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GENTLE

From an expert on simplicity and minimalism, a collection of 30 practices to overcome chronic overwhelm, cultivate self-compassion, and find permission to do less-perfect for readers of Rest is Resistance and Wintering.

Being Gentle is about being grounded in self-compassion and a fierce commitment to less–becoming the Gentle You isn’t about taking the easy road. Organized into three parts–Rest, Less, and Rise–Courtney Carver’s Gentle provides simple challenges and practices that will help readers radically and gently shift their pace, headspace, and heart.

Becoming the Gentle You is a practice of real self-care that,

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THE CHANGING OF KEYS

One of our recommended books is The Changing of Keys by Carolyn Jack

With his father dead, a gifted, fourteen-year-old pianist finds himself sent away from his Caribbean home against his will, to study classical music in the U.S. with a family friend he’s never met. His first angry, frightened step away from the controlling mother he’s never been able to reach becomes a sharp break with her expectations: he leaps into the dramatic and cutthroat world of opera. In this high-stakes milieu, his fierce desire to be a star fires both his brilliance and the dark distrust of women and of love that is the legacy of his childhood, a legacy that threatens his career,

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MS. MING’S GUIDE TO CIVILIZATION

One of our recommended books is Ms. Ming's Guide to Civilization by Jan Alexander

Ming, born in a bleak outpost of Sichuan province, finds an unexpected glimpse of the world beyond when she meets a talking monkey with golden eyes and supernatural abilities—the immortal Monkey King, with whom Ming’s destiny is inextricably intertwined. Determined to become a writer, Ming finds her way to New York, but to make ends meet she goes to work for a crime ring and returns to China on the lam. Hope arrives in the form of her American friend Zoe. Together, they travel to the village of Ming’s birth, where the clouds writhe like phantoms and the rain never stops,

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MUTUAL INTEREST

One of our recommended books is Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

A classic in the making: a mesmerizing novel about marriage and ambition, sexuality and secrecy, and the true costs of building an empire.

At the turn of the 20th century, Vivian Lesperance is determined to flee her origins in Utica, New York, and avoid repeating her parents’ dull, limited life. When she meets Oscar Schmidt, a middle manager at a soap company, Vivian finds a partner she can guide to build the life she wants—not least because, more interested in men himself, Oscar will leave Vivian to tend to her own romances with women.

But Vivian’s plans require capital,

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AMERICAN MOTHER

With National Book Award–winning author Colum McCann, Diane Foley courageously returns to the story of her son, American journalist James Foley, who went abroad and never came home.

In late 2021, Diane Foley sat at a table across from Alexanda Kotey, a member of the ISIS group known as “the Beatles,” who pled guilty to the kidnapping, torture, and murder of her son James Foley seven years before. She asked the legendary writer Colum McCann to be there.

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BARE ANA AND OTHER STORIES

Robert Shapard is the author of Bare Ana and Other Stories

Robert Shapard’s exquisitely crafted short stories take readers to enchantingly peculiar realms: A young girl poignantly rejects immortality in favor of love. A startling revelation confronts a son who discovers his father’s head is only burlap with piercing Marks-A-Lot eyes. A couple in their early 30s engage in sex role-play involving the destruction of Mars. A young woman valet parker at an all-night diner in Los Angeles is ensnared by the world’s most famous monster. A boy’s life is irrevocably altered by witnessing a Mexican family’s farm-truck accident. An old, hungover science professor imparts the Earth’s greatest secret to his students.

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