our animal nature can teach us about survival.

    Instead, Peppi shocks them all with his decision to return to Villa San Giuseppe, the small Italian village where he spent his childhood, and to il mulino, his family's old mill. But once he's back, he temporarily moves into an apartment over the candy factory run by his childhood best friend, Luca. It is modest, but livable, with a lovely view of Luca's neglected gardens and his equally neglected daughter, the fiery Lucrezia.More a force of nature than a woman, Lucrezia's legendary temper and workaholic schedule hide the very real pain she feels over her husband's death years before. At first, she tolerates Peppi as an eccentric annoyance—her father's strange but handsome American friend who fixes things around the factory and is bringing the gardens back to life. But soon, Lucrezia's interest in Peppi deepens. Like a high wind, the gossip is flying through Villa San Giuseppe—Lucrezia's making it to dinner on time. She's eating olives from a man's hand. She's wearing heels. Now, under the warm Tuscan sun, a tentative romance begins to bloom between the grieving pair, yielding to a surprisingly strong passion with the power to heal life's wounds and promise second chances...

    A husband she loved, two little boys that were the center of her life, and even a mother-in-law who adored her. So why was she being packed up and shipped off from her home in Ireland back to her own country? Was it really up to everybody else to tell her she needed to find herself again?But, when she's reunited with her best friend and the other women in her life she left behind, the key to the person she once was dangles in front of her enticingly. Will she be able to reach out and grab it?

    . . real or otherwise.Budo is lucky as imaginary friends go. He's been alive for more than five years, which is positively ancient in the world of imaginary friends. But Budo feels his age, and thinks constantly of the day when eight-year-old Max Delaney will stop believing in him. When that happens, Budo will disappear.Max is different from other children. Some people say that he has Asperger's Syndrome, but most just say he's "on the spectrum." None of this matters to Budo, who loves Max and is charged with protecting him from the class bully, from awkward situations in the cafeteria, and even in the bathroom stalls. But he can't protect Max from Mrs. Patterson, the woman who works with Max in the Learning Center and who believes that she alone is qualified to care for this young boy.

    A graphic novel set to music by one of the world's top DJs

    His charisma and his accomplishments have made him a media darling and paved the way for his explosion onto the national political scene. But he is not who he purports to be. He is the nation’s most high-profile illegal immigrant, a secret known to almost no one other than his shadowy handlers. Together, they have an agenda – punish America for its past sins and undermine this country’s prosperity and way of life. Since childhood, Sanchez has been conditioned to believe in that cause and to do whatever it takes to see that mission through. Now he is on the cusp of acquiring the power to do exactly that.Bobby Rivera is the son of Mexican parents who raised him in South Texas, where they were employed under temporary work visas. Although he grew up living in constant fear of the government and deportation, he loves America and the opportunities it has afforded him. He and Miguel share a past – a close friendship as teenagers that was marred by tragedy and dark secrets as well as Miguel’s sudden and unexplained disappearance. Bobby’s peaceful life as a funeral director in San Antonio is thrown into turmoil when Miguel unexpectedly reenters his life. Bobby realizes that he is the only person outside Miguel’s circle who knows Miguel’s secret and his hidden agenda. Bobby’s loyalty to his old friend conflicts with his loyalty to his country, not to mention his conscience. Will this young man who has spent his entire life looking over his shoulder and running from trouble have the courage to confront it head-on? How far will Miguel go to protect his dark secret? Will the life of fame, fortune and accomplishment Miguel has achieved change his heart and cause him to embrace rather than attack his adoptive country?The Wall is an intelligent, fast-paced thriller that combines page-turning suspense with a thought-provoking exploration of one of the most controversial, sensitive and far-reaching issues of our time – immigration. It examines the opportunities, fears and challenges of recent immigrants and their children. It portrays the changing complexion of America in a way that is sensitive and hopeful. It contrasts life on opposite sides of the border wall, but more importantly, it vividly depicts the walls that exist in the minds and hearts of those trying to assimilate and those who resist.