The Last Step is Rick Ridgeway's inside story of this extraordinary expedition. It's about the people who, battered by the mountain and their isolation, overcame their individual fears, desire, and disappointments to work together to get somebody?anybody?to the top of K2. It's about the glorious success the team achieved, and about the perilous bivouac Jim Wickwire spent just below the summit without food, oxygen or shelter in temperatures of -40F.
“Family secrets and a transportive Italian setting keep the reader thoroughly immersed, making for a satisfying story of one woman’s coming-of-age.” —Publishers Weekly Nestled into the cliffs in southern Italy’s Amalfi coast, Positano is an artist’s vision, with rows of brightly hued houses perched above the sea and picturesque staircases meandering up and down the hillside. Santina, still a striking woman despite old age and the illness that saps her last strength, is spending her final days at her home, Villa San Vito. The magnificent eighteenth-century palazzo is very different from the tiny house in which she grew up. And as she decides its fate, she must confront the choices that led her here so long ago . . . In 1949, Positano is as yet undiscovered by tourists, a beautiful, secluded village shaking off the dust of war. Hoping to escape poverty, young Santina takes domestic work in London, ultimately becoming a housekeeper to a distinguished British major and his creative, impulsive wife, Adeline. When they move to Positano, Santina returns with them, raising their daughter as Adeline’s mental health declines. With each passing year, Santina becomes more deeply enmeshed within the family, trying to navigate her complicated feelings for a man who is much more than an employer—while hiding secrets that could shatter the only home she knows . . . “Pick up this book to be swept away like a frothy Mediterranean wave, with its melodic writing style that’s richly filled with beautiful imagery in a setting so sunny and beautiful you will be transported!” —Beachcombing Magazine
Trust no one when your daughter goes missing. A remote cabin in the woods may hold some desperately needed answers, but time is ticking down to complete the ransom drop-off and save Melanie from the one person who wants her dead. Who is the real mastermind behind the abduction? - Fasten your seatbelt for a tense domestic thriller! -
Four stepsiblings from two opposite sides of the world are sharing a summer together in one strange city: Los Angeles. NYC fashionista girl Annabel is determined to hate LA, where her dad and his family have relocated. But just when Annabel thinks her summer is beyond ruined, she gets a surprise from Down Under . . . and let's just say he's a good kisser. Lucy misses her home country, Australia, but thinks LA isn't so bad after all. If she could only get her stepsister Annabel on board to loving LA too -- and get that weird Wheaties boy to stop staring at her! Wheaties, boy-genius, doesn't mind where he's spending the summer, so long as lovable Lucy is nearby. He's trying not to worry about how his dad and stepmother's marriage problems will affect his living situation. And he'd really like to know the secret of that Ben dude's swoony appeal to the girls. Ben, the Aussie athlete god, would rather be spending his school break playing footy with his mates back in Melbourne. He'd also really rather not have his dad's loud girlfriend sharing their American vacation. And he'd definitely like to know how he got interested in the pretty Annabel girl all over again. Told from the alternating points of view of Annabel, Lucy, Wheaties, and Ben, Two Steps Forward is funny and genuine -- and shows how love can create all kinds of families.
The Last Step is a fast-moving, exciting archeological mystery thriller set among the Mayan ruins in Copan, Honduras, including the magnificent hieroglyphic stairway rediscovered by Harvard archeologists in the 1930s. The statues of five Mayan kings adorn the stairway, whose thousands of carved hieroglyphic stones recording the kings' reigns were dislodged by ancient earthquakes. Unable to decipher the stones, the archeologists reassembled them at random on the stairway's 64 steps. They also purloined and shipped one king's statue to the Harvard Peabody Essex Museum, where it remains today. Harvard graduate student Alexis Hoffman, who seeks to return the stolen statue to Copan and to decipher the stairway, teams with electronics whiz Ben Acebo to develop novel computer techniques to catalog, correctly reassemble and "read" the hieroglyphic stones, and to reconstitute worn stone carvings and drawings. She also convinces Ben, lawyer/amateur archeologist David Elliot, and a sculptor friend to create an exact copy of the stolen king statue. The four then embark on a hazardous journey to return the duplicate statue to Copan, reassemble the stairway's hieroglyphic stones, discover the location of vast treasures removed from the five kings' burial chambers under the stairway, and discern the true meaning of December 21, 2012 -- the end of 5000 years of Mayan history. According to Mayan lore, what happened then can be explained only by deciphering certain hieroglyphic stones correctly reassembled on the last and highest step of the reconstituted stairway. The team encounters international intrigue and bewildering clues found on Copan statues and ceramics, and in the four surviving Mayan books in Mexico City, Madrid, Paris and Dresden, Germany museums. They also endure sinister events at Harvard, a harrowing flight to a remote Honduran island, a dangerous trip through mountain roads and rivers, drug criminals, murderous witchdoctors, man-eating jaguars, snakes, missing stairway stones, and unknown saboteurs to return the statue, find the kings' relocated treasures, and decipher the cosmic meaning of the stairway's last step.
This guide to the Twelve Steps from Dr. Stephanie S. Covington, a pioneer in the field of women’s issues, addiction, and recovery, preserves the spirit of the Alcoholics Anonymous program with a focus on healing language with women’s needs in mind. Published in 1994, A Woman's Way through the Twelve Steps has long been a unique resource that helps women find their own paths in recovery—paths shaped by the way women experience not only addiction and recovery, but also relationships, self, sexuality, spirituality, and everyday life. Now, stories from five new voices expand the perspective of this recovery classic. Over the past thirty years, what it means to identify as a woman in recovery has broadened to include transgender, nonbinary, and other gender-diverse people. This new edition includes updated, inclusive language to be more trauma-sensitive and welcoming to all women. This compilation of diverse voices and wisdom from real people illuminates how women understand the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and offers inspiring stories of how they travel through the Steps and discover what works for them. The book can be used alone or as a companion to AA’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. By identifying and addressing the special issues that recovery presents for women, this book empowers women to take ownership of their own journeys and to grow and flourish in recovery.
My dream of becoming prima ballerina is dead. Dropped by the Royal Ballet, I return home to my empty house in Cornwall with nothing but ghosts, and memories of a past I am desperate to forget. It takes months of depression before I pull myself out of the bleakness and attempt to start living again. With a new job as an assistant to the wealthy but elusive Sachov family, I find myself caught up in a tangled web of desire, pain and sexual awakening that will either destroy me entirely or bring me back to life. My name is Rose, and I am their muse. COMPLETE SERIES - READING ORDER AS FOLLOWS: #1 Steps #2 Strokes #3 Strings #4 SymphonyThis is a why choose romance for 18+ readers and contains suicide, self-harm and other topics that may be difficult for some readers. Read at your own discretion.***
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller! A Thousand Steps is a beguiling thriller, an incisive coming-of-age story, and a vivid portrait of a turbulent time and place by three-time Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author T. Jefferson Parker. Laguna Beach, California, 1968. The Age of Aquarius is in full swing. Timothy Leary is a rock star. LSD is God. Folks from all over are flocking to Laguna, seeking peace, love, and enlightenment. Matt Anthony is just trying get by. Matt is sixteen, broke, and never sure where his next meal is coming from. Mom’s a stoner, his deadbeat dad is a no-show, his brother’s fighting in Nam . . . and his big sister Jazz has just gone missing. The cops figure she’s just another runaway hippie chick, enjoying a summer of love, but Matt doesn’t believe it. Not after another missing girl turns up dead on the beach. All Matt really wants to do is get his driver’s license and ask out the girl he’s been crushing on since fourth grade, yet it’s up to him to find his sister. But in a town where the cops don’t trust the hippies and the hippies don’t trust the cops, uncovering what’s really happened to Jazz is going to force him to grow up fast. If it’s not already too late. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Ashton Nichols dreads the changes graduation will bring, most of all, losing her impulsive best friend, Mason. Her world turns upside down when she follows him into the woods and encounters a demon and a destiny beyond what she ever imagined. Mason Deed seeks freedom from his grief-stricken father. But after his encounter in the woods, he must think about Ashton's safety. Hiding the truth from her about her identity leaves them both vulnerable and caught between good and evil. Together they uncover the unimaginable. Will they find enough courage and strength to claim their own free will, save their families, and protect human souls?
How many self-help books are written by authors whose biggest success is selling self-help books? Three Simple Steps is different. Despite stock market crashes, dot-com busts, and the specter of recession, the author started a virtual company from home, using a few thousand dollars of his savings. A few years later, without ever hiring an employee or leaving his home office, he sold it for more than $100 million. As the economy slipped into another free fall, he did this again with a company in a different field. He accomplished this through no particular genius. Rather, he studied the habits of the many successful men and women who preceded him, and developed three simple rules that, if followed diligently, virtually ensure success. Using them first to escape poverty, then to achieve a life of adventures, he finally turned them toward financial independence. Written in a straightforward and no-nonsense style, Three Simple Steps shows you how to take back control of your destiny and reshape your mind for increased creativity, serenity and achievement. While building on the wisdom of great thinkers and accomplished individuals from East and West, Three Simple Steps isn't a new age text or guide to esoteric fulfillment. Rather, it's a practical guide to real-life achievement by a pragmatic businessman who attributes his incredible successes to these very simple ideas. Three Simple Steps is a must-read guide for everyone who wants to achieve more, live better and be happier.
