Simon & Schuster strana 20 z 99

A moving portrait of friendship by Elyce Arons as she reflects on her long relationship with Kate Spade, whom she met in college and with whom she cofounded the multi-billion-dollar fashion company as they came of age in 1990s New York.When Elyce Arons first met Katy Brosnahan in a University of Kansas dorm room, she had no idea that this polo shirt–wearing Missouri girl would not only become her best friend but also change the course of her life. Back then, Katy and Elyce were preoccupied with frat parties and The Mary Tyler Moore Show; within a decade, they’d be scraping by in New York City, working day jobs to spend nights building a new line of handbags that would one day revolutionize the accessories industry. We Might Just Make It After All brings us on the rollercoaster of adventures (and misadventures) that the best friends embarked on, from transferring colleges on a whim, to falling in and out of love with suitors, cramming into roach-infested Hell’s Kitchen apartments, and eventually designing the chic, simple bag that would launch the pair to global fame. Through it all, Katy and Elyce’s friendship remained unshakeable. This powerful friendship lasted nearly forty years, until Katy’s tragic suicide in 2018. We Might Just Make It After All celebrates her legacy as a cultural icon and loyal friend. Set against the glitzy and gritty backdrop of downtown New York at the turn of the century, We Might Just Make It After All lovingly and candidly explores the power of a friendship as close as sisterhood, the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in the 1990s, and the timeless elegance of a generation-defining brand.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Former White House Press Secretary and current MSNBC host Jen Psaki shares the surprising lessons she’s learned on her path to success and offers unique yet universal advice about how to be a more effective communicator in any situation.Not many White House Press Secretaries capture the nation’s interest the way Jen Psaki did. Refreshingly candid and clear, Psaki quickly became known for her ability to break through the noise and successfully deliver her message. In her highly anticipated book, Psaki shares her journey to the Briefing Room and beyond, taking you along the campaign trail, to the State Department, and inside the White House under two Presidents. With her signature wit, Psaki writes about reporting to bosses from the hot-tempered Rahm Emanuel to the coolly intellectual Barack Obama to the surprisingly tenderhearted John Kerry. She also talks about her time working closely with President Joe Biden from the start of his administration to set a new tone for the country, restoring a sense of calm and respect for the role of the media in our Democracy. Since leaving the White House, Psaki’s star has continued to rise. She launched a highly rated show on MSNBC and was so successful that in just six months she was given an additional primetime Monday slot, ahead of Rachel Maddow. And Psaki’s work doesn’t end at the office. She is the mother of two young children and shares her stories about the journey of communicating as a parent: During one bedtime briefing, her young daughter asked the question, “Why do wars start?”, which Jen carefully explained and then got a follow up: “Have you ever seen a unicorn?” In Say More, Psaki explains her straightforward approach to communication, walking you through difficult conversations as well as moments where humor saves the day—whether it is with preschoolers, partners, or presidents. She addresses the best ways to give and receive feedback, how to connect with your audience, how to listen actively, and much more. Say More is the book Psaki wishes she had when she started her career, and is a trove of entertaining, essential lessons from one of the most prominent voices in American politics today.

A New York Times bestselling memoir from Olympic gold medalist, world champion, and the most decorated US female Olympian in history: Katie Ledecky.Katie Ledecky has won more individual Olympic races than any female swimmer in history. She is a four-time Olympian, a nine-time gold medalist, a twenty-one-time world champion, eight-time NCAA Champion, and a world record-holder in individual swimming events. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, she became the most decorated US female Olympian of all time. Time and again, the question is posed to her family, her coaches, and to her—what makes her a champion? Now, for the first time, she shares what it takes to compete at an elite level. Again and again, Ledecky has broken records: those of others and, increasingly, her own. She is both consistent and innovative—consistent at setting goals and shattering them, and innovative in the way she approaches her training. A true competitor, she sets her goals by choosing the ones that feel the scariest. But, crucially, she never sacrifices the joy of competition, even in the face of adversity. Her positive mental outlook and a great support system provides the springboard to her success. Just Add Water charts Ledecky’s life in swimming. It details her start in Bethesda, Maryland, where she played sharks and minnows and first discovered the joy of the pool; her early foray into the Olympics at the tender age of fifteen where, as the youngest member of the American team, she stunned everyone by winning her first gold medal; her time balancing competition and her education at Stanford University; how she developed a champion’s mindset that has allowed her to persevere through so many meets, even under intense pressure; and how she has maintained her dominance in a sport where success depends on milliseconds. You learn how every element of her life—from the support of her family to the tutelage of her coaches, from her childhood spent in summer league swimming to the bright lights of Olympic pools in London, Rio, and Tokyo—set her up to become the champion she is. In the end, Katie’s story is about testing yourself against the difficult, and seeing who you become on the other side.

From the author of The North Wind comes a darkly reimagined tale of forbidden love, inspired by the Greek myth of Hero and Leander and the Scottish ballad Tam Lin. Brielle of Thornbrook has dedicated her life to the abbey. She spends her days forging iron and her evenings studying the Text, all in preparation of becoming an acolyte. Twenty-one years on this earth and she has never touched a man. And she never will. But when she finds an injured stranger in the forest, Brielle can't resist the urge to help him. The encounter leads her to the realm of Under, where the air breathes rot, and the fair folk dance and whisper. Where she discovers that the man she helped is actually a god: Zephyrus, the West Wind, Bringer of Spring. There are few Brielle can trust in Under, least of all Zephyrus. He is charming, dangerously so, and never has a man so thoroughly ensnared her. As she embarks on a journey through the eerie banks and caves of Under, Brielle finds herself in a perilous situation. For here is where faith and heart collide - and where she risks not only her future… but her life. Beloved by readers on TikTok, The West Wind is a standalone fantasy romance sprinkled with Greek lore, the second in the Four Winds series. Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Scarlett St. Clair and Raven Kennedy.

From USA TODAY bestselling author Nana Malone, a romance about a Ghanaian American heiress faced with the dilemma of choosing between culture and a love connection. During an opulent publishing party, Ofosua Addo crosses paths with Cole Drake for the first time. Their flirtatiously witty exchange culminates in a kiss that etches a permanent mark on both their hearts. But Ofosua’s identity as a Ghanaian heiress comes before Cole. She loves the vibrant traditions of Ghana’s Gold Coast, and her hand is already promised to a man that even her overbearing mother loves. Yet, when her big Ghanaian wedding transforms from a fairy tale into a spectacle, she’s thrust into a whirlwind of heartbreak and self-discovery. In the midst of it all, Cole enters her life once again, under circumstances far different from their magical first encounter. Can Ofosua and Cole’s rediscovered spark overcome the weight of tradition?

For readers of Hyperbole and a Half and Am I There Yet ?, Bless the Messy is a compassionate, distinctive, and voice-driven illustrated personal growth book, one that gives readers permission to radically love themselves, feel their feelings, and live with joy even as—especially as—they may fumble through major life moments, or feel othered by society's narrow norms.Supreme of moments beauty and joy can be found in the mess. Jess Bird is living proof of that. As a queer woman who received a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis, Jess is raising her children in a blended family, rewriting the rules as she goes along. Far from being an expert or perfect, she embraces her imperfections and invites you to do the same. By sharing her messy, in-process journey, Jess hopes to connect with those who feel isolated or oppressed by society's narrow norms, making them feel seen and validated. In this illustrated personal growth book, Jess combines self-reflection, encouragement, and practical guidance. She delves into her struggles and triumphs, offering insights on growing through trauma and healing, breaking free from societal expectations, setting boundaries, redefining home and chosen family, finding self-worth, and embracing anti-perfectionism. The mantra “Bless the Messy” runs through it all, reminding us that every emotion, even the uncomfortable ones, is valid and valuable. Bright, hopeful, real, and raw, Bless the Messy is a warm hug of a book that will make you feel a little less alone.

The only thing more dangerous than a king is his heir in this first English translation of the romantic tragedy that inspired the popular TV series from one of China’s best-known authors of heartbreak—perfect for readers of Captive Prince and Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.There is no room for love in an empire. Qu Xiaofeng has been living in Shangjing for three years now. A naïve, happy-go-lucky treaty bride from the desert kingdom of Xiliang, she has everything she could ever want as the crown princess of the Li Empire—everything except the crown prince’s heart. Because Li Chengyin is a heartless boy. Cruel, jealous, and ruthless, he has given his adolescence to the cutthroat contention for the throne and, now that he is the heir presumptive, largely ignores his bride in favor of the girl he seems to really love. Xiaofeng doesn’t mind…much. It leaves her more time to sneak out of the manor to go drinking and riding in the streets, living just the way she wants to. But one day another boy shows up, claiming to be a sweetheart from a life she can’t remember having lived. As Xiaofeng puzzles out the tangled threads of her past and her complicated feelings about the enigmatic, distant husband she loves and hates in equal measure, what she doesn’t realize is that she’s setting a course straight to tragedy. Because the only place more dangerous than the palace is the crown prince’s court, the only thing harder to be than a king is his heir, and the path to the throne is paved with blood. Power will always have its price—the only question is if Xiaofeng will survive long enough to pay.

In this delightfully funny and heartfelt new novel from the author of the “bittersweet page-turner” (The New York Times) The Last Book Party, an American woman travels to the English countryside when she discovers tickets her late mother had purchased for a murder mystery simulation in a small British town.When thirty-four-year-old Cath loses her mostly absentee mother, she is ambivalent. With days of quiet, unassuming routine in Buffalo, New York, Cath consciously avoids the impulsive, thrill-seeking lifestyle that her mother once led. But when she’s forced to go through her mother’s things one afternoon, Cath is perplexed to find tickets for an upcoming “murder week” in England’s Peak District: a whole town has come together to stage a fake murder mystery to attract tourism to their quaint hamlet. Baffled but helplessly intrigued by her mother’s secret purchase, Cath decides to go on the trip herself—and begins a journey she never could have anticipated. Teaming up with her two cottage-mates, both ardent mystery lovers—Wyatt Green, forty, who works unhappily in his husband’s birding store, and Amity Clark, fifty, a divorced romance writer struggling with her novels—Cath sets about solving the “crime” and begins to unravel shocking truths about her mother along the way. Amidst a fling—or something more—with the handsome local maker of artisanal gin, Cath and her irresistibly charming fellow sleuths will find this week of fake murder may help them face up to a very real crossroads in their own lives. Witty, wise, and deliciously escapist, Welcome to Murder Week is a fresh, inventive twist on the murder mystery and a touching portrayal of one daughter’s reckoning with her grief, her past—and her own budding sense of adventure.

Wellness, motherhood, and technology converge in a near future California, as three women’s seemingly innocuous decisions have further-reaching consequences than any of them could imagine in this timely, clever, and white-knuckled thriller that “is dystopia at its best” (Booklist). In 2060, the WellPod is the latest launch from the largest tech company the world has ever seen—a fleet of floating personal paradises scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean, focused entirely on health, solitude, and relaxation. Created by an enigmatic founder who will stop at nothing to ensure her company’s success, it is the long-awaited pinnacle of wellness technology. For newly pregnant Maggie, the six-week program is the perfect chance to get away…especially since the baby isn’t her partner’s. Noa Behar isn’t a perfect fiancée. She’s too distracted, too focused on her work in helping program the WellPod to give Maggie the attention she deserves. But when she discovers something rotten beneath WellPod’s shiny exterior—a history of faulty tech and dangerous cover-ups—she knows one thing: she’ll do whatever it takes to keep Maggie safe. The problem? The malfunctioning WellPods are already at sea. And there’s a storm coming… A fast-paced and compelling thriller, You’re Safe Here “serves up twists on twists on twists, building to an ending that no amount of AI-powered computing could ever hope to predict” (Nick Fuller Googins, author of The Great Transition).

Asya and Manu are looking at apartments, envisioning their future in a foreign city. Removed from the web of family and its obligations, what traditions and rituals should they establish together? As they dream about the possibilities of each new listing, Asya, a documentary filmmaker, spends her days gathering footage from the neighbourhood park like an anthropologist observing local customs, anxious to know how people really live. 'Forget about daily life,' chides her grandmother on the phone, 'no one cares about that.' Meanwhile, life back in Asya and Manu's respective home countries continues - parents age, grandparents get sick, nieces and nephews grow up - all just slightly beyond their reach. But the world they're making in their new city is growing, too, they hope. As they open up the horizons of their lives, what and whom will they hold onto, and what will they need to release? Unfolding over a series of apartment viewings, late-night conversations, last rounds of drinks and lazy breakfasts, The Anthropologists is a soulful examination of home-building and modern love, written with Aysegül Savas' distinctive elegance, warmth and humour.

An electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, about addiction and sex, family and independence, and who holds the power in a modern underworld. Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she's in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears.

Australian BookTok star Stacey McEwan's stunning new slow-burn romantasy duology traces a fated pair who stumble upon a world-changing secret in youth and are catapulted into a violent class war in adulthood, finding each other amidst love, loss and devasting betrayals. Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson are only twelve years old when they are whisked from their disenfranchised mining towns to dazzling Belavere City to test for magical abilities. Nina's lifelong dream is to become an Artisan, a powerful elemental mage who fulfills the city's grand ambitions, while Patrick wants only to reunite with his family of Craftsmen in the mines. But together, they discover a devastating secret: Artisans aren't born, they're chosen. With this information, they part ways. Patrick returns home, while Nina finds her place as one of the rarest, most coveted types of Artisan. When a Craftsman revolution ignites years later, Nina is captured by Patrick's rebel group - and he hasn't forgotten her. In fact, he needs her help for a mission that could shift the tides against Belavere City. She reluctantly agrees to aid him, battling the sparks between them. But when Nina's first love reappears, asking her to betray Patrick for the Artisans, she faces an impossible choice that will determine the fate of their world. A concoction of all the best romantasy tropes: Elemental magic Found family Tension & Slow burn Political Intrigue / Class War

All aboard for this bold and graphic visual history of trains and railroads by award-winning author-illustrator Lynn Curlee—now with a new look!A symbol of adventure and possibility, trains have been getting people and things to where they need to go for almost two centuries! First, steam engines hissed billowing clouds into the air, then gleaming diesel locomotives pulled boxcars, freight cars, and sleek passenger cars north, south, east, and west. The story of how trains began barreling across the landscape is one of new machines, new inventions, new jobs, and new hopes. Railroad travel started with steam-powered wagons on a tramway and developed into a technology that would change the day-to-day life of Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—and forever connect one coast to another.

A fully updated and expanded edition of the essential guide, with a new foreword by Quit Like a Woman author Holly Whitaker.Revised and expanded, this tenth anniversary edition of Beyond Addiction eschews the theatrics of interventions and tough love to show family and friends how they can use kindness, positive reinforcement, and motivational and behavioral strategies to help their loved ones overcome addiction problems and compulsive behaviors. Drawing on decades of collective research and clinical experience at the most progressive addiction treatment center in the United States, the authors present the best practical advice science has to offer—now updated with the latest research, case examples, and resources. Through guided exercises, examples, and tips for navigating the system, readers can tap the transformative power of relationships for positive change and discover the best treatment option for their loved one. And have hope: this seminal guide is designed not only to help someone change but also to help someone want to change.

Have YOU ever had a bad week? The hilarious new series taking the world by storm. Just when Justin thought nothing could top the diabolical disasters and harrowing humiliations of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Zombie Apocalypse, anyone?!) along comes ... Sunday! It's categorically the worst! There's a catastrophic alien invasion and the fate of the entire planet rests solely on Justin's shoulders. (And he can't even do one push up!) Brace yourself for the cataclysmic conclusion to the global hit series.

Jaxon Riley is exceptional at three things: starting fights on the ice, picking up women post-game, and going home to fulfill his role as the world’s best cat dad. Relationships, unfortunately, missed the list. Lennon Hayes is supposed to be on her honeymoon. Instead, she’s alone and single, vacationing next door to a surly tattooed man who ran his date off the resort. When a run-in at the bar results in a night of bickering and cocktails, she finds herself tumbling into bed with the enemy next door, then sneaking out before the sun comes up. Lennon’s plan to start over in a new city is going great, until she starts her new job. The job? The Vancouver Vipers’ new photographer. And the defenseman scowling at her from across the room? The one-night stand she wasn’t supposed to see again. Good thing neither of them are looking for anything serious… Right? Jaxon may not be used to falling, but if he’s going to go, he refuses to go alone. If he falls, he wants Lennon to fall with him.