At the Mercy of Men By: Patrick Dean Coleman At the Mercy of Men is a novel based on actual people, places, and events related to the life of Elliot Brown, an enslaved African-American who lived from approximately 1828(?)-1868. The exact date of his birth is unknown. The novel is a result of five years of extensive research. It is the direct result of the author’s interest in the life of a slave who lived and worked on the same property in which he once lived. It is important to remember that slavery was legal just four or five generations ago. It is also important to conceive of enslaved African-Americans as real human beings who walked the same streets and built a lot of the infrastructure that still exists all around us today. At the Mercy of Men is focused on outlining the life of one of America’s ancestors and endeavors to keep the sense of place and time, while also maintaining a modern conversation.
A powerful tragedy distilled into a small masterpiece by the Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier. Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader in 1680s United States, when the slave trade is still in its infancy. Reluctantly he takes a small slave girl in part payment from a plantation owner for a bad debt. Feeling rejected by her slave mother, 14-year-old Florens can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives . . . At the novel's heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter – a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
ALYSSA I'm f*cked. Broken down on the side of the road wasn't how I pictured my first stint with independence, and calling my mother to let her know I already need help is completely off the table. Throwing insult to injury, Mr. Tall Dark and F*ck Me has come to my rescue, strolling in like some Knight in shining armor. Hudson Maxwell, with his chiselled jaw and striking grey eyes looks under the hood of my car like some sort of Greek God, sent to test my will. His wicked mouth flirts with me, saying all the words any girl would want to hear. Especially me. He's been my unattainable crush. The man I could never have. But now? He doesn't know who I am, fully grown and far from the little girl he last saw. So as he continues his assault on my libido-unaffected by the rules that would keep us apart-I have to ask, do I stop this charade, or do I cave in and taste him just this once? HUDSON One moment is all it takes. One move to wreck your world. Alyssa Rogers, with her hypnotic green eyes and luscious lips, was that for me. The siren that sang me straight to my demise. I should've seen her for what she was. A trickster and a thief. But as the walls cave in, our forced proximity forcing us closer and closer, the answer becomes clear. Come hell or high water, Alyssa Rogers needs to go.
When Jesus asked us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, and visit the imprisoned, he didn’t mean it literally, right? Kerry Weber, a modern, young, single woman in New York City sets out to see if she can practice the Corporal Works of Mercy in an authentic, personal, meaningful manner while maintaining a full, robust, regular life. Weber, a lay Catholic, explores the Works of Mercy in the real world, with a gut-level honesty and transparency that people of urban, country, and suburban locales alike can relate to. Mercy in the City is for anyone who is struggling to live in a meaningful, merciful way amid the pressures of “real life.” For those who feel they are already overscheduled and too busy, for those who assume that they are not “religious enough” to practice the Works of Mercy, for those who worry that they are alone in their efforts to live an authentic life, Mercy in the City proves that by living as people for others, we learn to connect as people of faith.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." --Genesis 1:24-26 In this crucial passage from the Old Testament, God grants mankind power over animals. But with this privilege comes the grave responsibility to respect life, to treat animals with simple dignity and compassion. Somewhere along the way, something has gone wrong. In Dominion, we witness the annual convention of Safari Club International, an organization whose wealthier members will pay up to $20,000 to hunt an elephant, a lion or another animal, either abroad or in American "safari ranches," where the animals are fenced in pens. We attend the annual International Whaling Commission conference, where the skewed politics of the whaling industry come to light, and the focus is on developing more lethal, but not more merciful, methods of harvesting "living marine resources." And we visit a gargantuan American "factory farm," where animals are treated as mere product and raised in conditions of mass confinement, bred for passivity and bulk, inseminated and fed with machines, kept in tightly confined stalls for the entirety of their lives, and slaughtered in a way that maximizes profits and minimizes decency. Throughout Dominion, Scully counters the hypocritical arguments that attempt to excuse animal abuse: from those who argue that the Bible's message permits mankind to use animals as it pleases, to the hunter's argument that through hunting animal populations are controlled, to the popular and "scientifically proven" notions that animals cannot feel pain, experience no emotions, and are not conscious of their own lives. The result is eye opening, painful and infuriating, insightful and rewarding. Dominion is a plea for human benevolence and mercy, a scathing attack on those who would dismiss animal activists as mere sentimentalists, and a demand for reform from the government down to the individual. Matthew Scully has created a groundbreaking work, a book of lasting power and importance for all of us.
Even in this age of extreme sports and made-for-TV survival games, there still exist places on earth where the most intrepid among us can plunge into truly unknown territory. The acclaimed adventure writer Peter Stark had waited all his life for just such an opportunity. But when he was invited to Africa to join a small expedition kayaking down Mozambique’s Lugenda River, he balked. The 750-kilometer rivercourse was largely uncharted–dotted with rapids, waterfalls, and home to deadly crocodiles and hippos; two of his four travel companions were not skilled kayakers; and he had a family to think of, (not to mention that at forty-eight, he himself was feeling a bit old for the life untamed). Suppressing inner doubts and driven by that most human of urges–to see what lies beyond the next bend–Stark signed on for the adventure of a lifetime. At the Mercy of the River is Stark’s harrowing, insightful account of this venture into the unknown. “Why,” he muses between capsizes in the Lugenda’s croc-infested waters, “are humans compelled to explore?” The expedition’s five distinct–and sometimes clashing–personalities provide individual answers to that question. Equipped with only the most rudimentary comforts and lacking the customary explorer’s gun, the party encounters breathtaking natural splendor, rich wildlife, and villages little affected by modern life. Ever aware that they are following in the metaphorical footsteps of great explorers of the past–Vasco da Gama, Mungo Park, Ibn Battuta, David Livingstone, and other men of adventure who bridged Africa and the West–Stark shares these explorers’ stories with us, finding a common thread linking his experience with theirs. Using their accounts, his travails on the Lugenda River, and the insights of wilderness philosophers such as Henry David Thoreau, Stark attempts to understand the very nature of “exploration” while pondering the question, Where will we go when our wilderness vanishes? At the Mercy of the River is at turns inspiring, heart-thumping, and even amusing. But most of all, it is a riveting adventure story for a time when adventure is in danger of losing its meaning.
Laney was a woman on the run. Her ex-husband, who just happened to be a cop, had a penchant for violence. After Laney took their daughter and ran, he had a promise for revenge. She'd made a new life with a new name and had planned to stay hidden forever, but even the best laid plans go wrong. Forced to rush her daughter to the hospital, Laney's location is revealed.Laney had vowed to never seek help from a man again, until Riser's 200 pounds of packed muscle made her his own personal mission. He vowed to protect her and her daughter from her ex, but could she trust him with their lives when she'd been burned so badly in the past?Riser Malone was an admitted adrenaline junkie whose distraction on a crucial mission last year had resulted in complete failure of his objective: protect the girl. Unable to face his failure, Riser accepted every mission put before him, but a lull in the terrorist tempo left him with too much time on his hands back home. He needed a distraction, and he needed it badly.And that distraction showed up in the form of Laney and her daughter.With an abusive ex bearing down on her, Riser saw his second chance at redemption. And after one night with her, Riser knew his bachelorhood was over. But if he ever had any hope for a relationship with Laney in the future, he'd have to make sure her abusive ex-husband would never harm her again.
Introducing a remarkable new character from #1 New York Times bestselling writer David Baldacci: Atlee Pine, an FBI agent with special skills assigned to the remote wilds of the southwestern United States who must confront a new threat . . . and an old nightmare. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a tiger by its toe. It's seared into Atlee Pine's memory: the kidnapper's chilling rhyme as he chose between six-year-old Atlee and her twin sister, Mercy. Mercy was taken. Atlee was spared. She never saw Mercy again. Three decades after that terrifying night, Atlee Pine works for the FBI. She's the lone agent assigned to the Shattered Rock, Arizona resident agency, which is responsible for protecting the Grand Canyon. So when one of the Grand Canyon's mules is found stabbed to death at the bottom of the canyon-and its rider missing-Pine is called in to investigate. It soon seems clear the lost tourist had something more clandestine than sightseeing in mind. But just as Pine begins to put together clues pointing to a terrifying plot, she's abruptly called off the case. If she disobeys direct orders by continuing to search for the missing man, it will mean the end of her career. But unless Pine keeps working the case and discovers the truth, it could spell the very end of democracy in America as we know it... "Love it!" --Lisa Gardner"Atlee Pine is unforgettable." --James Patterson "David Baldacci's best yet." --Lisa Scottoline "Heart-poundingly suspenseful." --Scott Turow "A stunning debut." --Douglas Preston "A perfect blend of action, secrets, and conspiracies." --Steve Berry "Baldacci is at the top of his game." --Kathy Reichs
Beloved, profoundly moving account of the author's marriage, the couple's search for faith and friendship with C. S. Lewis, and a spiritual strength that sustained Vanauken after his wife's untimely death.
Without a doubt, the quest to attain sexual purity is the No. 1 battle Christian men face in the 21st Century. The message of Gallagher's timely book is that men need not settle for a fear-driven form of freedom. As children of God, the bountiful life of victory in Christ is theirs for the taking. Win the battle for sexual purity.
