Before the Eradication.One man had a chance to stop it all, and failed...Captain Dryker is a washed up vet mining on the fringes of the Kuiper belt. He loads rocks into the Folly’s railgun, and fires them back to his corporate overlords on Earth. Boring, just the way he likes it. Until one day it isn’t.An alien signal bursts from Pluto, which as it turns out is neither a planet, nor a planetoid body. It is an ancient defense satellite activated because it detected the return of the Vuka Spectra. The Void Wraith.Dryker is the closest ship on the scene, but not the only one vying for the prize. Hostile aliens have emerged from our sun using something called a Helios Gate. The savage Tigris have come not just for the satellite, but to conquer Earth.Dryker’s only hope is finding something, anything, within the installation to counter the alien’s superior technology and save mankind.The prequel to the Void Wraith Saga. Learn how it all began...

    It is also a crucial question for Australia, affecting our future economy and security.In this essential book, White considers the options for the Asian century.As China's economy grows to become the world's largest, America has three choices: it can compete, share power or concede leadership in Asia. The choice is momentous – as significant for America's future as any it has faced.White controversially argues that America's best option is to share power with China and relinquish its supremacy. As these two behemoths face off across the Pacific, the choice America makes will also have an enormous impact on Australia. The China Choice is an urgent intervention in the China debate and provides a blueprint for a peaceful future.'White brings erudition and a first-rate intellect, without the baggage of prejudice, to analyse the single most important issue that will determine whether Australia lives in a peaceable environment in the years ahead – a must-read.' —Bob Hawke'Hugh White's The China Choice is an exceptionally thoughtful synthesis of the arguments and influences which bear upon the coming shape of the Pacific.' —Paul Keating

    The RAF is on the verge of defeat, the Royal Navy near mutiny.In an underground bunker, Churchill and the British commanders await the onslaught. Their plan to throw back Hitler's army is about to be put to the test.Churchill is confident they can throw back the enemy.But not all his enemies are abroad.

    Probing ancient Christian practices for renewal, Almost Holy Mama chronicles one mom's quest to discover an answer to her most pressing question: Can God use the challenges of parenthood to grow your character?You long to spend time with God and catch your spiritual breath, but you find yourself honestly wondering--how and when? Ellis gets its. It's hard to carve out space for a quiet moment with God, let alone a quiet time! Instead of adding more tasks to your plate, Almost Holy Mama will help you integrate your spiritual practices into your daily life. From studying Scripture in the shower to listening in prayer at the foot of Laundry Mountain, Ellis finds that meeting God in sacred disciplines can breathe new life into one of life's most joy-filled and trying seasons.Paperback, 256 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, ISBN 9781628627909. Table of Contents:Running on Empty, Longing for More Car Rides & Contemplation: Finding Jesus on the Freeways Sleepytime & Service: Sacrificial Love at the End of a Long Day Eating & the Examen: Finding God at the Dinner Table Laundry & Listening Prayer: Because Sometimes the Voice of God Sounds a Lot like the Dryer Showering with Scripture: Wash over Me, Lord Fasting from Facebook: Giving Up to Gain Suffering & Stillness: Because Sometimes All You Can Do Is Nothing Getting Ready with Gratitude: Thanksgiving amid Chaos Travel & Pilgrimage: Going Away and Coming Home Ceasing & Celebration: Discovering the Playful God Almost Holy, Fully Loved: Where Do We Go from Here? Perfect for:Parents Gifts for expecting parents Single mother/father groups Foster parents and guardians Pastors and counselors And more About the Author Courtney Ellis serves as associate pastor for spiritual formation and mission at Presbyterian Church of the Master. She holds degrees from Wheaton College, Loyola University of Chicago, and Princeton Theological Seminary, and has been published in Marriage/Partnership, Rock & Ice Magazine, and Christianity Today Women. She's a contributor at The Glorious Table and The Mighty. Courtney is a sought-after speaker for leadership and women's retreats, MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), and young adult ministries. She's a gifted storyteller with strengths in bringing parents, marrieds, singles, and millennials together. Courtney lives in southern California with her husband (and co-pastor) Daryl and their children.

    What we don't see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party's struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals-fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture-consider themselves "angry youth," dedicated to resisting the West's influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth? Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail.

    It's where visitors go to cajole, connive, and most of all, complain. Guests cry. They lie. Some even collapse to the floor. For these unhappy campers, Annie Salisbury was the power behind the pixie dust. Her tell-all will shock and amaze.From her unhappy start as a DisneyQuest cast member, Annie worked her way through the theme parks to Guest Relations, and then Magic Kingdom tour guide. Along the way she made friends, she made enemies; she delighted some guests, disappointed others; she discovered the vast gulf behind the public face of Disney and the backstage cauldron of politics, jealousy, and betrayal.Annie's witty, incisive memoir is a fascinating tale of day-to-day interaction with the people behind the pixie dust, and the pushy public who want some of it, no matter what: Share the pain of Annie's disastrous stints at DisneyQuest and the Great Movie Ride Learn the ins and outs of Walt Disney World Guest Relations Stand behind the counter at City Hall in Magic Kingdom and meet some of the craziest guests ever to set foot in the park Tag along with one of Annie's Magic Kingdom tour groups Meet a rogue's gallery of cast members who come to work each day to create magic ... for themselves WALT DISNEY WORLD GUEST RELATIONS: WHERE PIXIE DUST TURNS TO ACID RAIN

    It is a known fact that Crookshanks helped Sirius Black in the capturing of Pettigrew in his rat form, back in Harry Potter's third year.But what if Crookshanks was in fact a human just like Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs? What if she was James Potter's twin sister? And why did Dumbledore do almost everything in his power to keep her identity a secret from Harry? This is the forgotten story of Jenna Potter.[Marauder's Era]A book by @TinaX2 on Wattpad.

    Buck.In the small southern town of Chin-kiang, in the last days of the nineteenth century, two young girls bump heads and become thick as thieves. Willow is the only child of a destitute family, Pearl the headstrong daughter of zealous Christian missionaries. She will ultimately become the internationally renowned author Pearl S. Buck, but for now she is just a girl embarrassed by her blonde hair and enchanted by her new Chinese friend. The two embark on a friendship that will sustain both of them through one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history. Moving out into the world together, the two enter the intellectual fray of the times, share love interests and survive early marriages gone bad. Their shared upbringing inspires Pearl's novels, which celebrate the life of the Chinese peasant and will eventually earn her both a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize. But when a civil war erupts between the Nationalists and Communists, Pearl is forced to flee the country just ahead of angry mobs. Willow, despite close ties to Mao’s inner circle, is punished for loyalty to her 'cultural imperialist' friend. And yet, through love and loss, heartbreak and joy, exile and imprisonment, the two women remain intimately entwined. In this ambitious new novel, Anchee Min brings to life a courageous and passionate woman who is now hailed in China as a modern heroine. Like nothing before it, Pearl of China tells the story of one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers, from the perspective of the people she loved and of the land she called home.

    As the Chinese move in, the elders of the Japanese settler village of Sakito decide to preserve their honour by killing all the villagers in an act of mass suicide. Only 16-year-old Tatsuru escapes.But Tatsuru's trials have just begun. As she flees, she falls into the hands of human traffickers. She is sold to a wealthy Chinese family, where she becomes Duohe - the clandestine second wife to the only son, and the secret bearer of his children. Against all odds, Duohe forms an unlikely friendship with the first wife Xiaohuan, united by the unshakeable bonds of motherhood and family.Spanning several tumultuous decades of Mao’s rule, Little Aunt Crane is a novel about love, bravery and survival, and how humanity endures in the most unlikely of circumstances.

    A place where the Druids laid down their lives to protect the darkest of all their secrets.

    Equally important, it lays out an in-depth analysis of the possible pathways to peace. Written like a geopolitical detective story, the narrative encourages reader interaction by starting each chapter with an intriguing question that often challenges conventional wisdom. Based on interviews with more than thirty top experts, the author highlights a number of disturbing facts about China's recent military buildup and the shifting balance of power in Asia: the Chinese are deploying game-changing "carrier killer" ballistic missiles; some of America's supposed allies in Europe and Asia are selling highly lethal weapons systems to China in a perverse twist on globalization; and, on the U.S. side, debilitating cutbacks in the military budget send a message to the world that America is not serious about its "pivot to Asia." In the face of these threatening developments, the book stresses the importance of maintaining US military strength and preparedness and strengthening alliances, while warning against a complacent optimism that relies on economic engagement, negotiations, and nuclear deterrence to ensure peace.Accessible to readers from all walks of life, this multidisciplinary work blends geopolitics, economics, history, international relations, military doctrine, and political science to provide a better understanding of one of the most vexing problems facing the world.

    When Archie accidentally pops his football, it starts him thinking about Christmas - and especially Christmas PRESENTS! On his journey to deliver his wish to Santa, Archie meets Robyn, Willow and Nigel and discovers what Christmas is really all about.

    This informative narrative is full of fascinating people: Chinese people, mostly writers, who encounter American writers in various bizarre circumstances in both China and the U.S. There is a toasting scene at a Chinese banquet; a portrait of a bitter, flirtatious diplomat at a dance hall; a formal meeting with Chinese writers; a conversation with an American businessman in a hotel lobby; an evening with long-suffering Chinese intellectuals in their house; a scene in the Beijing foreigners' compound with an excited European journalist; and a scene of unwarranted hilarity at the Beijing Library. In the U.S., there is Allen Ginsberg having a bewildering conversation in Disneyland with a Chinese journalist; there is the lovely and controversial writer Zhang Jie suiting abrupt mood changes to a variety of actions; and there is the fiercely spirited Jiange Zilong singing in a Connecticut dining room, eyes closed. These are real stories told with a warm and lively humor, with a keen eye for paradox, and with fresh insight into the human drama.

    Reduced price for a limited time only We never let a woman get between us... until her. An enemies to lovers, paranormal romance box set. Denver, Blaze, and Tallon We are the Elite. The top of the dragon guards, we live in a world of our own making. Arrogant assholes, emotionally unavailable, and loyal only to each other, With secrets we each guard and protect, even from each other. And every woman gives us exactly what we want Until her. Carrie Enters our world, turning everything upside down Sweet and innocent, she's a light in our darkness She’s also a shifter wolf: forbidden, off limits, unattainable and we all want her… …want her gone. Taunting, insulting, and bullying her We fight to force her out But Carrie’s no pushover And now, she’s determined to get under our skin, rip us apart Crush our arrogant little souls, until we're lying on the floor in pieces, begging her for forgiveness. What she doesn’t know is that we're each determined to have her Each promised to make her ours Each resolute to never let her go Until she’s on her knees, begging us for more. She’s our to keep and we’re never letting her go. This is a completed series, and includes 3 books in this box set. Includes dark and intense scenes.

    Each story is accompanied by a ghastly illustration from the mind of Andy Sciazko... the kind of illustrations that will disturb you in the best way possible.