Whitesands


Johann Thorsson - 2021
    In his frantic and unfruitful search for her two years ago, John Dark overreached and was reprimanded and demoted.Now suddenly back into the homicide department, Dark is put on a chilling case – a man who killed his wife in their locked house and then dressed the body up to resemble a deer, but claims to remember none of it. A few days later an impossibly similar case crops up connecting the suspects to a prep school and a thirty year old missing persons’ case. Just as he is getting back into his old groove, a new lead in his daughter’s disappearance pops up and threatens to derail his career again.Time is running out and John Dark needs to solve the case before more people are killed, and while there is still hope to find his daughter.In the style of True Detective and Silence of the Lambs, WHITESANDS is a thrilling supernatural crime novel.“Tense, breakneck storytelling. WHITESANDS is a dash of Thomas Harris swirled with supernatural elements that leave you speeding through the pages.” - Kristi DeMeester, author of SUCH A PRETTY SMILE and BENEATH"Johann Thorsson's fast-moving debut WHITESANDS, packs enough incident for a novel twice its size, until it's impossible to turn the pages fast enough." - John Langan, author of Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies"... certainly one of the best thrillers I have read this year." - Khasif Hussain, The Best Thriller Books

Hungry Hearts: Essays on Courage, Desire, and Belonging


Jennifer Rudolph WalshConnie (Milck) Lim - 2021
    Well-known womxn (and the occasional man) from all walks of life shared their most vulnerable truths in a radical act of love, paving the way for healing in the face of adversity.Now, off the stage and on the pages of Hungry Hearts, sixteen of these beloved speakers offer moving, inspiring, deeply personal essays as a reminder that we can heal from grief and that divisions can be repaired. Bozoma Saint John opens herself up to love after loss; Cameron Esposito confronts the limits of self-reliance in the wake of divorce; Ashley C. Ford learns to trust herself for the first time. A heartfelt anthology of transformation, self-discovery, and courage that also includes essays by Luvvie Ajayi Jones, Amena Brown, Austin Channing Brown, Natalie Guerrero, Sue Monk Kidd, Connie Lim (MILCK), Nkosingiphile Mabaso, Jillian Mercado, Priya Parker, Geena Rocero, Michael Trotter and Tanya-Blount Trotter of The War and Treaty, and Maysoon Zayid, Hungry Hearts shows how reconnecting with our own burning, undeniable intuition points us toward our unique purpose and the communities where we most belong.

State Change: End Anxiety, Beat Burnout, and Ignite a New Baseline of Energy and Flow


Robin Berzin - 2022
    Science shows that these issues are oftentimes intricately entwined with mood issues like depression, anxiety, stress, and persistent fatigue. In State Change, Dr. Berzin draws on cutting-edge research and her work with thousands of patients to tell the complete story of how our bodies drive our minds, mood, and energy levels. This builds on her work at her nationally renowned holistic health service Parsley Health, where Dr. Berzin and her team of over 100 highly trained medical providers focus on treating the whole patient, yielding extraordinary results for those dealing with gastrointestinal, hormone-related, autoimmune, and mental health conditions. This trailblazing book explores the new science of optimizing the body in ways that will help anyone attain a new baseline for energy, calm, and optimism. Dr. Berzin believes that treating common imbalances in the body is the only way to achieve what she calls a state change—a transformation to higher levels of mental focus, emotional stability, and flow. Leveraging Parsley’s unique patient data and successful proprietary protocols, State Change includes a 30-day program for resetting the body, mind, and mood. With easy-to-understand advice and detailed personalized assessments, State Change is the ultimate gateway to a positive mental state and peak physical health.

The Insurmountable Edge


Thomas H. GoodfellowThomas H. Goodfellow - 2020
    Top employees of a U.S. defense contractor dying at an alarming rate. A cryptic message sent by a strange, secretive source warns the contractor’s products have been corrupted and could be used against the U.S. Armed Forces.They all seem to be connected. But how?Only two men on earth are capable of putting it all together and those men are Jack Wilder and Jeff Bradshaw, two of the greatest special operations forces soldiers who have ever lived.There's a problem though. Jack and Jeff are off-duty at Jack’s ranch while Jeff tries to recover from a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Jack's seventeen-year-old ward, a hellcat named Adelaide, is also on the ranch. Nothing seems more impossible than getting the three of them to leave their safe commune. But then, a mysterious blue Maybach shows up at the ranch. The Maybach's visit sends Adelaide, Jack and Jeff off on a dangerous trail of murder and intrigue as they confront the insurmountable edge.“Thomas H. Goodfellow’s timely political thriller The Insurmountable Edge imagines a world in which the US and China move close to open warfare.” - Benjamin Welton, ForewordReviews.com

Instinct: A Novel


Jason M. Hough - 2021
    Welcome to Silvertown. Population: 602 (for now). Officer Mary Whittaker has yet to be fully welcomed by the residents of this tiny, quirky mountain town which seems to be home to more conspiracy theories than any other place in America. But with the chief of police on leave, she is left alone to confront a series of abnormal incidents—strange even by Silvertown standards. A teenager dies tragically after eating obviously poisonous mushrooms from his lawn. A hiker found dead on a trail, smiling serenely after being mauled by a bear. A normally doting mother leaving her toddler twins behind without noticing. Other residents seem to have lost all sense of self-preservation as they walk out in front of Mary’s moving cruiser or sit placidly in the middle of a sharp bend in a mountain road. It’s almost as if the townsfolk are losing their survival instincts, one by one. As she digs deeper into her investigation and uncovers a larger conspiracy lurking below the surface of Silvertown, Officer Whittaker finds herself on the brink of falling prey to whatever has possessed the town and she must distinguish the truth from paranoia-fueled lies before she ends up losing her own instincts…and her life.

Wish It Lasted Forever: Life with the Larry Bird Celtics


Dan Shaughnessy - 2021
    But it wasn’t always this successful. Before primetime ESPN coverage, lucrative branding deals like Air Jordans, and $40 million annual player salaries, there was the NBA of the 1970s and 1980s—when basketball was still an up-and-coming sport featuring old school beat reporters and players who wore Converse All-Stars.Enter Dan Shaughnessy, then the beat reporter for TheBoston Globe who covered the Boston Celtics every day from 1982 to 1986. It was a time when reporters travelled with professional teams—flying the same commercial airlines, riding the same buses, and staying in the same hotels. Shaughnessy knew the athletes as real people, losing free throw bets to Larry Bird, being gifted cheap cigars by the iconic coach Red Auerbach, and having his one-year-old daughter Sarah passed from player to player on a flight from Logan to Detroit Metro.Drawing on unprecedented access and personal experiences that would not be possible for any reporter today, Shaughnessy takes us inside the legendary Larry Bird-led Celtics teams, capturing the camaraderie as they dominated the NBA. Fans can witness the cockiness of Larry Bird (who once walked into an All-Star Weekend locker room, announced that he was going to win the three-point contest, and did); the ageless athleticism of Robert Parish; the shooting skills of Kevin McHale; the fierce, self-sacrificing play of Bill Walton; and the playful humor of players like Danny Ainge, Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell, and M.L. Carr.

Not So Happily Ever After: The Tale of King Ludwig II


Susan Barnett Braun - 2012
    He ruled the German kingdom of Bavaria for twenty-two years, inspiring his people by his support for the arts. And yet, "Mad King Ludwig" rarely appeared in the capital or attended any government functions. He slept most of the day and stayed awake all night. He dined with his horse and waved pistols at servants. He created a fantasy world inside his castles, complete with caves and trap-door tables. To this day, no one is sure exactly what caused his untimely death in a lake. Who was this man: fairy tale king? Insane eccentric? Mad King Ludwig's life followed many twists and turns on its way to Not So Happily Ever After. The book's intended audience is young adults, but it is perfect for adults wanting to learn more about Ludwig also.

One Hit Away: A Memoir of Recovery


Jordan P. Barnes - 2020
    But though Jordan had long accepted his fate, his parents still held out hope, and would do everything in their power to get him the help he so desperately needed.After a harrowing journey that proves the life of an active addict will always get worse, never better, Jordan found himself at the gates of Sand Island, Hawaii’s most notorious two-year inpatient treatment facility. He soon discovers that though his heart was in the right place, the hardest battle of his life was yet to come.One Hit Away is his arduous and unlikely true story of recovery, rehabilitation and redemption.

The Ballerina Mindset: How to Protect Your Mental Health While Striving for Excellence


Megan Fairchild - 2021
    It's a competitive and physically and mentally demanding career that combines elite athleticism, artistry, and performance. Not only do dancers rehearse for six to eight hours a day before performing at night, but they also must make it all look easy!As a principal ballerina with New York City Ballet and a one-time Broadway star--not to mention a mother of three and an MBA student--Megan Fairchild is all too familiar with these challenges. In The Ballerina Mindset, she shares all the wisdom she's learned from her nearly two-decade career, drawing upon her own experiences to show us how she learned to overcome challenges ranging from stage fright to negative feedback to a packed calendar to weight management--and how we can do the same. Inspiring, warm, and revelatory, The Ballerina Mindset is the perfect how-to guide for dancers, athletes, artists, and anyone struggling to stay sane in a high-pressure environment.

The Distance Between: A Travel Memoir


Mike McIntyre - 2014
    Luckily, something remarkable happens wherever he roams. With his keen eye and original voice, he portrays evocative travel moments both big and small. In Sarajevo, he skis with soldiers at the height of the Bosnian War. Outside a Mexican bullring, two boys mistake him for their idol, a professional wrestler. And returning to a tropical paradise, he’s assigned the same hotel room where an older woman broke his heart five years earlier.Along the way, he challenges a rival to a goat race in Saudi Arabia, searches for his missing shoes with barefooted villagers in Honduras, plunges through the Himalayas in aviation’s most terrifying final approach, and joins the U.S. Navy—for one week, anyway. To top it off, he reveals his favorite travel tip gleaned from forty years of globetrotting.By turns hilarious, wistful, and dramatic, The Distance Between draws a captivating self-portrait of a lifelong vagabond and a writer critics call “a reader’s dream” (San Diego Union-Tribune).

The Art of Sushi


Franckie Alarcon - 2021
    After revealing the secrets of chocolate to us, Franckie Alarcon offers a gourmet panorama of this exceptional dish that has conquered the planet! But do you really know sushi? The author traveled to Japan to meet all the players involved in the making of this true work of culinary art. From the traditional starred chef to the young cook who is shaking up the rules, including all the artisans and producers involved, this book covers the most emblematic of Japanese products from A to Z. A fascinating journey of discovery that, along the way, tells a lot about Japan itself. You’ll never believe the precision and detailed obsession with quality ingredients involved.

The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast: One Family's Cross-Country Ride of Passage by Bike


Matt Biers-Ariel - 2012
    But then his hard-to-impress teenage son, Yonah, refused to have a Bar Mitzvah as he approached age thirteen. No dancing with grandma or chanting traditional prayers? Something had to be done to celebrate this rite of passage. So Matt, his wife Djina, Yonah, and little brother Solomon decided to saddle up for a physical ride of passage -- one that would take them 3,804 miles by bicycle from the waters of the Pacific Ocean, across the Rockies, through Midwest small towns, and all the way to Washington D.C. Armed with ibuprofen, several gallons of Gatorade, and one unpredictable tandem bike (the "Beast"), the Biers-Ariel family pedaled across the middle of America, chatting with locals along the way, roasting marshmallows at campgrounds, and quarrelling over the state of climate change, religious identity, and several flat tires. They also collected thousands of signatures on a self-made global-warming petition calling for the United States to undergo its own rite of passage -- one of energy conservation.The Bar Mitzvah and The Beast is a funny, thoughtful memoir of one ordinary American family's extraordinary journey by bicycle, and an enlightening, warm exploration of the bond between a spiritual, nature-loving father and his ambivalent, computer game-loving son.

The Truth Within the Lies: Discovering Chris Watts: - Part Three - The Theories


Netta Newbound - 2020
    With those in mind, I will recap briefly the series so far…In Cold Blood: Discovering Chris Watts - Part One - The FactsWe guess it’s safe to say most people will have heard of the Watts case. Christopher (Chris) Lee Watts, the dashing, seemingly genteel, affable man who murdered his entire family in a calculated attack that shocked the entire world. Shanann Watts, his pregnant, incredibly beautiful wife whose life was snuffed out because her doting husband decided he wanted a fresh start. Bella Marie and Celeste Cathryn (CeCe) Watts, adorable sisters who worshipped their father, the very man who suffocated them both in cold blood using their comfort blankets against them. He then went on to dispose of their tiny bodies into huge tanks filled with toxic crude oil. Nico Lee Watts, Chris and Shanann’s unborn son.During this series we will look at the facts, the police investigation, the evidence, hear Chris Watts’ explanation and his reasoning. We will try to make some sense of what occurred during the early hours of August 13th 2018. We will endeavour to present to you all aspects of the case, right from the initial investigation and how it unfolded, to the first and subsequent confessions all transcribed word for word (where possible) from actual video and audio footage obtained from the FBI’s Discovery Files.A Deal With the Devil - Discovering Chris Watts - Part Two - The FactsAt the end of book one, Chris Watts had finally confessed to murdering his beautiful family and disposing of their bodies at an oil field.In part two, we focus on…•… the grim discovery and recovery of the bodies.•… the chilling details of the autopsies.•… the remaining police interviews of Nichol Kessinger.•… the Plea Deal.•… the sentencing.•… Chris Watts Prison Interview.What to expect in this book…The Truth Within the Lies: Discovering Chris Watts - Part Three – The TheoriesFor anyone new to this case, the first thing they ask is why? And unfortunately no amount of reading, or watching, or studying will answer that for you. The only person who knows the absolute truth is Chris Watts himself, and for some reason he has refused to confess all up to now. Oh yes, he’s confessed to much of it, but there are so many discrepancies, changed statements, obvious lies and omissions. The online True Crime Community is rife with scenarios and theories and some of them are eye-poppingly, jaw-droppingly valid. So we’ve given you the facts, and now we intend to put forward some of the theories to see if we can work out which truths have been weaved through the lies and vice-versa.Please note: These theories are not the opinions of the authors and in no way are they saying these events are actually true. But they are most definitely food for thought…

Full Out: Lessons in Life and Leadership from America's Favorite Coach


Monica Aldama - 2022
    Her uncompromising brand of discipline and consistency goes far beyond the mat—showing how the principles of building a winning team apply to personal goals, the corporate world, parenting, and all aspects of life.There’s a lot of talk these days about shortcuts and life hacks, but what really counts is commitment and integrity, helping your friends, and improving with your teammates. Coach Monica shares deeply personal stories of triumph and tragedy—from divorce and remarriage to her husband, her challenges as a young mother working more than full time, and her strenuous weeks on Dancing with the Stars. She shares surprising behind-the-scenes moments from the Cheer docuseries, and insights gleaned from more than two decades of pushing students to succeed. A true force and inspiration who has captured hearts around the world, Coach Monica will show you how to take command of your talent, make the most of your potential, and find your drive to win.

All the Way to the Tigers


Mary Morris - 2020
    Mary Morris was on the verge of a well-earned sabbatical, but instead she endured three months in a wheelchair, two surgeries, and extensive rehabilitation. On Easter Sunday, when she was supposed to be in Morocco, Morris was instead lying on the sofa reading Death in Venice, casting her eyes over these words again and again: "He would go on a journey. Not far. Not all the way to the tigers." Disaster shifted to possibility and Morris made a decision. When she was well enough to walk again (and her doctor wasn't sure she ever would), she would go "all the way to the tigers."So begins a three-year odyssey that takes Morris to India in search of the world's most elusive apex predator. Her first lesson: don't look for a tiger because you won't find it--you look for signs of a tiger. And all unseen tigers, hiding in the bush, are referred to as "she." Morris connects deeply with these magnificent and highly endangered animals, and her weeks on tiger safari also afford a new understanding of herself.Written in over a hundred short chapters, All the Way to the Tigers offers an elegiac, wry, and wise look at a woman on the road and the glorious, elusive creature she seeks.