If You Tell by Gregg Olsen

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A #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller

#1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen’s shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters determined to survive their mother’s house of horrors.

“Olsen presents the story chronologically and in a simple, straightforward style, which works well: it is chilling enough as is.” —Booklist

After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.

For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.

Harrowing and heartrending, If You Tell is a survivor’s story of absolute evil―and the freedom and justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for. Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the darkness that made them the resilient women they are today―loving, loved, and moving on.

About the Author 

#1 New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author Gregg Olsen has written more than thirty books, including Lying Next to Me, The Last Thing She Ever Did, and two novels in the Nicole Foster series, The Sound of Rain and The Weight of Silence.

Known for his ability to create vivid and fascinating narratives, he's appeared on multiple television and radio shows and news networks, such as Good Morning America, Dateline,  Entertainment Tonight, CNN, and MSNBC. Washington State officially selected his young adult novel Envy for the National Book Festival, and The Deep Dark was named Idaho Book of the Year.

A Seattle native lives with his wife in rural Washington State, he's already at work on his next thriller.

Gregg Olsen

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Rating: 4.4/5

Author: Gregg Olsen

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Publishing Date: December 1, 2019

Edition Language: English

Genre: Serial Killer True Accounts, Murder & Mayhem True Accounts, American life

ISBN-10: 1542005221

ISBN-13: 978-1542005227

Pages: 429 ( Hardcover)

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The Giver by Lois Lowry

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The Giver is a 1993 American young adult dystopian novel written by Lois Lowry. It is set in a society which at first appears to be utopian but is revealed to be dystopian as the story progresses. The novel follows a 12-year-old boy named Jonas. The society has taken away pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a plan that has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of Receiver of Memory, the person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness, as there may be times where one must draw upon the wisdom gained from history to aid the community's decision making. Jonas struggles with concepts of all the new emotions and things introduced to him: whether they are inherently good, evil, or in between, and whether it is even possible to have one without the other. The Community lacks any color, memory, climate, or terrain, all in an effort to preserve structure, order, and a true sense of equality beyond personal individuality.

The Giver won the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide as of 2018. In Australia, Canada, and the United States, it is on many middle school reading lists, but it is also frequently challenged and it ranked number 11 on the American Library Association list of the most challenged books of the 1990s. A 2012 survey based in the US designated it the fourth-best children's novel of all time.

In 2014, a film adaptation was released, a starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep and Brenton Thwaites. The novel forms loose quartet with three other books set in the same future era, known as The Giver Quartet: Gathering Blue (2000), Messenger (2004), and Son (2012).

About the Author

Lois Lowry (born as Lois Ann Hammersberg on March 20, 1937, Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American writer. She is the author of several books for children and young adults, including The Giver Quartet, Number the Stars, and Rabble Starkey. She is also known for writing about difficult subject matters such as dystopias, and complex themes for young audiences. 

Lowry has won Margaret Edward Award in 2007 and two Newbery Medals for Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994. Her book Gooney Bird Greene won the 2002 Rhode Island Children's Book Award. Many of her books have been challenged or even banned in some schools and libraries, including the first book of The Giver Quartet--The Giver (1993) which is considered mandatory curriculum in some schools while being prohibited in others.

Lois Lowry

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Rating: 4.7/5

Reading Age: 12 years and up

Author: Lois Lowry

Publisher: Clarion Books, Reprint (Media Tie-In edition)

Publishing Date: July 1, 1993

Edition Language: English

Genre: Teen & Young Adult Fiction about Values & Virtues, Coming of Age Fantasy, Teen & Young Adult Fiction about Emotions & Feelings

ASIN: 0544336267 

ISBN-10: 9780544336261

ISBN-13: 978-0544336261

Pages: 240 (Paperback)

Tangerine by Edward Bloor

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Paul Fisher sees the world from behind glasses so thick he looks like a bug-eyed alien. But he’s not so blind that he can’t see there are some very unusual things about his family’s new home in Tangerine County, Florida. Where else does a sinkhole swallow the local school, fire burn underground for years, and lightning strike at the same time every day?

The chaos is compounded by constant harassment from his football–star brother, and adjusting to life in Tangerine isn’t easy for Paul—until he joins the soccer team at his middle school. With the help of his new teammates, Paul begins to discover what lies beneath the surface of his strange new hometown. And he also gains the courage to face up to some secrets his family has been keeping from him for far too long. In Tangerine, it seems, anything is possible.

About the Author

Edward William Bloor (born October 12, 1950, Trenton, New Jersey) is an American novelist and playwright, best known for Tangerine (1997) and London Calling (2006). He is the author of many other novels including Crusader (1999) and Story Time (2001). 

Tangerine was his debut novel that made him won many awards including American Library Association Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (1997), Edgar Award nominee (1998), American Booksellers Association (1997), New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing (1997) etc.

Bloor graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1968; the school inducted him into its hall of fame in 2015. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University in 1973. A former high school teacher, who got married to Pamela Dixon (a teacher) and a father of two, lives in Winter Garden, Florida.

Edward Bloor

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Rating: 4.6/5

Reading age: 10-12 years

Author: Edward Bloor

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Publishing Date: September 1, 2006

Edition Language: English

Genre: Children's Books on Disability, Children's Bullies Issues Books, Children's Boys & Men Books

ISBN-10: 0152057803

ISBN-13: 978-0152057800

Pages: 312 (Paperback)

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The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

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The Outsiders (1967) is a coming-of-age novel by an American novelist S. E. Hinton, she was only18 when the book was published by Viking Press. At the age of 15, she started writing the novel and did most of her work when she was in high school. 

50 years of an iconic classic! This international bestseller and inspiration for a beloved movie is aheroic story of frienship and belonging.

"The outsiders transformed young-adult fiction from a genre mostly about prom queens, footbal players and high school crushes to on that portrayed a darker, truer world."-The New York Times

"Taut with tension, filled with drama.."- The Chicago Tribune

A New York Herald Tribune Best Teenage Book

World Spring Book Festival Honor Book

Winner of the Massachusetts Children's Book Award

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

The story in the book takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1965, but this is never explicitly stated in the book. The story is told in first person by the teenage protagonist Ponyboy Curtis. In the story, he narrates the life in school and the conflict between two rival gangs divided by their socioeconomics status: the working-class 'Greasers' and the upper-class 'Socs'. The novel immidiately resonated with young adults and even now, forty years later, the story is as fresh and powerful to teenagers today as it ever was.   

A film, based on the book, was produced in 1983 and a short-lived television series appeared in 1990, picking up where the movie left off. A stage adaptation was writte by Christopher Sergel and published in 1990.

About the Author

Susan Eloise Hinton or S. E. Hinton (born July 22, 1948) is an American writer best known for her young-adult novels set in Oklahoma, especially The Outsiders (1967), which she wrote when she was just 16 during her high school. Hinton is credited with introducing the YA (Young-adult) genre. She is the author of several beloved and bestselling novels for young-adults, including That Was Then, This is Now, Rumble Fish, Tex ,and The Outsiders. She also has written few picture books, a collection of short stories, and a novel for adults. 

In 1988, she received the inaugural Margaret Edwards Award from American Library Association for her cumulative contribution in writing for teens. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband. She enjoys writing and horse riding.

            

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Rating: 4.8/5

Author: S. E. Hinton

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers (Platinum ed. edition)

Publishing Date: April 20, 2006

Edition Language: English

Reading age: 12-17 years

Genre: Teen & Young Adult Classic Literature, Sibling Fiction, Social Issue 

ISBN-10: 014240733X

ISBN-13: 978-0142407332

Pages: 224 (Paperback)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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A Little Princess (1905), is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is an expanded version of the short story "Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's", which was serialized in St Nicholas Magazine from December 1887. According to Burnett, after she composed the 1902 play A Little Un-Fairy Princess based on that story, her publisher asked that she expand the story as a novel with ''the things and people that had been left out before.'' The novel was published by Charles Scribner's Sons (also the publisher of St. Nicholas) with illustrations by Ethel Franklin Betts. Its full title was A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Being Told for the First Time. DA 

Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children. It was one of the Top 100 Chapter Books of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.

About the Author

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 - 29 October 1924) was a British novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885-86), A Little Princcess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911). 

She was born in Cheetham, England and after her father died she moved to Tennessee, United States with her mother in the year 1865 due to financial problems. She started remunerative writing at the age of 19 to support her family. She died in 1924 and was buried in Roslyn Cemetery in Nassau County, New York.

Frances Hodgson Burnett 

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Rating: 4.6/5

Reading Age: 9 - 12 Years

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Publisher: Puffin Books

Publishing Date: August 28, 2014 (Illustrated edition)

Edition Language: English

Genre: Fiction Classic for Children, Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths for Children,  English Literature

ISBN-10: 0147513995

ISBN-13: 978-0147513991

Pages: 320 (Hardcover)

    

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The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Celebrate an unforgettable classic with this paperback edition featuring the timeless art of Tasha Tudor... Just in time for the movie adaptation starring collin firth and Julie Walters!

The Secret Garden is a novel by British author Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialization in The American Magzine (November 1910 - August 1911). It is one of Burnett's most popular novels and has been seen as a classic of English children's literature. 

Born in India, the unattractive and willful Mary Lennox has remained in the care of servants for as long as she can remember, her life changes when her mother and father die. She comes to live at her uncle's great house on the Yorkshire Moors, a dark and dreary manor--full of secrets. It has nearly one hundred rooms, and her uncle keeps himself locked up. And at night, she hears the sound of crying down one of the long corridors.

With the help of Dickon, a local boy, Mary intends to uncover its secret. Their lives begin to change when a Robin shows Mary the door to a mysterious secret garden that was locked tight for 10 years. 

About the Author

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 - 29 October 1924) was a British novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885-86), A Little Princcess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911). 

She was born in Cheetham, England and after her father died she moved to Tennessee, United States with her mother in the year 1865 due to financial problems. She started remunerative writing at the age of 19 to support her family. She died in 1924 and was buried in Roslyn Cemetery in Nassau County, New York.

Frances Hodgson Burnett 

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Rating: 4.7/5

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett 

Publisher: Sterling (Unabridged edition)

Publishing Date: October 1, 2004

Edition Language: English

Genre: Children's Classics, Classics Literature & Fiction, Literature & Fiction

ISBN-10: 1402714599

ISBN-13: 978-1402714597

Pages: 248 (Hardcover)

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

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#1 New York Times Bestseller

Over 2 million copies sold

“This book hits you like a much-needed slap in the face from your best friend: hilarious, vulgar, and immensely thought-provoking. Only read if you’re willing to set aside all excuses and take an active role in living a f***ing better life.”-- Steve Kamb, bestselling author of Level Up Your Life and founder of NerdFitness.com

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected American society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about the experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

About the Author

Mark Manson (born March 9, 1984) is the New York Times bestselling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (with over 3 million in sales in the US alone) and a star blogger. Manson sold more than 50,000 copies of his self-published book Models: Attract Women Through Honesty. His other bestsellers Everything Is Fucked: A Book About Hope, The Most Important Question of Your Life, and No, You Can't Have It All have marked irrevocable impressions on his readers. 

Before long, his off-the-cuff voice was resonating with a much broader audience via his brilliantly counterintuitive essays on happiness. He lives in New York City.

Mark Manson

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Rating: 4.6/5

Author: Mark Manson

Publisher: Harper; Reprint edition

Publishing Date: July 15, 2022

Edition Language: English

Genre: Self-Help & Psychology Humor, Happiness Self-Help, Success Self-Help

ISBN-10: 0062457721

ISBN-13: 978-0062457721

Pages: 304 (Paperback)

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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

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"One of America’s most beloved stories." ―Andrew Liptak in Kirkus

“A coming of age fantasy story that sympathizes with typical teen girl awkwardness and insecurity, highlighting courage, resourcefulness and the importance of family ties as key to overcoming them.” ―Carol Platt Liebau, author, New York Post

A Wrinkle in Time (1962) is a young adult novel written by American author Madeleine L'Engle. The book won the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. The main characters--Meg Murry, Charles Wallace Murry, and Calvin O'Keefe--embark on a journey through space and time, from galaxy to galaxy, as they endeavor to save the Murrys' father and the world. 

The novel offers a glimpse into the war between light and darkness, and good and evil, as the young characters mature into adolescents on their journey. L'Engle modeled the Murry family on her own which shares the common joy with a mixed fantasy and science fiction setting.

The book has inspired two film adaptations, both by Disney: a 2003 television film directed by John Kent Harrison, and a 2018 theatrical film directed by Ava DuVernay.

About the Author

Madeleine L'Engle Camp (1918-2007) was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science.

She had a passion for writing from her childhood, instead of having an interest in schoolwork, she used to write poems, stories, and journals for herself. The passion kept growing over the years even after having a baby. She lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and wrote over 60 books. She enjoyed being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren.

 Madeleine L'Engle

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Rating: 4.6/5

Reading Age: 8-12 Years

Author: Madeleine L'Engle

Publisher: General Press (new edition)

Publishing Date: September 1, 2019 (originally January 1, 1962)

Edition Language: English

Genre: Children's Time Travel Fiction, Young-Adult Classics, American Classics

ISBN-10: 9389440181

ISBN-13: 978-9389440188

Pages: 194 (Hardcover)

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Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Over two million copies sold! From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN

“Unflinchingly honest and remarkably candid, Matthew McConaughey’s book invites us to grapple with the lessons of his life as he did—and to see that the point was never to win, but to understand.”—Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know-how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges—how to get relative with the inevitable—you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching green lights.”

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. Th
is is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caught, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s the medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more green lights—and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.

About the Author

Matthew David McConaughey (born November 4, 1969) is an American actor and producer. He first gained notice for his supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused (1993), which was considered by many to be his breakout role. He considers himself a storyteller by occupation and an aspiring orchestral conductor.  He is the brand ambassador for Lincoln Motor Company, a minority owner of the Major League Soccer club Austin FC and creator of his favorite bourbon on the planet, Wild Turkey Longbranch.

McConaughey married Camila Alves on June 9, 2012, in Austin, Texas where they reside currently, and have three children together. He confirmed in March 2021 that he is considering running for governor of Texas in 2022.

Matthew McConaughey

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Rating: 4.7/5

Author: Matthew McConaughey

Publisher: Crown (First Edition)

Publishing Date: October 20, 2020

Edition Language: English

Genre: Actor & Entertainer Biographies, Rich & Famous Biographies, Success Self-Help

ISBN-10: 0593139135

ISBN-13: 978-0593139134

Pages:  304 (Hardcover)

Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford

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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“This is a book people will be talking about forever.” ―Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Timesbestselling author of Untamed

“Ford’s wrenchingly brilliant memoir is truly a classic in the making. The writing is so richly observed and so suffused with love and yearning that I kept forgetting to breathe while reading it.” ―John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"Perhaps the greatest contribution Ford makes is to offer her story ― written in the most lively and lucid prose ― in its most raw and unabridged form...By telling her truth so honestly and authentically, Ford invites us to tell ours, too." ―The Washington Post

One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father.

Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley C. Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates. When the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley desperately searches for meaning in the chaos. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father’s incarceration . . . and Ashley’s entire world is turned upside down.

Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.

About the Author

Ashley C. Ford is an American writer, podcaster, and educator who deals with topics including race, sexuality, and body image. She is the author of The New York Times best-selling memoir, Somebody's Daughter. She has been the host of five different podcasts and has written or guest-edited for multiple well-known publications including The Guardian, ELLE Magazine, BuzzFeed etc. In 2017, Forbes Magzine named her one of their '30 Under 30 in Media'. 

She lives in Indianpolis, Indian with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy.  

Ashley C. Ford

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Rating: 4.4/5

Author: Ashley C. Ford

Publisher: Flatiron Books ( An Oprah Book)

Publishing Date: June 1, 2021

Edition Language: English

Genre: Sociology of Abuse, Black & African American Biographies, Memoirs

ISBN-10: 1250305977

ISBN-13: 978-1250305978

Pages: 224 (Hardcover)

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