The Road to Character

The Road to Character
Author: David Brooks
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2015-04-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0679645039

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • David Brooks challenges us to rebalance the scales between the focus on external success—“résumé virtues”—and our core principles. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives. Looking to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a noble crusade. Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Road to Character provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth. “Joy,” David Brooks writes, “is a byproduct experienced by people who are aiming for something else. But it comes.” Praise for The Road to Character “A hyper-readable, lucid, often richly detailed human story.”—The New York Times Book Review “This profound and eloquent book is written with moral urgency and philosophical elegance.”—Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon “A powerful, haunting book that works its way beneath your skin.”—The Guardian “Original and eye-opening . . . Brooks is a normative version of Malcolm Gladwell, culling from a wide array of scientists and thinkers to weave an idea bigger than the sum of its parts.”—USA Today

On the Road to Find Out

On the Road to Find Out
Author: Rachel Toor
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2014-06-10
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0374300151

On New Year's Day, Alice Davis goes for a run. Her first ever. It's painful and embarrassing, but so was getting denied by the only college she cares about. Alice knows she has to stop sitting around and complaining to her best friend, Jenni, and her pet rat, Walter, about what a loser she is. But what she doesn't know is that by taking those first steps out the door, she is setting off down a road filled with new challenges—including vicious side stitches, chafing in unmentionable places, and race-paced first love—and strengthening herself to endure when the going suddenly gets tougher than she ever imagined, in On the Road to Find Out by Rachel Toor.

The Road to Finding Us

The Road to Finding Us
Author: Kat Singleton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre:
ISBN:

Lily Morrison was as guarded as a woman could get--until Aspen Bellevue came along during her first year of college. His playful banter and sexy smirk paved a way straight to her heart. But that was before his playboy tendencies demolished it. After being hurt by the one man she ever truly wanted, she swore she'd never let herself fall for him again.Aspen always knew his best friend's twin sister was off limits. Lily was the one girl he couldn't have--and yet, the only one he pined for. But by the time he realized this, ready to change his ways, it was already too late. To her, Aspen will always be a womanizer. To him, she's a sassy spitfire whose feathers he still loves to ruffle. Now, after a few years apart, they're thrown together to reunite with their old college crew. But this time, Aspen has a plan. He wants Lily to be his by the time they travel from Texas to South Carolina. Meanwhile, Lily wants their baggage to stay in the past--where to her, it belongs. How much could go wrong when two sworn enemies--with two different outlooks and renewed sexual tension--come together in a car for a week-long road trip? Only one of them wants to find out.

Finding the Road to Us

Finding the Road to Us
Author: Carrie Ann Ryan
Publisher: Carrie Ann Ryan
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2023-12-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1636951996

I was ready to say, ‘I do’, then my fiancé left me at the altar. Broken and embarrassed, Trace and Elliot helped me run away—ditching my wedding dress in the process. When I come back to the Wilder Retreat to show the world I’m no longer hurting, I know I must ignore my traitorous needs when it comes to these two men. Because my body wants them both. And my soul craves them just as much. I know I can’t choose, and part of me asks why I should. Only when we decide to take that chance and share everything, the danger from our pasts refuses to let our choice stand. With one kiss, one dance into temptation, we could lose everything. Including our lives. ~~~~~~~ About the Wilder Brothers Series Introducing the Wilder Brothers. Sexy, built AF, slightly overprotective brothers. Somen who won't back down in order to protect those they love. When the Wilder brothers return home after leaving the military and the lives they fought to build, they'll have to start from scratch and create roots when they had none before. They're moving to a new state, a new town, and with a new set of problems they never expected. Falling in love along the way isn't in the cards, but the Wilder brothers should know by now—you don't choose your fate, fate chooses you. The Wilder Brothers Series Book 1: One Way Back to Me Book 2: Always the One for Me Book 3: The Path to You Book 4: Coming Home For Us Book 5: Stay Here with Me Book 6: Finding the Road to Us Book 7: Moments for You Book 8: A Wilder Wedding Book 9: Forever For Us ~~~~~~~ Read what others are saying about New York Times bestselling author, Carrie Ann Ryan: “One of the best family romance series around! Carrie Ann Ryan brings the heat, emotions, and love in each story!” ~ NYT Bestselling Author Corinne Michaels “Count on Carrie Ann Ryan for emotional, sexy, character driven stories that capture your heart!” – Carly Phillips, NY Times bestselling author “Carrie Ann Ryan’s romances are my newest addiction! The emotion in her books captures me from the very beginning. The hope and healing hold me close until the end. These love stories will simply sweep you away.” ~ NYT Bestselling Author Deveny Perry “Carrie Ann Ryan writes sexy emotional romances that'll make you cry and fan yourself from the heat, especially because of all that sexy ink.” –#1 NYT Bestselling Author Lauren Blakely “Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop! This is definitely going in my re-read pile!” –NYT Bestselling Author Susan Stoker "Carrie Ann Ryan writes the perfect balance of sweet and heat ensuring every story feeds the soul." - Audrey Carlan, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author “Carrie Ann Ryan never fails to draw readers in with passion, raw sensuality, and characters that pop off the page. Any book by Carrie Ann is an absolute treat.” – New York Times Bestselling Author J. Kenner “Carrie Ann Ryan knows how to pull your heartstrings and make your pulse pound! Her wonderful Redwood Pack series will draw you in and keep you reading long into the night. I can’t wait to see what comes next with the new generation, the Talons. Keep them coming, Carrie Ann!” –Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author of CRAVE THE NIGHT "With snarky humor, sizzling love scenes, and brilliant, imaginative worldbuilding, The Dante's Circle series reads as if Carrie Ann Ryan peeked at my personal wish list!" – NYT Bestselling Author, Larissa Ione "Carrie Ann Ryan writes sexy shifters in a world full of passionate happily-ever-afters." – New York Times Bestselling Author Vivian Arend “Carrie Ann’s books are sexy with characters you can’t help but love from page one. They are heat and heart blended to perfection.” New York Times Bestselling Author Jayne Rylon Carrie Ann Ryan's books are wickedly funny and deliciously hot, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. They'll keep you up all night!” USA Today Bestselling Author Cari Quinn "Once again, Carrie Ann Ryan knocks the Dante's Circle series out of the park. The queen of hot, sexy, enthralling paranormal romance, Carrie Ann is an author not to miss!" New York Times bestselling Author Marie Harte ___ Topics: Contemporary Romance, Tattoo Romance, Dangerous Romance, Second Chance Romance, Erotic Romance, Steamy Romance, Grief, Love Story, Blue Collar, Construction, Montgomery Ink, sexy, heartwarming, heart-warming, family, love, love books, kissing books, emotional journey, contemporary, contemporary romance, romance series, long series, long romance series, sassy, strong heroine, captivating romance, hot, hot romance, forbidden love, sparks, loyalty, swoon rescue, kidnap, claiming, defending, protect Other readers of Carrie Ann Ryan’s books enjoyed books by: Corinne Michaels, Susan Stoker, Natasha Madison, Chelle Bliss, Chelle Sloane, Sally Thorn, Christina Lauren, Colleen Hoover, Talia Hipbert, Helena Hunting, Elle Kennedy, Kristen Callihan, Penny Reid, Kristen Ashley, KA Tucker, Melissa Foster, Bella Andre, Piper Lawson, Jean Oram, Sarina Bowen, and Jay Crownover

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken
Author: David Orr
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 127
Release: 2015-08-18
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0698140893

A cultural “biography” of Robert Frost’s beloved poem, arguably the most popular piece of literature written by an American “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood . . .” One hundred years after its first publication in August 1915, Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” is so ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget that it is, in fact, a poem. Yet poetry it is, and Frost’s immortal lines remain unbelievably popular. And yet in spite of this devotion, almost everyone gets the poem hopelessly wrong. David Orr’s The Road Not Taken dives directly into the controversy, illuminating the poem’s enduring greatness while revealing its mystifying contradictions. Widely admired as the poetry columnist for The New York Times Book Review, Orr is the perfect guide for lay readers and experts alike. Orr offers a lively look at the poem’s cultural influence, its artistic complexity, and its historical journey from the margins of the First World War all the way to its canonical place today as a true masterpiece of American literature. “The Road Not Taken” seems straightforward: a nameless traveler is faced with a choice: two paths forward, with only one to walk. And everyone remembers the traveler taking “the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” But for a century readers and critics have fought bitterly over what the poem really says. Is it a paean to triumphant self-assertion, where an individual boldly chooses to live outside conformity? Or a biting commentary on human self-deception, where a person chooses between identical roads and yet later romanticizes the decision as life altering? What Orr artfully reveals is that the poem speaks to both of these impulses, and all the possibilities that lie between them. The poem gives us a portrait of choice without making a decision itself. And in this, “The Road Not Taken” is distinctively American, for the United States is the country of choice in all its ambiguous splendor. Published for the poem’s centennial—along with a new Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of Frost’s poems, edited and introduced by Orr himself—The Road Not Taken is a treasure for all readers, a triumph of artistic exploration and cultural investigation that sings with its own unforgettably poetic voice.

The Road

The Road
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2007-03-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307267458

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). • From the bestselling author of The Passenger A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.

Real Queer America

Real Queer America
Author: Samantha Allen
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2019-03-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0316516015

LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST A transgender reporter's "powerful, profoundly moving" narrative tour through the surprisingly vibrant queer communities sprouting up in red states (New York Times Book Review), offering a vision of a stronger, more humane America. Ten years ago, Samantha Allen was a suit-and-tie-wearing Mormon missionary. Now she's a GLAAD Award-winning journalist happily married to another woman. A lot in her life has changed, but what hasn't changed is her deep love of Red State America, and of queer people who stay in so-called "flyover country" rather than moving to the liberal coasts. In Real Queer America, Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: "Something gay every day." Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more. Capturing profound cultural shifts underway in unexpected places and revealing a national network of chosen family fighting for a better world, Real Queer America is a treasure trove of uplifting stories and a much-needed source of hope and inspiration in these divided times.

The Road to Unfreedom

The Road to Unfreedom
Author: Timothy Snyder
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2019-04-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0525574476

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of On Tyranny comes a stunning new chronicle of the rise of authoritarianism from Russia to Europe and America. “A brilliant analysis of our time.”—Karl Ove Knausgaard, The New Yorker With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy seemed final. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. This faith was misplaced. Authoritarianism returned to Russia, as Vladimir Putin found fascist ideas that could be used to justify rule by the wealthy. In the 2010s, it has spread from east to west, aided by Russian warfare in Ukraine and cyberwar in Europe and the United States. Russia found allies among nationalists, oligarchs, and radicals everywhere, and its drive to dissolve Western institutions, states, and values found resonance within the West itself. The rise of populism, the British vote against the EU, and the election of Donald Trump were all Russian goals, but their achievement reveals the vulnerability of Western societies. In this forceful and unsparing work of contemporary history, based on vast research as well as personal reporting, Snyder goes beyond the headlines to expose the true nature of the threat to democracy and law. To understand the challenge is to see, and perhaps renew, the fundamental political virtues offered by tradition and demanded by the future. By revealing the stark choices before us--between equality or oligarchy, individuality or totality, truth and falsehood--Snyder restores our understanding of the basis of our way of life, offering a way forward in a time of terrible uncertainty.

Don't Make Me Pull Over!

Don't Make Me Pull Over!
Author: Richard Ratay
Publisher: Scribner
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2019-05-14
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1501188755

“A lighthearted, entertaining trip down Memory Lane” (Kirkus Reviews), Don’t Make Me Pull Over! offers a nostalgic look at the golden age of family road trips—before portable DVD players, smartphones, and Google Maps. The birth of America’s first interstate highways in the 1950s hit the gas pedal on the road trip phenomenon and families were soon streaming—sans seatbelts!—to a range of sometimes stirring, sometimes wacky locations. In the days before cheap air travel, families didn’t so much take vacations as survive them. Between home and destination lay thousands of miles and dozens of annoyances, and with his family Richard Ratay experienced all of them—from being crowded into the backseat with noogie-happy older brothers, to picking out a souvenir only to find that a better one might have been had at the next attraction, to dealing with a dad who didn’t believe in bathroom breaks. Now, decades later, Ratay offers “an amiable guide…fun and informative” (New York Newsday) that “goes down like a cold lemonade on a hot summer’s day” (The Wall Street Journal). In hundreds of amusing ways, he reminds us of what once made the Great American Family Road Trip so great, including twenty-foot “land yachts,” oasis-like Holiday Inn “Holidomes,” “Smokey”-spotting Fuzzbusters, twenty-eight glorious flavors of Howard Johnson’s ice cream, and the thrill of finding a “good buddy” on the CB radio. An “informative, often hilarious family narrative [that] perfectly captures the love-hate relationship many have with road trips” (Publishers Weekly), Don’t Make Me Pull Over! reveals how the family road trip came to be, how its evolution mirrored the country’s, and why those magical journeys that once brought families together—for better and worse—have largely disappeared.