When he quits his job in the Chicago stockyards to join other homesteaders settling the Great Plains, Nona finds herself torn between supporting her father's vision for their future and her mother's struggle to adjust to life on a desolate prairie.Initially, things look up for the family as they settle into life in Dalhart, Texas. The wheat boom is in full swing, and it appears her father's dream of providing his family with a home of their own is coming true. Too soon the effects of the depression impact her family. Then the rains stop. Before long, Dalhart is the epicenter of the Dust Bowl.Like Dust, I Rise transforms poverty into pride and reflects the heroism of endurance.

    It's a story about a single mother, Jackie Martin, who has two objectives: First to raise her daughter, Gina with her self-esteem unscathed by her father’s abandonment; Second, to see her daughter’s father, Tony Salvucci suffer for his abandonment. Both objectives come to pass. With lots of twists and turns and memorable characters, Once Broken is an inspirational story about forgiveness vs. revenge and living one's life moving forward, no matter how painful the past.

    

    . . THE LEGEND BEGINS When the Ridgeway family staked their claim on more than 40,000 acres of land in northwest Texas, they knew they had their work cut out for them. Located on a sharp bend of the treacherous Red River, their new home—the Rocking R Ranch—was just a stone’s throw away from Indian territory. It was as lawless and wild as the West itself, crawling with unsavory characters, cattle rustlers, horse thieves, outlaws, robbers, and worse. But still, the Ridgeways were determined to make the Rocking R a success—and a home—for their four remarkable children: Percy, Eli, Abigail, and Rachel. This is their story. Together, the Ridgeways could endure anything. Floods, tornadoes, Commanche raids in the dead of night. But when one of their own is kidnapped . . . that’s when all hell breaks loose. This is their story. The story of the American West.

    Around 1000 years back, anyone could go for a purgatory voyage to experience life after death for 12 days through a tunnel in Bharmaur, Himachal Pradesh. But no one could recall what happened to him during his purgatory voyage. Once, a person from Bundelkhand, named Kalidas went for a purgatory voyage. He experienced life after death and surprisingly, he was able to recall all those incidents of a different planet. After returning to his state, he embarked on a discourse about his purgatory voyage and his scary encounters with the King of Bundelkhand.Could anyone believe in his riveting account of the voyage or people smelled a foul play?• RECOMMENDATION •The novel "Purgatory Voyage" by Adarsh Kumar Khare is about a story that dates back to 925 AD of a village person, otherwise living peacefully, whose life is thrown into a turmoil consequent to an extraordinary experience of the afterlife, an outcome of his deed (karma) and sense of inquiry. The story is beautifully weaved with threads of mythology, traditional Hindu beliefs, and folklore. At the same time, there is a conscious effort to bring out the social behavior, rituals, and festivities of village life of that period along with the political order of the King with his subjects.There is a gripping narration of Kali, the protagonist of the novel, of other-worldly experience of his visits to after-life planets of hells and heavens, of torments and punitive actions meted out to sinners, and accounts of suffering the souls have to undergo for the various sins committed in their earthly lives. The author seems to have largely drawn from the “Pretkalp” part of Garud Puran for making such a vivid description of the splendors of the city of Yam, the horrors of various hells, and the excruciating journey of an ordinary soul through all this.The most interesting part of this novel is the day-by-day recount by Kali of incidents, pain, and suffering of his soul and other fellow souls in his 10-days sojourn to different types of hells and also exploring parts of Yam City and heaven. The curiosity of a reader is held on toes as the account of each day unfolds, much like the Arabian nights.I find ‘Purgatory Voyage’ by Adarsh Khare a hugely fascinating story in which one cannot leave reading halfway. It latches on to your curiosity and leads your imagination till you reach the end and sigh a sense of relief and joy of having gone through the upheavals along with the protagonist of the story. I think this is the achievement of Adarsh Khare in writing this book.Asit Kumar, Advisor in the Ministry of Petroleum, New Delhi.Purgatory Voyage is a very interesting novel based on one of the important ancient scriptures of India, specifically the Garuda Puran. Adarsh Kumar Khare has used his creative craft to bring back alive the old teachings of India in a story of fiction that should strike a chord with all age group people, particularly those who have some inclination to occultism. The author has followed a style of simple storytelling that generates curiosity in the mind ‘what next’. It was a joy to read the book describing what life after death could be like, with vivid descriptions of different hells and heaven, and punishment or reward according to committed sins or virtuous work. Most of the geographical locations including river, valleys, and forests bear names either similar or the same as those that exist in present-day India and that adds much credence and authenticity to arouse interest in the reader’s mind, even though it is a fiction. This book is a must for those who have some fascination towards Indian rich cultural heritage including ancient scriptures and those having the curiosity to peep into the future of life after death.Pradipta Kumar Das, Bestselling author of Power of the Universe lies within you.

    Single and feeling there is nothing left for her in small-town England, Anna embarks on an adventure as a volunteer with the Medical Missionaries of Mary to teach the leper children in Africa. Life as Anna has known it, is forever changed as she learns the culture that would banish its sick, disfigured, and crippled to the jungles. Babies are left to die on roadsides, children are chased away to live by whatever means they can find. The aged are abandoned. Anna’s daily life is an adventure as she travels from one village to another across a hostile land with few passable roads, rickety bridges threatening to fall apart and cast its occupants on the jagged rocks far below, and weather that turns a calm river into a roiling death trap. In spite of the trials, Anna also manages to find love and family in this godforsaken land. Follow this adventure through disease, weather, strife, death and determination to turn a few acres of land into a loving home for the outcast lepers of Nigeria.

    Underneath that fun-loving surface lurks a severe case of PTSD, his personal souvenir from the war on terror. After his young marriage breaks up, he bounces from girlfriend to girlfriend, never allowing himself to get too close, all while maintaining a friendship with his ex-wife, Samantha Colton. Everything changes when he meets Abby Jacobsen, a smart and sassy artist - but with love comes jealousy, and Abby doesn't stand for Jason's cozy friendship with Samantha. Two hours after a heated argument causes Jason to storm out of their apartment, Abby receives a phone call from the intensive care unit of a New Hampshire hospital. The hospital walls close in on Abby and Samantha as they are forced to make tough decisions while trying hard not to kill each other. The two form a rare bond when Emma Jane, Jason's mom, arrives on the scene. Three weeks after Jason's accident, Abby is left alone and hovering over a handful of positive pregnancy tests. During her pregnancy, Abby works with Samantha to dig up clues of Jason's past. As the truth is discovered, their worlds are irreversibly changed. An emotionally-moving look at PTSD and the intersection of three lives, Saving Jason is a riveting glimpse into unexpected friendships and the ripples we leave without our knowledge.

    

    A battle for power among Frankish warlords leads to a mass exodus across the Rhine... All the while, Marcus Aurelius' Roman army pushes further north, changing everything. These three events meet in a cataclysm that changes the course of history. In the background, the aging witch Chlotsuintha predicts it all. Or is she the one pulling the strings to shape her people's future?When Sextus escapes Rome with a pocketful of gold and a knife, how could he even have dreamt of what the fates might have in store for him?Pursued by Roman soldiers for the murder of his master, Sextus enlists the help of a retired gladiator, and falls in love with the gladiator's niece. An invading German army drives them further north, where Sextus discovers his true birthright, and his real name - Galdir. He becomes caught up in a bitter feud as one of the heirs of a dead Frankish warlord; but the blood feud must be put aside when the Romans invade and besiege the Frankish capital.'Galdir' is enthralling Roman fiction - a tale of love, brutal battles and conflict, in which a mystical prophecy winds its way through an epic saga of struggle against Rome, and the consequences of resistance by the Frankish people, its Warlord and its witches.

    How is love related to sex, and how is sex related to love--and do love and sex need to be related at all?*This book contains profanity and adult situations

    In this dazzling novel, based on true-life events, bestselling author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni presents the unforgettable story of Jindan, who transformed herself from daughter of the royal kennel keeper to powerful monarch. Sharp-eyed, stubborn, and passionate, Jindan was known for her beauty. When she caught the eye of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, she was elevated to royalty, becoming his youngest and last queen--and his favorite. And when her son, barely six years old, unexpectedly inherited the throne, Jindan assumed the regency. She transformed herself from pampered wife to warrior ruler, determined to protect her people and her son's birthright from the encroaching British Empire.Defying tradition, she stepped out of the zenana, cast aside the veil, and conducted state business in public, inspiring her subjects in two wars. Her power and influence were so formidable that the British, fearing an uprising, robbed the rebel queen of everything she had, but nothing crushed her indomitable will.An exquisite love story of a king and a commoner, a cautionary tale about loyalty and betrayal, a powerful parable of the indestructible bond between mother and child, and an inspiration for our times, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel brings alive one of the most fearless women of the nineteenth century, one whose story cries out to be told.

    Based on little-known history, this timely book will strike a chord with readers of Fiona Davis, Tracey Lange, and Marie Benedict.Based on the true story of America’s only leper colony, The Second Life of Mirielle West brings vividly to life the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were stripped of their civil rights, branded as lepers, and forcibly quarantined throughout the entire 20th century. For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease.At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate.As a registered nurse, Amanda Skenandore’s medical background adds layers of detail and authenticity to the experiences of patients and medical professionals at Carville – the isolation, stigma, experimental treatments, and disparate community. A tale of repulsion, resilience, and the Roaring ‘20s, The Second Life of Mirielle West is also the story of a health crisis in America’s past, made all the more poignant by the author’s experiences during another, all-too-recent crisis.

    But when peace becomes tenuous, his commitment to duty leads him to deadly danger...14th century. Lord Alfred is content with his mundane destiny. Too far removed from the throne to ever ascend and more interested in scholarship, he still willingly accepts his kingly grandfather's charge to execute a secret mission. But when his bid to protect the heir leaves him captive to a dangerous man, the young lordling fears he'll see death before his family will pay any ransom.Tormented by visions of never meeting his unborn child, a weary Alfred is forced to march farther and farther from home as his hope of escape grows desperate. So when he senses time running out, the modest noble girds himself to seize one last chance at freedom.Can Alfred slip his bonds and survive a harrowing struggle towards all he holds dear?Second Son is the historically inspired first book in the Second Son Chronicles of Renaissance fiction. If you like bracing adventures, heroes with a love of learning, and intricately detailed settings, then you'll adore Pamela Taylor's complex tale.Buy Second Son to journey toward a mysterious fate today!

    Her main aim in life is to escape and she sees marriage as her best way out. When Peter Wesley, First Officer aboard a cruise ship, proposes, she accepts eagerly.The Wesleys have a baby, Diana, and all seems set fair for the small family, but Peter is killed and Emmy left penniless. She and Diana are forced to move back to Nightingale Court. Emmy has to take work as a waitress but she becomes ill and when suitors appear, Diana detests them all...A tale of hardship, heartbreak and hope from a beloved storyteller, Two Penn'orth of Sky is classic Katie Flynn and sure to delight every one of her readers.

    She’s a psychic firebrand. Rebellious, spurned by society and determined to change his mind.What’s a defiant woman to do when the man she’s meant for doesn’t believe in love?After three years of waiting for Julian Alexander to realize they are destined to be together, Lady Piper Scott takes matters into her own hands. Because her gift as a healer has never done anything but distance her from the most principled man in England. A meaningless diversion as a medium, all done to gain a certain wandering viscount’s attention, backfires. As most endeavors have for a woman known in the ton as Scandalous Scott.What’s a reluctant viscount to do when the woman he can’t have becomes the woman he can’t live without?Julian Alexander, Lord Beauchamp, battled his way from the lowliest slum to assume his title. He carries not only a turbulent past, but a mystical psychic gift that separates him from society. Honorable to his core, he is committed to protecting a community of outcasts with abilities like his own. He has no time, no place, for love. Or repeatedly rescuing the most outrageous, beguiling woman he’s ever known. Even if she needs his protection most—and he desires her above all others.Seduction, intrigue and desire lead to an explosive passion…Julian vowed to shield Piper from the deadly foes seeking to possess her powerful gift. Although he needs her help in controlling his own, the mix could be deadly. Soon what was once a simple agreement to work together becomes enchantingly complex as they surrender to a timeless love…