In the late summer of 2022, the author finds his next traveling companion in the hot and dusty backyard of an antique shop on the backroads of Fossil, Oregon. The companion, Orvis, is an imaginary dog. True soulmates, they inspire one another to take a journey that neither could take alone, a journey of humor and forbearance, personal discovery, and egregious self-sacrifice. Together they break new ground in the annals of travel writing, finding the best and the worst of the places they visit, but always maintaining their strong opinions and sense of humor.
A Journey With Orvis is not really about the places they travel (from Mexico City to Istanbul, Zagreb to Paris, London to Dublin), but is more about the ‘who’ and ‘why’ of traveling itself. It helps that they travel lightly with only a small carry-on and open minds. It helps even more that one of them is imaginary.
By the end of the journey, it could be either one.
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A nation in panic. A teacher accused. O’Keefe faces his toughest case yet.
The summer of 1988 is ablaze—not just with heat but with hysteria. As Satanic Panic sweeps the nation, innocent lives hang in the balance.Private detective Peter O’Keefe never expected to be drawn into the storm, but when his daughter’s beloved teacher "Miss Ginny" is accused of unspeakable crimes, he can’t turn away.
The case reeks of mass hysteria and hidden agendas, but standing against the tide could cost O’Keefe everything. As he fights to unravel the truth, he’s forced to go toe-to-toe with shadowy child protection figures more interested in securing convictions than justice.
With lives shattered and the weight of a nation’s paranoia pressing down, O’Keefe must risk it all to expose the truth before it’s too late. In a world consumed by fear, will justice prevail—or will the innocent be lost forever?
A gripping crime thriller steeped in real-world hysteria, An American Tragedy is a heart-stopping tale of courage, deception, and the high price of seeking the truth.
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Sir Isaac Newton famously complained about “action at a distance.” How was it possible, he wrote, that gravity, or attraction, operated between objects without physical contact? Well, jump to the twenty-first century, and we have a lot more to say about that. Readers will enjoy a brilliant, outrageous, playful exploration of quantum physics in everyday life, from a secret interplay of TV plots with us, in electricity, to other speculations, founded in the author’s decades of initiations as well as being an original thinker and a scholar.
An unusual feature of the illustrations in AN UNDERGROUND PRINCIPIA is a technique called “computer-PK,” or mind through matter in the creation of printouts that refocus the text on-screen in the printing so that nothing happens twice. As in Einstein’s “Credo,” the author exemplifies: “The most beautiful and deepest experience [one] can have is the sense of the mysterious.”Even more amazing is that you include the most subtle levels of existence that play a role in these processes. An Underground PRINCIPIA connects life purpose, spirituality, depth psychology, and quantum physics into one all-encompassing movement.
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By age four, Claudia Marseille had hardly uttered a word. When her parents finally had her hearing tested and learned she had a severe hearing loss, they chose to mainstream her, hoping this would offer her the most “normal” childhood possible. With the help of a primitive hearing aid, Claudia worked hard to learn to hear, lipread, and speak even as she tried to hide her disability in order to fit in. As a result, she was often misunderstood, lonely, and isolated—fitting into neither the hearing world nor the Deaf culture. This memoir explores Claudia’s relationships with her German refugee parents—a disturbed, psychoanalyst father obsessed over various harebrained projects and moneymaking schemes and a Jewish mother who had survived the Holocaust in Munich—and with her own identity. Claudia shares how she emerged from loneliness and social isolation, explored her Jewish identity, struggled to find a career compatible with hearing loss, and eventually opened herself to a life of creativity and love. But You Look So Normal is the inspiring story of a life affected but not defined by an invisible disability. It is a journey through family, loss, shame, identity, love, and healing as Claudia finally, joyfully, finds her place in the world. -
Pain is inescapable. Suffering is a choice.
Azrael, the Angel of Death, knows pain. The deaths of his mother and sister, as well as his harsh experiences in the Watch Guard at age twelve, have brutally shaped him into the most feared assassin in all of Pandaren. Azrael’s role as a Hunter requires him to search for those with magic, called Spectrals, which he is happy to do. Hunting allows him to pursue his true goal—exacting revenge on the Fire Spectral who altered the course of his life.
Azrael’s obsession with revenge and power lead him to undergo an experimental procedure that gives him magic, but when this procedure has unexpected and dangerous side effects, he becomes a liability to the Hunters and the Watch Guard. Rescued by the people he has sworn to eliminate, Azrael finds himself questioning everything he once believed as years of secrets and lies are exposed. His very nature is challenged as he battles unfamiliar emotions and navigating relationships that contradict the heart of a killer.
Can the Angel of Death have a conscience? Can Azrael?
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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. -
Rachel likes to think of herself as a nice Jewish girl, dedicated to doing what’s honorable, just as her parents raised her to do. But when her husband, David, survives a plane crash and is left with severe brain damage, she faces a choice: will she dedicate her life to caring for a man she no longer loves, or walk away? Their marriage had been rocky at the time of the accident, and though she wants to do the right thing, Rachel doesn’t know how she is supposed to care for two kids in addition to a now irrational, incontinent, and seizure-prone grown man. And how will she manage to see her lover? But then again, what kind of selfish monster would refuse to care for her disabled husband, no matter how unhappy her marriage had been? Rachel wants to believe that she can dedicate her life to David’s needs, but knows in her heart it is impossible. Crash tackles a pervasive dilemma in our culture: the moral conflicts individuals face when caregiving for a disabled or cognitively impaired family member. -
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. -
Embark on an epic fantasy adventure with reimagined divine beings in this alternate telling of one of humanity's famed creation stories. Adonai and Helel are equal and co-existing on their realm of Alegion. Together, they utilize a planetary dominion in the effort to grow an instinctual need to create and learn about their evolving powers. That is until an unforeseen clash of wills over how to govern humankind on Eden commences; and the one who remained on Alegion, is not the being we were led to believe... Now banished to Eden, the only way to end this conflict is for the fallen one to lure the other onto Eden where a death blow can be administered. A methodical go-for-the-jugular war ravages the plane of humanity. Notable landscapes are explored, resurrected, and manipulated. New and familiar historical characters, along with pivotal scenes throughout civilization - remixed in this introspective, violent, self-aware, and potentially plausible, biblical-like saga. Can any being overcome who they inherently are? -
It's been said the code was never deciphered. That's not true. As an introvert growing up in Lakehurst, NJ, the tragic loss of a close friend forced me to understand how consequence and conscience are akin to the Roman god Janus—both sides of the same coin. 1972 became the genesis of my father’s immersion into the macabre Grace Cohen case, a troubled young girl who wrestled with her inner demons and vanished from Horicon Lake. Her vexing disappearance thrust the rural town famous for the Hindenburg disaster into a maze of deadly nuance, rendering it ground zero for the mesmerizing Zodiac Killer case. No one could ever have imagined the mystery, embroiled in international espionage and secret encryptions, would by six degrees of separation reveal the clandestine motive of Hindenburg’s destruction and unlock the enigma hidden within the “unbreakable” Somerton Man Code. -
Finding Flow provides readers with a simple process to reclaim a close, playful relationship with God. This book adds a spiritual element to the current discussions by psychologists, athletes, and creatives about "flow," which author brian plachta defines as being one with the Divine Spirit who opens our hearts, allowing us to experience inner peace, balance, and wholeness. Finding Flow offers doable spiritual practices organized around: 1. Solitude: establishing rituals to spend daily "quiet time" to deepen our relationship with God 2. Spiritual reading: delving into books that teach and inspire 3. Community: surrounding ourselves with people who nudge us to grow 4. Contemplative Action: discovering our unique gifts and talents and using them to make the world a better place These practices derive from the tradition of Saint Benedict, a fifth-century father of the Church who required his monks to establish a Rule of Life consisting of daily balance between prayer and work (ora et labora). Finding Flow takes Benedict's timeless wisdom, recrafts it with modern language and personal stories, and makes the monk's wisdom accessible to today's readers. +
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The generation of young men who grew up in the shadow of World War II but were too young to fight came of age idealizing patriotism and adventure. They burned to live life to the fullest and do their part in the Cold War. In 1951, when BAYARD FOX graduated from Yale, the CIA promised a unique opportunity to do both by serving as a double agent. Assigned to Europe, the Congo, and Iran, Fox—who spoke several languages and was always game to learn new ones— grew disillusioned and resigned after 12 years. Soon after, a horse he was riding cartwheeled on him, shattering his hip. After organizing local fishermen in the Solomon Islands while swimming and diving for two years of rehabilitation, he was able to walk and ride again. Fox bought a ranch in the mountains of Wyoming, 17 miles from the nearest paved road and telephone, and set out with his family on his life’s true work: a sustainable, benevolent, ethical relationship with nature and the animals and people who thrive in it. This eloquent and brave autobiography of a solitary pioneer evokes those of other men on horseback, such as T.E. Lawrence and Teddy Roosevelt. Their dazzling physical exploits and success in battle made them legendary in their lifetimes, apart from the historical roles for which we remember them. Fox, at 92, reveals a similarly rich life of impossible adventures—and of hardships mastered by grit and mysterious good fortune—in his own spare and unsparing voice. You’ll be riveted and grateful to discover it before he and his generation’s other remaining survivors ride ahead over the last ridge. -
After coming across an unexpected discovery in their storage unit, a couple enlists the help of the SFPD's Homicide Bureau to decipher their findings. The case becomes part of the workload for a two-officer team, Inspectors John O'Neill and Liam Donnelly, who follow a broken trail to find the criminal. With the help of Inspector Kathy Sullivan from Vice, the inspectors uncover the recent disappearances of girls in the escort and mail order bride services. The question remains – who is the man behind all this? This novel is an unraveling of twisted events that shakes up the SFPD and the city's justice system, with everyone involved giving it their all to solve this intriguing case. -
A heartwarming story of gratitude, and a reminder to enjoy the journey. Travel to a mysterious island alongside Frankie to wish on a magic feather. The path to the hidden feather will only be revealed through patience, wit, and joy. But time is running out, and wishes are only granted on one special day. Dance along with the creatures in this sound-enhanced audio story with a powerful message about what’s important in life. Frankie’s Wish is ideal for children 5-8. It features Frankie (no pronouns), Auntie Duke (she), a dinosaur, a gorilla, and an eagle. Major themes include gratitude, asking for help, friendship, self-affirmation, and believing in yourself. Track 2 includes Ballerina Konora’s suggestions for movement exploration. Kids are invited to re-create the characters’ actions and explore movement fundamentals by twirling, squatting, waddling, balancing, jumping, stretching, reaching, sway, and more. Self-affirmation and gratitude are also encouraged. Frankie’s Wish is the latest Dance-It-Out! imagination journey by Once Upon a Dance, winner of over 40 book awards including Mom’s Choice Gold, Kirkus Reviews Starred Review, and Outstanding Creator Awards Top 10 Author of 2022. -
San Francisco, 1967. A teenager comes of age during the Summer of Love at her rock & roll wedding. Her story relates the saga of life and relationships from then until the present through many lessons learned the hard way, until when, in 2005 she transitioned into yet another challenging marriage to the founder of an iconic winery in the Valley of the Moon. An inspirational narrative of one woman’s perseverance, creativity and stamina to overcome the cultural norms of patriarchy through years of controlling abuse and moving on through the learning curve of personal growth. The publication of this story was inspired and encouraged by the now prominent #MeToo Movement. -
The circumstances surrounding the bizarre photograph initially inspiring Meredith Carson to ghostwrite Jack Wagoner’s horrifying account are now included in this audiobook and remain unexplained. When Meredith Carson accepted the task of ghostwriting the frightening narrative you are about to hear, she had no idea how that decision would affect her. Miss Carson shared with other members of the World Codex Staff that, at times, while transcribing Jack Wagoner’s spellbinding story, she felt like Agent Starling from THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Meredith Carson’s unnerving experience documenting Wagoner’s struggle for survival in the Klamath Mountains and the subsequent events is astonishing. -
A famous 18-year-old fiddle player, Beau, is abducted from her parents’ huge Sierra home at a birthday folk jam in her honor one summer in the early part of the 21st century. As a fire burns up the mountain while she is buried on the land under a pile of brush, she is found just in time. A month later, much to her horror, she is abducted again, this time from a Berkeley music jam. The culprit – a crazy but brilliant classical violinist only known for his expert folk guitar playing – hides her away in an underground room in the Sierras so he can compel her to learn classical violin. Pale, gaunt and shattered, can she escape? -
Imagine a world, exactly like ours, but different… Welcome to the H2LiftShips series, a cosmic romp fans have compared to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for its witty quirkiness, and that critics hail as "The most unique and weirdest book series out there." Captain Graciela is where she wants to be, far from her controlling mother, in a rented solar sail cargo ship, trading and gambling throughout the heliosphere. It can be lonely in the void, but the crew on the H2LiftShip, the LunaCola, is all the help she needs: Jack, a talking dog with a nose for Earth jerky, Tang, a poker-obsessed orangutan, and Octopus, in his watery navigation station, are her constant companions on her journey. In book one, Beyond Luna, the crew sets off on a space adventure that has them crossing paths with everything from pirates, anarchists, and poker players, to jail time. Part action-adventure space opera and part tech manual of a possible future, the H2LiftShips series imagines a world where hydrogen balloons lift solar sail ships through outer space to trade goods across planets and asteroids. Here, commerce is the name of the game. Even in deep space, there is no avoiding family issues. When Graciela inadvertently meets her duplicitous mother on a distant rock, it ignites a family showdown between pirates, thieves, and gamblers. Will Graciela rescue her mother and win it all in a rigged card game, or will the crew lose everything? Find out in the first volume of the H2LiftShips series – Beyond Luna, where lovers of science, astronomy, chemistry, physics, engineering, and good old-fashioned sci-fi fun will never be the same after their ride on an H2LiftShip. -
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.