Social Life

The modern healthcare system has become proficient at staving off death with aggressive interventions. And yet, eventually everyone dies - and although most Americans say they would prefer to die peacefully at home, more than half of all deaths take place in hospitals or health care facilities. At the End of Life tackles this conundrum head on. Featuring 22 compelling personal-medical narratives, the collection explores death, dying, and palliative care, and highlights current features, flaws, and advances in the healthcare system.

In the humdrum town of Moormouth, Walter Mortinson's unusual inventions cause nothing but trouble. After one of his contraptions throws the town into chaos, Walter's mother demands he cut the nonsense and join the family mortuary business. Far off on Flaster Isle, famed inventor Horace Flasterborn plans to take Walter under his wing. When a letter arrives by unusual means offering Walter an apprenticeship, he and the moody one-eyed girl next door run away and journey through a strange landscape of fish-people, giantess miners, and hypnotized honeybees.

When summer comes around, it's off to the beach for Rosalind...and off to Maine with Aunt Claire for the rest of the Penderwick girls, as well as their old friend, Jeffrey. That leaves Skye as OAP (oldest available Penderwick)—a terrifying notion for all, but for Skye especially. Things look good as they settle into their cozy cottage, with a rocky shore, enthusiastic seagulls, a just-right corner store, and a charming next-door neighbor. But can Skye hold it together long enough to figure out Rosalind's directions about not letting Batty explode?

Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average 13 year old Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he's armed to the teeth with catapults and a moat, not to mention video games, and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew scavenged from abandoned stores. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the eerily intelligent monster known only as Blarg. So Jack builds a team.

Dylan has been looking forward to the Midwinter Meltdown Tournament for months. He knows this will be the year his hockey team wins. Then a pre-season injury takes him out of the game. Even though his wrist is healing, he's too weak to play. Can Dylan be part of the team if he's stuck on the bench?

Thirteen-year-old Ben Ripley has had a lot of field success despite only just beginning his second year at Spy School, something graduates rarely experience. But he'd never have survived without the help from experienced agents and his friends. Now he's been called in on a solo mission - and the fate of the United States of America is on his shoulders alone. The mission: Prevent a presidential assassination by infiltrating the White House and locating the enemy operative.

Millions of young listeners have loved the World's Worst Children tales. Now they will revel in this delightfully dreadful collection of the most gruesome grown-ups ever: The World's Worst Teachers. Think your teachers are bad? Wait till you meet this lot. These 10 tales of the world's most splendidly sinister teachers will have you running for the school gates. Dr Dread teaches science and is half man, half monster. Watch out for the ghastly Miss Seethe. She is always furious and she's on a detention rampage.

The Grumpy old Troll was mean to his friend Mouse—and now he needs help from Dora and Boots for Mouse to forgive him. But what should he say? Join Dora the Explorer and Boots as they help the Troll, and learn all about manners along the way!

Let's face it: We all know people who are irrational. No matter how hard you try to reason with them, it never works. So what's the solution? How do you talk to someone who's out of control? What can you do with a boss who bullies, a spouse who yells, or a friend who frequently bursts into tears? In his book Just Listen, Mark Goulston shared his best-selling formula for getting through to the resistant people in your life. Now he brings his communication magic to the most difficult group of all - the downright irrational.

Navigating the challenges of long-term commitment takes effort - and it just got simpler, with this empowering, step-by-step guide to communicating about the things that matter most to you and your partner. Drawing on 40 years of research from their world-famous Love Lab, Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman invite couples on eight fun, easy, and profoundly rewarding dates, each one focused on a make-or-break issue: trust, conflict, sex, money, family, adventure, spirituality, and dreams.

When we last saw George and Harold, they were headed to jail for the rest of their lives. What could be worse? How about being pulled from prison by a time-traveling tyrant named Tippy Tinkletrousers?!!? Now the boys are taking a trip back in time to the carefree days of kindergarten, when the scariest thing they had to face was not evil mad scientists or alien cafeteria ladies but a sixth-grade bully named Kipper Krupp, the nephew of their clueless school principal.

The prettiest: It’s the last thing Eve Hoffmann expected to be, the only thing Sophie Kane wants to be, and something Nessa Flores-Brady knows she’ll never be...until a list appears online, ranking the top 50 prettiest girls in the eighth grade. It’s time for a takedown. As the three girls band together, they begin to stand up not just for themselves, but for one another, too.

Many years of working with the dying showed the authors that certain lessons come up over and over again. Some of these lessons are enormously difficult to master but even the attempts to understand them can be deeply rewarding. Here, in 14 accessible chapters, from the "Lesson of Love" to the "Lesson of Happiness", the authors reveal the truth about our fears, our hopes, our relationships, and above all, about the grandness of who we really are.

The captivating and heart-pounding sequel to the New York Times best-selling and number-one Kids' Indie Next Pick Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, as heroine Morrigan battles a new evil. Morrigan Crow and her best friend Hawthorne Swift are now proud scholars in the elite Wundrous Society, but life is far from perfect. Does Morrigan have what it takes to prove that she belongs in the Society? Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow was an instant New York Times best seller and an IndieBound best seller.

Blaze, AJ, and all their fast friends from Nickelodeon's Blaze and the Monster Machines are the stars of this fun-filled audiobook.

Gooaal! Soccer fans everywhere will cheer on SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends in this funny soccer adventure.

Opinionated talk show host and columnist Michael Smerconish has been chronicling local, state, and national events for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer for more than 15 years. He has sounded off on topics as diverse as the hunt for Osama bin Laden and what the color of your Christmas lights says about you. In this collection of 100 of his most memorable columns, Smerconish reflects on American political life with his characteristic feistiness.

The merciless Cronus and his Titan buddies are in hot pursuit of Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon, who plan to travel across the treacherous boiling sea in order to save a fellow Olympian. They have a boat, but they also have a problem: Poseidon can't swim and is terrified of the water (well, really of the creatures that lurk in its depths). The group faces danger after danger as they battle singing sirens, a fishy and ferocious Titan named Oceanus, and people-eating monsters sent by Cronus himself.

Zeg leads a dinosaur parade through Axle City. But when some of the dinosaurs get lost, it’s up to Blaze and his truck friends to save the day!

In 1944, a little boy travels to Minnesota to live with his grandma, a Norwegian-American woman who cooks for the men who are building a road to Canada. Award-winning storyteller Gary Paulsen reveals the boy’s adventures with poignant honesty and adventurous spirit.