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Mister Lullaby: A Novel
by J. H. MarkertFrom J. H. Markert, the author Peter Farris calls the "clear heir to Stephen King," Mister Lullaby brings our darkest dreams and nightmares to life.In the vein of T. Kingfisher and Christopher Golden, the boundary protecting our world from the monsters on the other side is weakening—and Mister Lullaby is about to break through.The small town of Harrod&’s Reach has seen its fair share of the macabre, especially inside the decrepit old train tunnel around which the town was built. After a young boy, Sully Dupree, is injured in the abandoned tunnel and left in a coma, the townspeople are determined to wall it up. Deputy sheriff Beth Gardner is reluctant to buy into the superstitions until she finds two corpses at the tunnel&’s entrance, each left with strange calling cards inscribed with old lullabies. Soon after, Sully Dupree briefly awakens from his coma.Before falling back into his slumber, Sully manages to give his older brother a message. Sully's mind, since the accident, has been imprisoned on the other side of the tunnel in Lalaland, a grotesque and unfamiliar world inhabited by evil mythical creatures of sleep. Sully is trapped there with hundreds of other coma patients, all desperately fighting to keep the evils of the dream world from escaping into the waking world.Elsewhere, a man troubled by his painful youth has for years been hearing a voice in his head he calls Mr. Lullaby, and he has finally started to act on what that voice is telling him—to kill any coma patient he can find, quickly.Something is waking up in the tunnel—something is trying to get through. And Mr. Lullaby is coming.
A Collection of Lies (A Kate Hamilton Mystery #5)
by Connie BerryIn USA Today bestselling author Connie Berry&’s fifth Kate Hamilton mystery, American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton follows bloodstained clues to discover the truth about the murder of a modern-day Victorian gentleman.As Kate Hamilton and her new husband, DI Tom Mallory, honeymoon in Devon, a local history museum asks them to trace the provenance of a bloodstained dress said to belong to a Victorian lacemaker accused of murder. If genuine, the dress and its puzzling connections to a nineteenth-century Romani family who camped on Dartmoor will be the centerpiece of a new historic crimes exhibit—exactly Kate&’s kind of mystery. But matters turn deadly when a shot is fired during a fundraising gala, injuring the man who donated the dress.The injured donor, Gideon Littlejohn, is a cybersecurity expert who lives and dresses as a Victorian gentleman, but everyone believes the real target of the attack to be another attendee—a controversial politician intent on rooting out local corruption. This belief is overturned when Gideon is found dead in a pool of blood. But then the politician receives a death threat.Who was the real target? Who would want to kill both a man with an obsession for history and a tough-on-crime politician? When asked to assist in the investigation, Kate races to discover the truth, as it becomes clear the killer isn&’t going to come quietly.
Hearts on Thin Ice: A Novel
by Katie KennedyA pro hockey player falls for an interior designer in this charming debut sports romance. For fans of Icebreaker and Set On You, this flirty workplace rom-com explores mental health, belonging, and finding your way in the world.Nick Sorensen had once been one of the fastest men in hockey—until the devastating plane crash that took the lives of his best friends, leaving him the only survivor. Now he&’s physically ready to get back on the ice, but his coach is concerned Nick isn&’t doing as well mentally as he says he is. Case in point: Nick&’s apartment is completely empty, apart from a single chair and a mattress on the floor.To prove he&’s fine, really, Nick hires Alyssa Compton, an up-and-coming interior designer, to decorate his space. Alyssa&’s thrilled at the chance to prove herself to her demanding boss—with job security at last, maybe she can finally put down roots and create a home for herself too. But Nick turns out to be infuriatingly stubborn and impossible to work with, and just when Alyssa decides to throw in the towel on the whole thing, Nick shows up for her in a way she never could have expected. The icy path ahead of these two lost souls may be slippery and cracking, but when it comes to love, sometimes all you need is someone on your team.
The Assassin of Venice: A Novel
by Alyssa PalomboA Renaissance courtesan must choose between love and duty in this high stakes 16th-century mystery, perfect for fans of Madeline Hunter and Rhys Bowen.Valentina Riccardi is many things: beautiful, cultured, deadly. As one of Venice&’s famous courtesans, she&’s perfectly positioned to seduce powerful men, get them alone, and assassinate them. Spies. Traitors. Who they are doesn&’t matter—only that they made an enemy of the Council of Ten, the shadowy and seemingly omniscient power from which Valentina takes her orders without question.Venice is her home, and after losing everything once before to an invading army, there is nothing she won&’t do to protect her city, for there is nothing she loves more.Almost nothing.She vowed to never fall in love again, but Valentina can&’t help but give her heart to Bastiano Bragadin, a fellow assassin. But when Bastiano starts asking the wrong questions, Valentina receives a new assignment: kill him.Yet the more Valentina learns about the Council of Ten, the more she wonders if they are truly acting in the interest of the Venetian state, or using her for their own dark ambitions. If Valentina is to save Bastiano, she must untangle their conspiracy—with the help of her fellow courtesans—before it&’s too late.The Assassin of Venice is a captivating, sensual, high stakes read that brings 16th-century Venice to life, and draws on the fascinating real history of both Venetian cortigiane oneste—&“honest courtesans&”—and Renaissance Venice&’s sprawling intelligence service.
The Lonely Hearts Trivia Night: A Novel
by Lauren FarnsworthFive lonely strangers join a bar trivia team in an effort to find friends, but end up on a path that will change each of their lives forever, in this heartwarming debut perfect for fans of Beth O&’Leary and Sophie Kinsella.How do you make friends as an adult? That&’s one question lonely Londoners Bryony, Harry, Jaime, Luke, and Donna would really like the answer to. They tend to do better with questions of a different variety—trivia questions like How did prosecco get its name? and Which Mariah Carey song has topped the charts in twenty-six countries?In an effort to meet new people, the five not-yet-friends answer an ad seeking members of a bar trivia team—the Red Hot Quizzy Peppers. As the weeks go on, the disparate band of unhappy strangers becomes swept up in both the buzz of winning and the way quiz nights start to bond them together in friendship . . . to the detriment of other parts of their lives. Despite all odds, the Quizzy Peppers might just have a shot at making the London Pub Quiz League&’s Grand Final, if only they can get past the Golden Girls, the Banana Splits, and the Bombay Bad Boys.Utterly charming and uplifting, The Lonely Hearts Trivia Night is a story of finding friendship, love, confidence, and purpose—just right for fans of Jennifer Weiner.
The Science of Why We Exist: A History of the Universe from the Big Bang to Consciousness
by Tim CoulsonFrom the Big Bang and the evolution of the genetic code to the birth of consciousness, this is the extraordinary story of the chain of events that led to human life on earth.Have you ever wondered why you exist? What had to happen for you to be alive and conscious? Scientists have come a long way in answering this question, and this book describes what they have found out. It also examines whether our existence was inevitable at the universe&’s birth 13.77 billion years ago—or whether we are just incredibly lucky. The book is aimed at readers who are interested in science but are not experts. Written in an entertaining and accessible style, the narrative begins by describing how scientists discover facts before taking the reader on a journey from the Big Bang to the creation of the human genome. Covering physics, astronomy, chemistry, earth sciences, the emergence of life, evolution, consciousness, the rise of humanity, and how our personalities are moulded by genes, chance, and the environment, the journey explains how the universe started as point of intense energy that over time, in our corner of the universe, resulted in our wonderful planet—and in you.
The Moonlight Market: A Novel
by Joanne HarrisFrom New York Times bestselling author Joanne Harris comes a richly imagined and captivating novel of two colliding worlds. Deep in the heart of London, a young photographer named Tom Argent walks the streets and captures whatever catches his eye: an old man drinking coffee; a striking woman sipping champagne in St. Pancras station; a cloud of moths taking flight across the sky. He&’s orphaned, lonely, and lost in his work. He certainly has no intention of falling in love. And yet, love finds him in the shape of beautiful Vanessa, who lives a dangerous double life in the heart of the city. Tom&’s pursuit of Vanessa leads him to discover an alternate world, hiding in plain sight among the streets and rooftops of London. A world unseen by common folk and inhabited by strange and colorful beings, in which two warring factions—one nocturnal, one in the light—wage war for the sake of a long-lost love, which can only end with one side&’s total annihilation. The Moonlight Market will enchant readers with new worlds and epic romance and in this captivating modern fairytale about what could be hiding in the corner of your eye.
A Sea Full of Turtles: The Search for Optimism in an Epoch of Extinction
by Bill StreeverAn inspired and impassioned story of adventure that explores the richness of marine life and charts a path of resilience and hope. Everyone alive today is witnessing a mass extinction event caused by the more than eight billion humans who share this planet. At times, it seems there is little hope. Climate change, resource exploitation, agrochemicals, overfishing, plastics, dead zones in our oceans, drought and desertification, conversion of habitat to housing, farming, and industrial infrastructure—the list of impacts and insults goes on and on. We are, it seems, on an unalterable path that will continue to decimate biodiversity. A feeling of hopeless, while not unwarranted, is part of the problem. Without hope, without some belief in the possibility of positive outcomes, the fight for nature is over. Why even try if the battle is already lost? While staring the problems squarely in the face, A Sea Full of Turtles offers hope for those who care about our living world. Delivered as a travel narrative set in Mexico&’s Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), at one level the book focuses on dramatically underfunded but highly successful efforts to protect sea turtles. But the book goes beyond Mexico and beyond sea turtles to look at how some humans have changed their relationship with nature—and how that change can one day end the extinction crisis. Enchanting, galvanizing, and brimming with joy and wonder, A Sea Full of Turtles will inspire immediate action to face the great challenges that lie ahead. Pessimism is the lazy way out. Optimism, it turns out, is both a reasonable and an essential attitude for us all as we fight for the beautiful diversity of life on our Earth.
The Lucifer Cut: A Novel
by Matthew HartA heart-pounding ride through the perilous world of the modern gem trade, by the acclaimed author of Diamond.When a New York diamond dealer and his wife are found dead in a chilling assassination, and a mysterious gem—the Lucifer Cut—goes missing, U.S. Treasury agent Alex Turner and his lover, the billionaire Russian diamond thief known as Slav Lily, are thrust into a web of global intrigue. Uncertain they can even trust each other, the two find themselves on the trail of a secret so lethal it threatens not only the world diamond trade but the national security of the United States. In a fiction first, diamond expert Matthew Hart tears the curtain from the secretive world of lab-grown diamonds, where master &“chefs&” create astonishing gems in the 8,000-degree furnaces of their reactors. Finally one of them makes what no one thought possible—a fake so perfect not even experts can unmask it. But as Alex and Lily soon discover, its allure is even more profound than its beauty as a jewel, and the stone ignites a murderous race from New York to London and finally to Cape Town, as a deadly enemy tries to beat them to the diamond. With knife-sharp dialogue and lacerating irony, Alex and Lily navigate an ever-shifting underworld and the storms of their own desire as they rush to unravel the enigma of the Lucifer Cut and the treacheries of the human heart.
The Expat: A Novel
by Hansen ShiA fresh and vivid new voice brings a contemporary edge to the classic espionage novel.At twenty-six, Princeton grad Michael Wang is trapped. Stifled under the bamboo ceiling at General Motors, he&’s working quietly on a breakthrough in self-driving car technology that he hopes will catapult him out of obscurity. Disaffected and largely friendless in San Francisco, he&’s dogged by resentment towards the Ivy Leaguers who never accepted him and his colleagues at GM who see him as passive and faceless. But all that changes when one night, on a freelance coding platform, he meets the beautiful and enigmatic Vivian. She&’s been admiring Michael&’s work from afar and represents a rival Beijing tech company that&’s eager to poach him as a newly minted executive, liberate his ideas from the stagnant confines of GM, and help him find success in the wilder, less regulated business environs of China. For Michael—alienated and underappreciated—it&’s no choice at all. But as soon as Michael arrives in Beijing, Vivian vanishes. When the true nature of his new position is made clear, Michael finds himself enmeshed in a dangerous web of industrial espionage and counterintelligence. Caught between two countries that view him as a pawn, where do his loyalties lie? Piercingly intelligent and ruthlessly contemporary, The Expat is both a white-knuckle spy novel and a thrilling exploration of the myth of meritocracy, high-tech immigration, U.S.-China conflicts, identity, and disaffection that asks: in the pursuit of self-actualization, who will we betray and how far will we go?
The Sugar Rush: A Memoir of Wild Dreams, Budding Bromance, and Making Maple Syrup
by Peter GreggFilled with humor and madcap adventure, The Sugar Rush is the story of two friends with a sweet, golden, syrupy dream, set against the rugged New England wilderness.Trying to shake off the emotions of a recently emptied nest and midlife anxiety, Peter Gregg launches into a strange new chapter—he decides to make maple syrup. A lot of it. After recruiting his best buddy, Bert, and collecting advice from a clique of salty farmers who&’ve been sugaring all their lives, Gregg is soon consumed by what maple producers call &“the Bug.&” He sets out to chase the mythical &“five pounder&” goal—a lofty syrup production total that&’ll put him in league with the pros in Vermont. For the next three months, from January to early April, the two men battle the rugged terrain of a mountain of maples in an Ahab-like quest that eats up their energy, time, and contents of their wallets. Along the way, they learn how to handle dangerous equipment, outrun predatory wildlife and deal with the sped-up seasons brought on by climate change. Out of their struggle, they get something more valuable than the liquid gold they&’re cooking: bonds of lasting friendship, a lifeline to a community, and a sense of purpose that remains long after sugaring season is over. At its heart, The Sugar Rush is a deliciously hilarious yet moving account of the crazy journey some people will take in their "pursuit of happiness." Told with humor, gusto, and in the profane vernacular common to the woodsy hinterlands of Upstate New York and Vermont, The Sugar Rush speaks to a desire to set the bar high... and the pancake stack higher.
The Piano Player of Budapest: A True Story of Survival, Hope, and Music
by Roxanne de BastionA story about a piano and its most prodigious player—and how they both survived one of the darkest periods in history.When her father died, singer-songwriter Roxanne de Bastion inherited a piano she knew had been in her family for over a hundred years. But it is only when she finds a cassette recording of her grandfather, Stephen, playing one of his compositions, that the true and almost unbelievable history of the piano, this man, and her family begins to unravel. Stephen was a man who enjoyed great fame, a man who suffered the horrors of concentration camps in WWII, a man who ultimately survives—along with his piano. By piecing together his cassette recordings, unpublished memoirs, letters, and documents, Roxanne sings out her grandfather's story of music and hope, lost and found, and explores the power of what can echo down through generations.
The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East
by Barnaby RogersonAn incisive look at the past, present, and future of the religious divide that lies at the heart of the Middle East.At the heart of the Middle East, with its regional conflicts and proxy wars, is a 1400-year-old schism between Sunni and Shia. To understand this divide and its modern resonances, we need to revisit its origins—which go back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632; the accidental coup that set aside the claims of his son Ali; and the slaughter of Ali's own son Husayn at Karbala. These events, known to every Muslim, have created a slender faultline in the Middle East. The House Divided follows these narratives from the first Sunni and Shia caliphates through the medieval empires of the Arabs, Persians, and Ottomans to the contemporary Middle East. It shows how a complex range of identities and rivalries—religious, ethnic, and national—have shaped the region, jolted by the seismic shift of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Rogerson's original approach takes the modern chessboard of nation states and looks at each through its particular history of empires and occupiers, minorities and resources, sheikhs and imams. The result is wide-ranging empathy, understanding, and insight—a book that is vital for anyone wishing to understand many of the current tensions in the Middle East today.
Catherine de' Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen
by Mary HollingsworthThe life and times of Catherine de&’ Medici—the most powerful woman in sixteenth-century Europe—as seen through her often controversial role in religion and the arts.During an age of heightened religious conflict, Catherine de' Medici lived her life at the center of sixteenth-century European and French politics. Daughter of Lorenzo II, the Medici ruler of Florence—and then wedded to a French prince by papal decree at the age of fourteen—Catherine first became queen consort of France and then mother to three French kings (Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III) who reigned in an era of almost continuous civil and religious strife. A lavish promoter of the arts, Catherine patronized poets, painters, and sculptors; lavished ruinous sums on the building and embellishment of monuments and palaces; and masterminded spectacular entertainments and tournaments that prefigure the splendor and ritual of the court of Versailles. Catherine maintained eighty ladies-in-waiting at court; it was rumored she used these women as bait to seduce courtiers for her political ends. Her admiration for the seer Nostradamus fueled claims of her love for the occult and the dark arts. Posterity has condemned her as the epitome of the scheming royal matriarch, her reputation tainted forever by her role in instigating the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of Protestants in 1572. Catherine de&’ Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen is Mary Hollingsworth's evocative, authoritative biography of the most extraordiary woman of the sixteenth-century.
The Edge of the Crazies: A Jules Clement Novel (JULES CLEMENT #1)
by Jamie Harrison&“In this madly original debut, Ms. Harrison speaks up in a fresh, animated voice to say something worth saying about the festering animosities of small minds cooped up in small towns.&” —The New York Times Book ReviewBlue Deer, Montana may seem like a tranquil town nestled at the foot of the Crazy Mountains, but an influx of writers, artists, and actors has driven its inhabitants a little nuts. When someone uses a rifle on George Blackwater as he&’s working on his new screenplay, Sheriff Jules Clement figures the culprit is George&’s angry wife, Mona, who has been on the rampage since George&’s latest batch of affairs. But soon the number of killings multiplies, and Jules is surrounded by a variety of suspects, including George himself, still unhinged by something that happened twenty years ago. As Jules reluctantly digs into the seamy side of his hometown, he finds himself swamped by bad dreams, bad press, and an increasing distaste for his job.This new edition showcases this wickedly brilliant debut to the critically acclaimed mystery series.
Going Local: A Jules Clement Novel (JULES CLEMENT #2)
by Jamie Harrison&“You haven&’t been west in any meaningful sense until you&’ve been to Blue Deer, Montana . . . Rekindles our delight in Ms. Harrison&’s offbeat sensibility and tart regional voice.&” —The New York Times Book Review&“What seems characteristic of the best crime writing is surpassingly true of Jamie Harrison: she is creating entertainment and diversion, but she is also writing social history as accurate in its essences as a road map and generating a most admirable work of literature.&” —Los Angeles TimesLove and rodeos, land and greed. The inhabitants of Blue Deer are gearing up for the annual Fourth of July rodeo, with tourists descending upon the town &“in a kind of berserk westward ho.&” When the bodies of an environmental lawyer and his lover are found bobbing inside a tent in a reservoir, Jules at first assumes jealousy, but follows the evidence through the intricacies of mining law, rodeos, and explosions, leading to a proposed resort in the Crazy Mountains.Going Local continues the exploits of Sheriff Jules Clement in this exciting installment of the critically acclaimed mystery series.
An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence: A Jules Clement Novel (JULES CLEMENT #3)
by Jamie Harrison&“Harrison takes her time resolving these criminal matters, allowing us to linger in Blue Deer long enough to learn its history, drink in the scenery and laugh at the kinds and quirks of its idiosyncratic residents. No wonder the world-weary Jules came running back home the first chance he got—the place is heaven.&” —The New York Times Book Review&“The third and best of Jamie Harrison&’s laconic Montana mystery novels . . . The people of Blue Deer are more than just a cast. They are a community.&” —TimeIt&’s the fall season in Blue Deer, and Jules is once again up to his crooked grin in trouble. A camper&’s discovery of old bones threatens to expose secrets long and deliberately buried in the hearts and minds of the town&’s eldest citizens. Jules&’s investigation mushrooms into a nightmare of long-simmering enmities, love affairs, arson, and murder.An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence continues the exploits of Sheriff Jules Clement in this exciting installment of the critically acclaimed mystery series.
Blue Deer Thaw: A Jules Clement Novel (JULES CLEMENT #4)
by Jamie Harrison&“Blue Deer Thaw is a delight.&” —The Seattle Times &“The fourth book in the Blue Deer series is another gem.&” —The Washington PostAlcohol and art, love and death. When a woman freezes to death in a snowdrift, Jules follows the mystery back to the newly renovated Sacajawea Hotel, where he&’s cataloging antiquities for the owner. What seems like a random act of misfortune plays out as a more complex story of family greed and revenge; for Jules, it will mean both love and tragedy. The reluctant sheriff will have to face the arctic winter in his search for clues to multiple murders, and the town of Blue Deer will never be the same.Blue Deer Thaw continues the exploits of Sheriff Jules Clement in this exciting installment of the critically acclaimed mystery series.
Shadow Men: The Tangled Story of Murder, Media, and Privilege That Scandalized Jazz Age America
by James PolchinFrom Edgar Award finalist James Polchin comes a thrilling examination of the murder that captivated Jazz Age America, with echoes of the decadence and violence of The Great GatsbyOn the morning of May 16, 1922, a young man&’s body was found on a desolate road in Westchester County. The victim was penniless ex-sailor Clarence Peters. Walter Ward, the handsome scion of the family that owned the largest chain of bread factories in the country, confessed to the crime as an act of self-defense against a violent gang of &“shadow men,&” blackmailers who extorted their victims&’ moral weaknesses. From the start, one question defined the investigation: What scandalous secret could lead Ward to murder?For sixteen months, the media fueled a firestorm of speculation. Unscrupulous criminal attorneys, fame-seeking chorus girls, con artists, and misogynistic millionaires harnessed the power of the press to shape public perception. New York governor and future presidential candidate Al Smith and editor of the Daily News Joseph Medill Patterson leveraged the investigation to further professional ambitions. Famous figures like Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, and F. Scott Fitzgerald weighed in. As the bereaved working-class Peters family sought to bring the callous Ward to justice, America watched enraptured.Capturing the extraordinary twists and turns of the case, Shadow Men conjures the excess and contradictions of the Jazz Age and reveals the true-crime origins of the media-led voyeurism that reverberates through contemporary life. It&’s a story of privilege and power that lays bare the social inequity that continues to influence our system of justice.
In Search of the Romanovs: A Family's Quest to Solve One of History's Most Brutal Crimes
by Peter SarandinakiA thrilling, true-life detective story about the search for the missing members of the Romanov royal family, murdered by Bolsheviks in 1918, and one family&’s involvement in the hundred-year-old forensic investigation into their deaths, clandestine burials, and the recovery and authentication of the remains.
Healthcare Operations Management
by John R. Olson Daniel B. McLaughlin Luv SharmaToday's challenging healthcare landscape—with its complex web of reimbursement systems, workforce challenges, and governmental regulations—requires a platform for addressing issues and trends. Savvy healthcare managers know how to integrate and deploy strategies to produce significant operational improvements and increase effectiveness throughout an entire healthcare enterprise. Healthcare Operations Management explores the core principles of effective organizational operations and explains how they can be used to tackle healthcare-specific challenges, such as gaps in quality of care. Through an integrated approach, the authors provide a basic understanding of operations management and share strategies for applying advanced process improvement programs, tools, and techniques in healthcare.