MATTHEW THOMAS

LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARDA stunning, heartbreaking debut We Are Not Ourselves is both the intimate story of a family and an epic of the American Century.The product of a stormy upbringing in an Irish Catholic enclave of New York City, Eileen craves stability. Coming of age in the early Sixties, she meets and marries a young scientist named Edmund Leary.But while Eileen wants more for her family, Ed wont give up teaching for a better-paid job. Inadvertently Eileen starts to climb her own career ladder in nursing. She pushes Ed into finding a new home, but it becomes clear that his resistance is part of a deeply troubling psychological shift.In this masterful debut, Matthew Thomas paints a sprawling, profoundly sympathetic portrait of a family coping with slow-burning tragedy. We Are Not Ourselves is a grand testament to our deepest hopes and most human frailties.

NOVELA DE FICCION LITERARIA

FINALISTA DEL PREMIO "THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE" SELECCIONADO PARA EL "GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD" NOMINADO PARA EL "FOLIO PRIZE" NOMBRADO "LIBRO DESTACADO DE EL AÑO" POR THE NEW YORK TIMES Un brillante y sobrecogedor debut es a la vez una historia intima familiar y una vision epica del siglo americano

he instant "New York Times" bestseller "The" "Washington Post" calls a "stunning...superbly rendered" novel, and "Entertainment Weekly" describes as "a gripping family saga, maybe the best...since "The Corrections."" Born in 1941, Eileen Tumulty is raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Woodside, Queens, in an apartment where the mood swings between heartbreak and hilarity, depending on how much alcohol has been consumed. From an early age, Eileen wished that she lived somewhere else. She sets her sights on upper class Bronxville, New York, and an American Dream is born. Driven by this longing, Eileen places her stock and love in Ed Leary, a handsome young scientist, and with him begins a family. Over the years Eileen encourages her husband to want more: a better job, better friends, a better house. It slowly becomes clear that his growing reluctance is part of a deeper, more incomprehensive psychological shift. An inescapable darkness enters their lives, and Eileen and Ed and their son Connell try desperately to hold together a semblance of the reality they have known, and to preserve, against long odds, an idea they have cherished of the future. Described by "The New York Times Book Review" as "A long, gorgeous epic, full of love and caring...one of the best novels you'll read this year," "We Are Not Ourselves "is a testament to our greatest desires and our greatest frailties.Through the lives of these characters, Thomas charts the story of the American Century. The result is, "stunning...The joys of this book are the joys of any classic work of literature--for that is what this is destined to become--superbly rendered small moments that capture both an individual life and the universality of that person's experience" ("The Washington Post").

The instant New York Times bestseller TheWashington Post calls a stunningsuperbly rendered novel, and Entertainment Weekly describes as a gripping family saga, maybe the bestsince The Corrections.As an Irish immigrant in Queens in 1941, Eileen has dreamed of more in her lifebut when she and her family seem to be moving closer to that dream, devastation hits and they must learn how to not only hold on to their reality, but to each other.Born in 1941, Eileen Tumulty is raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Woodside, Queens, in an apartment where the mood swings between heartbreak and hilarity, depending on how much alcohol has been consumed. From an early age, Eileen wished that she lived somewhere else. She sets her sights on upper class Bronxville, New York, and an American Dream is born. Driven by this longing, Eileen places her stock and love in Ed Leary, a handsome young scientist, and with him begins a family. Over the years Eileen encourages her husband to want more: a better job, better friends, a better house. It slowly becomes clear that his growing reluctance is part of a deeper, more incomprehensive psychological shift. An inescapable darkness enters their lives, and Eileen and Ed and their son Connell try desperately to hold together a semblance of the reality they have known, and to preserve, against long odds, an idea they have cherished of the future. Described by The New York Times Book Review as A long, gorgeous epic, full of love and caringone of the best novels youll read this year, We Are Not Ourselves is a testament to our greatest desires and our greatest frailties. Through the lives of these characters, Thomas charts the story of the American Century. The result is, stunningThe joys of this book are the joys of any classic work of literaturefor that is what this is destined to becomesuperbly rendered small moments that capture both an individual life and the universality of that persons experience (The Washington Post).

You check your bank account and the numbers dont make sense. You make decent money. You know what a budget is. Youve tried apps, spreadsheets, no-spend months. And somehow, at the end of every month, youre still wondering where it all went.This isnt a discipline problem. Its a brain problem. And once you understand the difference, everything changes.The Spending Loop is a practical, compassionate guide to the real reasons smart, capable people cant stop overspending, and the systems that actually help. Whether youre dealing with impulse buying you cant explain, forgotten subscriptions draining your account, emotional spending that gives relief for twenty minutes and regret for a week, or a pattern of trying harder and going nowhere, it was written for you.Why willpower keeps failing youEvery piece of standard money advice assumes your brain works a certain way. It assumes you can remember recurring charges, resist impulse purchases through sheer self-control, make good financial decisions at the end of an exhausting day, and feel motivated by abstract savings goals. For many of us, especially those with ADHD, executive function differences, anxiety, or just a really full and stressful life, thats not how our brains work. The advice isnt wrong. Its just built for someone else.The Spending Loop covers the neuroscience: how dopamine drives impulse buying before your rational brain has a chance to respond, why decision fatigue makes evening the most financially dangerous time of day, how online shopping platforms are deliberately engineered to exploit your psychological vulnerabilities, and why emotional spending on stress, boredom, and sadness provides real relief that makes it genuinely hard to stop.Understanding these mechanisms isnt an excuse. Its the foundation for actually doing something about them.What actually worksThe second half is entirely practical. Youll learn how to audit your subscriptions and find the invisible charges draining your account right now. How to automate your finances so good decisions happen without requiring your ongoing willpower. How to build friction into your spending habits so impulse purchases have time to fade before they go through. How to set up external memory systems, including calendars, alerts, apps, and physical reminders, that track the financial details your brain was never designed to hold.These arent hacks or tricks. Theyre infrastructure. Systems designed around the brain you actually have, not the idealized version of yourself who journals every purchase and feels energized by budgeting.Who its forIf you ask "where did all my money go?" at the end of every month, if you overspend despite understanding basic personal finance, if you have ADHD or executive function challenges and struggle specifically with money, if youve tried budgeting apps and trackers and found them impossible to maintain, or if you shop emotionally and cant seem to stop, this was written with you in mind.A note on shameTheres no judgment here. No assumption that more discipline or motivation is the answer. Whats here instead is an honest look at why overspending happens, including the dopamine loops, the decision fatigue, the subscription creep, the emotional regulation patterns, and the marketing psychology working against you, and then a concrete step-by-step path to building systems that work quietly in the background while ...

You know you should negotiate. Youve rehearsed what to say. And then someone offers you a number and you hear yourself say "that sounds great" before your brain catches up.Thats not a confidence problem. Its a nervous system problem.The Uncomfortable Conversation: Negotiation for People Who Hate Conflict is for anyone who finds salary negotiation genuinely terrifying rather than merely uncomfortable. Whether you freeze when an offer lands, accept whatever your boss says to end the awkwardness, or have tried every tip in existence and still cant follow through, youre in the right place.Why standard advice keeps failing youEvery piece of negotiation advice assumes you can walk in without your body staging a full revolt. It assumes confidence can be summoned through mindset, that knowing your worth translates automatically into asking for it. For people wired toward avoiding conflict, thats not how it works. The threat response kicks in before the rational brain catches up. Cortisol shuts down working memory. The voice shakes. The rehearsed words evaporate. And the fastest way to make all of that stop is to say yes.The Uncomfortable Conversation starts with the physiology: why the brain processes salary negotiation as social danger, how cortisol impairs working memory under pressure, and whats actually happening in your nervous system in these moments.Why the math makes this impossible to ignoreA 5,000 dollar salary gap at age 25 becomes more than 600,000 dollars by retirement through raises and compound returns. Women who negotiate consistently earn between one and one and a half million dollars more over a career than women who dont. The math is laid out clearly, not to create pressure, but because most people have never seen these numbers and they change how the decision looks.What actually worksYou get complete word-for-word scripts for every common scenario, written to be read verbatim rather than adapted on the fly. Guidance on where to pause and stay silent after stating your number. Preparation systems that move decisions out of the high-stress moment. Strategies for managing the physical response when it shows up. What to do when they say no. The backlash dynamics that make negotiation harder for women. How to build the skill through low-stakes practice before it really counts.Who this is forAnyone who understands they should negotiate and still cant make themselves do it. People who experience salary conversations as physically threatening. Introverts and people whose nervous systems respond to social risk the way others respond to physical danger. Women navigating the specific penalties that come with assertive negotiation. Anyone who has left money on the table and wants concrete tools for next time.No judgment. No instructions to be more confident. The assumption is youve already tried that. Whats here is a realistic look at why this is hard and the exact words to say when your brain goes offline.Approximately 40,000 words.

You became a consultant because you are good at solving complex problems. Not because you wanted to spend your mornings making cold calls or your evenings working a room at networking events.But nobody told you how to get clients any other way.Sell by Writing: Get Consulting Clients Without Pitching or Prospecting is for introverted consultants and coaches who are excellent at the actual work and exhausted by the sales methods they have been told to use. The book builds the case, backed by sales research, that the skills introverts naturally have are better suited to consultative selling than anything the sales training industry teaches. And then it shows exactly how to build a system around those skills.The energy problem nobody namesStandard sales advice assumes you get energy from talking to strangers. Cold calls, networking events, and discovery calls with people who have never heard of you all require constant social performance that extroverts find energizing and introverts find depleting. The problem is not discipline or mindset. It is that you are running an extrovert system on introvert hardware, and the mismatch destroys your capacity for the actual client work you were hired to do.The introvert advantageResearch on complex B2B sales consistently shows that top performers listen more than they talk, ask better questions than they answer, and build trust through demonstrated expertise rather than personal charisma. These are introvert strengths. The book covers the data, including why introverts close consultative deals at higher rates than extroverts when the sales method matches how they actually operate.How the system worksThe core of the system is writing that attracts the right prospects through search, qualifies them before any conversation happens, and builds enough trust that the first call is diagnostic rather than persuasive. No pitching. No prospecting. No performing credibility in real time to strangers.Covered in full: building a content library around the specific problems you solve, email sequences that replace months of relationship-building, proposals structured as diagnostic documents rather than sales pitches, handling objections through information instead of pressure, following up without pestering, saying no to wrong-fit clients, raising prices without apology, and building referrals into the process systematically.The system takes 3 to 6 months to build and then runs on roughly 6 hours of maintenance per month.Who this is forIntroverted consultants, coaches, and service providers who are good at the work and struggling with business development. People who have tried standard sales methods and found them unsustainable. Anyone who would rather demonstrate expertise through writing than perform it in real time. Consultants who want consistent inbound leads without networking, prospecting, or pitching.Approximately 43,000 words.

Most career advice is written for people who are just starting out. It talks about working hard, building skills, and showing up. But somewhere around year five or ten, a lot of people do all of that and still stop moving. The reviews stay strong. The feedback stays vague. And the promotions go to someone else.What actually happens at mid-career is different from what most career advice accounts for, and the frustration comes from applying the right advice to the wrong problem. Working harder does not fix a manager who is blocking you. Getting another certification does not fix an organization that almost never promotes from within. Being more visible does not fix a ceiling that has nothing to do with performance.The Career Stall covers the full picture of why people get stuck: organizations that say they promote from within but almost never do, managers who are blocking advancement whether deliberately or not, skills gaps that have nothing to do with technical training, and ceilings that are invisible because no one will name them directly. It also covers what actually works: how to read whether your organization promotes, how to have the honest conversation about what it would take, when a lateral move is genuinely strategic and when it is just a delay, and how to job search while employed without tipping off your manager or burning the relationship on your way out.The last chapter follows seven real people through their stalls: a software engineer stuck at senior level for six years, a marketing manager blocked by a territorial director, a healthcare administrator doing director-level work at manager pay, a professional who spent three years and $85,000 on an MBA that did not solve the problem because the problem was never the credential, a sales manager who realized he was happier and better paid as an individual contributor, an analyst who got promoted after changing how she communicated but was conflicted about whether the change should have been necessary, and an HR manager who stayed too long at a declining company and got laid off before he left on his own terms.Every one of them eventually got unstuck. None of them did it by being more patient or working harder at their current level. They did it by figuring out what was actually blocking them and acting on that specifically, rather than continuing to optimize for the stated problem while the real one stayed fixed.If you have been at the same level for more than two years and cannot get a clear answer about what it would take to move forward, this is for you.Approximately 35,000 words.

Written for US workers without employer pensions.Most retirement advice was written for people with pensions. If you dont have one, the standard rules -- save a million dollars, replace 80% of your income -- were built for someone elses life.The starting point here is where most people land: a 401k they may or may not be maximizing, a Social Security estimate theyve never looked at closely, and a vague sense that the math might not be working in their favor. The real calculation isnt a shortcut. It comes from your spending, your accounts, your timeline, and your zip code.Every account type available to self-funded retirees gets full treatment: 401k, 403b, and 457 plans; Traditional and Roth IRAs including backdoor strategies; the HSA used as a long-term retirement vehicle rather than just a medical spending account; and taxable brokerage accounts for anyone planning to retire before 59.5. Fee minimization, asset allocation, and the tax drag that quietly reduces returns for people who never think about it all get their own chapters.The Social Security section goes deeper than most. It covers how benefits are calculated from the ground up, the full range of claiming strategies for singles and married couples, spousal and survivor benefit coordination, divorced spouse rules, and what reduced benefits would mean for plans built around current projections.Healthcare gets the attention it deserves. For anyone retiring before 65, the ACA marketplace chapter covers subsidy structures, income management to preserve eligibility, and the real cost of coverage by age and location. The Medicare section covers Parts A through D, Medigap versus Medicare Advantage trade-offs, IRMAA surcharges and how to avoid triggering them, and what total healthcare costs realistically look like decade by decade.Later chapters cover withdrawal sequencing: which accounts to tap first and why the order matters for taxes, subsidies, and how long the money lasts. Geographic arbitrage examines how location choice affects required savings by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Part-time work in retirement, estate planning, long-term care, and the financial impact of marriage, divorce, and remarriage each get dedicated treatment.The final chapter covers what happens when plans fail -- forced early retirement, portfolio depletion, medical costs that exceed projections -- and what recovery options and safety nets exist for people whose retirement isnt going according to plan.For anyone building retirement without an employer safety net, here is the treatment the problem deserves.Approximately 68.000 words

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARDNOMINATED FOR THE FOLIO PRIZENAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMESA stunning, heartbreaking debut We Are Not Ourselves is both the intimate story of a family and an epic of the American Century.The product of a stormy upbringing in an Irish Catholic enclave of New York City, Eileen craves stability. Coming of age in the early Sixties, she meets and marries a young scientist named Edmund Leary.But while Eileen wants more for her family, Ed wont give up teaching for a better-paid job. Inadvertently Eileen starts to climb her own career ladder in nursing. She pushes Ed into finding a new home, but it becomes clear that his resistance is part of a deeply troubling psychological shift.In this masterful debut, Matthew Thomas paints a sprawling, profoundly sympathetic portrait of a family coping with slow-burning tragedy. We Are Not Ourselves is a grand testament to our deepest hopes and most human frailties.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall be stamped upon. From the massively successful author that brought you exploding sheep (Before & After) comes the conspiracy theory to end them all.If youre a cynic, youre a sucker. They want you to believe in aliens, UFOs and ghosts, because if you go chasing lies, you never get to the truth. They are the ultra-secret world Committee the real decision makers who tell governments what to do, dictate which way the stock markets heading, start up a few wars when things get boring. Theyve had five centuries experience at the top to know that nothing spreads a rumour faster than a carefully worded denial. Unfortunately, the Committee have been so busy manipulating the entire globe they havent realised that they themselves are being manipulated.From opposite sides of the globe, former US commando Frank MacIntyre, and UFO enthusiast Dave Pierce, are about to stumble on the biggest conspiracy theory of all. And its a discovery that threatens to destabalise the whole planet.The meek have just put on their boots, and theyre ready to do a bit of stamping themselves.