“What are you doing, dear?” “It’s a secret.” “Secrets are better if you share them a little. So tell Mother why you look so sad on Christmas Eve.” “I am wondering what to give—someone—for Christmas.” So begins the story of a little mouse’s search for a very special gift for a very special person. Nothing seems just right until the little mouse realizes that the best present of all is already at hand. Palmer Brown has given us something special for Christmas—or any day—an entrancingly lovely story, filled with the true spirit of the holiday season.

Taranis Growing up with a druid mother, the holiday season had been a little different for me. I didn't really do Christmas. But when my teammate's girlfriend brings along a bubbly redhead who seems interested in my lonely self, maybe this year Christmas would be different. Penny With no better plans for the holidays, I joined my college roommate on a visit to see her hockey player boyfriend. I expected snow, hockey, and a lot of time leaving the two lovers alone. I didn't expect a connection with his broody teammate, but this year, maybe I was getting something more for Christmas. This short story was previously available in the holiday anthologies Stockings Were Hung and Melting the Ice. It has been lightly edited since.

Settle in for a sweet treat with this classic Christmas story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber. Emma Collins has always believed that the world is divided into two kinds of people: those who love fruitcake and those who don’t. She’s firmly in the second category, so it’s ironic that her first major assignment for the Puyallup, Washington, Examiner is a series of articles about…fruitcake. At least it’s a step up from writing obituaries. Her task is to interview the finalists in a fruitcake recipe contest, and that means traveling around the state. Actually…flying around the state. Local pilot Oliver Hamilton, who’s starting an airfreight business, has agreed to take her wherever she needs to go, in exchange for free advertising. Unfortunately Emma hates small planes—almost as much as she hates fruitcake. But in the weeks leading up to Christmas, Emma discovers Oliver is not quite the Scrooge he sometimes seems. It all reminds her that there’s something about Christmas. Something special… Originally published in 2005

He was Adam. He was straight. He was just my friend. We weren't actually dating. This was the year that my mom's guilt trips finally worked. I was going home for Christmas, although the prospects of this trip didn't seem too great. I hadn't been home since I came out as gay a few years ago, and I certainly wasn't planning on bringing anyone home with me. But then my straight friend Adam volunteered to come with me as a buffer between me and my judgmental family. Turns out he did too good a job because one moment my uncle is making a homophobic joke, and the next thing I know, Adam is kissing me just to piss him off. So now everyone thinks we're dating, and instead of correcting them, we're going along with it. Just me and my straight fake boyfriend. My straight fake boyfriend who is also super hot and who I now can't stop thinking about kissing. What could possibly go wrong?

A contemporary teen romance novel featuring a Palestinian-Canadian girl trying to hide her autism diagnosis while navigating her first year of high school, for fans of Jenny Han and Samira Ahmed. Fifteen-year-old Jessie, a quirky loner obsessed with the nineties, is diagnosed as autistic just weeks before starting high school. Determined to make a fresh start and keep her diagnosis a secret, Jessie creates a list of goals that range from acquiring two distinct eyebrows to getting a magical first kiss and landing a spot in the school play. Within the halls of Holy Trinity High, she finds a world where things are no longer black and white and quickly learns that living in color is much more fun. But Jessie gets more than she bargained for when two very different boys steal her heart, forcing her to go off-script.

Lively and informed, "Scroogenomics" illustrates how consumer spending generates vast amounts of economic waste. Economist Waldfogel provides solid explanations to show why it's time to stop the madness and think twice before buying gifts for the holidays.

This carefully crafted ebook: “CHARLES DICKENS – The Complete Short Stories: 190+ Christmas Tales, Social Sketches, Tales for Children & Other Stories (Illustrated)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Christmas Novellas A Christmas Carol The Chimes The Cricket on the Hearth The Battle of Life The Haunted Man Short Story Collections Sketches by Boz Sketches of Young Gentlemen Sketches of Young Couples Master Humphrey' Clock Reprinted Pieces The Mudfog Papers Pearl-Fishing (First Series) Pearl-Fishing (Second Series) Christmas Stories Other Stories Children's Books Child's Dream of a Star Holiday Romance Stories About Children Every Child Can Read Criticism Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens The Limitations of Dickens by Henry James The Puzzle of Dickens's Last Plot by Andrew Lang David Copperfield by Virginia Woolf Biographies Charles Dickens by G. K. Chesterton The Life of Charles Dickens by John Forster Dickens' London by M. F. Mansfield Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

PARENTING NEVER ENDS. From the founders of the #1 site for parents of teens and young adults comes an essential guide for building strong relationships with your teens and preparing them to successfully launch into adulthood The high school and college years: an extended roller coaster of academics, friends, first loves, first break-ups, driver’s ed, jobs, and everything in between. Kids are constantly changing and how we parent them must change, too. But how do we stay close as a family as our lives move apart? Enter the co-founders of Grown and Flown, Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington. In the midst of guiding their own kids through this transition, they launched what has become the largest website and online community for parents of fifteen to twenty-five year olds. Now they’ve compiled new takeaways and fresh insights from all that they’ve learned into this handy, must-have guide. Grown and Flown is a one-stop resource for parenting teenagers, leading up to—and through—high school and those first years of independence. It covers everything from the monumental (how to let your kids go) to the mundane (how to shop for a dorm room). Organized by topic—such as academics, anxiety and mental health, college life—it features a combination of stories, advice from professionals, and practical sidebars. Consider this your parenting lifeline: an easy-to-use manual that offers support and perspective. Grown and Flown is required reading for anyone looking to raise an adult with whom you have an enduring, profound connection.

Lenora Patterson should have kept her lips zipped. Because she didn't, the listeners of a popular morning radio show believe the most maddening man Lenora has ever met is the love of her life. So does Nikos Calloway, the maddening man himself. And all the guests at a destination wedding where Lenora finds herself as Nikos’s plus one. In a snowy backdrop with the magic of the holiday season all around, how can Lenora convince Nikos—and herself, as well—that it’s all a big mistake?