Too Pretty To Be Good

A half-orphan, the town slut, unlovable by all. The one the boys liked enough to touch, but not enough to claim. Hands clasped in the dark of closets, but not in the hallway at school. Did you know you can get paid for touching boys in closets? Saddled with a bad reputation, grieving the death of her father, navigating a hostile world of religiosity, hypocrisy, and abuse, Lindsay escapes her ramshackle hometown of Evilland, Virginia, looking for redemption in all the wrong places. Journey across sweat-soaked stages dotted with wadded dollars and the dreams of a thousand women, to the hallowed halls of the ivory tower where florescent lights and tenured dinosaurs reign, to find out how one woman straddling worlds learns to love herself, despite all odds. Speaking with realness, rawness, and relatability, Too Pretty To Be Good is a love letter written directly from the heart of a woman to the people she's loved before-including, finally, herself. Anyone looking to find and forgive themselves regardless of their pasts should look no further than this book. Too Pretty To Be Good teaches us that we are whole and worthy in spite of-in fact, because of-who and where we've been before.

“An anxiety-ridden ride as two girls' lives crash together through secrets, love and danger. . . Captivating and stunningly visual.” —Aiden Thomas, New York Times-bestselling author of Cemetery Boys An electric romance set against a rebel art scene sparks lethal danger for two girls in She's Too Pretty to Burn, an expertly plotted YA thriller by Wendy Heard. The summer is winding down in San Diego. Veronica is bored, caustically charismatic, and uninspired in her photography. Nico is insatiable, subversive, and obsessed with chaotic performance art. They’re artists first, best friends second. But that was before Mick. Delicate, lonely, magnetic Mick: the perfect subject, and Veronica’s dream girl. The days are long and hot—full of adventure—and soon they are falling in love. Falling so hard, they never imagine what comes next. One fire. Two murders. Three drowning bodies. One suspect . . . one stalker. This is a summer they won’t survive. Inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, this sexy psychological thriller explores the intersections of love, art, danger, and power. Christy Ottaviano Books

The fifth sassy and irresistible entry in the Debutante Dropout series finds Andy Kendricks uncovering more than just the beauty secrets of Dallas high society … They call them "pretty parties," and they're the latest rage among Dallas debutantes—get-togethers with light refreshments, heavy gossip, and Dr. Sonja and her magic Botox needles. Former socialite Andy Kendricks normally wouldn't be caught dead at such an event, but she's attending as a favor to her friend Janet, a society reporter in search of a juicy story. And, boy, does she find one when aging beauty queen Miranda DuBois bursts into the room—drunk, disorderly, and packing a pistol. Miranda's wrinkles have seen better days, and she blames it all on Dr. Sonja. Luckily, Andy calms her down and gets her home … where she's found dead the next morning. The police suspect suicide, but Andy knows that no former pageant girl would give up that easily. She's determined to find Miranda's killer herself, but she'll have to be careful. After all, Botox can make you look younger, but it can't bring you back from the grave.

A love story told in the form of an auction catalog. Auction catalogs can tell you a lot about a person -- their passions and vanities, peccadilloes and aesthetics; their flush years and lean. Think of the collections of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Truman Capote, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. In Leanne Shapton's marvelously inventive and invented auction catalog, the 325 lots up for auction are what remain from the relationship between Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris (who aren't real people, but might as well be). Through photographs of the couple's personal effects -- the usual auction items (jewelry, fine art, and rare furniture) and the seemingly worthless (pajamas, Post-it notes, worn paperbacks) -- the story of a failed love affair vividly (and cleverly) emerges. From first meeting to final separation, the progress and rituals of intimacy are revealed through the couple's accumulated relics and memorabilia. And a love story, in all its tenderness and struggle, emerges from the evidence that has been left behind, laid out for us to appraise and appreciate. In an earlier work, Was She Pretty?, Shapton, a talented artist and illustrator, subtly explored the seemingly simple yet powerfully complicated nature of sexual jealousy. In Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris—a very different yet equally original book—she invites us to contemplate what is truly valuable, and to consider the art we make of our private lives.

After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, a professor shares the lessons he's learned—about living in the present, building a legacy, and taking full advantage of the time you have—in this life-changing classic. "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." —Randy Pausch A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull over the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy? When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave—"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"—wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have . . . and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

Hungry for a new drawing challenge? Grab a marker or pen and ENTER CUTE FOOD! The world of cute art has a delicious style of fusing food and character drawings—and this ultra-adorable book by Angela Nguyen features a menagerie of irresistibly sweet creatures. How about a hot dog with an actual dog inside, kitty sushi, or bear eggs on toast? It’s all so simple: ellipses and circles become a plate of pancakes garnished with blueberries that have ears, eyes, and smiles. Turn a triangle into an animal-topped slice of pizza—or add ears to the crust. Angela teaches all the basic techniques, providing a solid foundation for your work, and includes everything from appetizers to desserts and snacks. You’ll want to draw them all . . . and cook up some of your own original ideas, too!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

If he had been with me everything would have been different... I wasn't with Finn on that August night. But I should've been. It was raining, of course. And he and Sylvie were arguing as he drove down the slick road. No one ever says what they were arguing about. Other people think it's not important. They do not know there is another story. The story that lurks between the facts. What they do not know—the cause of the argument—is crucial. So let me tell you...