Their children’s home Marshall’s is full of love and laughter, and a world away from their terrible ordeal of being sold to Una Reed for five shillings.There are many more children who still need a home, especially in a world where the workhouse is the last option for desperate families, and so Minnie makes it her mission to build Marshall’s into a refuge for all the waifs and strays. But kind hearts can be taken advantage of, and before long, Marshall’s in under attack. Can Minnie and Billy keep their family together and keep all the children safe, or will they be torn apart again? The Queen of the Black Country sagas is back with a heart-warming, unputdownable and unforgettable tale of triumph against the odds. Perfect for fans of Val Wood and Lyn Andrews.

    Sixty miles away, Cory, a city kid on a fishing trip, survives a boating accident that takes his father’s life. Now two boys the same age have lost their fathers­ on the same day.The story bends and twists through eight years, revealing the true impact of this tragic coincidence. For the hard-luck young priest who brings the boys together, it takes beating alcoholism and re-examining his calling to discover true love and grace. For the reclusive widow trapped between emptiness and forbidden love, grace proves to be elusive. And for the boys who grow to become best friends and star teammates in college, the very existence of grace is something they couldn’t have disagreed on more.Fall to Grace is picturesque, spiritual, and reflective—while never forgetting its first obligation: to be a flat-out page-turner. The story takes you to the far edges of loss where love can do surprising things for those willing to reach again. And it reminds us, none too gently, that only angels fall from grace. The rest of us fall toward it.

    Tour.

    It is Hamby's first act of thievery and the remorse of it so overwhelms him that he finds lodging for Arthur in The Castle, a warehouse supposedly owned by Melinda McFadden, an eccentric and fragile grande dame of imagined aristocracy who is known as Lady to the strange assembly of street people she has arbitrarily selected to be her Guests. There, Arthur finds his family-an ex-con shoplifter, a disgruntled seamstress, a young artist suspected of being a hooker, and a former boxer known as Lightning. For Arthur, it is the company that will change his life, as he, in turn, will change the lives of everyone he encounters. Yet, he does not know he will become entangled with political arrogance over a minor traffic mishap, or be targeted for brutality. He does not know he will encounter Wally Whitmire, proponent of the Destiny of the Dominoes, or that he will become an unqualified mayoral candidate put forth to serve as an irritant to the incumbent Harry Geiger. And he does not know he will be looked upon by the people of Savannah-fortunate and unfortunate, alike-as an icon, a beloved figure who wears a cape of invented royalty and distributes paper flowers made of cocktail napkins as gifts of comfort. Arthur knows only that he has found his place and his purpose.

    POST is a story about a group of friends, two of whom experience a collision two years apart.

    When you're No. 1, that means everybody..."Under the watchful eye of pro scouts and the weight of massive expectations, seventeen young men rank No. 1 in the country. In the tradition of Buzz Bissinger's classic Friday Night Lights, Blades of Glory follows these talented athletes, their coaches, their parents and their fans, offering a captivating glimpse into an elite program and the triumphs and tragedies of real life.***"The fervor with which Minnesotans celebrate hockey raises issues about sport and society that transcend Minnesota and reach into communities across the country, wherever kids play and parents cheer them to victory."-from the IntroductionFor a championship team like the Bloomington Jefferson Jaguars, hockey is religion and failing to win is a sin. This is a place where kids dream of playing for the state championship from the time they can pick up a stick, and parents plan their entire social calendar around the season.John Rosengren was given unlimited, season-long access to every harsh reality and euphoric high these teammates experienced during one full season at the top. Amid the turmoil, politics and pain, Blades of Glory draws into sharp focus the challenges of divorce, teen suicide and performance-enhancing drugs to examine what it ultimately means to win.Though Blades of Glory follows one hockey team, this story could be set in any gym, rink or field where students train and compete, coaches holler and parents scream from the stands. This is a story of high drama and emotion; intense and poignant, it is what happens to boys with championship dreams...

    In the AFC Championship game against Denver, to the surprise and dismay of virtually everyone, Rick actually got into the game. With a 17-point lead and just minutes to go, Rick provided what was arguably the worst single performance in the history of the NFL. Overnight, he became a national laughingstock and, of course, was immediately cut by the Browns and shunned by all other teams.But all Rick knows is football, and he insists that his agent, Arnie, find a team that needs him. Against enormous odds Arnie finally locates just such a team and informs Rick that, miraculously, he can in fact now be a starting quarterback–for the mighty Panthers of Parma, Italy.Yes, Italians do play American football, to one degree or another, and the Parma Panthers desperately want a former NFL player–any former NFL player–at their helm. So Rick reluctantly agrees to play for the Panthers–at least until a better offer comes along–and heads off to Italy. He knows nothing about Parma, has never been to Europe, and doesn’t speak or understand a word of Italian. To say that Italy holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement.

    With Coach Carter at the helm, the Oilers' record soon stands at 12 and 0. But when the coach learns that some members of his team are cutting class and failing academically, he locks them out of the gym, incurring the wrath of the players, the school, and the community. Coach Carter's determination to adhere to his convictions puts his philosophy and his players' trust to the ultimate test.

    You'll not find six more remarkable characters: a cashier-turned motivational speaker, an undertaker with a toenail fetish, a girl wrapped in dreams, a man who communicates with whales, a garbage man with a peculiar sense of smell, and a Guinness Book of World Records representative.

    From her scorpion tattoo to her other worldly charms, she's a shrewd woman-on-the-make who will not be swayed in her quest for the top.From her humble beginnings as a matron's assistant at a top girls' boarding school, Cath embarks on a journey that will take her from a Portsmouth backstreet to the boardrooms of the global empires. With a cast of footballers, media moguls, lords and dukes, Coleridge charts the rise of a woman who will not be denied, right to the very pinnacle of society—a Royal Wedding.N. D. Coleridge has been praised by everyone from Tina Brown to The New Yorker to Graydon Carter for his irresistibly funny and flawless dissection of social mores. Cutting a sweep from the 80s to the present day, this Vanity Fair for our age is keenly observed, hilarious, and utterly addictive.

    But in the aftermath of 9/11, Flynn leaves his wife and children, resigns his teaching position and heads west, only to get lost in his guilt and in the mountains of Colorado. When he ends up stuck overnight in a snow drift during a blizzard on the Continental Divide, he realizes he needs to remake himself into the kind of man his children need him to be. With wit and insight, David Hicks turns a compassionate but unblinking eye on what it means to be human—to be lost while putting yourself back together again, to be cowardly while being brave, to fail and fail again on the way to something that might be success.With wit and insight, David Hicks turns a compassionate but unblinking eye on what it means to be human—to be lost while putting yourself back together again, to be cowardly while being brave, to fail and fail again on the way to something that might be success.

    Because after you have read this book, you, Good Sir, will know how to be a pro athlete. And pro athletes don't need books. Or strong family bonds. Or any of that stupid crap. Not when they have ready access to millions of dollars and scores of smoking hot chicks with questionable judgment. This book will be all you require to cast aside your boring life as some jackass who cruises around bookstores hoping to score grad-school trim. With Men with Balls, you will learn how to: Showboat using classical pantomime techniques Figure out whether or not a stripper actually fancies you Emotionally cope from the emotional fallout of rookie year hazing games Find out which free locker room amphetamines will give you a shot of energy, and which will cause you to run down terrified schoolchildren with your Escalade (NOTE: Some do both) Avoid media scrutiny by directing beat writers and columnists to the nearest hot buffet So grab your balls, bookboy. You're about to become a home-run hitting, steroid-injecting, angry-orgy-having Turbostud. They're gonna need a whole ocean just to wash your jock.

    One waiter, one customer. The overnight fry cook rambles up to the pie case to take his nightly hit of dessert-topping propellant. It’s not a complete surprise when he falls to the floor; the stuff gives him the spins. That’s the point. It’s a bad moment for the boss to arrive, though. It’s worse when the cook turns out to be dead - from a bullet no one heard. For the waiter, it’s the start of the the worst few months of his life, and before it’s done he’ll be neck-deep in drug deals, romances with a faithless minx and an unintelligible Russian teacher - and a plot by campus radicals to blow something big. It’s 1980, after all. No shortage of things to deplore. They’re not too concerned with disco, though; that seems to be on the way out. “Graveyard Special” is another humorous mystery by the author of “Falling Up the Stairs,” and the first in a series of interconnected mysteries that span six decades.

    So when he comes across teenage runaway Chancy Deel sleeping in his garage, he sees an opportunity for both of them. Giving Chancy a home just might keep him from losing his. But in securing a place to live, these lonely hearts discover a place to belong.

    The story is based on thousands of athletes the author has counseled, and the great mentors and teachers from whom he has learned, told through the lives of two characters—a rancher with a passion for teaching truth and a young golf professional at the end of his rope. They represent each of us in the various stages of growth. In life we must be willing to coach and be coached, for either one alone will leave us empty.