Smiling Box Monster

Bennington Slipdale, III is ridiculously overqualified and underskilled. With the tsunami of the global pandemic threatening, right before the shut down of the Chicago Public Schools, Bennington abandons his AP Calculus position and flees for higher ground. Now he stands on unfamiliar turf, with jobs hard to find in the new COVID-driven economy. Bennington, or preferably Benny, has no choice but to deliver boxes for the mega e-commerce empire of the universe. The problem is, Benny's painfully slow, fumbles with the evil box scanning device oddly called a Rabbit, and is under constant threat of losing his job where "calculus doesn't get boxes to stoops." Everything he's learned before now is of no use. To make things worse, Benny struggles with an acute fear of failure, or atychiphobia. Slinging boxes is his only chance to redeem himself and not just become another dime a dozen atychiphobe: convinced he was never good at anything and never will be. Will becoming a master box slinger of the wild, wild midwest conquer his fear?

Bennington Slipdale, III is ridiculously overqualified and underskilled. With the tsunami of the global pandemic threatening, right before the shut down of the Chicago Public Schools, Bennington abandons his AP Calculus position and flees for higher ground. Now he stands on unfamiliar turf, with jobs hard to find in the new covid-driven economy. Bennington, or preferably Benny, has no choice but to deliver boxes for the mega e-commerce empire of the universe. The problem is, Benny’s painfully slow, fumbles with the evil box scanning device oddly called a Rabbit, and is under constant threat of losing his job where “calculus doesn’t get boxes to stoops.” Everything he’s learned before now is of no use. To make things worse, Benny struggles with an acute fear of failure, or atychiphobia. Slinging boxes is his only chance to redeem himself and not just become another dime a dozen atychiphobe: convinced he was never good at anything and never will be. Will becoming a master box slinger of the wild, wild midwest conquer his fear?

This is a story of love. Love, which is the same no matter the soul's shell. No one should have to be ashamed of the people they love as we are all human. I love you. Who would have ever thought the words which caused me such dread in the past could ever come to sound so beautiful and feel so very wonderful? Returning to Japan after the loss of his mother, Hitori hopes to start anew. He enters school and longs to make new friends. Quickly, he realizes that friendship will not be the only thing he finds. Befriending a quiet classmate, Hitori finds himself falling hopelessly in love. Akaya is a shy, quiet boy who finds himself stumbling through life, afraid of many things. At first, he is bothered by the outrageous look of the new student. Before long, however, he comes to enjoy the company of the blue haired man and wonders how he made it so long without a friend like Hitori. As their friendship blossoms then turns to love, the boys have to learn to ignore harsh words from school, society and family alike. Despite this, their love grows and soon they realize soul mates really do exist. The sun shines brighter than ever before and the nights aren't nearly as cold as they once were. Love has finally warmed the two distraught souls and created an illusion of serenity. As seasons change, the boys continue to defy society and become something magical. But upon receiving horrible news from his mother, everything in Akaya's life changes. When a time limit is placed on their love, the boys fight to make their remaining time together something meaningful. Love becomes their whole life as they realize they may not get the fairytale ending to their relationship. Without him I am like a book ripped in half. Without the beginning, you would surely be confused and without the end you will never be fulfilled. What could tear these two apart? After fighting past societal norms, school bullying, and angry parents, what could finally break them apart?

Constrained by traditions restricting their movements and speech, the Maithil women of Nepal and India have long explored individual and collective life experiences by sharing stories with one another. Sometimes fantastical, sometimes including a kind of magical realism, these tales allow women to build community through a deeply personal and always evolving storytelling form. In Maithil Women’s Tales, Coralynn V. Davis examines how these storytellers weave together their own life experiences--the hardships and the pleasures--with age-old themes. In so doing, Davis demonstrates, they harness folk traditions to grapple personally as well as collectively with social values, behavioral mores, relationships, and cosmological questions. Each chapter includes stories and excerpts that reveal Maithil women’s gift for rich language, layered plots, and stunning allegory. In addition, Davis provides ethnographic and personal information that reveal the complexity of women’s own lives, and includes works painted by Maithil storytellers to illustrate their tales. The result is a fascinating study of being and becoming that will resonate for readers in women’s and Hindu studies, folklore, and anthropology.

A young man searches for his lost love in both natural and supernatural ways. A mystery slowly unraveling where nobody is quite who you think.

Breastfeeding is natural, but it is not entirely instinctive for either mothers or babies. The Nursing Mother’s Companion has been among the best-selling books on breastfeeding for 25 years, and is respected and recommended by professionals and well loved by new parents for its encouraging and accessible style. Kathleen Huggins equips breastfeeding mothers with all the information they need to overcome potential difficulties and nurse their babies successfully from the first week through the toddler years, or somewhere in between. This fully updated and extensively revised edition provides new information on topics such as: • Nursing after a cesarean • How to resume breastfeeding after weaning (relactation) • Nursing a “near-term” (3–to–5 weeks premature) baby • Treating postpartum headaches and nausea • Nutritional supplements to alleviate postpartum depression • Sharing a baby with baby (co-sleeping) and the risk of SIDS • Introducing solid foods • Expressing, storing, and feeding breast milk • Reviews of breast pumps Readers will also find Huggins’s indispensable problem-solving “survival guides,” set off by colored bands on the pages for quick reference, as well as appendices on determining baby’s milk needs in the first six weeks and the safety of various drugs during breast-feeding. Now more than ever, The Nursing Mother’s Companion is the go-to guide every new mother should have at hand.