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It’s the summer of 1976—the Bicentennial of America—and 13-year-old Mary is about to embark on the road trip of a lifetime. With her father at the wheel, her twin younger sisters in the back seat, and their baby-blue Peugeot sedan—affectionately named Blue Pierre—as their ride, Mary sets off on a cross-country adventure filled with fireworks, flag ceremonies, and hard-earned truths. What begins as a patriotic escape from small-town Ohio quickly becomes a test of loyalty, courage, and growing up. As her father’s behavior turns more erratic, Mary must navigate not just unfamiliar highways but the shifting landscape of her own beliefs. When the journey takes a turn they never expected, Mary discovers that sometimes the people you love the most are the hardest to understand. Told with heart, humor, and a vivid sense of 70s nostalgia, Bicentennial Summer is a coming-of-age story about family, freedom, and finding your own way when the map runs out. Perfect for fans of The Glass Castle and The Bean Trees, this unforgettable debut explores the bittersweet moment when childhood ends—and independence begins. Whether you remember the Bicentennial or are just discovering it, Mary’s voice will linger with you long after the last mile is driven. -
Befriending China tells the story of China's current effort to "open up" to a flood of visitors, as part of a campaign of "People-To-People Peacemaking." The story is partially based on three visits to China from late 2023 through late 2024. It describes the impressive achievements China has made in infrastructure, education, health care, and poverty alleviation. It includes an in-depth eye-witness account of visiting Xinjiang, debunking official rumors in the US of abuse of the Uyghur population there. It also highlights exciting tourism opportunities, with closeup looks at the mountainous Guizhou and Shanxi provinces, and the amazing "megacities" of Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Hangzhou and Suzhou. It includes a preface by Carlos Martinez, editor of the Friends of Socialist China website. It also examines China's democratic system, and its successful foreign policy based on common prosperity and a shared future. Finally, it details ongoing US efforts to slander China and prepare for war against it, arguing that China is not our enemy. -
Follow the paths of Sarah and Will (or Sam) as they tell their stories of trust, secrets, and betrayal on the frontier in the old West. Their pioneer spirit helped to fuel the expansion into the Western territories of the United States. The two are historically on their separate journeys, yet they remain intimately connected. Through the fictionalized Western frontier tale of Sam and Sarah, the author, Beverly Scott, was inspired to reveal rumored secrets from her family history. In 1878, Will is on the run after killing a man in a barroom gunfight. He escapes the Texas Rangers by joining a cattle drive as a cook headed to Dodge City. He struggles with the dilemma of saving his life or attempting to return to his pregnant wife and five children. Just when he thinks he might be able to return home, he is confronted by a bounty hunter who captures him and plans to return him to Fort Worth, Texas to be hanged. Although Will changes his name to Sam, he remains an irresponsible, lonely and untrustworthy man on the dodge from the law who abandons the women he loves. He ultimately seeks redemption and marries Sarah. In 1911, Sarah, a pioneer woman and a widow with five children, struggles to find the inner strength to overcome betrayal, loneliness, fears, and self-doubt. Her husband, Sam, thirty years her senior, died with a mysterious and defiant declaration, “I won’t answer!”. Despite poverty and a crippling illness, she draws on her pioneer spirit to hold her family together and return to Nebraska to be near her parents and siblings. When Sarah returns to Nebraska she receives staggering news which complicates her efforts to support her children. She is shocked, angry and emotionally devastated. Since she is attempting to establish herself in the community as a teacher, she believes she must keep her secret even from her own family. Will Sarah find forgiveness in her heart and the resolve to accept her new life alone?
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Every family has a story. Every story, eventually, must be told.
For most of their lives, Julian Perel and his sister, Paula, lived in a house cast in silence, witnesses to a father struggling with a devastating secret too painful to share. Though their father took his demons to the grave, his past refuses to rest.
As adults, brother and sister struggle to find their voices. A scientist governed by numbers and logic, Julian now lives an ordered life of routine and seclusion. In contrast, Paula has entered the world as eagerly as Julian retracts from it. An aspiring opera singer, she is always moving, buoyant with sound.
Yet both their lives begin to change on a Wednesday, miercoles, the day that sounds like miracles.
Before embarking on a European opera tour, Paula asks her housekeeper, Sola, to stay at her place--and to look after Julian in the apartment above. Sola, too, has a story.
As Paula uncovers pieces of her father's early life in Budapest and the horrifying truth of his past, Julian bears witness to Sola's story--revelations that help all three learn how to both surrender and revere the shadows that have followed them for so long.
The Speed of Light is a powerful novel about three unforgettable souls who overcome the tragedies of the past to reconnect with one another and the world around them. Elizabeth Rosner has created a beautifully interwoven story of love and redemption that proves the pain of the untold story is far greater than even the most difficult truth.
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Searching For Monkumar: A Mystical Tale About Finding Freedom, Friendship, And Spirituality -
Dreams of a Lost Youth describes the story of the lives of several young passionate students, a playboy; a poet; four students with different ideologies; and a science student, in Tehran, Iran, before and after the revolution that toppled the Shah in 1979. It describes how they joined these various groups that opposed the Shah’s dictatorship and how they suffered after the revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini government. -
Imagine Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test meets Murder, She Wrote.
One part hippies grooving on the waterfront and fighting the man, one part murder mystery.It’s the 1970s, and the “houseboat wars” erupt in Sausalito on the site of Marinship, the abandoned World War II shipyard. Hippies and squatters are living free and easy on houseboats in a ramshackle shantytown, and greedy developers are determined to evict them and build new docks to attract affluent residents.
The counterculture is in full flower and the houseboaters, fearing their community will be destroyed, resist eviction with street theater, civil disobedience, monkeywrenching, and more. Like climbing into dinghies and pushing away police boats with oars. Like sinking a barge to block a pile driver. All in front of TV cameras!
Then, someone gets stabbed.
Pirates of Sausalito is fiction, but inspired by true events. As Larry Clinton, former president of the Sausalito Historical Society, said, “If it didn't happen exactly this way, it could have.”
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Tales from the Razor's Edge "Some Cold War Blues" — A neighborhood snowball fight erupts into a thing as close to war as an 11-year-old American boy is likely to face. "Dude" — A wanna-be cowboy confronts his last sunset on the ranch. "On the Last Frontier" — Old and broke in Juneau with winter coming on. "Dewdrops" —The life and death struggles of a charismatic but tormented drug rehab counselor and his patients. -
**This is a pre-order for the audiobook, which will be available 2/27/26** Have you been a seventh grader, taught or parented one? Then you're guaranteed to laugh as the new female vice principal faces hormonally charged middle schoolers, demanding parents, an obnoxious boss, and clueless teachers. Ride the roller coaster of the new job and cheer for Cynthia Walker as she dives into the hilarity and angst of working with tweens. Watch her deal with bomb threats, fire, and pythons on the loose. Bullied kids and abusive parents. Dysfunctional homes, charges of racial bias, and a touchy-feely principal who demands her attention but provides no guidance. And she would like to date the handsome and talented history teacher, if only she weren't his supervisor. Schooled will take you back to your own school days. This page-turner will open your eyes to the challenges of public education, the job satisfaction to be found by educators who care, and the type of leader you want to guide your children. -
At a time when violence in America and Europe dominates the daily news, a groundbreaking new book co-authored by James Gilligan, an eminent psychiatrist who has worked with criminals, and David A.J. Richards, a legal scholar of toxic patriarchy, illuminates the ways in which Shakespeare offers unique insights into the causes of violence as well as its prevention. Now a riveting new audio production, Holding a Mirror Up to Nature: Shame, Guilt, and Violence in Shakespeare takes advantage of scenes performed by acclaimed actors to dramatize how much Shakespeare’s tragic heroes exhibit the psychology of those who commit violence in the contemporary world. The voice of British-American actor John Douglas Thompson called “perhaps the greatest Shakespeare interpreter in contemporary theater,” together with women’s parts spoken by Shakespeare & Company’s distinguished Tod Randolph, and narration by award-winning theater star Nigel Gore, orchestrate this tour de force audiobook that belongs in the listening library of everyone who loves Shakespeare and is curious about what causes and what prevents violence. -
Navigating the stormy seas of the 1960s wasn't easy, especially if Vietnam was on your horizon. Ignoring his 2-S selective service deferment, Conor Patrick McKall volunteers for the draft, and Uncle Sam promptly deposits him in the Big Green Machine. Six months later McKall is walking point in jungles, rice paddies, and rubber plantations. In nine short months, he's made an infantry squad leader responsible for a dozen other grunts. In the "boonies," life is lived one day at a time. Joining McKall's squad is Jack "Red" Sheridan whose near-death encounter with a black panther presents challenges to his credibility from other members of Lima Platoon. When McKall stands with Sheridan, an unbreakable bond develops. They meet Red Cross Donut Dollies and together experience the infamous Black Virgin Mountain where the good guys control the top and the bad guys the rest. Escaping Vietnam for a handful of days on R&R in Sydney, Conor experiences Aussie hospitality and the attention of a green-eyed beauty who offers him a chance to escape the war. Loyal to his oath and to his men, Sergeant McKall barely has time to supplant the fading scent of Chanel before he and his squad must face their determined and deadly adversaries. The arbitrary gauntlet of Vietnam offers no guarantees.
