It has become one of the most beloved sports novels ever written. Originally self-published in 1978 and sold at road races out of the trunk of the author’s car, reading the book became a rite of passage for many runners, and tattered copies were handed down like sacred texts from generation to generation.Once a Runner is the story of Quenton Cassidy, a collegiate runner at fictional Southeastern University whose lifelong dream is to run a four-minute mile. He is less than a second away when the political and cultural turmoil of the Vietnam War era intrudes into the staid recesses of his school’s athletic department. After he becomes involved in an athletes’ protest, Cassidy is suspended from his track team.Under the tutelage of his friend and mentor, Bruce Denton, a graduate student and former Olympic gold medalist, Cassidy gives up his scholarship, his girlfriend, and possibly his future to withdraw to a monastic retreat in the countryside and begin training for the race of his life: a head-to-head match with the greatest miler in history.This audiobook is a rare insider’s account of the incredibly intense lives of elite distance runners; an inspiring, funny, and spot-on tale of one man’s quest to become a champion.

    

    After a highly publicized and controversial exit from Mormonism, Lamborn intertwines the story of his awakening with psychological aspects of religious belief.

    ANGEL’S SONG: A companion short story to the novel “The Thorn”, book one of “The Chronicles of Gan” (speculative fiction). WATER: Based on the account found in the Gospel of John, chapter 5, verses 1-16, and the painting by Carl Bloch, “Healing at the Pool of Bethesda” (historical fiction).

    Twirty-Something: A Young Woman's Guide to Giant Underwear is a hilarious new Kindle Single from Award-Winning and Amazon Best-Selling author and humorist Ingrid Reinke.On the cold January day when Ingrid Reinke turned 30, she looked back upon the last decade of her life in deep thought before finally shaking her head and mumbling to herself the following insight: "Wow, what a shit show."So, she sat down, braless and alone, and penned a collection of laugh-out-loud essays about the ridiculous, shocking and occasionally horrifying things that happen to us as we ungracefully age from 20 to 30, try, semi-successfully, to leave our clueless years behind and become mature, responsible grown-up women.From weird hairs to boob sweat, OCD to weddings, Twirty-Something swings between a no-holds-barred conversation and a cautionary tale about aging and all the crap that comes along with it.Sometime instruction manual, sometime commiseration partner, get ready for Reinke's honest and occasionally potty-mouthed accounts of this tumultuous decade.So hike up your yoga pants, plop another ice cube in your Pinot Grigio and get ready to laugh at the author, young women in general, and most of all at yourself.

    In The Death of Trotsky, Cecelia Holland brings this fated and fatal day to life, from its quotidian beginnings to its dramatic close. Between Trotsky’s waking and his final rest, she probes the outer-workings and inner thoughts of those who were with him till the end, illuminating a man who exited life as he lived it: defiantly. Cecelia Holland, author of more than 30 books and articles, lives in northern California with her family.Cover Design by Adil Dara.

    So often, we take our bodies for granted. We’re rarely curious about how they work and what we can do to make them work better. In The Body, Bill Bryson takes you on a tour inside your body so you can gain a better understanding of how it functions and its amazing ability to heal itself. At the times you doubt yourself, or think of yourself as less than wonderful, this summary of The Body will remind you of the miracle you truly are.

    But that doesn’t make saying goodbye any easier. From the hit true storytelling podcast RISK! comes a beautiful and heart-aching memoir of a mother’s love.Mariah MacCarthy was a financially strapped playwright in Queens with two roommates. Nothing about that situation said Let’s add a baby to this. Nine months later, having Leo adopted by two gay dads was the most loving solution possible. All Mariah fears now is becoming a stranger. But as four lives are irrevocably changed, Mariah discovers that embracing the moment of farewell is just the beginning of a family story, by turns joyous and devastating.

    In his dexterous hands, an examination of a local professional wrestling promotion becomes a meditation on pain and his relationship with his father. A profile of UFO enthusiasts ends up probing his history in the church and, more broadly, the nature and limits of faith itself. Attending an adult skateboarding camp launches him into a virtuosic analysis of nostalgia. And the shocking murder of a neighbor expands into an interrogation of our culture’s prevailing ideas about community and the way we tell the stories of our lives. Even more remarkable, perhaps, is the way he manages to find humanity in a damp basement full of frat boys. Taken together, the essays in Up Up, Down Down amount to a chronicle of Knapp’s coming-of-age, a young man’s journey into adulthood, late-onset as it might appear. He presents us with formative experiences from his childhood to marriage that echo throughout the collection, and ultimately tilts at what may be the Biggest Q of them all: what are the hazards of becoming who you are? With “an ordnance of wit” (Wells Tower) and “a prose style that feels both extravagant and exact, and a big, booming heart” (Maggie Nelson), Up Up, Down Down signals the arrival of a truly one-of-a-kind voice.

     Move in closer. That's it. We'll all share our stories together, like a group of close friends. Stories of heartbreak and redemption—trouble and overcoming—questioning our faith and embracing it—and, most of all, finding hope at the end of every path. There's just nothing like a circle of warm friends to share life with. All 15 of us will take turns opening up our hearts to you—sharing little pieces of ourselves. Come join us. We'll even include discussion questions so you can reflect on our stories or explore the themes with a group. Our first two Hot Apple Cider anthologies won a number of awards and have nearly 90,000 print copies in circulation. They’re also now available as ebooks. Table of Contents “Subway Surprise” by A. A. Adourian “Love Has No Limits” by Donna Fawcett “Something to Crow About” by David Kitz “Desperate Missionary in Trouble with the Law” by Don Ranney, M. D. “A Time to Have Tea” by Vilma Blenman “In His Shoes” by Keturah Harris “The Ring” by Angelina Fast-Vlaar “The Right Thing to Do” by Ruth Smith Meyer “Everybody Needs a Friend Who’ll Tell It Like It Is” by Heidi McLaughlin “Picture This!” by Kimberley Payne “My Love Affair with Gym” by Glynis Belec “My Journey to Joy” by Dorene Meyer “Loving Play” by Vilma Blenman “Conversations in Baby Blue” by N. J. Lindquist “From Hard Places” by Carmen Wittmeier "Boulderdash” by Heather McGillivray-Seers