Relationships Friendships

We are lonelier than ever. The average American hasn't made a new friend in the last five years. Research has shown that people with close friends are happier, healthier, and live longer than people who lack strong social bonds. But why - when we are seemingly more connected than ever before - can it feel so difficult to keep those bonds alive and well? Why do we spend only four percent of our time with friends? In this warm, inspiring guide, Adam "Smiley" Poswolsky proposes a new solution for the mounting pressures of modern life: Focus on your friendships.

She was America’s First Lady. Now she’s just trying to figure out who she is—one cup of coffee, one scandal, and one small-town secret at a time. After the President dies under mysterious circumstances, Ruby Hudson is left with more than just grief. There’s a secret mistress. A child. And a letter from her late husband that she’s not sure she’s ready to read. So, Ruby runs. Not from the public, but toward a new life—on a quirky, pirate-themed island called Shipwreck Key, where the residents don’t care about her past and the only political drama involves who’s bringing ...

Sam is seven years old and living in Beverly, Massachusetts. She adores her father, though he isn’t around much. Her mother struggles to make ends meet, and never fails to remind Sam that if she studies hard and acts responsibly, adulthood will be easier—more secure and comfortable. But comfort and security are of little interest to Sam. She doesn’t fit in at school, where the other girls have the right shade of blue jeans and don’t question the rules. She doesn’t care about jeans or rules. All she wants to climb.

Dillon has the terrifying power to create massive amounts of destruction with the slightest tweak of his will. Deanna is so consumed by fear, it has become like a black hole, drawing to her the very things that terrify her. Then, when the glare of a supernova 16 light-years away illuminates the night sky, they have a vision: There are six of them out there, all teenagers, and all suffering from supernatural afflictions that disfigure their bodies and souls.

Adrian sul'Han, known as Ash, is a trained healer with a powerful gift of magic - and a thirst for revenge. Ash is forced into hiding after a series of murders throws the queendom into chaos. Now he's closer than ever to killing the man responsible, the cruel king of Arden. With time running out, Ash faces an excruciating choice: Can he use his powers not to save a life but to take it?

How to connect with anyone - in a systematic and structured way. A true set of instructions for any social interaction. Sometimes our minds are blank and we run out of things to say. That's normal. This book seeks to simplify that moment with simple formulas and equations to keep you going, connecting, and charming. A detailed breakdown of what people look for in friends, rapport, and social skills. Social Equations is a book of research and iteration. This means that each formula has been verified and confirmed by psychologists and researchers, and then broken down into use for daily life.

Never fall in love with your best friend... I met Hal on the first day of high school. I also fell in love with Hal on the first day of high school. But although we were good friends from the start, I knew he’d never be mine. He’s gorgeous, confident, sexy, and he’s also incredibly rich. I’m scarred – physically and emotionally – quiet, and my family has always been poor. The two of us are poles apart. So I’ve trained myself not to think of him in that way. Not to think of kissing him, undressing him slowly. Of sliding beneath the bedclothes. Of having his hands on my skin. I ...

Sydney Sage is an alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. In the Indigo Spell, Sydney was torn between the alchemist way of life and what her heart and gut were telling her to do. And in one breathtaking moment that Richelle Mead fans will never forget, she made a decision that shocked even her...But the struggle isn't over for Sydney. As she navigates the aftermath of her life-changing decision, she still finds herself pulled in too many directions at once.

Receptionist Pam Beesly and accountant Angela Martin had very little in common when they toiled together at Scranton’s Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. But, in reality, the two bonded in their very first days on set and, over the nine seasons of the series’ run, built a friendship that transcended the show and continues to this day.

Homicide cop Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, are building a brand-new school and youth shelter. They know that the hard life can lead kids toward dangerous crossroads - and they hope to nudge a few more of them onto the right path. For expert help, they hire child psychologist Dr. Rochelle Pickering - whose own brother pulled himself out of a spiral of addiction and crime with Rochelle’s support. Lyle is living with Rochelle while he gets his life together. He’s thrilled to hear about his sister’s new job offer. But within hours, triumph is followed by tragedy.

What if I don't want intimacy at all? It is selfish to pursue a relationship if I don't want romance? These questions are not only a source of deep anxiety and frustration for ace and aro people - but limit the heights that ace and aro folks believe they can reach for in their lives. These questions make us believe that we should settle for less, when in fact we all deserve more.

Ruby Hudson thought she knew how to handle grief. Until she lost someone who held a piece of her soul. At fifty, Ruby’s no stranger to life’s heartbreaks. She’s been a mother, a First Lady, and a widow. She’s weathered public scandals, private betrayals, and the messy, beautiful business of starting over. But nothing prepares her for this latest loss—unexpected, intimate, and earth-shifting. As she works through her grief, Ruby finds herself facing an uncomfortable truth: there was so much she didn’t know about the person she loved. Secrets. Stories. Sides of them she somehow ...

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day. So when the three unexpectedly run into each other, they decide to avoid their problems by ditching. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say...until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school - and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse.

Our families have been enemies for thirty years. So why do I want Scarlett Stone more than the air I breathe? Scarlett and I couldn’t be more different. I’m 6’2” and big all over (so I’ve been told). She’s tiny. Like a hobbit without the hairy feet. I’m a billionaire who owns a city penthouse and buys Italian suits in Milan. She lives in a commune and wears real flowers in her hair. I’m university educated, well traveled, and experienced. Scarlett has spent her life surrounded by crackpot hippies, yet there’s an innocence about her that makes my pulse pound. Our fathers ...

Why do we assume romantic relationships are more important than friendships? What do we lose when we expect a spouse to meet all our needs? And what can we learn about commitment, love, and family from people who put deep friendship at the center of their lives? In The Other Significant Others, NPR's Rhaina Cohen invites us into the lives of people who have defied convention by choosing a friend as a life partner—these are friends who are home co-owners, co-parents or each other’s caregivers.

When you’re broken, abandoned, and lonely, the isolated mansion of a gorgeous billionaire is the perfect escape… When I interview for the position of nanny for a billionaire’s three-month-old daughter, I’m looking for an escape. From my past, from my memories, and from those both alive and dead who refuse to give me peace. Kingfisher House is exactly what I need—a huge, quiet retreat high atop the cliffs overlooking New Zealand’s rugged coastline, straight out of a Gothic novel. It even has its own brooding hero. Ben Prince is gorgeous, stern, and withdrawn, and he’s forbidden...

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush, who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice explains that there are 13 reasons she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why.

In spite of the hyper-connected culture we live in today, women still feel shamed for oversharing and being publicly vulnerable. And no matter how many friends we seem to have, many of us are still desperately lonely. Laura Tremaine, blogger and podcaster behind 10 Things to Tell You, says it's time for something better. Openness and vulnerability are the foundation for human growth and healthy relationships, and it all starts when we share our stuff, the nitty-gritty daily details about ourselves with others.

Renowned storyteller Philip Pullman returns to the parallel world of Lyra Belacqua and His Dark Materials for a thrilling and epic adventure in which daemons, alethiometers, and the Magisterium all play parts.

He’s trained to survive the deadliest conditions in space. But no one prepared him for the silence at home. Lieutenant Colonel Bill Booker is a decorated pilot, a respected astronaut, and a man unraveling by degrees. Beneath the surface of his perfect American life—his rising NASA career, his beautiful wife Jo, and their idyllic home on Stardust Beach—something is breaking. And when his temper flares one too many times, NASA gives him a choice: face therapy, or forfeit his place in the program. Haunted by his past, disconnected from the woman he once loved so fiercely, and quietly ...