An island paradise in Puget Sound seems the perfect place to find liberation…until she meets Holt Randolph. He's unlike any man she's ever met, with a touch that makes her hunger for more. But offering him her heart might be more than she can bear. Will it bring her to her knees—or into his arms? RENAISSANCE MAN Rare-book dealer Alina Corey chooses to live like the heroine of her favorite Renaissance book, presiding over a court of glittering literati, and keeping a witty distance from love. But her perspective shifts when Jared Troy, a combative history scholar, suddenly challenges her to a passion that's larger-than-life. His powers of persuasion are formidable—and his talents incredible. When he turns his seductive charm on Alina, her careful plans don't stand a chance.

    Her infant son, already dead, lies on her chest still clinging to his mother.On the morning that is Patty found, she is not expected to survive but is taken to hospital where she eventually recovers. But, severely emotionally disturbed, Patty soon finds herself a patient at Hillside Asylum. There, Patty’s condition deteriorates, and the staff and doctors perform unnecessary experimental procedures on their patient.But when someone from Patty’s past learns about her incarceration, they vow to get her out. And those responsible for the abuse will be made to suffer . . .

    All girls. Why?In a dark and divided dystopian America, an ambitious reporter must risk her life and reputation to find out why only females are being born.Twenty-eight-year-old Charley Tennyson has battled PTSD ever since surviving a violent attack that killed her father. Four months later, she returns to her job as a reporter, only to be thrust into a high-profile investigation that forces her to choose between her own safety and the nation’s future.For the last two days, only females have been born in America. If the trend continues, males could become extinct within the next century. Charley's investigation leads to a deep conspiracy that raises unexpected questions about gender roles, violence, government power, and her father’s death.The story of one woman’s journey to find courage in a world full of fear, End of Men is a reminder of what binds us together when everything is falling apart."End of Men is a smart, evocative page-turner set in an unnervingly plausible future. Strobel's plot unfolds at a furious pace, seamlessly weaving in scientific, technological and social details that will convince you her dystopian vision is right around the corner." —Doug Kurtz, The Story Coach, dougkurtz.com"Suzanne Strobel has woven a narrative that holds up to the best of the top-tier dystopian writers. The heroine, Charley Tennyson, embarks on a journey where she uncovers the truth to a scientific mystery, has to build trust with others and ultimately finds hope. I couldn’t put this book down. You’re not going to want to pass up this gem, in fact you’re going to want to bring it to your book club." —Tamara Palmer, Author of Finding Lancelot and Missing Tyler

    He also specializes in getting things people want---term papers, a date with the prom queen, fake IDs. He has few close friends and he never EVER lets emotions get in the way. For Jesse, life is simply a series of business transactions.But when Ken Foster, captain of the football team, leading candidate for homecoming king, and all-around jerk, hires Jesse to help him win the heart of the angelic Bridget Smalley, Jesse finds himself feeling all sorts of things. While following Bridget and learning the intimate details of her life, he falls helplessly in love for the very first time. He also finds himself in an accidental friendship with Bridget’s belligerent and self-pitying younger brother who has cerebral palsy. Suddenly, Jesse is visiting old folks at a nursing home in order to run into Bridget, and offering his time to help the less fortunate, all the while developing a bond with this young man who idolizes him. Could the tin man really have a heart after all?A Cyrano de Bergerac story with a modern twist, Sway is told from Jesse’s point of view with unapologetic truth and biting humor, his observations about the world around him untempered by empathy or compassion---until Bridget’s presence in his life forces him to confront his quiet devastation over a life-changing event a year earlier and maybe, just maybe, feel something again.

    Things no man has seen before haunt the woods. Strange animal species creep behind pine trees, some of them with flashing red tags that blink faster and faster. Giant birds mimic the sound of humans and lord over the sky. Leaf-shaped creatures attack anything that moves and flash vivid colors across their glistening backs. As Bishop and his companions scramble across the Montana wilderness, they find human remains and animal carcasses littering the woods. The small town of Elmore is empty, the windows broken and streaked with blood. Trout Bridge-their only way out-is blocked by abandoned cars, none that were inbound. With the strange animals species closing in, Bishop realizes his group must take a stand. He's got a plan, and maybe they've got one last shot before the invasive species spread to the rest of the U.S.

    Inside, storytellers from around the world share times when, in the face of seemingly impossible situations, they found moments of beauty, wonder, and clarity that shed light on their lives and helped them find a path forward.From a fifteen-year-old saving a life in Chicago to a mother of triplets trekking to the North Pole to a ninety-year-old Russian man recalling his standoff with the KGB, these storytellers attest to the variety and richness of the human experience, and the shared threads that connect us all. With honesty and humor, they stare down their fear, embrace uncertainty, and encourage us all to be more authentic, vulnerable, and alive.

    Gail has written another heart pounding, page turner of a novel for Catholics who are straining to hear their Church's voice in what Pope John Paul II called "the final confrontation between the Church and the anti Church, the Gospel and the anti Gospel." Motherless takes the reader on a riveting behind-the-scenes journey around the globe to the boardrooms and laboratories where the architects of The Life Sciences Revolution are preparing Mankind's Final Solution... and into the confessionals and chanceries where the Church's response is being challenged.

    NO I DON’T!!!!IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT, HELLER HARRIGAN!!!!

    It confirms that her parents were employed by a secret, international organization that’s now intent on recruiting her. As Maren works to unravel the clues left behind by her mother, a murderous madness sweeps through the local population, terrorizing her small town. Maren must decide if she’ll continue her parents’ fight or stay behind to save her friends.With the help of Gavin, an otherworldly mercenary she’s not supposed to fall in love with, and Graham, a charming aristocrat who is entranced with her, Maren races against the clock and around the country from palatial estates with twisted labyrinths to famous cathedrals with booby-trapped subterranean crypts to stay ahead of the enemy and find a cure. Along the way, she discovers the great truth of love: that laying down your life for another isn’t as hard as watching them sacrifice everything for you.

    Michael Straczynski. Mark Antonelli, a failed young writer looking down the barrel at thirty, is planning a cross-country road trip. He buys a beat-up old tour bus. He hires a young army vet to drive it. He puts out an ad for others to join him along the way. But this will be a road trip like no other: His passengers are all fellow disheartened souls who have decided that this will be their final journey—upon arrival in San Francisco, they will find a cliff with an amazing view of the ocean at sunset, hit the gas, and drive out of this world. The unlikely companions include a young woman with a chronic pain sensory disorder and another who was relentlessly bullied at school for her size; a bipolar, party-loving neo-hippie; a gentle coder with a literal hole in his heart and blue skin; and a poet dreaming of a better world beyond this one. We get to know them through access to their texts, emails, voicemails, and the daily journal entries they write as the price of admission for this trip. By turns tragic, funny, quirky, charming, and deeply moving, Together We Will Go explores the decisions that brings these characters together, and the relationships that grow between them, with some discovering love and affection for the first time. But as they cross state lines and complications to the initial plan arise, it becomes clear that this is a novel as much about the will to live as the choice to end it. The final, unforgettable moments as they hurtle toward the decisions awaiting them will be remembered for a lifetime.

    But her commitments escalate as she deals with defiant behavior from five-year-old Ben and takes a niece into her home. Toni cuts her hours temporarily to part-time, terrified of "losing herself completely" to her family. Then she discovers that Ben has been photographed and molested by a child pornographer. Toni must finally make a choice that's not really a choice: "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it" (Mark 8:35, NIV).

    Among the families traced in Men, Women & Children: •Kent, a recent divorcé re-entering the dating world—and his son, Tim, a football star-turned-World of Warcraft-addict, who learns via Facebook that his mom is getting remarried. • Dawn, a single mom who charges anonymous men $12.95 a month to view suggestive online pictures of her daughter, Hannah—who wants to lose her v-card before any other eighth grader. • Don, who sneaks onto any available computer for his daily fix of streaming porn—and his son, Chris, whose porn tastes make his father’s look like Disney. • Patricia, who is determined to keep the demons of the Internet from preying on her daughter, Brandy—who uses her secret MySpace identity to try on an alternative Goth identity and blog about threesomes she’s never had. Whether thirteen or thirty-five, Kultgen’s characters inhabit a world where privacy is non-existent, sex is currency, and information never disappears—yet happiness is still a dream.

    Human kingdoms have seized control of the realm, scattering the other races into hiding.Bridazak, a skilled thief, and his friends, a Dwarf and a fellow Ordakian, have dared to remain within the human communities and live relatively quiet lives, until they discover a mysterious, magical artifact. The three friends are thrust into an adventure that will challenge their faith, their purpose, and their destiny as they chase a forgotten and lost prophecy across the realm of Ruauck-El, where they hope to discover the origins of the strange item and their place in its history.An ancient, unknown enemy threatens the completion of their journey at every turn. Bridazak is about to face the biggest adventure of his life, one that may change the known realm, and answer the questions he has carried all his life. Will they unlock the truth?

    But I’m not dead yet. I still need to keep things interesting. Sylvie, too. I mean, we’re kids, hospice-hostages or not. We freak out visitors; I get my uncle to sneak me out for one insane Halloween night. Stuff like that. And Sylvie wants to make things even more interesting. That girl’s got big plans.Only Sylvie’s father is so nuclear-blasted by what’s happened to his little girl, he glows orange, I swear. That’s one scary man, and he’s not real fond of me. So we got a major family feud going on, right here in hospice. DO NOT CROSS line running down the middle of the hall, me on one side, her on the other. It’s crazy.In the middle of all of this, really, there’s just me and Sylvie, a guy and a girl. And we want to live, in our way, by our own rules, in whatever time we’ve got. We will pack in some living before we go, trust me.

    62 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more – everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff. This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore.