Adult Non-Fiction

Plot twist : life, craft, and the messy first draft: a memoir on writing

Coben, Harlan 1962- author.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben offers a look behind the curtain at his own writing process in an inspiring, candid memoir filled with indispensable insights and techniques... With 100 million books in print world-wide and over twenty blockbuster television and film adaptations of his work, Harlan Coben has much to teach us about the creative process. Part deeply personal memoir, part masterclass in storytelling, Plot Twist is a refreshingly honest look at the life of a writer whose stories have thrilled us for decades. Plumbing memories from his suburban childhood and his early years trying to break into publishing, Coben tells his own story for the first time, revealing the real-world inspirations for some of his most beloved characters as well as the innovative plots that drive his propulsive novels. Filled with useful tips and techniques on the creative process, Coben does away with the traditional "categories" of writing-characters, plot, setting, etc-and looks at the process holistically. Plot Twist is a masterclass on the act of being a writer, and everything that comes with it: the self doubt, the hubris, the contradictions, the passion and dedication. At the end of the day, his calculus is a simple one: "If it helps me produce pages, good. If it doesn't, bad." This book will help every aspiring writer produce pages. Honest, funny, insightful, and at times deeply moving, this is both a captivating memoir and an essential guide for anyone looking to master the art of storytelling from one of our most beloved authors.....

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Unsayable : a life in writing

Cunningham, Michael, 1952- author.

Try using language to slit the skin of mortality to see what's on the other side. At the age of three, Michael Cunningham began obsessively collecting the names of things: oak, Chevrolet, finch, tulip, Tupperware.... Each word rendered the world ever so slightly more understandable, more describable, kicking off a lifelong love affair with language -- one that would, eventually, maybe inevitably, lead him to become a writer. In Unsayable , Cunningham's memories spill forth, and with them, reflections on the craft of writing. He is fifteen, in a swiming pool at night with his best friend, trying to decipher the other boy's mysterious, contemplative silences. He is a new college graduate, setting off for nowhere in a Dodge Dart, hoping to pull meaning (and a novel) from the expanse of America. He is on Cape Cod, regaling an elderly couple with invented tales of youthful escapades. He is in an art gallery, unwittingly having the first in a lifetime of conversations with the man he would marry. A thread ties each beautifully wrought moment to the next: what is unspoken, what won't yield to language, what is embellished beyond recognition, what is still left to say. Luminous, perceptive, and powerful, Unsayable is an ode to literature, a meditation on craft, and an intimate account of a life spent trying to put into words that which resists depcition. This, it turns out, is the lifeblood of the fiction writer: the impossibility of capturing the human experience, and the relentless desire to try.....

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The Nord Stream conspiracy : the inside story of the explosions that shook the world

Pancevski, Bojan, author.

In September 2022, Scandinavian seismologists detected what seemed to be an undersea earthquake near the Danish Island of Bornholm. Instead, several powerful explosions had destroyed Nord Stream, the $20 billion pipeline system that transported cheap Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The mysterious blasts shifted global geopolitics, disrupted European economies, and triggered a manhunt that strained relations within the NATO alliance. Drawing on years of firsthand reporting, award-winning Wall Street Journal correspondent Bojan Pancevski presents the definitive, behind-the-scenes account of this audacious operation. He secured exclusive access to the German investigators and their political overseers, as well as the Ukrainian operatives who executed the attack--a team of intelligence officers, military personnel, and civilian divers. The saboteurs, operating on a shoestring budget, used a small, rented yacht with a seven-member crew, and the plot also involved a failed attack on another key Russian pipeline in the Black Sea. Moreover, according to Pancevski's sources, the mission was authorized at the highest levels of Ukraine's leadership: President Volodymyr Zelensky and then commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces, General Valeriy Zaluzhny, at least initially, approved the mission. The Nord Stream Conspiracy addresses the two leading theories about who was responsible, Russia or the U.S., and explains how these narratives developed, including the popular U.S. theory involving the C.I.A (which knew about the plot) endorsed by prominent political and media figures. This gripping account exposes the human stories and moral complexities behind one of the most remarkable geopolitical mysteries of our time, which redefined modern warfare.....

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Tell me where it hurts : the new science of pain and how to heal

Zoffness, Rachel, author.

Every one of us will experience pain, be it back pain, the pain of childbirth, or living in an aging body. Not a single one of us will escape. But what if everything you thought you knew about pain was ... wrong? We've been told that pain is purely physical, something to do just with bones and body parts. The truth is that pain is constructed by the brain -- influenced not just by injuries, but also by emotions, expectations, and environment. This means you have infinitely more control over pain than you ever imagined: because if the brain can change, pain can change. Rooted in cutting-edge neuroscience and rich patient stories, Dr. Rachel Zoffness completely upends the myths we've been sold -- finally reconnecting physical and emotional pain, and providing a roadmap for healing. The fact is that chronic pain is treatable. But to do that, we must target the whole person -- not just a body part. A groundbreaking, revolutionary book that finally offers access to the world's most powerful painkiller: YOU.....

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Fodor's Pacific Northwest

Whether you want to visit a stunning national park, go wine-tasting in Oregon's Willamette Valley, or experience the culture of Seattle, Portland, or Vancouver, the local Fodor's travel experts in the Pacific Northwest are here to help! Fodor's Pacific Northwest guidebook is packed with maps, carefully curated recommendations, and everything else you need to simplify your trip-planning process and make the most of your time.....

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Live laugh love : the secret history of white Christian women and the world they made

Du Mez, Kristin Kobes, author.

Live Laugh Love explores a world intimately familiar to millions of American women: Christian bookstores and radio, Hallmark movies, multilevel marketing companies, and contemporary lifestyle brands. This consumer culture may seem trivial, but Du Mez demonstrates that it has an unlikely and revealing history that stretches all the way back to the late nineteenth century and the emergence of New Thought, a movement that championed the power of the mind to shape reality. Du Mez shows how this idea drew together disparate traditions, including Mormonism, holiness evangelicalism, and holiness theology's charismatic offshoots. Usually seen as distinct, these creeds in fact overlapped, and in the process gave rise to prosperity theologies and to the gospel of positive thinking. But positivity had a dark side. Du Mez introduces us to religious innovators who taught that positive thinking was the secret to spiritual and material success, and reveals how these notions gave rise to a new feminine ideal. As women read prairie fiction; bought and sold Tupperware containers and Mary Kay makeup; shopped at Hobby Lobby, Target, and Altar'd State; and decorated homes with shiplap, they moved freely between the religious and the secular. Marketed as empowering, these products were part of a consumer culture that elevated domesticity and vulnerability while exposing women to systems susceptible to manipulation. Combining sweeping cultural history with intimate storytelling, Du Mez explains how theological exclusion led women to build their own brand of Christianity, rich in cultural influence if thin in formal doctrine. Ultimately, Live Laugh Love explains how a powerful yet elusive vision of womanhood has shaped lives, families, and politics for more than a century now--and how it has brought us to our reactionary moment.....

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Crossing the wine-dark sea : journeys through ancient literature

Wilson, Emily R., 1971- author

In this sharp and often entertaining tour through antiquity, Emily Wilson--whose renditions of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad have captured a generation's imagination--explores the complicated terrain of reading and writing about the ancient past. Drawing on twenty years of scholarship and teaching, Wilson explores the difficult choices that translators must make, the pleasures of finding new solutions to old problems, and the inevitable frustrations of never fully capturing what is in the original work. Across chapters that range from the politics of Helen of Troy to the obscenities of Aristophanes, from Roman imitation of Greek models to contemporary debates over 'foreignizing' and 'domesticizing' styles, Wilson examines how modern norms of gender, sexuality, violence, humor, and power complicate our readings of ancient works, and how translation always risks denaturing what is unique and strange about the ancient world. Brilliant, erudite, and yet accessible to readers with no classical background, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea is at once an introduction to the wonders of Greek and Roman literature, a manifesto for the value of translation in a rapidly changing world, and an invitation to encounter ancient cultures anew.....

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Protocols : an operating manual for the human body

Huberman, Andrew, author.

Dr. Andrew Huberman, host of the world's leading health podcast, Huberman Lab, and neuroscientist and tenured professor at Stanford School of Medicine, introduces Protocols, an essential guide to improving brain function, enhancing mood and energy, optimizing bodily health and physical performance, and rewiring your nervous system to learn new skills and behaviors that can transform your life. Protocols provides simple, powerful, and evidence-based solutions to life's most common challenges. Designed to improve your mental health, physical health, and performance, these guidelines are customizable, allowing you to adapt them to your specific needs. With his clear and engaging style, Dr. Huberman explains the scientific principles behind each protocol and how they can deliver immediate, effective results.....

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The cure at Walden Pond : a guide to recovering our humanity

Moore, Thomas, 1940- author.

Among the pages of Henry David Thoreau’s journals and his legendary Walden, Thomas Moore, beloved bestselling author, psychotherapist, and public thinker, has found transformative ideas and approaches that promise to help us live better. As Moore writes, “We need to make the journey to our own ‘Walden Pond’ and find a cure for our cultural lostness.” Like Moore’s own million-copy-bestselling Care of the Soul, The Cure at Walden Pond will be widely heralded among readers for its beautiful prose, accessible voice, and profound insights into the human condition. Thoreau was disillusioned in his day by the same kind of frantic consumerism, round-the-clock work, and narrow imagination that trouble us today. Moore will help readers slow down, be more present and mindful in their relationships with their loved ones, and appreciate the beautiful world we share. For Moore, as for Thoreau, there is immense spiritual power all around us. New Hampshire’s Mount Monadnock is a “natural temple” for all New Englanders, a place of reverence and renewal, and Moore encourages us to find our own places of rejuvenation. There is neglected spirituality — and humanity — in the everyday objects that sustain us too. Moore explores his own memories of an old farmhouse, a grinding stone, and an out-of-tune piano that bring him back to his childhood and his family history. The journey to Walden Pond is an essential American pilgrimage, and The Cure at Walden Pond embodies Thoreau's essence, guiding us through Thoreau's precepts so we can find more harmony in our communities and in ourselves. Immersing ourselves in the music of the natural world.....

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Up on Cove Mountain : adventure, tragedy, and a quest for meaning on the Appalachian Trail

Swift, Earl 1958- author.

In 1990, a youthful Earl Swift backpacked the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, a transformative experience that colored every aspect of his later life. He emerged from his hike across the rugged, sky-high roof of fourteen eastern states a sharper and more organized thinker, a better problem solver, and a committed outdoorsman. But he also left the AT with baggage: Early in his odyssey, he spent time with a couple of other southbounders, who were friendly, capable, and doing everything right, but who were nonetheless murdered weeks later at a mountaintop campsite in Pennsylvania -- a fit of violence that the killer never explained. Half a lifetime later, Swift returned to the trail to find out whether he was still, in his sixties, equal to the AT's roller-coaster terrain. Driving him, too, was a quest for answers that had nagged at him since that first hike: What had happened at that campsite to turn two smart, bighearted people into prey? Why had fate chosen them, when other hikers -- Swift included -- seemed more likely candidates? And how could such a grisly episode have unfolded in the backcountry's sylvan loveliness, not to mention one of the safest places around?....

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Let us do good : my brother Stephen, 9/11, and the mission to honor America's heroes

Siller, Frank (Chairman of Tunnel to Towers Foundation), author.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, FDNY Firefighter Stephen Siller had just finished his shift and was heading home when he heard the call. Turning his truck around, he drove toward lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center. With the roads closed, Stephen ran through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel carrying sixty pounds of gear on his back, determined to save as many people as he could from the Twin Towers. He never made it home. How does a family cope with such a profound loss--and turn it into a global movement of hope and action? In this moving and inspiring book, Stephen's brother, Frank Siller, tells the powerful story of his family's promise to "do good" in Stephen's name, establishing a nonprofit organization--the Tunnel to Towers Foundation of which he is CEO--that transformed tragedy into triumph by helping those in need. Let Us Do Good recounts how the idea for Tunnel to Towers was born, how it found ally after ally among everyday citizens, celebrities with ties to first responders, and companies eager to join the Foundation on their mission, and the good works the Foundation has accomplished. From providing mortgage-free homes to the families of fallen first responders and military members to building state-of-the-art smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans to providing housing and comprehensive services for homeless veterans, this inspiring memoir details the incredible impact of this outstanding foundation that honors Stephen's life and his commitment to helping others. A story of joy and purpose in the face of incredible loss, Let Us Do Good is a testament to the power of faith, family, and community that demonstrates how the choice to honor sacrifice can create a legacy of light in the darkest of times. Most importantly, Frank Siller shows how much every dollar donated has meant to other heroes, celebrating all who have contributed to making good out of tragedy.....

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Situated : find the people and places that bring out your best

Duckworth, Angela, author.

In Angela Duckworth’s first book, she showed that a common denominator of successful strivers is a blend of passion and perseverance she dubbed “grit.” This second book springs from her deepening realization that grit, while necessary, is sometimes not sufficient. How you situate yourself to meet a challenge can be crucial. Duckworth’s in-depth research reveals the enormous influence wielded by the objects within arm’s reach, your peers and mentors, and even your zip code. Though you’re often told to make the best of your situation, it is far, far better to make your situation better first. Highlighting four essential elements of successful situations, Duckworth shows how high performers like Taylor Swift, Michael Phelps, and Jerry Seinfeld create situations that make it easier to excel. And, with disarming honesty, she shares her own struggles with burnout and marriage—and how learning to change her situation, not herself, made all the difference. Whatever it is you want to achieve, there’s a situation that can make your journey easier. It takes effort to make your situation your ally—but a little effort goes a long way...when you get situated.....

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American scoundrel : Roy Cohn's dark journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump

Bird, Kai, author.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the many dramas of American political life had one common denominator: Roy Cohn. In his twenties, the infamous young prosecutor sent Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair, and as the chief aide to Senator Joe McCarthy became the baby-faced symbol of ruthless communist-hunting. By his thirties, Cohn had begun working as the Mafia's hired legal gun. In his forties, he was an informal adviser to Richard Nixon. In his fifties, he partied with the glitterati at Studio 54 and visited the Reagan White House where he traded gossip with the first lady. Perhaps most significant, Cohn mentored the young Donald Trump, who telephoned the older man daily and studiously emulated not only his mannerisms but core philosophies. Years after his death in 1986 from AIDS-related complications, Cohn emerged as a central figure in Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America. Cohn's feistiness, his surly defiance -- and, yes, his charm -- were frequently flourished to conceal vast insecurities, particularly regarding his closeted sexuality. A streetfighter, self-promoting hustler, and true Zelig of the dark side, Cohn was a nefarious actor in a startling number of history-shaping events whose influence resonates to the present day.....

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Cooking the borderlands : spice and smoke between Mexico and the States

Zepeda, Claudette, author.

This is a story of a culinary identity formed between and across cultures, told through recipes, anecdotes, and an irreverent sense of humor. Cooking the Borderlands takes us on a journey, from Claudette's home on the Pacific coast of Tijuana and San Diego, where seafood rules and the Caesar salad was born, and heads all the way east, to Texas and Matamoros. Along the way, we feast on Chinese-Mexican pork buns, Sonoran hot dogs with scallion crema and the crunch of bacon, spicy rib eye aguachiles, Indigenous energy drinks, and smoky meat-infused cowboy beans. Because, for the people who've lived in the borderlands their whole lives, the border isn't meant to be a place to divide, it's a place to come together.....

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Protein-packed vegetarian : easy, nourishing recipes to fuel your day

Elkus, Grace author

Achieve your daily protein goals without relying on meat through 100 nutritious, energizing, and delicious vegetarian recipes. Maintaining a high protein diet doesn't mean you have to eat more meat. Recipe developer and content creator Grace Elkus specializes in easy, high-protein vegetarian recipes that transform powerhouse ingredients like beans, eggs, tofu, and cottage cheese into delicious, nutritionally balanced meals you'll be excited to eat. Whether you're looking to fuel your workouts or simply feel more energized throughout the day, Untitled Feel-Good Go-Tos will help you load up on the nutrients you need to feel your best. These quick, pantry-friendly recipes make it easy to get nourishing food on the table on even the most hectic days. Untitled is filled with veggie-packed and creative meals with smart tips to boost protein in ways that aren't repetitive or boring-you'll find no-wilt salads to meal prep for the week, flavorful tofu dishes you'll crave, and sweet treats that pack a protein punch. You'll have no shortage of recipes for every meal of the day, with chapters including: Breakfast: Peanut Butter & Blueberry Overnight Oats; Freezer Egg & Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches; Fluffy Cottage Cheese Pancakes Lunch: Veggie Crunch Hummus Sandwich; Black Bean, Veggie, and Cheese Quesadilla; Chopped Salad for Every Season Snacks to Fuel You: Homemade Protein Boxes; Cookie Dough Bark; Stovetop Popcorn Dinner: Sticky Tofu and Crispy Rice Bites; Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta; Black Bean Burger Melts with Crispy Potato Wedges Desserts: Magic Shell Yogurt Cups; Double Chocolate Brownies; Cottage Cheese Ice Cream With make-ahead options, short ingredient lists, and options for swaps and customization, these versatile vegetarian recipes will become your everyday go-to's.....

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