He works with dysfunctional teenagers, and where everyone else sees apprentice career criminals, he sees hope. No-one has ever taught him to accentuate the positive; his mind is simply built that way. He adores his family: Karen and the children are the centre of his world. So when he finds that one of his few teenage success stories has wound up working in a massage parlour, he knows he has to help. He’ll pop in for a little chat – thats all it will be. But try telling that to anyone else. Karen’s not convinced, and maybe she has her reasons to be suspicious. Alvin finds that one mistake, arising from the noblest of motives, will propel events out of control. Now cast adrift, Alvin’s only allies are the teenagers everyone’s given up on. They’re great at supplying dodgy DVDs and ringtones – but can they help him get his life back?

    The first story is called The Perfect Life. This tale is about Rene Carter and two of her closest friends. Rene is a well respected Baltimore City police officer who is very good at her job. She is married and her husband is a well known attorney who loves her dearly and worships the ground she walks on. Rene is living the perfect life, but she has a dark side. The only people who know her secret are Tonya Lewis and Rhonda Harris who are also police officers. Rhonda resents everything about her and would love to see her fall flat on her face. The second story is called Imitation. Stacie Sims is an up and coming emergency room physician. She has a loving fiancé named Billy Addams. Billy is the son of a wealthy business man. He is the perfect man for Stacie, but he is hiding a dark secret from her. So sit back and enjoy the worlds of Rene and Stacie who both quickly learn that life can get tangled like a spider’s web.

    A refreshing addition to the thriller genre." - Foreword Clarion Reviews"The scenery, food, and wine, coupled with a burgeoning love affair, create an appealing sense of joy." -- Kirkus ReviewsIn this tale of corporate skullduggery and mystical awakening, a multibillionaire decides to radically alter his course and seek a clearer path to happiness.For New Yorker Nick Dalca wealth is a birthright, but his perfect life is starting to crumble around him. His private jet? Missing. Wife and son? Presumed dead. Having no one left to continue his family legacy, Nick makes a shocking decision: negotiating the future of his business conglomerate, a sale which may turn him into the richest man in the world.Threats to his plan begin to emerge with the scent of corruption and extortion. All alone, he becomes closer to his longtime secretary, Anne. Apparently she can talk to dead people. While Nick's pragmatism is tested, he is stunned to find there is a higher power hidden within himself. In order to learn about the fate of his family Nick will talk to anyone from hell or heaven--whichever comes first.

    But like those same customers and staff, they hold many secrets. If examined carefully, they show the signs of innumerable extravagancies, of immeasurable pleasure and pain, and of the deep mysteries of the human heart.Hitomi, the inexperienced young woman who works the register at Mr. Nakano's thrift shop, has fallen for her coworker, the oddly reserved Takeo. Unsure of how to attract his attention, she seeks advice from her employer's sister, Masayo, whose sentimental entanglements make her a somewhat unconventional guide. But thanks in part to Masayo, Hitomi will come to realize that love, desire, and intimacy require acceptance not only of idiosyncrasies but also of the delicate waltz between open and hidden secrets.Animating each delicately rendered chapter in Kawakami's playful novel is Mr. Nakano himself, an original, entertaining, and enigmatic creation whose compulsive mannerisms, secretive love life, and impulsive behavior defy all expectations.

    A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo; they work at home, freelance copy-editing; they no longer have very much to say to one another. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways. Life suddenly seems to have more promise for the husband and wife — the days have more light and color. The novel brims with new small joys and many moments of staggering poetic beauty, but then something happens….As Kenzaburo Oe has remarked, Takashi Hiraide’s work "really shines." His poetry, which is remarkably cross-hatched with beauty, has been acclaimed here for "its seemingly endless string of shape-shifting objects and experiences,whose splintering effect is enacted via a unique combination of speed and minutiae."

    If a friend told you a riddle, normally you would ask him for a clue before giving up and ask for the answer. So why not get a little help for a riddle book, too? Even if you think a riddle is hard, getting a clue before seeing the answer will make the game much more interesting and fun. This riddle book is specially formatted to provide clues with a simple click, before providing the answer! For each question, click on “Give me a Clue” to get a little bit of help. If you are certain about the answer, ignore this and go straight to “Show Answer”. Then you can “Go to the Next Riddle”. Why this Book is a Great Buy! Challenge yourself, your friends, partner or family and have some fun exercising your brain at the same time! Here is why you are going to enjoy everything about this book: You can ask for a clue before seeing the answer which is really great and makes the game a lot more fun! It is very easy to use, even when you are on your daily commute or waiting in public. It is easy to navigate between questions, answers and clues! All riddles are smart and interesting The riddles are neither too easy nor too difficult. The difficulty level is appropriate for beginner adults or teens, and even for smart kids. (If you are an advanced solver, please “look inside” the book to decide if the difficulty level suits you). You can play alone or together with your friends and family (fun guaranteed!) What you will Find in this Book Each one of the 100 riddles is hyperlinked to a clue and to the solution, and that provides a maximum ease of navigation. This book contains some of the world’s most famous riddles, and also many lesser known gems. This collection contains: "How is this possible?" riddles Recently a mother gave birth to two girls on the same day, at the same time, in the same month and year and yet they're not twins. How is this possible? Lateral Thinking riddles How can you alter the following equation by a single stroke (straight line) to make it correct? 5 + 5 + 5 = 550 Logic riddles A woman was horrified to find a fly in her tea. The waiter took her cup and went into the kitchen and returned with a fresh cup of tea. She shouted, "You brought me the same tea!" How did she know? Word riddles There is a word in the English language in which the first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four signify a great man, and the whole word, a great woman.

    Fast Food for the Soul   We are what we think. We can change our lives by changing our thoughts. Our thoughts and words are all-powerful. Through our thoughts and words, we create our lives.   In this simple yet important book, Barbara Berger shows you how to harness the power of the mind to create the life you want. She reminds us of what is available to us - from the power of release and saying no to focusing, blessing, and giving. And she offers fast, effective techniques for solving health problems, financial difficulties, and other life challenges. Give your soul a boost and your heart a pick-me-up - when you change your thinking, you will ultimately change your life.   Decide on the life you want, visualize it, affirm it, decree it, focus on it, believe it, have faith in it, and you will find yourself living this life much sooner and faster than you ever dreamed possible.

    Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Yoshida Kenko (c. 1283-1352). Kenko's work is included in Penguin Classics in Essays in Idleness and Hojoki.

     When his roommate forced Elliot to find a job, he applied for the secretarial position at Bethel Community Church. But, in a case of mistaken identity, the ranking church officer thought Elliot was the perfect candidate for the open pastoral position. He must become a pastor in a hurry because the church is falling apart. The church needed a jolt and Elliot needed a job. Find out what happens when a novice minister finds himself in the driver’s seat of a church? Will the church find their perfect pastor, or will they send him packing?

    Her father’s tragic death earlier in the year still haunts her. For decades, Juan Velarde Cortez obsessively hunted a legendary treasure, and his passing has left unresolved feelings for Fawn. Now, when a series of grisly killings rock the small island community—each victim’s face has a distinct signature—Fawn suspects a bizarre connection between the murders, her father’s quest, and the death ritual of an infamous Seminole Indian from the 1800s. A cigar box that once belonged to her father appears to hold the key. As Fawn draws closer and closer to solving the 200-year-old puzzle and determining the killer’s identity, she will be forced to unravel historical clues that will lead her on a harrowing journey. Time is quickly running out as a serial killer is watching and waiting in the shadows. Will Fawn discover the truth before she becomes the next victim? With historical links and storyline twists, this follow-up to Gary Williams’ & Vicky Knerly’s debut novel, Death in the Beginning, engages all the necessary elements of and delivers a fast-paced, heart-pounding thriller. This is a new release of a previously published edition.

    The manga exposes the "illness" of the Japanese hospitals and how their system is not designed to care for the patient.The manga is appropriate for mature audiences and contains blood, nudity, harsh language, and sex.

    Their expanding families and abundance of friends always keep them busy. And as they walk arm in arm to the shops every day they are greeted with warmth by their neighbours, for wherever they go they bring fun and laughter with them.Their rock-solid friendship has lasted over twenty years, through good times and bad, and never once have Molly and Nellie fallen out. The two best mates love a bit of excitement so when they learn there is a wedding in the offing which will bring the Bennett, McDonough and Corkhill families even closer it gives the intrepid pair a good reason to save up for a visit into Liverpool and to the shop selling wedding hats. As Nellie says to Corker: 'It had better be a posh wedding to match me posh new hat.'

    Scott Carver is asked to make this decision when "M.O.D." asks him to help plan a revolution.

    The RAF is on the verge of defeat, the Royal Navy near mutiny.In an underground bunker, Churchill and the British commanders await the onslaught. Their plan to throw back Hitler's army is about to be put to the test.Churchill is confident they can throw back the enemy.But not all his enemies are abroad.

    In four parts.Tomb of the Lost is an action/adventure novel that spans 2300 years.Babylon, Persia 323bc.On a bed a man lays dying. Alexander the great, King, the Lion of Macedon has a mysterious fever. He became king at twenty, dying at thirty three, having conquered the known world. Following his death his General and friend Ptolemy takes the body and inters it into a magnificent tomb in Alexandria, Egypt. The very city Alexander founded.Two thousand three hundred years later and the leader of Germany Adolf Hitler who is a great collector of antiquities orders the sarcophagus, lost two thousand years before by Julius Caesar's legionaries, to be found and brought to Berlin.Hitler assigns a team of his Wehrmacht commanded by a General and his Colonel and a team of SS led by a fanatical Major to locate it.With their mission a success the Germans descend on the port town of Gabes, Tunisia just as the town is about to be over run by the British and as the battle for North Africa reaches its brutal climax the sarcophagus is lost once again leaving only one man alive to tell the tale.That man is Alfred Dennis.Nearly seventy years later and marine archaeologist Natalie Feltham and her team with the help of Peter Dennis, a journalist and grandson of Alfred Dennis, make the greatest discovery in modern archaeology.Now it's a race against time for Natalie and her team as dark powers from Germany's Nazi past try to take what is rightfully hers.