National Network for Equitable Library Service

The mega-talented creator of Grey's Anatomy and Scandal and executive producer of How to Get Away With Murder chronicles how saying YES for one year changed her life?and how it can change yours, too. With three hit shows on television and three children at home, the uber-talented Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say NO when an unexpected invitation arrived. Hollywood party? No. Speaking engagement? No. Media appearances? No. And there was the side benefit of saying No for an introvert like Shonda: nothing new to fear.

For years, Kim's day job was a social worker to the home-bound elderly in Brooklyn Heights. Then she'd scramble into Manhattan to make her hostess shifts at Babbo, where even the Pope would have trouble scoring a reservation, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Reynolds squeezed through the jam-packed entryway like everyone else. Despite her sometimes fifteen-hour days, Kim couldn't make ends meet, up to her eyeballs in grad school debt.

For fans of Hidden Figures and Radium Girls comes the remarkable story of three Victorian women who broke down barriers in the medical field to become the first women doctors, revolutionizing the way women receive health care. In the early 1900s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness--a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society.

"If we accept Wittgenstein's word for it," Paul Strathern writes, "he is the last philosopher. In his view, philosophy in the traditional sense was finished." In Wittgenstein in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Wittgenstein's life and ideas and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world.

From the world's foremost neuroscientist of romantic love comes a personal story of connection and heartbreak that brings new understanding to an old truth: better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. At thirty-seven, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo was content to be single. She was fulfilled by her work on the neuroscience of romantic love--how finding and growing with a partner literally reshapes our brains. That was, until she met the foremost neuroscientist of loneliness. A whirlwind romance led to marriage, to sharing an office at the University of Chicago.

An affecting memoir from the country's youngest sommelier, tracing her path through the glamorous but famously toxic restaurant world. At just twenty-one, the age when most people are starting to drink (well, legally at least), Victoria James became the country's youngest sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Best-selling author and mortician Caitlin Doughty answers real questions from kids about death, dead bodies, and decomposition. Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of questions about death. The best questions come from kids. What would happen to an astronaut's body if it were pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral?

Award-winning actress Drew Barrymore shares funny, insightful, and profound stories from her past and present told from the place of happiness she's achieved today. Wildflower is a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences of her earlier years.

Since the publication of her much-loved first book, Mindy Kaling's life has changed significantly. Back then, she played Kelly Kapoor, a supporting character on the popular series, The Office. Now Mindy is the creator, producer, writer, and star of her own TV show, The Mindy Project. She is, as she puts it, "a tiny bit famous," the perks of which include being three assistants, two phone calls and a really good lie away from obtaining Bradley Cooper's e-mail address and having convicts writing her fan mail from prison.

In a book that is The Big Sick meets Dad is Fat, Jeannie Gaffigan, writing partner and wife of bestselling author/comedian Jim Gaffigan, writes with humor and heart about the pear-sized brain tumor she had removed, the toll it took on her enormous family, and the priceless lessons she learned along the way. In 2017, writer director producer and super mom Jeannie's life came to a crashing halt when she was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor.