"The first thing I need you to know is that becoming a teacher was the most important thing that ever happened to me." With these words, Kaycee Eckhardt begins a journey both harrowing and hopeful: The story of becoming an effective teacher, of building a new school, and of changing the face of education in Post-Katrina New Orleans. Beginning as a first year teacher, barely out of six weeks of training, the book follows her path from the New Orleans neighborhoods of Holly Grove, Algiers, T...

**An inspiring visual guide to a richer life.“If there’s a thinker to steal from, it’s Jessica Hagy.”—Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist and Newspaper Blackout**How to Be Interesting is passionate, positive, down-to-earth, and irrepressibly upbeat, combining fresh and pithy life lessons, often just a sentence or two, with deceptively simple diagrams and graphs. Each of the book's more than 100 spreads will nudge readers a little bit further out o...

Regardless of how positive you try to be, there are always people who want to make you miserable. Whether it is on purpose or unintentional, these individuals seem to have no other purpose in life but to ruin your self-esteem. This short guide contains quick and simple advice to help you overcome these people and situations and achieve the happiness you deserve.How to Be Happy When Other People are Making You Miserable: A Quick Guide is very helpful in overcoming the miser...

Sample chapters from Predictably Irrational and Upside of Irrationality.Predictably IrrationalWhy do our headaches persist after we take a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a fifty-cent aspirin?Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save twenty-five cents on a can of soup?When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we're making smart, rational choices. But are we?In this newly revised and expanded edition of the ...

"We all know bad manners when we see them," NPR and Vanity Fair contributor Henry Alford observes at the beginning of his new book. But what, he asks, do good manners look like in our day and age? When someone answers their cell phone in the middle of dining with you, or runs you off the sidewalk with their doublewide stroller, or you enter a post-apocalyptic public restroom, the long-revered wisdom of Emily Post can seem downright prehistoric.Troubled by the absence of go...

In this companion volume to the bestselling Choice Theory, Dr. William Glasser and his wife, Carleen Glasser, have imagined typical conversations in real-life situations--between parent and child, two partners in a relationship, teacher and student, and boss and employee. On the left-hand page is a typical controlling order or threat, and on the right a more reasonable version, using choice theory, which is more likely to get a favorable response from the child, lover, student, or employee...

In the spirit of Gretchen Rubin’s megaseller The Happiness Project and Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss, a journalist embarks on a project to discover what it takes to love where you liveThe average restless American will move 11.7 times in a lifetime. For Melody Warnick, it was move #6, from Austin, Texas, to Blacksburg, Virginia, that threatened to unhinge her. In the lonely aftermath of unpacking, she wondered: Aren’t we supposed to put...

"[S]tirring...a bold, inspiring and ultimately hopeful book."--Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post and author of the New York Times bestseller ThriveKaitlin Roig-Debellis is the first-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School who saved her entire class of fifteen six- and-seven-year-olds from the tragic events that took place on December 14, 2012, by piling them into a single-occupancy bathroom with...

In this insightfully honest and moving memoir about the realities of teaching in an inner-city school, Ed Boland "smashes the dangerous myth of the hero-teacher [and] shows us how high the stakes are for our most vulnerable students" (Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black).In a fit of idealism, Ed Boland left a twenty-year career as a non-profit executive to teach in a tough New York City public high school. But his hopes quickly collided headlon...

Imagine driving home alone at night. You roll your window down, stop at a red light, and fiddle with the radio.Then you die.That's just the beginning of award-winning writer Annie Reed's story THEY LIE, the harrowing tale of one young woman's savage death and rebirth as a vampire."The appearance of a new Annie Reed story is a treat. Try one and you'll be hooked." -- Dave Hendrickson, author of CRACKING THE ICE, forthcoming from WestSide Press"A friend recomm...

Shame is a powerful thing. It can weigh on your heart and mind, diminish your sense of self-worth, and impact the way you live in the world. But what happens when you share that secret burden?Amy Ferris, Hollye Dexter, and the writers they brought together are all ready to let go of shame. In Dancing at the Shame Prom, twenty-six extraordinary women-Lyena Strelkoff, Teresa Stack, Monica Holloway, Nina Burleigh, Amy Friedman, Meredith Resnick, Victoria Zackheim, and more—ta...

When you need a nudge to get your creative juices flowing, writing prompts are the solution. Whether you are tired of staring at a blank page or are looking for something different to write about, the following 300 prompts will get you going.