We're seeing a lot of social criticism through literature these days, across all genres, and I think this book definitely contributes to that trend. Movie-wise, this kind of story never goes out of style. I see it as being sort of like the Hunger Games meets the Day After Tomorrow." -MCS Film Review Team“How fragile everything had been. People walked through life everyday taking it all for granted, their cars, their cell phones, their lattes, their dramatic social issues and their medical problems.”She had started her day at her home in the mountains just like any other. There was nothing unusual about making the familiar drive down to Sacramento to go to work. Then in a flash Mother Nature decided it was time to create a new landscape. Follow the journey of a dynamic young woman, mother and wife, Erika, as she is thrust into a world turned upside down by a series of natural disasters. Alone in a city mutilated by disaster, she must navigate the path home, back to her family. Not knowing if they are alive or dead she must call on all of her survival instincts to navigate this broken environment. Will she make it home? Will her family still be alive? What will Mother Nature dish out next?

    God made you for a reason, and The Battle and the Build will help you find your purpose and maximize your time, energy, and resources so you can best rise up to that reason.But this is not simply a book about having more discipline so you can live your dreams. The Battle and the Build is about pushing back the chaos and bringing about order to your life. It is about driving the evil dictator out of your heart and establishing the true King so you canovercome the deceptive strategies of sin aimed specifically at your weaknesses that bend your behaviors to broken ends,stop giving your heart to aimless affections and learn how to intentionally orient your life and loves around a God who cares for you,recognize that under your misdirected affections and motivations is a deep and good longing for God, anddiscover methods of overcoming personal shortcomings that do not rely on shame-based motivation.The writer of Hebrews declares we are called to “cast off all that hinders” and “run the race marked out for us.” We are called into the action! In our race we must both flee some things and pursue others. It’s not about being free of all struggles. Rather, we have been empowered to struggle well.

    More than 95 percent of the population died within 6 months of the initial infection. Those who survived holed up wherever they could find safety. My parents found their safety in the Cube, a building that was originally built as a prison for violent criminals. Mom and Dad have always told me the sacrifices we made to live in the Cube were worth it because we were safe. Its been 13 days, 12 hours and 42 minutes since my parents disappeared without a trace from our apartment inside the Cube. I'm going to leave the Cube for the first time today. Maybe I'll find my parents. Maybe, I'll be eaten by the zombies.

    Both are drawn into a race against time to stop the plot of an American bin Laden and prevent a global catastrophe.

    Secrets dug up from the grave. The truth about vampires has been unearthed. These are the journals of an ageless woman, a hybrid half human, half "Pet Mer," (Sky Gods in ancient Egypt). A blood drinker from the ancients. Their story is scarce told, but Kesi's is all too clear... She appears a delusive goddess, wanting more than anything a family. Unable to bear children, and after the death of her husband, she travels the world searching for a way to share her bloodline ("creating" children, later known as "Vampyre"). She offers aid to those who need her. But her deep desire to have kin of her own blood is not met, until she comes across a Chinese alchemist named Yin - another of her race. Hope for a life with him is banished, however, by his dark desires to destroy all the world's hybrid offspring, to find a "cure" for the "blood drinking aberrations" created by those of his and Kesi's kind. Taking what she needs and leaving behind chaos, Kesi runs, always searching. Her everlasting quest takes her through history, from one continent to the next; from her home in Egypt, to China, Rome, Scotland, and finally France. But she is never able to outrun Yin, and eventually she must face her enemy and the darkness within herself in order to have that which she truly desires. Read her story, learn the truth behind the "myth" of what humans call the vampire, read about Kesi’s unique take on her species and those they create, and discover the mayhem and bloodshed caused by a man determined to put an end to vampires forever.

    But the most important invention of all was the one that Miles claimed came from the mind of Thomas Edison himself--a machine that allowed one to speak with loved ones long passed. Smuggled out of Edison's laboratory, the blueprints were passed down to Miles, and he's been using them to protect Eva, her mother, Lily, and her brother, Errol, ever since.Then, one night when a storm is raging and the river is threatening to flood, the machine whirrs to life on its own. Danger, it says. You're in terrible danger. The next thing Eva knows is waking up on the side of the river and seeing her mother's grim face. Eva's father and brother are dead, their house has been washed away and an evil man is searching for them both. They need to hide.Eva changes her name to Necco--a candy she always loved--and tries to put everything in her past behind her as she adapts to her new life off the grid. But when her boyfriend is murdered and her mother disappears, she knows that the past is starting to catch up to her.What really happened the night of the flood? As Necco searches for the truth, her journey unites her with two women who are on desperate quests of their own. And as the trio follows the clues to solving the mystery of Necco's past, they discover that sometimes it's the smallest towns that hold the strangest secrets.

    She seems to drive her classmates away—except for the odd times they pay enough attention to torture her—but she doesn’t understand why. Maura considers herself to be a freak of nature, with her unusually pale skin and an aversion to the sun that renders her violently nauseous. Her belief is only worsened by the fact that almost everyone around her keeps their distance.Even her own father deserted her before she was born, leaving Maura alone with her emotionally distant mother, Caelyn. Even though Maura is desperate for answers about her unknown parent, Caelyn remains heartbroken and her daughter can’t bring herself to reopen her mother’s wounds. Or is there a more sinister reason Caelyn refuses to utter a word about her long-lost love?When a cruel prank nearly claims Maura’s life, one of her classmates, Ron, rushes to her rescue. Darkly handsome & mysteriously accepting, Ron doesn’t seem to want to stay away, but Maura is reluctant to get too close, since her mother has announced she’s moving the two of them to Vancouver…nearly 3,000 miles away from their hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania.If life wasn’t already challenging enough, Maura begins to experience bizarre, physical changes her mother seems hell bent on ignoring, compelling Maura to fear for her own life. Vicious nightmares, blood cravings, failing health and the heart-shattering loss of Ron—as well as the discovery of a tangled web of her own mother's lies—become obstacles in Maura's desperate quest for the unfathomable truth she was never prepared to uncover.