Toddler ABC Guide to Discipline: Quick Secrets to Loving Guidance


Michelle Smith - 2010
    Tired of being yelled AT. Tired of tantrums, hitting, kicking, whining, fussing, biting, fighting, refusing to sleep…when does it end? When do they stop smacking siblings or running from us in the mall? When do WE get to start enjoying how cute and sweet they are? When do we get to SLEEP?! Honey, I hear you. You are exhausted, have no time, and no idea where to start. Good news – this is your quick reference on loving discipline. If you’ve only got five minutes a day to flip through this book, that five minutes can change your life! Learn the inside, professional techniques on how to stop problem behavior in one to four year-olds, and turn your life around. Whether you are a single parent, a parent with little or no support from your spouse, a grandma, aunt, a traveling parent – it doesn’t matter. You can still open up the secrets to loving discipline and stop the nonsense. You will learn:*The 3 step ABC method to change unwanted behavior QUICK*How to eliminate the cycle of negative attention*The Five Basics to good behavior*How to meet needs to keep kids happy, healthy, and balancedand much, much more!

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East


Anthony Shadid - 2012
    . . should be read by anyone who wishes to understand the agonies and hopes of the Middle East.” — Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author of Crossing Mandelbaum Gate “In rebuilding his family home in southern Lebanon, Shadid commits an extraordinarily generous act of restoration for his wounded land, and for us all.” — Annia Ciezadlo, author of Day of Honey In spring 2011, Anthony Shadid was one of four New York Times reporters captured in Libya, cuffed and beaten, as that country was seized by revolution. When he was freed, he went home. Not to Boston or Beirut—where he lives— or to Oklahoma City, where his Lebanese-American family had settled and where he was raised. Instead, he returned to his great-grandfather’s estate, a house that, over three years earlier, Shadid had begun to rebuild. House of Stone is the story of a battle-scarred home and a war correspondent’s jostled spirit, and of how reconstructing the one came to fortify the other. In this poignant and resonant memoir, the author of the award-winning Night Draws Near creates a mosaic of past and present, tracing the house’s renewal alongside his family’s flight from Lebanon and resettlement in America. In the process, Shadid memorializes a lost world, documents the shifting Middle East, and provides profound insights into this volatile landscape. House of Stone is an unforgettable meditation on war, exile, rebirth, and the universal yearning for home.

The Road Less Graveled (Kindle Single)


Wendy Laird - 2013
    <br><br>Part Tuscan idyll and part cautionary tale, Wendy Laird’s latest Kindle Single tells the flip-side story of expat existence, what it takes to make it happen, and how a life on a well-mapped trajectory can veer off course in the process. Laird’s beautiful prose and acerbic wit keep the book, if not her own agenda, on the right track.

Emerald Coast


Anita Hughes - 2017
    She's a successful business woman with an international chain of stores from San Francisco to Milan. Thirty-two and newly divorced, she's ready to handle things on her own. At least until her private butler, Enzo, escorts her to a beautiful suite where she notices a suspiciously familiar pair of men's slippers and shaving kit.Lily is horrified. Her ex-husband Oliver moved out of their restored Connecticut farmhouse six months ago, but they booked this trip when they were trying to save their marriage and never cancelled the reservation. Oliver, a food critic for the New York Times, is here covering Sardinia's hottest new restaurant. The only other available room is the adjoining suite; and worse, Oliver isn't alone. He's brought a twenty-something named Angela with him.Lily is determined to make do and enlists Enzo to find her a suitable man. But it's not as easy to find new love as they both expected. When Lily and Oliver find themselves alone on a very important night, they turn to each other. Sparks begin to fly, but can they be together without breaking each other's hearts?

Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge


Said K. Aburish - 2000
    He explains why Saddam behaves as he does by suggesting that his life has been marked by a series of personal quests: for recognition after being orphaned and brought up by a destitute uncle; for control of his country; for leadership of the Arab world; for mastery of the technology of destruction, and the fight for Iraq's survival.

The Phoenix Project Collection


Candice M. Wright - 2021
    A test subject to be poked and prodded, broken and put back together again until my body finally fails me.The only way out is to die.So what will happen when the girl who has always been sick, inexplicably begins to heal?With the odds stacked against me, I’ll have to place my life and my heart in the hands of a group of criminals,Because the girl who was once ready to die will burn the world to ashes for a chance to live.From the Fire Book Two:An asset. An experimentA liability. A freak.I’m all those thingsAnd so much more.The Phoenix Group might have all the powerBut underestimating someone with nothing left to lose will be their downfallThey took the only thing in my life that was pure and untaintedAnd destroyed it, leaving behind nothing but rubble and ash.Now there’s nothing but revenge on my mind and rage in my heart.They left me to burn, trapped behind a wall of fire and flames.But the girl I once was is now a monster of their own makingThey should have remembered that a Phoenix cannot be beaten with fire.From the ashes, I will riseAnd vengeance will be mine.Trigger warning: This collection contains themes that some readers might find uncomfortable.Authors note: The Phoenix Project is an unconventional story about love and loss and the hard part in between. It is a Reverse Harem romance with multiple love interests and not a triangle in sight.Due to its mature content, readers should be 18 and over.

American Warfighter: Brotherhood, Survival, and Uncommon Valor in Iraq, 2003-2011


J. Pepper Bryars - 2016
     This book is about what went right in the Iraq War: The untold acts of valor by some of America’s most highly decorated combat veterans, the brotherhood they shared, and the fighting spirit that kept them alive through the war’s darkest hours. Every word is true, composed from striking and detailed firsthand accounts by elite paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions, a Green Beret, an Army Ranger, infantrymen, combat medics, and Marines. You’ll discover their remarkable heroism as the war’s most significant operations are vividly described, including the invasion, the Battle of Nasiriyah, the taking of Baghdad, the hunt for the infamous Deck of Cards, the fight against al-Sadr’s Mahdi Militia in Najaf, the Second Battle of Fallujah, the Battle of Ramadi, the al-Qaeda insurgency throughout the al-Anbar Province, the surge, and the long withdrawal. Gripping and intimate, American Warfighter is guaranteed to take readers on an unforgettable journey of brotherhood, survival, and courage.

Diary of a Valiant Wolf (Book 1): Steve’s Wolves (An Unofficial Minecraft Book for Kids Ages 9 - 12 (Preteen)


Mark Mulle - 2015
    They live in wolf packs, and will do anything to protect their group. But what most players don’t know is that wolves have many stories to tell as well. Boris is a brave wolf who lives a peaceful life in this blocky world along with his wife and two cubs, doing his best to protect his family and to provide for them. But his normal life is about to change when Boris witnesses a bright light coming from the woods during a rainy day, and decides to investigate the area. To his surprise, Boris finds a strange creature living inside a wooden box, with a wolf as its pet. This two-legged creature is capable of creating items out of thin air and can remove and place blocks anywhere. Now, Boris must find out what the creature is doing there, and why the wolf is living with it and behaving like his guard. Read Boris’ diary and discover what is going to happen next in this epic adventure through the world of Minecraft. This unofficial Minecraft book is not authorized, endorsed or sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or any other person or entity owning or controlling the rights of the Minecraft name, trademark or copyrights. All characters, names, places and other aspects of the game described herein are trademarked and owned by their respective owners. Minecraft®/ /TM & ©2009-2016 Mojang/Notch.

The Last Thousand: One School's Promise in a Nation at War


Jeffrey E. Stern - 2015
    The stakes of war are explored through the intertwining lives of six members of the Marefat School, an institution in the Western slums of Kabul built by one of the country's most vulnerable minority groups, the Hazara, as the school community prepares for the departure of foreign troops. Marefat's mission is to educate its community's youth- both boys and girls - and introduce them to a secular curriculum, civic participation, and the arts. The Marefat community has embraced the U.S. and flourished under its presence; they stand to lose the most when that protection disappears.The Last Thousand tells the story of what we leave behind when our foreign wars end, presenting the promise, as well as the peril, of our military adventure abroad. Through the eyes of these characters, Stern presents a nuanced and fascinating portrait of the complex history of Afghanistan, American occupation, and the ways in which this one community rallies together in compelling, heartbreaking, and inspiring detail.

A Tuscan Affair


Gudrun Frerichs - 2017
    Not after a holiday romance went all wrong thirty years ago. Her career, her beautiful home, and most of all her twins are all she wants and needs nowadays. Who needs a man, right? Not this well respected Auckland lawyer.Vineyard owner Antonio Falcone has only one goal. Fly to Auckland, help his elderly father getting divorced, and zap back home in time for the harvest. That’s it. Women? No, no, amore mio, not for this charming Italian. Once bitten, twice shy. But when the past catches up with them things unravel with lightning speed, and some nasty people raise their heads. And Tuscany? Oh, yes… Tuscany… rolling hills, azure-blue skies, full-bodied wine, delicious food, and a love that will succeed.

Retribution Required


C.R. Daems - 2018
    There smuggling, bribes, and a wild-west live-free-or-die attitude prevails and an eye-for-an-eye is the preferred method of retribution. For Zenaida, a child of the Rim, the death of her father requires retribution. But she must first learn how to survive while trying to track down her snow leopard's stolen litter and her father's killers. But unknown to her, her father's killers spared her for a reason—a secret that could mean her death if she discovers it.

On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines - and Future


Karen Elliott House - 2012
    Through observation, anecdote, extensive interviews, and analysis Karen Elliot House navigates the maze in which Saudi citizens find themselves trapped and reveals the mysterious nation that is the world’s largest exporter of oil, critical to global stability, and a source of Islamic terrorists. In her probing and sharp-eyed portrait, we see Saudi Arabia, one of the last absolute monarchies in the world, considered to be the final bulwark against revolution in the region, as threatened by multiple fissures and forces, its levers of power controlled by a handful of elderly Al Saud princes with an average age of 77 years and an extended family of some 7,000 princes. Yet at least 60 percent of the increasingly restive population they rule is under the age of 20. The author writes that oil-rich Saudi Arabia has become a rundown welfare state. The public pays no taxes; gets free education and health care; and receives subsidized water, electricity, and energy (a gallon of gasoline is cheaper in the Kingdom than a bottle of water), with its petrodollars buying less and less loyalty. House makes clear that the royal family also uses Islam’s requirement of obedience to Allah—and by extension to earthly rulers—to perpetuate Al Saud rule. Behind the Saudi facade of order and obedience, today’s Saudi youth, frustrated by social conformity, are reaching out to one another and to a wider world beyond their cloistered country. Some 50 percent of Saudi youth is on the Internet; 5.1 million Saudis are on Facebook. To write this book, the author interviewed most of the key members of the very private royal family. She writes about King Abdullah’s modest efforts to relax some of the kingdom’s most oppressive social restrictions; women are now allowed to acquire photo ID cards, finally giving them an identity independent from their male guardians, and are newly able to register their own businesses but are still forbidden to drive and are barred from most jobs. With extraordinary access to Saudis—from key religious leaders and dissident imams to women at university and impoverished widows, from government officials and political dissidents to young successful Saudis and those who chose the path of terrorism—House argues that most Saudis do not want democracy but seek change nevertheless; they want a government that provides basic services without subjecting citizens to the indignity of begging princes for handouts; a government less corrupt and more transparent in how it spends hundreds of billions of annual oil revenue; a kingdom ruled by law, not royal whim. In House’s assessment of Saudi Arabia’s future, she compares the country today to the Soviet Union before Mikhail Gorbachev arrived with reform policies that proved too little too late after decades of stagnation under one aged and infirm Soviet leader after another. She discusses what the next generation of royal princes might bring and the choices the kingdom faces: continued economic and social stultification with growing risk of instability, or an opening of society to individual initiative and enterprise with the risk that this, too, undermines the Al Saud hold on power. A riveting book—informed, authoritative, illuminating—about a country that could well be on the brink, and an in-depth examination of what all this portends for Saudi Arabia’s future, and for our own.

The Innocents Abroad


Mark Twain - 1869
    It was the best-selling of Twain's works during his lifetime, as well as one of the best-selling travel books of all time.

The Robert Langdon Collection by Dan Brown: Inferno/The Lost Symbol/The Da Vinci Code/Angels & Demons


Dan Brown - 2014
    His calm life of academia is interrupted when a CERN scientist is found murdered with a strange symbol seared on his chest. The symbol ties the murder with the Vatican. However, the Vatican is already abuzz as the College of Cardinals is electing the new Pope. What the cardinals don't realize is that there is a deadly explosive beneath them, waiting to go off. If Langdon can't decipher the clues in time, Vatican City will burn. The Da Vinci Code Jacques Saunière, the curator of the Louvre, was found murdered in the museum. He was found next to a pentagram he drew with his own blood. Robert Langdon joins Saunière's granddaughter in a wild chase for a dangerous secret, one connecting Saunière to an ancient secret society once headed by Isaac Newton and Botticelli. The Lost Symbol Robert Langdon's lecture at the Capitol Building is cancelled when a shocking object is found there. Langdon discovers a plot surrounding the masons, and his mentor, Peter Solomon is kidnapped. Langdon's only hope to find him is a mysterious summons into an ancient world of wisdom. Inferno Langdon wakes up in a hospital bed with no recollection of why he's there. He thinks he's still in America. He has no idea how wrong he is or how the mysterious object hidden in his belongings got there. About Dan Brown Dan Brown is an American novelist also known for Deception Point and Digital Fortress. The Robert Langdon series is being adapted into movies starring Tom Hanks. The first two books in the series have already been adapted.

4,000 Years of Uppity Women: Rebellious Belles, Daring Dames, and Headstrong Heroines Through the Ages


Vicki León - 2011
    They ruled. They invented. They cured people. They killed people. They ran cities and businesses. The won races, athletic and political. They explored. They bankrolled explorers. They even bankrolled religions. Almost every organized religion, from Christianity to Buddhism to Quaker, has gotten off the ground thanks to the hard work and cold cash of women!Most traditional histories written by men ignore, obscure, or erase the role of women, especially those who challenge the status quo. But the evidence of their achievements exists everywhere: in writings, coins, artifacts, graffiti, music, portraits, legal transcripts, love notes, and hate mail. For more than twenty years, Vicki Leon has been examining this evidence, chasing clues however faint and unconventional, and reporting her findings in numerous books, including the delightful four volume Uppity Women series.4,000 Years of Uppity Women features the best of that series, chosen by Leon herself. It focuses not on legendary goddesses or literary characters but on real women (though many of them did become the subjects of poems, plays, and stories).