Without Tess

Tess and Lizzie are sisters, sisters as close as can be, who share a secret world filled with selkies, flying horses, and a girl who can transform into a wolf in the middle of the night. But when Lizzie is ready to grow up, Tess clings to their fantasies. As Tess sinks deeper and deeper into her delusions, she decides that she can't live in the real world any longer and leaves Lizzie and her family forever. Now, years later, Lizzie is in high school and struggling to understand what happened to her sister. With the help of a school psychologist and Tess's battered journal, Lizzie searches for a way to finally let Tess go.

Equal parts heartbreaking, funny, and life-affirming, this is a story about love after the most profound loss, for fans of Jesse Andrews, Rainbow Rowell, and Jennifer Niven. "Required reading." --John Corey Whaley, winner of the Printz Award Seventeen-year-old Tess Fowler has dropped out of high school, tossed her laptop in a freezing lake, then jumped in after it fully clothed. Why? Because Jonah was the boy she knew only through texts and emails but understood to his very core. Jonah was the only boy she’d told she loved and the only boy to say it back. And Jonah was the boy whose suicide she never saw coming. Jonah’s death has sent Tess pinwheeling into grief and confusion. But even though he’s gone, Tess still writes to him. She wants answers to the yawning chasm of questions that’s become her life. At the same time, she’s trying to find solace in her father’s alternative funeral business. Who knew that arranging last rites for prized pets could be so life-affirming? But love, loss, and life are so much more complicated than Tess ever thought . . . especially after she receives a message that turns her already inside-out world totally upside down. As funny as it is heartbreaking and completely unputdownable, Things I’m Seeing Without You shows us what it means to love someone, to lose someone, to wade through the beautiful/strange agony of the aftermath, and somehow love again. "Sometimes hilarious, always affecting." --VOYA "Nails the messiness of grief." --SLJ "Compelling . . . a draw for fans of Nicola Yoon." --BCCB

Britt Baxter is unaware of the effect she has on people. A big-hearted, no-nonsense northern girl, she naturally looks for the best in everyone she meets, but in her attempts to make it as model she finds she struggles against being pinned down on the casting couch by the most unlikely people. So when a happy accident lands her a career as a presenter on breakfast television, it looks as if she has made it out of the modelling world of close-ups and cattle calls and into the big time - or at least daytime TV. But scarcely has Britt had time to wonder at how far she has come, when backstage machinations propel her with ever increasing speed through a series of trapdoors and she soon realises that the drama backstage far eclipses anything that happens in front of the camera.

In Obits. a speaker tries and fails to write obituaries for those whose memorials are missing, those who are represented only as statistics. She considers victims of mass deaths, fictional characters, and her own aunt, asking what does it mean to be an 'I' mourning a 'you' when both have been othered? Centring vulnerability, the various answers to this question pass through trauma, depression, and the experience of being a mixed-race queer woman.

Until recently, Tess Vigeland was a longtime host with Public Radio's Marketplace; it was a rewarding, high-status job, and Tess was very good at it—but she'd begun to feel restless. Without any definite, clear sense of what she wanted to do next (but an absolute certainty that what she'd been doing was no longer truly satisfying), she walked away from her dream job and into a vast unknown. Suddenly she was no longer “Marketplace’s Tess Vigeland,” she was just Tess Vigeland. For the multitude of Americans who change jobs mid-career (by choice or circumstance), the growing legions of freelance workers, and the entrepreneurially-minded who see self-employment as an increasingly more appealing and viable option, Tess Vigeland has created a personal and well-researched account of leaping without a net. With her signature humor, she writes honestly about the fear, uncertainty, and risk involved in leaving the traditional workforce—but also the excitement, resources, and possibilities that are on the other side. Part memoir and part field guide, this book offers a funny, thoughtful, and provocative look at how to find happiness, satisfaction, and success when pursuing a career less ordinary.

A plus-size supermodel tells her powerful personal story and offers inspiration and tips to women everywhere to help them survive and thrive. Mom. Feminist. Plus size. Supermodel. Loud. Proud. Body Activist. Beautiful. Businesswoman. Homemaker. Cat owner. Funny. Outspoken. Wife. Daughters. Lover. Fighter. Survivor… Tess Holliday is many things and perfect is not one of them. But she loves her imperfections—after all, they’ve formed the woman she is today. Tess’s number one rule in life is to love yourself ­no matter who you are, what your faults may be, where you come from, or what dress size you wear! It’s this discovery that has helped her through life—from being abused and bullied about her weight, to raising a kid alone and fending off social media trolls. Now here in this amusingly candid account, the woman at the forefront of the body positive movement—who has been credited with transforming the fashion industry—explains why you should be happy to make mistakes but how to properly learn from them, as well as how to love your imperfections and be comfortable in your own skin, ­no matter how much you have. “[Tess’s] determination and drive to take all the bricks life has thrown her way and build a life full of beautiful experiences…makes this book a page turner. You’ll also be left with so many gems of wise advice, you’ll be ready to not so subtly step into your greatness too.”—Danielle Brooks, star of Orange is the New Black #effyourbeautystandards

From the cover: "When I died, I experienced life so fully an so thoroughly that it will take me an entire lifetime to sort it all out. So, when I woke up, I found the 'unlife' rather dull, providing my little to no insight as I tried to pick through my experiences. That is until I got tired of thinking. Bored, I searched for something to make my 'unlife' more enjoyable, something to make the heinous task of figuring out what 'it all meant' more bearable. Hanna Falk Cross may be that something, but that might be stretching it a bit."

A gripping standalone thriller by the New York Times bestselling author of the Rizzoli & Isles series INTERNATIONAL THRILLER WRITERS AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY LOS ANGELES TIMES AND SUSPENSE MAGAZINE In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, violinist Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music—the Incendio waltz—and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. Full of passion, torment, and chilling beauty, and seemingly unknown to the world, the waltz, its mournful minor key, its feverish arpeggios, appear to dance with a strange life of their own. Julia is determined to master the complex work and make its melody heard. Back home in Boston, from the moment Julia’s bow moves across the strings, drawing the waltz’s fiery notes into the air, something strange is stirred—and Julia’s world comes under threat. The music has a terrifying and inexplicable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed. Convinced that the hypnotic strains of Incendio are weaving a malevolent spell, Julia sets out to discover the man and the meaning behind the score. Her quest beckons Julia to the ancient city of Venice, where she uncovers a dark, decades-old secret involving a dangerously powerful family that will stop at nothing to keep Julia from bringing the truth to light. Praise for Playing with Fire “Compelling . . . I defy you to read the first chapter and not singe your fingers reading the rest.”—David Baldacci “One of the best and most original thrillers of the year.”—Providence Journal “[A] novel brimming with emotion, literary description, and psychological suspense.”—The Huffington Post “Will make readers drop everything to immerse themselves in its propulsive dual narrative.”—Los Angeles Times