**The New York Times–bestselling author's modern classic that "takes a conventional love story and textures it with philosophical ruminations" ( Kirkus Reviews).A man and a woman meet over casual conversation on a flight from Paris to London, and so begins a love story—from first kiss to first argument, elation to heartbreak, and everything in between. Each stage of the relationship is illuminated with starling clarity, as novelist and philosopher Alain de...

Across a sun-scoured wasteland, a desperate colony claws life from the carcass of a fallen metal giant, its people ruled by quotas, hunger, and a faith sharpened into tyranny. When buried relics stir and forbidden memories awaken, outcasts, scavengers, soldiers, and grieving survivors are driven into the ruins beneath the salt, where lost cities, ancient machines, and warped histories reveal a civilization built on silence and sacrifice. Pursued by zealotry and haunted by love, they must c...

Twenty case studies explaining how to gently deliver a range of life’s most awkward messages while causing minimal harm.Life constantly requires us to give other people some hugely awkward messages: that we don’t love them anymore; that we do love them (though we’re not meant to); that they smell a bit; that they’re fired; that we’re furious with them (though we adore them) or that their music is too loud...Often, out of embarrassment, we just stay quiet. O...

What if Christ was never God's response to human failure-but the eternal purpose at the heart of creation from the beginning?In The Original Blueprint, Adelphos Alain Lea offers a profound reexamination of the Christian story. Rather than presenting Jesus merely as the remedy for Adam's fall, this book reveals Christ as the original pattern of humanity-the One in whom creation, identity, redemption and destiny have always found their meaning.Drawin...

Your best years are not behind you.If you’re a man in your 40s, 50s, or beyond and you think building muscle, getting stronger, and feeling great is a thing of the past—think again.Muscle After 40 is the ultimate no-nonsense guide to help you break through the myths, bad advice, and one-size-fits-all programs holding men back as they age. Whether you’re a beginner starting fresh or an experienced lifter adjusting to new challenges,...

A guide to modern times that explores the challenges living in the 21st century can pose to our mental wellbeing.The modern world has brought us a range of extraordinary benefits and joys, including technology, medicine, and transport. But it can also feel as though modern times have plunged us ever deeper into greed, despair, and agitation. Seldom has the world felt more privileged and resource-rich yet also worried, blinkered, furious, panicked, and self-absorbed...

A book to offer clarity and guidance when facing the difficult decision of whether your relationship has a future.Whether we should stay in or leave a relationship is one of the most consequential and painful decisions we are ever likely to confront.What makes the issue so hard is that there are no fixed rules for judgement. How can we tell whether a relationship is 'good enough' or plain wrong? How do we draw the line between justified longing and naivety?...

A guide to breaking free from the enduring, and sometimes damaging, behavioral patterns we learned in childhood.As we try to navigate the complexities and anxieties of adulthood, considering our childhoods can feel like a daunting task. They happened so long ago; we can probably barely remember, let alone relate to, the little person we used to be. But one of the most powerful explanations for why we struggle as adults is that we were denied the opportunity to full...

A practical guide to making wiser, more informed choices in love.Finding and choosing a partner is one of the most consequential decisions we will ever make. This guide explains everything from why we have "types" and how our early lives inform our romantic decisions as adults. It sheds light on harmful and repetitive patterns and provides insight on how to break them.Drawing on in-depth analysis, How to Find Love explains our instinct for romantic...

A wise and utterly original book of travel essays from an international bestselling author that will “give one an expansive sense of wonder” (The Baltimore Sun).Any Baedeker will tell us where we ought to travel, but only Alain de Botton will tell us how and why. With the same intelligence and insouciant charm he brought to How Proust Can Save Your Life, de Botton considers the pleasures of anticipation; the allure of the exotic, and the value of ...

Many of us are quiet geniuses at the art of procrastination. We tend to feel so guilty about everything we haven't done yet (and the hours frittered away as though we were immortal), we never get around to reflecting on why we delay and how we might do so less o en. It seems as if we have procrastinated too much to deserve a new start. Far from it. As this book shows, procrastination isn't a weird affliction we alone have been cursed with: it's a fascinating and solvable design-flaw of the...

A thoughtful meditation on the true and sometimes dark nature of love.We often associate love with being happy. This tendency is misleading, however, as love can also cause the deepest heartbreak imaginable. We tend to treat our sadness individually, as if it were unique and shameful. But, as this book explains, sorrow is intrinsic-and essential-to the very definition of love. By understanding our romantic troubles and griefs, seeing them in their proper context, a...