Pam Scott is a self published author of the children’s book, Two for Tea. The second edition includes a friendship perspective which makes it a great little gift for women to give their female friends. Pam wrote, illustrated and self-published her creative work.

Anthology: Thanks for sharing your book with us, Pam! I imagine you have your own story behind this topic of tea parties. Could you tell me what prompted you to write a book about tea parties?

Pam Scott: It actually was a poem I wrote one year for my girls. I wrote the poem on scrolls and placed it in teacups I purchased from Goodwill and gave it to them for Christmas. The idea was to encourage my girls to have tea parties with their own little girls, my granddaughters, to grow their relationships. I believe that if we don’t take the time to develop those relationships with our children when they are young, it’s hard to do that when they become teenagers. My daughters loved the gift so much, it was their suggestion that I make it into a book. I also just love teacups. The artwork on them is so beautiful.

Anthology: My guess is that your target audience for this book is mothers and daughters. Am I right?

Pam Scott: Mothers and daughter, yes, but also women in general. I have grown women purchase the book as a gift for their women friends as well as their daughters. The second printing includes the friendship aspect. It’s a kind of invite in a relationship that says: “It’s time to talk, time to laugh together, or sort out a problem.”

Anthology: How have the children in your own life responded to your book?

Pam Scott: I have a granddaughter who is five. She recognized our family members in the pictures I painted for the book. But she asked, “Grandma, where is my picture?” So I added the last picture in the book in the second edition. That picture is of my granddaughter with my old rag doll having tea. The table cloth in that picture is a family heirloom that was passed on to me and we use it at our tea parties.

Anthology: You self-published this book. Can you tell me a little bit about that process?

Pam Scott: That was definitely a process. My initial goal was to have it out by Christmas the year I made the first edition. I just used PowerPoint because that is what I had; and I took it down to Kinko’s and got it printed and bound. Then I took it to my long-time friend, Maryjo Morgan, a professional writer, and I showed it to her. Maryjo said “We can improve on this!” So she worked in PhotoShop and made some changes. My original just had square pictures in the center of the pages. That was all I could do with it in PowerPoint. When we were finished making changes I took it back to Kinko’s and had it reprinted. Maryjo helped me make it what it is today.

Anthology: After tackling this process once, do you think you will self-publish in the future?

Pam Scott: Yes, I have a plan! My mom, who died two years ago at the age of 93, has manuscripts of children’s books she wanted to publish. There was one particular manuscript about two trees in the forest. One was misshapen, but always full of birds and squirrels. The other was a perfect-looking tree that wanted nothing more than to one day become a beautiful Christmas tree. Well, the second tree got his wish one year when a family cut him down and took him home and decorated him. But in the end his decorations were removed and the tree was thrown out. Years later, a town grew up around the first tree and that tree eventually became the annual Christmas tree in the center square of the town. At my mother’s 90^th birthday, I told her I wanted to illustrate that manuscript and publish it. And although I didn’t get it finished before she passed, I plan to self-publish her book.

Anthology: Thank you for your time, Pam! We loved hearing about your family and the value you place on your relationships. I look forward to the tea part at Anthology on Sunday.

Why did you write this book?

Nana’s Silly Goats began as a letter to my 85 year old mother, telling her about the adventures of bringing home four little goats to our small ranch in Colorado. My husband read the letter and told me that it needed to become a children’s book. I accepted the challenge!

I wrote Bully Goat to the Rescue to both entertain children and to give them insight into one of the reasons other children act like bullies. As a teacher and principal, I certainly had many experiences with bullying. Overall, I wanted to write a book that both teaches and entertains. I would have eagerly used a book like Bully Goat to the Rescue as a guided reading book in my intermediate classrooms.

Why is this topic important now?

Media accounts tend to focus on the victims of bullying, but too rarely explore the behaviors underlying the bullying itself. Especially at a young age, I want children to understand that they have choices to make about their behaviors. In the story, Bully Goat needs a better way to feel important about him self rather than by intimidating the other goats. When he becomes a successful rescue goat, he also becomes a more self-confident goat and a better friend.

The March 12, 2012, edition of Time Magazine includes an article called “The Myths of Bullying”.

Very little about bullying conforms to popular belief. Not all that long ago, it was dismissed as an unfortunate rite of childhood. But because of high-profile cases… bullying has become cemented in public opinion as a growing epidemic.

The article sites information lsuch: 48 states now have anti-bullying laws; most students are both bullies and are bullied; punishing bullies and counseling victims has resulted in more violence; and the statistics about bullying are being inflated.

It is critical that children (and teachers and parents) have realistic discussions about bullying … what causes it, how to report or respond to bullying, and how not to set yourself up to be a victim. Bully Goat to the Rescue is a gentle prompt to opening discussions about bullying with children ages 8-12. (My web site has lesson plans that relate the story to health education standards about bullying.)

Living in Colorado, I also wanted children to learn safe hiking techniques and to understand more about mountain rescue situations. Many of our children participate in camping and hiking experiences, including outdoor education.

The students who helped with the revisions were very interested in goats, 4-H, President Roosevelt. We decided that other students might also be interested, and handled this material as appendices.

What niche does it fill?

Both books market well to grandparents and parents, as well as elementary school teachers and librarians. I have lesson plans and other resources available on my web site, www.indiangappress.com available at no cost to educators.

The “niche market” is goat lovers. Goats have become very popular as pets as well as livestock. Goats are now found in suburban and urban settings as well as on farms and ranches. In Colorado, you are likely to see goats running beside participants in a 10K race as well as grazing in public land areas. Laws have been passed in Colorado, Washington, Oregon … and probably more states … to allow goats in urban areas. A legal battle in North Carolina confirmed that goats could be pets just as much as dogs. There are also now many rent-a-goat businesses where contractors take herds of goats to a given site to eat off weeds. Articles about goats appear in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and many major as well as local newspapers. The internet, of course, has many items about goats … the most recent being surfing goats in CA! As livestock, Texas has the most goats of any state. Goats are used for meat and dairy products. The hair of some breeds is used for making warm and beautiful clothing. Goats are also used as pack animals.

Bully Goat to the Rescue is an excellent way to prompt a discussion of bullying. Standards based lesson plans are available at www.indiangappress.com for teachers who need to address both language arts and health (bullying) standards. Teachers today have a great deal of curricula to address. They have to be able to address multiple standards during the course of one lesson or unit.

Nana’s Silly Goats is a wonderful read-aloud for children interested in rural life and animals. It has been described as “a teacher’s and parent’s dream” and a “book that will charm readers for a long time.”

Why did you approach this topic with a book aimed at the audience you chose?

As an experienced teacher, I know what children enjoy and what children need to learn at specific age and grade levels.

The humor of Nana’s Silly Goats is directed at preschool and primary age children who think that goats driving tractors or eating peanut butter is hilarious. Children also learn what is required to be responsible and caring. The illustrations are realistic yet whimsical, and bring the story to life. The book design is very durable and intended to stand up to young readers’ handling as well as classroom teachers holding the book for multiple readers to view.

The ideas presented in Bully Goat to the Rescue are targeted at intermediate grade children. In addition to examining issues related to bullying and friendship, students at this age enjoy learning about a variety of topics. They learn about uses of goats for cheese and yogurt, and clothing products. They learn that goats can be trained for pack and rescue animals. They are fascinated about 4-H of America, and the role of President Theodore Roosevelt in creating national parks. They learn about safe hiking and mountain rescue techniques. Students who have read Bully Goat to the Rescue describe it as fun, educational, interesting and engaging. They enjoy the details, new and interesting words, ideas and events, conflicts and the way to solve them. The price of the book is low, only $5.99, allowing children as well as adults to be able to purchase it.

Who is the book written for? Who would enjoy it or find it useful?

Nana’s Silly Goats is appropriate as a read-aloud for children ages 3-8. Readability level is grade 3. Both parents and teachers will find this to be a fun and useful book about character education and rural life. For teachers, a readers-theater script in available at www.indiangappress.com so that children can dramatize the story to enhance their comprehension. Standards-based Language Arts lesson plans are also available.

Bully Goat to the Rescue is written for children ages 8-12, although younger children also enjoy the story as a read-aloud. Readability is grade 4, but classroom teachers would have third and fifth grade readers for whom it would be both interesting and appropriate. Language arts and mental health standards-based lesson plans are available at www.indiangappress.com.

To make my books more accessible to schools, I offer a special educator’s discount package of 10 copies of Bully Goat to the Rescue plus one copy of Nana’s Silly Goats for $49.26. Librarians or PTOs can purchase the book package for teachers to check-out a classroom guided reading set.

What is the writing process like for you?

My writing process is unique because I write books for children with children. I write the first draft of a story, but the revision and design process fully involves students who are the same age as my intended audience. Using the framework of the 6 Traits + 1 writing curriculum, students and their teachers respond to the draft in terms of ideas, organization, sentence fluency, voice, and word choice. Their feedback in each of these areas becomes the basis for revisions of the text. Students also describe the visual images they have for illustrations after reading or listening to the text. This information is conveyed to my illustrator, and she incorporates their ideas into her illustrations. Book design is also highly directed by students. They determine color vs. black and white illustrations, the number of sentences on a page, the number of pages in a chapter. Together we decide what material is more appropriate for an appendix. In Bully Goat to the Rescue, for example, students asked to include fiction and non-fiction resources about goats, appendices about 4-H and Theodore Roosevelt. They helped create chapter titles, the list of characters, and the glossary. For Nana’s Silly Goats, students asked to create a chapter book because reading a first chapter book is a significant step for young readers. They also requested adding factual information about goats at the beginning of the book.

I believe that the end result of my method of writing is the production of better children’s books because children rather than adults have revised and designed them. And in the process, students become involved in the real writing process, understanding the necessity of multiple revisions of both the text and illustrations. Students learn that writing is a fun, but hard process. Writing takes imagination, skill, time and persistence, the willingness to take feedback and to write the same story again and again and again.

Have you written other books? Do you have plans for more?

I have self-published two books thus far. Nana’s Silly Goats was published in 2011 and won First Place in Children’s Literacy from the Colorado Independent Publisher’s Associations for 2012. Bully Goat to the Rescue was published in 2012.

“Waiting in the wings” is a Christmas poem about goats that I hope to publish as a board book for preschoolers. Kindergarten children have helped revise and design this story.

I am also contemplating a book about animal species that requires critical thinking and discussion by grade 6-8 students.

What made you become a writer?

By age 6, I was “teaching” my stuffed animals to “read” and dreaming of writing books as good as the ones my mom and sisters read to me. But in the 1950’s, elementary students were not encouraged to write stories beyond the occasional thank you note, a social studies report in perfect cursive, and weekly spelling sentences. In junior high school writing continued to be limited to non-fiction reports. Finally, in high school, one creative English teacher challenged me to write descriptively about a paper clip, to persuade both for and against the Viet Nam War, to think on paper about books like Catcher in the Rye. I started to write … really write, and loved it. Then it was off to college where critical literature professors shrunk me back to size, and where the demands of becoming a speech and language pathologist left little time for creative story writing. Graduate school? Don’t even think of writing any thing other than scholarly papers and a life-numbing dissertation.

So many years drifted by …happy and fulfilling ones to be sure during which I became a teacher, a principal, a special education administrator, a wife, a surrogate mother… but not a writer. I appeased that inner need to write with weekly letters to my parents and funny e-mails to my sister and friends. I taught kids to write while wondering what the heck I knew about really writing. I continued to absorb books like life blood. And then one day, retired and raising dogs in the foothills near Lyons, I read aloud to my husband a letter to my mom about the four little goats we had just brought home to our mini-ranch.

“Nancy,” said my husband. “That story would make a terrific children’s book. Go write it!”

And so, at nearly 60, I did!

The story flowed out of me. Scribbling away in a notebook on my lap, the words began to create the sights and sounds and images of these four very funny little goats. With that first draft in hand, I gleefully read it to my husband.

“It’s good!” he exclaimed.

I don’t think I knew that I had been holding my breath. But now what? I was clueless about what the next step was … and the next and the next. So for a couple months, the story sat there. Over lunch with friends I’d mention that I was starting to write children’s stories. Droning my way through the daily e-mails, I discovered a thinking-of-you note from a teacher friend telling me about a class at CU for writing: The Children’s Book: A Day-Long Intensive with Kerry Lee MacLean (author of Pigs over Boulder and Pigs over Colorado). Surely a dream was worth one Saturday and 100 bucks!

Of course it was cold and snowing; of course there were no parking spots. But I trudged into the basement classroom and settled in with another 30 aspiring writers. Only two of us came with anything “written” in hand. The step-by-step lessons began … what to do and how to do it. Self-publishing … something of which I knew NOTHING … began to seem feasible. Feedback on my story was encouraging rather than crushing. I could do this … most likely floundering around like a carp in shallow water …. But I COULD DO THIS! I COULD BECOME A CHILDREN’S AUTHOR!!

Thoughts for someone who wants to become an author?

I was quite simply naïve. I probably would have quit had I known all it would take to become a published author.

I needed to read books about writing and publishing, join writing organizations, and consult with other authors. I had to find an experienced, talented illustrator who was the right “fit” for both my book and my budget. I had to start my own business, develop timelines and budgets, and file for a seemingly endless list of numbers (EIN, SAN, and ISBN). I needed to find a printer, importer and shipper. I needed to approve illustrations, text and layout. I had to help design front and back covers. I had to write acknowledgement sections and summaries. I needed to arrange for book deliveries and find a place to store 3000-6000 books. And then there was marketing, a step I have yet to master or learn to love!

But in the end, when my first published book arrived and I held it in my hand, every step and every dollar was worth it. I smiled, I cried, I hugged my husband and called my mom. And she smiled and cried and bragged … and was oh so proud.

And yet another day came when a child stopped me in the post office and said, “Are you the lady that wrote Nana’s Silly Goats?” And I answered …

“Yes, yes … that’s ME. That’s ME … The Author!”

Tell me a little about yourself; your career, hobbies, etc.

As a young child, I spent my childhood outdoors in the woods and fields of our family’s fruit farm in upstate New York. All kinds of animals were an important part of my life – chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, pigs, cows, sheep and even one little black goat. My family participated in 4-H activities and I continue to support this opportunity for youngsters to learn about animals and rural life. An avid reader, I announced at age 6 that I would become a teacher.

Life on a small farm was a wonderful way to spend my childhood, but a tough way to make a living. I became the first member of my family to attend college. (My father only received an 8^th grade education.) I graduated from SUNY at Geneseo summa cum laude with a B.S. degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology. From there I followed the scholarship money to Boulder, CO, where I attended the University of Colorado earning my M.S. in Speech Pathology with an emphasis in language and learning disabilities. While working as a special education teacher, I completed my doctoral degree in Education at the University of Denver.

My education career spanned over 30 years, and included classroom and special education teaching, principal and central administration roles. It was a wonderful career and I have never lost my love of teaching. I had many opportunities to deal with bullies and their victims.

I have lived in Colorado since 1973, but about 10 years ago I moved into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to live with my husband on our small ranch near Lyons. For a few years we raised golden retrievers, and still have 5 as members of our family. Then in 2009, we began to use Boer goats to maintain our pastures and reduce fire hazards from grasses and low bushes. We had no idea what entertaining as well as helpful animals that the goats would prove to be. Children love visiting our ranch, meeting the animals “up close and personal”, and seeing the real setting for my stories.

You did not inquire about the illustrator, but as Nana’s Silly Goats is a picture book, the illustrations are critical to the success and enjoyment of the books. Lori Kiplinger Pandy is an internationally published illustrator of children’s books who lives in Ft. Collins where she also sculpts. More information is available at www.KiplingerPandy.com. Lori also illustrated Bully Goat to the Rescue.

Awards: Nana’s Silly Goats received the first place 2012 EVVY award for Children’s literature by the Colorado Independent Publisher’s Association.

Calico Joe (0385536070, $24.95) — John Grisham

In this novel, the careers of a golden boy rookie hitter for the Cubs and a hard-hitting Mets pitcher take very different paths. The baseball is thrilling, but it is what happens off the field that makes this story a classic.

 

 

 

The House of Velvet and Glass (1401340911, $25.99) — Katherine Howe

Katherine Howe, author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, returns with an entrancing historical novel set in Boston in 1915, where a young woman stands on the cusp of a new century, torn between loss and love, driven to seek answers in the depths of a crystal ball.
Still reeling from the deaths of her mother and sister on the Titanic, Sibyl Allston is living a life of quiet desperation with her taciturn father and scandal-plagued brother in an elegant town house in Boston’s Back Bay. Trapped in a world over which she has no control, Sibyl flees for solace to the parlor of a table-turning medium.But when her brother is suddenly kicked out of Harvard under mysterious circumstances and falls under the sway of a strange young woman, Sibyl turns for help to psychology professor Benton Derby, despite the unspoken tensions of their shared past. As Benton and Sibyl work together to solve a harrowing mystery, their long-simmering spark flares to life, and they realize that there may be something even more magical between them than a medium’s scrying glass.From the opium dens of Boston’s Chinatown to the opulent salons of high society, from the back alleys of colonial Shanghai to the decks of the Titanic, The House of Velvet and Glass weaves together meticulous period detail, intoxicating romance, and a final shocking twist that will leave readers breathless.

The Fiddler ( Home to Hickory Hollow #1 ) — Beverly Lewis

When Amy DeVries, thoroughly modern and disillusioned, sets out on a road trip, she unexpectedly meets an Amishman-and community-that changes her life forever.

 

 
The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict (0316176192, $17.99) — Trenton Lee Stewart

Nine-year-old Nicholas Benedict, an orphan afflicted with an unfortunate nose and with narcolepsy, is sent to a new orphanage where he encounters vicious bullies, selfish adults, strange circumstances, and a mystery that could change his life forever.

Running with the Mind of Meditation (0307888169, $20) — Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

A unique fitness program from a highly respected spiritual leader that blends physical and spiritual practice for everyone - regardless of age, spiritual background, or ability - to great benefits for both body and soul.
As a Tibetan lama and leader of Shambhala (an international community of 165 meditation centers), Sakyong Mipham has found physical activity to be essential for spiritual well-being. He’s been trained in horsemanship and martial arts but has a special love for running. Here he incorporates his spiritual practice with running, presenting basic meditation instruction and fundamental principles he has developed. Even though both activities can be complicated, the lessons here are simple and designed to show how the melding of internal practice with physical movement can be used by anyone - regardless of age, spiritual background, or ability - to benefit body and soul.

Allergy-Friendly Food for Families (1449409768, $24.99)

“Allergy-Friendly Food for Families” is the most trustworthy, comprehensive, practical, and kid-friendly collection of recipes that exists for the important and growing audience of allergy-aware families. Unlike other allergy cookbooks, this book covers not one or two allergens, but the five most common allergens in kids: wheat, dairy, eggs, nuts, and soy. Each of the 120 recipes is free of at least three of these allergens; most are free of all five.

 

The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy Seal (0547750382, $15.95) — Eric Greitens

In an inspiring memoir from one of the world’s most elite warriors, Eric Greitens recounts in remarkable detail his time as a Navy SEAL-from the most harrowing encounters and brutal attacks, to the lessons learned from his humanitarian efforts.

 

This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family’s Heartbreak (0061958336, $15.99) — Melissa Coleman

A true story, both tragic and redemptive, “This Life Is in Your Hands” tells of the quest to make a good life, the role of fate, and the power of forgiveness.

In the fall of 1968, Melissa Coleman’s parents pack their VW truck and set out to forge a new existence on a rugged coastal homestead. Inspired by Helen and Scott Nearing, authors of the homesteading bible “Living the Good Life,” Eliot and Sue build their own home by hand, live off the crops they grow, and establish a happy family with Melissa and her two sisters. They also attract national media and become icons of the back-to-the-land farming movement, but the pursuit of a purer, simpler life comes at a price. In the wake of a tragic accident, idealism gives way to human frailty, and by the fall of 1978, Greenwood Farm is abandoned. The search to understand what happened is at the heart of this luminous, heartbreaking, and ultimately redemptive memoir.

Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection (141659907X, $26.00) — A J Jacobs

“Having sanctified himself in The Year of Living Biblically and sharpened his mind in The Know-It-All, A. J. Jacobs had one feat left in the self-improvement trinity: to become the healthiest man in the world. He didn’t want just to lose weight, or finish a triathlon, or lower his cholesterol. His ambitions were far, far greater: Maximal health from head to toe.The task was massive. He had to tackle a complicated web of diet and exercise advice, much of which was nonsensical, unproven, and contradictory. He had to consult a team of medical advisers. And he had to subject himself to a grueling regimen of exercises, a range of diets, and an array of practices to improve everything from his hearing to his sleep to his sex life all the while testing the patience of his long-suffering wife. He left nothing untested, from the caveman workout to veganism, from the treadmill desk to extreme chewing. Drop Dead Healthy teems with hilarity and warmth and pushes our cultures assumptions about and obsessions with what makes good health, allowing the reader to reflect on his or her own health, body, and eventual mortality”-

Fifty Shades of Grey, by E L James (0345803485, $15.95)

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too-but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success-his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family-Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.
Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

Sacre Bleu, by Christopher Moore (0061779741, $26.99)

Baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard and bon vivant Henri Toulouse-Lautrec vow to discover the truth behind the untimely death of their friend Vincent van Gogh, which leads them on a surreal odyssey and brothel-crawl deep into the art world of late-nineteenth-century Paris.

 

The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel, by David Foster Wallace (0316074233, $16.99) NOW IN PAPERBACK

“The Pale King” remained unfinished at the time of Wallace’s death, but it is a deeply intriguing and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with questions of life’s meaning and of the ultimate value of work and family.

 

Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money, by Geneen Roth (0452297761, $15.00) NOW IN PAPERBACK

The #1 “New York Times” bestselling author of “Women Food and God” explores how emotional issues with money mirror those with food and dieting.
When Geneen Roth and her husband lost their life savings, Roth joined the millions of Americans dealing with financial turbulence, uncertainty, and abrupt reversals in their expectations. The resulting shock was the catalyst for her to explore, in workshops and in her own life, how women’s habits and behaviors around money-as with food-can lead to exactly the situations they most want to avoid. Roth identified her own unconscious choices-binge shopping followed by periods of budgetary self-deprivation, “treating” herself in ways that ultimately failed to sustain, and using money as a substitute for love- among others. As she examined the deep sources of these habits, she faced the hard truth about where her “self-protective” financial decisions had led. As in all her books, Roth relates her personal experience with irreverent humor and hard- won wisdom. Here, she offers provocative and radical strategies for transforming how we feel and behave about the resources that should, and ultimately can, sustain and support our lives.

Lies that Chelsea Handler Told Me, by Chelsea Handler (0446584703 , $14.99) NOW IN PAPERBACK

“My tendency to make up stories and lie compulsively for the sake of my own amusement takes up a good portion of my day and provides me with a peace of mind not easily attainable in this economic climate.”-Chelsea Handler, from Chapter 10 of Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang
It’s no lie: Chelsea Handler loves to smoke out “dumbassness,” the condition people suffer from that allows them to fall prey to her brand of complete and utter nonsense. Friends, family, co-workers-they’ve all been tricked by Chelsea into believing stories of total foolishness and into behaving like total fools. Luckily, they’ve lived to tell the tales and, for the very first time, write about them.

The Dovekeepers, by Alice Hoffman (1451617488, $16.00)NOW IN PAPERBACK

Hoffman weaves a spellbinding tale of four extraordinary, bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in desperate days. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets-about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and who they love.

Son of Stone, by Stuart Woods (0451236351, $9.99) NOW IN PAPERBACK

“A new addition to the New York Times-bestselling Stone Barrington series. After an eventful trip to Bel-Air and a reunion with his sophisticated (and very wealthy) former love, Arrington Calder, Stone Barrington is back in New York, and he’s looking to stay closer to home and cash in on his partnership at Woodman & Weld. But Arrington has other plans for Stone…including introducing him to the child he fathered many years ago”-

Imagine — Jonah Lehrer (9780547386072, $26.00)

“New York Times” best-selling author Jonah Lehrer shows us how we can all learn to be more creative.Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms? That brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea? That the color blue can help you double your creative output? From the best-selling author of “How We Decide” comes a sparkling and revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” Jonah Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single gift possessed by the lucky few. It’s a variety of distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively.
Lehrer reveals the importance of embracing the rut, thinking like a child, daydreaming productively, and adopting an outsider’s perspective (travel helps). He unveils the optimal mix of old and new partners in any creative collaboration, and explains why criticism is essential to the process. Then he zooms out to show how we can make our neighborhoods more vibrant, our companies more productive, and our schools more effective.
You’ll learn about Bob Dylan’s writing habits and the drug addictions of poets. You’ll meet a Manhattan bartender who thinks like a chemist, and an autistic surfer who invented an entirely new surfing move. You’ll see why Elizabethan England experienced a creative explosion, and how Pixar’s office space is designed to spark the next big leap in animation.Collapsing the layers separating the neuron from the finished symphony, “Imagine “reveals the deep inventiveness of the human mind, and its essential role in our increasingly complex world.

Force of Nature— CJ Box (9780399158261, $25.95)

He never wanted to tell Joe Pickett about it, but Nate Romanowski always knew trouble was coming out of his past. Now it’s here, and it may not only be the battle of his life-but of Joe’s.In 1995, Nate was in a secret Special Forces unit abroad when a colleague did something terrible. Now high up in the government, the man is determined to eliminate anyone who knows about it, and Nate knows exactly how he’ll do it-by striking at Nate’s friends to draw him out. The entire Pickett family will be a target, and the only way to fight back is outside the law. Nate knows he can do it, but he isn’t sure about his straight-arrow friend-and all their lives could depend on it.

 

 

 

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail — Cheryl Strayed (9780307592736, $25.95)

A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe-and built her back up again.
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State-and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.
Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, “Wild “vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son — Anne Lamott (9781594488412, $26.95)

In “Some Assembly Required,” Anne Lamott enters a new and unexpected chapter of her own life: grandmotherhood. Stunned to learn that her son, Sam, is about to become a father at nineteen, Lamott begins a journal about the first year of her grandson Jax’s life.In careful and often hilarious detail, Lamott and Sam-about whom she first wrote so movingly in “Operating Instructions”-struggle to balance their changing roles with the demands of college and work, as they both forge new relationships with Jax’s mother, who has her own ideas about how to raise a child. Lamott writes about the complex feelings that Jax fosters in her, recalling her own experiences with Sam when she was a single mother. Over the course of the year, the rhythms of life, death, family, and friends unfold in surprising and joyful ways.By turns poignant and funny, honest and touching, “Some Assembly Required” is the true story of how the birth of a baby changes a family-as this book will change everyone who reads it.

How Not to Kill Your Baby— Jacob Sager Weinstein (9781449409913, $14.99)

This tongue-in-cheek parenting book is a hilarious parody of every fear-mongering, crazy-making pregnancy and parenting manual parents have ever cringed over.

 

 

 

The Good Father - Noah Hawley (9780385535533, $25.95)

First-time author Hawley delivers an intense, psychological novel about one doctor’s suspense-filled quest to unlock the mind of a suspected political assassin: his 20-year old son. Told alternately from the point of view of the guilt-ridden, determined father and his meandering, ruminative son, “The Good Father” is a powerfully emotional page-turner that keeps one guessing until the very end.

 

 

Emperor of Nihon-Ja (Ranger’s Apprentice #10) - John Flanagan (9780399255007, $17.99)

Months have passed since Horace departed for the eastern nation of Nihon-Ja on a vital mission. Having received no communication from him, his friends fear the worst. Unwilling to wait a second longer, Alyss, Evanlyn, and Will leave their homeland behind and venture into an exotic land in search of their missing friend, in this final volume.

 

 

 

Halt’s Peril (Ranger’s Apprentice #09) - John Flanagan (9780142418581, $7.00) NOW IN PAPERBACK!

The renegade outlaw group known as the Outsiders may have been chased from Clonmel, but not before killing Halt’s only brother. Now Rangers Halt and Will, along with the young warrior Horace, are in pursuit and it will take every bit of skill and cunning for the Rangers to survive.