Shakespeare Burning


Charisse Moritz - 2019
     One mistake and seventeen-year-old Shake LeCasse lost everything. Now there’s no going back and no way to move forward. The once-popular Varsity hockey captain is living in the basement of a grandmother he barely knows, ditching school, avoiding friends and working hard on self-destruction. She’s the girl nobody sees. Cleo Lee survives however she can. Lie, cheat, steal, whatever it takes, and saving Mr. Popular isn’t part of the plan. Telling him the truth about the night that destroyed his life is downright dangerous. She needs to keep quiet, be smart and let the guy she’s been half in love with since middle school throw away a future she’d do anything to have. Too bad she sucks at playing it safe.

Take Off Your Shoes: One Man's Journey from the Boardroom to Bali and Back


Ben Feder - 2018
     A hard-charging CEO of a large enterprise, Ben Feder discovers that he is losing the very things that sustained him over his years of business success. Unsettled by his insight and determined to rebuild family relationships and rejuvenate his sense of purpose, he risks his career on a life-altering physical and emotional journey. Together with his wife and children, Feder sets off for an exotic island on a self-prescribed sabbatical year. That experience transforms them all. If 10% Happier made you more mindful, and Wild more adventuresome, Take Off Your Shoes will ground you and help you find your soul. The writing is honest and moving, baring the author’s innermost struggles and fears, and enticing the reader to share his quest. As Feder navigates the thrills and pitfalls of his time away, he draws us into remarkable examinations of values and priorities in adult life.

We Carry Kevan: Six Friends. Three Countries. No Wheelchair.


Kevan Chandler - 2019
    Kevan is just one of the guys. It's impossible to know him and not become a little more excited about life. He is an inspiring man permeated by joy, unafraid of sorrow, full of vitality and life! His sense of humor is infectious and so is his story.He grew up, he says, at "belt-buckle level" and stayed there until Kevan's beloved posse decided to leave his wheelchair at the Atlanta airport, board a plane for France, and have his friends carry him around Europe to accomplish their dream to see the world together! Kevan's beloved posse traveled to Paris, England, and Ireland where, in the climax of their adventure, they scale 600 feet up to the 1,400-year-old monastic fortress of Skellig Michael.In We Carry Kevan the reader sits with Kevan, one head-level above everyone else for the first time in his life and enjoys camaraderie unlike anything most people ever experience. Along the way they encounter the curiosity and beauty of strangers, the human family disarmed by grace, and the constant love of God so rich and beautiful in the company of good friends. We Carry Kevan displays the profound power of friendship and self-sacrifice.

Ubered: My Life As A Rideshare Driver


Evan Kail - 2016
    He’s been chasing a screenwriting dream ever since he was in college, and he’s put everything on the line to attain it. So when a new phenomenon called “Rideshare” enters his market in Minneapolis, Kail seeks opportunity in a job he believes will pay well and afford him time to pursue his calling. His only item of value, a BMW sports car purchased in the glory days of wealth, affords him a down payment on a used luxury sedan. Before Kail knows it, he’s a soldier in the trenches of a tech revolution, and he’s in way over his head. “UBERED” is a journey through the jungles of a wild young mind in an even wilder adventure driving full-time for Uber and Lyft. Over the course of one year, Kail dances with all hosts of personalities and professions, battles all sorts of scenarios, and struggles to realize what it means to be an independent contractor, and not an employee. Prepare for the craziest year of Kail’s young life, one that would leave him grappling to understand the very meaning of fate and all he thought was sacred.

Across the Street


Laurie Lisa - 2013
    For Sam, years of infertility, followed by an unthinkable tragedy, have left her despairing of ever having a child. Money is tight, and IVF is expensive. Sam’s only hope may be to ask her sister to be a surrogate. Alex will do anything for Sam, but when the sisters embark upon an unorthodox route to surrogacy, jealousy, guilt, and legal complications soon follow.As the limits of sisterly devotion are tested, the family’s hidden wounds and secret addictions come to light, shaking the foundation of their marriages and their lives.An emotional story of a woman’s struggle with infertility and a riveting book about the complexities of family, Across the Street makes an excellent selection for book clubs.

To the Greatest Heights: Facing Danger, Finding Humility, and Climbing a Mountain of Truth


Vanessa O'Brien - 2021
    Long before she became the first American woman to summit K2 and the first British woman to return from its summit alive, Vanessa O’Brien was a feisty suburban Detroit teenager forced to reinvent her world in the wake of a devastating loss that destroyed her family. Making her own way in the world, Vanessa strove to reach her lofty ambitions. Soon, armed with an MBA and a wry sense of humor, she climbed the corporate ladder to great success, but after the 2009 economic meltdown, her career went into a tailspin. She searched for a new purpose and settled on an unlikely goal: climbing Mount Everest. When her first attempt ended in disaster, she trudged home, humbled but wiser. Two years later, she made it to the top of the world. And then she kept going. Grounded by a cadre of wise-cracking friends and an inimitable British spouse, Vanessa held her own in the intensely competitive world of mountaineering, summiting the highest peak on every continent, and skiing the last degree to the North and South Poles. She set new speed records for the Seven Summits, receiving a Guinness World Record and the Explorers Grand Slam, and finally made peace with her traumatic past. During her attempt on K2, she very nearly gave up. But on the “savage mountain,” which kills one out of every four climbers who summit, Vanessa evolved from an adventurer out to challenge herself to an explorer with a high-altitude perspective on a changing world—and a new call to share her knowledge and passion across the globe. Told with heart and humor, Vanessa’s journey from suburban Detroit to Everest’s Death Zone to the summit of K2 and beyond, is a transformative story of resilience, higher purpose, and the courage to overcome any obstacle.

Brief, Horrible Moments: A collection of one sentence horror stories


Marko Pandza - 2017
    Murder, death and the dead. Family, friends, love and relationships. Food and eating. Fear, dread, and the unknown. Crime and punishment. The human body. Lock the doors, turn up the lights, and take a deep breath. A series of brief, horrible moments await.

Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days


Andrea Wilson Woods - 2019
    Facing the fight of her life, Adrienne discovered just how much she wants to live. In Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days, Andrea Wilson Woods chronicles her sister's remarkable life, from the time she was born to the day she dies at age fifteen. Written like a journal, Andrea takes the reader inside her and Adrienne's journey explaining how she gained custody of Adrienne from their mother and how the sisters' relationship evolved over time. Adrienne's courageous spirit shines through as she squeezes more life into 147 days than most people do in a lifetime. From meeting Jay Leno to spending the day with Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction, Adrienne makes every moment count.As she lay dying, Adrienne teaches Andrea how to live.

A Spy With Scruples


Gary Dickson - 2020
    . . or when all else fails, try blackmail. In July of 1964, after marrying in Paris, Desirée and Scott Stoddard are honeymooning in the South of France when their idyll is interrupted by a notice from Scott’s draft board advising him that his status is being reviewed. Desirée, the former French countess who is already three months pregnant, doesn’t understand why her new husband, an American, must traipse off to some military base in Germany to be tested. Scott’s remarkable scores on the tests attract the attention of the CIA, and Scott, much to his dismay, becomes part of their world of intrigue and deceit. How can he get back to the life that he and Desirée had envisioned? When all else fails, blackmail is the answer.A Spy with Scruples plunges readers into the complicated political world of Cold War Europe. From neutral Switzerland to the aristocratic salons of Paris to bombed-out Berlin, Scott ingratiates some and offends more. But he has a plan.

Happier Thinking


Lana Grace Riva - 2017
    I wasn't always so sure that was true until I experienced it myself, but I know now we don't have to just accept unhappiness. Not always anyway. This book is my collection of tips and suggestions that have helped me achieve happier thinking. It's sort of a gym for my mind. I'd love to tell you it was easier than the real gym but well… it's not really. It takes time, effort, and practice but it's absolutely well worth the rewards.

I Didn't Believe Any of This Hippie Dippy Bullshit Either: A Skeptic's Awakening to the Spiritual Universe


Julie Rasmussen - 2018
    What she finds is a hippie dippy awareness of who she really is. Of who we all are.A humorous and relatable memoir on spiritual awakening, Hippie Dippy Bulls**t is for those who are spiritually curious, are on the cusp of awakening, or who are already woke. It delves into concepts such as reincarnation, soulmates, synchronicities, and the Law of Attraction ... while always allowing, and encouraging, the reader decide their own truths.* Please note: Third-party, used copies are not the latest, updated version of this book.

Sprinting Through No Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France


Adin Dobkin - 2021
    From Paris, the war-weary men rode down the western coast on a race that would trace the country’s border, through seaside towns and mountains to the ghostly western front. Traversing a cratered postwar landscape, the cyclists faced near-impossible odds and the psychological scars of war. Most of the athletes had arrived straight from the front, where so many fellow countrymen had suffered or died. The cyclists’ perseverance and tolerance for pain would be tested in a grueling, monthlong competition.An inspiring true story of human endurance, Sprinting Through No Man’s Land explores how the cyclists united a country that had been torn apart by unprecedented desolation and tragedy. It shows how devastated countrymen and women can come together to celebrate the adventure of a lifetime and discover renewed fortitude, purpose, and national identity in the streets of their towns.

Drops of Cerulean


Dawn Adams Cole - 2019
    Cadmus is plagued with guilt and feels responsible for the death of his mother. Two worlds collide when, years later, Delphina comes to understand that she had been Ilona, Cadmus’s mother, in her previous life. Well written and engaging, Drops of Cerulean deals with topics such as socioeconomic class, LGBT rights and acceptance, rebirth, and past-life regression. Set in Houston and revolving around the city’s ever-changing skyline, Drops of Cerulean is an amazing debut from a gifted writer.

Growing Influence


Ron Price - 2018
    She is making an impact as a leader at a tech company, but after being passed up for multiple promotions, she finds herself at a loss for how to improve. Fate answers her in the form of a kind—and surprisingly direct—older man in a coffee shop. A well-respected CEO before he retired, David has deep and rich leadership knowledge. Emily needs direction, and David is the perfect mentor.Growing Influence offers readers both practical advice on how to develop leadership skills and a relatable account of one woman’s growth by applying the principles in the book. Unlike nonfiction business books or business memoirs, this story is a business fable that is both impactful and transformative.

Six Word Wonder


Doug Weller - 2020
    Some stories are funny, some poetic, some vulgar, and some are a little disturbing. Each story has been lovingly crafted to amuse and entertain you in six words.Six Word Wonder is a social media sensation, with over 10,000 followers on Instagram @sixwordwonderNow, for the first time, Doug brings his best tiny stories together in one collection. Unlocking the cage, she stepped out.Cupid. Tomorrow, aim for his head.Home alone, but toilet just flushed.Baby loves whining. Mother loves wine.…reader. I’m a very gifted mind…I poured two glasses… then remembered.Take a moment out of your hectic schedule to enjoy a Six Word Wonder.