But his luck has changed. Now he’s in the Preston house, where he has a budding romance with fellow foster child Lyssa. But something strange is going on in the basement.Maddy is a slow nine-year-old girl who is kept in the basement. Sometimes she talks in a gravelly adult voice. Sometimes she seems to know things about others that she couldn’t possibly know...and predicts things that always come true. And sometimes people from the government come by to spend time with Maddy down in the basement.Maybe Ryan’s luck hasn’t changed as much as he thinks.

    Buckley--into helping set him freeIn the 1960s, Edgar Smith, in prison and sentenced to death for the murder of teenager Victoria Zielinski, struck up a correspondence with William F. Buckley, the founder of National Review. Buckley, who refused to believe that a man who supported the neoconservative movement could have committed such a heinous crime, began to advocate not only for Smith's life to be spared but also for his sentence to be overturned.So begins a bizarre and tragic tale of mid-century America. Sarah Weinman's Scoundrel leads us through the twists of fate and fortune that brought Smith to freedom, book deals, fame, and eventually to attempting murder again. In Smith, Weinman has uncovered a psychopath who slipped his way into public acclaim and acceptance before crashing down to earth once again.From the people Smith deceived--Buckley, the book editor who published his work, friends from back home, and the women who loved him--to Americans who were willing to buy into his lies, Weinman explores who in our world is accorded innocence, and how the public becomes complicit in the stories we tell one another.Scoundrel shows, with clear eyes and sympathy for all those who entered Smith's orbit, how and why he was able to manipulate, obfuscate, and make a mockery of both well-meaning people and the American criminal justice system. It tells a forgotten part of American history at the nexus of justice, prison reform, and civil rights, and exposes how one man's ill-conceived plan to set another man free came at the great expense of Edgar Smith's victims.

    Includes: Love Handles Love Letters Love Lately Each steamy sweet short story has an handsome man, curvy woman and happily ever after.

    The Gospel of Thomas, from manuscripts discovered in Nag Hammadi

    Grab a cup of hot cocoa, curl up with a blanket, and relax by the fire as the snow falls quietly on Peony Harbor...Anna Harper hasn’t been home for Christmas in over three years—ever since she got promoted to editor in chief of the popular Stylish magazine in New York City. But this year is different. When a slew of layoffs hit the glam company a week before the holidays, Anna is both out of a job and in need of a change of scenery.When Anna returns home to the cozy little island off the coast of New England, she’s only expecting to stay a few days at her sister’s beachfront inn. But when she steps foot on Aster Island, she’s in for one festive surprise. On her first day there, Anna runs into a mysterious guest at the inn—while wearing elf pajamas no less—and although she hates to admit it, Ryan Jackson is bringing up feelings in Anna she's not sure she’s ready to explore.Anna’s dreams of settling down and having a family were pushed aside as her career skyrocketed, but maybe it’s time for a change. This year, something’s in the air, and a little pinch of Christmas magic is trying to prove her wrong. As the holidays swing into full gear, Anna must make a decision. Will she give herself over to a Christmas miracle, or when New Year’s Eve rolls around, will she be back in New York City… alone?

    Includes a 45-minute interactive DVD.

     But, when he starts to get lonely, he sets out to tame an ocelot or a wolf for a pet. And that is when things start to go horribly wrong with his plans for a nice, quiet life. When a mysterious stranger pays him a visit, things really start to get weird. This Diary of a Werewolf Steve is creepy and eerie. Read it if you dare!

    He broke in as his helpless victims slept, bound them one by one, and then stabbed, assaulted, and strangled all eight in a sadistic sexual frenzy. By morning only one young nurse had miraculously survived. The barbarity of the attack shocked a nation and opened a new chapter in the history of American crime: mass murder. Here is the never-before-told story of Richard Speck by the prosecutor who put him in prison for life."In the Crime of the Century," William J. Martin has teamed up with Dennis L. Breo to re-create the blood-soaked night that made American criminal history, offerning fascinating behind-the-scenes descriptions of Speck, his innocent victims, the desperate manhunt and massive investigation, and the trial that led to Speck's successful conviction. In 1991 Richard Speck died of a heart attack in prison, but the horror of his crime still haunts the conscience of a nation.

    The recovery of her ravaged body two days later sparked Australia's greatest police manhunt and ignited unprecedented fury and outrage across the nation.

    Then a blizzard closes the highway, her cell phone dies, and her car runs out of gas in the middle of nowhere! Seeking refuge, Ashley stumbles across Camp Cedarwood, where she spent a summer in her teens and experienced a whirlwind romance, culminating in an almost-kiss and a heartbreaking rejection. A Christmas program is in full swing at the camp, run by the handsome and charming Marc Rollier, the same man Ash turned down all those summers ago.Now, with the snow falling and the roads closed for days, Ashley becomes Cedarwood's newest camper. The camp has a lot in-store for her: guests to befriend (including a family with a tragic secret), a decades-old mystery to solve, and an exciting (and embarrassing) Christmas Cup competition that will put her head-to-head against Marc. And as Ashley feels drawn back to Cedarwood, and Marc, she's going to find out if the middle of nowhere is the best place for second chances. Christmas at Camp Cedarwood is a heartwarming, wholesome Christmas romance that will have you laughing, crying and believing in the power of love and the magic of the season during the most wonderful time of the year.

    Embracing all eras and highlighting the many faces of Sufism, this collection provides a matchless overview of the complex, rich traditional that has touched a dozen cultures and endured for more than fifteen hundred years.Selected works from ancient prophets and sages to contemporary Sufi poets and teachers – including Ibn, Arabi, al-Ghazzali, Hafiz, Attar, Koranic writers, and, of course, the enduringly popular Rumi – make up a delectable feast of writings that will be treasured by devoted Sufi lovers as it will stir the souls of newcomers to this mystical, passionate faith."A treasure of jewels in the tradition of Sufi soul-work. I really love and value this book."COLEMAN BARKS, author of 'The Essential Rumi'

    The Japanese are encircling the city, and the discovery of Pamela Werner's body sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? Or perhaps the dreaded fox spirits? With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives—one British and one Chinese—race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever. Can they find the killer in time, before the Japanese invade?Historian and China expert Paul French at last uncovers the truth behind this notorious murder, and offers a rare glimpse of the last days of colonial Peking.Winner of the both the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the CWA Non-Fiction Dagger

    Shuler leads us through the twenty-eight days of terror and shocking events of one of the most notorious double murders and manhunts in South Carolina history. Shuler shares her own personal interactions with some of the key players in this famous manhunt and investigation. Also included are Bell’s chilling calls from area phone booths to the Smith family, along with his disconcerting interviews and bizarre actions in the courtroom, which show the dark, evil and criminal mind of this horrific killer. This case has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s FBI Files, episode “Cat and Mouse,” and in the CBS movie Nightmare in Columbia County, which can still be seen on Lifetime TV. It currently runs as the episode “Last Will” on Court TV’s Forensic Files.

    Among the most empowering of the forgotten elements are references to a science with the power to bring everlasting healing to our bodies and initiate an unprecedented era of peace and cooperation between governments and nations.In his groundbreaking new book, The Isaiah Effect, Gregg Braden turns to the Isaiah Scroll, perhaps the most important of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1946, to offer insight into a powerful form of ancient prayer.  In The Isaiah Effect, Braden, author of Awakening to Zero Point and  Walking Between the Worlds, combines research in quantum physics with the works of the prophet Isaiah and the ancient Essenes. He demonstrates how prophecies of global catastrophe and suffering may only represent future possibilities, rather than forecast impending doom, and that we have the power to influence those possibilities. In addition to describing multiple futures, the Isaiah texts take us one step further, clearly describing the science of how we choose our futures. Tracing key words of Isaiah's text back to their original language, we discover how he taught a mode of prayer that was lost to the West during Biblical editing in the fourth century. Braden offers detailed accounts of how elements of this mode of prayer have been applied in a variety of situations, ranging from healing life-threatening conditions to entire villages using collective prayer to prevail during the 1998 fires in southern Peru. In each instance, the correlation between the offering of the prayer and a shift of the events in question was beyond coincidence--the prayers had measurable effects! As modern science continues to validate a relationship between our outer and inner worlds, it becomes more likely that a forgotten bridge links the world of our prayers with that of our experience. Each time we engage ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities with Isaiah's life-affirming message of hope, we secure nothing less than our future and the future of the only home we know.From the Hardcover edition.

    Beside him is Liz from Accounting. The sun sets, and the temperature plummets. Unwittingly, the pair take refuge in the empty lair of a predator with long fangs and an even longer memory.Armed with nothing but a blunt cutlery knife and paperclips, John and Liz struggle to survive in the wilderness. But hunger, cold, and vicious animals are the least of their problems. Just wait till they meet the natives.