2015 IPPY Award Silver Medalist in the Parenting Category In moving and refreshingly candid prose, Rescuing Julia Twice tells Traster's foreign-ado!--?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /--ption story, from dealing with the bleak landscape and inscrutable adoption handlers in Siberia, to her feelings of inexperience and ambivalence at being a new mother in her early forties, to her grow­ing realization over months then years that something was "not quite right" with her daughter, Julia, who remained cold and emo­tionally detached. Why wouldn't she look her parents in the eye or accept their embraces? Why didn't she cry when she got hurt? Why didn't she make friends at school? Traster de­scribes how uncertainty turned to despair as she blamed herself and her mothering skills for her daughter's troublesome behavioral is­sues, until she came to understand that Julia suffered from reactive attachment disorder, a serious condition associated with infants and young children who have been neglect­ed, abused, or orphaned in infancy. !--?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /-- Hoping to help lift the veil of secrecy and shame that too often surrounds parents struggling with attachment issues, Traster describes how with work, commitment, and acceptance, she and her husband have been able to close the gulf between them and their daughter to form a loving bond, and concludes by providing practical advice, strategies, and resources for parents and caregivers.

“Traster’s memoir is simultaneously unnerving and inspirational. The adoption world—and everyone surrounding it (meaning everyone)—needs to better understand the realities that affect so many children being adopted from orphanages today.” —Adam Pertman, president, The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, and author of Adoption Nation In this starkly honest memoir, award-winning journalist Tina Traster tells her moving Russian-adoption story, from dealing with the bleak landscape and inscrutable adoption handlers in Siberia, to her feelings of ambivalence at being a new mother in her forties, to her growing realization over months then years that something was “not quite right” with her daughter, Julia. Traster describes her despair as she blamed her mothering skills for her daughter’s troublesome behavioral issues, until she came to understand that Julia suffered from reactive attachment disorder, a condition associated with infants and young children who have been neglected, abused, or orphaned. She describes how with commitment and acceptance, she and her husband have closed the gulf between them and their daughter to form a loving bond, and provides practical advice for parents struggling with attachment issues. Tina Traster has contributed to numerous publications including the New York Times, the New York Post, Huffington Post, Family Circle, and many more. She lives in Valley Cottage, New York. Melissa Fay Greene is the author of five books, including There Is No Me Without You and No Biking in the House Without a Helmet. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

A young adult fantasy about a teenage couple who are forced to marry to join their two kingdoms

THE LUMINOUS AND GRIPPING NEW NOVEL FROM "ONE OF OUR BEST WRITERS" (JONATHAN YARDLEY, THE WASHINGTON POST) When Julia Lambert, an art professor, settles into her idyllic Maine house for the summer, she plans to spend the time tending her fragile relationships with her father, a repressive neurosurgeon, and her gentle mother, who is descending into Alzheimer's. But a shattering revelation intrudes: Julia's son Jack has spiraled into heroin addiction. In an attempt to save him, Julia marshals help from her looseknit clan: elderly parents; remarried ex-husband; removed sister; and combative eldest son. Ultimately, heroin courses through the characters' lives with an impersonal and devastating energy, sweeping the family into a world in which deceit, crime, and fear are part of daily life. Roxana Robinson is the author of Sweetwater, which Booklist called a "hold-your-breath novel of loss and love." Billy Collins praised Robinson as "a master at moving from the art of description to the work of excavating the truths about ourselves." In Cost, Robinson tackles addiction and explores its effects on the bonds of family, dazzling us with her hallmark subtlety and precision in evoking the emotional interiors of her characters. The result is a work in which the reader's sense of discovery and compassion for every character remains unflagging to the end, even as the reader, like the characters, is caught up in Cost's breathtaking pace.

Torn apart by lies and a hail of bullets… Georgia Randall is a government-trained killer with nothing left to live for except the burning need for revenge. She’s lost everything she cared about, including the only man she ever loved, and now her past has caught up with her. Shadowy enemies are on the move, determined to silence her before she can kill her remaining targets. But when the man she’s been mourning suddenly turns up to confront her, Georgia must face the consequences of the lies she told to conceal her double life. And even if she wins him back and survives what’s coming, she knows a happy ending isn’t possible for someone like her. Only revealing their darkest secrets can bring them back together. Against all odds, notorious assassin Miguel Bautista clawed his way back from the brink of death. Now he wants answers. For months he’s been tormented by the devastating truth about the one bright spot in his dark and violent past: the woman he fell in love with was nothing but a lie. When he learns she’s in danger and is offered the chance to save her, he signs a deal with the devil to protect her. They already lost each other once. If any of what they shared was real, this time he’s not letting her go. But if they’re going to have a prayer at a future together they must first evade the enemies closing in on them—and fight to stay alive.

Two legendary cooks invite us into their kitchen and show us the basics of good home cooking. Julia Child and Jacques Pépin are synonymous with good food, and in these pages they demonstrate techniques (on which they don’t always agree), discuss ingredients, improvise, balance flavors to round out a meal, and conjure up new dishes from leftovers. Center stage are carefully spelled-out recipes flanked by Julia’s and Jacques’s comments—the accumulated wisdom of two lifetimes of honing their cooking skills. Nothing is written in stone, they imply. And that is one of the most important lessons for every good cook. So sharpen your knives and join in the fun as you learn to make: • Appetizers: from traditional and instant gravlax to your own sausage in brioche and a country pâté • Soups: from New England chicken chowder and onion soup gratinée to Mediterranean seafood stew and that creamy essence of mussels, billi-bi • Eggs: omelets and “tortillas”; scrambled, poached, and coddled eggs; eggs as a liaison for sauces and as the puffing power for soufflés • Salads and Sandwiches: basic green and near-Niçoise salads; a crusty round seafood-stuffed bread, a lobster roll, and a pan bagnat • Potatoes: baked, mashed, hash-browned, scalloped, souffléd, and French-fried • Vegetables: the favorites from artichokes to tomatoes, blanched, steamed, sautéed, braised, glazed, and gratinéed • Fish: familiar varieties whole and filleted (with step-by-step instructions for preparing your own), steamed en papillote, grilled, seared, roasted, and poached, plus a classic sole meunière and the essentials of lobster cookery • Poultry: the perfect roast chicken (Julia’s way and Jacques’s way); holiday turkey, Julia’s deconstructed and Jacques’s galantine; their two novel approaches to duck • Meat: the right technique for each cut of meat (along with lessons in cutting up), from steaks and hamburger to boeuf bourguignon and roast leg of lamb • Desserts: crème caramel, profiteroles, chocolate roulade, free-form apple tart—as you make them you’ll learn all the important building blocks for handling dough, cooking custards, preparing fillings and frostings • And much, much more . . . Throughout this richly illustrated book you’ll see Julia’s and Jacques’s hands at work, and you’ll sense the pleasure the two are having cooking together, tasting, exchanging ideas, and raising a glass to savor the fruits of their labor. Again and again they demonstrate that cooking is endlessly fascinating and challenging and, while ultimately personal, it is a joy to be shared.

In Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue , the war against the FunTime Menace--aka test prep--wages on at McQuarrie Middle School. Our heroes have already won one battle, with the help of surprising ally Jabba the Puppett. But to defeat the Dark Standardized Testing Forces they're going to need an even bigger, even more surprising ally: Principal Rabbski. With pressure from great forces--the school board--will this former enemy join the Rebellion, or will her transformation into Empress Rabbski, Dark Lord of the Sith, be complete? With this topical episode, Tom Angleberger demonstrates once again that his "grasp of middle-school emotions, humor and behavior is spot-on" (Scripps Howard News Service). Praise for Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue "Fans will devour this satisfying and nicely realistic conclusion to the story set up in the previous volume. Characters grow, and non-Star Wars pop-culture references seep in. Readers new to the series are advised to go back to the beginning; they won't regret it." --Kirkus Reviews "These books are more popular than a working droid on Tatooine. Expect the usual army of young Jedis to come out swinging for a copy." --Booklist

From the bestselling creators of Room on the Broom, a tale of dragons, princesses, and defying expectations! What do dragons learn at Madam Dragon's school? How to fly. . . How to roar. . . How to breathe fire! Zog is the most eager student in the class, but he's also the most accident-prone. With each test (and each bump, bruise, or scrape), his dream of earning a gold star seems farther away than ever. But a mysterious girl keeps coming to his rescue. And when Zog faces his toughest test yet, she may be just the person to help Zog win classroom glory! The beloved creators of Room on the Broom, The Gruffalo, and The Snail and the Whale are back with this tale of an unexpected hero who's good as gold.

How do you resolve a midlife crisis? Margaret Winslow, an overworked college professor in New York City, answered a for-sale ad for a “Large White Saddle Donkey.” Hilarity ensued, along with life-threatening injuries and spirit-enriching insight. Walk with Winslow and Caleb the donkey through training traumas, expert-baffling antics, and humiliating races, and share in Winslow’s gradual understanding of Caleb’s true, undeniable gifts: a willingness to be true to himself no matter the circumstances, to trust, and to forgive. As she and Caleb learn to thrive, you’ll learn the importance of being true to your own pure and powerful self.