In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humour and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart – to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; to look to John le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O’ Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail; to be inspired by Emily Brontë ’ s structural nuance and Charles Dickens’ s deceptively simple narrative techniques. Most importantly, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted, and reminds us that good writing comes out of good reading.

A magical story about a gifted but vulnerable girl who is both saved and damned by an angel who falls in love with her music and claims it as his own in a Faustian pact. With Mary in his thrall, he ruthlessly kills those who threaten his plan to bring Mary to Carnegie Hall where her talent will be hailed supreme. Sunday Express, March 2017: 'Catch the Moon, Mary is one of my six favourite books' - Amanda Redman, actress/director/arts patron/head of ATS, New Tricks, The Good Karma Hospital, Sexy Beast 'Beyond beautiful' - Simon Egerton, singer-songwriter, composer, lyricist 'Original and scintillating, tantalising and thought-provoking. A novel about the transformative powers of music and beauty' - Hazel Philips OAM, Gold Logie winner, author of Black River, Bright Star 'Weaves a singular spell mesmerising the reader on several levels like a fugue. Wendy Waters and her characters believe deeply in the power of music, which pours lyrically from her sentences' - Joshua Rosenblum, composer, conductor, music critic 'A rare and ingenious glimpse into the real and the surreal. Waters interfaces these twin realities with ease and dexterity, reminding us of the profound yet often neglected depth of imagination. A brave and unique journey' - Gerry Taylor-Wood, international lecturer on Esoteric Sciences and author of The Journey to the Sacred Well

Readers' Favorite (5-Star Review): "Observe to Unmask: 100 Small Things to Know People Better by Pushpendra Mehta is a tidy little book with big, helpful insights into the human heart and psyche." "Pushpendra Mehta has written a must-read book for anyone on a quest to understand people better, including themselves, and benefit from these insights for a happier and more fulfilling life...Read this book - and learn from one of the best." - Stacey Chillemi, Founder of The Complete Herbal Guide, Writer, Huff Post and Thrive Global Pushpendra Mehta, writer, marketer, and mentor, has been an observer of human behavior all his life. Inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's memorable fictional detective character, Sherlock Holmes, Pushpendra realized people drop subtle clues to their true nature, which is often hidden behind masks. The more he watched and studied, the better able he was to discern who people truly were. In 2019, he answered a question-"What small thing can tell you a lot about a person?"-that was posted on Quora, a popular question-and-answer website. His answer received over 1 million views. This unexpected response led him to write Observe to Unmask, in which he explains what we can learn about people based on their conversations (including social media posts), interests, behavior, emotions, thoughts, and more. Packed with intriguing insights, Observe to Unmask is useful in understanding not only the people in our personal and professional lives, but can act as a guide for self-reflection and improvement. Short and easy to read, it is a book you will turn to again and again, always finding something new and worthwhile. Observe to Unmask will sharpen your ability to draw conclusions quickly and accurately from the smallest observations. It will help you develop positive relationships or harmonious associations that work for you and make you happier; assist you in comprehending an individual's backstory; prevent you from being exploited, abused, manipulated, or lied to; aid you in distancing yourself from negative or toxic people, or avoiding them as much as possible.

If you want to learn how to shoot a basketball, you begin by carefully observing someone who knows how to shoot a basketball. If you want to be a writer, you begin by carefully observing the work of accomplished writers. Recognizing the importance that modeling plays in the learning process, high school English teacher Kelly Gallagher shares how he gets his students to stand next to and pay close attention to model writers, and how doing so elevates his students' writing abilities. Write Like This is built around a central premise: if students are to grow as writers, they need to read good writing, they need to study good writing, and, most important, they need to emulate good writers. In Write Like This, Kelly emphasizes real-world writing purposes, the kind of writing he wants his students to be doing twenty years from now. Each chapter focuses on a specific discourse: express and reflect, inform and explain, evaluate and judge, inquire and explore, analyze and interpret, and take a stand/propose a solution. In teaching these lessons, Kelly provides mentor texts (professional samples as well as models he has written in front of his students), student writing samples, and numerous assignments and strategies proven to elevate student writing. By helping teachers bring effective modeling practices into their classrooms, Write Like This enables students to become better adolescent writers. More important, the practices found in this book will help our students develop the writing skills they will need to become adult writers in the real world.

Anyone can make enough to save $1,000,000 in 3-7 years. Most self-made millionaires are made through business ownership. Many people think about it but never take action, they do not have an idea, they do not have the money, and flat just do not know how. This is a practical book to teach you how to find, start, finance, and get free advice to own and grow your own business. For example, a yardman with no money was worth over $9,000,000 in 7 years after buying a nursery and growing his business. There are many more stories and lessons, to include how the author went from bankrupt to having his first million dollars in 3 ½ years. This book will change your perspective and put you on the path to financial independence.

When you Read Like a Writer (RLW) you work to identify some of the choices the author made so that you can better understand how such choices might arise in your own writing. The idea is to carefully examine the things you read, looking at the writerly techniques in the text in order to decide if you might want to adopt similar (or the same) techniques in your writing. You are reading to learn about writing. Instead of reading for content or to better understand the ideas in the writing (which you will automatically do to some degree anyway), you are trying to understand how the piece of writing was put together by the author and what you can learn about writing by reading a particular text. As you read in this way, you think about how the choices the author made and the techniques that he/she used are influencing your own responses as a reader. What is it about the way this text is written that makes you feel and respond the way you do?

From bestselling author Jo Piazza comes one of People’s “Best Summer Books,” a “comically accurate” (New York Post) novel about what happens when a woman wants it all—political power, marriage, and happiness. Charlotte Walsh is running for Senate in the most important race in the country during a midterm election that will decide the balance of power in Congress. Reeling from a presidential election that shocked and divided the country and inspired to make a difference, she’s left her high-powered job in Silicon Valley and returned, with her husband and three young daughters, to her downtrodden Pennsylvania hometown to run for office in the Rust Belt state. Once the campaign gets underway, Charlotte is blindsided by just how dirty her opponent is willing to fight, how harshly she is judged by the press and her peers, and how exhausting it becomes to navigate a marriage with an increasingly ambivalent and often resentful husband. When the opposition uncovers a secret that could threaten not just her campaign but everything Charlotte holds dear, she must decide just how badly she wants to win and at what cost. “The essential political novel for the 2018 midterms” (Salon), Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win is an insightful portrait of what it takes for a woman to run for national office in America today. In a dramatic political moment like no other with more women running for office than ever before, this searing, suspenseful story of political ambition, marriage, class, sexual politics, and infidelity is timely, engrossing, and perfect for readers on both sides of the aisle.

Shows all writers how effective writing can beas natural as telling a story to a friend, and as easy as daydreaming.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Soon to be a Hulu Original series • The internationally acclaimed author of Wild collects the best of The Rumpus's Dear Sugar advice columns plus never-before-published pieces. Rich with humor and insight—and absolute honesty—this "wise and compassionate" (New York Times Book Review) book is a balm for everything life throws our way. Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice.

Stafford's advice to beginning poets has become a favorite text in writing programs