In this sordid and hilarious tale of whopping academic grants, sleeping on the job, sexual confusion and consenting adults, terrifying departmental secretaries, surprise impregnations and alcoholic lecturers we might conclude that most people are just not cut out for university life.

     Steven Christopher struggles to make sense of his life after his wife abandons him and their three children to join a polygamous cult. He meets Mary Fleming at his new ward and is deeply attracted by her beauty and intelligence, but his bitter experience with marriage makes him feel unworthy and afraid to give his heart to another woman. Mary, recovering from her own failed relationship, sees something in Steven that even he doesn't realize exists, but how can he trust her? Then the first great catastrophe strikes. Steven and Mary soon find themselves in the midst of apocalyptic prophecies regarding latter-day events—both terrible and marvelous—that unfold shortly before the Second Coming of the Lord. As natural disasters, plagues, anarchy, and the collapse of the American government lead to the degradation of civilization throughout the world, a great worldwide secret combination expands its evil influence. The people of God are the only power that can stand against this evil, people like Steven and Mary—if they will accept the challenge. Join Steven and Mary as they begin a tumultuous journey for survival in a dangerous world. Gathering Storm is a compelling novel that will have you turning pages and looking into your own heart to see how you might deal with the trials ahead. Fast-paced and well-researched, Gathering Storm is not only fascinating but technically sound. As you read this exciting LDS novel, you will recognize yourself and those in your ward, and you will be amazed at how ordinary people grow to meet extraordinary challenges. Adventure, romance, tragedy, and triumph—Gathering Storm has them all! —Rachel Ann Nunes, author of Ariana and Before I Say Goodbye

    Perfect for fans of Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and Andy McNab. The Chinese Dragon has awoken - and is narrowing its sights on the South China Sea.America - and it's president Morgan Taylor - cannot permit such territorial expansion to go unchecked. But America also cannot afford to go to war. To square the circle the President decides to employ the services of David Santos, a retired air force general and intelligence officer, and his "Bravo" team, a company of trained specialists.As the unit is deployed into South East Asia they know that America will deny all knowledge of their existence. Capture will mean torture - and death. Santos and Bravo team must try to prevent a war, working in the shadows. But they will not be alone. China has deployed its own unit, to counter the Americans and foment conflict and conquest. The fate of Bravo team in the South China Sea could shape - or shatter - the peace between two global superpowers.The clock is ticking. The race is on. Praise for The China Sea "The China Sea goes from zero to sixty and never slows down. Great story, great characters, and the real chance this is the blueprint of things to come. Must read." - William P. Wood, author of Broken Trust starring Tom Selleck"Cleverly crafted and masterfully written, with characters rooted in the dark realism of special ops,The China Sea by Richard Herman delivers a riveting, edge-of-the-seat novel of global intrigue as real as this morning’s headlines. Herman, an experienced story-teller and former U.S. air warrior captures both the subtle nuisance and stark dangers of a world teetering on the edge of mass destruction." Steve Martini“A skilled storyteller… Richard Herman knows how to describe the pressure and unpredictability of battle… He has a sure command of what it takes to hold the reader.” - Sacramento Bee“Herman is a master.” - Florida Times-Union“One of the best adventure writers around.” - Clive Cussler“Too many of today’s geopolitical thrillers ring false, but not Herman’s.” - San Francisco Examiner“Herman shines when he describes combat tactics… But it’s his characters that carry the story.” - Air & SpaceRichard Herman is a retired Air Force officer who flew C-130s and F-4s. While on active duty, he logged over 240 combat missions. He also taught at the Air Force Academy and served as an operations plans officer. After retiring, he turned to writing about the aircraft he loves, and is the author of fourteen novels – including critically acclaimed The Warbirds and Force of Eagles.

    The gifts, the music, the yearly seafood buffet, the orgy...what's not to like?But, like all children, he eventually finds out Santa isn’t who he thought. The good news is, unlike everyone else, Santa Claus actually is his mom. Even better, she wants Bert to take over the job. The bad news is there’s more to the job than stuffing stockings and getting his bells jingled. So what's a demon to do? Drag his friend Mark Vedis along for the ride, of course. Join Bert, Mark, and the Santa team as they go through hell in their quest to bring a merry Christmas to all. Especially for Bert.

    On Jenna Hall’s thirteen birthday, her mother committed suicide, a tragedy that continues to haunt the young woman twenty years later. Now, on her thirty-third birthday, Jenna’s pain over her mother’s death and abandonment is tempered by her hopes for a brighter future—of a happier life in the new home she’s buying with her beloved sister, Cassie. While touring the house, Jenna finds a secret room—a portal that magically transports her to an alternate reality in which her mother is still alive. It is the first of many alternate existences Jenna will experience in which she discovers a different version of herself and the people she knows, both the living and the dead. Accompanying her on these mystical journeys is her ever-present guardian angel. Traveling through these alternate realities, Jenna uncovers a long lost sibling, learns about her mother's past, reconnects with a childhood best friend, and meets her soul mate. Ultimately, she discovers newfound courage, confidence, forgiveness, and love—for herself, those around her, and those who are gone.Enchanting and thoughtful, House of Cry explores the consequences of our daily choices and the power they have to shape our lives, reaffirming our faith in restoration and the possibility of personal transformation.

    The graffiti on the holding room wall says it all: 'Gunyah is hell on earth'. And Ellen's about to find out why. Ellen was never the daughter her mother wanted. Patent leather shoes and frilly dresses just weren't her thing and, at age fourteen, she's ready to leave school and find her own way. No one is going to stop her from going where she wants, doing what she wants, and hanging out with Robbie. Or so she thinks. But when the police turn up, Ellen is deemed to be in 'moral danger' and is sentenced to the Gunyah Training School for Girls. Suddenly, she's no longer Ellen, she's Girl 43, and she has to follow the rules, work hard and - most importantly - stay quiet. When it's discovered that she's pregnant, there's no respite from the staff. Told she isn't capable of bringing up a child, they twist the truth to make her cooperate. But however hard they try, they can't destroy the connection between a mother and her child . . . or can they? Drawn from experiences in Parramatta Girls' Home in the seventies, "Girl 43" is a story that could have come straight from today's headlines about the shocking treatment of innocent children and teens by people in the very institutions that were supposed to protect them.

    A cemetery full of secrets. And murderous ghosts on the loose. After more than a decade, Connor Mann is forced out of the psychiatric ward he once called home. He finds himself back in the town where he grew up, with a distant father, and a tragedy all too painful to bear. His attempt to resume a normal life soon comes under attack when he encounters restless spirits lurking in the basement. And someone - or something - terribly vicious awaits him with open arms in nearby Pine Grove Cemetery. Meanwhile, a series of unexplained murders begin to wreak havoc on the town, and a group of detectives work tirelessly on the puzzling case. Unbeknownst to them, an elderly Chinese man, Hu, is on the lookout for a nefarious priest, who might hold the key to unlocking the mystery. As a legion of deadly ghosts cast an ominous cloud over Pine Grove, Connor must confront his tragic past and gather all his strength to defeat them. The battle against unimaginable evil will change everything he knows about himself, and the world.

    Even worse, this lifelong prepper has almost all of his preparing supplies at home in Atlanta! Torn between heading home, and rescuing his daughter at College, he opts to "bug-in", as everyone in the family has been trained, and knows to get to the river house if anything bad happens. He's terrified he'll pass them if he goes in either direction. Instead, he decides to pull together the full-time residents of this weekend community, even though only a small percentage of the homeowners are on the peninsula when the lights go out. What follows is a tale of leadership, survival, combat, romance and heartbreak as this veteran combat engineer uses every trick up his sleeve to hold off those that would take what they want from the community of Rock Harbor, VA. As the days go by, he builds an unexpectedly resilient team of retirees, stay-at-home mom's, Honduran construction workers and some neighbors from around the peninsula. This book of survival has some fishing stories, some romance, lots of things that go BOOM, and a group of interesting and diverse characters who are all just trying to survive when the United States is attacked. He builds a pack of Sheepdogs to protect the residents against the Wolves, who are constantly trying to conquer this seemingly unprotected community.

    She senses her biological clock ticking away and wants children while he doesn't. Not because he doesn't like children but because he feels a child would be just one responsibility too many.Nick's problem is his parents. He's devoted to them of course, but sometimes even he finds his patience wearing a little thin which in turn brings on the guilt. But they are rather a handful. They're conservative, highly eccentric and increasingly infirm. His Mum's so enormously overweight that her heart's now a bit dicky and she is certainly no longer up to looking after Dad by herself. He's got Parkinson's Disease - not the shaking kind, as Mum's always reminding people - but he's unable to do even the simplest task himself and needs constant care and attention.Nick knows the time has come to take the matter in hand but things need to be handled carefully. And so he and Laura take them to Malta for what they hope will be a happy final family holiday. Nick thinks his only problem is going to be avoiding Laura's amorous advances but this particular island turns out to be a sun-kissed cupboard with more than its fair share of skeletons...Tackling a taboo subject with sensitivity, understanding, great affection and good humour, What We Did On Our Holiday is a remarkably uplifting, moving and reassuring novel about a time in our lives when it seems roles are reversed and we find ourselves looking after the very people we'd always assumed would be there to look after us.

    Still haunted by the death of his young son, stalled in his writing career and overfond of the bottle, he finds himself abandoned by his wife for the summer - or, if he doesn't shape up, for good.

    Lewis yearns for his absent father, befriending the only other fatherless kids: Jimmy and Rose. One afternoon, Jimmy goes missing. The neighborhood in the era of the Cold War, bomb scares, and paranoia seizes the opportunity to further ostracize Ava and her son. Lewis never recovers from the disappearance of his childhood friend. By the time he reaches his twenties, he's living a directionless life, a failure in love, estranged from his mother. Rose is now a schoolteacher in another city, watching over children as she was never able to watch over her own brother. Ava is building a new life for herself in a new decade. When the mystery of Jimmy's disappearance is unexpectedly solved, all three must try to reclaim what they have lost.

    This 50th Anniversary edition contains a new foreword by his publisher and friend, Jay Shore, and an introduction by his sister, Diane Craddock, as well as a selection of photos, drawings and other writings by Craddock."Superb in the tradition of Kerouac’s On The Road, with overtones of Ken Kesey and Hunter Thompson’s Hell’s Angels, but Craddock’s style is all his own." — Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times"The definitive book of the acid-freak movement. A psychedelic pilgrim’s progress of beauty, intelligence, sensitivity." — Joseph Haas, Chicago Daily News"An astounding book, so good it defies praise. The writing is superb. Craddock is a born writer with an iceberg of talent." — Shane Stevens, Chicago Sun Times"Willam J. Craddock’s masterpiece, legendary to those in the know, is as exhilarating now as ever." — Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen, long listed for the 2016 National Book AwardMostly autobiographical, Be Not Content begins with the 16-year-old Craddock riding his beloved Harley Davidson with the Hells Angels, the outlaw motorcycle club, and getting into brawls and being chased by the cops. It’s an unexpected anomaly for this bright, middle-class kid from Los Gatos, California. Craddock then takes us through his college days publishing an underground newspaper, attending poetry readings with Alan Ginsberg, tripping at one of the first acid tests, and taking for days on end the strongest, most pure doses LSD. All of it done for the purpose of Craddock discovering the meaning of life.Barely 21 when he finished writing it, Doubleday bought the book in 1968 but held up publication until 1970. The first edition sold out with collectors prizing the few copies available, and copies going for as much as $950 on the Internet. Be Not Content is a powerful literary coming of age narrative that millions of Americans can personally identify with – an unforgettable time in the cultural and sociological history of America.

    Will she find them? Life in the small Amish community of Orthause, Pennsylvania is predictable to Hannah Zook. As the teacher of the one-classroom school, Hannah is happy with her life and relationship with Gott. The only question she has concerns Eli Reimer, the Mennonite man who wishes to marry her. Eli is the sort of man Hannah has always dreamed of marrying. But in order to marry him, she must give up her faith and join his. But when a man is found murdered, Hannah ends up with much more than romance on her mind. The victim’s wife Martha recently left him, and everybody knows why. Now she’s the number one suspect. Hannah knows her friend is innocent and will do everything to prove it. She is joined in her quest by her childhood friend, Abram, who quietly supports her even when others tell her to mind her own business. And as she works to solve the murder, Hannah might just find the answers to her prayers about her future–and he might have been under her nose the whole time. AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a 61-page stand-alone story with an HEA, so no cliff-hangers.

    Despite her new sunny locale, her plans go awry when she finds that she can’t quite outrun the past or bring herself to face an unknowable future. Every day of tropical bliss may be an invitation to disaster, but with her twin brother on her trail and a new relationship on the horizon, Libby is determined to forget about fate. Will she risk it all to live—and love—a little longer?From critically acclaimed author Camille Pagán comes a hilarious and hopeful story about a woman choosing between a “perfect” life and actually living.