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Calm Undone is a young adult novel that tackles many of the issues relevant to young people today (feelings of loss, a dawning sense of self, and the awakening of attraction) with a gentle, accepting approach. Seventeen-year-old Tyler wants three things from his summer at the family beach-house: Run along the beach to get ready for cross-country again in the fall. Wander the boardwalk with his cousin Liam. And more importantly, figure out how to move on with his life after his Dad's death from a car crash - one that Tyler survives. But nothing about this summer is right: Running isn't fun anymore. Mom spends hours alone in her room. Liam constantly ditches him to spend time with Melissa --- a girl he met on the beach. Which forces Tyler to spend time alone with Finn, a friend of Melissa's who surfs. At first, he feels abandoned, but Finn is easy going, interested in hearing Tyler talk about running, and the only person in his life that doesn't treat him like the "kid who lost his dad." All of which help Tyler realize that up to now, Dad had been the closest thing he had to a best friend, and in order to move on he has to accept the type of love those left in his life --- Mom, Liam, and even Finn --- have to offer.

What happens to one's soul when a child dies? A moving story of denial and depression taking the reader inside the complexities of a marriage shattered by the devastating loss of their only child. Kim, a psychotherapist and Mark, an emotionally distant actuary build layers of protective defenses around them in order to survive. But when Kim receives a diagnosis of cancer, her unhealed pain rises to the surface. Kim embarks on an exploration of her Midwestern ancestors to find answers to the "why me" question. Starting with a diphtheria epidemic in the late 1800s to her current practice as a psychotherapist, she seeks understanding of the person she has become. Following Kim and Mark through doctor's visits, chemo drips, long nights, and even longer days, the story chronicles the grueling process of chemotherapy, as well as the complicated dance of a marriage in crisis. As Kim's treatment progresses, so too does her relationship with Mark, and the layers of emotional pain begin to peel away.

Death of a 130 year Oligarchy. Volume 2 in The Dung Beetles of Liberia series. In April of 1979, Ken Verrier and his wife, Sam, return to Liberia to buy diamonds. They did not return to get caught up in a rice riot and a coup de'etat. But that's what happens. Ken witnesses and unwittingly participates in a period of Liberia's tumultuous yet poorly documented history---the overthrow of the Tolbert presidency and ultimately the end of the Americo-Liberian one hundred thirty-three years of political and social dominance. Details of President Tolbert's assassination are sketchy, but through Ken's association with his Americo friends from the past, the CIA agents he meets, and the Liberian military he is forced to deal with, a believable scenario emerges. While describing the once beautiful country and a kind and generous people, Meier intertwines terrifying tales of the atrocities committed that account for the future pain of an entire nation.

A middle-aged couple with three young children are longtime residents and homeowners in the community of Massapequa, New York. When Superstorm Sandy makes landfall on Long Island on the evening of October 29, 2012, their stable, productive and serene lifestyle is suddenly shattered. As the storm surge floods their home, along with the homes of thousands of others living in coastal communities, they struggle to survive and then recover as one crisis seems to follow another. During the many trials and tribulations that follow, they experience kindness from family, friends, and neighbors while also facing greed and exploitation from those trying to profit from the misfortune of others. For most victims in this story and in the real life experiences from Superstorm Sandy, it is a story of resilience in the face of chaos and destruction, but other families and their lives, will never be the same again. As the ninth anniversary approaches, the story of this family's resilience and that of their Long Island community is uplifting, yet the little-known reality is that hundreds of families never really recovered from this tragedy.

Omaha, 1905: During the gilded age, when women live subjugated to men, eighteen-year-old Bridget prides herself on having earned acceptance to medical school. When her father is murdered, a crime that does not interest the law because he was half Native American, she risks her plans to become a doctor, determined to avenge his murder. Bridget's quest thrusts her into a world of seedy men and glitzy women in one of Omaha's most opulent brothels. There, she finds herself the prey rather than the hunter. If she is to survive, she must keep the reclusive madam's shocking secrets, learn to trust her heart's yearning for the man who befriends her, and embrace her complicated alliance with a community of notorious women considered society's lowest.

Prepare to have your imagination charmed and your holiday enchanted by a book about change, hope, and goodwill toward humankind. This magical and fun Christmas story will warm your heart like the best hot cocoa. A mystical agency exists that is responsible for creating Christmas Carol scenarios with preselected targets every December. Ghostly employees of the agency work in either the Past, Present, or Future department and each year they are assigned humans on Earth in need of being "Scrooged" so those people can reform and embrace the potential for goodness, love, and humanity they have in their hearts. Frost Mason has worked in the Present department for almost a century saving souls headed down the wrong path. The problem---over the years Frost's belief in the miracle of Christmas and what her agency does has started to fade because while many people commit to reforming after the "life-changing" experience of being Scrooged, human beings rarely change permanently. Frost must find a way to reawaken hope for humanity and the Spirit of Christmas in her own spectral heart, while working with her team to save her 100th soul by midnight on Christmas Eve.

Fans of John Grisham will love The Kingmaker's Redemption with its intrigue and powerful courtroom showdown When political kingmaker Jack McKay chooses to change the arc of his life by representing a candidate he really believes in, he unleashes the full fury of his former client Liberty Party leader, Randall Davies. Davies becomes laser focused on ruining Jack's career and his life by having Jack framed for a horrible crime he didn't commit. Randall's son, William, is the candidate opposing Jack's new client, Lindsay Revelle. Besides revenge, bringing Jack down would most certainly ensure William Davies' being elected. When the Wisconsin Department of Justice launches a task force aimed at cracking down on child pornography around the state. Davies uses his sway over key individuals in Jack's orbit and their political connections to devise and implement a strategy using the DOJ's crackdown to implicate Jack in a crime he didn't commit. The heart of the story is the struggle of Jack and his team to unravel the conspiracy aimed at destroying his life. Gaining his acquittal in a suspenseful courtroom showdown would not only prove his innocence, restore his reputation and reinstate his parental rights, it would ultimately bring down the Liberty Party, their candidate, and Randall Davies in the process. If he fails, his life is ruined.

Intent on finding his career path, a rookie reporter struggles to become a journalist at an Indiana newspaper in 1973. He climbs the ladder from writing obituaries to covering cops and teacher strikes and murder trials and community disasters. As he navigates the competitive politics of the newsroom, he gradually earns the trust of his curmudgeonly city editor. Along the way, he begins performing with a rock and roll band and falls in love. The choice between being a musician and a journalist becomes obvious after he writes a front page story on a job tryout at the Detroit Free Press.

This is a story about sensory differences and how some children experience their world, told from a child''s perspective. The vibration in her feet when she runs, the tap-tap-tap of her fork on the table at mealtime, the trickle of cool water running over her hands---these are the things that calm her jitters down.This book is for anyone who has ever felt the need for a wiggle, stomp, or squeeze!

A political thriller, tied in to real events, about an apocalyptic threat to American that is ticking remorselessly in the background while Americans continue their daily routines, oblivious to the danger. For years, China''s spy agency has been watching the United States rack up trillions of dollars in debt, waiting for the right moment to weaponize that debt to collapse the American government and install a Communist puppet regime. At the same time, suburban accountant Andrea Gartner has been an outspoken critic of the debt as a member of her local Pachyderm Rebellion, a grassroots activist group horrified by the growth of the national debt. When the United States elects President Earl Murray, he brings Andrea into his government as budget director to solve American''s debt problem. But before the nameplate is even installed on her office door, China strikes, engineering an American debt crisis that brings the country to the brink of collapse. Government operations come to a screeching halt. With the American hegemon on its knees, China violently seizes the opportunity to fulfill its territorial ambitions in Taiwan and the South China Sea. Thrust into the rapacious, cutthroat world of American politics and surrounded by crises on all sides, Andrea begins a desperate effort to save the United States. Arrayed against her are cynical politicians and belligerent military brass, some of whom just might be secret Chinese agents. Will Andrea be able to keep the United States alive to fight another day? Or will America drown in a sea of red ink at the hands of the Chinese and see its democratic government replaced by a Chinese Communist puppet regime? American life as we know it is about to be obliterated by a debt bomb. And the only person who can save the country is a suburban accountant.

The beauty and the horrors of Jamestown 2609 A gripping account of survival in America's earliest settlement, Jamestown, Virginia. Virginia, 1622. Powhatan warriors prepare war paint from the sacred juice of the bloodroot plant, but Nehiegh, The English son-in-law of Chief Ochawintan has sworn never to kill again. He must leave before the massacre. England 1609. Matthew did not trust his friend, Richard's stories of Paradise in the Jamestown settlement, but nothing could have equipped him for the violence and privation that awaited him in this savage land. Once ashore in the fledging settlement, Matthew experiences the unimaginable beauty of this pristine land and learns the meaning of hope, but it all turns into a nightmare as gold mania infests the community and Indians become an increasing threat. The nightmare only gets worse as the harsh winter brings on "the starving time" and all the grizzly horrors of a desperate and dying community that come with it. Driven to the depths of despair by the guilt of his sins against Richard and his lust for that man's wife, Matthew seeks death. In that moment of crisis, when he chooses death over a life of depravity, he unexpectedly finds new life among his sworn enemy, the Powhatan Indians. What will this new life mean for Matthew, and will he survive?

A paranormal suspense that brings good and evil into different perspectives. Riley's world is torn apart on his wedding day when he and his wife Allison are involved in a hit and run accident and Allison doesn't survive. When Jonathan, Allison's guardian angel, chooses to fall to Earth to remain by Riley's side, the evils of Hell are unleashed to destroy both Jonathan and Riley. A ferocious battle of good and evil surrounds Riley as Jonathan tries to save him and the ugliness of Hell tries to consume him.

As the reader is pulled into a compelling story, they are exposed to the reality of a crime that is growing globally. After Mallory Shields graduates from college in her idyllic Midwestern hometown, she embarks on an adventure with her best friend Jenna, taking a gap year to explore the other side of the world. Their journey quickly takes an unexpected turn, and the two young women find themselves in danger and exposed to crime, abuse, and the most dehumanizing conditions possible. Forced into the horrific world of human sex trafficking, and fighting to return to their lives and families back home, the women struggle navigating a corrupt system and injustice beyond their control. Faced with the loss of time, betrayal, and extraordinary guilt, Mallory learns she must conjure strength she never knew possible and make hard compromises to become her true self. This thrilling tale follows their individual experiences as captives and how those circumstances impact the future and relationships they long to return to. The determination and strong will of the leading characters gives the reader a sense of how honesty, regret, time, and redemption work together to bring hope to a difficult situation as the characters discover what friendship and reclamation really mean. I've been in a relatively unique position of dealing with the counselors, social workers and to a lesser degree the actual victims. . .and even through the stories I've heard, I've never felt the panic, the horrors, and the relentlessness that victims feel of being held and trafficked and sexually assaulted like I did while reading this book. This story needs to be told to a wide audience!" - Karen Marks, Agape International Mission.

Families come in all shapes and sizes. Some families have a dad. Some have two! But all loving families enjoy having fun together. Children can add their own colors to these families as they enjoy a day at the zoo, or an afternoon flying kites. Color these pages where dads and their kids bake a cake, have fun dressing up, and play fun games. The dads in this book (just like dads in real life) sew dresses, wrap presents, and even change smelly diapers!

During March of each year, seventy million people fill out the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament bracket, either in national contests or office pools. The goal is to predict all the winners for a tournament of 68 teams. The odds against perfection are astronomical. A small group of social media marketers, led by mathematician Sinclair Dane, see this annual quest as an under-appreciated opportunity to make money on sports betting. For a two-dollar entry fee, they offer one billion dollars for anyone who can predict the winners of all the games. Their financial hopes are initially greatly exceeded as the contest goes global. Entry fees multiply their anticipated profit many times over. But disaster looms when a math professor from a small university has a perfect bracket with just four teams remaining. The professor has his own troubles. The NCAA opens an investigation into his use of the bracket contest to teach math concepts to a class that includes tournament athletes. As the "final four" approaches, Sinclair looks at the possibility of having to pay a billion dollars she does not have. The professor and his students may face charges of trying to influence the outcome of games.

Power he never dreamed of possessing. As a child, Craig Henriksen is sent to Chicago to live with relatives after the shocking death of his father. As an adult, he is reclusive and avoids facing his past, only to discover strange abilities that won''t let him escape it. His struggle to find normalcy is challenged by his cousin Danny, a Chicago Police detective who uses him to uncover clues at murder scenes. As Craig becomes involved with Lauren, a woman who offers him the hope of living the life he has always wanted, he finds himself pulled ever further into Danny''s pursuit of a vicious serial killer---the Tourist. But even if he chooses to forgo his chance at happiness in order to help his cousin, will he understand in time that both he and Danny are being hunted? Relentless Enemy brings an age-old battle to today''s streets, hearts, and lives.

Maybe the gray was not where people went to get lost. Maybe it was the perfect place to be reborn. For in that gray was the potential to be anything, to become anyone. Returning to protagonist school had confronted me with a mixed bag of change. Some things were good. I was a star athlete on my Twenty-Three Skidd team, my friends and I were closer than ever, I'd made amends with my traditionalist headmistress, and the surprisingly kind grandson of King Midas was doing his best to win my affection. Other changes, however, were not so sweet. The greater realm now knew about my Pure Magic, and an upcoming trial by the realm higher-ups and Fairy Godmothers would decide my fate. My former princess archenemy was under a sleeping curse, which meant we couldn't access the vital memories of a dead Fairy Godmother stored in her brain. The commons rebellion in our realm was only growing in strength. And I . . . Well, I'd taken my first life. The antagonist queen's careful planning paired with my hard-to-control powers of life had caused me to snap and kill someone. He'd been a villain, yes, but that didn't placate my morality. Especially given the ongoing internal war I struggled with over my abilities and their potential. As I fought to be a strong hero, princess, and more importantly person, I was flogged by the many questions posed by enemies, friends, and my own conscience about how I was changing--and what I was changing into. Would my magic inevitably corrupt me like the antagonists wanted and our realm's higher-ups feared? My personal fate aside, would my friends and I be able to stop the antagonists from taking over our realm? And finally, was I more afraid of not being powerful enough to stop them, or being even more powerful than anybody anticipated?

As a tornado threatens their town, a stubborn old man who has lost his son teams up with a troubled young soldier to deliver a jukebox to the wealthy developer having an affair with the soldier''s wife. It''s July 2003 and the small town of Maple Springs, Missouri is suffering through a month-long drought. Dancer Stonemason, a long-forgotten hometown hero still grieving over the death of his oldest son, is moving into town to live with his more dependable younger son. He hires Wayne Mesirow, an Iraq war veteran, to help him liquidate his late son''s business. The heat wave breaks and the skies darken. Dancer tries to settle an old score while Wyne discovers the true cost of his wife''s indifference and turns his thoughts to revenge. When the tornado hits Maple Springs, only one of the men will make it out alive. "Everyone Dies Famous" is a story from the heartland about the uncommon lives of everyday people - the choices they make, how they live their lives, and how they die.

In this second book, Rachel Bringhouse, the tinsmith's daughter and Isaac's tutor, sails off to England to work alongside the famous social activist and poet, Hannah Moore. Rachel writes enthusiastic letters to Isaac, which Isaac answers back with assistance from the irrepressibly poetic cook's helper, Ovid. Meanwhile, Billey Gardner, the feisty and opportunistic former slave of James Madison, pesters Isaac with notions of a business partnership; the charismatic Dr. Cornelius Sharp uses Isaac to confront Jefferson as a debt-ridden slave owner; and the Reverend Richard Allen provides Isaac with a most surprising document. When an exuberant Rachel returns from England with a key insight and Isaac's hated nemesis Daniel Shady reappears, bent on revenge, the book rises to its crescendo, in which Isaac must rise to his own power and bargain at last with Thomas Jefferson on his own terms.