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Nights at White Castle by Steve Rushin
(01-26-24 - 03-23-2024)
It begins in Bloomington, Minnesota, with a 13-year-old kid staging his own author photo that he hopes will someday grace the cover of a book jacket. And it ends at a desk in the legendary Time & Life building, with that same boy-now in his early 20s and writing professionally-reflecting on how the hell he got there from what seems like a distant universe. In between, Steve Rushin whisks us along on an extraordinarily funny, tender, and altogether unforgettable journey.
From a menial summer job at suburban Bennigan's, to first-time college experiences in Milwaukee, to surviving early adulthood in seedy New York City, this deeply touching odyssey will remind any reader of those special moments when they too went from innocence to experience.
Stingray Afternoons by Steve Rushin
(11-23-23 - 01-25-24)
This is a story of the 1970s. Of a road trip in a wood-paneled station wagon, with the kids in the way-back, singing along to the Steve Miller Band. Of brothers waking up early on Saturday mornings for five consecutive hours of cartoons. Of growing up in a magical era populated by Bic pens, Mr. Clean and Scrubbing Bubbles, lightsabers and those oh-so-coveted Schwinn Sting-Ray bikes. And of a father -- one of 3M's greatest and last eight-track salesmen -- traveling across the country on the brand-new Boeing 747, providing for his family but wanting nothing more than to get home.
In Sting-Ray Afternoons, Steve Rushin paints an utterly nostalgic, psychedelically vibrant portrait of a decade overflowing with technological evolution, cultural revolution, as well as brotherly, sisterly, and parental love.
In Sting-Ray Afternoons, Steve Rushin paints an utterly nostalgic, psychedelically vibrant portrait of a decade overflowing with technological evolution, cultural revolution, as well as brotherly, sisterly, and parental love.
The Lord of the Rings: One Volume by J.R.R. Tolkien
(11-21-21 - 11-22-23) --- (with a short respite between 03-12-23 - 04-24-23)
The Fellowship of the Ring - (11-21-21 - 6-9-22)
(11-21-21 - 11-22-23) --- (with a short respite between 03-12-23 - 04-24-23)
The Fellowship of the Ring - (11-21-21 - 6-9-22)
The Two Towers - (6-9-22 - 02-17-23)
The Return of the King - (02-17-23 -11-22-23)
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
The Return of the King - (02-17-23 -11-22-23)
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.
When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.
The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
(03-12-23 - 04-24-23)
I have been reading LOTR for quite some time now. On the recommendation of my good friend Jeff, I took a break from LOTR and read MSOTM.
Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods—all by himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel, he intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever.
(06-15-2021 - 07-29-2021)
When many of us think of the free press, we don’t immediately think of massive corporations owned and orchestrated by still larger entities—we think of good and honest journalism. And that is exactly what they want you to think.
It’s Not Right-Left, It’s Top-Down: The Truth About The Media dives deep into the corporate and political landscape of America’s leading news networks. This book includes stories and insights from individuals like:
When many of us think of the free press, we don’t immediately think of massive corporations owned and orchestrated by still larger entities—we think of good and honest journalism. And that is exactly what they want you to think.
It’s Not Right-Left, It’s Top-Down: The Truth About The Media dives deep into the corporate and political landscape of America’s leading news networks. This book includes stories and insights from individuals like:
- David Shuster, former journalist at MSNBC, CNN and Fox News and current Anchor/Managing Editor for Quick Hits News
- Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks and former news anchor at MSNBC
- David Sirota, founder of The Daily Poster, columnist at The Guardian and former senior adviser and speechwriter for the Bernie Sanders campaign
(2020 ▼) (2021 ▲)
** Note ** I have taken a short "hiatus" from reading - but am starting back up again!!
(2019 ▼) (2020 ▲)
A Perfect Confluence by Peter Bridgford
(12-02-2019 - 01/-24-2020)
Noah has finally gotten himself under control; he’s clean and sober, and carving out a new life. But when he gets involved with a woman from a local crime family, he lets his demons run amok again. He has no other option than to flee in his canoe onto the river. Along the way, he meets Becca, a mysterious pregnant woman with a burdened a past. As they continue together and through the trials and tribulations of river life, their pursuers continue to nip at their heels. In spite of this, Noah and Becca fall in love. If they’re to have a future together, Noah needs to decide whether Becca is a heaven-sent agent of goodness or the author of his demise. And, whether he knows it or not, he’s part of a plan that’s been unfurling since the two of them first met.
Alexandria Rising by Mark Wallace McGuire
(11/08/2019 - 11/30/2018)
Rand O'Neal, an ambition-less newspaper reporter, is given a single task upon the death of his grandfather: Destroy a mysterious map.
What should be a simple errand thrusts Rand into a journey across three countries where he discovers humanity's biggest secret.
No Fences in Alaska by Glen Sobey
(09/19/2019 - 11/07/2019)
Their worlds are about to come crashing down...
At sixteen years old, Harper Lyon's life is spinning out of control. She threatens her parents with suicide unless she can meet her drug-dealing boyfriend, a college student who doesn't know she's pregnant. Cooper Lyons, her estranged grandfather, lives in rural Alaska with only his dog and cat for company. He has just been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, and he doesn't plan on letting the disease run its course. Harper needs to escape her parents and decide what to do about the baby. She and her grandpa are worlds apart, but they may be exactly what the other needs. When Harper calls her grandfather, he welcomes the opportunity to help her and redeem his previous failure with his daughter Heather, who died from a drug overdose years ago.
Can they save each other?
Frank Vaughn, Killed by his Mom by D. Krauss
(03/25/2019 - 09/17/2019)
A disturbing Odyssey across America.
It’s summer, 1965. School's out and Butch's birthday is in a few weeks. Perfect; three months of freeze tag, hide and seek and riding his bike way past dark. Well, maybe not completely perfect — Frank Vaughn, a classmate, is beaten to death by his crazy mother for leaving a report card at school. On top of that, Dad is touchier than ever and Mom sadder, so best to hide out next door with his best friend Tommy reading X-Men and hoping for that birthday GI Joe.
But in one night, Butch's summer explodes and he’s now riding across a turbulent and changing Dixie in a white Rambler station wagon, at the mercy of a manic depressive and wildly violent Dad. Like a crewman on Ulysses' ship, Butch encounters a one-eyed evil grandfather, a 12-year-old Siren, the lotus-eaters of Alabama…and Frank Vaughn. If Butch ever sees his beloved sister, Cindy, again, it'll be a miracle. If he's alive at the end of the summer, it'll be a bigger one.
A dark version of "The Wonder Years," Frank Vaughn Killed by his Mom is "The Great Santini" written by Homer, careening through a coarse world of racism, adultery, abandonment, and even the occasional hope.
Ransom's Law by David Johnson
(02/01/2019 - 03/24/2019)
Roscoe Ransom returned home from World War I, broken both in body and spirit, drowning his pain daily in a bottle of whiskey. But even alcohol can’t numb the agony of losing his wife or the fear of trying to raise his son, Junior, alone. However, the mind-numbing predictability of Roscoe’s life as a sharecropper and his role of town sheriff—a job given to him out of pity when he returned from the war—is suddenly upended when a black man in their tiny community is murdered and castrated.
At eleven years old, Junior longs for his father’s love and attention to fill the void left by the death of his mother, but the person who has grown to fill that role is Willow Muscadine, a Cherokee Indian woman, who lives next door. When she sees him trying to locate the killer that his drunken father can’t—or won’t—find she decides to become Junior’s self-assigned protector. Junior overhears enough in town to realize this was no random murder of a black man. But the more questions he asks, the more dangerous the situation becomes for him, Roscoe, and Willow.
When the threats turn deadly, will it be enough to shake Roscoe from his misery in time to save them and find redemption? Or will his personal demons once again win until he’s lost everything and everyone who cares about him?
The Long, Long, Long Dirt Driveway by Danny O'Reilly
(12/28/2018 - 01/27/2019)
I don’t care if you believe me or not, because if I hadn’t lived it, I wouldn’t believe it either. Growing up in rural Kentucky in the 60’s and 70’s, my only friend, John Paul Manteuffel, was a dim-witted, scaredy-cat mountain of a boy, whose sister did her best to make his life a living hell. The only problem was, I was deeply in love with her. Why else would I be friends with a boy, who got us beat up by a bar owner on his eighteenth birthday, who got us in serious trouble with his father by showing some hippies from Woodstock where his father’s rabbit tobacco (wink, wink) plants where and who broke into a funeral home to steal a dead man’s gold teeth? I tell you right now, his sister was, despite her slight mustache and fishy breath, an angel sent from God. I love Mary Lou Manteuffel and I can’t tell you what just seeing her does to me.
The LONG, LONG, LONG DIRT DRIVEWAY is a quirky, humorous, fictional autobiography of me, Danny O’Reilly, a dirt-poor sharecropper’s son and my adventures in trying to keep John Paul from getting us killed and in courting his sister without getting me killed. The 90,000 word-story could have been about a million words if I told everything that happened. Oh, by the way, did I tell you how much I love Mary Lou Manteuffel?
(2018 ▼) (2019 ▲)
Bowl of Fruit (1907) by Panayotis Cacoyannis
(05/23/2018 - 12/27/2018)
Bowl of Fruit (1907) by Panayotis Cacoyannis
Leon's past is a labyrinth of truths, half-truths and untruths - not one story but many different stories at once, which Leon has been trying to put behind him. But ghost-writer Anna Tor knows much more about his history than he does, and when Leon reluctantly agrees to meet her, as they begin to trace together the two converging courses of their separate lives since their birth on the same September morning in 1973, the devastating secrets of the past are revealed one by one to bind them ever closer together.
The Field: A Novel by Jason Fuhrman
(03/25/2018 - 05/17/2018)
A family torn apart. A friendship stronger than blood. A dark journey that will change two young boys forever.
After his mother and sister are killed in a tragic accident, ten-year-old Will struggles to hold on to what is left of his life. His father, consumed by grief and rage, forces Will to find solace elsewhere. An abandoned field is where he finds that solace, exploring the afternoons away with his best friend, Eddie.
But when he’s attacked during one of his excursions, the one place where Will feels he can escape his broken life is no longer safe. His misfortune soon escalates far beyond black eyes and bruised ribs, threatening to destroy his psyche as well.
Beaten and stripped of everything, Will is forced to decide how far he will go to put an end to the torment.
In the spirit of films like Stand By Me and novels like The Catcher in the Rye, The Field is a coming-of-age novel that explores the debilitating effects of loss, the unbreakable bonds of friendship, and the ghosts of our past that haunt us for the rest of our lives.
Flowers in December by Jane Suen
(03/03/2018 - 03/25/2018)
A man goes home to bury his mother but finds himself.
Connor Norton returns to his hometown, following the death of his mother, knowing that he will have to confront personal feelings of guilt and regret. It is a place he has barely set foot in for the past 20 years.
Caught in the period of his life where the vibrancy of youth has diminished and the prospect of becoming middle-aged is looming, Connor finds that he is suddenly alone in the world and must somehow reshape his future and face his own mortality.
With only Tom, the family’s orange tabby cat, as his constant companion, he considers new possibilities and new directions. But will Connor be able to lay the ghosts of his past to rest? And will his return later, to the place he once called home, be enough to let him break free from the remorse which he has carried since he was 18?
In this tender, heartwarming portrait of a man who finds himself trapped between his past, his present and the future, where will this new journey lead Connor and what will the future hold when he gets there?
Feels Like the First Time by Shawn Inmon
(02/15/2018 - 02/28/2018)
"The Wonder Years" meets "The Notebook."
Do you remember your first love?
Shawn and Dawn met when they were both teenagers, and fell in love. All they wanted was a chance to be together, to find their destiny, but it was not to be. They were separated, apparently forever, in 1979.
A chance meeting twenty-seven years gave them a second chance at first love. If you remember your first love, your first date and your first kiss, then Feels Like the First Time will take you back to those moments.
Feels Like the First Time lets you share in the magic of young love in small town America in the 1970s. No matter how much the world changes, some things – timeless music, high school dances, making out in the backseat of a Chevy Vega, and of course true love – will always remain the same.
This is a true story.
We Were Here by Daisy Prescott
(01/24/2018 - 02/15/2018)
In the 90’s, sex was dangerous, music was life, and love was something no one had ever felt like we did.
We met in college, completely free for the first time in our lives and determined to enjoy every minute of it. For four years, we gossiped and flirted, partied and road-tripped. We were inseparable.
Each of us has our own story of falling in or out of love. Of finding out who we are. Of growing up.
We thought we knew everything. We knew nothing.
We Were Here is where the Modern Love Stories begins, in a standalone that perfectly captures the humor, angst, and sheer chaos of college.
(2017 ▼) (2018 ▲)
Capture by Robert Smith
(10/10/2017 - 01/21/2018)
As four-year-old Sunny Exley drowns in the icy waters off a luxury beach house, her father, Nick, smokes weed on the shore and her mother, Caroline, is lost in the arms of a lover. Hidden on nearby boulders, rent-a-cop Vernon Saul watches the child die and chooses to act only when it is too late.
In the days following Sunny's death, gutted by grief and guilt, Nick falls under the spell of Vernon who presents himself as a friend in time of need. When the sinister Vernon's true motives are revealed, Nick is drawn into a spiral of manipulation and murder that leaves him fighting for his sanity and his life.
The Old North Trail: Life, Legends and Religion of the Blackfeet Indians by Walter Mcclintock
(02/19/2017 - 10/10/2017)
In 1886 Walter McClintock went to northwestern Montana as a member of a U.S. Forest Service expedition. He was adopted as a son by Chief Mad Dog, the high priest of the Sun Dance, and spent the next four years living on the Blackfoot Reservation.
The Old North Trail, originally published in 1910, is a record of his experiences among the Blackfeet.
Children To A Degree - Growing Up Under the Third Reich by Horst Christian
(01/08/2017 - 02/14/2017)
Based on a true story about a young boy growing up under the Third Reich.
Karl Veth, the oldest of three children, was born in Berlin, Germany in 1930. By the time he was old enough to start school and begin his education, Hitler had already established a firm death-grip on the country. Children were fed a steady diet of Nazi propaganda and were often encouraged to turn on their family and friends but contrary to popular belief, not all of them bought into it.
Karl is an intelligent young boy who strives to excel in his studies, but he questions everything. Dangerous questions during a time when people are closely monitored. Karl’s father and grandfather are not blind followers and they have their own opinions about Hitler and his regime. The lessons they teach Karl often contradict what he is taught in school, yet they also inspire him to think on his own and form his own opinions.
German law mandates that all children must become members of the Hitler Youth and at the age of 10, Karl enters the Jungvolk, the junior branch of the Hitler Youth. He must wade through the propaganda and everything he is taught to decide for himself what is right and what it wrong. Little does he know at the time, but many of his grandfather’s predictions about the future of the Third Reich will eventually come to pass. The lessons he learns now and the opinions he forms will determine his fate in dangerous times ahead.
(2016 ▼) (2017 ▲)
The Fifth Floor by Julie Oleszek
(10/31/2016 - 12/27/2016)
Seven-year-old Anna will not understand what is about to happen. What will be scorched into her memory on this fateful day will be unthinkable.
Happy-go-lucky Anna adores her older sister. Together, they climb trees, fly kites, and swing on their back yard swing set. In a moment, Anna will begin an agonizing journey, traumatized and alone that will last nearly ten years.
Now seventeen, Anna’s downward spiral has been easy to hide. She’s the ninth child of ten, and distress is overlooked in the constant clamor of growing up in a huge family. But something is different this time around. As the tenth anniversary of that fateful day approaches, everyday simplicities, like showering and eating, become increasingly difficult. Anna feels the end is nearing—or is it the beginning of something far worse?
From a Bush Wing: Notes of an Alaska Wildlife Trooper by Stephen Santiago Reynolds
(09/12/2016 - 10/30/2016)
This is a long-awaited book about flying the Alaska Bush by the author of Beyond the Killing Tree: A Journey of Discovery. Herein Stephen Santiago Reynolds relates his flying experiences as an Alaska Wildlife Trooper—and those of other officers—while stationed throughout one of the most dangerous environments in the world. Whether tragic, humorous, or surrounding the simple beauty of flight, there is something that jumps out in many of these chapters—how not to fly or abuse the privilege of flying. If you are a pilot, you might see some familiar forms—or, better yet, you might think you are looking into a mirror. “If you learn how to improve your own safety record from one or more of these events, then this effort will have been worthwhile,” says the author, “for you, for your friends and families, and for me.”
Gumbeaux by Kimberly Vargas
(08/22/2016 - 09/10/2016)
Where do you go when you disappear? For young heiress Mary Fait, the answer is New Orleans. After the death of her parents, she is placed in the care of her alcoholic uncle. For years, she assists her uncle in growing the family empire, all the while plotting his demise and / or her escape. A college scholarship gives her the opportunity to break free of her life to start a new one - under a new name. Follow Mary and her often hilarious misadventures in the early 1990's while attending college in a small town in Louisiana. The story reads as a series of diary entries which chronicle the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the main character during this time in her life. The novel's title refers to a cajun restaurant in which the main character works as a waitress. The colorful descriptions of the town of Bayou Bend, the college, its inhabitants and the surrounding areas paint a vivid and amusing tale of life in the South.
An Invisible Thread by by Laura Schroff
(08/04/2016 - 08/21/2016)
An Invisible Thread tells of the life-long friendship between a busy sales executive and a disadvantaged young boy, and how both of their lives were changed by what began as one small gesture of kindness.
When Laura Schroff brushed by a young panhandler on a New York City corner one rainy afternoon, something made her stop and turn back. She took the boy to lunch at the McDonald’s across the street that day. And she continued to go back, again and again for the next four years until both their lives had changed dramatically. Nearly thirty years later, that young boy, Maurice, is married and has his own family. Now he works to change the lives of disadvantaged kids, just like the boy he used to be.
An Invisible Thread is the true story of the bond between a harried sales executive and an eleven-year-old boy who seemed destined for a life of poverty. It is the heartwarming story of a friendship that has spanned three decades and brought meaning to an over-scheduled professional and hope to a hungry and desperate boy living on the streets.
A Forgotten Man by by Pepper Bryars
(07/24/2016 - 08/03/2016)
For readers of the classic “The Grapes of Wrath,” comes a powerful novel about an American family struggling through the economic hardships of our time.
A Forgotten Man is an emotional tale of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless. It’s a story of one father’s heroic struggle to provide for his family, of one mother’s heartbreaking sacrifices, and the tragic unraveling of a young girl’s once-promising future. The novel captures the unseen impact of the Great Recession on American families and explores the changing relationships between citizens and their government.
The novel follows the Bosarge family — Jack, Donita, and their three-year-old daughter Julia — after environmental regulations force a small town seafood company to close, costing Jack his job and sending his family deeply into debt. As Jack fails to find employment, Donita loses hope and their way of life begins to crumble beneath a society that has forgotten about working class men and women.
Out of their trials and repeated attempts to recover unfolds a sad tale of injustice, hardship, and desperation. Packed with meaning yet plainspoken, A Forgotten Man shows what it’s like to be broken, alone, and forgotten in modern America.
Jimmy by William Malmborg
(07/16/2016 - 07/24/2016)
High school can be a difficult time in a young person's life, especially toward the end where one has to start making the sudden transition into adulthood. For Jimmy Hawthorn it is even worse. Not only does he need to successfully make that transition, he has to do it while hiding the fact that he is the one responsible for kidnapping two fellow high school girls, both of whom are hanging from their wrists in a secret underground fallout shelter he discovered behind an abandoned house on the outskirts of town.
Breaking Twig by Deborah Epperson
(05/23/2016 - 07/16/2016)
Set in rural Georgia in the 1960s, Breaking Twig is a coming-of-age novel about Becky (Twig) Cooper, a young woman trying to survive the physical and emotional abuse of her mother, Helen, a beautiful, calculating woman who can, with a mere look, send the meanest cur in Sugardale, Georgia running for its life.
Not even Twig's vivid imagination, keen wit, and dark sense of humor is enough to help her survive the escalating assaults of Helen and a new stepbrother, but help comes from an unexpected source--Frank, her stepfather. Sometimes, having one person who loves and believes in you is all a girl needs to keep hope alive.
Often raw and irreverent and sprinkled with all the Southern flavoring found in a good bowl of chicken and dumplings, BREAKING TWIG, is about finding love where we least expect it, destroying lives with easy lies, and realizing each of us determine our own truth.
Hope For Garbage by Alex Tully
(05/05/2016 - 05/22/2016)
Welcome to the cruel world of Trevor McNulty. No matter how hard he tries, this seventeen year-old just can’t get a break. Through no fault of his own, he finds himself living with his alcoholic uncle on the outskirts of Cleveland. His days are filled with garbage-picking and hanging out with his seventy year-old neighbor, who also happens to be his best friend.
One early morning while scanning the streets in a wealthy suburb, he meets Bea, a rebellious rich girl with problems of her own. She’s smart, cute, and a glimmer of light in his dark world.
But in the midst of their budding romance, Bea’s beautiful mother enters the picture with an agenda of her own. She sets off a chain of events so shocking and destructive, Trevor's crazy life soon becomes more than he can handle. While he is desperate to save his relationship with Bea, he learns that nothing in his world can be saved unless he first saves himself.
Hope for Garbage is a story about resilience—about overcoming adversity under the most extraordinary circumstances—about never, ever, giving up hope.
Because sooner or later, everybody gets a break.
New Horizons by Dan Carr
(04/21/2016 - 05/05/2016)
17-year-old Val Campbell is a high school drop-out without any prospects before she is taken from her home and sent to New Horizons, a facility for troubled youth. Strip searched, and uniformed, Val is placed in cabin 519 with five other residents from various parts of the country. Raw, tragic, and uplifting, "New Horizons" follows Val's journey of self-acceptance in a program meant to break her.
Chips of Red Paint by Martin Beckner
(04/04/2016 - 04/21/2016)
Brian Haynes, the third-generation owner of a successful realty company, who married the owner of an even more successful lumber company, remembers back to one pivotal summer during his childhood that changed his perspective on life forever.
Following a frightening premonition from a mysterious neighbor, Brian, believing he has inadvertently contributed to the death of his grandmother's housekeeper, runs away from home with his best friend, Charlie. Aided by their friend Stephanie, the two friends find refuge with an old man living a hermit's life on a nearby knob. The old man teaches the boys the virtues of living a simple life and teaches them even more about letting go of the past and never taking things for granted.
It all comes to a terrifying climax one day when Charlie climbs inside an abandoned, rusty truck, a truck that still has a few chips of red paint, and closes the door. Here begins a struggle between life and death.
Chips of Red Paint is a modern Southern Gothic novel that weaves the past with the present into a colorful quilt that touches every emotion.
Pretending Normal by Mary Campisi
(03/25/2016 - 04/04/2016)
1976 Before-Sara Polokovich wants out of Norwood, Pennsylvania, population 4,582, where the undertaker and the butcher are the same person. All she has to do is earn a scholarship. Just two more years…but until then, she pours over classics to strengthen her comprehension skills, reviews for the SAT, and continues to request college brochures from every school in the northeast.
Sara’s just buried her mother, her father drinks too much, and her kid sister won’t leave her alone. Why can’t her life be normal? Even half-normal? Why does Frank, (she refuses to think of him as her father anymore), spend all of his time in the garage with that damn ‘57 Chevy? And why does he have to hide bottles all over the house; in the red metal cupboard in the garage, behind the faded orange curtain in the kitchen, under the sink in the bathroom? Why can’t anybody talk about what’s happening?
As Sara struggles to free herself from a life of dysfunction and disease, she will learn the true depths of a parent’s love and the ultimate sacrifice given— and taken— in the name of that love. Pretending Normal follows Sara Polokovich’s coming of age as she discovers the truths about family with all of its flaws and weaknesses as the bond that holds one to another, in love, loyalty, even death.
Stolen by Rebecca Muddiman
(02/28/2016 - 03/20/2016)
When Abby Henshaw is brutally attacked by two strangers in the countryside, her first thought is for the safety of her baby daughter, Beth. But what follows is a mother’s worst nightmare: Beth is gone and Abby's world collapses around her. As DI Michael Gardner begins to investigate Abby and her family, he discovers lives built on secrets and betrayals. Under pressure from his bosses to find the missing child and to unearth the truth, Gardner finds himself struggling to stay emotionally removed from the case, and from Abby herself. After the authorities finally shelve their investigation, Abby receives a message telling her where she can find her daughter. But how can she convince those around her that the girl really is Beth when they are the very people she knows least? A gripping and haunting debut, Stolen is a richly imagined psychological thriller from an exciting new talent in crime writing.
Olivia, Mourning by Yael Politis
(02/02/2016 - 02/19/2016)
Olivia wants the 80 acres in far off Michigan that her father left to whichever of his offspring wants to stake a claim. As Olivia says, “I’m sprung off him just as much as Avis or Tobey.”
The problem: she’s seventeen, female, and it’s 1841.
Mourning Free knows how to run a farm and Olivia has complete trust in him.
The problem: he’s the orphaned son of runaway slaves and reluctant to travel and work with a white girl. He especially fears the slave catchers who patrol the free states, hunting fugitive slaves.
Not without qualms, they set off together. All goes well, despite the drudgery of survival in an isolated log cabin. Incapable of acknowledging her feelings for Mourning, Olivia thinks her biggest problem is her unrequited romantic interest in their young, single neighbor.
Then her world falls apart.
Strong-willed, vulnerable, and compassionate, Olivia is a compelling protagonist on a journey to find a way to do the right thing in a world in which so much is wrong.
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
(01/22/2016 - 02/01/2016)
The harrowing true story that inspired the critically acclaimed film
The son of a freed slave, Solomon Northup lived the first thirty years of his life as a free man in upstate New York. In the spring of 1841, he was offered a job: a short-term, lucrative engagement as a violinist in a traveling circus. It was a trap. In Washington, DC, Northup was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years on plantations in Louisiana, enduring backbreaking labor, unimaginable violence, and inhumane treatment at the hands of cruel masters, until a kind stranger helped to win his release. His account of those years is a shocking, unforgettable portrait of America’s most insidious historical institution as told by a man who experienced it firsthand.
Published shortly after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist classic Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Northup’s memoir became a bestseller in 1853. With its eloquent depiction of life before and after bondage, Twelve Years a Slave was a unique and effective entry into the national debate over slavery. Rediscovered in the 1960s and now the inspiration for a major motion picture, Northup’s poignant narrative gives readers an invaluable glimpse into a shameful chapter of American history.
Red Clover by Florence Osmund
(01/12/2016 - 01/22/2016)
Imagine feeling like an outsider. Now imagine feeling like an outsider in your own family.
Lee Winekoop suffered a childhood fraught with criticism and isolation. Now twenty-six, confused and emotionally bankrupt, he leaves his dysfunctional upper-class family to find his true self. In pursuit of cultivating a meaningful life for himself, Lee discovers a world poles apart from the one he had left behind and an assortment of unforgettable characters to go with it. But just when things start falling into place, a well-intentioned domestic servant divulges an alarming family secret that causes Lee to question who he is and where he’s going.
(2015 ▼) (2016 ▲)
President Me: The America That's in My Head by Adam Carolla
(11/22/2015 - 01/12/2016)
Imagine a world where New York Times bestselling author, comedian, actor, television, and podcast host Adam Carolla is the President of the United States. Can’t do it? You don’t have to! Adam has done it for you!
Podcast king Adam Carolla first shared his unique, but always funny world view in his New York Times bestseller In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks—but he’s not done.
In President Me, Carolla shares his vision for a different, better America free from big issues like big government down to small problems like hotel alarm clock placement. Running on an anti-narcissism platform, President Carolla calls for a return to the values of an earlier time when stew and casserole were on every dinner table and there were no “service dogs” on airplanes. President Me hits right at the heart of what makes our country really annoying, and offers a plan to make all of our lives, but mostly Adam’s, much better.
Not Taco Bell Material by Adam Carolla
(09/13/2015 - 11/22/2015)
Funnyman Adam Carolla is known for two things: hilarious rants about things that drive him crazy and personal stories about everything from his hardscrabble childhood to his slacker friends to the hypocrisy of Hollywood. He tackled rants in his first book, and now he tells his best stories, debuting some never-before-heard tales as well. Organized by the myriad "dumps" Carolla called home as a child to the flophouse apartments he rented in his twenties, up to the homes he personally renovated after achieving success in Hollywood, the anecdotes here follow Adam's journey and the hilarious pitfalls along the way.
Adam Carolla started broke and blue collar and has now been on the Hollywood scene for more than fifteen years. Yet he's still connected to the working-class guy he once was and delivers a raw and edgy, fish-out-of-water take on the world he lives in (but mostly disagrees with), telling all the stories, no matter who he offends--family, friends, or the famous.
Cicada Spring by Christian Galacar
(05/10/2015 - 09/13/2015)
On a warm May evening in the spring of 1979, the people of Heartsridge, Massachusetts, are living the American dream. Families are gathered for barbecues. Kids are playing in front yards. Gardens are being kept. Meanwhile, Kara Price stumbles home through the woods, raped and beaten, her life shattered by a wicked act of violence, perpetrated by one of the town’s most beloved and public figures.
Surrounding Kara is a cast of compelling and nefarious characters—a violent-tempered mayor who can do no wrong in the eyes of the town, a sheriff bound by the rules and plagued by a guilty conscience, a father bent on revenge, a serial killer in the midst of an identity crisis. And at the center of it all there's Kara, who just wants to move on with her life and forget everything that happened to her. But how can she do that when everyone thinks she is a liar who is only out for attention? With plot and emotion braided together by a careful hand, this haunted group of people all acting on behalf of their own interests begs the question: How far would you go to protect your own?
Don't Wait For Me by Dan Kolbet
(04/03/2015 - 05/09/2015)
Edwin Klein's iconic downtown toy store is hanging by a thread. The end is near, but he won't accept it. The store is all he has left of his wife and he can't let it go. Failure and loss have led him to a dark place.
After a chance encounter with a shoplifter, he stumbles upon the help of Amelia Cook, who is struggling with her own loss. Through one holiday season the two of them hatch a plan to save the store and in turn touch the lives of everyone they know.
What follows is a wonderful, but tragic tale of love, loss and new beginnings.
Carolina Sunshower by Kat Spencer
(03/16/2015 - 04/03/2015)
A girl from a small, rural North Carolina mountain community faces the challenges of growing up in a severely dysfunctional family. Kat is one of 6 children born to parents with an eighth grade education. Kat's mama is hard-working and long suffering, while Kat's father is a troubled alcoholic. Statistically, Kat should not have been able to rise above her raisings, but she manages to triumph over violence, betrayal and ignorance to live a life that she had dared not dream. This riveting memoir reads like fiction, but Kat lived every moment of it.
Surviving Goodbye by Morgan Parker
(03/02/2015 - 03/16/2015)
In the final hours of her life, Elliot Fitch’s wife confesses that he is not the biological father to their 16-year old daughter.
Surviving Goodbye follows Elliot’s collision course with Fate as he embarks on a journey to locate his daughter’s real father. When Elena, now seventeen years old, announces her unplanned pregnancy and the father’s unwillingness to play a role in their child’s upbringing, Elliot faces an ironic dilemma about the true meaning of parenthood and the roles we play in the lives of others, particularly those we love and who love us in return.
1929 By M.L. Gardner
(12/28/2014 - 02/28/2015)
As Black Thursday triggers financial despondency, three young couples in New York City must trade their lives of luxury for poverty, tragedy, and setbacks.
When Jonathan Garrett's brokerage firm collapses on the day of the Stock Market Crash, he unites with his closest friends (and former business partners), Aryl and Caleb, to relocate, track down a low-paying job, and cultivate a new life.
As the three men toil in their laborious jobs, their wives, Ava, Arianna, and Claire, slowly adapt to life in a shabby, rundown apartment, learning to sew, cook, and clean. With the help of their former, outspoken, Irish maid, Maura, and a new, equally Irish friend, Shannon, the wives become even closer than before.
The couples' rocky path leads to more turmoil, however, when a business rival, Victor Drayton, creates one disaster after another. From petty tricks to outright violence, Victor's nefarious mind will stop at nothing to beat down Jonathan's last glimmer of hope.
Despite everything, Jonathan and his friends are fixated on surviving.
Emotional and financial destruction nip at their heels, until finally, with a lucky twist of fate, they escape city life and begin anew in their hometown of Rockport, Massachusetts.
A story set in the past, 1929 is full of romance, drama, and humor. Vivid, expertly crafted characters make this novel more than memorable--1929 is unforgettable.
(2014 ▼) (2015 ▲)
Arnco by Ben Muse
(11/11/2014 - 12/27/2014)
Jake Brigham, a wildly successful first time author is drowning in the undertow of his newfound success. After years of "winning," he realizes he has only lost--a beloved mother, a marriage, even his ability to create. Eventually, he leaves the demands of New York and returns to a place once close to his heart: Arnco, a dying Georgia mill village. He rebuilds his life, and his passion returns, for words, and for a childhood friend.
Allie Tanner, a widowed, single mother, has been fighting demons since the day she was born. Her entire life has been a struggle-- with an alcoholic father, her own health problems, the death of her husband, and the constant worry that she may never be able to protect the one thing that means the most: her daughter Grace.
Jake ignites the spark of hope within her, and she within him. And each for very different reasons. When circumstances from their past collide with their present, will their hopes survive? Will tragedy cause a horrific breakdown or an inspirational destiny?
The Mine by John A. Heldt
(09/03/2014 - 11/11/2014)
In May 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as his playground. But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can't use, money he can't spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of swing dancing and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. THE MINE is a love story that follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.
The Neighbor by Dean Koontz
(07/03/2014 - 09/03/2014 )
Every city has its wonders and mysteries. For the Pomerantz family, the most disturbing mystery at the moment is the identity and the intentions of their new neighbor, in this eBook original short story—a prequel to The City, the gripping and moving new novel by Dean Koontz.
The year is 1967. Malcolm Pomerantz is twelve, geeky and socially awkward, while his seriously bright sister, Amalia, is spirited and beautiful. Each is the other’s best friend, united by a boundless interest in the world beyond their dysfunctional parents’ unhappy home. But even the troubled Pomerantz household will seem to be a haven compared to the house next door, after an enigmatic and very secretive new neighbor takes up residence in the darkest hours of the night.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
(06/26/2014 - 07/03/2014 )
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
Miles from Home: A true story of the choices that define us By Colleen Lanier
(05/07/2014 - 06/26/2014 )
What would you do for your best friend?
When Sean called, asking me to help him drive his parents from Wisconsin to Washington, I found out.
Sean's mother had Alzheimer's disease and his father was dying from lung cancer. We were taking them to their final home, an assisted living facility near Sean. And while his dad said he didn't want it to be an ambulance ride, it was clear this wasn't any vacation.
Sean and I had thirty years of history. He was my best friend, my first love…and, until very recently, the man I was living with. He was the man who wrote the words I'd carry in my heart my entire adult life, and the man who broke my heart.
Miles from Home is the true story of our cross-country trip, an end-of-life journey for one person and new beginnings for the rest of us. It is a story about life, death, friendship, and the choices we make. It is about the messiness of life, and, ultimately, the power of love.
The Rocking Chair by Steven Manchester
(03/29/2014 - 05/07/2014)
Memories are the ultimate contradiction. They can warm us on our coldest days – or they can freeze a loved one out of our lives forever. The McCarthy family has a trove of warm memories. Of innocent first kisses. Of sumptuous family meals. Of wondrous lessons learned at the foot of a rocking chair. But they also have had their share of icy ones. Of words that can never be unsaid. Of choices that can never be unmade. Of actions that can never be undone.
Following the death of his beloved wife, John McCarthy – Grandpa John – calls his family back home. It is time for them to face the memories they have made, both warm and cold. Only then can they move beyond them and into the future.
A rich portrait of a family at a crossroad, THE ROCKIN' CHAIR is Steven Manchester’s most heartfelt and emotionally engaging novel to date. If family matters to you, it is a story you must read.
Pike Place by Marilyn Tschudi
(3/10/2014 - 03/29/2014 )
Set in 1971 Seattle, Pike Place tells the story of a young family whose teenage daughter goes missing. Told through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl, Pike Place takes the reader back to a simpler place and time in America.
River of Fire by Scott Pratt
(03/03/2014 - 03/10/2014)
"River on Fire" is the story of Randall Smith, a foundling orphan growing up in the midwestern United States in the late 1960s. Without the intimate guidance of loving parents, Randall struggles to understand a dangerous and confusing world during one of the most tumultuous times in modern history. Immensely readable and filled with humor and irony, "River on Fire" will both warm and break your heart.
A Discussion/Study Guide is included at the end of the novel.
The Awful Tale of the Minnesota Diarrhea Ghost by Rish Outfield
(03/03/2014 - 03/03/2014 )
In this tiny tale, Grandpa sits down his two grandsons and tells them just enough about the Minnesota Diarrhea Ghost.
Third Willow by Lenore Skomal
(01/30/2014 - 03/03/2014 )
"In the apex of the wooded matriarch is where he felt it--his oneness with the willow. The branches fluttered with his weight, as he fused into them. He moved as it moved and vice versa, in a synergistic dance; an extension of the lumbering mammoth and it of him, connected in some unfathomable way."
It's the summer of '54 in the sleepy midwestern town of Sand Flats, Nebraska. Four lonely misfits forge an unlikely friendship under the draping branches of the third willow--a safe place where humor, magic and sorrow coexist. There they discover that best friends can ease the pressures from the adult world that threaten to steal their innocence. Ringleader Hap--a poor man's Peter Pan--is unwilling to let the abuse of his alcoholic father taint his boyish optimism while he secretly searches for his missing mother. Obsessed with his Indian roots, he constructs a carefree world on the outskirts of town. As the new kid in Sand Flats, tomboy Patsy joins him, eager to escape her father's iron rule and the pain afflicting her wounded brother, a Korean War veteran. Together, Hap and Patsy befriend timid Beah, who struggles to earn the love of her cold mother following the death of her only brother. It takes levelheaded Raz, the eldest of the only Jewish family in town, to be the conscience of the group. Told through their eyes, this is a tale of a summer of unbridled adventure, which ends unexpectedly and abruptly forces them all into adulthood. As tender as it is intense, Third Willow will transport you to the last summer of your innocence.
(2013 ▼) (2014 ▲)
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts [Paperback - not Kindle] By Gary D Chapman
(12/26/2013 - 01/29/2014 )
Marriage should be based on love, right? But does it seem as though you and your spouse are speaking two different languages? New York Times bestselling author Dr. Gary Chapman guides couples in identifying, understanding, and speaking their spouse’s primary love language—quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, or physical touch.
By learning the five love languages, you and your spouse will discover your unique love languages and learn practical steps in truly loving each other. Chapters are categorized by love language for easy reference, and each one ends with specific, simple steps to express a specific language to your spouse and guide your marriage in the right direction. A newly designed love languages assessment will help you understand and strengthen your relationship. You can build a lasting, loving marriage together.
While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement By Carolyn Maull McKinstry with Denise George
(10/15/13 - 12/26/213 )
On September 15, 1963, a Klan-planted bomb went off in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Fourteen-year-old Carolyn Maull was just a few feet away when the bomb exploded, killing four of her friends in the girl’s rest room she had just exited. It was one of the seminal moments in the Civil Rights movement, a sad day in American history . . . and the turning point in a young girl’s life.
While the World Watched is a poignant and gripping eyewitness account of life in the Jim Crow South—from the bombings, riots and assassinations to the historic marches and triumphs that characterized the Civil Rights movement.
A uniquely moving exploration of how racial relations have evolved over the past 5 decades, While the World Watched is an incredible testament to how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go.
American Legends: The Life of Sitting Bull by Charles River Editors
(10/27/13 - 11/13/13)
"When I was a boy the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set on their land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them? Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?" - Sitting Bull
A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.
In 1872, during a fight along the Yellowstone River between U.S. troops protecting railroad workers and Sioux warriors, one of the Sioux did something both unusual and inspiring. At the height of the battle, with bullets whizzing all around him, this warrior sat down, loaded his cannupa (sacred pipe), and began to smoke, partaking in his people's religious sacrament. For the Sioux, smoking a pipe was akin to praying, and the smoke, wafting up through to the heavens, represented those prayers as they floated up to Wakan Tanka, the "god" of the Native Americans who occupied the North American Plains. Wakan Tanka is not the name of their god but rather a description, for the words literally mean "Great Mystery." The Sioux warrior continued smoking until done with his pipe, and after carefully reaming and cleaning out the pipe, he rose to his feet, and rejoined the battle.
Of course, it was not that battle which made Sitting Bull one of the most famous Native Americans in American history. Like Geronimo in the Southwest during the same era, Sitting Bull was a warrior who fought in several skirmishes against settlers and U.S. forces across the Plains during the 1860s, and while it is still debated whether he was the "Supreme Chief of the whole Sioux Nation" by 1868, it's clear that he was one of the influential leaders of the Lakota. And when The Great Sioux War of 1876 began, Sitting Bull was recognized as the most important leader among all Native American tribes on the Plains, and the one to turn to for those who intended to keep fighting whites.
Sitting Bull ensured he would become a legend at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, during which an estimated 2,000 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors inspired by one of his visions routed and then annihilated the 7th U.S. Cavalry led by George Custer. That disaster led the American government to double down on its efforts to "pacify" the Sioux, and by the end of the decade many of them had surrendered and been moved onto a reservation. Sitting Bull defiantly refused to surrender, instead heading with a smaller band into Canada and remaining exiled.
When he finally surrendered to the U.S. in 1881, he was a celebrity of sorts, and Sitting Bull went on to appear in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show during the decade. Not surprisingly, his death was as controversial as his life; in 1890 Sitting Bull was killed on a reservation after plans to arrest him went terribly awry, leading to fighting in the aftermath that left over a dozen dead.
American Legends: The Life of Sitting Bull chronicles the amazing life of the Sioux leader who defiantly fought to save his people's homeland, but it also humanizes the man who became one of the most famous Native Americans in American history. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Sitting Bull like you never have before, in no time at all.
Eden by David Holley
(09/11/13 - 12/27/13)
After enduring a horrific plane crash, a small group of survivors must work together in order to withstand the harshest conditions imaginable in the remote wilderness of New Zealand’s South Island.
The year is 2022, and their epic journey, fraught with danger and mystery, will alter the course of human history forever.
Led by charismatic Special Forces captain Noah Lockheart and his wife Evelyn, an accomplished scientist, the band of weary travelers must battle the elements along with their fears, as they race toward civilization, and their hope for rescue.
Among the survivors is Mia Sinclair, an extraordinary girl who can glimpse the future. Through their trials, the Lockhearts begin to uncover the girl’s ability in spite of her best efforts to keep it hidden. But even as Mia proves to be an invaluable ally, her gift comes at an unbearable cost.
Each step brings them closer to salvation– and to unraveling the mystery of their abandonment. But just when they think they are saved, they realize that they have never been farther from home.
Eden is a bold, heart-pounding page-turner, told through the seamlessly shifting perspectives of the eccentric band of survivors. As the thriller unfolds, so do the survivors’ inextricable links to one another in a plot rife with twists and turns, till the very end.
BESET: Memoir of a Search for Happiness in Times of Crisis by Lee Bullen
(08/16/2013 - 09/05/2013)
The true story of a single father who embarks on a personal journey like no other following a slide into emotional and financial crisis. As problems mount, internal chaos grows and his young son’s autism worsens, he realises that he himself is his own worst enemy and begins to unearth the true meaning to his life...
Set on the island of Tenerife during the recession, this stirring true story of a father overcoming his demons for the sake of his children and himself will inspire divorcees, single parents and anyone struggling in these times of financial crisis.
'BESET' – A modern memoir of one man on an enlightening journey of self discovery.
Bay's End by Edward Lorn
(08/03/2013 - 08/16/2013)
What does it take to ruin a perfectly good summer? Four cherry bombs.
When twelve-year-old Trey and his best friend Eddy play a prank on Officer Mack, the resulting chain of events rocks the small town of Bay's End.
Today, Trey Franklin is a man haunted by his past. Tormented by that one tragic, fateful summer, Trey searches for catharsis the only way he knows how - by writing.
A tale of love and loss, bittersweet memories, and the depths of human evil.
Welcome to Bay's End.
The Psalter by Galen Watson
( - 08/01/2013)
A medieval prayer book, an Irish saint's prophecy of the last pope, and a forgery that changed the church—forever.
Father Romano has run afoul of the modern inquisitors before. This time, it leads to a medieval manuscript and murder. Was it an ordinary theft gone wrong or something more? The Carabinieri in Rome would like to know.
Michael Romano is an American priest working in the Vatican's Secret Archives with a penchant for stepping over the line. Church Inquisitors have noticed -- and they aren’t happy. Nevertheless, Romano is also the Church’s senior paleographer, an expert in ancient manuscripts, and his expertise is needed to examine a ninth-century codex known as a Psalter.
Father Romano’s examination leads him into the past as he uncovers an historical narrative of medieval forgeries, Saracen invasions and a legendary fight for the richest kingdom on earth. Yet he has unwittingly become a target for those who will stop at nothing to possess the secret of the Psalter.
Unintended Consequences by Marti Green
How much would a father sacrifice for his child?
Nineteen years ago, Indiana police found the body of a young girl, burned beyond recognition and buried in the woods. They arrested George Calhoun for murdering his daughter, and his wife testified against him at the trial. The jury convicted him. Now his appeals have been exhausted, and his execution is just a few weeks away.
George said he didn’t do it. That the body isn’t his little Angelina. But that’s all he’s ever said – no other defense, no other explanation.
Dani Trumball, an attorney for the Help Innocent Prisoners Project, wants to believe him. After all, there was no forensic evidence that the body in the woods was George’s daughter. But if the girl isn’t Angelina, then who is it? And what happened to the Calhouns’ missing daughter?
For nineteen years, George Calhoun has stayed silent. But that’s about to change, and the story he tells Dani—if it’s true—changes everything.
Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century by Sean Patrick
If you want to learn about one of history's most fascinating minds and uncover some of his secrets of imagination--secrets that enabled him to invent machines light years ahead of his time and literally bring light to the world--then you want to read this book.
Imagination amplifies and colors every other element of genius, and unlocks our potential for understanding and ability.
It's no coincidence that geniuses not only dare to dream of the impossible for their work, but do the same for their lives. They're audacious enough to think that they're not just ordinary players.
Few stories better illustrate this better than the life of the father of the modern world, a man of legendary imaginative power and wonder: Nikola Tesla.
In this book, you'll be taken on a whirlwind journey through Tesla's life and work, and not only learn about the successes and mistakes of one of history's greatest inventors, but also how to look at the world in a different, more imaginative way.
Read this book now and learn lessons from Nikola Tesla on why imagination is so vital to awakening your inner genius, and insights into the real "secret" to creativity, as explained by people like Jobs, Picasso, Dali, and Twain.
Geddy's Moon by John Mulhall
Tyler is an amnesiac, drifting aimlessly across the country, struggling to regain his lost memories. When he arrives in Geddy’s Moon, a sleepy town in the middle of the Kansas wheat fields, fragments of his past begin to resurface. But as he establishes new relationships in town, and spends time with the local librarian and her son, he finds himself tormented by nightmares that grow more unsettling each night. What horrific events took place before Tyler arrived in Geddy’s Moon? And could he have brought a terrifying – and possibly supernatural – danger along with him? As the pieces of his fractured memory begin to fall into place, he fears that it may already be too late to keep himself, and those he’s begun to care about, safe from a vicious evil.
Seed by Ania Ahlborn
With nothing but the clothes on his back—and something horrific snapping at his heels—Jack Winter fled his rural Georgia home when he was still just a boy. Watching the world he knew vanish in a trucker’s rearview mirror, he thought he was leaving an unspeakable nightmare behind forever. But years later, the bright new future he’s built suddenly turns pitch black, as something fiendishly familiar looms dead ahead.
When Jack, his wife Aimee, and their two small children survive a violent car crash, it seems like a miracle. But Jack knows what he saw on the road that night, and it wasn’t divine intervention. The profound evil from his past won’t let them die…at least not quickly. It’s back, and it’s hungry; ready to make Jack pay for running, to work its malignant magic on his angelic youngest daughter, and to whisper a chilling promise: I’ve always been here, and I’ll never leave.
Country comfort is no match for spine-tingling Southern gothic suspense in Ania Ahlborn’s tale of an ordinary man with a demon on his back. Seed plants its page-turning terror deep in your soul, and lets it grow wild.
ALASKA BOUND: One man's dream...One woman's nightmare! By Tammy Jones
This exhilarating tale will take you on an unforgettable journey of fear, determination and triumph as Tom Jones' dream to experience Alaska lures him and his wife from the sleepy coastal town of Raymond, Washington to the sun baked slopes of northeastern Oregon and ultimately to the pristine wilderness of The Last Frontier.
Travel with this motivated team as they leave the comforts of their new home to endure the elements while living off the land. Have a front row seat to their unique voyage riddled with recurring setbacks and victorious milestones. In spite of their starkly contrasting personalities, the two of them will negotiate their way through seemingly insurmountable obstacles to accomplish one goal: conquer Alaska!
Author Tammy Jones has gone from bank teller to builder with a few career changes in between. Her honest and direct revelations will transport you to another world where she courageously takes on challenges that will both surprise and delight you. Her story about real-life experiences is a “must-have” for the adventurous soul.
(2012 ▼) (2013 ▲)
The Shut Mouth Society by James D. Best
When a rich Santa Barbara collector acquires a newly discovered Abraham Lincoln document, he asks detective Greg Evarts and UCLA professor Patricia Baldwin to authenticate it. Their research launches them into a dangerous struggle with a secret society formed during Reconstruction. Before they can solve the mystery surrounding the Lincoln manuscript, a shocking murder forces them to run for their lives.
As they race across the country, they discover a Civil War secret that could upset the balance of power in North America. Now Evarts and Baldwin must unravel the 150-year-old conspiracy before it’s too late … and before they are silenced for good.
A Hollow Dream of Summer's End by Andrew Van Wey
This is no children's tale... This is what nightmares are made of. All suns must set. All seasons must end.
For three fifth-grade friends, this summer's last sleepover takes a dark turn when a game goes wrong and a creature as old as time itself rises from the dark woods to claim them. Trapped high in a treehouse by a twisted monster below, their friendship is tested as they discover the true meaning of terror. Tonight, they must fight for their lives to keep out the nightmare, and the madness it brings.
There is no escape. There is no salvation. There is only the treehouse, the hungering horror below, and the dawn that may never come...
Dark Passage: A Paranormal Thriller by Griffin Hayes
By the time insomniac Tyson Barrett becomes a test subject for a new wonder drug called Noxil, his life is already spiraling dangerously out of control. Months of no sleep has left his marriage in shambles, turned his young son against him and now threatens to send his business into bankruptcy.
It isn't long after his first injection that Tyson notices something he can't quite explain. Items from his dreams are showing up in his waking life. But if dreams come true then what's the catch? Tyson soon learns the hard way when he's forced to confront the dark past he's spent a lifetime trying to forget. But that evil was never far away. Now it's in his dreams, waiting to come through. And it wants the one thing Tyson will never give up: his son.
The Winter Barbecue by Matt Cutugno
It’s a winter’s day, perhaps the last day of an old man’s existence.
Matt “Tug” Cutugno has lived a good life, that of a hard working family man. He has earned the right to a happy ending; he wants a pat on the back for a job well done. But just where is his reward?
Tug’s wife and children are gone and his dreams of a future are now memories of his past – the war; getting married and raising a family; his days as a working man.
His present is filled by winter barbeques of grilled kielbasa for breakfast, grilled chicken for lunch and grilled zucchini and hot dogs for dinner.
As he sits on his lawn chair in the snow-covered backyard of the home that he built himself, a menagerie of wonderful people visits this extraordinary everyman who is not searching for himself, but who is seeking the meaning of what he accomplished in this life.
And with each visit from his wife, his children, his friends and neighbors, his war time buddies, the story of this brave and unsentimental man unfolds so that the past and present merge into something that can be called the truth of an entire generation of men who fought in World War II.
The Doll - J.C. Martin
The Island of the Dolls is a strange and eerie tourist destination in Mexico, where hundreds of decomposing dolls hang from trees like grisly Christmas ornaments. On a trip to the island, Joyce Parker's daughter falls in love with a beautiful but sinister doll. Soon after, she starts developing strange mannerisms that concerns Joyce. Her research into the doll's past reveals a dark history, and the curse of a lonely child spirit.
Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
"Do you remember the hospital, Colton?" Sonja said. "Yes, mommy, I remember," he said. "That's where the angels sang to me."
When Colton Burpo made it through an emergency appendectomy, his family was overjoyed at his miraculous survival. What they weren't expecting, though, was the story that emerged in the months that followed-a story as beautiful as it was extraordinary, detailing their little boy's trip to heaven and back.
Colton, not yet four years old, told his parents he left his body during the surgery-and authenticated that claim by describing exactly what his parents were doing in another part of the hospital while he was being operated on. He talked of visiting heaven and relayed stories told to him by people he met there whom he had never met in life, sharing events that happened even before he was born. He also astonished his parents with descriptions and obscure details about heaven that matched the Bible exactly, though he had not yet learned to read.
With disarming innocence and the plainspoken boldness of a child, Colton tells of meeting long-departed family members. He describes Jesus, the angels, how "really, really big" God is, and how much God loves us. Retold by his father, but using Colton's uniquely simple words, Heaven Is for Real offers a glimpse of the world that awaits us, where as Colton says, "Nobody is old and nobody wears glasses."
Heaven Is for Real will forever change the way you think of eternity, offering the chance to see, and believe, like a child.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
Forsaken: A Novel of Art, Evil, and Insanity by Andrew Van Wey
A cursed painting, A hidden affair, And an undying secret, alive, in canvas and oil. For art professor Dan Rineheart, life's a dream. His children's laughter fills the halls of his home, and his wife's embrace lulls him to sleep.
But this summer's end heralds the arrival of three ill omens: a lost bird, thousands of miles from home; a beautiful student with whom he shares an insidious past and a mysterious painting, a disturbing work of grotesque perfection that awakens a surreal nightmare. Enter the world of FORSAKEN, where evil lives in art. Where abstract children emerge from painted worlds to stalk the quiet halls of a happy home. Where drawn clocks tick-tock away in the dark hours before dawn, and a missing dog whimpers from between the walls. And where all answers lead to a blind artist and an impossible creation, a cursed canvas with a dark past that threatens to destroy his family and devour his sanity, unless he can solve the riddle that came with it: "Here in Art, Denial."
The Mike Murphy Files and Other Stories by Christopher Bunn
A Collection of Rogues, Ruffians and Rascals.
Meet Mike Murphy. He's a private eye, ready to right wrongs if you pay him enough. He's also ready for a good Polish with sauerkraut if he can scrape together a few extra bucks. Sure, nobody hired Murphy to tangle with the local mob boss, but sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Even if that means ogres and mummies and one mean gorilla.
From freeze-dried pygmies and ruby mines, IRS agents and the resourceful Polly Inch, the fifth dimension and grumpy elves, come take a wild ride through stories from a world just around the corner. Buckle up, though, because that Camaro the elves are driving has got a jet engine. And, of course, an espresso maker.
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly (Feb 2012)
Connelly transcends the standard L.A. police procedural with this original and eminently authentic first novel, featuring Hieronymus (aka Harry) Bosch, a former hero cop exiled to the small-time Beverly Hills force. In July, Little, Brown will publish a sequel, Black Ice .
Letters from Alcatraz by Michael Esslinger (Jan 2012)
Letters from Alcatraz features an impressive collection of original correspondence from inmates both on-and-off the Rock. Their letters capture the true essence of life in prison, with fresh and historical insights to their sufferings and occasional triumphs. It is a finer example of history from one of America's most historical treasures. This rare collection features many never before published personal letters from Al Capone, George Machine Gun Kelly, Robert Stroud - the Birdman of Alcatraz, Alvin Karpis, Henri Young, John & Clarence Anglin, Roy Gardner and numerous others. Also included are narratives on the Battle of Alcatraz and other harrowing escape attempts.
Learn Me Good by John Pearson (Jan 2012)
Jack Woodson was a thermal design engineer for four years until he was laid off from his job. Now, as a teacher, he faces new challenges. Conference calls have been replaced with parent conferences. Product testing has given way to standardized testing. Instead of business cards, Jack now passes out report cards. The only thing that hasn't changed noticeably is the maturity level of the people surrounding him all day. Learn Me Good is a hilarious first-person account, inspired by real life experiences. Through a series of emails to Fred Bommerson, his buddy who still works at Heat Pumps Unlimited, Jack chronicles a year-in-the-life of a brand new teacher. With subject lines such as "Irritable Vowel Syndrome," "In math class, no one can hear you scream," and "I love the smell of Lysol in the morning," Jack writes each email with a dash of sarcasm and plenty of irreverent wit.
