Presents a collection of stories featuring a retail employee who is confronted by a zombie, a computer warrior who leads his fighter band across a virtual landscape, and a company that outsources grief.

This enhanced eBook includes video, audio, photographic, and linked content, as well as a bonus short story. Hear TAMMY talk. Learn the origins of Minor Universe 31. See the TM-31. Take a trip in it. Photos and illustrations appear as hyperlinked endnotes. Video and audio are embedded directly in text. *Video and audio may not play on all readers. Check your user manual for details. National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award winner Charles Yu delivers his debut novel, a razor-sharp, ridiculously funny, and utterly touching story of a son searching for his father . . . through quantum space–time. Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of fiction, where paradox fluctuates like the stock market, lonely sexbots beckon failed protagonists, and time travel is serious business. Every day, people get into time machines and try to do the one thing they should never do: change the past. That’s where Charles Yu, time travel technician—part counselor, part gadget repair man—steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he’s not taking client calls or consoling his boss, Phil, who could really use an upgrade, Yu visits his mother (stuck in a one-hour cycle of time, she makes dinner over and over and over) and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. Accompanied by TAMMY, an operating system with low self-esteem, and Ed, a nonexistent but ontologically valid dog, Yu sets out, and back, and beyond, in order to find the one day where he and his father can meet in memory. He learns that the key may be found in a book he got from his future self. It’s called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and he’s the author. And somewhere inside it is the information that could help him—in fact it may even save his life. Wildly new and adventurous, Yu’s debut is certain to send shock waves of wonder through literary space–time.

Practice the three simple phrases that heal relationships, strengthen connection, and change the world. We all believe that saying, “Thank you,” “I’m sorry,” and “Tell me more” will help us become better people, friends, partners, employees, neighbors, and global citizens. And yet, having been brought up on rugged individualism, we often slip into self-centeredness and a corresponding sense of entitlement. We have lost the ability to speak with gentleness toward one another. We have replaced kind words that connect us to one another with ones that divide, isolate, and hurt. Everywhere we turn there is deep conflict. In this simple yet profound book, clinical psychologist Rod Wilson introduces us to the sacredness of these familiar but forgotten sayings. What impact do these sayings have on our relationships? When we say, “Thank you,” we acknowledge the way others impact us. When we say, “I’m sorry,” we acknowledge the way we impact others. When we say, “Tell me more,” we acknowledge the way we impact each other. Try it. Read this book and be encouraged and equipped to deliver kindness in your speech. As you engage with these three phrases more thoughtfully and speak them more frequently, you will enjoy a life full of deeper friendships and joy.

Five years since the apostolic exhortation on love in the family – Amoris Laetitia – first appeared, it has lost none of its relevance and urgency. For Pope Francis this anniversary offers “an opportunity to focus more closely on the contents of the document”. In an open and frank dialogue, the authors of this book accept the challenge to explore and develop insights and paths for theological ethics, pastoral theology and ministry, counseling, education and spirituality as drawn out in the exhortation. They focus particularly on the conjugal covenant as a “unique love of friendship” and as the basis for family life, one where the upbringing of children is geared to “growing in love”. From this perspective, topics such as responsible parenthood, indissolubility, separation and divorce receive rightful consideration. Other intimate relationships and modes of living together are discussed critically and qualitatively. Inspired by the “logic of mercy and discernment” in Amoris Laetitia, stepping stones for a pastoral ethics of growth towards “enduring love”, that do not circumvent the differences with marriage, are laid down. This book arose out of numerous and extensive conversations between bishop Johan Bonny, professor Roger Burggraeve SDB and journalist Ilse Van Halst. Sprung out of dialogue, it desires to continue the dialogue and process of discernment. It invites to participate all who are involved in theological ethics and pastoral theology, sexuality and family studies, religious education and youth catechesis, marriage and family life ministry, couple therapy, training programs for parents on love and sex education, support groups for separated and divorced… and all those in Church and society looking for sustainable love.

A New York Times bestseller from the author of Dusk, Night Dawn, Hallelujah Anyway, Bird by Bird, and Almost Everything. Author Anne Lamott writes about the three simple prayers essential to coming through tough times, difficult days and the hardships of daily life. Readers of all ages have followed and cherished Anne Lamott’s funny and perceptive writing about her own faith through decades of trial and error. And in her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow, she has coalesced everything she knows about prayer to these fundamentals. It is these three prayers – asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating what we have that is good, and feeling awe at the world around us – that can get us through the day and can show us the way forward. In Help, Thanks, Wow, Lamott recounts how she came to these insights, explains what they mean to her and how they have helped, and explores how others have embraced these same ideas. Insightful and honest as only Anne Lamott can be, Help, Thanks, Wow is the everyday faith book that new Lamott readers will love and longtime Lamott fans will treasure.

In Please Don’t Say You’re Sorry, marriage-loving divorce attorney, Nicole Sodoma shows up with empowering advice to help you sustain a real and happy marriage, recognize when that’s just not possible, and know what to expect and do from there. What’s more, she does it with a generous dose of humor to remind you that you can and will laugh again. When marriage-loving divorce attorney Nicole Sodoma ended her thirteen-year marriage, she found herself seated in a symphony of sympathies and quickly began to question why people say “congratulations” when we marry and “I’m sorry” when we divorce. There’s no denying that divorce sucks. You've invested years in a relationship. Then it what feels like the blink of an eye, everything has changed and you are faced with more resolution options than New Year's Eve. The journey can be wholly overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. Choice will be your ally. As the child of a blended family of divorced parents, a now "unmarried" woman, and a veteran family law attorney, Nicole Sodoma knows divorce. In Please Don't Say You're Sorry, she serves up both humorous and decidedly unfunny realities of marriage and divorce alongside empowering insights for finding your way through either. From hard truths about the unintended consequences of ending a marriage to relatable tales from divorces past, Nicole's communication style will help you feel deeply understood as you try to render those seemingly impossible decisions. Whether you are looking for advice on how to better your marriage, are considering separation, or find yourself knee-deep in divorce, this book has something for you. Today is the first day of the rest of your life, and now you’ve got a badass no-holds-barred divorce attorney by your side.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes "one of the funniest books of the year.... A delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire" (The Washington Post). A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play. Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it? After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.

“A compulsively readable collection” of short fiction from the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (Publishers Weekly). With deadpan humor and originality, Charles Yu spins Kafkaesque tales of modern identity and insecurity in this whip-smart debut. In 401(k), a couple living in the Luxury Car Commercial subdivision are disappointed when their exotic vacation turns into a Life Insurance/Asset Management pitch. The author struggles to write the definitive biography of his mother in Autobiographical Raw Material Unsuitable for the Mining of Fiction. And would-be superhero Moisture Man must come to terms with the darkness in his heart. Throughout the collection, Yu’s characters run up against the limitations of their artificial story lines while tackling the terrifying aspects of existence: mothers, jobs, spouses, and perhaps most terrifying of all, the need to express feelings. Heartbreaking and hilarious, Third Class Superhero marked the debut of an author who has been a PEN award finalist, and whose novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe was named one of Time’s best books of the year. “The post-collegiate braininess of many of Yu’s stories is like the music of the Talking Heads, making the familiar seem off-kilter. . . . Takes a Kafkaesque turn in its comic examination of the essence of identity.” —Kirkus Reviews

"In this sweet, humorous introduction to manners for little ones, Richard Morgan's appealing characters learn to say 'please' and 'thank you' when they want something, 'hello' and 'goodbye' when someone greets them, 'sorry' when things go wrong, and 'pardon' when they do a whoops! oddlers will instantly recognize the scenarios in this book and giggle with delight as they repeat along with the simple, rhythmical text. "