Earth Prime


Janet Edwards - 2020
    Earth Prime is the first of two collections of aftermath stories set in the distant future of the Earth Girl trilogy (Earth Girl, Earth Star, and Earth Flight).This collection is set immediately after Earth Flight, and focuses on Jarra, Fian, and the other archaeologists before they head to excavate the alien ruins on Fortuna.Full Contents List:-The End, and the New Beginning – Jarra Tell Morrath (Revised collected edition of the serial previously published on the author’s website.)I Will Be Right Here Waiting – Fian Eklund (Novelette)Twenty Seconds in Ark – Dalmora Rostha (Short story)Full Circle – Lecturer Dannel Playdon (Novelette)Raw Material – Krath Karman (Short story)Balance of Power – Amalie Roche (Novelette)The Real Jerez Rivera – Jerez Rivera (Novelette)Year End 2788 – Lecturer Dannel Playdon (A related short story set eleven months earlier.)

Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box


Madeleine K. Albright - 2009
    Her collection is both international and democratic--dime-store pins share pride of place with designer creations and family heirlooms. Included are the antique eagle purchased to celebrate Albright's appointment as secretary of state, the zebra pin she wore when meeting Nelson Mandela, and the Valentine's Day heart forged by Albright's five-year-old daughter. "Read My Pins" features more than 200 photographs, along with compelling and often humorous stories about jewelry, global politics, and the life of one of America's most accomplished and fascinating diplomats.

Regency Fire


Bridget Barton - 2017
    Seemingly betrayed by the only man she has ever loved, Verity Farrington took her own life on the very day he was set to marry another.It was a tragic event which was to blight the lives of all within the great Duchies of Calgarth and Horndean. It would turn two of the closest friends into the bitterest of all imaginable enemies and blight the lives of their families for three decades to come.Nearly thirty years later, the new Duke of Calgarth, Gabriel Farrington, seeks to lead his younger brothers into battle. The old Duke is dead and he has charged his oldest son with the heaviest of duties; the bitter feud between the two great households must persist at any cost. With his own mother so desperate to see the end of the pain and hatred, Gabriel Farrington remains steadfast.In the Duchy of Horndean, the Old Duke clings to life, presiding over the family he has raised in bitterness. With his scheming wife and daughter his most powerful assets, the Duke sees out the last of his days. But will his own guilt finally catch up with him? And will the truth finally be revealed, smashing the foundations of lies upon which the feud was built?In amongst the hate, anger, and retribution, will the younger generation of Farringtons and Cunninghams ever find the peace and love they all secretly crave?Five stories concerning two feuding families involved in a bitter feud for thirty-five years! The story is set in the wild, windswept north of England, with other action occurring in London.The Collection Includes the Following:The Duke and the Stolen BrideThe Lord She Could Not TrustThe Lord and the Attorney’s NieceThe Lord, The Lady, and a Time to ChooseThe Descendants and a Time of HopeRegency Fire is a complete series of 5 short-length novels of approximately 100,000 words in total. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

High Heels in a Minefield


N.L. Paradox - 2017
    Eat, sleep, draw, and geek out over anime and manga with his small circle of friends. So when one of those friends suggested engaging in some cosplay for an upcoming Comicon as some of their favorite anime characters, it sounded like the perfect summer activity. That was until he found out just which character he was supposed to be. What started as a fun idea quickly turned into a mixture of inner conflict and self-discovery that Ray had never known even existed and served as the root for one of the most dramatic and uncertain changes in his young life. The question was, would this rollercoaster be a fun-filled thrill-ride, or a complete derailment of everything in his life.

The Notecard


Jon Rance - 2020
    

Once Upon a Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens


Lauren Scheuer - 2013
    Her husband and teenage daughter looked on incredulously as coop sketches and chicken-raising books filled their New England home. But when the chicks arrived, the whole family fell in love with the bundles of fluff and the wild adventures began. Once Upon a Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens stars Scheuer’s backyard chickens—with their big personalities, friendships, rivalries, and secrets—and the flock’s guardian, Marky the terrier. The flock includes Hatsy, the little dynamo; Lil’White, the deranged and twisted Buff Orpington; Pigeon, the fixer-upper chicken; and Lucy, the special-needs hen who bonds with Lauren and becomes a fast friend. This charming story of Lauren’s life with her quirky flock is filled with moments of humor and heartbreak: When Lucy is afflicted with a neurological disease, Lauren builds Lucy a special-needs coop. When Lucy’s nesting instinct leads Lauren to act as a chicken midwife of sorts, Lauren hatches a chick in her home. And when Lucy’s best friend Hatsy falls ill, Lauren finds an unlikely friend for Lucy in a chicken named Pigeon, who requires an emergency bath and blow-dry. Enthusiastically immersing herself in the world of her flock, Lauren discovers that love, loss, passion, and resilience are not only parts of the human experience, but of the chicken experience as well. Throughout it all, Lauren documents the laughter and drama of her flock’s adventures with her own whimsical photos and illustrations. At once humorous, poignant, and informative, Once Upon a Flock is a feathered tale like no other.

The Secret Life of Cowboys


Tom Groneberg - 2003
    Tom Groneberg leaves behind friends and family, follows his heart, and heads to a resort town in the Colorado Rockies, where he earns his spurs as a wrangler leading tourists on horseback. Later, Groneberg moves to Montana, where he works for wages at a number of ranches before buying his own ranch. Demystifying the image of cowboys as celluloid heroes, The Secret Life of Cowboys is a coming-of-age story as stunning as the land itself and a revealing look at America’s last frontier.

The Fixed Stars


Molly Wizenberg - 2020
    Married to a man for nearly a decade and mother to a toddler, Wizenberg tried to return to her life as she knew it, but something inside her had changed irredeemably. Instead, she would discover that the trajectory of our lives is rarely as smooth or as logical as we’d like to believe.   Like many of us, Wizenberg had long understood sexual orientation as a stable part of ourselves: we’re “born this way.” Suddenly she realized that her story was more complicated. Who was she, she wondered, if something at her very core could change so radically? The Fixed Stars is a taut, electrifying memoir exploring timely and timeless questions about desire, identity, and the limits and possibilities of family. In honest and searing prose, Wizenberg forges a new path: through the murk of separation and divorce, coming out to family and friends, learning to co-parent a young child, and realizing a new vision of love. The result is a frank and moving story about letting go of rigid definitions and ideals that no longer fit, and learning instead who we really are.

Don't Waste Your Time Homeschooling: 72 Things I Wish I'd Known


Traci Matt - 2014
    "Don’t Waste Your Time Homeschooling: 72 Things I Wish I’d Known" features concrete suggestions to help you: • Discover ways to take your family’s pulse and maintain a peaceful household. • Realize how easy it can be to sidestep the isolation trap. • Find creative ways to maintain your own identity amid a sea of others’ needs. • Learn the one easy habit to help avoid conflict with busy teen drivers. • Explain to others how your children are being properly socialized.

If Only You People Could Follow Directions: A Memoir


Jessica Hendry Nelson - 2013
    In linked autobiographical essays, Nelson has reimagined the memoir with her thoroughly original voice, fearless writing, and hypnotic storytelling. At its center, the book is the story of three people: Nelson’s mother Susan, her brother Eric, and Jessica herself. These three characters are deeply bound to one another, not just by the usual ties of blood and family, but also by a mother's drive to keep her children safe in the midst of chaos. The book begins with Nelson’s childhood in the suburbs of Philadelphia and chronicles her father's addiction and death, her brother's battle with drugs and mental illness, her own efforts to find and maintain stability, and her mother's exquisite power, grief, and self-destruction in the face of such a complicated family dynamic. Each chapter in the book contends with a different relationship—friends, lovers, and strangers are all play—but at its heart the book is about family, the ties that bind and enrich and betray us, and how one young woman sought to survive and rise above her surroundings.

Drive-Thru USA: A tale of two road trips


Rich Bradwell - 2014
    From feasting on lobster on the rocky shores of Maine, to tracking down America's first pizzeria, no culinary stone goes unturned. On his quest, he finds the origin of hot dogs and the best barbecue in the south, he even tries soup made from peanuts. Joined by his long-suffering wife and haunted by a shambolic cross-country trip with his idiotic friend ten years earlier, he travels the length and breadth of the country, from the Florida Keys to Death Valley to the Rocky Mountains. In between he also falls in love with a clown and escapes alien abduction…ok, so that doesn't happen, but he does win a poker tournament in Las Vegas, hides from forest hippies in Georgia and falls out with an Australian. Rich's hilarious journey is littered with insights into a land best understood with one hand on the wheel and the other on a burger. "Hilarious! Drive-Thru USA is an adventure that makes you want to hit the road and drive." shuttersafari.com "Funny and perceptive, filled with insights and tales of amazing food" thewiredjester.co.uk

Fringe Florida: Travels among Mud Boggers, Furries, Ufologists, Nudists, and Other Lovers of Unconventional Lifestyles


Lynn Waddell - 2013
    If you’re looking for the outer orbits of America, come to Florida, and if you seek the Sunshine State’s funky-drumbeat fringe, you can do no better than Lynn Waddell.”—Tim Dorsey, New York Times best-selling author “Waddell takes readers to Florida’s wild side, where strippers, swingers, bikers, exotic animals, and carnies enjoy sun-kissed lives in America’s strangest state.”?Trevor Aaronson, author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism “Lynn Waddell’s riveting you-are-there reporting lives at the intersection where Florida’s wacky subcultures and seamy undersides meet up. When you read this book, make sure you’re standing over carpet—that way you won’t hurt your jaw from dropping it so many times.”—Craig Pittman, author of The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Beautiful Orchid “A fast, fascinating read. Waddell delivers ten surprising subcultures you might not dare visit on your own.”?Lyn Millner, Florida Gulf Coast UniversityFlorida has a titillating underbelly that few tourists ever see. Beyond the theme parks and the beaches lies a periphery most residents know about but—out of decorum or discomfort?prefer not to discuss. In Fringe Florida, Lynn Waddell explores the exotic, sensational, and sometimes illicit worlds of the oddest state in the nation.Waddell takes the reader on a colorful journey to meet the most unconventional of Floridians in unbelievable and spectacular places. At Fetish Con, she befriends furries and pony girls. She travels to Cassadaga, the oldest active Spiritualist community in the South, where trained mediums converse with the dead, and to the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando, where one can eat a hot dog while watching a reenactment of the Crucifixion. She interviews the founder of the Leather & Lace Motorcycle Club, a Daytona Beach-area grandmother who hosts the club’s annual gathering, welcoming scores of lady bikers to camp out on the lawn of her subdivision home. At an Animal Amnesty Day outside Busch Gardens, Waddell meets exotic reptile owners who give up their beloved-but no-longer-manageable pets and others who vie to take home the cast-offs.If you’ve ever wanted to parade around on a pimped-out swamp buggy amidst a couple thousand beer-swigging mud boggers or fall asleep with a python hissing in your ear, been tempted to bring a Capuchin monkey in a stroller to a Little League game, or contemplated sitting on the beach waiting to be picked up by a UFO but couldn’t quite bring yourself to such extremes, Fringe Florida is for you.

A Curious Guide to London


Simon Leyland - 2014
     Brimming with tales of London's forgotten past, its strangest traditions and its most eccentric inhabitants, this book celebrates the unique, the unusual and the unknown. Perfect for tourists, day-trippers, commuters and the millions of people who call London home, this alternative guidebook will make you look at the city in a whole new light.

Diary of a Tokyo Teen: A Japanese-American Girl Travels to the Land of Trendy Fashion, High-Tech Toilets and Maid Cafes


Christine Mari Inzer - 2016
    The summer before she turned sixteen, she returned to Tokyo, making a solo journey to get reacquainted with her birthplace. Through illustrations, photos, and musings, Inzer documented her journey. In Diary of a Tokyo Teen, Inzer explores the cutting-edge fashions of Tokyo's trendy Harajuku district, eats the best sushi of her life at the renowned Tsukiji fish market, and hunts down geisha in the ancient city of Kyoto. As she shares the trials and pleasures of travel from one end of a trip to the other, Inzer introduces the host of interesting characters she meets and offers a unique—and often hilarious—look at a fascinating country and an engaging tale of one girl rediscovering her roots. **Listed as a 2016 Great Graphic Novel for Teens by the Young Adult Library Services Association**

End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood


Jan Redford - 2018
    "Compassionate and courageous, End of the Rope shows us that there are many types of bravery required, not just in the wilderness, but in surviving day to day life." —Tanis Rideout, author of Above All Things After the love of her life is killed in an avalanche, a grieving Jan finds comfort in the arms of his climbing buddy, an extreme alpinist. But their marriage soon falters. While her husband logs forests and dreams of distant peaks, Jan has children, and takes on a wife’s traditional role. Over the following years, however, she pursues her own dream, one that pits her against her husband—attending university, and ultimately, gaining independence.End of the Rope is Jan's telling of heart-stopping adventures, from a harrowing rescue off El Capitan to leading a group of bumbling cadets across a glacier. It is her laughter-filled memoir of learning to climb, and of friendships with women in that masculine world. Most moving, this is her story of claiming freedom from a crushing marriage, an act of bravery equal to climbing mountains.