This isn't a book, it's a hug in disguise. It will never wear out (but please feel free to try). Because if there's one thing that I know to be true, it's that no one deserves the best hugs more than you.

This might look like a book, but it's really a hug you get to give to connect from any distance--whether across the street or across the world. With a bit of humor and a whole lot of heart, the sweet rhymes and artwork in these pages are sure to make someone smile and feel squeezed by your love.

Share a long-distance hug with a friend who has moved away, a relative serving overseas, or a loved one going through a tough time. With a bit of humor and a whole lot of heart, the sweet rhymes and artwork in these pages are sure to make someone smile and feel embraced by your love.

Gift to anyone on any occasion, whether it's a grandparent who lives far away, a college student who is missing home, a friend who could use a get-well gift, or a loved one who is celebrating a birthday.

Whether selling, managing, negotiating, planning, collaborating, pitching, instructing-or on your knees with a marriage proposal-the secret of success is based on connecting with other people. Now that connection is infinitely easier to make through Nicholas Boothman's program of rapport by design.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
AN INDIE BESTSELLER

The Other Significant Others...fundamentally, it's become my new Bible. -- Trevor Noah
An arresting work of compassion and insight. ―Lori Gottlieb
I loved and recommend [The Other Significant Others] to everybody. --Ezra Klein
I feel like I've been waiting for this book for my entire adult life. ―Anne Helen Petersen

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. Their riveting stories unsettle widespread assumptions about relationships, including the idea that sex is a defining feature of partnership and that people who raise kids together should be in a romantic relationship. Platonic partners from different walks of life--spanning age and religion, gender and sexuality and more--reveal how freeing and challenging it can be to embrace a relationship model that society doesn't recognize. And they show that orienting your world around friends isn't limited to daydreams and episodes of The Golden Girls, but actually possible in real life.

Based on years of original reporting and striking social science research, Cohen argues that we undermine romantic relationships by expecting too much of them, while we diminish friendships by expecting too little of them. She traces how, throughout history, our society hasn't always fixated on marriage as the greatest source of meaning, or even love. At a time when many Americans are spending large stretches of their lives single, widowed or divorced, or feeling the effects of the loneliness epidemic, Cohen insists that we recognize the many forms of profound connection that can anchor our lives. A rousing and incisive book, The Other Significant Others challenges us to ask what we want from our relationships--not just what we're supposed to want--and transforms how we define a fulfilling life.

I'm wishing you sparkle and spirit and cheer
and good things to come that will last you all year.
Some gifts are too big to tie with a bow--like well-wishes for a loved one that only seem to grow! A follow-up to M.H. Clark and Cécile Metzger's best-selling book More Than a Little, this illustrated gift book is a way to celebrate the wonders of winter and your heartfelt desire for a dear friend to experience them all. Featuring an adorable polar bear and penguin duo, it's filled with heartwarming rhymes to share the magic of the holidays with a friend who has a sparkle all of their own. Give this sweet book as a holiday or host gift. Features silver foil on a hardcover.

Instant New York Times bestseller

Is understanding the science of attachment the key to building lasting friendships and finding your people in an ever-more-fragmented world?

How do we make and keep friends in an era of distraction, burnout, and chaos, especially in a society that often prizes romantic love at the expense of other relationships? In Platonic, Dr. Marisa G. Franco unpacks the latest, often counterintuitive findings about the bonds between us--for example, why your friends aren't texting you back (it's not because they hate you!), and the myth of friendships happening organically (making friends, like cultivating any relationship, requires effort!). As Dr. Franco explains, to make and keep friends you must understand your attachment style--secure, anxious, or avoidant: it is the key to unlocking what's working (and what's failing) in your friendships.

Making new friends, and deepening longstanding relationships, is possible at any age--in fact, it's essential. The good news: there are specific, research-based ways to improve the number and quality of your connections using the insights of attachment theory and the latest scientific research on friendship. Platonic provides a clear and actionable blueprint for forging strong, lasting connections with others--and for becoming our happiest, most fulfilled selves in the process.

The King of Orchard Street is a tale told by six men, including the author, over three generations and across the decades of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Their stories recreate a world that was bound by a simple yet profound code of family, respect, cooperation, contentment, and acceptance for all. Due to the passing of time, these six men's lives all intersected to varying degrees, but the daily living experience for each of them over thirty-plus years never varied. The ageless principles etched into the King of Orchard Street are more germane to this tumultuous planet than ever before. A small uncomplicated set of values that can be practiced every day by everyone may lead to a world where problems massive and minimal can be reduced, then vanquished.

We Should Get Together is the handbook for anyone who's ready for better friendships, now.

• Have you recently moved to a new city and are struggling to make friends?
• Do you find yourself constantly making plans with friends that fall through?
• Are you more likely to see your friends' social media posts than their faces?

You aren't alone. Millions of adults struggle with an uncomfortable and persistent ache: platonic longing, which is the unfulfilled wish for authentic, resilient, close friendships. But it doesn't have to be this way. Making and maintaining friendships during adulthood can be hard--or, with a bit of intention and creativity, joyful.

Author Kat Vellos, experience designer and founder of Better Than Small Talk, tackles the four most common challenges of adult friendship: constant relocation, full schedules, the demands of partnership and family, and our culture's declining capacity for compassion and intimacy in the age of social media. Combining expert research and personal stories pulled from conversations with hundreds of adults, We Should Get Together is the modern handbook for making and maintaining stronger friendships.

With this book you will learn to:

• Make and maintain friendships when you (or your friends) keep moving
• Have deeper and more meaningful conversations
• Triumph over awkwardness in social situations
• Become less dependent on your phone
• Identify and prioritize quality connections
• Find time for friendship despite your busy calendar
• Create closer, more durable friendships

Full of relatable stories, practical tips, 60 charming illustrations, 55 suggested activities, a book club discussion guide, and 300+ conversation starters, We Should Get Together is the perfect book for anyone who wants to have dedicated, life-enriching friends, and who wants to be that kind of friend, too.

Simple ways to strengthen any relationship

With more than 20 million copies sold, The 5 Love Languages(R) continues to transform relationships worldwide. And though originally written for married couples, its concepts have proven applicable to families, friends, and even coworkers.

The premise is simple: Each person gives and receives love in a certain language, and speaking it will strengthen that relationship. For singles, that means you can:

• Understand yourself and others better
• Grow closer to family, friends, and others you care about
• Gain courage to express your emotions and affection
• Discover the missing ingredient in past relationships
• Date more successfully
  and more

Whether you want to be closer to your parents, reach out more to your friends, or give dating another try, The 5 Love Languages(R): Singles Edition will give you the confidence you need to connect with others in a meaningful way.

Nothing has more potential for enhancing one's sense of well-being than effectively loving and being loved. This book is designed to help you do both of these things effectively. -- Gary Chapman

Includes a quiz to help you learn your love language, plus a section on the pros and cons of online dating.

Why are women's friendships so deep yet so fragile? Friendship coach and educator Danielle Bayard Jackson unpacks the latest research about women's cooperation and communication, while sharing practical strategies to preserve and strengthen these relationships.
Fighting for Our Friendships is one part textbook, one part handbook. Readers will not only learn what the latest research has to say about the mechanics of women's friendships, but they'll walk away with real-life solutions for the most common conflicts that arise in their platonic relationships.

Using a combination of psychology, science, narrative, and a few of the author's signature scripts and out-of-the-box exercises, readers will learn:

• The three affinities that bring women together (and tear them apart)
• Scripts to navigate nine of the most challenging friend types (and how to know which one you are)
• The covert strategies women use to hurt each other (and how to avoid them)
• How to have a hard conversation with a friend (without losing the friendship)
• Surprising ways that women's people-pleasing delays platonic intimacy (and how to stop it)
• How to know if a friendship is worth saving (and what to do to recover)
• How to make (and deepen!) connections with other women

In a time when we are often encouraged to opt out of friendships at any sign of friction, Danielle Bayard Jackson is showing us how to opt in.

My Skin Is Me teaches an important lesson of acceptance of self and others while capturing the positive innocence of youth.

Celebrate your friendship with To My Friend, part of the viral Daily Messages for a Loved One series by Freya Winters.

This beautifully written book offers 100 heartfelt messages, perfect for expressing the deep bond shared with your closest friends. It's more than a gift-it's a meaningful way to convey love and appreciation effortlessly.

Whether for a birthday, special occasion, or just because, To My Friend is designed to bring friends closer and make them feel truly valued.

● 100 heartfelt, relatable messages that celebrate friendship.
● Ideal for birthdays, special occasions, or simply showing you care.
● A beautifully designed keepsake that will be cherished for years.

Share this thoughtful gift that has captivated thousands worldwide, and celebrate your unique friendship in a meaningful way.

Oscar and George, two teddy bears, have been sitting on the shelf collecting dust for far too long. Imagine their delight when a young boy moves into the house, and imagine the young boy's surprise when those bears become two of his very best friends.

A smart and thought-provoking memoir, history, and cultural critique about the turmoil and complexity of female friendship

Our culture today is inundated with narratives about the strength of female friendship, whether through images of girl power, BFFs, or work wives. Yet cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith has always found her own life much messier. She has had dramatic friend breakups, friendships that felt like too much or not enough, friendships that drifted into silence, and friendships built on convenience rather than a meeting of minds. And there are older cultural scripts to contend with: the competitive rival, the jealous backstabber, the underminer, the fair-weather friend.

We have all been bad friends. It's impossible to be a perfect one; as Watt Smith points out, women's friendships have long been magnified, scrutinized, praised, and admonished, creating a legacy of impossible ideals. In Bad Friend, Watt Smith reflects on her own experience and thoroughly mines the rich cultural history of female friendship to look for a new paradigm that might encompass the struggles along with the joy.

Despite modern technology and the ample ways we have to keep in touch, we risk neglecting our relationships with the people who have the most profound effect on our well-being: our friends. Weaving together personal stories, interviews with experts, and social research, Friendship First empowers you to nurture relationships with friends both new and old. Journalist Gyan Yankovich reveals how friendships play a vital role in our happiness with insights on how to:

• Deepen workplace friendships outside the office
• Invite friends into activities typically reserved for families
• Use social media to strengthen connections
• Maintain friendships through major life transitions.

An ode to group chats and chosen family, Friendship First invites you to care for and count on those who matter most.

A close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain. Anyone will tell you that! But for all the rosy sentiments surrounding friendship, most people don't talk much about what it really takes to stay close for the long haul.Now two friends, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, tell the story of their equally messy and life-affirming Big Friendship in this honest and hilarious book that chronicles their first decade in one another's lives. As the hosts of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend, they've become known for frank and intimate conversations. In this book, they bring that energy to their own friendship--its joys and its pitfalls. Aminatou and Ann define Big Friendship as a strong, significant bond that transcends life phases, geographical locations, and emotional shifts. And they should know: the two have had moments of charmed bliss and deep frustration, of profound connection and gut-wrenching alienation. They have weathered life-threatening health scares, getting fired from their dream jobs, and one unfortunate Thanksgiving dinner eaten in a car in a parking lot in Rancho Cucamonga. Through interviews with friends and experts, they have come to understand that their struggles are not unique. And that the most important part of a Big Friendship is making the decision to invest in one another again and again. An inspiring and entertaining testament to the power of society's most underappreciated relationship, Big Friendship will invite you to think about how your own bonds are formed, challenged, and preserved. It is a call to value your friendships in all of their complexity. Actively choose them. And, sometimes, fight for them.

This morning I sat down to write out a list of some of the things I'm most grateful exist. But the thing I'm most grateful for isn't a thing... it's you, and the everyday magic you bring.

There are some people who, with their simple presence, have a way of reminding you of all the goodness in the world. Tell someone just how grateful you are to have them in your life with the bighearted rhymes in this gift book. Inspired by M.H. Clark and Cécile Metzger's bestselling book More Than a Little, it's a celebration of a person who tops your gratitude list, each and every time. An adorable squirrel adventures through the pages enjoying everyday delights--from sipping piping hot cider to watching clouds in an autumn sky--each experience made better by the company of a faithful friend. The book's sweet, poetic words create a special birthday present, Thanksgiving host gift, or appreciation gift for a person who's one of a kind.

The love you share is more than warm feelings or movie-style romance. It is a heartfelt choice you make every day. Celebrate the ordinary moments that create your one-of-a-kind love story. I Choose You combines contemporary illustrations and thoughtful sentiments to honor the life you have built together and the commitment you make over and over again. The perfect gift for a spouse or partner.

FRIENDSHIP IS THE GREAT LOVE STORY WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR.

Friendship is good for your health.

Studies show that loneliness is as deadly as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day.

Still, we are not taught how to be good friends to one another. We cancel plans, lose touch, blame technology, and neglect our non-romantic loved ones. In Good Friends, author Priya Vulchi explores friendships across history, continents, and identities to show how friendship can open up new levels of joy and community in your life.

What is the meaning of friendship, these miraculous bonds with once-strangers? How do you begin friendships? End them? Keep them vibrant? For answers, Vulchi weaves through Western classical thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, and uncovers the private moments between good friends like James Baldwin, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Yuri Kochiyama, Toni Morrison, and June Jordan. Friendship, she shows, has ripple effects beyond just any two friends; it awakens solidarity and changes in the world.

Through her inspiring and impassioned prose, Vulchi entirely reimagines our platonic ties, revealing that friendship, in the right hands, is a brilliant act of love and resistance.

Intimate and engaging, Good Friends offers a resounding cry that friendship is not only vital for our own individual well-being, but for humanity itself. It invites you to be inspired not just by what people do but how people love. It invites you to look at your friends differently and enter a dazzlingly fresh philosophy of human connection.

Your Love Is Limitless shows you how to transform all of your relationships, from friends to family members to coworkers to intimate partners, making all your relationships more positive, intimate, and loving.

Full of practical, time-tested tools, teachings, and exercises, this book shows you how to recognize relationship roadblocks, manage conflict, improve communication, build awareness, create positivity, and heal your relationship with yourself and others.

Everyone on the planet is filled with love. It is truly an unlimited resource. Relationship success is merely a matter of tapping into this tremendous power and then sharing it with others. Your Love Is Limitless is an ideal tool to help you do just that.

Discover the art of fostering life-giving, life-long friendships and the individual habits that make them possible.

Loneliness is deadly. We know this psychologically and spiritually. Sin wants us to be alone, and it often feels like today's world is tailor-made to keep us that way.

In Made for People--by bestselling author of The Habits of the Household--Justin Whitmel Earley explains why God made us to experience deep friendship and how we can cultivate them despite a culture of busyness, disconnection, and fear of vulnerability.

Through personal stories, research, and biblical wisdom, Justin paints of a picture of God's design for covenant friendships. This book will teach you:

• How loneliness points to our God-given needs.
• Why vulnerability is the beginning of real friendship.
• How to deepen the friendships we already have.
• Key habits that create a lifestyle of friendship.

Isolation may be the norm of modern life, but it doesn't have to be the story of yours, and it isn't what you were made for. In fact, you were made to be among people who know you fully and love you anyway.

Leave behind loneliness and build the life of deep connection you long for.