What You Get At Home

“Text Me has the thrills and laughs of a romantic comedy, but with an inverted message: ‘There just isn't only one love story in our lives,’ Schaefer writes. If you’re lucky, friends will be the protagonists in these multiple love stories. It’s high time that we start seeing it that way.”—NPR.org A personal and sociological examination—and ultimately a celebration—of the evolution of female friendship in pop culture and modern society For too long, women have been told that we are terrible at being friends, that we can’t help being cruel or competitive, or that we inevitably abandon each other for romantic partners. But we are rejecting those stereotypes and reclaiming the power of female friendship. In Text Me When You Get Home, journalist Kayleen Schaefer interviews more than one hundred women about their BFFs, soulmates, girl gangs, and queens while tracing this cultural shift through the lens of pop culture. Our love for each other is reflected in Abbi and Ilana, Issa and Molly, #squadgoals, the acclaim of Girls Trip and Big Little Lies, and Galentine’s Day. Schaefer also includes her own history of grappling with a world that told her to rely on men before she realized that her true source of support came from a strong tribe of women. Her personal narrative and celebration of her own relationships weaves throughout the evolution of female friendship on-screen, a serious look at how women have come to value one another and our relationships. Text Me When You Get Home is a validation that has never existed before. A thoughtful, heart-soaring, deeply reported look at how women are taking a stand for their friendships and not letting go.

When SPC Kayla Williams and SGT Brian McGough met at a mountain outpost in Iraq in 2003, only their verbal sparring could have betrayed a hint of attraction. Neither could have predicted the sequence of events that would shape their lives. Brian, on his way back to base after mid-tour leave, was wounded by a roadside bomb that sent shrapnel through his brain. Kayla waited anxiously for news and, on returning home, sought out Brian. The two began a tentative romance and later married, but neither anticipated the consequences of Brian’s injury on their lives. Lacking essential support for returning veterans from the military and the VA, Kayla and Brian suffered through posttraumatic stress amplified by his violent mood swings, her struggles to reintegrate into a country still oblivious to women veterans, and what seemed the callous, consumerist indifference of civilian society at large. Kayla persevered. So did Brian. They fought for their marriage, drawing on remarkable reservoirs of courage and commitment. They confronted their demons head-on, impatient with phoniness of any sort. Inspired by an unwavering ethos of service, they continued to stand on common ground. Finally, they found their own paths to healing and wholeness, both as individuals and as a family, in dedication to a larger community.

What the critics are saying about Just Wait Until We Get Home: "It looks like a really great book...judging it by its cover. I haven't actually read it yet, but I hope to soon."--Boston Accent & Times Tribune "A subtle murder mystery with deep, complex characters and an interesting, involved subplot make this story a real suspense-filled page turner...or no, wait, hold the line a second, that's a different book entirely. Uhm, I believe we have some sort of mix up here. Sorry about that. Nevermind!"--Southern Drawl & Globe Gazette "The book Just Wait Until We Get Home! is an abomination. It is in no way representative of the people of the great Midwest, the heartland of our country. We are not all vandals and criminals. I think Tristram Hoosier should get a day job."--Midwestern Twang & Town Crier In Tristram Hoosier's second book about his family and growing up in Gary, Indiana, a neighbor's garage burns down, a grandmother reminisces about how Tristram's great-grandfather was arrested during Prohibition, an aunt makes a drug bust, a neighbor kid builds a real, working cannon in metal shop and a church bake sale turns into a disaster. Just Wait Until We Get Home! clearly illustrates that it's never too early to start procrastinating.

The chief chronicler of the Beat Generation portrays the hangover that followed the giddy early days of the movementin this poignant follow-up to Go Dan Verger and May Delano share a loft in New York City, but the passion that brought them together has turned brittle and sour, much like the boozy parties and late-night discussions that so thrilled them a few years ago. The brightest lights of their circle have moved on—visionary poet David Stofksy to a job in advertising, novelist Gene Pasternak to Mexico—and Dan and May eventually decide to do the same, abandoning each other to return to their respective hometowns. On the Connecticut seashore, Dan contemplates the trip to Europe that he has always promised himself, but finds his dissipated habits hard to break. Killing time with Old Man Molineaux, the charismatic town drunk, Dan recognizes what his life might look like in 30 years. Meanwhile, May returns to Louisiana and is surprised to discover Paul Hobbes, a New York friend, playing piano in a bar on the African American side of town. At a wild, drug-fueled party in a dilapidated antebellum mansion, May comes face-to-face with the complicated racial dynamics of the Beat movement. Artful and authentic, melancholy yet tender, Get Home Free pays tribute to a generation that, in daring to break with the patterns of the past, profoundly influenced the future of American culture.

Stranded in a world unlike their own. Great opener, for this is the first book telling how our travelers, Vander and Nick, adventure on how they arrived in a place where magic, sword and vast amount of humanoid speices rule the land. How do they try and figure out how to get back to the real world. You know the important and imperative world of college and girls.

Full of longing and melancholy, the stories in What you get at home find comfort and understanding in the unlikeliest of places. In "The Rocking Chair," a piece of furniture simultaneously divides a family and heals old wounds. In a small pool of light and her favourite book the narrator in the title story finds a sense of belonging and purpose. In "Chopsticks," a piano in a personal care home reminds a woman of the sense of wonder and admiration she had for her father as a child. With the power of memory the characters that inhabit What you get at home find the strength to carry on when life is at its most challenging.

"Breathtaking... so much more than a thriller." —Josh Malerman, bestselling author of Bird Box and Malorie "Hits the thriller trifecta: a natural disaster, danger around every corner, and compelling well-drawn characters." —Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author A one-more-page, up-all-night story about two strangers who need each other's help to survive the night after a devastating earthquake shakes Los Angeles. Beegie is riding the bus when the quake hits. The teenager was heading back to her unhappy foster home, but then she’s thrown into a broken world. Roads crumble, storefronts shatter and people run wild. Dessa, a single mom, is enjoying a rare night out when it strikes. Cell towers are down, so without even knowing if her three-year-old daughter is dead or alive, she races to get back across town. As danger escalates in the chaotic streets, Beegie and Dessa meet by a twist of fate and an act of violence. The two form a fragile partnership, relying on each other in ways they never thought possible, and learn who they really are when there’s only one goal: just get home. “A flat-out thriller [that is] also smart and insightful on timely, important ideas…. Heartbreaking and complicated in the best way… This is addictive reading that changes you as you turn the pages and stays with you long after you’ve finished.” —Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is