Teachers are the superheroes that our kids need and deserve. On average, it takes five years for someone to earn a teaching degree and only four spent teaching for them to decide to do something else. Why? It’s certainly not because they don’t want to teach. In Don’t Forget Your Cape: Inspirational Words for Aspirational Teachers, Dr. Mark Gudgel shares the sage advice he gives to his student teachers and practicum students as their professor. Born from eighteen years of both triumph and tribulation as a public school teacher, Gudgel’s advice is relatable, applicable, and reminds teachers in no uncertain terms that they are the world’s last best hope, and the only thing standing between society and the abyss. Full of advice, inspiration, and ideas written in celebration of the heroes we call teachers, Don’t Forget Your Cape is a must-read for new and veteran educators alike.

The women in A Plane Tree in Provence are home from France and ready to make changes in their lives. This volume centers on Penny Wilson, owner of the Designers Pen needlework shop in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Penny lives in a large rambling home with her husband, Michael, and two sons. Life is good until Penny accidentally spots Michael with another woman. An affair? Or a harmless encounter? Unraveling an explanation is not easy, but Penny has her friends in The Cape Elizabeth Ocean Avenue Society to lean on. While she wants her marriage to succeed will she ever be able to forgive Michael if he is indeed having an affair. The group’s lives are intertwined with challenges. Wendy is cut from her acting job at Summer Theatre, Sarah’s decision to get back in the swing of taking care of her home and cooking goes south, Vernie is under an enormous amount of stress at the Portland Symphony, and Rose develops a fondness for the carpenter who is renovating her home. As the weeks go by, Penny is also plagued by medical issues, which she decides are a result of her emotional state. But are they? Perhaps it is something entirely different.

Outside Tokyo, a tuberculosis sanatorium in the village of K has a six-bed ward that the narrator, an aspiring poet, shares with a student of linguistics and budding writer named Shiomi. After the stubborn Shiomi insists on undergoing a dangerous surgical procedure and dies in the process, two notebooks turn up in his bed-sheets. Flowers of Grass unfolds as the narrator reads them, asking himself if Shiomi's death was a sort of suicide, and learning the details of his late friend's two great loves: for a brother and sister, both of whom reject him. Fukunaga himself spent seven years recuperating from tuberculosis following World War II, and drew on his own experiences to create a fully realized portrait of a young man of fastidious intelligence and great sorrow, and how it is possible, seeing reality from the side of death and despair, to still choose life.

The stunning conclusion of Ellie and Logan's love story that began on a hot August night in Reckless Longing and continued through the depths of winter in Reckless Secrets... Ellie My mother is a liar, a seductress, a keeper of family secrets, and a master manipulator. She took Austin from me. Now she claims she wants forgiveness. But she's after Logan. I know she is. He thinks he can protect me from her. I love him for trying, for playing hero, but he doesn't know her like I do. She'll charm him until he lets his guard down and then she'll strike so quickly he'll never see the attack coming. I may already be too late to stop it. Logan's love is essential to me, like sunshine and deep nurturing breaths. He's my all. I can't live without him. But there's so much standing in the way of our happiness. As dangerous as she is, Mom is the least of my worries. I'm fighting the darkness Logan is struggling with, the upcoming trial, his family, and sometimes I even think I'm fighting a phantom of myself. But I won't give up. Ever. Logan I wish I could make El understand how much I love her, but I'm losing control. She makes me lose control. Since the abuse, that scares me shitless and brings back the guilt and the memories I want to erase. Things that have nothing to do with El, and everything because they affect the man I want to be for her. I can't face losing her. I don't want her to hear the ugly truth about me, but I have to testify. I have to, even though I'm risking everything and fighting my dad and myself to do it. After it's over, will El still love me? I have to help her reconcile with her mom. Then maybe she'll understand. This is a contemporary romance with mature themes, language, and situations. Readers should be over 17!

Having already penned Getting in the Game, his inside scoop on the mayhem within baseball's winter meetings, Josh Lewin once again gives baseball fans a window into the big leagues. By interviewing big league ballplayers about their first day in the majors, Lewin creates fascinating mini-biographies of the players, highlighting the personalities hidden behind the on-field accomplishments. He lets the players recount their own memories of how they made it to the big leagues. In You Never Forget Your First, Lewin shares the stories of players great and less so. Tony Gwynn recalls singling in his first at bat and finding Pete Rose waiting for him at first base with a wink and a warning: "Don't break my record all at once, kid." Bob Brenly heard of his call-up on the car radio while on a family trip to the Grand Canyon. He then stood helplessly in the middle of the Arizona desert after his transmission gave out, trying to convince passersby he was a ballplayer heading to the big leagues and needed a lift to the airport. Duane Kuiper witnessed a fight both on the field and in his own clubhouse his first day in Cleveland. Greg Maddux recalls being stuck at the Chicago River drawbridge, convinced he'd never make it to Wrigley Field in time for his debut. Lewin interviews modern star players such as A-Rod, Barry Bonds, and Manny Ramirez, as well as Hall of Famers such as Jim Palmer, Don Sutton, and George Brett. More than 100 popular baseball players are profiled, complete with the box scores of their big league debuts.

A heartwarming novel from America's most popular living artist journeys to the picturesque village of Cape Light on the coast of New England, a hamlet populated by colorful inhabitants who share a strong sense of community and caring for their neighbors. Reprint.

I collected 14 women's stories that are inspiring and cover an array of traumas and troubles: childhood sexual abuse, learning disabilities, physical handicaps, economic problems, sexual challenges, rape, domestic abuse, addiction, disease, loss of a child or sister, difficult relationships, and mothering obstacles.