Böcker utgivna av St. Martin's Griffin

Barely eighteen, Kanika has everything to look forward to. She's fine, smart, and strong-qualities she inherited from a momma who made sure her little girl had every privilege-courtesy of Tony, one of Brooklyn's most powerful crime lords. Born to the life, Kanika knows the hustle from the inside out, but her future holds college and some quality time with Tony's second-in-command, Tyrell...Then Kanika's world explodes in a hail of bullets and blood when a hit takes down both the man who raised her and the mother she adores. Alone, shattered, and possibly a target herself, Kanika lets Tyrell convince her to attend college in Virginia and move in with her birth father. Down South has a whole other rhythm than Brooklyn, and the parent Kanika barely knows is a different kind of mobster than Tony was. Shon is angry and unpredictable...Determined as she is to make things work, Kanika is equally committed to finding out who killed Tony and her momma. She's not about to forget Tyrell. But nothing can prepare Kanika for what she's about to face: from temptation to danger to revelations that will call all her loyalties into question-and put her life on the line...

How much do you earn?Do you wipe your sweat off the machines at the gym?Consider yourself a fix-it man at home?Have you done "it" at work?Ever cheat on your taxes?Do you wax or pluck your eyebrows?Have you ever snooped in someone's medicine cabinet?When it comes to men, just what exactly is normal? How do you-or the man you love-behave compared to other guys? The fact is, men are both entirely predictable and utterly surprising. WHEN IT COMES TO GUYS, WHAT'S NORMAL? takes a look at who they really are, how they behave in the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, office, driver's seat and wherever they happen to be on the planet.

The federal government wastes your tax dollars worse than a drunken sailor on shore leave. The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004, Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion dollars of your money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects. The war on terror has a lot to do with the record $413 billion in deficit spending, but it's also the result of pork over the last 18 years the likes of:- $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa- $102 million to study screwworms which were long ago eradicated from American soil- $273,000 to combat goth culture in Missouri- $2.2 million to renovate the North Pole (Lucky for Santa!)- $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in California- $1 million for ornamental fish researchFunny in some instances and jaw-droppingly stupid and wasteful in others, The Pig Book proves one thing about Capitol Hill: pork is king!

Be Happy or I'll Scream is for every married woman who has found just the tiniest bit of disconnect between the image of a perfect family in her head-think "The Brady Bunch" or "The Huxtables"-and the evidence in front of her eyes. Instead of darling and compliant rosy-cheeked children and an adorably tolerant husband ready to go along with zany shenanigans, most women are faced with: kids who view family outings with all the enthusiasm of hardened inmates forced to bust rocks in roadside Alabama and a man who would trade every last one of her kooky ideas for a just a teeny little bit more sex and a hot meal on the table at six. Sheri Lynch, co-cost of radio's syndicated Bob & Sheri, is a superb humorist of modern marriage, mores, and motherhood. Her Hello, My Name Is Mommy decoded the pitfalls of pregnancy and trials of new motherhood. Be Happy or I'll Scream taps into the wackier, even more wonderful world of family and husband management, kid-raising, and sanity maintenance in the face of it all. Her take on what life is really like inside a marriage-as opposed to what it looks like on the holiday card version of same-will ring both wacky and true to any woman who was ever foolish enough to dream of the perfect marriage and family.

American Empire is at its apex. We are the sole superpower with no potential challenger for a generation. We can reach any point on the globe with our cruise missiles and smart bombs and our culture penetrates every nook and cranny of the global village. Yet we are now the most hated country on earth, buried beneath a mountain of debt and morally bankrupt.Where the Right Went Wrong chronicles how the Bush administration and Beltway conservatives have abandoned their principles, and how a tiny cabal hijacked U. S. foreign policy, and may have ignited a "war of civilizations" with the Islamic world that will leave America's military mired down in Middle East wars for years to come.At the same time, these Republicans have sacrificed the American worker on the altar of free trade and discarded the beliefs of Taft, Goldwater and Reagan to become a party of Big Government that sells its soul to the highest bidder.A damning portrait of the present masters of the GOP, Where the Right Went Wrong calls to task the Bush administration for its abandonment of true conservatism including:*The neo-conservative cabal-liberal wolves in conservative suits.*Why the Iraq War has widened and imperiled the War on Terror.*How current trade policy outsources American sovereignty, independence and industrial power."Buchanan is an honest writer who...minces nothing except an occasional opponent." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

A great military history about the early days of the American Revolution, Thomas A. Desjardin''s Through a Howling Wilderness is also a timeless adventure narrative that tells of heroic acts, men pitted against nature''s fury, and a fledgling nation''s fight against a tyrannical oppressor. Before Benedict Arnold was branded a traitor, he was one of the colonies'' most valuable leaders. In September 1775, eleven hundred soldiers boarded ships in Massachusetts, bound for the Maine wilderness. They had volunteered for a secret mission, under Arnold''s command to march and paddle nearly two hundred miles and seize British Quebec. Before they reached the Canadian border, hundreds died, a hurricane destroyed canoes and equipment and many deserted. In the midst of a howling blizzard, the remaining troops attacked Quebec and almost took Canada from the British simultaneously weakening the British hand against Washington. With the enigmatic Benedict Arnold at its center, Desjardin has written one of the great American adventure stories.

Myrna Blyth, former editor-in-chief of Ladies' Home Journal, was part of the Spin Sisters media elite for over twenty years. In Spin Sisters, she tells the truth about the business she knows so well---its power and influence, its manipulations, and frequently misguided politics. Spin Sisters is an eye-opener that will change the way you think about a major influence on your life---and about yourself.

A disaffected writer gets caught in the morass of complicated human relationships when he appropriates the life of a former patient and befriends his mentally challenged sister.The people in gay bars on Christmas Day are so desperate for basic human contact that they'd go home with a Doc Marten shoe if it made a move, and maybe even if it didn't.So begins the story of Cameron Dodds, a disenfranchised writer who visits gay bars on Christmas and works at a Salvation Army Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center in order to steal the stories of the people he meets there. But when Cameron finds a patient hanged in the utilities closet, his infatuation with other people's stories becomes an obsession. Assuming the man's identity, Cameron seeks out and forges a relationship with the victim's mentally challenged sister, who lives in a home uptown. As Cameron becomes more involved in the woman's life, he begins to discover truths that will challenge him to the very core of his existence.

Ten Green Bottles is the story of Nini Karpel's struggles as she told it to her daughter Vivian Jeanette Kaplan so many years ago. This true story depicts the fierce perseverance of one family, victims of the forces of evil, who overcame suffering of biblical proportion to survive. It was a time when ordinary people became heroes.To Nini Karpel, growing up in Vienna during the 1920s was a romantic confection. Whether schussing down ski slopes or speaking of politics in coffee houses, she cherished the city of her birth. But in the 1930s an undercurrent of conflict and hate began to seize the former imperial capital. This struggle came to a head when Hitler took possession of neighboring Germany. Anti-Semitism, which Nini and her idealistic friends believed was impossible in the socially advanced world of Vienna, became widespread and virulent.The Karpel's Jewish identity suddenly made them foreigners in their own homeland. Tormented, disenfranchised, and with a broken heart, Nini and her family sought refuge in a land seven thousand miles across the world.Shanghai, China, one of the few countries accepting Jewish immigrants, became their new home and refuge. Stepping off the boat, the Karpel family found themselves in a land they could never have imagined. Shanghai presented an incongruent world of immense wealth and privilege for some and poverty for the masses, with opium dens and decadent clubs as well as rampant disease and a raging war between nations.

Missionary Stew follows political fundraiser Draper Haere on a quest to uncover the secret behind a right-wing coup in an unnamed Central american country. He seeks the information in order to get dirt on his boss's opponent in the 1984 US Presidential election. Haere's pursuit of the truth repeatedly puts Haere's life in danger, as the powers-that-be stop at nothing to keep the episode buried. Along the way, Haere carries on an affair with the wife of his candidate and enlists the aid of Morgan Citron, an almost-Pullitzer winning journalist who has recently been released from an African prison where the prisoners where fed human flesh--the titular missionary stew. Together, Citron and Haere face up against cocaine traffickers, Latin American generals, corrupt US officials, and Citron's estranged, tabloid-publisher mother.

For more than a decade, Lu Hanessian had been living on the go, traveling the globe as a successful television host and journalist. But nothing could have prepared her for her biggest assignment: motherhood. Her baby redefined her world, turning her precious beliefs and perceptions on their head. He threatened her defenses and whipped up her fears like a cyclone. Like most new mothers, Lu wanted answers. Going by the book didn't seem to work and Popular Opinion was not at all popular with her baby. So she did the only thing she could under the circumstances: she let the baby drive. Along that uncharted road, Lu unearthed her intuition, discovered the power of a baby's voice, the changing dynamic of marriage, and the unexpected merits of self-doubt. In following a journey from chaos to conviction, her voice will inspire mothers everywhere.

In the 1800s, nuns moved west with the frontier, building hospitals and schools in immigrant communities. They provided aid during the Chicago fire, cared for orphans and prostitutes during the California Gold Rush, and brought professional nursing skills to field hospitals on both sides of the Civil War.In the 1900s, nuns built the nation's largest private school and hospital systems, and brought the Catholic Church into the Civil Rights movement. As their numbers began to decline in the 1970s, many sisters were forced to take professional jobs as lawyers, probation workers, and hospital executives because their salaries were needed to support older nuns, many of whom lacked a pension system. Currently there are about 65,000 sisters in America, down from 204,000 in 1968. Their median age is sixty-nine.Nuns became the nation's first cadre of independent, professional women. Some nursed, some taught, and many created and managed new charitable organizations, including large hospitals and colleges. Sweeping in its scope and insight, Sisters reveals the spiritual wealth that these women invested in America.

In 2002, a researcher for The Harvard Crimson came across a restricted archive labeled "Secret Court Files, 1920." The mystery he uncovered involved a tragic scandal in which Harvard University secretly put a dozen students on trial for homosexuality and then systematically and persistently tried to ruin their lives.In May of 1920, Cyril Wilcox, a freshman suspended from Harvard, was found sprawled dead on his bed, his room filled with gas--a suicide. The note he left behind revealed his secret life as part of a circle of (cut "young") homosexual students. The resulting witch hunt and the lives it cost remains one of the most shameful episodes in the history of America's premiere university. Supported by legendary Harvard President Lawrence Lowell, Harvard conducted its investigation in secrecy. Several students committed suicide; others had their lives destroyed by an ongoing effort on the part of Harvard to destroy their reputations. Harvard's Secret Court is a deeply moving indictment of the human toll of intolerance and the horrors of injustice that can result when a powerful institution loses its balance.

Desperate to escape her abusive marriage, Lilly Crawford files for divorce, then slips away from her small east Texas hometown with little more than the clothes on her back. She points her twelve-year-old car east, hoping to find a new beginning. When her car breaks down in Louisiana, Lilly finds unexpected employment as the caregiver for a wealthy neurosurgeon named Adam Wakefield, who lost his sight in a recent carjacking. At first, this handsome, brooding man reminds her too much of the angry husband she left behind and she reminds him of how far he has fallen from the self-assured man he once was. But as the two spend long days together, an unexpected bond develops---one that will be deeply tested. For Lilly must confront her violent husband before she can ever hope to move on and truly discover a second chance at life and love.This stunning story is gripping and unforgettable tale told with Francis Ray''s trademark emotion and passion.

Walter J. Boyne''s The Yom Kippur War is a spellbinding chronicle of the international chess game that was played out in October 1973. It is a story of diplomacy and military might that accounts for many of the dilemmas faced in the present-day Middle East. It''s usually called the Yom Kippur War. Or sometimes the October War. The players that surround it are familiar: Sadat and Mubarak, Meir and Sharon, Nixon and Kissinger, Brezhnev and Dobyrnin. It was a war that brought Arab and Jew into vicious conflict. A war in which Israel almost unleashed her nuclear arsenal and set two superpowers on a treacherous course of nuclear escalation. And a war that eventually brought peace. But a peace fraught with delicate tensions, disputed borders, and a legacy of further bloodshed. This is a war that Israel never thought was possible. Surprised by the fury and excellent execution of the Arab onslaught, and perhaps more than a little complacent, Israel suddenly found itself on the point of losing a war because of a lack of ammunition, planes and tanks. The United States, after much vacillation, finally elected to help Israel, beginning a tremendous airlift (code name: Operation Nickel Grass) which incurred the wrath of the Arab states, and their sponsor, the Soviet Union. Fortunately, the airlift came just in time for Israeli ground forces to stabilize their positions and eventually turn the tide in the Sinai and Golan Heights. And it was all made possible by an operation that dwarfed the Berlin Airlift and the Soviets'' simultaneous efforts in Egypt and Syria. The Yom Kippur War is bound to become the definitive history of a war that quite literally approached Armageddon.

What makes us all Americans--whatever our differences--is adherence to a creed, a creed based upon cornerstone truths the founders believed "self-evident." From the earliest days, the survival of the new republic hinged not merely upon the expression of these grand principles of liberty and equality but upon their spiritual underpinnings. Freedom and faith were intertwined. America, as a foreign observer once put it, is a nation with the soul of a church.In this stirring and timely book, Forrest Church charts the progress of this creed from the America's beginnings to the present day by evoking those whose words-whether in declarations, songs, inaugural addresses, speeches, or prayers-have expressed its letter and captured its spirit. What emerges is our shared destiny. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream that this country might someday "rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed," echoes Thomas Jefferson's belief that "equal and exact justice to all" is the "creed of our political faith." Our connection with the past represents our commitment to the future and vice versa. A "spiritual and patriotic primer," The American Creed distills the essence of American history while also matching its sweep. Church lets the story of the Declaration of Independence unfold before our eyes, giving us both the big picture and the details that place it into brilliant focus. Those steeped in our nation's heritage will find fresh insight and renewed purpose. Those still discovering its riches could have no finer introduction. In its scope and embrace, this is a book for us all.

The Ten Things You Can't Say in America struck a chord with eager readers acroos the country, exposing thruths others have been too afraid to address. In his new book, Elder is out to slay entrenched and enmeshed special interest groups, government agencies with the capacity to meddle in Americans' lives and businesses, lawmakers who continue a pattern of outrageous overtaxation, and those who would hamstring this country with good intentions.Showdown demonstrates how the nation would be better, stronger and safer with less gvernment intervention and how individuals would not only cope but thrive without the so-called safety net. Showdown is a call to arms for a truly free society. Elder discusses:- What a Republican-led government means for progress- Where a responsible government would put its citizens' tax dollars- Why racial and sex discrimination are non-issues in the 21st century.Larry Elders straight talk and common-sense solutions spare no one and will inspire his passionate and growing audience.

On September 11, 2001, Jeremy Glick boarded United Flight 93 only because a fire at Newark Airport had prevented him from flying out the day before. That morning, he called his wife, Lyz, to tell her the plane had been hijacked and that he and a group of others were going to storm the cockpit, an effort that doomed Glick and his fellow passengers, yet doubtless saved lives on the ground and instantly became known worldwide as a heroic moment of resistance. But Lyz wanted the couple's daughter, Emmy, only three months old when the plane crashed, to learn much more of her father's story than just the ending. Your Father's Voice narrates Lyz's struggle to come to grips with her husband's death in a series of letters from Lyz to Emmy that give a wrenching but clear-eyed account of Lyz's first years without Jeremy. Through it all, Lyz pragmatically details the challenges of a single parent raising a daughter in the aftermath of horrific tragedy, and urges Emmy to listen for what Lyz can still hear when the wind is right: her father's voice.

Hilarious and true and inspirational, Hello, My Name is Mommy is for every pregnant woman and new mother who ever felt helpless and out of control instead of confident and aglow.Sure, women know pregnancy is no bed of roses, but Lynch taps into her own dysfunctional childhood and fears about becoming a mom to label a much profounder worry many moms-to-be have: that their own pasts were so screwed up that they're doomed to repeat the cycle. Dr. Spock may tell moms to trust their instincts, but Lynch's Misfit Mommies want to do every last thing but that. They feel like frauds and imposters, and Lynch's real-girl's voice will be instantly recognizable to them. Lynch will walk and talk new moms through it all: from lamenting the hot dogs and second-hand smoke they were raised on (and, of course, "you turned out just fine") to the realization that kids are kind of germy and gross (but feeling that way doesn't make one a bad mother) to keeping it together at work with Cheerios in the old nursing bra.

Thomas Oliphant''s Praying for Gil Hodges is a brilliant work capturing the majesty of baseball, the issue of race in America, and the love that one young boy, his parents, and the borough of Brooklyn had for their team. On a steamy hot Sunday, the Reverend Herbert Redmond was celebrating Mass at a church in Brooklyn, when he startled his congregation thus: "It''s far too hot for a sermon. Keep the Commandments and say a prayer for Gil Hodges."Praying for Gil Hodges is built around a detailed reconstruction of the seventh game of the 1955 World Series, which has always been on the short list of great moments in baseball history. On a sunny, breezy October afternoon, something happened in New York City that had never happened before and never would again: the Brooklyn Dodgers won the world championship of baseball. For one hour and forty-four minutes, behind a gutsy, twenty-three-year-old kid left-hander from the iron-mining region of upstate New York named Johnny Podres, everything that had gone wrong before went gloriously right for a change. Until that afternoon, leaving out the war years, the Dodgers and their legions of fans had endured ten seasons during which they lost the World Series to the New York Yankees five times and lost the National League pennant on the final day of the season three times--facts of history that give the famous cry of "Wait Till Next Year!" its defiant meaning.Pitch by pitch and inning by inning, Thomas Oliphant re-creates a relentless melodrama that shows this final game in its true glory. As we move through the game, he builds a remarkable history of the hapless "Bums," exploring the Dodgers'' status as a national team, based on their fabled history of near-triumphs and disasters that made them classic underdogs. He weaves into this brilliant recounting a winning memoir of his own family''s story and their time together on that fateful day that the final game was played.This victory thrilled the national African-American community, still mired in the evils of segregation, who had erupted in joy at the arrival of Jackie Robinson eight years earlier and rooted unabashedly for this integrated team at a time when the country was thoroughly segregated.And it also thrilled a nine-year-old boy on the East Side of Manhattan in a loving, struggling family for whom the Dodgers were a rare source of the joys and symbols that bring families together through tough times.

In need of a Money Makeover? Let America''s most popular cheapskate show you how to go from financial chaos to freedom and security--painlessly and in less time than you ever imagined. Mary Hunt has helped thousands live a debt-free life with her popular newsletter, "The Cheapskate Monthly." In The Complete Cheapskate, Mary puts all the very best money advice she has in one place. Becoming a classy, dignified cheapskate is not all that difficult, and Mary shows how with her user-friendly principles of saving, restraint, and living debt-free. This book will teach you how to: - Create--and stick to--a monthly spending plan - Live well off 80% of your income - Climb out--and stay out--of debt''s hole - Stretch every dollar to its absolute maximum - Manage savings and investments - Lower bills on clothes, food, and gifts without lowering living standards - Live within a financial plan that includes a margin for fun and spontaneityWith hundreds of tips on cutting expenses, The Complete Cheapskate is the indispensable guide for people ready to regain control of their finances, relieve the stress money has created, and prepare for their future.

In the coming year, college graduates will have a more difficult time than ever entering the job market. Opportunities in traditional fields are shrinking as the competition increases exponentially. Despite this glaring truth, far too many post-collegians automatically consider the most visible, traditional careers - usually out of confusion, uncertainty, and peer and parental pressures. Fields like law, medicine, and banking (just to name a few) are often overpopulated, and thus extremely competitive for entry level positions. In COLLEGE GRAD SEEKS FUTURE, Howard and Matthew Greene will help post-collegians to find their true calling, pursue the field that best fits their talents and passion, and utilize their unique skills to build a career efficiently and effectively. The Greenes explain to readers the highly individualistic nature of choosing a career, the interesting choices that are frequently overlooked, and the imaginative ways in which young adults can identify their goals and take the necessary steps to realize them.

EVERY FAMILY HAS ITS SECRETS. SOME ARE JUST TOO HARD TO TELL---BUT TOO HOT TO KEEP. . .It's been fifteen years since the Bennetts were all in one place, at one time, and now at a total blowout of a reunion four special cousins' hidden desires and long-kept secrets will challenge their bond, test their courage, and change their hearts forever. . .Taye is a hair stylist with big ambitions. She's trusted the wrong men in the past and now she determined to land the right one, no matter who stands in her way.Michael is a widowed airline pilot struggling to manage his teenage daughter, but turbulence comes when a new passion enters his life.Alexia was the chubby little girl who has turned into a sexy superstar who seems to have it all. . .except the one thing she's always wanted to make her life complete: a child. Now she has the perfect man in mind to be the father of her child. . .without his knowledge.Rae'jean is the pretty young doctor engaged to be married, but happiness still eludes her because her past is shrouded in mystery. And before she can say "I do" she must come home to finally learn the truth.

Sometimes we find ourselves feeling like an old penny. Worthless. Forgotten. Discarded. Flattened. Ugly. Yet, like the penny, we still have value, and we can make a difference. We have the power to smile.We have the power to be kind.We have the power to be courteous and pleasant.We have the power to praise.We have the power to listen.We have the power to try.We have the power to care.We do not lack for power. We just need to recognize what we do have and make the best use of it. These short selections show readers the path to cultivating the everyday powers, gifts, and opportunities we all have, so as to make a positive difference in our world.Discover your power . . . discover The Power of a Penny.

A Season on the BrinkΓÇöa book about Bob KnightΓÇöis the bestselling sports book of all time. Here is the only book that can surpass itΓÇöa book about Bob Knight by Bob Knight.In college basketball, the name Bob Knight is synonymous with greatness and winning. Just take a glance at the Knight file. The numbers and achievements that prove what he has done, not only for Indiana University, but for the game itself, are there in black and white. In this riveting memoir, Coach Knight talks about his extraordinary basketball career, addressing both the public triumphs and the highly publicized controversies, often providing his side of the story for the first time.His story begins with the most public and painful event in his life: his front-page dismissal as Indiana University''s basketball coach after 29 years in that position. But the story of Bob Knight is so much more than that. Above all, it is a story about one man''s tremendous success. How did he become the head coach at Army at the age of 24? How did he build a dynasty at Indiana? What principles has he lived byΓÇöand coached byΓÇöthat kept the best players coming to Indiana to play for him?Knight: My Story reveals a very personal and until now unseen part of Bob Knight''s life. His legions of fans will all line up to learn more about him.Bob Knight has shown time and again that he is the most well-known coach in college basketball:ΓÇó He has won over 700 games (618 with Indiana University)ΓÇó He has been National Coach of the Year four timesΓÇó He coached ten Big Ten MVPsΓÇó He is the only coach who can boast an NCAA Championship, NIT Title, the Pan American Gold, and the Olympic gold medalΓÇó He was inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991ΓÇó He graduated 98% of his playersΓÇó He retired with a remarkable .709 winning record

Addiction-Free is a complete up-to-date guide of who, what, where, and when you or someone you love can contact to get help for problems with alcohol or other drugs. Here are the names, numbers, and e-mail addresses of the experts---millions have found a way out, and so can you.This invaluable guide includes six initial options for getting into recovery:-- The AA treatment program--Interventions, detox and rehab--Work related programs--Al-Anon--Law-enforcement programs--Therapeutic communitiesAddiction-Free: How to Help an Alcoholic or Addict Get Started on Recovery is a much-needed guide for everyone whose life is touched by addiction.

New York City, 1894. To Gramercy Park, bordered by elegant town houses, cloistered behind its high iron fence, comes Mario Alfieri, a celebrated tenor and the toast of Europe. Poised for his premier at the Metropolitan Opera, the summit of society, Alfieri needs a refuge from the clamor of New York''s elite . . . and from the eager women who rule it. He finds it, he thinks, at Gramercy Park, in the elegant mansion of the recently deceased Henry Ogden Slade. The house is available, but not quite empty. Clara Adler, Slade''s former ward, lives there still, friendless and alone. Who is this bewitching young woman? Why did Slade take her into his home, only to leave her penniless at his death? And what tragedies and terrors have left Clara little more than a pale and frightened ghost, haunting the deserted mansion? Mystified, then enchanted, Alfieri is soon involved in an intrigue that spans two decades and pits him against a vicious enemy who swears to destroy both him and the woman he loves . . . and whose weapons are scandal, murder, and the revelations of Clara''s past...

Ruth thinks she has found her ticket out of Tennessee by eloping with a stereo salesman, but soon he "gets religion," and Ruth leaves. When she faints in a North Carolina five-and-dime, Rose, a fiesty elderly reporter, rescues her, beginning a friendship stronger than family ties. With spirited humor and empathy, Landis intertwines the stories of Rose, who is in denial of her terminal illness, and Ruth, who posesses the energy of Rose in her younger days.

Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo tells the story of a cultural moment that''s happening right now-the nexus point where teen culture, music, and the web converge to create something new.While shallow celebrities dominate the headlines, pundits bemoan the death of the music industry, and the government decries teenagers for their morals (or lack thereof) earnest, heartfelt bands like Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat World, and Thursday are quietly selling hundreds of thousands of albums through dedication, relentless touring and respect for their fans. This relationship - between young people and the empathetic music that sets them off down a road of self-discovery and self-definition - is emo, a much-maligned, mocked, and misunderstood term that has existed for nearly two decades, but has flourished only recently. In Nothing Feels Good, Andy Greenwald makes the case for emo as more than a genre - it''s an essential rite of teenagehood. From the ''80s to the ''00s, from the basement to the stadium, from tour buses to chat rooms, and from the diary to the computer screen, Nothing Feels Good narrates the story of emo from the inside out and explores the way this movement is taking shape in real time and with real hearts on the line. Nothing Feels Good is the first book to explore this exciting moment in music history and Greenwald has been given unprecedented access to the bands and to their fans. He captures a place in time and a moment on the stage in a way only a true music fan can.

Kristen Wakefield grew up the privileged, beloved daughter and sister of a wealthy family...yet she felt eclipsed by the achievements of her older brother, Adam, a renowned neurosurgeon. In New Orleans, Kristen believes she now has the opportunity to prove herself and forget a rather disastrous past relationship. But life is much harder than she expected in the Big Easy. Then she meets a man from her past, Rafe Crawford...a man battling his own demons and keeping his own secrets.The beautiful, but down-to-earth Angelique Fleming has always had to fight to get what she wanted in a world dominated by men and she has the chip on her shoulder to prove it. Which is why she takes great pleasure working at a local strip club, hoping to expose a few naughty little secrets of the community''s upstanding men. But before she gets all the dirt, she''s going to find out a few things about life, men, and forgiveness she thought she already knew. Claudette Thibodeaux Laurent comes from old New Orleans money and had always adhered to the family code: honor above all else. But she shocks polite society when she marries a man much younger than herself, a man everyone suspects is only after her money. Claudette has done her duty to her family and now she wants a little happiness for herself. And yet doubts eventually begin to creep in and she isn''t sure which Maurice loves more: her or her money, as his desire for the finer things in life become more and more lavish. Just exactly how much is her happiness is going to cost her?Told with Francis Ray''s trademark emotion and passion, Somebody''s Knocking at My Door is a powerful story of betrayal and forgiveness, love and healing.