The Hike


Landon Beach
    It's Breaking Bad meets The Godfather...and the battle for Detroit is about to begin. Intense!" - Ryan Steck, The Real Book SpyBrad Cranston is having a normal Friday afternoon in Shelter Harbor, Michigan when he receives a desperate call from his brother, who disappeared six years ago. Conrad’s message is clear: head south, bring a boat, do not involve the police, and there is a load of money involved—click.After enlisting the service of rookie Private Investigator Allison Shannon—a retired master diver who is haunted by her own demons—the two start to realize that Conrad Cranston has become much more than a lost hiker.Meanwhile, FBI Special Agent Patrick Bruno has just been relocated to the Motor City to help bring down the Detroit Mafia, better known as “The Association.” What Patrick does not know, however, is that Detroit’s young new Godfather, Don Ciro Russo, has been targeted for assassination—an event that would turn the criminal organization upside down. And, a long-time confidential informant may be orchestrating the transfer of power.As Patrick attempts to learn the truth, his path crosses with an unlikely pair: Brad Cranston and Allison Shannon. The search narrows, and the answers may lie on a small island in Lake Erie nicknamed “the Key West of the north.” However, unimaginable terror could await them on the island and in the depths offshore.For they are about to learn that justice and discovery still come at a price.If you are a fan of Don Winslow, Lee Child, Breaking Bad , or The Godfather , you've come to the right place.

Dirtbag Anthropology


Kate Willett - 2021
    That is, until she found herself dumped, suddenly single, and mystifyingly...mostly attracted to dudes. Like any good comic, she was inspired to investigate, and thus ensued her hilarious, sometimes high-stakes personal research into the world of men, culminating in a beautiful, difficult romance. Featuring insightful interviews with comics and experts like W. Kamau Bell, Margaret Cho, Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, and Kate’s dad and close friends, this exploration of modern masculinity delves into how to be a good guy and how to be in love with one...and when that isn’t quite enough.

Blowing My Way to the Top: How to Break the Rules, Find Your Purpose, and Create the Life and Career You Deserve


Jen Atkin - 2020
    But Jen’s success didn’t arrive overnight. Her glamorous, jet-setting lifestyle came from years of hard work, humility, and hustle. In Blowing My Way to the Top, Jen shatters the illusion of effortless, instant success that permeates social media to reveal the sweat, dedication, and drive it really takes to make it.In this inspiring, insightful, and laugh-out-loud funny book, Jen chronicles her remarkable journey and shares what she’s learned along the way. From growing up in a conservative Mormon community where girls were discouraged from pursuing their ambitions, to striking out on her own and finding success on the celebrity style circuit, to building the cult-status brand OUAI—Jen reveals with refreshing candour the lessons, mistakes, and memorable moments that have paved her road to success.Jen also offers insight into the values that have allowed her to thrive in the modern, digital landscape, including the importance of creating authentic content, investing in the community, and building social consciousness into the ethos of a business. And as a trailblazer in a male-dominated industry, Jen speaks frankly about the challenges she’s faced and provides crucial advice for other women, from the importance of running your business like a feminist to building camaraderie amid the competition to learning to navigate the work and life issues that impact women most.At the end of the day, Jen has one simple message: If I can do it, you can too. Blowing My Way to the Top is destined to become the must-read career guide for a new generation, empowering readers everywhere with the permission to dream big—and the tools to make those dreams a reality.

SIN


Patrick Reuman - 2017
    With the whole town on high-alert, he refuses to let this dead city kill what’s left of his relationship. But, a house in the woods may hold a deadlier fate than the town ever could.

Dreams in Black Static: Eight Stories


Ambrose Ibsen - 2020
    After watching it, one of them vanishes...A heart transplant recipient gets much more than he bargained for when he digs into his donor's sinister past...Mourning the death of their son, a young couple is plunged into madness after encountering something otherworldly in the wilderness...DREAMS IN BLACK STATIC is a collection of eight terrifying stories by Ambrose Ibsen, author of The Haunting of Beacon Hill and Asylum. The tales included are:"Me and Mr. Ray" **"Decatur Road" **"Dreams in Black Static" **"Distortional Addict" **"Trim" **"Subterrane Dream" **"Orchard""The Uncanny" **** = Appearing in print for the first time

Room on the Sea


André Aciman - 2022
    Catherine was reading a novel. So begins Room on the Sea, André Aciman's scorching and elegiac love-story about a middle-aged man and woman who meet in the bullpen of jury selection and spend a sultry summer’s week trespassing ever further into each other's hearts.What begins as a flirtation quickly evolves into something deeper, something Paul and Catherine must carry on in secret—and with the understanding that anything more than a casual crush is out of the question. But as the week draws to a close, the end of their rendezvous comes into focus, and Paul and Catherine are forced to decide whether to act on their feelings or leave the fantasy of what could have been to the annals of the past.By turns scintillating and philosophical, Room on the Sea is a compulsively listenable story of love, fate, and last chances.©2022 Andre Aciman (P)2022 Audible Originals, Inc.

Becoming Charlie: Part One


Kristie Haigwood - 2017
    Well, not literally, but until one of the most popular guys at Eden High saved my life, nobody even knew I existed. Sean Reese gave me more than my life back that night. He gave me friendship. And maybe, just maybe, I can save him, too. Will he still be my friend when he finds out my secret?

Bones in the Basement: Surviving the S.K. Pierce Haunted Victorian Mansion - Edwin Gonzalez & Lillian Otero's Story


Joni Mayhan - 2014
    Pierce Victorian Mansion in Gardner, Massachusetts, in 2009, they scoffed at the ghostly legends surrounding the house. They didn't believe in ghosts. The house soon proved them wrong. By the fall of 2011, they were forced from their house, narrowly escaping with their lives. Includes interviews from paranormal experts: Carl Johnson, Andrew Lake, Michael Robishaw, Lucky Belcamino, Marc Arvilla, and more. Forward written by Thomas D'Agastino. Contains photos, as well as audio and video links of evidence captured at the Haunted Victorian Mansion.

Governor's Road: A Novel of Southern Proportions


Laurie Byrne Smith - 2012
    This beautifully written book will keep you up all night. There are plenty of clues and there are a lot of hints, but even when you put them all together, it will be close to impossible to puzzle your way to the ending. If you are looking for a book, you can't put down, then Governor's Road is just right for you. Excitement, frisky loving, a mystery of epic proportions and traditional southern pathos make this book a fun and rewarding read. The terrorized children of Governor’s Road grew up without resolution or closure to the most devastating event of their young lives. Their friend, a child their age, disappeared one afternoon and somehow, they never seem to learn what happened. Saddened parents decide to protect their children and the obvious fear recedes in the face of the calm that settles back over the neighborhood. But, fear never really disappears until it's confronted. As adults, JoBeth and Billy set out to discover what happened to little Petey Shiner. The answer brings them to conclusion that there is no perfect childhood, even in a perfect town in a perfect decade. Every town hides its secrets and puts on a good face, even at the expense of its residents. Along the way, JoBeth and Billy discover love and romance. Their kindling of love takes you to places you can only want to return to…and their future makes you happy. It’s their past that is so hard to reconcile. As well as a lot of fun, a dark mystery and hot southern romance, JoBeth and her friends also encounter the harsh reality of Alzheimer’s and aging. Sometimes, a loved one can be lost more than once. The malevolent specter of mental illness surfaces when the reader meets Lucius Sifer and begins to understand the unusual existence the boy leads. The ending is grim but satisfies that need everyone has for justice. The most humble people can achieve heroism without fanfare or acknowledgment. As always, enjoy your adventure into the south...and remember, thoughtful book reviews are welcomed with open arms. Please see Observations of a Transplanted Southern Belle for more of Laurie Byrne Smith's work.

Cougar Chronicles


Helen Hardt - 2019
    But after a night of amazing passion, she leaves discreetly. Life has other plans for her at the moment. After the best sex of his life, single father Jack Sherwood isn’t ready to give up his mystery woman. When he runs into her several months later, he’s relentless in his pursuit, and he doesn’t care a whit about their eleven-year age difference. Holly’s life has taken a new course since her first meeting with Jack, and she’s convinced she’s not what he and his adorable son need. Can her new friends at The Cougar Club persuade her to stop running? Or will she lose the best thing to ever happen to her? Calendar Boy Forty-five- year-old erotic romance author Stacy Oppenheimer has always been an introvert, and her recent divorce has left her scared of her own shadow. But when her favorite cover model, Michael Moretti, corners her at a writers’ conference, she swallows her inhibitions for a moment and teases him a little. Michael Moretti, age thirty-six, knows his career as a cover model and exotic dancer is rapidly coming to an end due to his age. He has his own reasons for attending this conference—find an attractive older woman whom he can woo into keeping him in the lifestyle to which he’s become accustomed. Lovely Stacy fits his requirements nicely. With Michael’s help, Stacy begins to overcome her shyness and engages in some exciting activities both outside and inside the bedroom. But she’s nobody’s sugar mama, and she makes that clear to him when she finds out his ulterior motive. Too bad for Michael, who finds out he just might be in a little deeper than he thought.

Culture is Everything: The Story And System Of A Start-Up That Became Australia's Best Place To Work


Tristan White - 2017
    He had a dream to work in a job that inspired him. He didn’t find that job, so he created it. In 2004, The Physio Co (TPC) was born with one team member: Tristan White. In the thirteen years since, TPC has become a remarkable healthcare success story based upon fast growth and a thriving, systemized company culture. Tristan’s obsession with creating an inspiring place to work for himself and others has resulted in more than a decade of learning, testing and refining. If you’ve ever wondered how to build and sustain a thriving company culture, the Culture Is Everything system developed by Tristan White and The Physio Co team is your answer. The Physio Co story and Culture Is Everything system explained in this book will give you the confidence and knowledge to create a strong culture in your very own business or team.

Grieving Conversations


Chris Cander - 2021
    Deep in the mountains of his hometown, Bowie, Wyoming, Brody's desperate search for the helpless child through a worsening snowstorm leads him on an even greater journey - one through his memories of his childhood, his brother, his son and a life for himself that he thought was lost.

Their Yesterdays


Harold Bell Wright - 1912
    And it happened -- as such things often so happen -- that this man went back into his days that were gone. Again and again and again he went back. Even as every man, even as you and I, so this man went back into his Yesterdays. Then -- why then there was a woman. And it happened -- as such things sometimes so happen -- that this woman also went back into her days that were gone. Again and again and again she went back. Even as every woman, even as you and I, so this woman went back into her Yesterdays.From the introduction: Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw; Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite; Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age; Pleased with this bauble still, as that before; Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er."AN ESSAY ON MAN"--Pope.

Dragonfly Summer


J.H. Moncrieff - 2020
    But when the former journalist receives a cryptic note about the disappearance of her friend Sam twenty years before, she's compelled to find out what really happened. During her investigation, she learns another high school friend has died in a mysterious accident. Nothing is as it seems, and Jo must probe Clear Springs' darkest corners and her own painful and unreliable memories to discover the truth - and save herself from a killer who could still be on the hunt.Deliciously twisty and suspenseful from the first minute to the last, Dragonfly Summer proves that no small town's secrets can stay buried for good.

Lost and Found: My Story


Lynda Bellingham - 2010
    Fear of failure, fear of other people - but mostly fear of myself. It has taken many years to discover who I really am. It's never too late to find yourself, however lost you may be ...'In Lynda Bellingham's blisteringly honest autobiography, the much-loved actress and Loose Women panellist reveals the truth about her life, including her search for her birth mother, only to lose her again to Alzheimer's, and her many years married to an abusive man while playing the 'nation's mum' in the Oxo adverts.But Lynda never lost her sense of humour, and among the darker moments she recalls hilarious anecdotes from her time on stage and screen. Lost and Found is an inspiring story of getting through the tough times with the strong spirit of a survivor, and finally finding true love.