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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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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Benno Neuburger, a modest land investor from Munich and Anna Einstein daughter of a cattle dealer from Laupheim, marry in 1907. They begin their lives together with great hope. It is a relatively prosperous time and a very optimistic one for German Jews who are enjoying a social renaissance in the industrializing, urbanizing rising star that is Germany. It’s not clear that this good fortune might begin to unravel. Even as news of an assassination in an “obscure” Balkan corner of the continent passes like a cold wind through Munich on a warm beer-garden July day, people shudder but feel no great alarm. Yet what follows is a war provoked by inter-colonialist competition. It is prolonged and bloody, giving way to German defeat, revolution, a brief socialist interlude in Munich, a merciless counter revolution, and the pitiless demagoguery of defeated generals. So marks the commencement of an era of nearly relentless distress and turmoil for Germany. The lives of Benno and Anna and their extended families are amid this swirl—trying to make a life as they struggle to survive, as they cling to the hope of a peaceful resolution to crisis. But to no avail. Munich becomes the epicenter of German fascism fed by nationalist resentment and racial madness – an offspring of European rivalries and colonialism. In the 1920s the brown shirts of Germany’s former African colonial army become the uniform of a domestic legion of terror. In the 1920s Benno, Anna and their children live as close neighbors to the demagogue who will become the Nazi leader. A slow-moving horror show envelops them in the years that follow. In the 1930s and 1940s: Emigrating children, a pogrom, a new war, evictions, “resettlement” via a train ride east . . . desperate acts of resistance, arrest, trial – as the holocaust plays out— all up close and personal: A human story told through the voices of those who lived it. -
From IPPY gold medal winner Robert Cook comes the fourth installment in the Cooch series. With all the classic elements of a spy thriller—intrigue, violence, sex—The Mahdi is a narrative geopolitical battlefield where Islamic and Orthodox Jewish ideologies clash, seen through the lens of a modern, liberal Muslim. Raised in a blend of Bedouin tradition and Western education,Alex Cuchulain, Cooch, is a former US Marine, CIA operator, and entrepreneur. Partnered with Dr. Caitlin O’Connor, the self-described “smartest person in the world,” they make an unlikely yet formidable duo. When Alex takes on a mission to reclaim stolen Bedouin land, he finds himself imprisoned and branded a criminal. Meanwhile, Caitlin faces her own dangers, becoming the target of an extremist plot. But the rules of warfare change forever when Caitlin condenses an electromagnetic pulse into shootable ammunition and deploys an AI chatbot–quantum computer that can use the internet to control secure Israeli communications and provide strategic intel. As tensions escalate, some begin to believe that Alex may actually be the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam. But can he shoulder that mantle? And can technology and enlightened thinking prevail over entrenched dogma? -
2024 Best Book Awards Winner in Best New Fiction 2024 American Fiction Awards Winner in Mystery/Suspense: General 2024 Zibby Awards Winner: Best Family Drama Category Called a “sensational debut” by Rea Frey, this psychological thriller delves into themes of reproductive rights and healthcare, confronting the complexities that define family—or the risks that lose it all. Billie Campbell, a Massachusetts adoption specialist grappling with fertility issues, dreams of adopting a baby, but not just any baby—her pregnant client’s baby. While her longing threatens to send her down a dark path, her husband, Tyler, is keeping secrets: he’s full of doubts about becoming a father, and he’s also trying to figure out who is sending him upsetting anonymous texts and photos. On the other side of town, Anne, a woman scarred by childhood abuse, obsesses with a second chance at becoming a family with the two people she regrets ever having let go of: the baby she gave up for adoption twenty years ago, and the man of her dreams. Their lives get tangled when the client’s newborn is abducted, and Billie becomes a prime suspect. Amid the chaos unleashed by the abduction, Tyler uncovers a link between the person tormenting him and the abduction—but now Billie has disappeared too. The race to find both her and the baby is on; but will they find them before it’s too late? -
“In the pit of depression, I questioned a miracle I experienced in my teens, and so my deep curiosity for spiritual understanding was reborn.” – Jacqui Burnett The journey of life can be chaotic. How do we make sense of it? Aurobindo said, "All Life is Yoga". Jacqui Burnett's life story is a testament to dealing with life off the mat. She was born into a perfect family, but by age 16 Jacqui Burnett wants to kill her father. Decades later Jacqui believes she's left her turbulent childhood past and the trauma of multiple near- death experiences behind her. On the surface, she has everything she’s ever dreamed of – a solid education, success, and a wonderful husband. What Jacqui doesn’t know is that she’s about to lose everything. -
Ever heard yourself say, a part of me wants this, but another part of me wants that? Ever said, I'm in two minds... These statements make intuitive sense, because you intuitively know there are many parts to who you are, which seem to want different things. But have you ever stopped to wonder what these parts actually are? This book not only answers - in simple, accessible language, what parts are, how they work, and how they can help you understand your thinking, your emotions and your behaviors. And most importantly, how you can work with your parts to get out of your own way. Part of Me will take your self-awareness to the next level, by exploring your Inner Team, and the parts which populate it. Fifty of the most common parts are profiled in detail, so you can understand exactly what parts are driving you, and what parts you have neglected. Armed with this information, you'll be equipped to learn which parts are causing the problems you repeatedly experience, and what to do to get your Inner Team working for you, not against you. Part of Me is a comprehensive guide to the universe of parts within us, based on the Inner Team Dialogue coaching system. Written by the founder of Inner Team Dialogue, this book summarizes more than 25 years of practice, observation and exploration. The Inner Team Dialogue approach to personal development empowers you to experience: - A deeper, more nuanced understanding of who you are, and what drives you - An increase in self-compassion, and a reduction in self-criticism - Wiser decision-making, with less second guessing - Freedom to choose who you want to be - The feeling of being at peace with yourself. -
In stories tailor-made for pet lovers, a seasoned veterinarian shares her good, bad, and messy days on the job—and highlights the undeniable magic of the human-animal bond. Dr. Dawn Filos’s own menagerie of pets, including Willie the woolly monkey, primed her for a. career as a veterinarian. With emotional honesty, Dr. Dawn shares her heartfelt, and often hilarious journey, from nervous novice to seasoned, self-assured doctor. This modern-day James Herriot finds her niche as a house-call vet, with unique, intimate access into the homes and lives of her beloved patients and their human families. She understands with all of her heart that no visit or emergency is too trivial to a pet parent. After reading Tales of a Pet Vet you will never see your own vet the same way. Sometimes heartwarming, sometimes sad, and often hilarious, Tales of a Pet Vet will resonate deeply with pet lovers everywhere. -
What happens when you drop an agnostic Jewish surgeon in a century-old Catholic hospital, where the doctor meets dogma and falls for the CEO? A nun, for God’s sake. Dr. Martin Fischer, a white-coated Quixote, tilts his scalpel at the bloated underbelly of U.S. healthcare and fights for his patients. His only weapons are surgical skill and a pesky sense of righteous indignation that’s driving everyone nuts—including Marty. As he takes on a callous multi-billion-dollar medical corporation, a mercenary surgical group, and the thoroughly corrupt CFO of St. Salacious, an unplanned pregnancy threatens to excommunicate the entire hospital. Can they really do that? It’s either stress or God who intervenes. Did Jesus just wink at him from the cross? -
As a naive freshman, Catherine meets Walter, a senior and Big Man on Campus whose sophistication, confidence, and wealth both intimidate and excite her. A three-year absentee courtship follows, during which time the idea of Walt tethers Catherine to safety. She was programmed to marry someone like him, so she ignores the warning signs that they might not be a good match. Hoping to please her mother and seeking refuge from her fraught childhood, she marries and has children with him—but the marriage doesn’t last. Once divorced, Catherine finds herself in a war with Walt over money, and then over access to her children—and suddenly, she can no longer ignore her childhood trauma. The high stakes of her battle with her ex-husband forge her like steel, finding every vulnerability where she needs to heal. Gradually, she develops a backbone, relinquishes her trauma-induced, people-pleasing ways, and steps into her own power. Honest and unflinching, The Longest War reminds us that there’s always a way through when we access the courage within ourselves. No matter how painful life’s difficulties, they offer us the opportunity to heal ourselves and evolve into more open, loving, compassionate people. The choice is ours. -
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. -
Set in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the city of St. Louis, Jayrin Foster grapples with the absence of his father, while Kamree Covington copes with her own struggles as her father serves time in prison. Aceson Denner, residing in a more affluent neighborhood, faces a different challenge – his father's emotional detachment. As these teenagers navigate the turbulent waters of adolescence, the void left by their fathers becomes an insurmountable hurdle. Jayrin's entanglement with a local drug dealer jeopardizes his academic pursuits, places his life at risk, and strains his longstanding friendship with Kamree. Kamree, in pursuit of an ideal and perfect world, confronts her own imperfections through self-reflection. Meanwhile, Aceson's explosive temper and social awkwardness lead to isolation in his school. Through the authentic voices of these compelling characters, the harsh reality of socio-economic challenges confronting today's youth unfolds. As they grapple with loneliness, poverty, drugs, and violence, and develop racial awareness, their separate journeys unexpectedly intertwine. The resulting tapestry weaves a narrative of tragedy, awakening, and the potential for redemption.
