Joining the Dirk Steele Agency turned Eddie's life around. A pyrokinetic and former car thief, he cannotrefuse an assignment to cross the continent in orderto rescue an extraordinary woman in peril . . . even thoughhe fears losing control of the destructive power offlame at his fingertips.The last of her shape-shifting kind, Lyssa hides in theabandoned tunnels beneath Manhattan, seeking refugefrom those who murdered her family a decadeago and would now destroy her as well. Like Eddie, fire isher weapon, her destiny . . . and her curse. Yet shewants nothing to do with this mesmerizing stranger whoseeks her trust while enflaming her passion.For beneath Lyssa's extraordinary beauty are dangerous secrets . . . and even darker, nearly irresistible urges.But she has won the heart of a fearless protector . . .and all the demons in the world willnot make him back down.

They couldn't be more different but there's one thing they agree on . . .In London after a two-year exile, Lord Blakeney plans to cut a swathe through the bedchambers of the demimonde. Marriage is not on his agenda, especially to an annoying chit like Minerva Montrose, with her superior attitude and a tendency to get into trouble. And certainly the last man Minerva wants is Blake, a careless wastrel without a thought in his handsome head.The lights and din of her debutante ball set Minerva's teeth on edge. Surely a moment's rest could do no harm . . . until Blake mistakes her for another lady, leaving Minerva'sguests to catch them in a very compromising position. To her horror, the scandal will force them to do the unthinkable: marry. Their mutual loathing blazes into unexpected passion but Blake remains distant, desperate to hide a shameful secret. Minerva's never been a woman to take things lying down, and she'll let nothing stop her from winning his trust . . . and his heart.

Madison McKinley knows someone is stalking her. The police tell her she's imagining things, and they're too busy trying to find the "Simon Says" killer to investigate. But day by day, hour by hour, Madison's terror grows stronger, and not even the return of FBI Special Agent Pierce Buchanan into her life can calm her fears. Besides, how can she ask Pierce for his help after the way she ended things between them?Pierce still wants Madison's love, and his drive to protect her is more powerful than ever. He believes she's in danger, even if the cops don't. Finally, as more people start dying and the evidence mounts, the police turn their attention to Madison as a suspect. Was Pierce a fool to trust her again, or are they both caught in a complex game that neither will survive?

New York Times bestselling author Cathy Maxwell continues her dazzling series, The Brides of WishmoreHe had a noose around his neck and a price on his head . . . Sabrina Davidson, dutiful daughter, avowed spinster, thought she'd secured a place for herself in Aberfeldy society until her hard-earned acceptance of her fate is challenged by the arrival of Cormac Enright, earl of Ballin, trained physician, soldier of fortune, and convicted felon.A prim and proper miss was the last thing he needed . . . Mac is determined to clear his name, but first he has to find the man whose testimony sentenced him to a hangman's noose. Of course, Robert Davidson is missing and protecting Mac is Davidson's daughter, the most entrancing, frustrating, beguiling, stubborn woman Mac has ever met.And it doesn't help that he has already tasted her kisses. Or that he has found in her a passion for life and adventure to rival his own. Mac has turned Sabrina's world inside out but what will happen when he leaves?Or will the Groom Say Yes?

Hailed by ESPN as the world's most famous female basketball player, Brittney Griner has been shattering stereotypes and breaking boundaries ever since she burst onto the national scene as a dunking high school phenom. Now, she shares her coming-of-age story, revealing how she found the strength to overcome bullies and to embrace her authentic self.Brittney Griner, the No. 1 pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft, is a once-in-a-generation player, possessing a combination of size and athleticism never before seen in women's basketball. But the sport's "most transformative figure" (Sports Illustrated) is equally famous for making headlines off the court, for speaking out on issues of gender, sexuality, body image, and self-esteem.At six foot eight with an eighty-eight-inch wingspan and a size 17 men's shoe, the Phoenix Mercury star and three-time All-American has heard every vicious insult in the book. Bullied for being different, she has endured years of taunting, from middle school to the present day. Through the highs and lows, Brittney has learned to remain true to herself, rising above the haters who try to take her down.The journey has often been lonely. Feeling uncomfortable in her own skin for much of her adolescence, Brittney struggled with anger, the Achilles heel that often got her into trouble, usually with her fists. Her transformation began when she discovered basketball in high school. "The court has almost always been a safe place for me, a space where I can rejuvenate myself," she says. "It has always been the one place I feel free."In this heartfelt memoir, Brittney reflects on painful episodes in her life, from the confrontations she dealt with as a kid, to the infamous on-court punch she threw during her freshman season at Baylor University, to the final moments of her college career and the crushing loss to Louisville that ended her dream of back-to-back national championships. Brittney also explores her complicated relationships with two people she loves and respects her father, Ray, and her coach at Baylor, Kim Mulkey as well as her mixed feelings about playing for a school that has a policy against homosexuality.Here, too, are the highs: Brittney's close bonds with her mother, Sandra, and her supportive siblings and friends; her amazing accomplishments at Baylor, including the team's 74-2 record her last two seasons; her adventurous new life as a pro in the WNBA; and her distinct sense of style, exemplified by the tattoos she proudly wears. Throughout the book, Brittney describes how she came to celebrate what makes her unique inspiring lessons she now shares with readers.Filled with all the humor and personality that Brittney Griner has become known for, In My Skin is more than a glimpse into one of the most original people in sports; it's a powerful call to readers to be true to themselves, to love who they are on the inside and out.

A father's exhilarating and inspiring love letter to his daughter with Down syndrome, whose vibrant and infectious approach can teach us all how to live a little better"Jillian was born October 17, 1989. It was the last bad day."Jillian Daugherty was born with Down syndrome. The day her parents, Paul and Kerry, brought her home from the hospital, they were flooded with worry and uncertainty, but also with overwhelming love, which they channeled to "the job of building the better Jillian." They knew their daughter had special needs, but they refused to have her grow up needy. They were resolved that Jillian's potential would not be limited by preconceptions of who she was or what she could be.In this charming and often heart-stirring book, Paul tells stories about Jillian making her way through the world of her backyard and neighborhood, going to school in a "normal" classroom, learning to play soccer and ride a bike. As she grows older, he traces her journey to find happiness and purpose in her adult life, including vignettes about her inspiring triumphs and the guardian angels teachers, neighbors, friends who believed in Jillian and helped her become the exceptional young woman she is today.In An Uncomplicated Life, the parent learns as much about life from the child as the child does from the parent. Being with Jillian, Paul discovered the importance of every moment and the power of the human spirit how we are each put here to benefit the other. Through her unmitigated love for others, her sparkling charisma, and her boundless capacity for joy, Jillian has inspired those around her to live better and more fully. As Paul writes, "Jillian is a soul map of our best intentions," a model of grace, happiness, and infectious enthusiasm. She embraces all that she is, all that she has "I love my life. I just love my life," she says. In her uncomplicated life, we see the possibility, the hope, and the beauty of our own.

Oprah Winfrey calls Amy Purdy her inspiration. Now, read Amy's story in her own words and prepare to be inspired . . .America fell in love with Amy Purdy as the incredible girl with bionic legs who managed to out-dance her competitors all the way to the season 18 finale of Dancing with the Stars with her partner, Derek Hough. But viewers were only given a glimpse into her past and how she managed to get there. Now, for the first time, Amy reveals the powerful, moving story of her personal spiritual awakening as a result of a sudden and often fatal blood infection that caused her to lose both of her legs. When the Las Vegas native was just nineteen, she contracted the deadly bacterial meningitis and was given less than a two percent chance of survival. In a near-death experience that Amy has never talked about until now, she saw three beings who told her: "You can come with us, or you can stay. No matter what happens in your life, it's all going to make sense in the end." As she hovered between life and death, Amy knew she had to make a choice. And in that moment, she chose life.In On My Own Two Feet, Amy takes readers inside her childhood and up to the defining life or death moment. Despite the grim prognosis, she was determined to not just beat the odds and walk again but to create a life filled with bold adventures, big dreams, and boundless vitality and share that spirit with the world. Amy seized her second chance at life and earned a bronze medal in adaptive snowboarding at the 2014 Paralympic Games. Her life is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the capacity we all have to defy expectations and rewrite our stories. Amy's poignant, uplifting memoir reminds us to live life to the fullest, because we are all much more capable than we could ever imagine.

According to her colorful Mami Dearest, the life of young Gigi Anders will be simple if she can remember three maxims be pretty, get married, and always drink TaB. Thus begins her instruction in the art of being a lady and the side effects of falling in love. As the granddaughter of Eastern European and Russian shtetl-reared grandparents who immigrated as teenagers in the early 1920s to the fierce tropical beauty of Cuba, Anders is heir apparent to a legacy of transatlantic alienation. With dazzling wit and hilarity mined from the depths of loss and yearning, Anders chronicles her journey from beach baby to ostracized exile to vibrant intellectual, along the way balancing her obsession with killer outfits and zaftig, orgasmic meals always with a can of TaB! with the more serious pursuits of love, sanity, and lipstick in perfect siren red.

Katherine Fleming has lived her life without even a hint of indiscretion. So she is devastated to discover the nobleman she's engaged to has a secret he's kept from her: a wife! Suddenly Katherine's enmeshed in a scandal that has the ton buzzing and forced to accept a most unconventional proposal from the notorious seducer Dominic Mallory, her faithless fiance's brother and precisely the sort of rake she has sworn to avoid! Charming and dangerously sensual, Dominic has desired the stunning beauty from the first moment he spied her. Now, with Katherine's reputation in tatters, it's the ideal opportunity to bed her though it will take wedding vows to do so. But can a rogue be reformed by the unleashed passion of a normally reserved ladyAnd can a marriage made for all the wrong reasons flame into the love match of the season?

The Duke of Kylemore knows her as Soraya, London's most celebrated courtesan. Men fight duels to spend an hour in her company. And only he comes close to taming her. Flying in the face of society, he decides to make her his bride; then, she vanishes, seemingly into thin air.Dire circumstances have forced Verity Ashton to barter her innocence and change her name for the sake of her family. But Kylemore destroys her plans for a respectable life when he discovers her safe haven. He kidnaps her, sweeping her away to his hunting lodge in Scotland, where he vows to bend her to his will.There he seduces her anew. Verity spends night after night with him in his bed . . . and though she still dreams of escape and independence, she knows she can never flee the unexpected, unwelcome love for the proud, powerful lover who claims her both body and soul.

"Thirty authors and illustrators contribute original stories, poems, and artwork that explore and illuminate the theme of belonging, be it to a physical place or a family group. Thought-provoking and...first-rate." H. A Reading Rainbow Selection Notable 1992 Children's Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC)

Blackboard bestselling author Beverly Jenkins delivers another lush historical novel featuring brothers that were first introduced in her award-winning novel Always and Forever. This is the story that readers have been waiting for.He was a wanted man.But no one wanted him more than she did.Desperate to escape an arranged marriage, Olivia Sterling flees Chicago and heads west. She dreams of setting up her own seamstress shop in Henry Adams, a small all Black town in Kansas. But her plans are derailed when her train is robbed by Neil July and his notorious band of outlaws.Neil is enchanted by the headstrong and lovely Olivia. No woman has ever set his blood on fire before, and he suspects no other woman ever will. When they meet again, Olivia is the town's newly elected mayor and Neil is still the wanted outlaw. With bounty hunters on his trail, he would be wise not to linger, yet he can't seem to leave her. Will Neil be able to convince Olivia to ride off into the sunset with himOr will he finally lay down his guns for love?

Brahm Ryland is a man used to getting everything he desires...Another London season has just wound down and Brahm Ryland, Viscount Creed, is thankful for it. Since a horrible mistake ruined his betrothal to the beautiful Lady Eleanor Durbane, his life as a scandalous bachelor has grown tedious; every day without Eleanor seems longer than the last. But then a break in the monotony appears: an invitation to a shooting party at the home of Lord Burrough, Eleanor's father, and he knows his chance to make amends has come at last.Yet Brahm soon finds that Eleanor will need more than a simple apology to atone for his betrayal -- and after so many years of hurt it will take time and care to make her learn to trust again. When all her sisters warn her against him, she knows she would be a fool to give their passion another chance. But what Eleanor doesn't know is that London's boldest viscount will do anything -- anything -- it takes for a second chance at his one true love ...

In the tradition of Annie Dillard and Natalie Goldberg, this resource for writers and non-writers alike shows the act of writing to be a dynamic means of knowing, healing, and creating the body, mind, and spirit.

A book as effervescent and alive as the city itself.My First New York features candid accounts of coming to New York by more than fifty of the most remarkable people who have called the city home. Here are true stories of long nights out and wild nights in, of first dates and lost loves, of memorable meals and miserable jobs, of slow walks up Broadway and fast subway rides downtown.The contributors a mix of actors, artists, comedians, entrepreneurs, musicians, politicians, sports stars, writers, and others reflect an enormous variety of experiences: few have arrived with less than filmmaker Jonas Mekas, a concentration-camp survivor on a UN refugee ship; few have swanned in with more than designer Diane von Furstenberg, a princess. And an extraordinary number managed to land in New York just as something historic was happening the artist Cindy Sherman arrived in the middle of the Summer of Sam; restaurateur Danny Meyer came on the day John Lennon was shot.Arranged chronologically, these moving and memorable stories combine to form an impressionistic history of New York since the Great Depression. They also provide an accidental encyclopedia of New York hotspots through the ages: from the Cedar Tavern and the Gaslight to Lutce and Elaine's, from Max's Kansas City and the Mudd Club to the Odeon and Bungalow 8, they're all here, dots on the unbroken line of the Next Next things.Taken together, My First New York is a collection of fifty-six testaments to a larger revelation, one that new arrivals of all stripes and all eras have experienced again and again in New York, regardless of how the city proceeds to treat them: what the songwriter Rufus Wain-wright calls "having cracked the code of living life to the fullest."

An irreverent, pavement-pounding, eye-opening exploration of a neglected part of the American economy: tipping Tipping is huge in America. Almost everyoneleaves at least one tip every day. More thanfive million American workers depend onthem, and we spend $66 billion on tips each year.And everyone recognizes that queasy feeling inbars and restaurants, barbershops and beautyparlors, hotels and strip clubs, and everywhereelse when the check arrives or the tip jar looms.Omnipresent yet poorly understood, tipping hasworked its way into almost every part of daily life.In Keep the Change, bestselling author SteveDublanica dives into this unexplored world, in acomical yet serious attempt to turn himself intothe Guru of the Gratuity. As intrepid and irreverentas Michael Moore or A. J. Jacobs, Dublanicatravels the country to meet shoeshine men, strippers,bartenders, bellhops, bathroom attendants,and many others, all in an effort to overcome hisown sweaty palms when faced with those perennialquestions: Should I tipHow muchThroughouthe explores why tipping has spread; he explainshow differences in gender, age, ethnicity, and nationalityaffect our attitudes; and he reveals just whatthe cabdriver or deliveryman thinks of us after we've left a tip.Written in the lively style that made WaiterRant such a hit, Keep the Change is a fun and enlighteningquest that will change the way wethink and tip.

With her wonderful sense of humor, marvelously candid voice, and astonishing perception, Amy Ephron weaves together the most insightful, profound, and just plain funny stories of her life to form a tapestry of a woman's experiences from childhood through young adulthood, marriage, divorce (and remarriage), and everything in between. Writing with great honesty and exacting prose, Ephron gives us an evocative, engaging, and often piercing look at modern life.Throughout Loose Diamonds, Amy Ephron celebrates unforgettable memories and friendships, and the things that make life livable (such as her Filofax, which she would be lost without), all with a quick wit and a delicate eye.

Using approaches from the Hebrew interpretive tradition to discern the actual events surrounging Jesus' death, Bishop Spong questions the hitorical validity of literal narrative concerned the Ressurection. He asserts that the resurrection story was born in an experience that opened the disciples' eyes to the reality of God and the meaning of Jesus of Nazareth. Spong traces the Christian origins of anti-Semitism to the Church's fabrication of the ultimate Jewish scapegoat, Judas Iscariot. He affirms the inclusiveness of the Christian message and emphasizes the necessity of mutual integrity and respect among Christians and Jews.

The Beatles have profoundly touched the lives of millions. But have you ever wondered whyWhy did they become the most powerful artists in history and one of the twentieth century's major symbols of cultural transformationMeet the Beatles answers those questions and more as it examines the ways the lives of John, Paul, George, and Ringo were inextricably tied to the cultural revolutions their music helped inspire. From their long hair and interest in India to their drug use and admiration for strong women, the Beatles changed the way we look, the way we feel, and even the way we think. This is the book for those who have always been infatuated with the Beatles, as well as those who want to learn for the first time what it all really meant.

Here the local vigilante is a farmer's wife armed with a pistol and a Bible, the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town), and the back roads are haunted by the ghosts of children and farmers. Michael Perry loves this place. He grew up here, and now -- after a decade away -- he has returned.Unable to polka or repair his own pickup, his farm-boy hands gone soft after years of writing, Mike figures the best way to regain his credibility is to join the volunteer fire department. Against a backdrop of fires and tangled wrecks, bar fights and smelt feeds, he tells a frequently comic tale leavened with moments of heartbreaking delicacy and searing tragedy.

When Pete Jordan arrives in Amsterdam to study how to make America's cities more bicycle-friendly, he immediately falls in love with the city that already lives life on two wheels. His new bride, Amy Joy, joins Pete, and despite their financial hardships and instability, she eventually finds her own new calling as a bicycle mechanic as Pete discovers the untold history of cycling in Amsterdam.From its beginnings as an elitis t pastime in the 1890s to the street-consuming craze of the 1920s, from the bicycle's role in a citywide resistance to the Nazi occupation to the White Bikes of the 1960s and the bike fishermen of today, Jordan chronicles the evolution of Amsterdam's cycling.Part personal memoir, part history of cycling, part fascinating street-level tour of Amsterdam, In the City of Bikes is the story of a man who loves bikes in a city that loves bikes.