Book picks similar to
Planting My Values by Lynn Powell


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Edge of the Pit


Bill Thesken - 2016
    Their clients are the richest people in the country and they pay a lot of money to stay safe. He works on the outer perimeter of a security team and is one of the best in the business. From running with gangs as a teenager, and with the US Army in Iraq during the surge, he has a unique set of skills to keep his team alive.It was a standard operation, a bread and butter job, get a client from one point to another and back again.Badger works the perimeter as always, and the client is a beautiful young singer, a rising star who is going to a nightclub in the gritty belly of the city after midnight. Everything is going smooth until the convoy is ambushed, and Badger wakes up in the hospital with no memory of what happened.Everyone else in the convoy is dead, the singer is missing, and Badger is a prime suspect.The agency is in trouble, more ruthless than the mob, and they’ll get answers out of him using any means necessary, if they can only get their hands on him.He is on the run from the agency, the kidnappers, and the police, and he has to find the girl, or die trying.

The Midrange Theory


Seth Partnow - 2021
    But what is a “good” shot? Are all good shots created equally? And how might one identify players who are more or less likely to make and prevent those shots in the first place? The concept of basketball “analytics,” for lack of a better term, has been lauded, derided, and misunderstood. The incorporation of more data into NBA decision-making has been credited—or blamed—for everything from the death of the traditional center to the proliferation of three-point shooting to the alleged abandonment of the area of the court known as the midrange. What is beyond doubt is that understanding its methods has never been more important to watching and appreciating the NBA. In The Midrange Theory, Seth Partnow, NBA analyst for The Athletic and former Director of Basketball Research for the Milwaukee Bucks, explains how numbers have affected the modern NBA game, and how those numbers seek not to “solve” the game of basketball but instead urge us toward thinking about it in new ways.The relative value of Russell Westbrook’s triple-doublesWhy some players succeed in the playoffs while others don’tHow NBA teams think about constructing their rosters through the draft and free agencyThe difficulty in measuring defensive achievementThe fallacy of the “quick two”From shot selection to evaluating prospects to considering aesthetics and ethics while analyzing the box scores, Partnow deftly explores where the NBA is now, how it got here, and where it might be going next.

The Candle Room


Daniel K. Gentile - 2016
    His first client was a transient who just learned that he was the sole beneficiary of his estranged brother’s multi-million dollar estate. His brother was brutally murdered and the alleged killer was on trial in what appeared to be an open and shut case. Zach observed the riveting courtroom drama as the case unfolded and in the process, discovered a dark, deadly secret left by the murder victim. He soon learned that he was way over his head in his new practice and that his first case could cost him not only his career but his life.

Smörgåsbord of Musings


Rathnakumar Raghunath - 2020
    People living happy lives, some not-so-happy lives, people in love, hopeless romantics, people dealing with heartbreak, the ones who believe life is better with a bit of whimsy, this book, hopefully, has a little something that resonates with everybody, lets the reader find the silver lining when needed and discover the joie de vivre even when times are hard.

My Lynda: Loving and losing my beloved wife, Lynda Bellingham


Michael Pattemore - 2015
    Lynda touched many lives in her memoir, There's Something I've Been Dying to Tell You, and in My Lynda, Michael tells his side of the story. He talks movingly about their ten years together and describes how, in the past year, he has struggled to cope. He shares candidly his experience of grief, offering hope and support to others who have lost partners and loved ones. His is a book to comfort those who loved Lynda, to tell the missing pieces of their life together, to write about how they both confronted the news of her illness, and how he managed to continue since that moment of hearing that she had a teminal illness.

Twilight of the Coyote


Ron Schwab - 2018
    Meanwhile, young rancher Kate Connolly is at the right place at the right time to thwart an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, who has made the State Game Lodge in South Dakota his “Summer White House.” As the stakes rise, Trey must untangle how his investigation is related to the attack on the president, and he and Kate must solve the puzzle of their entwined histories. Twilight of the Coyote grips the reader, painting a picture of the West after it was “Old” . . . but nevertheless still “Wild.”

Roan


E.R. Barr - 2012
    With the help of new friends, Jace the captain of the football team and Beth, his twin sister, along with a strange Labrador Retriever named Troubles, Conor has to discover who he really is and how he is tied to the mystery of the 'Dark Ones'. They are the children the town is protecting from an ancient river demon and a shapeshifter in the nearby Indian Burial mound. Into the midst of Conor's hunt for the truth comes DIOGENE, a biogenetics company with a scientist willing to do anything to unravel the mystery of the 'Dark Ones'. Conor finds himself caught in a web of lies where myth and science war for humanity's soul.

Conquistador


Griff Hosker - 2021
    Set in the early days of the Spanish conquest of the Americas and with a young King Henry on the throne of England, this is a novel of discovery and riches, slavery and death. It is a time of innovation when guns changed from being firing tubes to cannons that could bring death and destruction. Above all, it is the story of a youth who, against the odds, becomes a man, and more becomes a master gunner in his own right.

Billy Graham: A Biography of America's Greatest Evangelist


W. Terry Whalin - 2014
    His faithful witness is testimony to his great love of God and passion to serve Him. This easy-to-read biography tells Billy Graham s story, including his humble beginnings as a southern farm boy, his calling to the ministry, the start of the crusades, his service to America s leaders, and his later years preaching around the globe. As you read these details of a life dedicated to the cause of Christ, you will be encouraged. Also these stories will inspire anyone who desires to give their life in service to God. Here s a fresh look at a contemporary man of God and giant of the faith."

The Girl Who Sees Angels


Jeffrey McClain Jones - 2020
    Even her mother doubted her as a child. Psychiatrists doubted her too. Psychics tried to recruit her to enrich and empower themselves. Now she’s thirty-two, living on her own, and sharing her secret only with her mother and a few friends.A threatening specter begins to visit her at night, and more than her sleep is at stake. She follows a friend’s recommendation to visit Detta Washington, a church lady who believes that Sophie does see angels and demons. Even if Sophie is skeptical about the labels Detta uses for what she sees, she comes to respect Detta and finds ways to use her gift to help others.When she helps free Detta from an incurable disease and releases two of her friends from creepy creatures shadowing them, Sophie starts to embrace her identity. But she still needs help with the ghoul that hovers above her bed at night. And that’s not the last enemy who threatens her in the dark.Anthony, Detta’s handsome son, helps Sophie understand his mother’s religious language, and he becomes convinced that Sophie is for real. After years of doubt and frequent commitments to mental hospitals, Sophie’s mother comes to trust her daughter’s visions as well.Recovering from a life of being condemned as a crazy person, Sophie finds new confidence. She is gifted. She is the girl who sees angels.

The Perfect Marriage


Debbie Viggiano - 2014
    Unlike her surname, the marriage is far from perfect but, as she’s also mum to baby Luke, leaving isn’t an easy option. When best friend Lucy announces she’s getting married and having a hen night, Rosie relishes a night off from drudgery. Waking up the following morning in businessman Matt Palmer’s bed wasn’t on the agenda. But Matt is no marriage wrecker. Or is he? Suddenly Rosie’s life is turned upside down…from not recalling what took place between Matt Palmer’s silk sheets to discovering her drunken husband is also a gambling addict…from having her home wagered away in a poker game to being pursued by a murderous loan shark. As Rosie lurches from one crisis to another, life is far from perfect. Indeed, will Rosie Perfect ever get her perfect happy-ever-after?

The Brittle Star: An epic story of the American West


Davina Langdale - 2017
    But John Evert is no ordinary young man. He's a frontiersman's son, a rancher who's lived his whole life in the untamed Southern California wilderness of 1860.In a journey that will take him from the bustling young city of Los Angeles to Texas to Missouri and back, to the front lines of the American Civil War and home again, John Evert will learn the cost of vengeance and the price of forgiveness.

The Complete Swanson Court Trilogy: Drawn to You - Addicted to You - Lost in You


Serena Grey - 2018
    I pretended to be someone else. Now, he's found me. And he's determined to make me pay for deceiving him. But how can I resist when the payment he demands is so, so sweet? On the night she discovers her ex's engagement, Rachel meets Landon, the sexiest man she's ever seen, and he mistakes her for a hooker. The thing is, he's so sexy...what harm can there be in losing herself in his touch just for one night?Landon prefers his women beautiful and sophisticated, with no desire for commitment, so when his brother ignores his protests and sends him a hooker on his birthday, he's surprised by how willing he is to continue paying for her services. It should be easy, except she's no hooker, and she has no intention of letting him into her life.As the billionaire owner of Swanson Court Hotels, Landon is used to getting what he wants, and Rachel is not going to be an exception.This collection includes Drawn to You, Addicted to You, and Lost in You.

Indian Summer


C. James Brown - 2019
    He’s also out of his element. He’s just an ex-cop from a small New Hampshire town turned private eye, who finds himself looking for a murderer among America’s modern-day aristocracy in Greenwich, Westchester, and the Upper East Side. Earl doesn’t much like these people, their lifestyles, or their attitudes, and they don’t like Earl. Along the way, they’ll underestimate him, mock him, seduce him, and even try to kill him.

Another Five Patients


Melissa Crickard - 2019
    When one of the resident physicians, Dr. Kip Paiva, becomes a critically ill patient herself, the team is forever changed. This suspenseful story of medical fiction traces foreign medical graduate Dr. Kip Paiva, an emigrant and survivor of human trafficking in post-apartheid South Africa. Her refuge from a Zulu militant captor comes to an end, as his brutal violence has finally tracked her across the ocean. While her past catches up to her, Dr. Paiva also becomes the scapegoat of a malpractice suit. Frightened for her and her son’s lives, Dr. Paiva begins a journey fueled by bottomless resiliency and a mother’s love. Her story intertwines through five others, all riveting, and all taking place in the busy Spectrum General Hospital in New York. Debut author Melissa Crickard uses this microcosm to illustrate larger aspects of modern medicine. Another Five Patients combines international intrigue and hospital politics with individual human stories involving hospital staff, patients, and their families. The result is a captivating, at times satirical, experience that reminds us that, whether doctor, mother, or child, we are all people, with flaws and emotions in a world of uncertainty.