What if there is more to this world than our five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch inform us? Some people really do have strange experiences that defy logic. In this story, a group of cousins are supernaturally conveyed to another world that is yet created by the same Creator as their own. As they participate in a thrilling adventure, will they be tempted to go along with the evil deception plotted against them and their new friend?
The inspiring biography of the adventuresome naturalist Carol Ruckdeschel and her crusade to save her island home from environmental disaster. In a “moving homage . . . that artfully articulates the ferocities of nature and humanity,” biographer Will Harlan captures the larger-than-life story of biologist, naturalist, and ecological activist Carol Ruckdeschel, known to many as the wildest woman in America. She wrestles alligators, eats roadkill, rides horses bareback, and lives in a ramshackle cabin that she built by hand in an island wilderness. A combination of Henry David Thoreau and Jane Goodall, Carol is a self-taught scientist who has become a tireless defender of sea turtles on Cumberland Island, a national park off the coast of Georgia (Kirkus Reviews). Cumberland, the country’s largest and most biologically diverse barrier island, is celebrated for its windswept dunes and feral horses. Steel magnate Thomas Carnegie once owned much of the island, and in recent years, Carnegie heirs and the National Park Service have clashed with Carol over the island’s future. What happens when a dirt-poor naturalist with only a high school diploma becomes an outspoken advocate on a celebrated but divisive island? Untamed is the story of an American original who fights for what she believes in, no matter the cost, “an environmental classic that belongs on the shelf alongside Carson, Leopold, Muir, and Thoreau” (Thomas Rain Crowe, author of Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods). “Vivid. . . . Ms. Ruckdeschel’s biography, and the way this wandering soul came to settle for so many decades on Cumberland Island, is big enough on its own, but Mr. Harlan hints at bigger questions.” —The Wall Street Journal “Wild country produces wild people, who sometimes are just what’s needed to keep that wild cycle going. This is a memorable portrait.” —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature “Deliciously engrossing. . . . Readers are in for a wild ride.” —The Citizen-Times
“You don’t look like brothers . . .” Peace activist and cofounder of the Enough Project, John Prendergast is known as a champion of human rights in Africa. But the not-so-public face of J.P. is the life he’s led as a Big Brother to Michael Mattocks. As a curious, driven, and emotionally wounded twenty-year-old, J.P. made the life-changing decision to form a “Big Brother/Little Brother” relationship with then seven-year-old Michael, who was living out of plastic bags and drifting from one homeless shelter to the next with his mother and siblings. Lacking a connection with his own brother and distancing himself from a disastrous relationship with his father, J.P. formed a unique bond with Michael the moment they met. Michael and J.P. became like family, with Michael and some of his siblings even living with J.P. one summer. In the years that followed, J.P. took Michael and his brothers on outings, whether it was fishing, playing basketball, patronizing cheap restaurants, or going on road trips. This friendship would continue for over twenty-five years as the two coped with varying degrees of violence, instability, and trauma in their own lives. Told in duet, Unlikely Brothers follows Michael as he grows up on the tough streets of Washington, D.C., where as a young teenager he watched his best friend get shot, dropped out of school, and started dealing crack cocaine shortly thereafter. By sixteen, Michael had become the kingpin of his neighborhood, guns and drugs always close at hand. Meanwhile, J.P. was traveling to and from African war zones. J.P. offered Michael a refuge from the streets, never really confronting the gravity of what Michael was going through in his adolescence. In turn, Michael afforded J.P. an escape from his own turbulent personal and professional life. As the years go by, the two swoop in and out of each other’s lives, slowly disconnecting as they disappear into their respective worlds, but making their way back to each other at a critical moment for both of them. The effect the two have on each other is extremely significant to both of their paths to redemption. Inspirational and deeply moving, Unlikely Brothers beautifully showcases how life’s most random moments can often be the most profound.
A new novel from the author of acclaimed Sherlock Holmes patisches The Albino's Treasure and The Counterfeit Detective. WRONGLY IMPRISONED Following a summons to a fictional patient, Dr. Watson finds himself arrested for the horrific murder of an elderly woman. Imprisoned at Holloway, and with the evidence stacked against him, Watson's only hope is that Sherlock Holmes can discover the identity of the real killer. But when a mysterious letter appears to link Watson to blackmail and a notorious street gang, Holmes must use all his powers of reasoning to save his friend from the hangman's noose.
When a girl is adopted from a Chinese orphanage, everything she knew about family, best friends, and sisterhood must change. Wen has spent the first eleven years of her life at an orphanage in rural China, and the only person she would call family is her best friend, Shu Ling. When Wen is adopted by an American couple, she struggles to adjust to every part of her new life: having access to all the food and clothes she could want, going to school, being someone's daughter. But the hardest part of all is knowing that Shu Ling remains back at the orphanage, alone. Wen knows that her best friend deserves a family and a future, too. But finding a home for Shu Ling isn't easy, and time is running out . . .
January 2, 1981 The story continues… Margo Fischer-Owens’ life falls out from under her immediately following her brother’s wedding, necessitating an urgent intervention and rescue from the newlyweds. Her return to Minitonas for care, support, and restoration takes several unexpected turns as she gradually gets back on her feet. Hugh R. Fischer isn’t pleased to have to deal with more family problems in the wake of his marriage to Ellie. Nevertheless, that doesn’t quench the joy he finds in having a loving wife and continuing to transform his property… until the discovery of the big hidden secret. Ellie Bauman-Fischer’s determination to build a family is clouded by her apparent barrenness, which threatens to cause a relapse into depression. How should she live if she can’t make life go the way she wants? What, and who, will give meaning to her life if childlessness is her fate?
'A vivid tale of a woman born for the stage, stardom and scandal' - Holly Kyte, author of Roaring Girls: The Forgotten Feminists of British History'One of the most irrepressible women I've come across'- Jane Robinson, author of Ladies Can't Climb Ladders'I rode on the stage in such style, that the men in front forgot I was a girl, and also forgot to laugh.'From humble beginnings with the threat of the workhouse looming, Emily Soldene rose to become a star of the London stage and a formidable impresario with her own opera company. The darling of theatreland, she later reinvented herself as a journalist and writer who scandalised the country with her outrageous memoir. Weaving through the grit and glamour of Victorian music halls and theatres, taking encounters with the Pre-Raphaelites and Charles Dickens in her stride, Emily became the toast of New York and ventured far off the beaten track to tour Australia and New Zealand. Batten paints a vibrant portrait of an almost forgotten star who trod the boards, travelled the globe and tore up the Victorian rule book.
Saving the school -- one con at a time. "A political heist page-turner set in middle school? Is that even possible? Varian Johnson shows us how it's done." - Gordon Korman, author of SWINDLE "Do yourself a favor and start reading immediately." - Rebecca Stead, author of WHEN YOU REACH ME Jackson Greene swears he's given up scheming. Then school bully Keith Sinclair announces he's running for Student Council president, against Jackson's former friend Gaby de la Cruz. Gaby wants Jackson to stay out of it -- but he knows Keith has "connections" to the principal, which could win him the presidency no matter the vote count. So Jackson assembles a crack team: Hashemi Larijani, tech genius. Victor Cho, bankroll. Megan Feldman, science goddess. Charlie de la Cruz, reporter. Together they devise a plan that will take down Keith, win Gaby's respect, and make sure the election is done right. If they can pull it off, it will be remembered as the school's greatest con ever -- one worthy of the name THE GREAT GREENE HEIST.
She's not responsible for the corpse this time. Okay, maybe just a little bit. Our favourite socialite and felon are back in a madcap new sleuthing adventure ... for readers of Janet Evanovich and Kerry Greenwood. She really didn't mean to become a detective ... Home for just 48 hours, billion-heiress Indigo-Daisy-Violet-Amber Hasluck-Royce-Jones-Bombberg has already committed two (completely understandable) felonies, reignited a childhood feud, been (possibly) humiliated (again) by her first love, and fallen over a nameless homeless dead man. All while strolling in her grandmother's garden ... Grandmother's kindly neighbour, Dame Elizabeth Holly, wants to spring the anonymous corpse from the coroner's freezer. She's convinced Indigo and her parolee personal assistant Esmerelda can unearth the man's identity, thus allowing his burial. Meanwhile Grandmother wants the unlikely duo to locate Dame Holly's possibly missing gentleman friend. Dame Holly's miserly granddaughter and not-so-bright son don't want her involved with any man - dead or alive. Are the cases related? Why are they receiving clues from an unknown helper? Should they cooperate with Detectives Searing and Burns, who tried to arrest Indigo for blowing up her plastic surgeon husband last summer? What is Esmerelda's secret? It's not so bad to undress a detective. Twice. Is it? How illegal can it be, really, to break into a top-secret government facility? They're not annoying a ruthless organised criminal on purpose, they're just trying to help ... PRAISE 'A wild romp ... jam-packed with colourful characters, crazy shenanigans, and cracking one-liners' Herald-Sun
