Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” She survived and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club, a secret society obsessed with notorious...  more

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” She survived and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club, a secret society obsessed with notorious crimes, locates Libby and pumps her for details. They hope to discover proof that may free Ben. Libby hopes to turn a profit off her tragic history. She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started. On the run from a killer.

Rachel Wright wakes up in the hospital one morning with no memory of who she is. It takes a while, but once she gets over the shock she decides amnesia isn't all bad. Rachel grasps this opportunity for a fresh start. What does she care if everyone she used to know thinks she'd changed a bit...  more

Rachel Wright wakes up in the hospital one morning with no memory of who she is. It takes a while, but once she gets over the shock she decides amnesia isn't all bad. Rachel grasps this opportunity for a fresh start. What does she care if everyone she used to know thinks she'd changed a bit too much? Life is good for the "new" Rachel... But now her life is starting to fray at the edges. She's been having hideous nightmares and seeing strange things in mirrors. She's becoming more and more certain that something bad is coming. Something wants to break into this world, to play games of blood and death with the living. And it's coming for Rachel.

Bright, popular, pretty and successful, Grace Bowman had the world at her feet. So what drove her to starve herself nearly to death at the age of 18? And what, more importantly, made her stop? A grippingly honest account of life with anorexia nervosa, "A Shape of My Own" is Grace's hearbreaking,...  more

Bright, popular, pretty and successful, Grace Bowman had the world at her feet. So what drove her to starve herself nearly to death at the age of 18? And what, more importantly, made her stop? A grippingly honest account of life with anorexia nervosa, "A Shape of My Own" is Grace's hearbreaking, shocking and, finally, inspirational memoir. An extraordinary story, it is also a common one - is there a woman in the western world who has a normal relationship with food? It is a compulsive read, essential for anyone hoping to understand more about eating disorders and overcoming addiction.

Purge is a beautifully crafted memoir that has a Girl, Interrupted feel. In this raw and engaging account of her months in rehab, Nicole Johns documents her stay in a residential treatment facility for eating disorders. Her prose is lucid and vivid, as she seamlessly switches verb tenses and...  more

Purge is a beautifully crafted memoir that has a Girl, Interrupted feel. In this raw and engaging account of her months in rehab, Nicole Johns documents her stay in a residential treatment facility for eating disorders. Her prose is lucid and vivid, as she seamlessly switches verb tenses and moves through time. She unearths several important themes: body image and sexuality, sexual assault and relationships, and the struggle to piece together one's path in life. While other books about eating disorders and treatment may sugarcoat the harsh realities of living with and recovering from an eating disorder, Purge does not hold back. The author presents an honest, detailed account of her experience with treatment, avoiding the clichéd happily-ever-after ending while still offering hope to those who struggle with eating disorders, as well as anyone who has watched a loved one fight to recover from an eating disorder. Purge sends a message: though the road may be rough, ultimately there is hope.

Never look at a grave the same way again Admit it: You're fascinated by cemeteries. We all die, and for most of us, a cemetery is our final resting place. But how many people really know what goes on inside, around, and beyond them?Enter the world of the dead as Katherine Ramsland talks to...  more

Never look at a grave the same way again Admit it: You're fascinated by cemeteries. We all die, and for most of us, a cemetery is our final resting place. But how many people really know what goes on inside, around, and beyond them?Enter the world of the dead as Katherine Ramsland talks to mortuary assistants, gravediggers, funeral home owners, and more, and find out about:Stitching and cosmetic secrets used on mutilated bodiesEmbalmers who do more than just embalmThe rising popularity of cremation artGhosts that infest graveyards everywhereIf you've ever scoffed at the high price of burying the dead, or ever wondered how your loved ones are handled when they die, or simply stared at tombstones with morbid fascination, then take a trip with Katherine Ramsland and learn about the booming industry -- and strange tales -- that surround cemeteries everywhere.

Welcome to the life-and-death world of an EMT?sometimes bloody, sometimes even funny, but always compelling. When someone dials 911, Emergency Medical Technician Kelly Grayson is there?to restart the heart that has stopped beating, deal with dangerously high blood alcohol levels, or pull a body...  more

Welcome to the life-and-death world of an EMT?sometimes bloody, sometimes even funny, but always compelling. When someone dials 911, Emergency Medical Technician Kelly Grayson is there?to restart the heart that has stopped beating, deal with dangerously high blood alcohol levels, or pull a body from a mangled car wreck. As an EMT, Grayson sees people at their best and worst, in situations that can be gruesome, moving, and heart-breaking. Regardless of the emergency, Grayson is the first line of defense, picking up the pieces and saving lives?or, sadly, watching them slip away. A Paramedic's Story is bursting with stories that run the gamut from lighthearted to heart-wrenching. With his brutally candid style, Grayson gives readers his special insight into the human condition, and shows us what it feels like to hold lives in his hands every day.

Once upon a time, waiting for the mail was filled with warm anticipation. But there's a new mail carrier in town, one who's delivering lethal letters stuffed with icy fear. Now nothing -- not even the most outstanding citizens or the most secret weaknesses -- is safe from the sinister...  more

Once upon a time, waiting for the mail was filled with warm anticipation. But there's a new mail carrier in town, one who's delivering lethal letters stuffed with icy fear. Now nothing -- not even the most outstanding citizens or the most secret weaknesses -- is safe from the sinister power of this malicious mailman!

"NOT EVEN GOD HIMSELF COULD SINK THIS SHIP?On the evening of Sunday, April 14, 1912, the awesome ocean liner Titanic-the majestic queen of the White Star fleet-struck an iceberg and quickly vanished into the frigid blackness of the North Atlantic. Seventy-three years later, a dedicated group of...  more

"NOT EVEN GOD HIMSELF COULD SINK THIS SHIP?On the evening of Sunday, April 14, 1912, the awesome ocean liner Titanic-the majestic queen of the White Star fleet-struck an iceberg and quickly vanished into the frigid blackness of the North Atlantic. Seventy-three years later, a dedicated group of scientists set sail in search of the sunken behemoth-an incredible mission that uncovered shocking secrets buried two miles below the ocean's surface.In Her Name, Titantic, Dr. Charles Pellegrino combines two enthralling adventures in one: re-creating with breathtaking immediacy the terrible night the great ship went down...and offering a riveting, first-hand account of a remarkable expedition-and the miraculous scientific technology-that helped shed astonishing new light on the greatest seagoing disaster of the 20th century.

For pretty Ohioan Joan Rogers and her two teenaged daughters, a Florida sunset cruise was a dream come true. And even though all three were desperately afaid of the water, they were so taken with friendly boat owner Oba Chandler that they gladly accepted a ride with him on beautiful Tampa...  more

For pretty Ohioan Joan Rogers and her two teenaged daughters, a Florida sunset cruise was a dream come true. And even though all three were desperately afaid of the water, they were so taken with friendly boat owner Oba Chandler that they gladly accepted a ride with him on beautiful Tampa Bay.Little did naive mom and two daughters know that behind Chandler's mask of a gracious host lurked a daring and ruthless ex-con, a thief and a liar, a seductive Don Juan who used and discarded wives and children. As they sun serenely sank below the Gulf of Mexico, Chandler suddenly shut down the engines, dropped anchor...and turned into a sadistic torturer.Hog-tying and brutally raping all three, Chandler tossed them overboard -- alive -- with 40-pound cement blocks tied to their necks. With cruel laughter, he spoke his last words to them: "Swim for it." But the dark green waters of Tampa Bay refused to hold his monstrous secret, and after only three days, the bodies of his victims surfaced.If it hadn't been for a dedicated team of detectives and the clues provided by Chandler's neighbors, a depraved killer might have gotten away with his ghastly crime. Instead, he now paces the floors of a Florida prision awaiting his rendezvous with the electric chair.

The most awesome ocean-going vessel the world had ever seen, the mightly TITANIC struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14, 1912, carrying more than 1500 souls--and uncountable secrets--to the icy bottom of the mid-Atlantic. Why did the crew steam full speed ahead into dangerous waters...  more

The most awesome ocean-going vessel the world had ever seen, the mightly TITANIC struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14, 1912, carrying more than 1500 souls--and uncountable secrets--to the icy bottom of the mid-Atlantic. Why did the crew steam full speed ahead into dangerous waters despite six wireless warnings? How able was the doomed behemoth.s .superb seaman. Captain Smith? Why did the nearby ship Californian ignore Titanic.s distress signals? How could such a disaster ever have occurred?Author Walter Lord.s acclaimed classic A Night to Remember is considered the definitive written work on the TITANIC tragedy. And now he returns to the scene of chaos and horror to explore--and answer--the untold mysteries behind the twentieth century.s greatest catastrophe at sea.

One damning lie. One desperate woman. One explosive night of cold-blooded murder. Two days before Christmas in 1998, David Steven's Chrysler LeBaron exploded into flames in the upscale California neighborhood of La Jolia. The "accident" wasn't enough to hide the evidence of homicide: two bullets...  more

One damning lie. One desperate woman. One explosive night of cold-blooded murder. Two days before Christmas in 1998, David Steven's Chrysler LeBaron exploded into flames in the upscale California neighborhood of La Jolia. The "accident" wasn't enough to hide the evidence of homicide: two bullets unloaded into the skull of the thirty-eight-year-old dating-servie employee. And he didn't have an enemy in the world. The baffling case languished for three years... Then out of the blue, authorities received a call from Ny Nourn, an aquaintence of the victim. She knew details about the murder known only to police. She related a twisting tale of an abusive husband, a night of intimacy, a friend's sanctuary, a bizarre punishment of "cleansing flames" -- and a motive for David Stevens's slaying that was even more shocking than the crime itself...

My name is Lucy. I am in recovery from anorexia nervosa and major depression, each of which almost killed me. So begins this extraordinary account of a teenage girl's descent into the tortured existence of anorexia and her arduous, remarkable recovery. Much of this unflinchingly candid memoir...  more

My name is Lucy. I am in recovery from anorexia nervosa and major depression, each of which almost killed me. So begins this extraordinary account of a teenage girl's descent into the tortured existence of anorexia and her arduous, remarkable recovery. Much of this unflinchingly candid memoir is ripped directly from the pages of author Lucy Howard-Taylor's diary as she struggled with the torturous condition, offering a rare glimpse into the thoughts and fears that grip the minds of those struggling with anorexia, the most fatal of all psychiatric illnesses. Tinged with a wicked sense of humor, Lucy's beautifully written, penetrating insights capture the overpowering anxiety that comes with anorexia and reveal the challenge of recovery. This courageous and compelling story will inspire and support those troubled with the condition, and their family and friends, the world over. ... a graphic yet poetic insight into the pain and suffering experienced by sufferers of eating disorders. --Claire Vickery, CEO and founder of The Butterfly Foundation

STEVIE IS A KILLER. But she brings her victims back to life to demand of them: "WHAT DO YOU SEE?P" Now she's about to find out for herself... After an accident in which her mother dies, Stevie has a near-death experience, and finds herself in a room full of people --...  more

STEVIE IS A KILLER. But she brings her victims back to life to demand of them: "WHAT DO YOU SEE?P" Now she's about to find out for herself... After an accident in which her mother dies, Stevie has a near-death experience, and finds herself in a room full of people -- everyone she's ever annoyed. They clutch at her, scratch and tear at her. But she finds herself drawn back to this place, again and again, determined to unlock its secrets. Which means she has to die, again and again. And Stevie starts to wonder whether other people see the same room... when they die.

Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor,...  more

Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions - or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character that's aiming for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life. The pony problem -- Christmas in July -- The ursula cookie -- Bring your machete to work day -- The good people of this dimension -- Bastard out of Westchester -- The beauty of strangers -- Fuck you, Columbus -- One-night bounce -- Sign language for infidels -- You on a stick -- Height of luxury -- Smell this -- Lay like broccoli -- Fever faker

Most people recall a teacher or two who had a significant impact on their future. In fact, outside the family unit, teachers have more influence on our lives than anyone else. Good teachers help students believe in themselves with a glimpse of what they might become. They go the extra mile to...  more

Most people recall a teacher or two who had a significant impact on their future. In fact, outside the family unit, teachers have more influence on our lives than anyone else. Good teachers help students believe in themselves with a glimpse of what they might become. They go the extra mile to make learning fun and meaningful, and they inspire students to dream and broaden their horizons. Teachers have the power to change lives. Written by a wide range of teachers, counselors, administrators, educational consultants and former students, the stories in Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul will convince teachers that they're needed now more than ever. Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul is required reading for every teacher, student and former student. Readers will learn treasured lessons on the importance of encouragement, the power of love, the value of taking a risk in the classroom, and the need for mentors and allies. Teachers will recognize themselves and their students in these stories of hope and love. They will see their growing challenges as newfound opportunities to transform lives.

Cathy was six when the man next door killed his wife and himself. She heard the screams. She saw the blood and the bodies. Now, 20 years later, the house is no longer vacant. Someone new has moved in. Something terrible is happening to the neighbors. And Cathy has a secret of her own...

Two DeathsPort Angeles, Washington, is a small town of pretty houses and smiling people, surrounded by acres of pristine wilderness. Everyone thought it was the perfect place to live...until two local doctors made headlines.Two DoctorsOn a chilly January night, Dr. Eugene Turner hastened the...  more

Two DeathsPort Angeles, Washington, is a small town of pretty houses and smiling people, surrounded by acres of pristine wilderness. Everyone thought it was the perfect place to live...until two local doctors made headlines.Two DoctorsOn a chilly January night, Dr. Eugene Turner hastened the death of a three-day-old baby boy who had been pronounced brain-dead. Six weeks later, ER physician Dr. Bruce Rowan hacked his wife to death with an axe, then tried to kill himself--claiming he snapped after witnessing Dr. Turner's euthanasia.A Small Town Rocked by A Shocking FatalityWhat really happened? What drove Dr. Bruce Rowan--a man who was entrusted to heal the sick--to so savagely take the life of his own wife? Acquitted by reason of insanity, Dr. Rowan was committed to a mental institution. And thought the trial is over, some fascinating ethical and legal questions have been raised by its outcome.Now, bestselling true crime writer Carlton Smith reveals the never-before-told facts and the stunning truth behind two doctors, two deaths, a surprising trial, and the picturesque town standing in the shadow of a ghastly killing.

Something strange is happening in the seaside town of Bareneed. Mythical creatures that formerly existed only in mariners' dreams are being pulled from the sea. Perfectly preserved corpses of villagers long ago lost at sea are washing up on the shore. And residents of the town are suddenly...  more

Something strange is happening in the seaside town of Bareneed. Mythical creatures that formerly existed only in mariners' dreams are being pulled from the sea. Perfectly preserved corpses of villagers long ago lost at sea are washing up on the shore. And residents of the town are suddenly suffering from a mysterious illness that is making them forget how to breathe. Now, Joseph Blackwood, a recent divorcé who has returned to Bareneed with his daughter, must uncover the mystery of this paranormal illness to save his only child--and the entire town. The Town That Forgot How to Breathe is, in the words of J. M. Coetzee, "an eerie and gripping story, the work of an extravagantly haunted imagination."

Every day, Petfinder.com finds thousands of loving families for homeless dogs. Second Chances tells the story of these placements and the courage--both human and canine--behind them. These fifty tail-wagging tales include: The Puppy Mill Dog, in which two women rescue an abused Shih tzu from a...  more

Every day, Petfinder.com finds thousands of loving families for homeless dogs. Second Chances tells the story of these placements and the courage--both human and canine--behind them. These fifty tail-wagging tales include: The Puppy Mill Dog, in which two women rescue an abused Shih tzu from a life of neglect in an overcrowded "puppy mill." Just What the Doctor Ordered, a tale of an older dog doomed to spend the rest of her life in a shelter until she was adopted by a woman who needed Sandy as much as Sandy needed her. Mister Lucky, a touching story of a terrier who was found in the rubble of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath--and returned to his family, thanks to devoted rescue workers and Petfinder.com. Dog lovers everywhere love Petfinder.com--and this amazing collection of heartwarming adoption stories will show you why.

Charismatic, beautiful Sally Flynn was the center of her daughters' imaginations, particularly Laura's. Without warning, life as they knew it changed as paranoid schizophrenia overtook Sally. Whether it was accusing Laura?s father of trying to win her over to the side of Satan, or buying only...  more

Charismatic, beautiful Sally Flynn was the center of her daughters' imaginations, particularly Laura's. Without warning, life as they knew it changed as paranoid schizophrenia overtook Sally. Whether it was accusing Laura?s father of trying to win her over to the side of Satan, or buying only certain products that were evil-free, glimmers of her mother?s future paranoia grew brighter as Laura?s early years passed. Once her husband left the family and filed for divorce, Sally?s symptoms bloomed in earnest, and the three girls united in flights of fancy of the sort their mother had taught them in order to deflect danger. Set in 1970s San Francisco, Swallow the Ocean is a searing, beautifully written memoir of a childhood under siege and three young girls determined to survive. In luminous prose, this memoir paints a most intimate portrait of what might have been a catastrophic childhood.

Souad was a 17-year-old woman living in a small village in Jordan when she made the mistake of falling in love--an event that would lead to unspeakable acts of violence and a lifetime of exile from her homeland. Desperate to leave her abusive childhood behind, Souad begins a relationship with a...  more

Souad was a 17-year-old woman living in a small village in Jordan when she made the mistake of falling in love--an event that would lead to unspeakable acts of violence and a lifetime of exile from her homeland. Desperate to leave her abusive childhood behind, Souad begins a relationship with a neighbor--one that would leave her pregnant, and her family shamed. Now, Souad faces the only punishment her society deems acceptable: death. Her survival of her family’s attempt to kill her, leaving her with burns over 70% of her body, her dramatic escape, and her resolve to build a new life is a tale of heartbreaking drama and remarkable courage.

Jane is an attractive woman in her mid-thirties, tall, thin, and stately. She believes she is breathtakingly ugly. Tormented by what she sees as her huge nose, crooked lip, big jaw, fat buttocks, and tiny breasts, she has not left her house in six years. Though she lives in the same house as her...  more

Jane is an attractive woman in her mid-thirties, tall, thin, and stately. She believes she is breathtakingly ugly. Tormented by what she sees as her huge nose, crooked lip, big jaw, fat buttocks, and tiny breasts, she has not left her house in six years. Though she lives in the same house as her mother, she once went two years without seeing her. When relatives come over, she avoids them, staying up on the third floor of the house, even on Thanksgiving. The one time she left the house--forced to see a doctor--she covered her face with bandages. Eventually, she attempted suicide. ""I can't imagine any suffering greater than this. If I had a choice, I'd rather be blind or have my arms cut off. I'd be happy to have cancer."" Jane has body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD. In The Broken Mirror, Dr. Katharine Phillips draws on years of clinical practice and detailed interviews with over 200 patients to bring readers the first book on this debilitating disease, in which sufferers are obsessed by perceived flaws in their appearance. Phillips describes severe cases, such as Jane's, but also a multitude of milder cases, such as Carl, a successful lawyer who uses his work to distract him from his supposedly thinning hair, yet says that he thinks about it constantly. Many sufferers are able to function very well in society, but remain secretly obsessed by their ""hideous acne"" or ""horrible nose,"" sneaking constant peeks at a pocket mirror, or spend hours at a time redoing makeup. According to Phillips' research, BDD afflicts approximately 2% of the population, or nearly 5 million people. It is not an uncommon disorder, simply a hidden one, since sufferers are often embarrassed to tell even their closest friends about their concerns: one woman, after fifty years of marriage, still felt too uncomfortable to reveal her preoccupation to her husband. Besides the fascinating story of the disease itself, The Broken Mirror is also a literally lifesaving handbook for sufferers, their families, and their doctors. Left untreated, the torment of BDD can lead to psychiatric hospitalization and sometimes suicide. With treatment, many sufferers are able to lead normal lives. Phillips provides a quick self-assessment questionnaire, helping readers distinguish between normal concern with appearance and the obsession of BDD to determine whether they or someone they know have BDD. She includes warning signs for dermatologists and plastic surgeons, since they are the medical professionals who see BDD sufferers most often as they continually seek to ""fix"" their looks. Other chapters outline effective treatments for BDD using drugs and cognitive-behavioral therapy, answering often-asked questions about treatments. Finally, Phillips includes a chapter aimed at the friends and families of BDD sufferers. Profoundly affected by the disease themselves, since sufferers often refuse to attend weddings and other family events, or constantly ask loved ones for reassurance about their looks, those who care about someone with BDD will find both helpful advice and reassurance in this indispensable book. The Broken Mirror--the first book on this underrecognized disorder--is essential reading for the psychiatrists, mental health professionals, and other physicians who see these often undiagnosed patients; for the friends and family concerned and upset by a loved one who won't believe their reassurances; and for the millions who suffer from BDD in silence and secrecy.

This is a hauntingly moving memoir of the relationship between a cadaver named Eve and the first-year medical student who cuts her open. Christine Montross brings an uncommon perspective to the emotional difficulty of the first year of medical school, and her disturbing, often entertaining...  more

This is a hauntingly moving memoir of the relationship between a cadaver named Eve and the first-year medical student who cuts her open. Christine Montross brings an uncommon perspective to the emotional difficulty of the first year of medical school, and her disturbing, often entertaining anecdotes enrich this exquisitely crafted memoir, endowing an eerie beauty to the world of a doctor-in-training.

When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel...  more

When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period–people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards. Laced with fine storytelling, sharp wit, dead-on observations, and moments of sheer joy, Haven Kimmel's straight-shooting portrait of her childhood gives us a heroine who is wonderfully sweet and sly as she navigates the quirky adult world that surrounds Zippy.

Since we humans have evolved into the dominant species on this planet, we sometimes fail to recognize--and respect--the ever-present threat posed by the animals we love or fear, hunt or fight to protect. Many of nature's most lethal residents have combative skills that have been honed by...  more

Since we humans have evolved into the dominant species on this planet, we sometimes fail to recognize--and respect--the ever-present threat posed by the animals we love or fear, hunt or fight to protect. Many of nature's most lethal residents have combative skills that have been honed by millions of years of adaptive survival, and it takes only a second for an otherwise evolved individual to become a helpless victim. WHEN MAN IS THE PREY is a one-of-a-kind collection of real-life encounters between man and beast that explores the uneasy relationship that humanity has with its native habitat. From bears, boars, and black dogs to swimming with sharks and dancing with wolves, the stories in WHEN MAN IS THE PREY offer a fascinating, frightening, and enlightening look at the natural world and its many creatures.

Attempting to demythologize the process of dying, Nuland explores how we shall die, each of us in a way that will be unique. Through particular stories of dying--of patients, and of his own family--he examines the seven most common roads to death: old age, cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's,...  more

Attempting to demythologize the process of dying, Nuland explores how we shall die, each of us in a way that will be unique. Through particular stories of dying--of patients, and of his own family--he examines the seven most common roads to death: old age, cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's, accidents, heart disease, and strokes, revealing the facets of death's multiplicity. "It's impossible to read How We Die without realizing how earnestly we have avoided this most unavoidable of subjects, how we have protected ourselves by building a cultural wall of myths and lies. I don't know of any writer or scientist who has shown us the face of death as clearly, honestly and compassionately as Sherwin Nuland does here."--James Gleick

Brucie Jacobs, the family's eldest daughter, newly sober at the age of thirty-eight, comes face-to-face with a family secret -- a younger sister Anne who was diagnosed at birth with hydrocephalus and mental retardation, then institutionalized. Anne has never been home to visit, and Jacobs...  more

Brucie Jacobs, the family's eldest daughter, newly sober at the age of thirty-eight, comes face-to-face with a family secret -- a younger sister Anne who was diagnosed at birth with hydrocephalus and mental retardation, then institutionalized. Anne has never been home to visit, and Jacobs has never seen her. Full of trepidation, Jacobs goes to meet her sister for the first time. As the book unfolds, and the sisters grow close, Jacobs gains surprising insights about herself, including why she drank for most of her adult life. This memoir, which received widespread national publicity in hardcover, sheds light upon the struggle for human connection that we all share, and upon the need to accept ones limitations, as well as to learn forgiveness.

When Michael Collins decides to become a surgeon, he is totally unprepared for the chaotic life of a resident at a major hospital. A natural overachiever, Collins' success, in college and medical school led to a surgical residency at one of the most respected medical centers in the world, the...  more

When Michael Collins decides to become a surgeon, he is totally unprepared for the chaotic life of a resident at a major hospital. A natural overachiever, Collins' success, in college and medical school led to a surgical residency at one of the most respected medical centers in the world, the famed Mayo Clinic. But compared to his fellow residents Collins feels inadequate and unprepared. All too soon, the euphoria of beginning his career as an orthopedic resident gives way to the feeling he is a counterfeit, an imposter who has infiltrated a society of brilliant surgeons. This story of Collins' four-year surgical residency traces his rise from an eager but clueless first-year resident to accomplished Chief Resident in his final year. With unparalleled humor, he recounts the disparity between people's perceptions of a doctor's glamorous life and the real thing: a succession of run down cars that are towed to the junk yard, long weekends moonlighting at rural hospitals, a family that grows larger every year, and a laughable income. Collins' good nature helps him over some of the rough spots but cannot spare him the harsh reality of a doctor's life. Every day he is confronted with decisions that will change people's lives-or end them-forever. A young boy's leg is mangled by a tractor: risk the boy's life to save his leg, or amputate immediately? A woman diagnosed with bone cancer injures her hip: go through a painful hip operation even though she has only months to live? Like a jolt to the system, he is faced with the reality of suffering and death as he struggles to reconcile his idealism and aspiration to heal with the recognition of his own limitations and imperfections. Unflinching and deeply engaging, Hot Lights, Cold Steel is a humane and passionate reminder that doctors are people too. This is a gripping memoir, at times devastating, others triumphant, but always compulsively readable.

The internationally bestselling novel by the author of A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys from Brazil, and Rosemary's BabyWith an Introduction by Peter StraubFor Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the...  more

The internationally bestselling novel by the author of A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys from Brazil, and Rosemary's BabyWith an Introduction by Peter StraubFor Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the town's idyllic facade lies a terrible secret -- a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same.At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon.

Hero, Husband, Father . . . Monster? In Creekstone, Texas, a small, quiet suburb of Houston, football was king . . . and David Temple was a prince. A former high school and college gridiron star-turned-coach, he had a fairy-tale marriage to bright, vivacious Belinda Lucas, a teacher at the...  more

Hero, Husband, Father . . . Monster? In Creekstone, Texas, a small, quiet suburb of Houston, football was king . . . and David Temple was a prince. A former high school and college gridiron star-turned-coach, he had a fairy-tale marriage to bright, vivacious Belinda Lucas, a teacher at the local high school who was so warm and popular her colleagues called her "The Sunshine Girl." The fairy tale ended savagely on January 11, 1999, when Belinda's lifeless body was discovered in a closet. Her skull had been shattered by a shotgun blast at close range. She was eight months pregnant. There was no damning evidence directly linking the brutal murder to husband David, who stood by emotionless and dry-eyed as police searched the crime scene. But a dogged eight-year investigation would expose a shocking history of cruelty and domination, infidelity and rage -- ultimately resulting in an epic courtroom battle for the ages -- as the scandalous truth was revealed about love betrayed and innocent lives . . . shattered.

Julia Scheeres was raised as a fundamentalist Christian in the Midwest by a brutally violent father and a negligent mother obsessed with religion. Raped by one adopted brother, Scheeres forms a bond with David, her other brother, who is black, and the two manage to survive--barely--a truly...  more

Julia Scheeres was raised as a fundamentalist Christian in the Midwest by a brutally violent father and a negligent mother obsessed with religion. Raped by one adopted brother, Scheeres forms a bond with David, her other brother, who is black, and the two manage to survive--barely--a truly horrific childhood, and then are sent away to a fundamentalist reform school in the Dominican Republic where they endured further abuse--but at least were free of their barely human parents. Scheeres reports all this with humor and an astonishing lack of rancor. Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Journalist Scheeres offers a frank and compelling portrait of growing up as a white girl with two adopted black brothers in 1970s rural Indiana, and of her later stay with one of them at a Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic. The book takes its title from a homemade sign that Scheeres and the brother closest to her in age and temperament, David, spot one day on a road in the Hoosier countryside, proclaiming, "This here is: JESUS LAND." And while religion is omnipresent both at their school and in the home of their devout parents, the two rarely find themselves the beneficiaries of anything resembling Christian love. One of the elements that make Scheeres's book so successful is her distanced, uncritical tone in relaying deeply personal and clearly painful events from her life. She powerfully renders episodes like her attempted rape at the hands of three boys, the harsh beatings administered to David by her father and the ceaseless racial taunting by schoolmates; her lack of perceivable malice or vindictiveness prevents readers from feeling coerced into sympathy. The same can be said for Scheeres's description of their Dominican school, where humiliation and physical punishment are meant to redeem the allegedly misguided pupils. Tinged with sadness yet pervaded by a sense of triumph, Scheeres's book is a crisply written and earnest examination of the meaning of family and Christian values, and announces the author as a writer to watch.

The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an...  more

The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents-including a long-lost account written by the ship's cabin boy-and penetrating details about whaling and the Nantucket community to reveal the chilling events surrounding this epic maritime disaster. An intense and mesmerizing read, In the Heart of the Sea is a monumental work of history forever placing the Essex tragedy in the American historical canon.

Was diabetes evolution's response to the last Ice Age? Did a deadly genetic disease help our ancestors survive the bubonic plagues of Europe? Will a visit to the tanning salon help lower your cholesterol? Why do we age? Why are some people immune to HIV? Can your genes be turned on -- or...  more

Was diabetes evolution's response to the last Ice Age? Did a deadly genetic disease help our ancestors survive the bubonic plagues of Europe? Will a visit to the tanning salon help lower your cholesterol? Why do we age? Why are some people immune to HIV? Can your genes be turned on -- or off? Joining the ranks of modern myth busters, Dr. Sharon Moalem turns our current understanding of illness on its head and challenges us to fundamentally change the way we think about our bodies, our health, and our relationship to just about every other living thing on earth, from plants and animals to insects and bacteria. Through a fresh and engaging examination of our evolutionary history, Dr. Moalem reveals how many of the conditions that are diseases today actually gave our ancestors a leg up in the survival sweepstakes. When the option is a long life with a disease or a short one without it, evolution opts for disease almost every time. Everything from the climate our ancestors lived in to the crops they planted and ate to their beverage of choice can be seen in our genetic inheritance. But Survival of the Sickest doesn't stop there. It goes on to demonstrate just how little modern medicine really understands about human health, and offers a new way of thinking that can help all of us live longer, healthier lives. Survival of the Sickest is filled with fascinating insights and cutting-edge research, presented in a way that is both accessible and utterly absorbing. This is a book about the interconnectedness of all life on earth -- and, especially, what that means for us.

Haven Kimmel's memoir She Got Up Off the Couch picks up where her bestselling A Girl Named Zippy left off, and is reeled out in much the same vein. The person who got up off the couch is Zippy's mother, Delonda, who for years sat on the titular sofa, ate, read, and watched TV until she...  more

Haven Kimmel's memoir She Got Up Off the Couch picks up where her bestselling A Girl Named Zippy left off, and is reeled out in much the same vein. The person who got up off the couch is Zippy's mother, Delonda, who for years sat on the titular sofa, ate, read, and watched TV until she weighed 268 pounds and life was nearly unbearable. You would never know the bad parts from Haven Kimmel, who always concentrates on the bright side, even though she lived in a house without heat, food, indoor plumbing, a dependable water supply or even a modicum of cleanliness. Kimmel loves her parents inordinately, even at their most unlovable. Delonda takes a College Entrance exam, passes it and enrolls at Ball State, where she completes a degree in two years, goes on for a Master's and gets a job as a high school teacher. That sounds fairly straightforward but it wasn't easy. Bob Jarvis, Delonda's husband and Zippy's father, gave her no help at all; in fact, he ridiculed her and ignored her progress. Eventually, he found someone else while Delonda was busy reclaiming her life. We could read this as a tale of the times, where a woman takes charge of herself, loses 120 pounds and, against all odds, gains an education and a livelihood. It is all of that, and more. Life in Mooreland, Indiana, in the 1970s is not very exciting, but Zippy finds wonder everywhere and often laughed until she "tipped right over." There is an unquenchable spirit in the girl, and then in the woman, that keeps popping up despite a very sketchy upbringing. The neighbors fed and bathed her, she wore the same pair of pants to school every day for an entire school year--without benefit of laundry. Her brother and sister lit out at the first chance they had--though Melinda ends up only a few blocks away and becomes another safe port for Zippy. She is a victim of benign neglect, not malice or meanness. Her tales of church camp, days with her friends, driving with her Dad, going to a play with her Mother, her love for her niece and nephew and her discovery that her Dad is having an affair are all told in typical Zippy-style: they are humorous, poignant, exuberant, and often breathless. Stay tuned: this book ends when Zippy is only thirteen. Hopefully there's more to come.

Written in side-splitting and often cringe-inducing detail, Paul Feig takes you in a time machine to a world of bombardment by dodge balls, ill-fated prom dates, hellish school bus rides, and other aspects of public school life that will keep you laughing in recognition and occasionally sighing...  more

Written in side-splitting and often cringe-inducing detail, Paul Feig takes you in a time machine to a world of bombardment by dodge balls, ill-fated prom dates, hellish school bus rides, and other aspects of public school life that will keep you laughing in recognition and occasionally sighing in relief that you aren’t him. Kick Me is a nostalgic trip for the inner geek in all of us.

The hilarious first-person account of life as a hypochondriac—from the critically acclaimed author of Devil in the Details.Jennifer Traig does not suffer from lupus, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s Disease, or muscular dystrophy. Nor does she have SUDS, the mysterious disorder that claims healthy...  more

The hilarious first-person account of life as a hypochondriac—from the critically acclaimed author of Devil in the Details.Jennifer Traig does not suffer from lupus, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s Disease, or muscular dystrophy. Nor does she have SUDS, the mysterious disorder that claims healthy young Asian men in their sleep. What she does have is hypochondria. In Well Enough Alone, Traig provides an uproariously funny inquiry into her ailment, as well as a well-researched history of the disorder. While chronicling her life as a hypochondriac and the minor conditions that helped to fuel her persistent self-diagnosis, she offers a literary tour of the disorder’s past and present. And by the end, her journey leaves her more knowledgeable, a little less neurotic, and—one might say—healthier.

Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined...  more

Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here  her life is supposed to end -- but instead she discovers it is only just beginning.

Shocked by the teenage violence she witnessed during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Erin Gruwell became a teacher at a high school rampant with hostility and racial intolerance. For many of these students?whose ranks included substance abusers, gang members, the homeless, and victims of...  more

Shocked by the teenage violence she witnessed during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Erin Gruwell became a teacher at a high school rampant with hostility and racial intolerance. For many of these students?whose ranks included substance abusers, gang members, the homeless, and victims of abuse?Gruwell was the first person to treat them with dignity, to believe in their potential and help them see it themselves. Soon, their loyalty towards their teacher and burning enthusiasm to help end violence and intolerance became a force of its own. Inspired by reading The Diary of Anne Frank and meeting Zlata Filipovic (the eleven-year old girl who wrote of her life in Sarajevo during the civil war), the students began a joint diary of their inner-city upbringings. Told through anonymous entries to protect their identities and allow for complete candor, The Freedom Writers Diary is filled with astounding vignettes from 150 students who, like civil rights activist Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders, heard society tell them where to go?and refused to listen.

The shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews. Shocking as it is, this book -- -a crucial source of original research used for the bestseller Hitler's Willing Executioners -- gives evidence to suggest the...  more

The shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews. Shocking as it is, this book -- -a crucial source of original research used for the bestseller Hitler's Willing Executioners -- gives evidence to suggest the opposite conclusion: that the sad-sack German draftees who perpetrated much of the Holocaust were not expressing some uniquely Germanic evil, but that they were average men comparable to the run of humanity, twisted by historical forces into inhuman shapes. Browning, a thorough historian who lets no one off the moral hook nor fails to weigh any contributing factor -- cowardice, ideological indoctrination, loyalty to the battalion, and reluctance to force the others to bear more than their share of what each viewed as an excruciating duty -- interviewed hundreds of the killers, who simply could not explain how they had sunken into savagery under Hitler.

When nine-year-old Marcia Trimble was murdered in 1975, her parents believed justice would be served. But it would take more than thirty years before the case finally came to its shocking, unexpected, and long-awaited conclusion.

In one of the most significant slave narratives ever written, Harriet Jacobs, born a slave to mulatto parents in 1813 North Carolina, recounts her remarkable story. From her sale to an abusive master, to her bid for freedom as the lover of a white man, to her ultimate and harrowing emancipation,...  more

In one of the most significant slave narratives ever written, Harriet Jacobs, born a slave to mulatto parents in 1813 North Carolina, recounts her remarkable story. From her sale to an abusive master, to her bid for freedom as the lover of a white man, to her ultimate and harrowing emancipation, this work is an outstanding example of a woman's extraordinary courage--and one of the most provocative first-person accounts of slavery in American history.

A victim of childhood sexual abuse, now a trained psychologist, chronicles his terrifying experience with multiple personalities later in life, detailing his road to recovery.

When Lori Gottlieb was 11 years old, she did something girls that age often do: She started a diary. And like far too many other 11-year-old girls, she also began starving herself. Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self chronicles her transformation from a bright, healthy kid into a hospital...  more

When Lori Gottlieb was 11 years old, she did something girls that age often do: She started a diary. And like far too many other 11-year-old girls, she also began starving herself. Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self chronicles her transformation from a bright, healthy kid into a hospital patient on the verge of death, and it illustrates how a young girl can become convinced that anorexia is the answer to her preadolescent confusion. With an edgy wit and keenly observant eye, Stick Figure delivers an engrossing glimpse into the mind of a girl in transition to adulthood. Fortunately, the 11-year-old Lori recorded her journey to recovery in her diary, and her story is funny, slyly insightful, and surprisingly universal. An unflinchingly candid, bitingly funny debut, Stick Figure's compelling mix of irreverent humor, satire and autobiography offers dead-on observances about everything from mothers to the medical profession, gender roles to the absurdities of society's obsession with beauty. Martin Scorsese's company, DeFina/Cappa Productions, has purchased movie rights to Gottlieb's journal.

The True Story of a Beautiful Co-ed, a Vicious Murder, and the Trial that Tore Apart a Town On the morning of May 4, 2003, a well-loved, hard-working freshman student named Katie Autry was found dead in her dormitory room at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. She had been raped,...  more

The True Story of a Beautiful Co-ed, a Vicious Murder, and the Trial that Tore Apart a Town On the morning of May 4, 2003, a well-loved, hard-working freshman student named Katie Autry was found dead in her dormitory room at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. She had been raped, stabbed, drenched in hairspray, and set on fire. The story of Katie’s horrific murder made local headlines—and there was a huge public outcry to bring her killer to justice… Stephen Soules, an unemployed high school dropout, had given Katie a ride home from a party on the night of her murder. With him was Lucas Goodrum, a twenty-one-year-old, sometime drug dealer with a known history of domestic abuse. Soules claimed that Goodrum forced him to participate in the crime, and received a life sentence in a plea deal. But what really happened in Katie’s dorm room that night? And which of the two accused is the real killer? This is the true story of a crime that sent shockwaves through a small Southern town—and the mysteries that still remain… 

A bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana, reissued in a strikingly designed trade paperback edition.Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant--and...  more

A bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana, reissued in a strikingly designed trade paperback edition.Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant--and utterly hilarious--works of comic art. Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories is a universal (and achingly funny) orchestration of Midwestern puberty rites, from the gut-wrenching playground antics of one Delbert Bumpus, to the supernal glow surrounding unapproachable high school beauty Daphne Bigelow, to the memorable disaster that was Shepherd's (and everyone else's) junior prom.A comic genius who bridges the gap between James Thurber and David Sedaris, Shepherd may have accomplished for Holden, Indiana, what Mark Twain did for Hannibal, Missouri.

From the vaults of FATE Magazine?true stories of encounters with ghosts, phantoms, and haunted places An elderly waitress silently serves breakfast to two friends at an eerily deserted diner?and the next day, the friends discover the diner is out of business and slated for demolition. A phantom...  more

From the vaults of FATE Magazine?true stories of encounters with ghosts, phantoms, and haunted places An elderly waitress silently serves breakfast to two friends at an eerily deserted diner?and the next day, the friends discover the diner is out of business and slated for demolition. A phantom train still blows its whistle more than fifty years after a gruesome accident. And a grandfather's spirit brings a warning that saves his family from a deadly house fire. Over the past sixty years, FATE magazine has published thousands of true ghost stories-personal accounts from ordinary people who have had extraordinary run-ins with the spirit world. This collection features the best of these spine-tingling, bizarre, heartwarming, and sometimes humorous haunting experiences. These frightening firsthand reports include tales of: Ghostly Apparitions • Messages from the Dead • Dream VisitationsNear-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences • Haunted Places Spirits Helping the Living • Animal Spirits • Child Ghosts Phantom Vehicles and Buildings • Past-Life Memories Vortexes, Time Slips, and Portals to Other Dimensions • Spirit Guides and Angels

The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.  When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a...  more

The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.  When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.  Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name.  Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

PUBLICLY, SHAMELESSLY, UNSHAKABLY FAT AND HAPPY The bad news: There probably isn't a thin person inside you waiting to get out.  But there just might be a happy, confident, awesome fat person in there -- and this book will help you find her. Bloggers Kate Harding and Marianne...  more

PUBLICLY, SHAMELESSLY, UNSHAKABLY FAT AND HAPPY The bad news: There probably isn't a thin person inside you waiting to get out.  But there just might be a happy, confident, awesome fat person in there -- and this book will help you find her. Bloggers Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby have lost count of how many diets they've been on.  Between them, they've lost enough weight to make up a whole other person -- a whole other fat person.  But like almost all dieters, they always gained it back -- so they finally decided it was time to activate Plan B.  In Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere, they share how they came to quit starving themselves and began liking their fat bodies they way they are. Marianne and Kate know that "fat" doesn't have to equal disgusting. Or lazy. Or undisciplined. Or stupid. Instead, it's just the single most efficient description of bodies that aren't, you know, thin.  So it's time to reclaim both the word and the reality.  In Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere, you'll discover how to live your life with joy, pride, brio, and plenty of healthy self-respect, no matter what size dress you wear.  

For sixty years he treated thousands of cats and made so many house calls he became known as "Albert Schweitzer of the cat world" In recollections both funny and tender, Dr. Camuti astutely observes his patients and their protectors -- the cat people whose foibles and follies he...  more

For sixty years he treated thousands of cats and made so many house calls he became known as "Albert Schweitzer of the cat world" In recollections both funny and tender, Dr. Camuti astutely observes his patients and their protectors -- the cat people whose foibles and follies he understands as thoroughly as he does his feline patients.  He attended "celebrity cats," such as those of  Tullulah Bankhead and James Mason; interesting unknowns like Inky, the ghost cat; and "the burglar cat," who proudly brought gloves, toupees, and other purloined items home to his owners.  His expertise in urban wildlife even extended to such non-feline patients as Anastasia, a talented mail pigeon who could eat birdseed out of a humans navel.  Encounters with marmosets, honey bears, and ocelots lead him to conclude, "If an animal can fit through an apartment window in Manhattan, someone will have it as a pet." Dr. Camuti was known as "the fastest shot in the East," found vodka to be the perfect antiseptic, and developed the "Camuti Method" of tracking down cats in their most unfathomable hideouts.  He was everything you (or your cat) wanted him to be.  Whether or not you like cats, you'll love Dr. Camuti as he delights everyone with tales of his life and adventures.  

An attractive, highly successful Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer, Terri Cheney had been battling debilitating bipolar disorder for the better part of her life -- and concealing a pharmacy’s worth of prescription drugs meant to stabilize her moods and make her "normal." In...  more

An attractive, highly successful Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer, Terri Cheney had been battling debilitating bipolar disorder for the better part of her life -- and concealing a pharmacy’s worth of prescription drugs meant to stabilize her moods and make her "normal." In explosive bursts of prose that mirror the devastating mania and extreme despair of her illness, Cheney describes her roller-coaster existence with shocking honesty, giving brilliant voice to the previously unarticulated madness she endured. Brave, electrifying, poignant, and disturbing, Manic does not simply explain bipolar disorder -- it takes us into its grasp and does not let go.

In the midst of Pennsylvania's Amish country, on a peaceful summer night in 2008, the body of 45-year-old Jan Roseboro was found at the bottom of her backyard pool. Her husband Michael, a successful businessman and a member of a prominent family, showed no emotion as he learned of her death....  more

In the midst of Pennsylvania's Amish country, on a peaceful summer night in 2008, the body of 45-year-old Jan Roseboro was found at the bottom of her backyard pool. Her husband Michael, a successful businessman and a member of a prominent family, showed no emotion as he learned of her death. But the next day an autopsy revealed Jan had been savagely beaten and strangled before being tossed in the water to drown. Soon Michael's secret lover, pregnant with his child, stepped into the media spotlight. And a horrifying true story of illicit passion, deadly deceit, and cold-blooded murder unfolded...  

From rock bottom to recovery -- the son of veteran broadcaster Bill Moyers chronicles his life-shattering battle with addiction and the hard-won fight for recovery William Cope Moyers has come a long, long way. In 1994, he lay on the floor of an Atlanta crack house. His father had put...  more

From rock bottom to recovery -- the son of veteran broadcaster Bill Moyers chronicles his life-shattering battle with addiction and the hard-won fight for recovery William Cope Moyers has come a long, long way. In 1994, he lay on the floor of an Atlanta crack house. His father had put together a search party. His worried family waited at home where Moyers had left them when he embarked on yet another binge. From that lowly, drug-hazed night, Moyers went on to become an executive at the Hazelden Foundation and travels far and wide to talk about addiction and treatment. Broken tells the story of what happened between then and now -- from growing up the privileged son of Bill Moyers to his descent into alcoholism and drug addiction, his numerous stabs at getting clean, his many relapses, and how he managed to survive. Harrowing and wrenching, Broken paints a picture of a man with every advantage who nonetheless found himself spiraling into a dark and life-threatening abyss. But unlike other memoirs of its kind, Broken emerges into the clear light of Moyers's recovery as he dedicates his life to changing the politics of addiction. Beautifully written with a deep underlying spirituality, this is a missive of hope for the scores of Americans struggling with addiction -- and an honest and inspiring account that proves the spiritual insight that we are strongest at the broken places.

It?s 2:47 a.m. when Dr. Nick Trout takes the phone call that starts another hectic day at the Angell Animal Medical Center. Sage, a ten-year old German shepherd, will die without emergency surgery for a serious stomach condition. Over the next twenty-four hours Dr. Trout fights for Sage?s life,...  more

It?s 2:47 a.m. when Dr. Nick Trout takes the phone call that starts another hectic day at the Angell Animal Medical Center. Sage, a ten-year old German shepherd, will die without emergency surgery for a serious stomach condition. Over the next twenty-four hours Dr. Trout fights for Sage?s life, battles disease in the operating room, unravels tricky diagnoses, reassures frantic pet parents, and reflects on the humor, heartache, and inspiration in his life as an animal surgeon. And he wants to take you along for the ride.?From the front lines of modern medicine, Tell Me Where It Hurts is a fascinating insider portrait of a veterinarian, his furry patients, and the blend of old-fashioned instincts and cutting-edge technology that defines pet care in the twenty-first century. For anyone who?s ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at your veterinarian?s office, Tell Me Where It Hurts offers a vicarious journey through twenty-four intimate, eye-opening, heartrending hours at the premier Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston.You?ll learn about the amazing progress of modern animal medicine, where organ transplants, joint replacements, and state-of-the-art cancer treatments have become more and more common. With these technological advances come controversies and complexities that Dr. Trout thoughtfully explores, such as how long (and at what cost) treatments should be given, how the Internet has changed pet care, and the rise in cosmetic surgery.You?ll also be inspired by the heartwarming stories of struggle and survival filling these pages. With a wry and winning tone, Dr. Trout offers up hilarious and delightful anecdotes about cuddly (or not-so-cuddly) pets and their variously zany, desperate, and demanding owners. In total, Tell Me Where It Hurts offers a fascinating portrait of the comedy and drama, complexities and rewards involved with loving and healing animals.Part ER, part Dog Whisperer, and part House, this heartfelt and candid book shows that while the technology has changed since James Herriot?s day, the humanity and compassion remains unchanged. If you?ve ever had a pet or special place in your heart for furry friends, Dr. Trout?s irresistible book is for you.

Sherry's getting nervous, When Duane left for the 24-hour Speed-D-Mart, he said he'd be back in ten minutes. But that was twenty minutes ago, and that store isn't someplace you'd generally want to go to at this time of night. Then Sherry hears a noise from up the street. It could have been a car...  more

Sherry's getting nervous, When Duane left for the 24-hour Speed-D-Mart, he said he'd be back in ten minutes. But that was twenty minutes ago, and that store isn't someplace you'd generally want to go to at this time of night. Then Sherry hears a noise from up the street. It could have been a car door slamming. Or a backfire. But it sounded like a gunshot. Sherry tells herself she has nothing to worry about. Still, she puts on her clothes and heads out into the night. She's afraid of what she'll find, but she has no idea of what's really in store for her. If she did, she would never have left the safety of her home. And she never would have met a madman named Toby Bones...

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car...  more

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through: the sacrifices Denny has made to succeed professionally; the unexpected loss of Eve, Denny's wife; the three-year battle over their daughter, Zoe whose maternal grandparents pulled every string to gain custody. In the end, despite what he sees as his own limitations, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family, holding in his heart the dream that Denny will become a racing champion with Zoe at his side. Having learned what it takes to be a compassionate and successful person, the wise canine can barely wait until his next lifetime, when he is sure he will return as a man.

Intriguing stories of how people have died in Yellowstone warn about the many dangers that exist there and in wild areas in general. The author, Whittlesey, believes that far too many people enter our national parks with "a false sense of security." He then goes on to chronicle the...  more

Intriguing stories of how people have died in Yellowstone warn about the many dangers that exist there and in wild areas in general. The author, Whittlesey, believes that far too many people enter our national parks with "a false sense of security." He then goes on to chronicle the deaths in Yellowstone National Park of more than 290 people. Most of the deaths, Whittlesey argues, occurred because of human mistakes and "negligence." In this sense, the book is meant to teach and warn about the many dangers that exist in Yellowstone itself, and wild areas in general. The catalog of deaths includes all manner of dying at the hands of nature (hot springs, bears, bison, avalanches, exposure, and forest fires top the list), as well as deaths strictly caused by human actions (murders, suicides, carbon monoxide poisoning, car and plane accidents, and so forth).  All of this is brought together by Lee Whittlesey, the long-time archivist of Yellowstone history.

At seventeen Lori Schiller was the perfect child -- the only daughter of an affluent, close-knit family. Six years later she made her first suicide attempt, then wandered the streets of New York City dressed in ragged clothes, tormenting voices crying out in her mind. Lori Schiller had entered...  more

At seventeen Lori Schiller was the perfect child -- the only daughter of an affluent, close-knit family. Six years later she made her first suicide attempt, then wandered the streets of New York City dressed in ragged clothes, tormenting voices crying out in her mind. Lori Schiller had entered the horrifying world of full-blown schizophrenia. She began an ordeal of hospitalizations, halfway houses, relapses, more suicide attempts, and constant, withering despair. But against all odds, she survived. Now in this personal account, she tells how she did it, taking us not only into her own shattered world, but drawing on the words of the doctors who treated her and family members who suffered with her. In this new edition, Lori Schiller recounts the dramatic years following the original publication -- a period involving addiction, relapse, and ultimately, love and recovery. Moving, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting, THE QUIET ROOM is a classic testimony to the ravages of mental illness and the power of perseverance and courage.

One rainy day in Brooklyn, Jennings Michael Burch's mother, too sick to care for him, left him at an orphanage, saying only, "I'll be right back." She never returned. Shuttled through a series of bleak foster homes and institutions, he never remained in any of them long enough to make a friend....  more

One rainy day in Brooklyn, Jennings Michael Burch's mother, too sick to care for him, left him at an orphanage, saying only, "I'll be right back." She never returned. Shuttled through a series of bleak foster homes and institutions, he never remained in any of them long enough to make a friend. Instead, Jennings clung to a tattered stuffed animal, his sole source of warmth in a frightening world. This is the poignant story of his lost childhood. But it is also the triumphant tale of a little boy who finally gained the courage to reach out for love-and found it waiting for him.

Lost in love and don't know much? Paul Feig knew even less...Like any other red-blooded, straight young man, Paul Feig spent much of his teenage years trying to solve the mystery of women. Unlike most red-blooded, straight teenage boys, however, Paul Feig was sadly at a considerable...  more

Lost in love and don't know much? Paul Feig knew even less...Like any other red-blooded, straight young man, Paul Feig spent much of his teenage years trying to solve the mystery of women. Unlike most red-blooded, straight teenage boys, however, Paul Feig was sadly at a considerable disadvantage. He was tall and gangly. He had a love for musical theater. And, perhaps the death knell for his burgeoning sex life, Paul was a tap dance student. (And we have the pictures to prove it—see the front cover.)Infused with the same witty and infectiously readable style of his first book, Kick Me, Superstud chronicles the trials and tribulations of Feig’s young dating life with all the same excruciating detail as an on-air gastric bypass—and you just won’t be able to tear yourself away. Feig’s series of shudder-to-think but oddly familiar (come on—we’ve all been dumped by someone we didn’t even like that much) anecdotes include: his first date, at an REO Speedwagon concert with the most endowed girl in school, who leaves him sitting next to a puddle of puke; his first breakup, accomplished by moving across the country; his mortifying date with his secretly bigoted girlfriend; his discovery of a new self-love technique that almost lands him in the hospital; and his less-than-idealistic “first time,” which he nevertheless elevates to biblical proportions. In Superstud, Paul Feig tells all in a hilarious but true testament to geekdom, love, and growing up.

There's something in the attic of Fortyfoot House. Something that rustles. Something that scampers and scratches. Something with fur, far more terrifying than a rat. Recently divorced, David Williams takes a job restoring Fortyfoot House, a dilapidated 19th-century orphanage, hoping to...  more

There's something in the attic of Fortyfoot House. Something that rustles. Something that scampers and scratches. Something with fur, far more terrifying than a rat. Recently divorced, David Williams takes a job restoring Fortyfoot House, a dilapidated 19th-century orphanage, hoping to find peace of mind and get to know his young son, Danny. But then he hears the scratching noises in the attic. And he sees long-dead people walking across the lawn. Does Fortyfoot House exist in today, yesterday, or tomorrow- or all three at once? Only one thing is certain- it is a house with a dark unthinkable secret that threatens to send David's world hurling into a living nightmare. A nightmare that only David himself can prevent- if he can escape the thing in the attic.

John Patrick Addis was a state trooper, crime scene investigator, bush pilot, ex-convict, UFO fanatic, survivalist -- and a pro at manipulating women. His criminal madness stretched from Alaska to Mexico -- leaving countless victims in his wake.

Their love would never be the same. Colquitt and Walter Kennedy enjoyed a life of lazy weekends, gathering with the neighbors on their quiet, manicured street and sipping drinks on their patios. But when construction of a beautiful new home begins in the empty lot next door, their easy...  more

Their love would never be the same. Colquitt and Walter Kennedy enjoyed a life of lazy weekends, gathering with the neighbors on their quiet, manicured street and sipping drinks on their patios. But when construction of a beautiful new home begins in the empty lot next door, their easy friendship and relaxed get-togethers are marred by strange accidents and inexplicable happenings. Though Colquitt's rational mind balks at the idea of a "haunted" house, she cannot ignore the tragedies associated with it. It is as if the house preys on its inhabitants' weaknesses and slowly destroys the goodness in them -- ultimately driving them to disgrace, madness and even death. Anne Rivers Siddons transports you deep into the heart of a neighborhood torn apart by a mysterious force that threatens their friendship, their happiness and, for some, their very existence. "Haunting" --New York Post

Cyberspace's answer to David Sedaris: raucous recollections from a man with a serious blabber-control problem Joe Peacock is one of those rare people to whom interesting things just sorta happen. For the amusement of his friends, he'd often recount in long e-mails his latest misadventure,...  more

Cyberspace's answer to David Sedaris: raucous recollections from a man with a serious blabber-control problem Joe Peacock is one of those rare people to whom interesting things just sorta happen. For the amusement of his friends, he'd often recount in long e-mails his latest misadventure, whether it was witnessing an armed robbery or being vomited on during his first sexual experience. In 2002, he started collecting those stories on a Web site he founded, mentallyincontinent.com. Soon he had a large following of visitors, including a rabid core group who suggested edits and helped him hone his writing craft. In 2005, he self-published the best stories from his site as a collection and in the years since he's been holding impromptu readings across the country, selling thousands of copies (mostly out of the back of his truck). In Mentally Incontinent, Joe delivers a batch of hilarious and brand-new stories, featuring his misadventures with a stalker, his blind date with a fifteen-year-old, and his frustrated attempts to convince his mom that he's not gay. A natural storyteller and a self-proclaimed magnet for weirdness, Joe Peacock has emerged from the bowels of the Internet with some interesting tales to tell.

At an early age, Rachel Sontag realized there was something deeply wrong with her father. On the surface, he was a well-respected, suburban physician. But questioning his authority led to brutal fights; disobedience meant humiliating punishments. When she was twelve, he duct-taped her stereo...  more

At an early age, Rachel Sontag realized there was something deeply wrong with her father. On the surface, he was a well-respected, suburban physician. But questioning his authority led to brutal fights; disobedience meant humiliating punishments. When she was twelve, he duct-taped her stereo dial to National Public Radio, measured the length of her hair and fingernails with a ruler, and regulated when she could shower. A memoir of a father obsessed with control and the daughter who fights his suffocating grasp, House Rules explores the complexities of their compelling and destructive relationship, and his equally manipulative relationships with his wife and other daughter. As Rachel's mother cedes all her power to her husband, and her sister fades into the background of their family life, Rachel fights to escape, and, later, to make sense of what remains of her family.

Perhaps only someone who has worked for almost a decade as a medic in New York City's Hell's Kitchen--as Joe Connelly has--could write a novel as riveting and fiercely authentic as Bringing Out the Dead. Like a front-line reporter, Connelly writes from deep within the experience, and the result...  more

Perhaps only someone who has worked for almost a decade as a medic in New York City's Hell's Kitchen--as Joe Connelly has--could write a novel as riveting and fiercely authentic as Bringing Out the Dead. Like a front-line reporter, Connelly writes from deep within the experience, and the result is a debut novel of extraordinary power and intensity.In Frank Pierce, a brash EMS medic working the streets of Hell's Kitchen, Connelly gives us a man who is being destroyed by the act of saving people. Addicted to the thrill ("the best drug in the world") and the mission of the job, Frank is nevertheless drowning in five years' worth of grief and guilt--his own and others': "my primary role was less about saving lives than about bearing witness." His wife has left him, he's drinking on the job, and just a month ago he "helped to kill" an eighteen-year-old asthmatic girl. Now she's become the waking nightmare of all his failures: hallucination and projection ("the ghosts that once visited my dreams had followed me out to the street and were now talking back"), and as real to him as his own skin. And in reaction to her death, Frank has desperately resurrected a patient back into a life now little better than death.In a narrative that moves with the furious energy of an ambulance run, we follow Frank through two days and nights: into the excitement and dread of the calls; the mad humor that keeps the medics afloat; the memories, distant and recent, through which Frank reminds himself why he became a medic and tries, in vain, to convince himself to give it up. And we are with him as he faces his newest ghost: the resurrected patient, whose demands to be released into death might be the most sensible thing Frank has heard in months, if only he would listen.Bringing Out the Dead is a stunning novel.

Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered -- a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her...  more

Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered -- a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor friend Del -- shunned and derided by classmates as "Potato Girl" -- was brutally slain. Del's killer was never found, while the victim has since achieved immortality in local legends and ghost stories. Now, as this new murder investigation draws Kate irresistibly in, her past and present collide in terrifying, unexpected ways. Because nothing is quite what it seems ... and the grim specters of her youth are far from forgotten.

Tamara Thorne's supernatural thrillers have been hailed as pulse-pounding rides into the dark heart of our deepest fears. Now, the author of Bad Things dives into the terrifying unknown of one man's memory, where a forgotten fear is surfacing?The Past? Will Banning survived a childhood so...  more

Tamara Thorne's supernatural thrillers have been hailed as pulse-pounding rides into the dark heart of our deepest fears. Now, the author of Bad Things dives into the terrifying unknown of one man's memory, where a forgotten fear is surfacing?The Past? Will Banning survived a childhood so rough, his mind has blocked it out almost entirely - especially the horrific day his brother Michael died, a memory that flickers on the edge of his consciousness as if from a dream. Isn't Gone?Now, as a successful psychologist, Will helps others dispel the fears the past can conjure. But he has no explanation for the increasingly bizarre paranoia affecting the inhabitants of Caledonia, California, many of whom claim to see terrifying visions and hear ominous voices - voices that tell them to do unspeakable things?. It's DeadlyAs madness and murderous impulses grip the coastal town, Will is compelled to confront his greatest fear and unlock the terrifying secret of his own past in a place where evil isn't just a memory - it's alive and waiting to strike?

On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with terror. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor remains haunted years later by what he saw. Written off as a crackpot, he insists that the prehistoric shark known as Carcharodon...  more

On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with terror. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor remains haunted years later by what he saw. Written off as a crackpot, he insists that the prehistoric shark known as Carcharodon megalodon still swims the deep underwater chasms. Only an urgent call for help from one of his oldest friends can persuade him to return to those deadly waters. Now Taylor will relive his darkest nightmare, only to find that what he saw before was only the beginning. For what lies deep beneath the waves is a horror that could turn the tides blood-red until the end of time...

At age seventeen, Gia Carangi was working the counter at her father's Philadelphia luncheonette, Hoagie City. Within a year, Gia was one of the top models of the late 1970's, gracing the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue, partying at New York's Studio 54 and the Mudd Club, and...  more

At age seventeen, Gia Carangi was working the counter at her father's Philadelphia luncheonette, Hoagie City. Within a year, Gia was one of the top models of the late 1970's, gracing the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue, partying at New York's Studio 54 and the Mudd Club, and redefining the industry's standard of beauty. She was the darling of moguls and movie stars, royalty and rockers. Gia was also a girl in pain, desperate for her mother's approval -- and a drug addict on a tragic slide toward oblivion, who started going directly from $10,000-a-day fashion shoots to the heroin shooting galleries on New York's Lower East Side. Finally blackballed from modeling, Gia entered a vastly different world on the streets of New york and Atlantic City, and later in a rehab clinic. At twenty-six, she became on of the first women in America to die of AIDS, a hospital welfare case visited only by rehab friends and what remained of her family. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Gia's gamily, lovers, friends, and colleagues, Thing of Beauty creates a poignant portrait of an unforgettable character -- and a powerful narrative about beauty and sexuality, fame and objectification, mothers and daughters, love and death.

On December 26, 1997, near the affluent community of Bainbridge Island off the coast of Seattle, a house went up in flames. In it was the shy, beloved minister's wife Dawn Hacheney. When the fire was extinguished, investigators found only her charred remains. Her husband Nick was visibly...  more

On December 26, 1997, near the affluent community of Bainbridge Island off the coast of Seattle, a house went up in flames. In it was the shy, beloved minister's wife Dawn Hacheney. When the fire was extinguished, investigators found only her charred remains. Her husband Nick was visibly devastated by the loss. What investigators failed to note, however, was that Dawn's lungs didn't contain smoke. Was she dead before the fire began? So begins this true crime story that's unlike any other. It investigates Nick Hacheney, a philandering minister who had been carrying on with several women in the months before and just after his wife's death. He would be convicted for the murder five years to the day after the crime. From one of the foremost names in true crime, Twisted Faith is a gripping and truly unforgettable story of a man whose charisma and desire rocked an entire community.

A child caught in the horror of alcohol and drug addition. A mother helplessly standing by unable to save her. The Lost Years is the real life story of just such a mother and child, each giving their first-hand accounts of the years lost to addiction and despair. Kristina, the second of four...  more

A child caught in the horror of alcohol and drug addition. A mother helplessly standing by unable to save her. The Lost Years is the real life story of just such a mother and child, each giving their first-hand accounts of the years lost to addiction and despair. Kristina, the second of four children, tells how she turns to alcohol for comfort when she is thirteen. She gives a brutally honest description of her descent into addiction, prostitution, burglary and violent rape until her near death on the floor of a homeless shelter completely alone at the age of twenty-one. Adding a heart-wrenching counterpart to the story, Kristina's mother, Connie, tells of her powerlessness to help her addicted daughter, the break-up of her unhappy marriage and how she comes to terms with her own co-dependency. She is also faced with the worst choice a mother has to make, to close the door on Kristina, sending her onto the streets in order to save herself and protect her other children. Then follows the remarkable story of Kristina's recovery as she lives through rehab, her mother's tough love and the years of acclimating herself to living a normal life.

Share the shame.In the days before blogs, teenagers recorded their lives with a pen in top-secret notebooks, usually emblazoned with an earnest, underlined plea to parents to keep away. Since 2002, David Nadelberg has tapped that vast wellspring of adolescent anguish in the stage show Mortified,...  more

Share the shame.In the days before blogs, teenagers recorded their lives with a pen in top-secret notebooks, usually emblazoned with an earnest, underlined plea to parents to keep away. Since 2002, David Nadelberg has tapped that vast wellspring of adolescent anguish in the stage show Mortified, in which grown men and women confront their past with firsthand tales of their first kiss, first puff, worst prom, fights with mom, life at bible camp, worst hand job, best mall job, and reasons they deserved to marry Simon LeBon.Following the same formula that has made the live show a beloved cult hit, Mortified the book takes real childhood journals and documents and edits the entries into captivating, comedic, and cathartic stories, introduced by their now older (and allegedly wiser) authors. From letters begging rescue from a hellish summer camp to catty locker notes about stuck-up classmates to obsessive love that borders on stalking, Mortified gives voice to the real -- and really pathetic -- hopes, fears, desires, and creative urgings that have united adolescents for generations.

One morning the residents of Walden, Virginia, woke up to find the rest of the world gone. Just . . . gone. Surrounding their town was a wall of inky darkness, plummeting Walden into permanent night. Nothing can get in -- not light, not people, not even electricity, radio, TV, internet,...  more

One morning the residents of Walden, Virginia, woke up to find the rest of the world gone. Just . . . gone. Surrounding their town was a wall of inky darkness, plummeting Walden into permanent night. Nothing can get in -- not light, not people, not even electricity, radio, TV, internet, food, or water. And nothing can get out. No one who dared to penetrate the mysterious barrier has ever been seen again. Only their screams were heard. But for some, the darkness is not the worst of their fears. Driven mad by thirst, hunger, and perpetual night, the residents of Walden are ready to explode. The last few sane prisoners of this small town must prepare a final stand against their neighbors, themselves, and something even worse . . . something out there . . . in the darkness . . . 

From Shape magazine's popular "Weight-Loss Diary" columnist comes a hilarious, sometimes heartwrenching look at the daily struggle of dieting In this frank and funny book, Courtney Rubin shares what she learned about dieting--and herself--in more than two years of chronicling her battle to keep...  more

From Shape magazine's popular "Weight-Loss Diary" columnist comes a hilarious, sometimes heartwrenching look at the daily struggle of dieting In this frank and funny book, Courtney Rubin shares what she learned about dieting--and herself--in more than two years of chronicling her battle to keep food from consuming her life. As engaging as her famous column, The Weight-Loss Diaries is part memoir, part how-to, and always entertaining. An honest and brave account of what it feels like, day in and day out, often year in and year out, to try to lose a significant amount of weight, The Weight-Loss Diaries is: An unashamed tale of binges, fashion fiascos, setbacks, and ultimate success A light-hearted, laugh-out-loud look at the most ridiculous excuses for ending or cheating on a diet A no-holds-barred account of the author's dark days of flirting with eating disorders and constantly calculating and recalculating calories With insight, humor, and courage, Rubin explores diet and food issues, as well as her self-sabotaging habits during dieting, in ways that everyone struggling with weight loss will find both instructive and inspiring.

An unsolved murder spree that left a town frozen in fear...In rural Texas, just before Christmas in 1984, a young nurse was found raped and murdered in her Wichita Falls home. Within weeks, a second woman was found-her brutalized body dumped in the frozen Texas plains. Over the next seventeen...  more

An unsolved murder spree that left a town frozen in fear...In rural Texas, just before Christmas in 1984, a young nurse was found raped and murdered in her Wichita Falls home. Within weeks, a second woman was found-her brutalized body dumped in the frozen Texas plains. Over the next seventeen months three more women would fall victim to a faceless evil, fueling the city's fears and baffling authorities whose every lead came to a dead end. For one haunted man the case would never die.A fight for justice as cunning and relentless as the killer himself...Almost fourteen years to the day of the first murder, ambitious investigator John Little reopened the cold-case files determined to deliver closure to the victims' friends and families, and bring a killer to justice. Working on his instincts, following every imaginable clue, Little embarked on an ingeniously clever and exhaustive cat-and-mouse game to trap an elusive serial killer whose sick fantasies would finally be silenced forever.

Award-Winning Finalist in the Anthologies/Non-Fiction category of the National Best Books 2009 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News Acceptance, courage, friendship, awareness, and joy--these are the gifts recounted in more than seventy inspirational essays included in Gifts 2. Edited by Kathryn...  more

Award-Winning Finalist in the Anthologies/Non-Fiction category of the National Best Books 2009 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News Acceptance, courage, friendship, awareness, and joy--these are the gifts recounted in more than seventy inspirational essays included in Gifts 2. Edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper, the follow-up to the bestselling first volume, Gifts 2 presents a broader perspective on Down syndrome and life by including passionate stories by siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, as well as mothers of older children. Friends, teachers, medical professionals, and coaches also share the joys of knowing and caring for someone with Down syndrome. Like the previous book, Gifts 2 helps us see that the hopes and dreams family and friends have for a child with Down syndrome are similar to the ones we have for any child. And, more often than not, expectations are fulfilled--if not always the way we anticipated they would be. A grandparent, inspired by his grandson's strong will, discovers the ability to persevere and not give up on a job. A brother who assumed he would be the person helping his sibling with Down syndrome describes how often it is the other way around. A young teacher remembers her first student with Down syndrome and it gives her strength and clarity when she is faced with her own child's diagnosis. This heartfelt collection is a source of comfort to other families, and offers insight to anyone who wonders how people with Down syndrome live today. Give the ultimate gift, share both volumes with family and friends, your child's teacher or pediatrician--help raise public awareness and provide others a point-of-view they might otherwise miss.

A woman's hilarious, bittersweet account of growing up in a family of career-shunning, dependence-seeking women and her journey to a state of twenty-first-century self-reliance. Julie Klam was raised as the only daughter of a Jewish family in the exclusive WASP stronghold of Bedford, New York....  more

A woman's hilarious, bittersweet account of growing up in a family of career-shunning, dependence-seeking women and her journey to a state of twenty-first-century self-reliance. Julie Klam was raised as the only daughter of a Jewish family in the exclusive WASP stronghold of Bedford, New York. Her mother was sharp, glamorous, and funny, but did not think that work was a woman's responsibility. Her father was fully supportive, not just of his wife's staying at home, but also of her extravagant lifestyle. Her mother's offbeat parenting style-taking Julie out of school to go to lunch at Bloomingdale's, for example-made her feel well-cared-for (and well-dressed) but left her unprepared for graduating and entering the real world. She had been brought up to look pretty and wait for a rich man to sweep her off her feet. But what happened if he never showed up? When Julie gets married to a hardworking but not wealthy man-one who expects her to be part of a modern couple and contribute financially to the marriage-she realizes how ambivalent and ill-equipped she is for life. Once she gives birth to a daughter, she knows she must grow up, get to work, and teach her child the self-reliance that she never learned. Delivered in an uproariously funny, sweet, self-effacing, and utterly memorable voice, Please Excuse My Daughter is a bighearted memoir from an irresistible new writer.

Gathers selections from the testimony in the Lorena Bobbitt malicious wounding trial, and discusses the background of the case.

When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join...  more

When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness.

If you are a dog person, you already know that you have a secret advantage over non-dog owners: that it's possible to become wiser, bolder, and more capable of living in the moment thanks to the behaviors and attitudes of your canine companion. Dog People Do It Better celebrates the best...  more

If you are a dog person, you already know that you have a secret advantage over non-dog owners: that it's possible to become wiser, bolder, and more capable of living in the moment thanks to the behaviors and attitudes of your canine companion. Dog People Do It Better celebrates the best canine traits-courage, devotion, teamwork, humility, loyalty, respect, and unconditional love-and, through stories and life lessons, shows you how to incorporate them into your daily life. Let these dogs show you how to do it better . . . Perry, a star showdog whose love for his less-accomplished brother was so strong he could only perform well when they were together Hexe, a master locksmith who could find a way out of a room and into any party Lobo, who bravely fought in the Vietnam War With Dog People Do It Better, you'll be leader of the adult pack in no time!

When Torey Hayden first met fifteen-year-old Kevin, he was barricaded under a table, desperately afraid of everything around him. He had not spoken in eight years. Torey Hayden refused to call any child a hopeless case, but to help Kevin, she might need a miracle. About the Author: Torey...  more

When Torey Hayden first met fifteen-year-old Kevin, he was barricaded under a table, desperately afraid of everything around him. He had not spoken in eight years. Torey Hayden refused to call any child a hopeless case, but to help Kevin, she might need a miracle. About the Author: Torey Hayden is an educational psychologist and a former special education teacher who, since 1979, has chronicled her struggles in the classroom in a succession of bestselling books. She currently lives and writes in North Wales, U.K., with her husband and daughter.

Its appetite is ravenous. Its teeth scalpel-sharp. Its power unstoppable as it smashes the steel doors holding it in a Monterey, California aquarium. The captive twenty-ton Megalodon shark has tasted human blood, and it wants more. On the other side of the world, in the silent depths of the...  more

Its appetite is ravenous. Its teeth scalpel-sharp. Its power unstoppable as it smashes the steel doors holding it in a Monterey, California aquarium. The captive twenty-ton Megalodon shark has tasted human blood, and it wants more. On the other side of the world, in the silent depths of the ocean, lies the Mariana Trench, where the Megalodon has spawned since the dawn of time. Paleo-biologist Jonas Taylor once dared to enter this perilous cavern. He alone faced the monster and cut its heart out; and he wears the painful scars of that deadly encounter. Now, as the body count rises and the horror of the Meg's attack grips the California coast, Jonas must begin the hunt again. But to do that means returning to the dark terror of the trench . . . where the Meg is waiting. Using himself as bait, Jonas will enter the ultimate battle - a fight to the death between man and beast in the darkest recesses of the ocean . . . and a fight for his sanity from the depths of his own tormented soul.

A sensational and accomplished novel that made its young author one of the most talked about in Britain last year, Pure is about fourteen--the age when you know everything, except when you don't know anything. It's about first love and the end of innocence in all its passion and absurdity. It's...  more

A sensational and accomplished novel that made its young author one of the most talked about in Britain last year, Pure is about fourteen--the age when you know everything, except when you don't know anything. It's about first love and the end of innocence in all its passion and absurdity. It's about the raw transition between loving your parents as a child and understanding them as an adult. It's about the cool friend for whom everything seems effortless, and the impossibly embarrassing friend you're nice to when your cool friends can't see. It's about the struggle between desire and duty, and about a chance meeting with a twenty-seven-year-old man. And it's about what happens after. Pure has the shocking immediacy that made Less Than Zero so indelible. It evokes the brutalities of adolescence with the lucidity of Two Girls, Fat and Thin. It is sure to establish its author as one of the most remarkable and fearless young writers to emerge in recent years.

The power of obsessive love seems to know no bounds-- yet one man took his unrequited passion to a grotesque new level that will shock even the most hardened readers. Undying Love is that story-- read on if you dare...Carl von Cosel was a German immigrant who worked as a technician in a Key West...  more

The power of obsessive love seems to know no bounds-- yet one man took his unrequited passion to a grotesque new level that will shock even the most hardened readers. Undying Love is that story-- read on if you dare...Carl von Cosel was a German immigrant who worked as a technician in a Key West tubercular ward. When a beautiful young woman, Elena Milagro Hoyos, was brought in with an advanced case of tuberculosis, von Cosel-- a self-named count-- was determined to cure her with his own unconventional methods. But Elena eventually succumbed to the fatal disease, and the Count was heartbroken, for despite her rebuffs, he had fallen madly in love with the fetching Latina.For two years, von Cosel worshipped her grave-- until he could stand it no longer. One moonless night, he exhumed Elena's decomposing body and took it home with him. Through an elaborate embalming process, von Cosel managed to preserve the corpse from further decay and even garishly dressed it up to become his eternal bride. In their macabre marriage bed, von Cosel made love to his mummified wife-- and kept her shriveled corpse for eight years...until his twisted crime was discovered!

In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped...  more

In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened - and what it tells us about human nature and about America's westward expansion - remained shrouded in myth. Drawing on fresh archeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. "The Donner Party," Rarick writes, "is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity." A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, Desperate Passage casts new light on one of America's most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront.

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that...  more

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit, their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "What was I here?"

Dion is the new boy at school, shy and ignored. Something else sets him apart. Something happening inside him. Something frightening invading his dreams. Even scarier is what's going to happen when Dion wakes up. Penelope is the odd girl out at school. There is something unusual in the way...  more

Dion is the new boy at school, shy and ignored. Something else sets him apart. Something happening inside him. Something frightening invading his dreams. Even scarier is what's going to happen when Dion wakes up. Penelope is the odd girl out at school. There is something unusual in the way she was raised by a reclusive sisterhood who tell strange stories about the woods. And stranger ones about Penelope. And her secret. Dion and Penelope are made for each other. And together, they're going to raise hel...

Innocent children turned ruthless murderers...Hate-filled and deeply disturbed...They kill with cold-blooded savagery...Nothing was too good for precious Katy-- sports cars, jewelry, designer clothes. Her father, a successful South Florida businessman, could not resist any of her whims. But when...  more

Innocent children turned ruthless murderers...Hate-filled and deeply disturbed...They kill with cold-blooded savagery...Nothing was too good for precious Katy-- sports cars, jewelry, designer clothes. Her father, a successful South Florida businessman, could not resist any of her whims. But when he tried to curb her fast-lane lifestyle, she had him shot through the head while he slept.Behind closed doors of her suburban Chicago home, Nancy Knuckles was a sadistic disciplinarian who, for years, terrorised her four children with religious fanaticism, beatings, and psychological torture, until they finally rebelled with a vengeance. After the oldest daughter strangled mom and stuffed her in a trunk, the kids partied hard, inviting their friends over for booze and rock 'n' roll.Susan Cabot was a beautiful B-movie queen and obsessive mother. Her son Tim-- born a dwarf-- was pumped full of experimental drugs extracted from cadavers to increase his height. When the ex-film star's badly beaten body was discovered in her Hollywood home, little Timmy claimed she had been killed by men using Ninja methods-- before confessing.

Known for the past two decades as "that other horror writer from Maine," Hautala boasts a reputation that rests primarily on more than a dozen novels of suspense and the supernatural set in his home state. The 26 stories in this workmanlike first collection of short fiction draw mostly from the...  more

Known for the past two decades as "that other horror writer from Maine," Hautala boasts a reputation that rests primarily on more than a dozen novels of suspense and the supernatural set in his home state. The 26 stories in this workmanlike first collection of short fiction draw mostly from the same reservoir of regional characters and settings as his longer works and form a roadmap to the bedrock horror themes of the last 20 years. For the most part, their plots are simple setups with twist endings in which luckless or unlikable characters fall victim to unspeakable fates and poetically just deserts. In "Voodoo Queen," a dissipated man learns firsthand the dark secret of a carnival freak show presided over by an alluring snake woman. "Colt .24" is an inventive variation on the deal-with-the-devil theme, narrated in the first person by a character anxiously ticking off the seconds as his inescapable doom approaches. "A Little Bit of Divine Justice" captures the flavor of the Twilight Zone in its eerie account of two men caught in a recurring cycle of death and retribution on a snowy winter night. As often as not, in stories like the first-person psycho narrative "Bird in the House" or the biter-bit tale "Rubies and Pearls," Hautala is cramped by genre conventions that leave him belaboring the obvious or struggling to soften the predictability of a situation. But the book balances lesser efforts with effectively crafted shockers for a mix that lives up to the title's reference to discomforting things that get under the skin.

Baird College’s Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of students heading home for Thanksgiving break, and Robin Stone, who won’t be going home, swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year-old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. As a massive storm...  more

Baird College’s Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of students heading home for Thanksgiving break, and Robin Stone, who won’t be going home, swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year-old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. As a massive storm approaches, four other lonely students reveal themselves to Robin: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons. The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of another presence disturbing the building’s ominous silence. Are they the victims of an elaborate prank, or is the energy evidence of something genuine—something intent on using them for its own terrifying ends? Together, they’ll face three long days and dark nights before the world returns to find out what’s become of five students nobody wants and no one will miss…

Locked inside a brain-injured head looking out at a challenging world is the premise of this extraordinary autobiography. Over My Head is an inspiring story of how one woman comes to terms with the loss of her identity and the courageous steps (and hilarious missteps) she takes while learning to...  more

Locked inside a brain-injured head looking out at a challenging world is the premise of this extraordinary autobiography. Over My Head is an inspiring story of how one woman comes to terms with the loss of her identity and the courageous steps (and hilarious missteps) she takes while learning to rebuild her life. The author, a 45-year-old doctor and clinical professor of medicine, describes the aftermath of a brain injury eleven years ago which stripped her of her beloved profession. For years she was deprived of her intellectual companionship and the ability to handle the simplest undertakings like shopping for groceries or sorting the mail. Her progression from confusion, dysfunction, and alienation to a full, happy life is told with restraint, great style, and considerable humor.

To young Jenny, the house on Mary Street was home -- the place where she was loved, a blue-sky world of Barbies, Bewitched, and the Beatles. Even her mother's pain from her mysterious illness could be patted away with powder and a kiss on the cheek. But when everything that Jenny had come to...  more

To young Jenny, the house on Mary Street was home -- the place where she was loved, a blue-sky world of Barbies, Bewitched, and the Beatles. Even her mother's pain from her mysterious illness could be patted away with powder and a kiss on the cheek. But when everything that Jenny had come to rely on begins to crumble, an odyssey of loss, loneliness, and a child's will to survive takes flight....

I killed and buried my best friend today ... When authorities found Raffi Kodikian -- barely alive -- four days after he and his friend David Coughlin became lost in Rattlesnake Canyon, they made a grim and shocking discovery. Kodikian freely admitted that he had stabbed Coughlin twice in the...  more

I killed and buried my best friend today ... When authorities found Raffi Kodikian -- barely alive -- four days after he and his friend David Coughlin became lost in Rattlesnake Canyon, they made a grim and shocking discovery. Kodikian freely admitted that he had stabbed Coughlin twice in the heart. Had there been a darker motive than mercy? And how could anyone, under any circumstances, kill his best friend? Armed with the journal Kodikian and Coughlin carried into Rattle- snake Canyon, Jason Kersten re-creates in riveting detail those fateful days that led to the killing in an infamously unforgiving wilderness.

"Gripping...terrifying." (The New York Times) "Strikes a deafening chord of terror." (The Washington Post) The book that put Cook on the bestseller lists, Coma is the gripping story of patients who check into a hospital for "minor" surgery-and never wake up again...

Now in paperback, the ingenious illustrated memoir that is widely praised: “Hilarious, hell-raising, and frequently heart-wrenching.” —Booklist “[A] unique tragicomedy of a memoir . . . The author is so likable, even in her darkest hour, that as you applaud her...  more

Now in paperback, the ingenious illustrated memoir that is widely praised: “Hilarious, hell-raising, and frequently heart-wrenching.” —Booklist “[A] unique tragicomedy of a memoir . . . The author is so likable, even in her darkest hour, that as you applaud her recovery you also realize you’ll miss looking after her.” —Entertainment Weekly (“A” rating) “Compelling reading . . . Becker has turned one person’s experience into a universal story of family, healing, and the return to creativity.” —Library Journal (starred review) “A wonderful book, funny and touching, harrowing and sweet.” —Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird For years Suzy Becker, author of the New York Times bestseller All I Need to Know I Learned from My Cat (1.7 million copies in print), literally lived by her wits. Then brain surgery left her temporarily unable to speak, read, or write. I Had Brain Surgery, What's Your Excuse? is a story that grapples with the question “What makes me me?” By turns philosophical and whimsical, rivetingly dramatic and unexpectedly light, it is illustrated with drawings, charts, pseudoserious graphs, real EEGs. The result is a book filled with insights into creativity, identity, love, relationships, family, and that intangible something that gives each of us our spark.

Just Another Kid Torey Hayden faced six emotionally troubled kids no other teacher could handle-three recent arrivals from battletorn Northern Ireland, badly traumatized by the horrors of war; eleven-year-old Dirkie, who only knew of life inside an institution; excitable Mariana, aggressive and...  more

Just Another Kid Torey Hayden faced six emotionally troubled kids no other teacher could handle-three recent arrivals from battletorn Northern Ireland, badly traumatized by the horrors of war; eleven-year-old Dirkie, who only knew of life inside an institution; excitable Mariana, aggressive and sexually precocious at the age of eight; and seven-year-old Leslie, perhaps the most hopeless of all, unresponsive and unable to speak.With compassion, rare insight, and masterful storytelling, teacher Torey L. Hayden once again touches our hearts with her account of the miracles that can happen in her class of "special" children.

Sarah Nickerson, like any other working mom, is busy trying to have it all. One morning while racing to work and distracted by her cell phone, she looks away from the road for one second too long. In that blink of an eye, all the rapidly moving parts of her over-scheduled life come to a...  more

Sarah Nickerson, like any other working mom, is busy trying to have it all. One morning while racing to work and distracted by her cell phone, she looks away from the road for one second too long. In that blink of an eye, all the rapidly moving parts of her over-scheduled life come to a screeching halt. After a brain injury steals her awareness of everything on her left side, Sarah must retrain her mind to perceive the world as a whole. In so doing, she also learns how to pay attention to the people and parts of her life that matter most.

I don?t want to get out of bed. I?m so stupid. I did so many things wrong. I don?t know what to do. I?m going to be in so much trouble. What am I going to do? I?m completely screwed. In 1991, fourteen-year-old Brent Runyon came home from school, doused his bathrobe in gasoline, put it...  more

I don?t want to get out of bed. I?m so stupid. I did so many things wrong. I don?t know what to do. I?m going to be in so much trouble. What am I going to do? I?m completely screwed. In 1991, fourteen-year-old Brent Runyon came home from school, doused his bathrobe in gasoline, put it on, and lit a match. He suffered third-degree burns over 85% of his body and spent the next year recovering in hospitals and rehab facilities. During that year of physical recovery, Runyon began to question what he?d done, undertaking the complicated journey from near-death back to high school, and from suicide back to the emotional mainstream of life. In the tradition of Running with Scissors and Girl, Interrupted, The Burn Journals is a truly remarkable book about teenage despair and recovery.

In a small Arizona town, a man counts his blessings: a loving wife, two teenage daughters, and a job that allows him to work at home. Then "The Store" announces plans to open a local outlet, which will surely finish off the small downtown shops. His concerns grow when "The Store's" builders...  more

In a small Arizona town, a man counts his blessings: a loving wife, two teenage daughters, and a job that allows him to work at home. Then "The Store" announces plans to open a local outlet, which will surely finish off the small downtown shops. His concerns grow when "The Store's" builders ignore all the town's zoning laws during its construction. Then dead animals are found on "The Store's" grounds. Inside, customers are hounded by obnoxious sales people, and strange products appear on the shelves. Before long the town's remaining small shop owners disappear, and "The Store" spreads its influence to the city council and the police force, taking over the town! It's up to one man to confront "The Store's" mysterious owner and to save his community, his family, and his life!

Following the success of his latest novel, Travis Glasgow and his wife Jodie buy their first house in the seemingly idyllic western Maryland town of Westlake. At first, everything is picture perfect—from the beautiful lake behind the house to the rebirth of the friendship between Travis and his...  more

Following the success of his latest novel, Travis Glasgow and his wife Jodie buy their first house in the seemingly idyllic western Maryland town of Westlake. At first, everything is picture perfect—from the beautiful lake behind the house to the rebirth of the friendship between Travis and his brother, Adam, who lives nearby. Travis also begins to overcome the darkness of his childhood and the guilt he?s harbored since his younger brother?s death—a tragic drowning veiled in mystery that has plagued Travis since he was 13. Soon, though, the new house begins to lose its allure. Strange noises wake Travis at night, and his dreams are plagued by ghosts. Barely glimpsed shapes flit through the darkened hallways, but strangest of all is the bizarre set of wooden stairs that rises cryptically out of the lake behind the house. Travis becomes drawn to the structure, but the more he investigates, the more he uncovers the house?s violent and tragic past, and the more he learns that some secrets cannot be buried forever.

The people of the idyllic town of Missoula, Montana liked baby-faced Wayne Nance. The friendly, familiar native son and furniture delivery man was considered so trustworthy that some of his customers just gave him the keys to their houses to make his deliveries easier. But would you give your...  more

The people of the idyllic town of Missoula, Montana liked baby-faced Wayne Nance. The friendly, familiar native son and furniture delivery man was considered so trustworthy that some of his customers just gave him the keys to their houses to make his deliveries easier. But would you give your keys to a serial killer? For 12 years Wayne Nance -- the boy-next-door -- was littering the beautiful Northwestern landscape with bodies, bodies he had brutally raped and murdered. This reign of extreme terror left eight corpes in its wake, and didn't end until the heartstopping showdown with two would-be victims who lived to tell all. This book recounts this story of a homicidal misfit who was able to fool the police and everyone who knew him, and documents one of the most exciting endings in true-crime history.

The startling and ultimately uplifting narrative of one woman's thirteen-year experience as a foster parent. For more than a decade, Kathy Harrison has sheltered a shifting cast of troubled youngsters-the offspring of prostitutes and addicts; the sons and daughters of abusers; and teenage...  more

The startling and ultimately uplifting narrative of one woman's thirteen-year experience as a foster parent. For more than a decade, Kathy Harrison has sheltered a shifting cast of troubled youngsters-the offspring of prostitutes and addicts; the sons and daughters of abusers; and teenage parents who aren't equipped for parenthood. All this, in addition to raising her three biological sons and two adopted daughters. What would motivate someone to give herself over to constant, largely uncompensated chaos? For Harrison, the answer is easy. Another Place at the Table is the story of life at our social services' front lines, centered on three children who, when they come together in Harrison's home, nearly destroy it. It is the frank first-person story of a woman whose compassionate best intentions for a child are sometimes all that stand between violence and redemption.

Raised in Manhattan by her overprotective sex-therapist mother (who wore "nine inches of shoulder pads"), Wendy Spero has always sought excitement in microthrills, the small, strange highs that give her life meaning?from finding a strip tease video of her grandmother to selling knives...  more

Raised in Manhattan by her overprotective sex-therapist mother (who wore "nine inches of shoulder pads"), Wendy Spero has always sought excitement in microthrills, the small, strange highs that give her life meaning?from finding a strip tease video of her grandmother to selling knives door-to-door. As a little girl, Spero passed the time sniffing fruit-scented markers and breaking up arguments between her imaginary friends. As an adult, in her first office job, she formed an unusual relationship with her boss that involved as much marijuana-smoking as it did mentoring. Called "a profoundly funny human being" by Time Out New York, Spero is now a comedian living in L.A., grappling with such grown-up issues as trying to kick her addiction to eating candy in bed and learning how to drive.

Jadie never spoke. She never laughed, or cried, or uttered any sound. Despite efforts to reach her, Jadie remained locked in her own troubled world -- until one remarkable teacher persuaded her to break her self-imposed silence. Nothing in all of Torey Hayden's experience could have prepared...  more

Jadie never spoke. She never laughed, or cried, or uttered any sound. Despite efforts to reach her, Jadie remained locked in her own troubled world -- until one remarkable teacher persuaded her to break her self-imposed silence. Nothing in all of Torey Hayden's experience could have prepared her for the shock of what Jadie told her -- a story too horrendous for Torey's professional colleagues to acknowledge. Yet a little girl was living in a nightmare, and Torey Hayden responded in the only way she knew how -- with courage, compassion, and dedication -- demonstrating once again the tremendous power of love and the resilience of the human spirit.

Phillip Done fixes staplers that won't staple, zippers that won't zip, and pokes pins in the caps of glue bottles that will not pour. He has sung "Happy Birthday" 657 times.A witness to the joys of discovery, Done inspires readers with the everyday adventures and milestones of his 32 third...  more

Phillip Done fixes staplers that won't staple, zippers that won't zip, and pokes pins in the caps of glue bottles that will not pour. He has sung "Happy Birthday" 657 times.A witness to the joys of discovery, Done inspires readers with the everyday adventures and milestones of his 32 third graders in this irresistible collection of bite-sized essays. From the nervous first day of school to the hectic Halloween parade to the disastrous spring musical, Done connects what happens in his classroom to the universal truths that touch us all. He reminds us of the delight of learning something for the first time and of the value of making a difference.32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny is for anyone who has ever taught children -- or been to third grade. It is a testament to the kids who uplift us -- and the teachers we will never forget. With just the right mix of humor and wisdom, Done reveals the enduring promise of elementary school as a powerful antidote to the cynicism of our times.

“I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.” Forced by her father to marry a man three times her age, young Nujood Ali was sent away from her...  more

“I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.” Forced by her father to marry a man three times her age, young Nujood Ali was sent away from her parents and beloved sisters and made to live with her husband and his family in an isolated village in rural Yemen. There she suffered daily from physical and emotional abuse by her mother-in-law and nightly at the rough hands of her spouse. Flouting his oath to wait to have sexual relations with Nujood until she was no longer a child, he took her virginity on their wedding night. She was only ten years old.Unable to endure the pain and distress any longer, Nujood fled—not for home, but to the courthouse of the capital, paying for a taxi ride with a few precious coins of bread money. When a renowned Yemeni lawyer heard about the young victim, she took on Nujood’s case and fought the archaic system in a country where almost half the girls are married while still under the legal age. Since their unprecedented victory in April 2008, Nujood’s courageous defiance of both Yemeni customs and her own family has attracted a storm of international attention. Her story even incited change in Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries, where underage marriage laws are being increasingly enforced and other child brides have been granted divorces.Recently honored alongside Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice as one of Glamour magazine’s women of the year, Nujood now tells her full story for the first time. As she guides us from the magical, fragrant streets of the Old City of Sana’a to the cement-block slums and rural villages of this ancient land, her unflinching look at an injustice suffered by all too many girls around the world is at once shocking, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable.

From the acclaimed author of Infected comes an epic and exhilarating story of humanity's secret battle against a horrific enemy. Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights...  more

From the acclaimed author of Infected comes an epic and exhilarating story of humanity's secret battle against a horrific enemy. Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence. Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the diseases hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation's best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they're going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors. These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that's not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat - one that comes from a most unexpected source - may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all. Catapulting the reader into a world where humanity's life span is measured in hours and the president's finger hovers over the nuclear button, rising star Scott Sigler takes us on a breathtaking, hyper-adrenalized ride filled with terror and jaw-dropping action. Contagious is a truly grand work of suspense, science, and horror from a new master.

Set between the summers of 1998 and 2005, Blue Sky July follows the story of Nia Wyn, a mother who battled against impossible odds to heal her son Joe, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy soon after he was born. Told by doctors that he would never walk, talk, see, or even recognize her, Wyn...  more

Set between the summers of 1998 and 2005, Blue Sky July follows the story of Nia Wyn, a mother who battled against impossible odds to heal her son Joe, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy soon after he was born. Told by doctors that he would never walk, talk, see, or even recognize her, Wyn devoted her every waking moment to exploring alternative treatments. Through an intimate portrayal of her day-to-day interactions with her son and partner-as well as her own internal struggles, perceptions, and celebrations-Wyn shares her own uplifting story of resilience in the face of tragedy.

What ever became of Sheila? When special-education teacher Torey Hayden wrote her first book One Child almost two decades ago, she created an international bestseller. Her intensely moving true story of Sheila, a silent, profoundly disturbed little six-year-old girl touched millions. From...  more

What ever became of Sheila? When special-education teacher Torey Hayden wrote her first book One Child almost two decades ago, she created an international bestseller. Her intensely moving true story of Sheila, a silent, profoundly disturbed little six-year-old girl touched millions. From every corner of the world came letters from readers wanting to know more about the troubled child who had come into Torey Hayden's class as a "hopeless case," and emerged as the very symbol of eternal hope within the human spirit. Now, for all those who have never forgotten this endearing child and her remarkable relationship with her teacher, here is the surprising story of Sheila, the young woman.

Having recently graduated from Columbia Journalism School and landed her dream job at 20/20, the last thing 27-year-old Geralyn expects to hear is a breast cancer diagnosis. And there is one part of the diagnosis that no one will discuss with her: what it means to be a young girl with cancer in...  more

Having recently graduated from Columbia Journalism School and landed her dream job at 20/20, the last thing 27-year-old Geralyn expects to hear is a breast cancer diagnosis. And there is one part of the diagnosis that no one will discuss with her: what it means to be a young girl with cancer in a beauty-obsessed culture. Trying to find herself, while losing her vibrancy and her looks, Geralyn embarks on a road to self-acceptance that will inspire all women. Although her book is explicitly about a period of time where she was driven by fear and uncertainty about the future, Geralyn managed a transformation that will encourage all women under siege to discover their own courage and beauty. The important and outrageous lessons of Why I Wore Lipstick come fast and furious with the same gusto that Geralyn has learned to bring to every moment of her life.

After their car breaks down in the seediest part of the city, Kerri and her friends take shelter in an abandoned row house. But it's not abandoned at all. The inhabitants are no longer human--and they don't take kindly to intruders.

Three ordinary women are about to take on extraordinary step... Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would...  more

Three ordinary women are about to take on extraordinary step... Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

Dale has the miraculous ability to heal and raise the recent dead. But he's also insane. When he uses his power to brutally kill the woman next door, night after night, no one will believe her impossible story, so it's up to her to find a way to end the living nightmare.

Jill Coit was a voluptuous, dark-skinned beauty--as sultry and unfathomable as the Louisiana bayou where she was born and raised. But beneath the glamour of the one-time fashion model was a woman of insatiable desire who used her cover-girl looks to prey on eligible, well-meaning men.Married ten...  more

Jill Coit was a voluptuous, dark-skinned beauty--as sultry and unfathomable as the Louisiana bayou where she was born and raised. But beneath the glamour of the one-time fashion model was a woman of insatiable desire who used her cover-girl looks to prey on eligible, well-meaning men.Married ten times, she vowed her undying love. But her life was a series of betrayals involving flagrant adultery, and even bigamy. She battled to get her hands on her ex-husbands' back accounts, family inheritances and valuables.Across at least five states, she used more than a dozen names to spin a tangled web of marriages and money. But was she on a heartless quest for more and more wealth--one that led to the cold-blooded murder of two of her husbands and attempts on the life of another? And did she go so far as to try to involve her own son in a plot to murder husband number nine?

Winner of the 2009 Commonwealth Prize for Best Book, THE SLAP has a brilliantly simple premise that allows it to explore a host of contemporary issues. At a crowded barbecue in the Melbourne suburbs hosted by a Greek-Australian man and his Indian wife, the host's cousin slaps a boy for...  more

Winner of the 2009 Commonwealth Prize for Best Book, THE SLAP has a brilliantly simple premise that allows it to explore a host of contemporary issues. At a crowded barbecue in the Melbourne suburbs hosted by a Greek-Australian man and his Indian wife, the host's cousin slaps a boy for bullying his son. The act leads to a lawsuit and causes a chain-reaction of consequences among those involved. Focusing on ten characters, each with their own lengthy chapter, THE SLAP does more than interrogate the ethics of hitting a child, it exposes a wide variety of emotional diseases lurking beneath the surface of the placid suburban surface: drugs, adultery, racism, and the alarming chasm between generations and cultures. Written in a direct, arresting prose, Christos Tsiolkas demonstrates great acuity at capturing a wide variety of voices. Indeed, Tsiolkas has such a good ear that his novel often seems to be channeling the secret confessions of an entire community. THE SLAP is a bold, often disturbing, look at the fears and desires churning beneath society's polite veneer.

The dead are getting restless... Across the country, they have risen. And they seem to have a mission.... The walking has begun... No one knows why they are walking. No one knows where they are going. And no one can stop them.... They are here. From the acclaimed author of The...  more

The dead are getting restless... Across the country, they have risen. And they seem to have a mission.... The walking has begun... No one knows why they are walking. No one knows where they are going. And no one can stop them.... They are here. From the acclaimed author of The Store, The Ignored, and The Town comes The Walking--and it's going to make Bram Stoker Award-winner Bentley Little the biggest name in horror. He's already got the critics screaming.... Bentley Little... "...grabs the reader and yanks him along on a terrifying ride."-Gary Brandner "...keeps the high-tension jolts coming...unlike anything else in popular fiction."-Stephen King "...has created nothing less than a nightmarishly brilliant tour de force of modern life in America."-Publishers Weekly "...is must reading for Koontz fans."-Harriet Klausner "...is thinking person's horror." -Los Angeles Times "...is a must for those who like horror with a bite." -Richard Layman

I am crazy. But maybe I am not.  For most of her life, these thoughts plagued Amy Wilensky as her mind lurched and veered in ways she didn't understand and her body did things she couldn't control. While she excelled in school and led an otherwise "normal" life, she...  more

I am crazy. But maybe I am not.  For most of her life, these thoughts plagued Amy Wilensky as her mind lurched and veered in ways she didn't understand and her body did things she couldn't control. While she excelled in school and led an otherwise "normal" life, she worried that beneath the surface she was a freak, that there was something irrevocably wrong with her. Passing for Normal is Wilensky's emotionally charged account of her lifelong struggle with the often misunderstood disorders Tourette's syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder.  A powerful witness to her own dysfunction, Wilensky describes the strain it bore on her relationships with the people she thought she knew best: her family, her friends, and herself. Confronting the labels we apply to ourselves and others--compulsive, crazy, out of control--Amy describes her symptoms, diagnosis, and her treatment with courage and a healthy dose of humor, gradually coming to terms with the absurdities of a life beset by irrational behavior.  This compelling narrative, by turns tragic and comic, broadly extends our understanding of the wondrously complex human mind, and, with subtlety and grace, challenges our notion of what it is to be "normal".

Nancy Underhill commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son -- fifteen-year-old Mark -- vanishes. The boy's uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic...  more

Nancy Underhill commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son -- fifteen-year-old Mark -- vanishes. The boy's uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before Nancy's suicide, Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge. No mere empty building, the house whispers from basement to attic with the echoes of a long hidden true-life horror story, and Tim comes to fear that in investigating its unspeakable history, Mark stumbled across its last and greatest secret: a ghostly lost girl who may have coaxed the needy, suggestible boy into her mysterious domain.

When Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, she did not yet have the piece of shattering knowledge that would finally make sense of the chaos of her life. At age twenty-four, Hornbacher was diagnosed with Type I rapid-cycle bipolar, the most severe...  more

When Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, she did not yet have the piece of shattering knowledge that would finally make sense of the chaos of her life. At age twenty-four, Hornbacher was diagnosed with Type I rapid-cycle bipolar, the most severe form of bipolar disorder.In Madness, Hornbacher tells her new story. Through scenes of astonishing visceral and emotional power, she takes us inside her own desperate attempts to counteract violently careening mood swings by self-starvation, substance abuse, numbing sex, and self-mutilation. How Hornbacher fights her way up from a madness that all but destroys her, and what it is like to live in a difficult and sometimes beautiful life and marriage?where bipolar always beckons?is at the center of this brave and heart-stopping memoir. Millions of people in America today are struggling with a variety of disorders that may disguise their bipolar disease. Marya Hornbacher's fiercely self-aware portrait revolutionizes our understanding of this all-too-common, all-too-misunderstood disorder.

The college winter break is over, and Caleb Prentiss faces yet another semester of higher education. Struggling with alcoholism and frustrated by his irrelevant classes, Cal seeks solace in the arms of his scholastic-conscious girlfriend and in somnambulistic conversation with a mystifying...  more

The college winter break is over, and Caleb Prentiss faces yet another semester of higher education. Struggling with alcoholism and frustrated by his irrelevant classes, Cal seeks solace in the arms of his scholastic-conscious girlfriend and in somnambulistic conversation with a mystifying college radio DJ. But Cal’s ennui is shattered when he discovers evidence of a murder which occurred in his room over the Christmas recess. Obsessed with unearthing the particulars of this gruesome and haunting event, Cal wanders down the grotesque hallowed halls of a university gone mad. Run-ins with the two hard-nosed campus security guards, relationship hurdles with both friends and lovers, and enigmatic signals from the Dean’s icily eminent wife force Caleb to question his place in the bizarre night classes of higher education. Even as he gets ever closer to the truth, Caleb is plagued by the supernatural occurrence known as stigmata: his hands bleed in imitation of the wounds of Christ whenever someone close to him dies. And Cal’s hands are bleeding a lot these days.

Springerville is famous for the legend of the Mogollon Monster. Of course nobody really believes it. It's just a good campfire story, something to attract gullible tourists -- until an excavation team unearths the figurine of a screaming woman, the jawbone of a deformed animal, and a...  more

Springerville is famous for the legend of the Mogollon Monster. Of course nobody really believes it. It's just a good campfire story, something to attract gullible tourists -- until an excavation team unearths the figurine of a screaming woman, the jawbone of a deformed animal, and a child's toy. How odd that they were buried together. Odd, too, is the foul odor lingering in the air, the strange noises at night, and the man's face hanging from a tree. Now the locals are locking their doors. Because after sundown, campfire stories can seem very, very real. There's only one thing that can follow the success of Bentley Little's acclaimed The Association, The Walking, and The Revelation. And that's Bentley Little's The Return.

Max Parkman—autistic and whip-smart, emotionally fragile and aggressive—is perfect in his mother's eyes. Until he's accused of murder. Attorney Danielle Parkman knows her teenage son Max's behavior has been getting worse—using drugs and lashing out. But she...  more

Max Parkman—autistic and whip-smart, emotionally fragile and aggressive—is perfect in his mother's eyes. Until he's accused of murder. Attorney Danielle Parkman knows her teenage son Max's behavior has been getting worse—using drugs and lashing out. But she can't accept the diagnosis she receives at a top-notch adolescent psychiatric facility that her son is deeply disturbed. Dangerous. Until she finds Max, unconscious and bloodied, beside a patient who has been brutally stabbed to death. Trapped in a world of doubt and fear, barred from contacting Max, Danielle clings to the belief that her son is innocent. But has she, too, lost touch with reality? Is her son really a killer? With the justice system bearing down on them, Danielle steels herself to discover the truth, no matter what it is. She'll do whatever it takes to find the killer and to save her son from being destroyed by a system that's all too eager to convict him.

First published in 1989, the first installment of the exciting and original award-winning erotic horror series is available again. This volume features bone-chilling stories by such acclaimed authors as Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton, Robert R. McCammon, and F. Paul Wilson. Unrequited...  more

First published in 1989, the first installment of the exciting and original award-winning erotic horror series is available again. This volume features bone-chilling stories by such acclaimed authors as Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton, Robert R. McCammon, and F. Paul Wilson. Unrequited Passions... Unspeakable Desires.  The most seductive sins of all... Prepare to enter a world of obsession and attraction- a place where true love succumbs to total terror, lust may cost you your life, and what happens in the dark, stays in the dark... Those who dare explore this bone-chilling collection will be transported to the razor's edge between pleasure and pain, where irresistible infatuation and unholy evil join together in a decadent dance. Embrace the unknown and hold on tightly for a tour of the shadowy realm that exists between human needs and inhuman horrors, as today's most compelling and gifted writers draw you into the hidden corners of the mind where love and fear make the strangest bedfellows...

Unemployed, divorced, and living in a new state, Hunt Jackson would be considered a risk by most insurance companies. Lucky for him, he's found one that will give him a policy. All he has to do is sign on the dotted line-and note a minor provision: they require a pound of flesh for their...  more

Unemployed, divorced, and living in a new state, Hunt Jackson would be considered a risk by most insurance companies. Lucky for him, he's found one that will give him a policy. All he has to do is sign on the dotted line-and note a minor provision: they require a pound of flesh for their investment. No backing out. No joke. No running away.

One woman's journey to the bottom of the bottle-and back again. In this moving, emotionally charged, and unflinching look at alcoholism and its effects, lawyer and prominent National Public Radio writer and commentator Heather King describes her twenty-year-long descent into the depths of...  more

One woman's journey to the bottom of the bottle-and back again. In this moving, emotionally charged, and unflinching look at alcoholism and its effects, lawyer and prominent National Public Radio writer and commentator Heather King describes her twenty-year-long descent into the depths of addiction with wit and candor. King went from a highly functioning alcoholic who managed to maintain her grip on reality to living in the lowest of dive bars, drinking around the clock and barely sustaining an existence. With help from the most unexpected source, King stopped her self-destructive spiral and changed her world for the better. This is the poignant, painfully honest, and inspirational true story of a woman who looked into the abyss, and was able to step back from the edge and reclaim her life on her own terms.

On October 25. 1994, a hysterical Susan Smith told police a tale that would strike terror in the hearts of mothers everywhere. An unidentified gunman had sped off with her two little boys, leaving her screaming on the side of the road.For more than a week, the people in the tiny town of Union,...  more

On October 25. 1994, a hysterical Susan Smith told police a tale that would strike terror in the hearts of mothers everywhere. An unidentified gunman had sped off with her two little boys, leaving her screaming on the side of the road.For more than a week, the people in the tiny town of Union, South Carolina rallied around the young mother. They combed the woods and neighborhood parks for the missing children and prayed for their safe return, while FBI teams launched a massive manhunt.No one ever suspected that the pretty 23-year-old who tearfully pleaded for her children in front of millions of TV viewers could be capable of such a heartless act...until she led police to the watery graves of her young sons. Now, as a shaken community confronts its outrage and sorrow, a stunned nation asks how is could have happened.

Intern is Dr. Sandeep Jauhar’s story of his days and nights in residency at a busy hospital in New York City, a trial that led him to question his every assumption about medical care today. Residency and especially its first year, the internship is legendary for its brutality, and...  more

Intern is Dr. Sandeep Jauhar’s story of his days and nights in residency at a busy hospital in New York City, a trial that led him to question his every assumption about medical care today. Residency and especially its first year, the internship is legendary for its brutality, and Jauhar’s experience was even more harrowing than most. He switched from physics to medicine in order to follow a more humane calling only to find that his new profession often had little regard for patients concerns. He struggled to find a place among squadrons of cocky residents and doctors. He challenged the practices of the internship in The New York Times, attracting the suspicions of the medical bureaucracy. Then, suddenly stricken, he became a patient himself and came to see that today’s high-tech, high-pressure medicine can be a humane science after all. Jauhar’s beautifully written memoir explains the inner workings of modern medicine with rare candor and insight.

Continues the series with a collection of new writers as well as some classic authors delving into the depths of kinky creepiness. This is the stuff of nightmares where you are getting naughty one minute and running for your life the next. Creepily arousing and arousingly frightening. Anne Rice...  more

Continues the series with a collection of new writers as well as some classic authors delving into the depths of kinky creepiness. This is the stuff of nightmares where you are getting naughty one minute and running for your life the next. Creepily arousing and arousingly frightening. Anne Rice looks like a prude compared to these authors! Contents: Introduction * Nocturne / John L. Byrne; * The Tub / Richard Laymon; * The Picture of Health / Ray Garton; * Change of Life / Chet Williamson; * Demonlover / Nancyh A. Collins; * Confession / Kurt Busiek; * Wolf in the Memory / Stephen Gresham; * To Have and To Hold / Gary Brandner; * Crusing / Lisa W. Cantrell; * Dream On Me / Mick Garris; * DeVice / Stephen Gallagher; * The Best / Paul Dale Anderson; * Something Extra / J. N. Williamson, James Kisner; * Juice / Kiel Stuart; * Surprise / Rex Miller; * Rococo / Graham Masterson; * Dear Diary / Elsa Rutherford; * The Splicer / Don D'Ammassa; * A Hard Man is Good to Find / R. Patrick Gates; * Bedroom Eyes / Michael Newton; * Atrocities / Lucy Taylor; * Pearldoll / John Shirley; * The Kind Men Like / Karl Edward Wagner; * The Braille Encyclopaedia / Grant Morrison. Author biographies.

The fourth sizzling collection in the Hot Blood series, here is terror and passion beyond the last taboo in an all-new collection of erotic horror from today's fright masters -- Jack Ketchum, Graham Masterton, Lucy Taylor and more.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to...  more

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough…not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work. Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

For most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager...  more

For most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents' marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family."Honest and moving...Her painful tale is engrossing."WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLDFrom the Paperback edition.

An anthology of erotic horror includes the stories of a trucker who gets more than he expected from a midnight pickup, a young woman who loves sex to death -- literally, and a porn producer who recruits the wrong star.

With a sordid history, the Abbadon Inn sits on a quiet street in the charming Victorian town of Cape May, New Jersey. Abandoned and vacant for years, it's ready for renovation. But as a new generation is about to discover, the Abbadon Inn has never really been empty at all.

A horrifying yet spellbinding account. Although Mengele was a mediocre doctor, he was encouraged in his pursuit of "genetic research" to create a "master Aryan race" with the concentration camp at Auschwitz providing an ample supply of specimens for his unscientific, poorly...  more

A horrifying yet spellbinding account. Although Mengele was a mediocre doctor, he was encouraged in his pursuit of "genetic research" to create a "master Aryan race" with the concentration camp at Auschwitz providing an ample supply of specimens for his unscientific, poorly documented experiments. Twins were his fixation, and this book interviews some of the estimated 100 survivors from an initial sample of 3000 young people. The fascination of this book is that it follows the lives of both Mengele and the twins in their readjustment to life away from the camps. This gripping tale is extremely readable and well documented, offering another facet to the human tragedy of the Holocaust.

Meet Sarah and David. Once upon a time they met and fell in love. But now they're on the verge of divorce and going to couples' counseling. On a routine trip to their counselor, they notice a few odd things -- the lack of cars on the highway, the missing security guard, and the fact...  more

Meet Sarah and David. Once upon a time they met and fell in love. But now they're on the verge of divorce and going to couples' counseling. On a routine trip to their counselor, they notice a few odd things -- the lack of cars on the highway, the missing security guard, and the fact that their counselor, Dr. Kelly, is ripping out her previous client's throat. Meet the Zombies. Now, Sarah and David are fighting for survival in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. But, just because there are zombies, doesn't mean your other problems go away. If the zombies don't eat their brains, they might just kill each other.

The Toaster Broke So We’re Getting Married is a hilarious and heartwarming look at one woman’s odyssey from divorced single mom with a rebellious streak and a string of soured relationships to blushing bride, shamelessly seduced by the kind of satin-and-lace fantasies that...  more

The Toaster Broke So We’re Getting Married is a hilarious and heartwarming look at one woman’s odyssey from divorced single mom with a rebellious streak and a string of soured relationships to blushing bride, shamelessly seduced by the kind of satin-and-lace fantasies that short-circuit logic, practicality, and self-control. While diving into an ocean of tulle and other trappings—determined to remain true to the person she is—Holms offers funny insights into:Living Together: “It wasn’t just about love anymore, it was about laundry and garbage and wet towels and who put the spoons in the dishwasher upside down.”The Dress: “Judith clips a long veil to the back of my head and lets it tumble to the floor. I nearly burst into tears. I am the Barbie Dream Bride.” The Cake: “Something about this woman makes me think she may have learned cake decorating in jail.” The Jitters: “Right now, ‘Till death do us part’ seems like a very long time.”With honesty and delicious humor, Holm chronicles her adventure to the altar, sharing her anxieties and fears about true commitment. Her story will resonate with anyone who has ever taken a leap of faith.

Jason Handford has a real gift for writing letters that get results-from complaints to love letters to editorials. Then he's offered a job to do it for a living. It consumes his time, his mind, and eventually, his soul. Jason really should have stuck with freelance.

Sloane Crosley, the brilliantly funny "fountain of observations" (Boston Globe), now takes readers from a bear-infested wedding in Alaska to a run-in with clowns in Portugal in a new collection of essays about the messiest and most unexpected dilemmas life has to offer. Show me the...  more

Sloane Crosley, the brilliantly funny "fountain of observations" (Boston Globe), now takes readers from a bear-infested wedding in Alaska to a run-in with clowns in Portugal in a new collection of essays about the messiest and most unexpected dilemmas life has to offer. Show me the doll -- Lost in space -- Take a stab at it -- It's always home you'll miss -- Light pollution -- If you sprinkle -- An abbreviated catalog of tongues -- Le Paris! -- Off the back of a truck

WELCOME TO ETERNITY, A LITTLE BIT OF HELL ON EARTH Eternity, California is the sort of charming spot tourists flock to every summer and leave every fall when the heavy snows render it an isolated ghost town. Tourists and New Agers all talk about the strange energy coming from Eternity's greatest...  more

WELCOME TO ETERNITY, A LITTLE BIT OF HELL ON EARTH Eternity, California is the sort of charming spot tourists flock to every summer and leave every fall when the heavy snows render it an isolated ghost town. Tourists and New Agers all talk about the strange energy coming from Eternity's greatest attraction: a mountain called Icehouse. But the locals talk about something else. For over a century, the seemingly quiet town has been haunted by strange deaths, grisly murders, unspeakable mutilations, all the work of a serial killer who some say is the same serial killer. Now as the first snow starts to fall, terror grips Eternity as an undying evil begins its hunt once again...

With poignant insight and humor, When the Air Hits Your Brain chronicles one man's evolution from naive and ambitious young intern to world-class neurosurgeon. In electrifying detail, Frank Vertosick Jr. describes some of the greatest challenges of his career, including a six-week-old infant...  more

With poignant insight and humor, When the Air Hits Your Brain chronicles one man's evolution from naive and ambitious young intern to world-class neurosurgeon. In electrifying detail, Frank Vertosick Jr. describes some of the greatest challenges of his career, including a six-week-old infant with a tumor in her brain, a young man struck down in his prime by paraplegia, and a minister with a .22-caliber bullet lodged in his skull. Told through intimate portraits of Vertosick's patients and unsparing yet fascinatingly detailed descriptions of surgical procedures, When the Air Hits Your Brain—the culmination of decades spent struggling to learn an unforgiving craft—illuminates both the mysteries of the mind and the realities of the operating room.

Amidst the rustle of silken garments, an old woman in black appears to those near death at a Nevada hospital. A desperate swimmer on the verge of drowning is pulled to safety by a fair-haired young man?whom she later discovers is her long-deceased uncle. And a hooded specter without a face...  more

Amidst the rustle of silken garments, an old woman in black appears to those near death at a Nevada hospital. A desperate swimmer on the verge of drowning is pulled to safety by a fair-haired young man?whom she later discovers is her long-deceased uncle. And a hooded specter without a face terrorizes a family, forcing them to flee from their home. Since 1948, FATE magazine has published true eyewitness accounts from ordinary people who've had extraordinary run-ins with the inhabitants of the spirit realm. This bone-chilling collection of true paranormal encounters, dating back to the early 1900s, brings you dozens of compelling stories of ghosts and haunted places, time-bending vortexes, and divine guidance from beyond. ?Ghostly Apparitions ?Messages from the Dead  ?Dream Visitations ?Near-Death & Out-of-Body Experiences  ?Haunted Places ?Spirits Helping the Living ?Animal Spirits ?Ghost Encounters of Children & Child Ghosts ?Phantom Vehicles & Buildings ?Vortexes, Time Slips & Portals ?Spirit Guides & Angels ?Poltergeist Activity  

They came to the deserted island to compete on a popular reality television show. Each one of them hoped to be the last to leave. Now, they're just hoping to stay alive, because one of them isn't who he seems, and the island isn't as deserted as it appears. The men will be slaughtered. The women...  more

They came to the deserted island to compete on a popular reality television show. Each one of them hoped to be the last to leave. Now, they're just hoping to stay alive, because one of them isn't who he seems, and the island isn't as deserted as it appears. The men will be slaughtered. The women will be kept alive as captives. And before it is over, they will turn on each other. Night is falling, the creatures are coming, and rescue is so very far away...

Chronicles the author's first year teaching at Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for Los Angeles's most violent teenage offenders.

Angela is a college freshman who has found herself in the center of a growing racial tension on campus; Henry is a park ranger who has nightly visits from two very mysterious (and dangerous) young women; Jolene is a mother starting a new life with her son, but who finds instead a mysterious...  more

Angela is a college freshman who has found herself in the center of a growing racial tension on campus; Henry is a park ranger who has nightly visits from two very mysterious (and dangerous) young women; Jolene is a mother starting a new life with her son, but who finds instead a mysterious mansion with disturbing secrets; Dennis is a young man who sets out to travel cross-country, but instead finds himself haunted by a horrifying tourist-trap. These four individuals are from different regions of the country, from different ethical/religious backgrounds...but they all have one thing in common: their lives are about to become a living hell.

The good news: you won’t stop laughing. The bad news: Every word is true.Profiling fifty of the most disgusting, painful, life-threatening and otherwise icky diseases, this remarkable book is the perfect treat for the closet temperature-taker, speed-dialing doctor stalker, or...  more

The good news: you won’t stop laughing. The bad news: Every word is true.Profiling fifty of the most disgusting, painful, life-threatening and otherwise icky diseases, this remarkable book is the perfect treat for the closet temperature-taker, speed-dialing doctor stalker, or tissue-wielding virus-phobe in all of us. Each disease is fully documented, including a checklist of symptoms, an overview, treatment, prognosis, and—for the rare cases in which the reader is not yet infected—notes on prevention. With fascinating, sickeningly accurate text written by a member of the editorial staff in the Infectious Disease Department of Elsevier, The Hypochondriac’s Pocket Guide to Horrible Diseases You Probably Already Have is capable of startling even the most health-confident into fanatical hand washing.

The isolated ancestral home of a beautiful young artist hides a terrifying secret.

Living In The Labyrinth is the story of  how one woman found the strength and the courage  to cope with a devastating disease that has  afflicted five million Americans. Far from being an  exercise in self-pity or a standard autobiography,  this...  more

Living In The Labyrinth is the story of  how one woman found the strength and the courage  to cope with a devastating disease that has  afflicted five million Americans. Far from being an  exercise in self-pity or a standard autobiography,  this is an unflinching and ultimately uplifting look  at a debilitating illness from the inside  out.

A brutally honest and hilarious memoir from an over-forty first-time mom. Veteran journalist and Ladies Home Journal columnist, Judith Newman spent seven years and $70,000 on infertility treatments, and finally, at age forty, she became pregnant with twins. You Make Me Feel Like an Unnatural...  more

A brutally honest and hilarious memoir from an over-forty first-time mom. Veteran journalist and Ladies Home Journal columnist, Judith Newman spent seven years and $70,000 on infertility treatments, and finally, at age forty, she became pregnant with twins. You Make Me Feel Like an Unnatural Woman is not only her account of having children later in life: it's about what happens to a marriage -- and to the spirit, when even the most sought-after baby comes. Wry, warm, and brutally honest, this is the book for any woman who has awakened at 3 AM to the insistent shrieks of her darling and thought: Oh man, I'm too old for this.

Gripping first-hand testimony by survivors, rescuers, and others brings the great maritime disaster into harrowing focus in this 1912 "memorial edition," first published shortly after the tragedy. Eyewitnesses recount heart-breaking tales of parting with loved ones, watching the great ship sink,...  more

Gripping first-hand testimony by survivors, rescuers, and others brings the great maritime disaster into harrowing focus in this 1912 "memorial edition," first published shortly after the tragedy. Eyewitnesses recount heart-breaking tales of parting with loved ones, watching the great ship sink, and floating helplessly for long hours on icy seas until rescued by the Carpathia. Numerous rare illustrations—photos of crew, celebrity passengers; drawings of the decks and luxurious interiors. Preface. Introduction. Great Marine Disasters from 1866 to 1911. List of Passengers Missing and Rescued.

A Beverly Hills businessman slaughters his family and leaves behind a video of the massacre and a cryptic message. Afterwards, children everywhere are disappearing or being killed. Social worker Carrie Daniels wants to know why--and God help her when she finds out.

Saturday was a normal day. People went shopping. To the movies. Everything was just as it should be. But not for long. By Sunday, civilization was in ruins. Adults had become murderously insane. One by one they became infected with a crazed, uncontrollable urge to slaughter the young - even...  more

Saturday was a normal day. People went shopping. To the movies. Everything was just as it should be. But not for long. By Sunday, civilization was in ruins. Adults had become murderously insane. One by one they became infected with a crazed, uncontrollable urge to slaughter the young - even their own children. Especially their own children.

A writer's collection of almost fifty essays that span more than 20 years of her experience as the mother of a son with Down syndrome. With poignancy and humor, Trainer explores a wide variety of issues, including family adjustment, public attitudes, inclusion, and independence. While her...  more

A writer's collection of almost fifty essays that span more than 20 years of her experience as the mother of a son with Down syndrome. With poignancy and humor, Trainer explores a wide variety of issues, including family adjustment, public attitudes, inclusion, and independence. While her insights and nuggets of wisdom are shaped by the joys and frustration of raising a child with mental retardation, they so often strike a common chord in all of us.

Caroline Kettlewell’s autobiography reveals a girl whose feelings of pain and alienation led her to seek relief in physically hurting herself, from age twelve into her twenties. Skin Game employs clear language and candid reflection to grant general readers as well as students an...  more

Caroline Kettlewell’s autobiography reveals a girl whose feelings of pain and alienation led her to seek relief in physically hurting herself, from age twelve into her twenties. Skin Game employs clear language and candid reflection to grant general readers as well as students an uncensored profile of a complex and unsettling disorder. "[This] mesmeric memoir examines the obsession with cutting that is believed to afflict somewhere around two million Americans, nearly all of them female," Francine Prose noted in Elle. "[Kettlewell’s] language soars and its intensity deepens whenever she is recalling the lost joys and the thrilling sensation of sharp steel against her tender skin."

FORGET EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT CHILDBIRTH. THIS IS REALITY, WITH BELLY LAUGHS. "I'll Never Have Sex with You Again!" chronicles birthin' babies like nothing ever before. Told by moms, dads, OB/GYNS, labor nurses and the people next door, its stories give new meaning to the phrase...  more

FORGET EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT CHILDBIRTH. THIS IS REALITY, WITH BELLY LAUGHS. "I'll Never Have Sex with You Again!" chronicles birthin' babies like nothing ever before. Told by moms, dads, OB/GYNS, labor nurses and the people next door, its stories give new meaning to the phrase "up close and personal." And many celebrities -- from Nikki Sixx to Faith Hill, Lucy Lawless to Phyllis Diller, Erin Brockovich to Peggy Noonan -- let down their guard and prove that the delivery room is definitely a no-spin zone. Read all about The birthing mom who watches helplessly as a sexy labor nurse tries to seduce her husband. The mother-in-law/M.D. wanna-be who seizes the forceps and orders the doctor to get the show on the road! The new dad who suffers a concussion during a crib-assembly mishap and first glimpses his infant as he's being wheeled into the emergency room. The woman who had to be knocked out cold by a baseball to discover she was pregnant. The dad who misses his daughter's birth when he runs home to change into a suit and tie. The woman in labor who discovers an old flame will administer her epidural, and opts to tough it out -- sans anesthesia! Heartwarming and hilarious, these 100-plus stories will thrill moms, mothers-to-be or anyone even thinking about having a baby.

In May 1995, a photograph and an anonymous note arrived at The Harvard Crimson that said "Keep this picture. There will soon be a very juicy story involving this woman." Soon afterwards, Sinedu Tadesse stabbed to death her roommate, Trang Phuong Ho, and then hung herself. This book recounts...  more

In May 1995, a photograph and an anonymous note arrived at The Harvard Crimson that said "Keep this picture. There will soon be a very juicy story involving this woman." Soon afterwards, Sinedu Tadesse stabbed to death her roommate, Trang Phuong Ho, and then hung herself. This book recounts the stories of these women, whose admission to Harvard was "halfway heaven," a bridge to the American dream after lives of hardship. But they met instead with the darkest of all fates: a tragedy that might have been prevented. Sinedu grew up under communist tyranny in Ethiopia. Trang was born in a Vietnamese forced labor camp, and fled the country with her father and sister to end up on welfare in Boston. Despite their similarities, the two were never friends; Trang was friendly and outgoing, while Sinedu, awkward and shy, had trouble adjusting to a culture vastly different from her own. Drawing upon her astonishing diaries, Thernstrom, a Harvard graduate herself, reconstructs Sinedu's inner life to reveal a girl struggling against isolation and depression. The book reveals Harvard as an institution ill-equipped to deal with mental illness on campus that apparently cared more for its reputation than for its student body. A brilliant synthesis of cultural analysis, psychological study, and first-rate investigative journalism, Halfway Heaven is a haunting exploration of the power of profound loneliness and an expose of one of America's most distinguished universities.

Here's one good reason for staying home from school... Something strange is happening at Tyler High. The laid-back principal has become unusually strict. The janitors no longer work nights because of what they hear. The students are frightened by what they see. And things are happening on...  more

Here's one good reason for staying home from school... Something strange is happening at Tyler High. The laid-back principal has become unusually strict. The janitors no longer work nights because of what they hear. The students are frightened by what they see. And things are happening on school grounds that defy rational explanation. But there is an explanation. Its just nothing that anyone can begin to believe or hope to survive.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there...  more

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

Set in a small Alabama train stop town in the 1930s, this gem of a book almost could have been shelved as just another light romantic comedy. Various women's voices tell anecdotes of Whistle Stop, as the chapters jump back and forth through time. We hear from Mrs. Threadgoode, reminiscing...  more

Set in a small Alabama train stop town in the 1930s, this gem of a book almost could have been shelved as just another light romantic comedy. Various women's voices tell anecdotes of Whistle Stop, as the chapters jump back and forth through time. We hear from Mrs. Threadgoode, reminiscing fondly from her nursing home in the 1980s, and the chatty Dot Weems, editor of the gossipy town newsletter (1929-1969), and then listen in on spirited dialogue set in the town of Whistle Stop itself. The storytellers never find use for the label "lesbian," nor do they see fit to take us behind closed doors, but this is nevertheless the irresistible story of a fierce and true love between two women, Idgie and Ruth. After Idgie saves Ruth from an abusive marriage, these two friends become partners in running the Whistle Stop Cafe, where no one, "not even hobos and colored," is turned away for inability to pay. Readers are set down in the corner booth to eavesdrop on the comings and goings of an array of eccentric, ragtag characters who drop in for buttermilk biscuits, Big George's barbecue, and, eventually, news about their own hometown murder mystery. Among revelations big and small, Fannie Flagg mixes direct and empowering confrontations with racism, sexism, and ageism with the colorful and endearing language of the depression-era South and the cafe's recipes for grits, collard greens, and, of course, fried green tomatoes.

For the millions of animal enthusiasts in America, here’s a heartwarming collection of tales by veterinarian Robert Sharp that relate the joys and misadventures of being an animal doctor in small-town U.S.A. With humor and compassion, No Dogs in Heaven? portrays the great and not-so-great...  more

For the millions of animal enthusiasts in America, here’s a heartwarming collection of tales by veterinarian Robert Sharp that relate the joys and misadventures of being an animal doctor in small-town U.S.A. With humor and compassion, No Dogs in Heaven? portrays the great and not-so-great characteristics of human and animal nature, all infused by a lovable veterinarian’s belief that indeed, there are dogs in heaven. Included is the telling of Sharp’s first day as a rookie veterinarian nervously preparing to inject a needle into a one-ton Holstein bull; finding a rash on a cute puppy whose lovely young owner bared her breasts to ask his opinion of a similar skin ailment; treating a vicious dog whose violent owner had stabbed it with a knife, only to treat the same dog two years later—now a sweet and gentle pet of an adoptive family; and caring for a kitten struck by a car who survived amputations of both right legs, somehow learned to walk, earned the name "Lefty," and was taken in by a family who loved him. In the vein of James Herriot’s compelling stories, this charming, eccentric, and comic book is sure to strike a chord with readers everywhere.

On November 4, 1990 Tim Boczkowski phoned 911 in Greensboro, North Carolina to report his wife Elaine lying motionless in the bathtub. In the days that followed the paramedics' failed efforts to revive Elaine, detectives began to suspect that Tim had murdered his wife after a quarrel. But with...  more

On November 4, 1990 Tim Boczkowski phoned 911 in Greensboro, North Carolina to report his wife Elaine lying motionless in the bathtub. In the days that followed the paramedics' failed efforts to revive Elaine, detectives began to suspect that Tim had murdered his wife after a quarrel. But with no eyewitnesses to the crime--the couple's three children were in bed asleep- -Tim went free to pick up the pieces of his life... Four years later Tim's second wife-a woman who had devoted herself to his children-died under similar circumstances. Immediately, his past was tightened around him like a noose, and some of those who knew him best began to believe that the mild mannered, religiously devout Boczkowski was really a madman who killed his wives with his bare hands. But Tim Boczkowski's worst crime of all may have been committed against his own children: taking away their mother not once but twice...

A gay Erma Bombeck meets A Girl Named Zippy in this delightful debut about the misadventures of a woman of size.Cheryl Peck has stories to tell--about her cats, about her family, and about what it's like to be a gay woman of size living in the heartland. There's the story of the time she hit her...  more

A gay Erma Bombeck meets A Girl Named Zippy in this delightful debut about the misadventures of a woman of size.Cheryl Peck has stories to tell--about her cats, about her family, and about what it's like to be a gay woman of size living in the heartland. There's the story of the time she hit her kid sister in the head with a rock. Then there's the time her father gave her swimming lessons--by throwing her into the water. When she came shrieking and spluttering to the surface, he said, "Good--she can swim." There are the reasons 300 pound Cheryl has become an inspirational goddess in her gym. There are universal stories about a daughter's love for her mother and father. Cheryl Peck unfolds all these stories with a healthy sense of humor and intelligent wit in a book that reads like fiction and explores the themes of family, growing up, love, and loss. The stories in this collection are about seemingly unremarkable events that make a life--but like fat girls sitting on lawn chairs, these are events that don't let go.

On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a...  more

On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a quarter of a century in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long-ago winter night.

Iwas destined for a life of medical drama from day one," begins this comic memoir with a mission. "I was born in the month of July, and my horoscope sign is a disease (Cancer). The symbol for Cancer? A crab (the sexually transmitted critter). Not only that, my parents named me Shawn Timothy...  more

Iwas destined for a life of medical drama from day one," begins this comic memoir with a mission. "I was born in the month of July, and my horoscope sign is a disease (Cancer). The symbol for Cancer? A crab (the sexually transmitted critter). Not only that, my parents named me Shawn Timothy Decker, which makes my initials S.T.D. Shawn Decker isn't quite the All-American boy. Sure, he gets caught shoplifting copies of Penthouse; is crazy about prowrestling, especially "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair; and never has a problem getting dates. But he's also a hemophiliac who discovers, at age eleven, that he has contracted HIV from tainted blood products. Instead of becoming self-pitying and dying (as first predicted), Shawn develops a twisted sense of humor, meets Depeche Mode through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and writes on blogs and in Poz magazine about what it's like being hetero and HIV-positive in rural Virginia. He also turns to gay men for advice on dating women and, almost twenty years after getting HIV, marries Gwenn Barringer, who is HIV-negative and a former competitor for the title of Miss Virginia. Together Shawn and Gwenn travel the country, speaking to high school and college kids about how to live and love with HIV (and how to avoid getting it).

High school student Ned Philbeck wasn't thrilled about moving to Winfield so that he and his mother could take care of his ailing grandmother. But at least he couldn't say life was boring -- not once all the weird things started happening at the old Kearse house across the street. The...  more

High school student Ned Philbeck wasn't thrilled about moving to Winfield so that he and his mother could take care of his ailing grandmother. But at least he couldn't say life was boring -- not once all the weird things started happening at the old Kearse house across the street. The strange flickering lights, the loud crashing and banging. The mysterious and gruesome deaths. And certainly not once Ned was stuck hiding young Nan Kearse in his basement rooms because she was too afriad to live alone in her own house, which seems to be haunted by the ghost of her recently deceased uncle.

This gripping account of Ellen Boehm's cold-blooded murder of her two sons and her attempt on her daughter's life--from the bestselling author of To Kill and Kill Again--includes eight pages of revealing photos.

Pasadena pediatrician Kevin Paul Anderson was admired and trusted by his wife and patients, and looked up to as a mentor by many of his associates. Handsome, athletic, and established, he was also a magnet for women. Deepti Gupta, a thirty-three-year-old fellow doctor, was the kind of conquest...  more

Pasadena pediatrician Kevin Paul Anderson was admired and trusted by his wife and patients, and looked up to as a mentor by many of his associates. Handsome, athletic, and established, he was also a magnet for women. Deepti Gupta, a thirty-three-year-old fellow doctor, was the kind of conquest Anderson sought: pretty, anxious to do well, and eager to please. It wasn't long before they began having an affair...But the affair soon ended when Deepti told her mentor that she was pregnant with his child. threatened with exposure as a sexual harasser and his career and marriage at risk, Anderson took his lover on a romantic rendezvous in the San Gabriel Mountains. under the stars, Anderson strangled Deepti with his necktie, doused her body and car with gasoline, and shoved both over a steep cliff to make it look like an accident. But was it an outburst of unexpected rage, as Anderson later claimed, or was it premeditated murder? Or was it something more mysterious still?

During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie spends her days avoiding chores and making plans to turn the family business into the finest Philadelphia has ever seen. But then the fever breaks out. Disease sweeps the...  more

During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie spends her days avoiding chores and making plans to turn the family business into the finest Philadelphia has ever seen. But then the fever breaks out. Disease sweeps the streets, destroying everything in its path and turning Mattie's world upside down. At her feverish mother's insistence, Mattie flees the city with her grandfather. But she soon discovers that the sickness is everywhere, and Mattie must learn quickly how to survive in a city turned frantic with disease. ALA Best Book for Young Adults/Junior Library Guild Selection/NYPL 100 Books for Reading and Sharing, Best Books for Teen Age/ABA Pick of the LIsts/IRA Teacher's Choice "Fever 1793" is based on an actual epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia  that wiped out 5,000 people--or 10 percent of the city's population--in three  months. At the close of the 18th century, Philadelphia was the bustling capital  of the United States, with Washington and Jefferson in residence. During the hot  mosquito-infested summer of 1793, the dreaded yellow fever spread like wildfire,  killing people overnight. Like specters from the Middle Ages, gravediggers drew  carts through the streets crying "Bring out your dead!" The rich fled to the  country, abandoning the city to looters, forsaken corpses, and frightened  survivors. In the foreground of this story is 16-year-old Mattie Cook, whose mother and  grandfather own a popular coffee house on High Street. Mattie's comfortable and  interesting life is shattered by the epidemic, as her mother is felled and the  girl and her grandfather must flee for their lives. Later, after much hardship  and terror, they return to the deserted town to find their former cook, a freed  slave, working with the African Free Society, an actual group who undertook to  visit and assist the sick and saved many lives. As first frost arrives and the  epidemic ends, Mattie's sufferings have changed her from a willful child to a  strong, capable young woman able to manage her family's business on her own.  

When my parents packed my brother, sister and me into the family van and drove us to Missouri for Spring Break, we brought our entirely imagined city-hardness with us. The hard truth that we were about to learn was that, in fact, we weren't tough kids at all. Our life in the city had not...  more

When my parents packed my brother, sister and me into the family van and drove us to Missouri for Spring Break, we brought our entirely imagined city-hardness with us. The hard truth that we were about to learn was that, in fact, we weren't tough kids at all. Our life in the city had not prepared us for anything. Nothing could prepare us for this. A Rip in Heaven is Jeanine Cummins's story of a night in April 1991, when her two cousins, Julie and Robin Kerry, and her brother, Tom, were assaulted on the Chain of Rocks Bridge that spans the Mississippi River just outside of St. Louis. When, after a harrowing ordeal, Tom managed to escape the attackers and flag down help, he thought the nightmare would soon be over. He couldn't have been more wrong. Tom, his sister Jeanine, and their entire family were just at the beginning of a horrific odyssey through the aftermath of a violent crime, a world of shocking betrayal, endless heartbreak, and utter disillusionment. It was a trial by fire from which no one would emerge unscathed. This is one family's intimate, immediate, and unforgettable story of what victims can suffer long after they should be safe.

One year following their deaths in a late-night car accident, teenagers Danielle, Marco, and Christopher return, in spirit, to the sleepy New England suburb of Avon. Over the course of the evening, the three will drift into and out of the lives of those who knew and were affected by them. None...  more

One year following their deaths in a late-night car accident, teenagers Danielle, Marco, and Christopher return, in spirit, to the sleepy New England suburb of Avon. Over the course of the evening, the three will drift into and out of the lives of those who knew and were affected by them. None is more affected than Tim, survivor of the crash, who plots a grisly act of remembrance, and Brooks, the well-intentioned police officer who first discovered the crash and whose life has changed in startling ways since.

I'll get you, Celia. You kill me and I'll come back as your worst nightmare. I'll get you and I'll get your kids, too. I'll get you, Celia, I'll get you... No one heard the gunshots.Just as no one ever heard Celia's screams or those of her children for all these yrs.But in the isolation of...  more

I'll get you, Celia. You kill me and I'll come back as your worst nightmare. I'll get you and I'll get your kids, too. I'll get you, Celia, I'll get you... No one heard the gunshots.Just as no one ever heard Celia's screams or those of her children for all these yrs.But in the isolation of the Florida swamps,Celia has silenced her cruel husband forever.Or so she thought...

This all started as a choice, my choice, but now I was slave to it.Every time I swallowed a pill I was tricking myself into seeing and feeling what was not there. But I could only trick myself for so long....Lynn Smith never wanted to be an addict. A popular straight-A student from small-town...  more

This all started as a choice, my choice, but now I was slave to it.Every time I swallowed a pill I was tricking myself into seeing and feeling what was not there. But I could only trick myself for so long....Lynn Smith never wanted to be an addict. A popular straight-A student from small-town Pennsylvania, she moved to New York City to pursue her dream of acting. In the city, she came in contact with new people, new ideas, and a completely new way of life -- a way that exposed her to drugs. She tried pot, acid, and cocaine, but it was the "love drug" Ecstasy that won her heart. Rolling Away is the story of Lynn's frenzied flight into addiction and her long struggle to come back down to earth. At once harrowing and inspiring, Rolling Away is a triumphant narrative about sex, drugs, and rock-bottom survival -- and how a second chance can save your life.

On November 25, 1997 -- two days before Thanksgiving -- Earl and Terry Robertson, both 49, were found brutally slaughtered inside their home in Rock Hill, a college town and flourishing suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. They were family people, churchgoing and law-abiding. Yet someone had...  more

On November 25, 1997 -- two days before Thanksgiving -- Earl and Terry Robertson, both 49, were found brutally slaughtered inside their home in Rock Hill, a college town and flourishing suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. They were family people, churchgoing and law-abiding. Yet someone had wanted them dead -- badly enough to cut Terry's throat and crush Earl's skull with a claw hammer. Suspicion swiftly fell on the couple's eldest son, James D. "Jimmy" Robertson, 21, who'd recently moved back in with his parents. After graduating high school with honours, Robertson had taken a wrong turn, flunking out of college, spiraling downward into drug and alcohol abuse and petty crime. In the predawn hours of November 25, he called his teenage girlfriend, Meredith Moon, and told her to come over. When she got there, Robertson told her today was the day he was going to kill his parents. What had motivated a once-promising young man to slaughter his parents in cold blood? Was it, as prosecutors put forth, greedy desire for his share of a $2.2 million inheritance? What dark secrets did the Robertson family's all-American facade conceal? When James Robertson's own grandmother talked to a newspaper reporter about him, she said, "He'd be better off put to sleep." In 1999, a jury would decide the fate of the son who ended the lives of the people who gave him his.

It's a chair that has been passed down from generation to generation. But ten-year-old Joey doesn't dare go near it-even though it seems terribly important to Joey's father and uncle. Because the chair is part of a family tradition. A tradition in which Joey must take his place-no matter how...  more

It's a chair that has been passed down from generation to generation. But ten-year-old Joey doesn't dare go near it-even though it seems terribly important to Joey's father and uncle. Because the chair is part of a family tradition. A tradition in which Joey must take his place-no matter how terrifying...

Jonah Adams was diagnosed as autistic at two years and eight months. Just a few years later, a doctor refused to believe such a diagnosis could ever have been given to this healthy, happy boy. This is the true story of how Jonah's mother, Christina, seized his limited window of opportunity for...  more

Jonah Adams was diagnosed as autistic at two years and eight months. Just a few years later, a doctor refused to believe such a diagnosis could ever have been given to this healthy, happy boy. This is the true story of how Jonah's mother, Christina, seized his limited window of opportunity for recovery. Detailing how she utilized a combination of a special diet and one-on-one tutoring with speech therapists and behavioral psychologists, Christina shares the entire journey both she and her husband undertook to give their child a second chance at a full life.

When seven-year-old Jaclyn Dowaliby was murdered near her suburban Chicago home in 1988, her innocent father was convicted and jailed, and his legal team and some committed journalists set out to win David Dowaliby's acquittal, and succeeded.

Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in fragile bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the thinnest. But then Cassie suffers the ultimate loss-her life-and Lia is left behind, haunted by her friend's memory and racked with guilt for not being able to help...  more

Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in fragile bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the thinnest. But then Cassie suffers the ultimate loss-her life-and Lia is left behind, haunted by her friend's memory and racked with guilt for not being able to help save her. In her most powerfully moving novel since Speak, award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia's struggle, her painful path to recovery, and her desperate attempts to hold on to the most important thing of all: hope. 

When John and Karen Dalton buy the restored Abbadon Inn in the picturesque town of Cape May, Karen finds letters of the long-dead mobster named Jack Cooney who built the inn and who died in the 1950s. She becomes obsessed with the inn's bloody history. Karen will soon find out that arousing the...  more

When John and Karen Dalton buy the restored Abbadon Inn in the picturesque town of Cape May, Karen finds letters of the long-dead mobster named Jack Cooney who built the inn and who died in the 1950s. She becomes obsessed with the inn's bloody history. Karen will soon find out that arousing the dead can be a grave mistake.

October 1991. It was "the perfect storm" -- a tempest that may happen only once in a century -- a nor'easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to...  more

October 1991. It was "the perfect storm" -- a tempest that may happen only once in a century -- a nor'easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to inconceivable levels few people on Earth have ever witnessed. Few, except the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat tragically headed towards its hellish center.

"Trauma Junkie gives us a view over the flight nurse's shoulder from liftoff until the patient is delivered to the hospital and the agonizing minutes in between. These fascinating true stories are impossible to put down." -- James M. Betts, MD, Chief of Department of Surgery and Director of...  more

"Trauma Junkie gives us a view over the flight nurse's shoulder from liftoff until the patient is delivered to the hospital and the agonizing minutes in between. These fascinating true stories are impossible to put down." -- James M. Betts, MD, Chief of Department of Surgery and Director of Trauma Services, Children's Hospital, Oakland "An exciting portrayal of emergency nursing." -- Library Journal "Fast-paced nonfiction that reads like an adventure story." -- School Library Journal In Trauma Junkie, readers accompany veteran flight nurse Janice Hudson as she races in response to emergency calls in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her workplace is a cramped California Shock Trauma Air Rescue (calstar) helicopter in which medical personnel try to fix the human carnage wrought by shootings, accidents and natural disasters. In this new and expanded edition, Hudson updates readers on how she and her colleagues have fared since moving on to different medical roles -- including her own battle with multiple sclerosis, which ultimately forced her to give up the job she loved. The new Trauma Junkie also contains several previously unpublished stories, including a new addition to the lineup of "stupid human tricks" Hudson witnessed and an all-new chapter describing a call involving the most heartbreaking of patients: a child who didn't make it. Hudson is a natural storyteller who conveys the excitement of her days with calstar -- heroic rescues, tragic deaths and the hilarious incidents that made the tension bearable -- and the deep commitment of her team to keep patients alive in the most perilous situations.

Bundle Of Evil… The old Victorian home stands at the top of a hill overlooking Martha’s Vineyard, nestled in a forest of green pines and a rainbow of wildflowers, just a stone’s throw away from the beach. It was Jan Hostetter’s dream to convert the three-story house into a...  more

Bundle Of Evil… The old Victorian home stands at the top of a hill overlooking Martha’s Vineyard, nestled in a forest of green pines and a rainbow of wildflowers, just a stone’s throw away from the beach. It was Jan Hostetter’s dream to convert the three-story house into a bed and breakfast, but she gladly surrenders that dream when a miracle occurs: she becomes pregnant. For years, doctors told Jan she was incapable of conceiving, but now she and her husband have been doubly blessed with a child on the way and the perfect place to raise a family. Annie Wojtoko is in Martha’s Vineyard to help out and share in Jan’s happiness, but as the due date draws nearer, Annie’s concern for her best friend grows. The pregnancy has left Jan frail and without an appetite. She has become superstitious, covering every mirror in her home, and refusing to leave under any circumstances, fearing her baby will die if she does. And as Annie learns the violent history of the house, she comes to realize that what is growing in Jan’s body isn’t a miracle at all—but a mother’s most terrifying nightmare…