Early Reviewers: Free advance copies of books

Description: Kate Burkholder, who grew up in the Amish community of Painters Mill, Ohio, before abandoning their way of life for the outside world and the study of law enforcement, has recently been appointed Chief of Police in her former hometown. Her knowledge of the Amish, their language and customs, makes her the perfect candidate. When the serial killer, whose spree sixteen years before was dubbed The Slaughterhouse Murders, returns with spectacular violence, Kate is determined to catch him. But she is also desperate to keep a secret from her past: the reason she fled the Amish world is that she was the young girl the killer attacked before disappearing—and she killed him in self defense. No one knows, except her Amish father and brother who helped bury the body. So who is behind the current murders? And what is the connection to Kate's past?

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Description: From the bestselling author of Motherless Daughters, here is the real-life story of one woman’s search for a cure to her family’s escalating troubles, and the leap of faith that took her on a journey to an exotic place and a new state of mind.

In the autumn of 2000, Hope Edelman was a woman adrift, questioning her marriage, her profession, and her place in the larger world. Feeling vulnerable and isolated, she was primed for change. Into her stagnant routine dropped Dodo, her three-year-old daughter Maya’s curiously disruptive imaginary friend. Confused and worried about how to handle Dodo’s apparent hold on their daughter, Edelman and her husband made the unlikely choice to take her to Maya healers in Belize, hoping that a shaman might help them banish Dodo–and, as they came to understand, all he represented–from their lives.

An account of how an otherwise mainstream mother and wife finds herself making an extremely unorthodox choice, The Possibility of Everything chronicles the magical week in Central America that transformed Edelman from a person whose past had led her to believe only in the visible and the “proven” to someone open to the idea of larger, unseen forces. This deeply affecting, beautifully written memoir of a family’s emotional journey explores what Edelman and her husband went looking for in the jungle and what they ultimately discovered–as parents, as spouses, and as ordinary people–about the things that possess and destroy, or that can heal us all.

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Description: To celebrate the upcoming release of BLUE MOON, book 2 in The Immortals series by Alyson Noel (on sale July 7) we are giving away 100 copies of the critically acclaimed first book, Evermore, a #1 New York Times bestseller for 10 weeks and counting!

A horrible accident claims the lives of Ever's family and leaves her with many mysterious abilities, like hearing people’s thoughts from afar, and knowing someone's entire life story by touch.

To suppress her abilities, Ever avoids all human contact, and doing so gets her branded as a freak by her high school. But everything changes the moment Ever meets Damen Auguste, and swears she's seen him before...

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Description: Your daughter doesn’t come home one night from her summer job.

You go there looking for her. No one’s seen here. But it’s worse than that.

No one’s ever seen her. So where has she been going every day? And where is she now?

In Linwood Barclay’s riveting new thriller, an ordinary man’s desperate search for his daughter leads him into a dark world of corruption, exploitation, and murder. Tim Blake is about to learn that the people you think you know best are the ones harboring the biggest secrets.

Tim is an average guy. He sells cars. He has an ex-wife. She’s moved in with a man whose moody son spends more time online than he should. His girlfriend is turning out to be a bit of a flake. It’s not a life without hassles, but nothing will prepare Tim for the nightmare that’s about to begin.

Sydney vanishes into thin air. At the hotel where she supposedly worked, no one has ever heard of her. Even her closest friends seem to be at a loss. Now, as the days pass without word, Tim must face the fact that not only is Sydney missing, but that the daughter he’s loved and thought he knew is a virtual stranger.

As he retraces Sydney’s steps, Tim discovers that the suburban Connecticut town he always thought of as idyllic is anything but. What he doesn’t know is that his every move is being watched. There are others who want to find Syd as much as Tim does.

But they’re not planning a Welcome Home party.

The closer Tim comes to the truth, the closer he comes to every parent’s worst nightmare—and the kind of evil only a parent’s love has a chance in hell of stopping.

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Description: Bestselling author Kim Harrison says: "Nicotine and octane in equal parts might come close to the high-energy buzz from Richard Kadrey’s SANDMAN SLIM. Crisp world building, recognizable and fully-realized characters, and a refreshingly unique storytelling style make for an absorbing read. Sandman Slim is my kind of hero."

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Description: Once in nine lives,

something extraordinary happens...

The last thing Gwen Cooper wanted was another cat. She already had two, not to mention a phenomenally underpaying job and a recently broken heart. Then Gwen’s veterinarian called with a story about a three-week-old eyeless kitten who’d been abandoned. It was love at first sight.

Everyone warned that Homer would always be an “underachiever,” never as playful or independent as other cats. But the kitten nobody believed in quickly grew into a three-pound dynamo, a tiny daredevil with a giant heart who eagerly made friends with every human who crossed his path. Homer scaled seven-foot bookcases with ease and leapt five feet into the air to catch flies in mid-buzz. He survived being trapped alone for days after 9/11 in an apartment near the World Trade Center, and even saved Gwen’s life when he chased off an intruder who broke into their home in the middle of the night.

But it was Homer’s unswerving loyalty, his infinite capacity for love, and his joy in the face of all obstacles that inspired Gwen daily and transformed her life. And by the time she met the man she would marry, she realized Homer had taught her the most important lesson of all: Love isn’t something you see with your eyes.

Homer’s Odyssey is the once-in-a-lifetime story of an extraordinary cat and his human companion. It celebrates the refusal to accept limits—on love, ability, or hope against overwhelming odds. By turns jubilant and moving, it’s a memoir for anybody who’s ever fallen completely and helplessly in love with a pet.

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Description: If God Were Real is a stark challenge to Christians to consider whether they actually believe in God. The "new atheists" are writing bestselling books challening the existence of God, and many of their arguments revolve around the failures of Christianity. The author actually

agrees with atheists that many Christians are not living up to their claims and asserts that there is not much Christ left in Christianity. He argues that the institutional system called Christianity should be abandoned in favor of the pursuit of a new Jesus Movement that actually resembles the movement of Christ followers that Jesus began. He challenges the reader to consider what life would be like if we actually lived as if we believed in God. Each chapter examines how a particular part of life might be different if God were real to us. The evidence shows that most Christians live as "practical atheists." Atheists and seekers are also challenged in this book to consider God in a new way and to embark on an adventure of discovery of the real God.

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Description: “Make your life count.” These four simple words spoken at the funeral of a four-month-old

child haunted the author, hitting him like a ton of bricks and causing him to wonder if he was

making his own life count. Contemplating what kind of legacy he would leave, he wondered

if there was anything about the present course his life was taking that would make a

difference to anyone in the years to come. Furthermore, it hit him that these are the same

thoughts most men and women ponder. This challenged him to write this book focusing on principles that would help people's lives make an impact.



By the time many people reach adulthood, they carry so much baggage that the weight of it

distracts them from maximizing life and leaves them feeling insignificant for not doing much

beyond surviving. The book suggests that there are three great choices that affect every

aspect of our lives. These “life choices” relate to who we surrender our life to, how we

steward our unique gifts, and the choices we make to help others. Learning to make the best

choices in these three areas will influence every aspect of life, and will resolve the "why am I

here" questions.



Only You Can Be You does not offer simplistic choices, which are quickly dismissed because

they do not deal with reality, but instead it shows that sometimes life's decisions require deep

courage and strength. The book strongly affirms that you can make the right choices and that

when you do, you will ultimately find significance. The message of the author is that by

making the best possible life choices, readers will not only find genuine happiness and

purpose, but they will also leave a legacy that really makes a difference.

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Description: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian meets Desperate Housewives in this exploration of the booming business of Russian e-mail-order brides, an industry where love and marriage collide with sex and commerce.

Odessa, Ukraine, is the humor capital of the former Soviet Union, but in an upside-down world where waiters earn more than doctors and Odessans depend on the Mafia for basics like phone service and medical supplies, no one is laughing. After months of job hunting, Daria, a young engineer, finds a plum position at a foreign firm as a secretary. But every plum has a pit. In this case, it’s Mr. Harmon, who makes it clear that sleeping with him is job one. Daria evades Harmon’s advances by recruiting her neighbor, the slippery Olga, to be his mistress. But soon Olga sets her sights on Daria’s job.

Daria begins to moonlight as an interpreter at Soviet Unions(TM), a matchmaking agency that organizes “socials” where lonely American men can meet desperate Odessan women. Her grandmother wants Daria to leave Ukraine for good and pushes her to marry one of the men she meets, but Daria already has feelings for a local. She must choose between her world and America, between Vlad, a sexy, irresponsible mobster, and Tristan, a teacher nearly twice her age. Daria chooses security and America. Only it’s not exactly what she thought it would be…

A wry, tender, and darkly funny look at marriage, the desires we don’t acknowledge, and the aftermath of communism, Moonlight in Odessa is a novel about the choices and sacrifices that people make in the pursuit of love and stability.

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Description: From the author of the acclaimed Utterly Monkey, a witty, compassionate, and insightful look at a very modern love triangle between David Pinner, a dyspeptic London professor, David’s gregarious friend and flatmate James Glover, and Ruth Marks, the charismatic American artist who comes between the two men.

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Description: Defense attorney Paul Madriani gets caught in a web of deceit and murder involving Cold War secrets, a rare coin dealer who once worked for the CIA, and a furious assassin in one of the most entertaining novels yet in this New York Times bestselling series.

A woman pauses in the hallway of a darkened San Diego beach house at night—listening for just the right moment when she can flee before her companion notices that she's gone.

A man outside watches the same mansion, waiting for a sign that he can enter on his mission of blood and carnage.

So begins this riveting new tale about Paul Madriani and his latest case—that of Katia, a woman accused of an unlikely crime—a trial that will unravel a careful but horrifying conspiracy. Madriani soon realizes that he's signed onto something much more sinister than a botched heist. As he searches for the truth that will clear Katia's name, he finds himself on a path that takes him from Southern California to Costa Rica, and, ultimately, to a secret buried since Castro's rise to power.

Together with his partner, Harry Hinds, Madriani must piece together the threads of a decades-old conspiracy involving priceless gold coins, an aging American spy, a disaffected Russian soldier, and a forgotten weapon from the days of JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis. As the separate strands of the story come together, Madriani finds information that will ultimately lead him to the one person who holds the key to it all: a man some call "The Guardian of Lies."

In this fascinating thriller from New York Times bestselling author Steve Martini, Paul Madriani faces his most challenging—and most urgent—case yet, a breathless story that combines fact and fiction and will hold readers captive until its final, explosive conclusion.

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Description: In the trauma center of Atlanta’s busiest hospital, Sara Linton treats the city’s poor, wounded, and unlucky—and finds refuge from the tragedy that rocked her life in rural Grant County. Then, in one instant, Sara is thrust into a frantic police investigation, coming face-to-face with a tall driven detective and his quiet female partner…. In Undone, three unforgettable characters from Karin Slaughter’s New York Times bestselling novels Faithless and Fractured collide for the first time, entering an electrifying race against the clock—and a duel with unspeakable human evil.

In the backwoods of suburban Atlanta, where Sara’s patient was found, local police have set up their investigation. But Georgia Bureau of Investigation detective Will Trent doesn’t wait for the go-ahead from his boss—he plunges through police lines, through the brooding woods, and single-handedly exposes a hidden house of horror buried beneath the earth. Then he finds another victim.…

Wresting the case away from the local police chief, Will and his partner, Faith Mitchell—a woman keeping explosive secrets of her own—are called into a related investigation. Another woman—a smart, upscale, independent young mother—has been snatched. For the two cops out on the hunt, for the doctor trying to bring her patient back to life, the truth hits like a hammer: the killer’s torture chamber has been found, but the killer is still at work.

In her latest suspense masterpiece, Karin Slaughter weaves together the moving, powerful human stories of characters as real as they are complex and unforgettable. At the same time she has crafted a work of dazzling storytelling and spine-tingling mystery—as three people, each with their own wounds and their own secrets, are all that stands between a madman and his next crime.

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Description: A’isha, the youngest wife of the Prophet Muhammad, charmed him with her wit and intelligence, eventually earning the confidence and respect of her husband and the community. When Muhammad dies without a successor, A’isha and her sister wives are devastated with grief and struggle in their new roles as Mothers of the Believers without his presence. Even worse, the Muslim community is thrown into turmoil as a Bedouin army threatens its very survival.

After losing his Prophet and then his beloved wife, Ali, the Prophet’s only surviving heir, is torn. The newly chosen leadership of the faith is pressuring him to swear allegiance to them, while others urge him to seek power himself so he can lead the Muslim people as Muhammad intended. Ali fears if he does not take action, Muhammad’s successors and their corrupt advisers could endanger the survival of Islam and all of its followers.

Before dying, Muhammad left his jeweled sword, al-Ma’thur, to A’isha, telling her to use it in the jihad to come. But what if the jihad is against her own people? After twenty years of distrust and anger, can A’isha and Ali come together to preserve the future of their people and their faith–or will their hatred of each other destroy everything Muhammad worked to build? This climactic sequel to the controversial The Jewel of Medina returns to 7th century Arabia to discover whether, after fighting a civil war, a people can ever truly heal.

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Description: “What happens when nothing happens?”

Maryanne wonders in A Year of Cats and

Dogs, a darkly funny yet hopeful first

novel about a woman in midlife who

feels surrounded by death. She answers

her own question by deciding to find out.

“I wanted to embrace entropy, to stop

working so hard at keeping things up,

to go AWOL from the productive world

I’d so long been a part of,” she tells us

at the beginning of the novel. “The

clearer it became that Phillip wasn’t

coming back the more I wanted to hurry

up and let things go just to see what

would happen.”

As it turns out, a lot happens. Even as

Maryanne’s world slows down and

comes apart, curious revelations begin to

emerge about the daily life she’s formerly taken for granted as she breaks up

with her boyfriend, quits her job as a

writer of smarmy collectibles copy,

searches for meaning in the I Ching and

any other philosophy in which she can

find comfort and discovers she can hear

the thoughts of animals, starting with her

own opinionated dog and cat. Then the

veterinarian at the animal shelter where

she volunteers offers her a job as a dog

whisperer … and asks her on a date to his

mother’s funeral. When her father falls ill

she is reunited with her estranged sister

and when he dies they learn about his

secret life.

The book contains poems, recipes for

the consoling foods Maryanne cooks for

her family and friends, along with the

inner dialog that accompanies them, and

each chapter is linked to a corresponding

chapter in the I Ching, reflecting that

book’s age-old wisdom that says that

sometimes no action is the best action

of all.

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Description: Lainey Byrne is a master at controlled chaos, juggling her hectic, demanding job, her chef boyfriend with his crazy hours, and her roiling family with all its daily dramas. But her life truly threatens to spin out of control when her aunt May, who owns a B&B in Ireland, passes away. In order for the Byrnes to collect their inheritance, someone from the family must take over Aunt May’s business for a year. And apparently that someone is Lainey.

Between running a run-down, virtually guest-free B&B (without the slightest ability to cook or clean), worrying about her family from afar, adjusting to country life, and dealing with the complications of long-distance love, Lainey is in way over her head. But when a reunion with a (gorgeous) childhood friend sparks unexpected complications, Lainey realizes that fate may have another path for her–a direction she never imagined.

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Description: In a manner evoking Ian McEwan's Atonement and Nick Hornby's About a Boy, Joyce Maynard tells a story of love, sexual passion, painful adolescence, and devastating betrayal as seen through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy - and the man he later becomes - looking back on the events of a single long, hot, and life-altering weekend.

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Description: Detective Sloane Pearson is new to the Sex Crimes Division but no stranger to being treated like an incompetent blonde by her hardened male co-workers. She’s also no stranger to hard-to-crack cases, and her latest is as tough as they come: A rapist is on the prowl, dragging women to deserted building sites or vacant apartment buildings peppered all over downtown Chicago, and forcing them to fight—-knowing, of course, that he’ll win.

When a real estate agent Sloane knows is attacked by the violent predator, Sloane finds herself taking a case that threatens her secret plans to leave her long-time lover. Her personal bond with the victim and a would-be relationship with a man she interviews along the way lead Sloane down a dangerous path—-one that poisons the investigation as well as her personal life.

Sloane’s balancing act topples when her father falls ill. Between coping with his weak heart and following the few weak leads she has, her case begins to go the way that many rape cases go: The victims fall away, one by one, suddenly unsure of what they saw or unwilling to relive the horrifying moments again and again.

When Sloane helps a hungry young Sun-Times reporter declare the case serial, she loses support: Her bosses demand she get a suspect or move on. Sloane stays on the case, though—-no matter how much it strains her personal relationships. Even her partner claims she’s in too deep: He doesn’t believe there’s an arrest on the planet worth a cop’s life. Sloane disagrees: Someone’s got to take up the fight.

From the worst slums of Chicago’s west side to the glittering Loop skyscrapers, Sloane finds no shortage of suspects. As she loses everything she’d called home, she can only hope to find the rapist before she also becomes a victim.

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Description: In this funny and poignant first novel from the author of the award-winning memoir Saving Buddha's Dinner, two estranged Vietnamese-American sisters struggle to come to terms with the rich cultural and family history that binds them.

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Description: A multi-tasking mama, Summer Finley has found ways to handle whatever life throws at her with grace and a grin. Until now, that is. An “abnormal” medical test result sends Summer into an emotional tailspin and prompts her to fulfill a life-long dream of “meeting” her best friend and pen pal since fourth grade, Noelle Van Zandt, face-to-face.

Their blissful week together in the Netherlands finds Summer and Noelle floating down a canal in Amsterdam, visiting Corrie Ten Boom’s Hiding Place, sipping decadent Dutch cocoa in Delft, and bobbing merrily along through a sea of brilliant, spring-fresh tulips. Each day takes them further from midlife anxiety and closer to trusting God in deeper ways.

When Summer finally confides in Noelle about the abnormal test results, Summer’s honesty prompts Noelle to share a long-held heartache. The two friends find they both needed to be together more than either of them realized. Could it be this adventure was tucked away in God’s imagination long before Summer bought her ticket to fly to the land of merry tulips and kalomping wooden shoes?

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Description: A sweeping debut novel, inspired by the life of the author’s mother, about a young woman who dares to fight for a brighter future in occupied Korea

In early-twentieth-century Korea, Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, longs to choose her own destiny. Smart and headstrong, she is encouraged by her mother—but her stern father is determined to maintain tradition, especially as the Japanese steadily gain control of his beloved country. When he seeks to marry Najin into an aristocratic family, her mother defies generations of obedient wives and instead sends her to serve in the king’s court as a companion to a young princess. But the king is soon assassinated, and the centuries-old dynastic culture comes to its end.

In the shadow of the dying monarchy, Najin begins a journey through increasing oppression that will forever change her world. As she desperately seeks to continue her education, will the unexpected love she finds along the way be enough to sustain her through the violence and subjugation her country continues to face? Spanning thirty years, The Calligrapher’s Daughter is a richly drawn novel in the tradition of Lisa See and Amy Tan about a country torn between ancient customs and modern possibilities, a family ultimately united by love, and a woman who never gives up her search for freedom.

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Description: The future is clearly mapped out for New York socialite Eugenia “Gennie” Cooper, but she secretly longs to slip into the boots of her favorite dime-novel heroine and experience just one adventure before settling down. When the opportunity arises, Gennie jumps at the chance to experience the Wild West, but her plans go awry when she is drawn into the lives of silver baron Daniel Beck and his daughter and finds herself caring for them more than is prudent–especially as she’s supposed to go back to New York and marry another man.

As Gennie adapts to the rough-and-tumble world of 1880s Colorado, she must decide whether her future lies with the enigmatic Daniel Beck or back home with the life planned for her since birth. The question is whether Daniel’s past–and disgruntled miners bent on revenge–will take that choice away from her.

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Description: Set in eighteenth-century England, The Elephant Keeper is a magical adventure and a love story between two baby elephants - Jenny and Timothy - and the young man who accidentally finds himself their keeper.

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Description: I meet Jesus on the day I get home from the war. I'm on the beach, but I don't know how I got here. My mind is as dark as the night ... I spend the whole night on the beach. But when the sun's faint light begins to bend around the Earth, I see him ... There, coming toward me, out of the light, is a man ... Behind the man a faint curtain of light rises to the sky out of the ocean. He wears the light like a robe, though I see he's dressed like me. Jeans and a T-shirt, no shoes. And that he's older than I am, a lot older, maybe mid-thirties. He walks right toward me. He walks right into my eyes.

So begins the spellbinding story of Warren Harlan Pease, a young US Army sniper freshly returned from the Iraq War to his native New Hampshire. What follows is a page-turning adventure that is also a powerful and poetic meditation on religion and war, love and loss.

The Last Day answer some questions and asks many more. Armed with a sniper's rifle and his deeply held faith, Specialist Pease travels across ideological borders and earns an appreciation for his enemy's culture and for what connects us all as human beings. "War doesn't test your faith in Jesus," Warren comes to realize. "It tests your faith in yourself." Upon returning home, he spends an entire day with Jesus visiting and contemplating his own life with fresh eyes, and a willing heart. He examines his relationship to those he loves, and grapples with the pain he has been carrying since the death of his mother when he was just a boy.

This extraordinary work of compassion and healing grace will resonate with skeptics and believers, be shared and discussed between friends and among families. It is a book for our time, and forever.

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Description: Filled with the bold, brash, and beautiful female characters who have become Kris Radish's calling card, THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO WOMEN is a wild, joyous, tug-at-your-heartstrings journey, one that unforgettably bridges the gap between sisters, mothers, and daughters, family and friendship.

When nosy Joyce Maleny peers through the late-blooming perennials to ask Emma Gilford if her mother is really sleeping with both a retired attorney from Charleston and the carpenter who lives next door, Emma's tired, put-upon heart skids to a painful halt. Now, as she prepares the Gilford battleground for their explosive annual reunion, she must finally answer the questions her sisters have been asking her for years: Is it possible that we do not all have the same father? When was the last time someone made love to you? And: What in the hell is going on around here?

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Description: ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, cannot be cured but it can be treated. A great deal can be done to treat the symptoms of ALS, to improve an individual’s quality of life, and to help families, caregivers, and loved ones to cope with the disease. This extensively revised and rewritten new edition of the bestselling Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Guide For Patients and Families addresses all of those needs, and brings up-to-date important information to those living with the reality of ALS.

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Description: "The Mayo Clinic Guide to Living with a Spinal Cord Injury: Moving Ahead with Your Life" is an illustrated, accessible guide that will enable people with a spinal cord injury to return to an active and productive life within the limits of their disability.

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Description: You Can Cope With Peripheral Neuropathy is a compendium of tips, techniques, and life-task shortcuts that will help everyone who lives with this painful condition. It will also serve as a useful resource for their families, caregivers, and health care providers.

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Description: In the opening scene of Kathy Reichs’s 206 Bones, Tempe Brennan regains consciousness and discovers that she is in some kind of very small, very dark, very cold enclosed space. She is bound, hands to feet, and there’s something the matter with her ankle. She begins, slowly, to remember.

Tempe and Lieutenant Ryan had accompanied recently discovered remains – the heiress had been missing for over a year – from Montreal to the Chicago morgue to be returned to the family. Suddenly, Tempe is accused of mishandling the autopsy – and the case. Someone has made an incriminating phone call. Within hours, the one man who knows who made the call is dead, and Tempe is in the dark. Who wants Tempe dead, or at least out of the way, and why?

With deft assurance, Reichs weaves between the stories of the old case of the heiress Rose Jurmain and a new case that may or may not be related. She conveys the incredible devastation that would occur if a forensic colleague – through incompetence or design – sabotaged Tempe’s work in the laboratory.

The chemistry between Tempe and Ryan is better than ever, and the suspense is fiercely intense in this twelfth novel from increasingly successful Reichs.

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Description: Set in Africa more than 500,000 years ago, DAUGHTER OF KURA introduces readers to the world of Snap, a young woman destined to lead her clan. In the matriarchal society of Kura, women select mates every Fall at the Bonding. This fall, Snap—granddaughter of the elderly clan leader, and second-in-line to rule the group— is due to choose her first mate from among the men who journey there from other villages. At the Bonding ceremony, Snap’s mother, the next leader and Mother of Kura, chooses a stranger named Bapoto.

Bapoto becomes a member of the community and soon begins to introduce strange new ideas that clash with the traditions of the tribe. Presenting a mysterious theoretical figure called The Great One, he encourages the men to pray for good hunts and safety from predators. He also encourages them to chafe against the matriarchal authority. As Bapoto's influence increases, even to the point of dangerously overruling Snap's mother's own power, he gradually begins to convert the people of Kura into sharing his beliefs. But Snap, who cherishes the generations-old traditions of her tribe, is suspicious of Bapoto and his ways.

Snap clashes once too often with Bapoto, and is brutally cast out on her own to survive or perish. Alone, without even her beloved mate, Snap risks her life—and the future of her community—against a greater evil than she could ever imagine. For unbeknownst to her, other communities are facing the same danger…and soon, for the first time, Snap and her beloved village will face a force more terrifying—and deadly—than any natural threat.

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Description: Newly widowed Lydia Sellers discovers that through an unforeseen fluke, she is the sole recipient of her husband's fortune. But instead of granting her security, it only causes strife as her adult stepchildren battle to regain the inheritance for themselves. Lydia, longing to put the memories of a painful marriage behind her, determines to travel to Alaska to join her aunt.

Lydia's arrival in Sitka, however, brings two things she didn't expect. One is the acquaintance of Kjell Bjorklund, the handsome owner of the sawmill. Second is the discovery that she is pregnant with her dead husband's child. What will this mean for her budding relationship with Kjell? And to what lengths will her stepchildren go to reclaim their father's fortune? Lydia soon finds her life—and that of her child's—on the line.

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Description: Life has a dreamy quality for Charlotte Sanders, a precocious and sweet fifteen year old American girl growing up in the wealthy expatriate set in Paris in the late 1970’s. Her father, a lawyer and quiet intellectual, spends evenings reading Balzac in his study and listening to opera. Her sister is a star rider at the equestrian club. And her mother, Astrid, is charming and beautiful and charismatic. But, Charlotte’s easy life is quickly turned upside down when her mother has an affair with a Polish Communist-resister and Charlotte’s parents get a divorce. Charlotte and her mother move to New York, where Charlotte is thrust into the dizzying world of an Upper East Side private school, and her mother sets up a clothing boutique in Soho. As Charlotte grows up, wooing men in the library, attending Yale, and eventually working as a journalist, she grapples with what it means to live across the Atlantic from her father and sister and she observes her mother’s stylish egocentricity with both disdain and awe.



This enchanting coming-of-age story is by turns warm, hilarious, biting, and heartfelt. It is a tender portrayal of the struggles of adolescence and an honest account of one girl’s discovery that where we come from makes us who we are.

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Description: Imagine buying the home of your dreams, a glorious old mansion nestled in a fairytale setting, and then coming across the clues of an elaborate puzzle hidden behind its walls that lead, first, to the discovery of a priceless treasure - and then, to murder!

Along with her KEY News colleagues, Eliza Blake, co-host of Key to America, the country’s premier television morning program, is invited to Pentimento, an historic estate in Tuxedo Park, New York, a setting synonymous with wealth and exclusivity. Behind the private park’s stately stone gates, sprawling architectural masterpieces, restored carriage houses and picturesque gardeners’ cottages decorate the rolling, naturalistic landscape. But the serenity of the secluded enclave explodes when one of the Tuxedo Park’s best known residents is found dead just as stunning facet of the puzzle is revealed in the estate’s stone fountain. As they explore Pentimento, Eliza and the home’s new owners begin to find even more clues and riddles concealed in its stained-glass windows, statues and mosaics.

What starts as a fascinating yet harmless tour of a giant “puzzle house” turns darkly sinister and, as the fabled homestead gives up its many mysteries, someone turns to murder to keep one last secret from coming to light. The peaceful lake drives of Tuxedo Park soon become treacherous paths to death, and no amount of wealth or privilege will keep the threatened residents safe. On one of those tranquil and winding roads, Eliza Blake will come face to face with a killer who thinks that some buried secrets should stay buried.

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Description: With their eldest son nearly to the age when he will be drafted into military service, Reinhardt and Lillian Vogt decide to immigrate to America, the land of liberty, with their three sons and Reinhardt's adopted brother, Eli. But when tragedy strikes during the voyage, Lillian and Eli are forced into an agreement neither desires. Determined to fulfill his obligation to Reinhardt, Eli plans to see Lillian and her sons safely settled on their Kansas homestead—and he's equally determined that the boys will be reared in the Mennonite faith. What he doesn't expect is his growing affection for Lillian—and the deep desire to be part of a family.

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Description: Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle was "nothing short of spectacular" (Entertainment Weekly). Now she brings us the story of her grandmother — told in a voice so authentic and compelling that the book is destined to become an instant classic.

"Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, in Jeannette Walls's magnificent, true-life novel based on her no-nonsense, resourceful, hard working, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town — riding five hundred miles on her pony, all alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car ("I loved cars even more than I loved horses. They didn't need to be fed if they weren't working, and they didn't leave big piles of manure all over the place") and fly a plane, and, with her husband, ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.

Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds — against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn't fit the mold. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa or Beryl Markham's West with the Night. It will transfix readers everywhere.

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Description: The popular Solomon Raven series includes four individual titles (Cinnamon & the April Shower, Mason Moves Away, Lewis Cardinal's First Winter,A Home for Pearl Squirrel) featuring seasonal stories with recurring north woods animal friends. The woodland settings offer insight into the changes of the forest landscape, and each story involves a subject that affects children on a day–to–day basis. No matter what the issue, Solmon Raven, the wisest bird in the forest, has the answer.

Mason Moves Away

One summer, people enter the north woods and Mason's peaceful environment will never be the same. Solomon explains the gentle balance that must exist between humans and wildlife.

This title is available in English–only, or bilingual English–Spanish editions.

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Description: “You’ll fall in love with the ladies of Sweetgum! Beth Pattillo knits an engaging novel where so many lives are woven together seamlessly.”

–Leanna Ellis, award winning author of Ruby’s Slippers

“I love the ladies of the Sweetgum Knit Lit Society! Beth Pattillo has created characters so real I want to join their group and a setting so charming I want to visit on my next vacation. Thankfully, I can get away and do that without leaving my cozy reading corner just by opening the pages of The Sweetgum Ladies Knit For Love. Warm and sweetly southern, Pattillo delivers everything you want in a story and then some.”

–Annie Jones, award-winning southern author

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Description: Ever since his mother left, life hasn’t been easy for Heath Wellington III. Between his father’s (Junior’s) bouts with alcoholism and literary rejection and Heath’s own wrongful suspension from school, there hasn’t been all that much to be thankful for.

But following the tragic death of estranged grandfather Senior, father and son alike stand to inherit a life-changing fortune . . . with one catch.

Heath and Junior must spend the next three months managing Senior’s bed and breakfast, located in the same Massachusetts home Junior has spent the last eight years trying to escape.

Upended from his everyday life and relocated to a town where everyone knew and loved the grandfather he can’t even remember, Heath finds an inn full of some of the strangest people he’s ever met, such as:

• Winsted, the old, wise Jamaican man who used to lead the prayers in Senior’s factory;

• Mrs. Farrel, an elderly woman giving away her late husband’s fortune letter by letter;

• Mustang Sally, the muscle-bound, tattooed grease monkey who doubles as a children’s author;

• And Carter, the silent TV news junkie and secret Harvard graduate.

And, at a nearby school is Savannah, Junior’s first love, and her adorable autistic daughter, Tori.

But most of all, there’s Junior himself, vinegar to Heath’s oil. As Heath adjusts to his new world, what he needs most is to start anew with his father, to understand that Junior, too, is dealing with loss, and to realize that, even in the most tragic of times, there’s a lot in life to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving at the Inn is a beautiful story of family and forgiveness, and a sure holiday classic. Tim Whitney’s fantastic, heartwarming debut is one you’ll want to read with the whole family for years and years to come.

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Description: Without the means to support herself after her father dies, Carrington Brouwer receives the opportunity to use her artistic talent at her friend's father's carousel factory. But the men at the factory are not happy that a woman has been given the very desirable job of painting the elaborately carved horses. When mishaps occur at the factory and jewelry disappears from the home of the factory owner, accusations swirl. Is the handsome young factory manager truly Carrie's ally or will he side with those who believe she should be fired?

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Description: Why does Vanessa keep falling for married men?

Not that she knows she does. At least not at first. But every man who seems like he might be the one turns out to be someone else’s. So maybe the right thing to do is take a vow to stay single, to keep away from all men, until she can figure things out.

At least work is a bright spot: It’s an anchor to be so good at something, to lose yourself in your job, and Vanessa is a whiz of a chef, so good she makes her grandstanding boss, Hawk—of Albuquerque’s chic Nuevo American restaurant hawk—look good. After all, it’s his name on the awning above the door. If only her friends and family would get on board with Vanessa’s plan and stop trying to fix her up. If she can’t fix her life, nobody else is going to get the chance to try—not her parents, not her friends, and certainly not her ultra-well-meaning but just-not-getting-it sister, Larissa.

And nothing could be more with the plan than helping out at her parents’ house—gardening, keeping them fed, getting them organized with her loyal pet Red Dog by her side. Red Dog is all the companionship she needs. Until Vanessa meets Paul, her parents’ neighbor—he’s all wrong on paper, but he’s got great manners and certainly seems safe. Not bad in the kissing department, either. But just when Vanessa’s guard goes down, the red flag goes up: Could Paul be yet another married man?

Bursting with Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s trademark wit and originality, The Husband Habit introduces a rich and complex heroine in chef Vanessa. You’re not going to want to leave her world when the novel comes to an end.

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Description: Harriet Sherwood has always adored her grandmother. But when Harriet decides to follow in her footsteps to fight for social justice, she certainly never expected her efforts to land her in jail. Nor did she expect her childhood enemy and notorious school bully, Tommy O'Reilly, to be the arresting officer.

Languishing in a jail cell, Harriet has plenty of time to sift through the memories of the three generations of women who have preceded her. As each story emerges, the strength of her family—and their deep faith in the God of justice and righteousness—brings Harriet to the discovery of her own goals and motives for pursuing them.

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Description: Ten African-American leaders in the church tell their stories of how they embraced Reformed theology and what effect it has had on their lives and ministries.

The ten men who have contributed to this book are often asked, “How did you come to embrace Reformed theology?” With the recent surge in popularity of Reformed theology in the broader evangelical world and the growing interest among African-Americans, it shouldn’t seem curious that more and more African-American churchmen are embracing Reformed theology. But the question remains, and Glory Road provides an answer, using personal accounts tracing their conversion to Christianity, their introduction to and embrace of Reformed theology, and this theology’s effect on their lives and ministries. Ultimately, Glory Road is about the glory of God in providentially bringing men and women to the truths of salvation.

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Description: Welcome to the life of Oran Canfield, the son of a freethinking psychologist and Jack Canfield, a khaki-wearing motivational speaker and creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul. At a young age, after his parents divorce, Oran and his brother are sent of to live with an endless succession of friends, relatives, teachers, libertarian commune dwellers, socialist rebels, and born-again circus clowns.

In the tradition of Augusten Burroughs comes an irreverent and whirlwind memoir that grapples with the vagaries of addiction in a world as dizzying sober as it is stoned. While Oran’s needling mother will go to any length to keep her sons from the scourges of television and traditional culture, she leaves them in the care of an anarchic school, where going to class is optional and throwing rocks at passing cars is a popular pastime. Unmoored but fiercely intelligent, Oran learns to hold his own, delivering newspapers on a unicycle, juggling for a professional circus, and somehow surviving every bewildering adult he encounters.

As an adult, he floats from menial job to menial job and plays drums in a number of fringe California bands, encountering a host of weird characters along the way—Grux, a singer and longtime devotee of obscure noise music, a deranged and paranoid roommate who wakes Oran up at knife point, and a Stanford philosophy professor who supplies him with his first hit of heroin. Even Wavy Gravy and Jerry Garcia make cameos, as Oran struggles with a crippling heroin addiction—eventually selling off every possession and burning every bridge along the way, all to feed a dope addiction that confounds him.

From Steps 1 through 12 and back again, apartment to apartment, failed safety net to safety net, Oran must boldly confront the paradoxical and confounding truths and people of his life—and find his own way through the cliche that self-help can be.

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Description: After Senator Barack Obama delivered his celebrated speech, “A More Perfect Union,” on March 18, 2008, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd noted that only Barack Obama “could alchemize a nuanced 40-minute speech on race into must-see YouTube viewing for 20-year-olds.” Pundits established the speech’s historical eminence with comparisons to Abraham Lincoln’s “A House Divided” and Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream.” The future president had addressed one of the biggest issues facing his campaign—and our country—with an eloquence and honesty rarely before heard on a national stage.

The Speech brings together a distinguished lineup of writers and thinkers—among them Adam Mansbach, Alice Randall, Connie Schultz, and William Julius Wilson —in a multifaceted exploration of Obama’s address. Their original essays examine every aspect of the speech—literary, political, social, and cultural—and are punctuated by Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson’s reportage on the issue of race in the now historic 2008 campaign. The Speech memorializes and gives full due to a speech that propelled Obama toward the White House, and prompted a nation to evaluate our imperfect but hopeful union.

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Description: Aracoeli—Elsa Morante’s final novel—is the story of an aging man's attempt to recover the past and get his life on track in the process. The Aracoeli of the title is the narrator's deceased mother, who grew up in a small Spanish town before marrying an upper-class Italian navy ensign. The idyllic years she spends with her only son—Manuel, the narrator of the novel—are shattered when she contracts an incurable disease (probably syphilis) and becomes a nymphomaniac.

Now, at the age of 43, Manuel, an unattractive, self-loathing, recovering drug addict who works a dead-end job at a small publishing house, decides to travel to her hometown in Spain in order to look for her. Filled with dreams and remembrances the novel creates a Sebaldian landscape of memory out of this painful journey, painting a portrait that is both touching and bleak.

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Description: Leo Nikolaivich Tolstoy was born on September 9th, 1828, at his father's estate, Yasnaya Polyana. After publication of "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina," Tolstoy became known as the greatest Russian author of the nineteenth century.

For the first time in one collection are the 20 greatest short stories of Leo Tolstoy. Annotations are included of difficult Russian terms and 35 illustrations are provided that give a snapshot of Russia and its people in the late nineteenth century. Here are the stories included: A Candle, After the Dance, Albert, Alyosha the Pot, An Old Acquaintance, Does a Man Need Much Land?, If You Neglect the Fire You Don't Put It Out, Khodinka: An Incident of the Coronation of Nicholas II, Lucerne, Memoirs of a Lunatic, My Dream, Recollections of a Scorer, The Empty Drum, The Long Exile, The Posthumous Papers of the Hermit Fedor Kusmich, The Young Tsar, There Are No Guilty People, Three Deaths, Two Old Men, and What Men Live By.

Tolstoy's short stories are filled with tales of love, war, royalty and poverty. They are as relevant today as they were 150 years ago. Leo Tolstoy is a fantastic writer and the stories in this book reflect this fact twenty times over. Read the 20 greatest stories of Leo Tolstoy Today!

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Description: One boy, one boat, one tiger…After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan – and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.

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Description: The dead have returned.

And they're about to take control.

It starts with an accident. A girl named Scar is about to be killed - but she is saved by a mysterious stranger, and has her first glimpse of something that will soon become apparent: She isn't like all the other girls. She's a Gatekeeper.

A world away, the other four Gatekeepers have been fighting the rise of a great evil force that threatens the world's future. But without Scar, they cannot defeat their enemy. And Scar is about to fall into a very deadly trap...

In Necropolis, superstar of suspense Anthony Horowitz takes readers into a city of the dead - and then unleashes his most powerful forces yet. The action will push the Gatekeepers to the brink - with a heart-stopping climax that is storytelling at its best.

The end is very, very near.

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Description: Zack Hara is dead inside, devoid of passion, hate, love, any sustained emotion. The twenty-something technical writer trudges through each day in LA like a zombie, until he leaves his job, part-time lover, and antique Chevy pick-up truck to travel to Japan. There, searching for an emotional life, Zack becomes entwined with a tragic poet, a sensual but disillusioned woman, and young people who form suicide clubs — all propelling him down a dangerous path.

TODD SHIMODA is the author of two novels: 365 Views of Mt. Fuji (Stone Bridge Press, 1998) and The Fourth Treasure (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2002), which was listed as a 2002 Notable Book by the Kiriyama Prize. It also won first place in the fiction category of the 2003 New York Book Show.

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Description: Early Preview Bound Manuscript for this October thriller by Emmy-winning former NBC News Correspondent Mark Nykanen. Author of three previous thrillers: HUSH, THE BONE PARADE, SEARCH ANGEL. www.marknykanen.com

Contact Editor Deborah Smith for more info at bellebooks@bellebooks.com and visit www.bellbridgebooks.com.

See the YouTube video and read the Scribd.com excerpt.

Plot:

Synopsis: A “neo-primitive” cult, possessing secret government documents filled with terrifying information about global warming, kidnaps a famous fashion model and holds her hostage, forcing her to act as their spokesperson. As time runs out, her estranged daughter allies with a dangerous activist group to rescue her, while battling dark agendas from the government and Big Oil.

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Description: Join Sammy and Sue as they embark on an adventure to help the earth. Along the way they learn all about organic farming, hybrid cars, green cleaning products, and even all-natural ice cream!

The Sammy & Sue series, based on Sammy and Sue Corso, is an eco-friendly, educational, and endearing read for children. Go Green Too! is the first book in the series and will lead your children on thrilling adventures while teaching them to value the planet and all of its resources.

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Description: Two girls have recently disappeared near the town where Stephanie lives. She is concerned but is sure that it could never happen to her. But then it does. Tied up and alone far from home, she manages to escape her captor and run for her life. But she is in the middle of nowhere, with no food, no shelter and no way home. And worst of all, she has run away before, so she is sure that the police will not take her disappearance seriously. She will need to save herself, calling on lessons learned from her grandfather and an inner strength she never thought she had. (Teen fiction)

Norah McClintock is a five-time winner of the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime Novel. Although Norah is a freelance editor, she still manages to write at least one novel a year. She lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario.

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Description: In the turbulent and mysterious Barcelona of the 1920s, David Martin, a young novelist obsessed with a forbidden love, receives an offer from an enigmatic publisher to write a book like no other before — a book for which “people will live and die.” In return, he is promised a fortune and, perhaps, much more.

Once again, the author of The Shadow of the Wind takes us into the gothic universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and creates a breathtaking adventure of intrigue, romance and tragedy, and a dizzingly constructed labyrinth of secrets where the magic of books, passion and friendship blend into a masterful story.

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Description: The Discoverer is the final volume of the "Wergeland Trilogy," each of which tells a different version of the life of Jonas Wergeland—a famous Norwegian TV producer—and a different version of the death of his wife.

In The Seducer, we see Jonas's rise to fame and the moment when he returns home from abroad to find his wife dead on the floor. In The Conqueror (recently released), a professor writes a new bio of Jonas, focusing on his more seedy doings, and explaining how he came to murder his wife. (Jonas is convicted and in jail while this book is being written.)

In The Discoverer, Jonas is free once again, and spending some time with the daughter he barely knows . . . and trying to tell his own version of his life and his wife's death. . .

It goes without saying that none of these three accounts is the "Truth," but rather variations that interlock and create a brilliant structure defining one man's life.

Booksellers and readers across the country have fallen in love with The Conqueror, and many of them have contacted us begging for The Discoverer. So we thought we'd send a few galley versions out to interested readers well in advance of the official pub date . . .

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Description: The New York Times bestseller: Two people, a 12-year-old girl and the concierge at her apartment, live rich but secretive inner lives, feeling confined by the mediocrity and selfishness that surround them—until a stranger comes to their apartment building. A moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us. Read by Barbara Rosenblat and Cassandra Morris.

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Description: For Boomer Lookout, the littlest prairie dog in the Ward, life is tough—until he discovers a secret tunnel beneath his prairie home. Soon, Boomer is at the center of a battle to save his family and friends from a tribe of vicious, greedy rats. His quest will reveal the shocking truth about the Ward, Boomer’s own destiny, and the identity of the legendary Vinny Whiskers, the rat who started it all.

In this classic tale of good versus evil, nothing is what it seems, and even the biggest misfit of them all might just turn out to be a hero.