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With his father’s mysterious disappearance and his brother Ronnie enlisting in the Vietnam War, 13-year-old TJ Crowley is left alone with his racist, unstable mother, Kate. The newly enforced Fair Housing Act results in the unthinkable for the Crowleys when a Black family, headed by the eminent Dr. Washington, crosses the racial red line and moves in next door. Kate is quick to warn TJ that their new neighbors are strictly off-limits and makes a panicked call to beg Ray, her old flame, to travel to their home in Wichita Kansas to help deal with “the problem next door.”

Thirty-four stories, three postscripts, and one big message: Positively Altered is a call to action for every one of us to unapologetically live and love our own way no matter what challenges life brings. Positively Altered is about how to find happiness in the rarest of places--for starters, at the bottom of a chemo bag. In a collection of raw, in-the-moment stories that come to life with self-deprecating humor and a hearty dose of reality, Cindy doesn’t sugarcoat her journey any more than she bemoans her fate.

When a tragic bushfire puts two kids in hospital, Indigenous teenager Andrew knows the police will come after him first. But Andrew almost wants to be caught, because at least it might make his dad come and rescue him from suburban Brisbane and his neglectful mother. Growing up in small-town Tasmania, Andrew struggled at home, at school, at everything. The only thing that distracted or excited him was starting little fires. Flames boosted his morale and purified his thoughts, and they were the only thing in his life he could control.

Paul Bunyan—legendary larger-than-life American lumberjack—is a man down on his luck. With a load of family debts on his broad back, he ekes out a miserable miner’s life in Lump Town, a bleak hamlet controlled by famed industrialist El Boffo. When Bunyan's wife Lucette falls ill with a disease caused by the toxic mineral Lump, he embarks on a quest to save her. His only guide: the Chilali—a mysterious creature who speaks only in questions.

Toronto Method Mindfulness Handbook is a thorough guide to the fundamental theory and practice of contemporary mindfulness meditation. It is a standalone resource for both beginning and intermediate practitioners. Through six lessons, Ari Kaplan explains the importance of balancing present moment awareness with loving-kindness, curiosity with non-identification, and intentional practice with the spontaneous experience of pure beingness. His teachings are rooted in well-recognized research methods, such as the Toronto Mindfulness Scale and emotion-focused mindfulness.