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The Mystery of the Blue Jar and The Witness for the Prosecution

by Agatha Christie

This collection of classic short mysteries by the author of The Mousetrap will have you asking, &“Whodunit, howdunit, and whydunit?&”At the same time every day, Jack&’s morning golf routine is interrupted by the sound of a woman calling for help. Though the cry is clearly coming from a nearby cottage, the lady who lives there has no distress to report—until she starts having nightmares about a mysterious woman and a blue Chinese vase. Could the cottage be haunted? Or is Jack losing his mind? His attempts to find out will lead him down a dangerous path. A taut psychological thriller, &“The Mystery of the Blue Jar&” is quintessential Agatha Christie. This volume presents that story alongside other short works by the British master of mystery and suspense.

Pagoda (The Joe Gall Mysteries)

by Philip Atlee

A moneymaking scheme in Burma proves more dangerous than the jungle itself in the first action novel featuring Joe Gall by the Edgar Award finalist. Down on his luck in Rangoon, Joe Gall agrees to partner up with an old acquaintance named Varley for a chance to make millions in the jungles of war-torn Burma. Gall expected the scheme to involve fists and guns—but when he discovers Varley&’s working both sides, it&’s every man for himself . . . Originally published under the name James Atlee Phillips, Pagoda marked the first appearance of Joe Gall, the fearless freelance operative whose many adventures would take him around the world—and straight into danger. &“[Philip Atlee is] the John D. MacDonald of espionage fiction.&” —Larry McMurtry, The New York Times &“I admire Philip Atlee&’s writing tremendously.&” —Raymond Chandler

Fauna and Family: More Durrell Family Adventures on Corfu

by Gerald Durrell

The inspiration for the PBS Masterpiece series, The Durrells in Corfu: A naturalist&’s childhood adventures with animals—and humans—on a Greek island. For a passionate animal lover like young Gerald Durrell, the island in the Ionian Sea was a natural paradise, teeming with strange birds and beasts. As he writes . . . &“To me, this blue kingdom was a treasure house of strange beasts which I longed to collect and observe, and at first it was frustrating for I could only peck along the shoreline like some forlorn seabird, capturing the small fry in the shallows and occasionally being tantalized by something mysterious and wonderful cast up on the shore. But then I got my boat, the good ship Bootle Bumtrinket, and so the whole of this kingdom was opened up for me, from the golden red castles of rock and their deep pools and underwater caves in the north to the long, glittering white sand dunes lying like snowdrifts in the south.&” The final entry in Durrell&’s Corfu Trilogy, Fauna and Family shows what life was like for a child in a different time and a different culture just before World War II. It also sheds light on the man who would one day become an iconic wildlife preservationist.Previously published as The Garden of the Gods&“[Durrell's] writing is nimble, witty and irreverent, warm but not remotely sentimental.&” —Los Angeles Times

The Frugal Homesteader: Living the Good Life on Less

by John Moody

&“Practical advice . . . from the farm field to foraging in the forest . . . a must-have for anyone looking to transition from homeowner to homesteader.&”—Scott Mann, host of The Permaculture Podcast Build your homesteading dreams with all the affordable DIY innovations, tips, and stories you need to successfully launch you on a path to self-sufficiency. Raise and grow your own food, connect with nature, and consume less while producing more!The Frugal Homesteader is a fun, inspirational, and educational guide filled with a lifetime of learning that comes along with becoming a homesteader. Following dozens of successful families who have been motivated to make do, make new, and make more while saving money and living off the land, this book covers such topics as:Outfitting your garden Equipping your barn and outbuildings Protecting and providing for your animals Harvesting rainwater Heating with wood Foraging Producing more of what you need to thrive in harder times. Whether you&’re just starting out and looking for new, sustainable, and affordable ideas, approaches, and techniques, or you&’re a small-scale farmer in regenerative agriculture, The Frugal Homesteader is the DIY manual to help you succeed. &“This book is worth its weight in gold . . . an account of direct lived experience: jam-packed with tips and tricks from doing the homestead life each and every day.&”—Ben Falk, homesteader and author of The Resilient Farm and Homestead &“This is a rich bounty of ideas that will be equally usefully to old hands and shiny new start-ups alike, whether on rural acreage or urban lot.&”—Jenni Blackmore, author of The Food Lover&’s Garden

Cures for Hunger: A Memoir

by Deni Ellis Béchard

A “poignant but rigorously unsentimental” memoir of one man’s search for the truth about his father’s dark past, and how it shaped his own life (Kirkus Reviews).Growing up in rural British Columbia, Deni Béchard had no idea his family was extraordinary. He took pleasure in typical boyish activities: salmon fishing with his father, a daring man with a penchant for brawling, and reading with his mother, who was interested in health food and the otherworldly.Assigned to complete a family tree in school, Deni begins to wonder why he doesn’t know more about his father’s side of the family. His mother is from Pittsburgh, and there’s a vague sense that his father is from Quebec, but why the mystery? When his mother leaves Deni’s father and decamps with her children to Virginia, his curiosity only grows. Who is this man, why do the police seem so interested in him, and why is his mother so afraid of him? And when his mother begrudgingly tells Deni that his father was once a bank robber, his imagination is set on fire. Boyish rebelliousness soon gives way to fantasies of a life of crime, and a deep drive for experience leads him to a number of adventures: hitching to Memphis and stealing a motorcycle; fighting classmates and kissing girls.Before long, young Deni is imagining himself as a character in one of his father’s stories, or in the novels he devours. Both attracted and repelled, Deni can’t escape the sense that his father’s life holds the key to understanding himself. Eventually he moves back to Canada, only to find himself snared in the controlling impulses of his mysterious father, and increasingly obsessed by his father’s own muted recollections of the Quebecois childhood he’d fled long ago.“Powerful and haunting . . . a must-read for anyone who has ever struggled to uncover their identity within the shadow of a parent.” —Claire Bidwell Smith, author of The Rules of Inheritance“Cures for Hunger is a poignant adventure story with a mystery . . . But it is also, perhaps even more so, the story of an artist coming of age.” —The Plain Dealer“This darkly comic and lyrical memoir demonstrates the shaping of its author, who suffers the wreckage of his father’s life, yet manages to salvage all the beauty of its desperate freedoms. Béchard’s poetic gifts give voice to the outsiders of society, and make them glow with humanity and love.” —Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

'Til Death Do Us . . .': A True Crime Story of Bigamy and Murder

by Patrick Gallagher

The riveting true story of serial wife and husband killer Gladys Lincoln, written by the grandson of her lead defense attorney. Includes love letters from the victim to the defendant hidden over seventy years! In August 1945, Gladys Lincoln of Sacramento contacted prosperous Dr. W. D. Broadhurst of Caldwell, Idaho, and rekindled a romance from twenty years earlier. After many passionate letter exchanges and several sexually-charged meetings, they were married in Reno, Nevada on May 20, 1946. After a passion-filled three-day weekend together, the doctor returned to his home in Idaho, and Gladys returned to Sacramento . . . and to her husband, Leslie Lincoln! But Gladys was much more than a bigamist. Gladys needed something even she didn&’t understand. She married her first husband when she was twenty, and her second husband only fourteen months later. The second marriage lasted only two years, the third less than sixteen months. Leslie Lincoln was her fifth, and Dr. Broadhurst became her sixth. But what desperate need drove her to go from marriage to marriage? And what dark mindset moved her and her young cowboy chauffeur to commit murder? Find out in &’Til Death Do Us . . . the gripping true crime from WildBlue Press author Patrick Gallagher, whose grandfather was Gladys&’ lead defense attorney during her sensational trial.

Smiling Bears: A Zookeeper Explores the Behavior and Emotional Life of Bears

by Else Poulsen

An award-winning zookeeper, author, and bear expert shares the insights she has gleaned from a career spent working with the majestic animals. Few people have known bears as intimately as Else Poulsen has. This remarkable book reveals the many insights about bears and their emotional lives that she has gained through her years of work with them. Always approaching each bear with the same two questions in mind—&“Who are you?&” and &“What can I do for you?&” —Poulsen has shared in the joy of a polar bear discovering soil under her paws for the first time in 20 years and felt the pride of a cub learning to crack nuts with her molars. She has also felt the hateful stare of one bear that she could not befriend, and she has grieved in the abject horror of captivity for a sun bear in Indonesia. Featuring photographs from Poulsen&’s personal collection, Smiling Bears provides an enlightening and moving portrait of bears in all their richness and complexity.Praise for Smiling Bears &“An inspiring trip into the mind and reality of bears.&” —Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep &“If you doubt bears are able to smile, buy this book—it&’ll open your eyes and change the view.&” —Terry D. Debruyn, author of Walking with Bears &“A rare window of opportunity to begin to understand not only the incredible challenges that face these species but also the meaning of their existence in nature.&” —Robert Buchanan, president of Polar Bears International

Dessert Roll Quilts: 12 Simple Dessert Roll Quilt Patterns

by Nicky Lintott Pam Lintott

Indulge in twelve quick and easy dessert-themed quilting projects—and delicious dessert recipes—from the authors of Jelly Roll Inspirations. Bestselling authors Pam and Nicky Lintott have created twelve stunning quilt designs using Moda&’s all-new Dessert Rolls—delicious bundles of five-inch strips cut across the width of the fabric. Each quilt pattern—with tempting names such as Afternoon Tea, Sugar &‘n&’ Spice, Pavlova, and Marmalade Cake—can be made with just one Dessert Roll, a bundle of pre-cut fabric, so you can be sure that your fabrics will coordinate beautifully to make a gorgeous quilt. As an extra treat, Pam and Nicky have included their family favorite dessert recipes inspired by the quilt design themes for you to bake and enjoy while you craft. · Includes alternative color variations for each quilt design· Step-by-step instructions and easy-to-follow diagrams for quick and easy quilting

Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil

by Michael C. Ruppert

The acclaimed investigative reporter and author of Confronting Collapse examines the global forces that led to 9/11 in this provocative exposé. The attacks of September 11, 2001 were accomplished through an amazing orchestration of logistics and personnel. Crossing the Rubicon examines how such a conspiracy was possible through an interdisciplinary analysis of petroleum, geopolitics, narco-traffic, intelligence and militarism—without which 9/11 cannot be understood. In reality, 9/11 and the resulting "War on Terror" are parts of a massive authoritarian response to an emerging economic crisis of unprecedented scale. Peak Oil—the beginning of the end for our industrial civilization—is driving the elites of American power to implement unthinkably draconian measures of repression, warfare and population control. Crossing the Rubicon is more than a story of corruption and greed. It is a map of the perilous terrain through which we are all now making our way.

Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit

by Alison Hawthorne Deming

“Beautifully written essays” on animals, “the real and mythological, the ordinary and the exotic, the wild and the domesticated” (Publishers Weekly).Humans were surrounded by other animals from the beginning of time: they were food, clothes, adversaries, companions, jokes, and gods. And yet, our companions in evolution are leaving the world—both as physical beings and spiritual symbols—and not returning. In this collection of linked essays, Alison Hawthorne Deming examines what the disappearance of animals means for human imagination and existence. Moving from mammoth hunts to dying house cats, she explores profound questions about what it means to be animal. What is inherent in animals that both leads us to destroy and leads us toward peace? As human animals, how does art both define us as a species and how does it emerge primarily from our relationship with other species? The reader emerges with a transformed sense of how the living world around us has defined and continues to define us in a powerful way.“Beautifully written essays on animal and human behavior and biology . . . highly recommended for lovers of words and nature.” —Publishers Weekly“Human beings live in an age in which industrialization and mass extinction are facts of life. But as Deming suggests in this collection, the more people denude the planet of animals, the more diminished they become in spirit . . . Eloquent, sensitive and astute.” —Kirkus Reviews“Serpentine intellect and wry humor.” —Booklist

Wading Home: A Novel of New Orleans

by Rosalyn Story

The Essence-bestselling author of More Than You Know &“has crafted a post-Katrina New Orleans from a fumy cloud of sad jazz and Creole spices&” (Publishers Weekly). When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, chef and widower Simon Fortier knows how he plans to face the storm—riding it out inside his long-time home in the city&’s Treme neighborhood, just as he has through so many storms before. But when the levees break and the city is torn apart, Simon disappears. His son, Julian, a celebrated jazz trumpeter, rushes home to a New Orleans he left years before to search for his father. As Julian crisscrosses the city, fearing the worst, he reconnects with Sylvia, Simon&’s companion of many years; Parmenter, his father&’s erstwhile business partner and one of the most successful restaurateurs in New Orleans; and Velmyra, the woman Julian left behind when he moved to New York. Julian&’s search for Simon deepens as he finds himself drawn into the troubled history of Silver Creek, the extravagantly beautiful piece of land where his father grew up, and closer once again to Velmyra. As he tries to come to grips with his father&’s likely fate, Julian slowly gains a deeper, richer understanding of his father and the city he loved so much, while unraveling the mysteries of Silver Creek. &“Story&’s musical background infuses her novel with a lyrical rhythm . . . as engaging characters rebuild their relationships and their city . . . moving, if heart-wrenching.&” —Kirkus Reviews

Share or Die: Voices of the Get Lost Generation in the Age of Crisis

by Malcolm Harris and Neal Gorenflo

Essays from Generation Y, or Millennials, around the globe on what it&’s like for them to try to make it in the real world after graduation. America stands at a precipice; limitless consumption, reckless economics, and disregard for the environment have put the country on a collision course with disaster. It&’s up to a younger generation to rebuild according to new forms of organization, and Share or Die is a collection of messages from the front lines. From urban Detroit to central Amsterdam, and from worker co-operatives to nomadic communities, an astonishing variety of recent graduates and twenty-something experimenters are finding (and sharing) their own answers to negotiating the new economic order. Their visions of a shared future include:· Collaborative consumption networks instead of private ownership · Replacing the corporate ladder with a &“lattice lifestyle&” · Do-it-yourself higher education As a call-to-action, &“share or die&” doesn&’t only refer to resource depletion, disappearing jobs, or stagnating wages. It refers to social death too, and to finding the commonsense ideas and practices needed to not only merely survive, but also to build a place where it&’s worth living. A series of forays into uncharted territory, this graphically rich collection of essays, narratives, and how-tos is an intimate guide to the new economic order and a must-read for anyone attempting to understand what it means to live as part of Generation Y.&“If you know someone who dreams of something bigger than being part of the rat race, please give them this book.&” —Raj Patel, author of The Value of Nothing

Freshwater Road: A Novel (Nia Guide To Black Women Ser.)

by Denise Nicholas

&“Breathtaking . . . Perhaps the best work of fiction ever done about the civil rights movement&” from the award-winning actress and activist (Newsday). When University of Michigan sophomore Celeste Tyree travels to Mississippi to volunteer her efforts in the Freedom Summer of 1964, she&’s assigned to help register voters in the small town of Pineyville, a place best known for a notorious lynching that occurred only a few years earlier. As the long, hot summer unfolds, Celeste befriends several members of the community, but there are also those who are threatened by her and the change that her presence in the South represents. Finding inner strength as she helps lift the veil of oppression and learns valuable lessons about race, social change, and violence, Celeste prepares her adult students for their showdown with the county registrar. All the while, she struggles with loneliness, a worried father in Detroit, and her burgeoning feelings for Ed Jolivette, a young man also in Mississippi for the summer. By summer&’s end, Celeste learns there are no easy answers to the questions that preoccupy her—about violence and nonviolence, about race, identity, and color, and about the strength of love and family bonds. In Freshwater Road, Denise Nicholas has created an unforgettable story that—more than ten years after first appearing in print—continues to be one of the most cherished works of Civil Rights fiction. &“A bold new novel that explores the fault lines of class and race in 1964 Mississippi.&” —The Washington Post &“Hypnotic . . . [Nicholas] conjures an insidious mood of fear and writes with lyrical prose.&” —Entertainment Weekly

The Easter House

by David Rhodes

This tale of two Iowa brothers trying to escape the long shadow of their notorious father is “an almost impossible book to put down” (The Plain Dealer).This gripping novel tells the tale of the Easter family of Ontarion, Iowa. Ansel Easter was a favored minister until he rescued a grotesque creature from a carnival sideshow. His sons, C and Sam, suffer in the shadow of their outcast father until his violent death. C and Sam leave the home their father built for a new beginning, and find fortune building a lucrative business called the Associates—but when a rash of deaths has the townspeople looking at C and Sam as suspects, they find their father’s legacy reaches further than they expect. Taut, dark, and engrossing, The Easter House is a brilliant work of fiction by the acclaimed author of Driftless and Jewelweed.“David Rhodes’s writing is smooth and wry, combining Richard Russo’s genius for the details of small-town thinking and Flannery O’Connor’s flair for shading things toward the weird side of normal.” —Mpls.St. Paul Magazine

The Inner Sky: Poems, Notes, Dreams

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Selected work from the modernist poet thematically centered on our relation to the physical world and our minds, featuring original texts and translations.The Inner Sky is a selection of poems and prose by the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke, set with the original text and a translation, and including more than a dozen works that have never before appeared in English. The translations, by the NEA and PEN Award–winning author and translator Damion Searls, are lively, moving, and appealing, and they give a new voice for Rilke in English: mystical but concrete, like Emily Dickinson or Gerard Manley Hopkins. Searls&’s selection of texts clusters around a handful of related images and ideas—birds and trees, giving and receiving, working and waiting, girlhood and gardens—and presents a coherent vision of how we relate to the outer world and inner world of the imagination. Scholars and students of Rilke will benefit from the German and French originals opposite the translations, and two full indices of English and original titles and first lines. An annotated chronology and the translator&’s afterword complete this rich new volume, a necessary addition to even the most complete Rilke library, and the perfect introduction for those just getting to know this perennial master.&“No matter their level of familiarity with Rilke, The Inner Sky belongs on the bookshelf of any literature lover, thanks largely to Searls&’ deft translation and grouping of Rilke&’s work.&” —Rachel Mennies, ForeWord Magazine&“A must-read for Rilke fans, The Inner Sky will deepen the English-speaking world&’s perception of the man behind the well-wrought verses.&” —Stephan Delbos, The Prague Post

Tempest-Tost: The Refugee Experience Through One Community's Prism

by Robert Dodge

&“Dodge takes us behind the headlines and introduces real people and their very real struggles yearning to breathe free. Page-turning [and] proactive.&” —Craig McGuire, author of Brooklyn&’s Most Wanted Kahassai fled the Ethiopian Red Terror that killed his father and hundreds of thousands of others, trekking through a snake-infested jungle while hyenas followed him at night. Georgette crossed the Congo while the Hutus and Tutsis struggled for control as millions of defenseless people were murdered and displaced. Asmi and Leela were children in Bhutan when soldiers burned their villages and drove out the Nepalese-speaking Hindus. Roy narrowly escaped Afghanistan after the Americans began bombing Kabul to drive out the Taliban. Mahn made it out of Vietnam only after his twenty-second attempt. Mohammed survived daily beatings when imprisoned in Syria, though many of his fellow prisoners died. What do these people have in common beyond tales of horror and hardship that caused them to flee their countries, leaving their homes, families, and previous lives behind? They all found a new place to live in Denver, Colorado, the &“Queen City of the Plains.&” In this timely and important book, author Robert Dodge describes the circumstances that caused these refugees to flee their homes and shares their experiences after they arrived in Denver. This is the refugee story behind the headlines and political posturing. This is what coming to America has meant to those displaced, as represented by various refugee communities that over the years have come to think of Denver, Colorado as home.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2014 (The Best American Series)

by Barbara Kingsolver Carl Zimmer Elizabeth Kolbert Rebecca Solnit Nicholas Carr Seth Mnookin Fred Pearce E. O. Wilson

&“A stimulating compendium&” on topics from antibiotics to animals, featuring Rebecca Solnit, E.O. Wilson, Nicholas Carr, Elizabeth Kolbert, and many more (Kirkus Reviews). &“A consistently strong series . . . Making connections between seemingly unrelated topics can help expand thinking, as seen in the effects of automated navigation on both airplane pilot error and Inuit hunting accidents that Nicholas Carr explores in &‘The Great Forgetting.&’ Sarah Stewart Johnson makes a similar connection between the loss of a 1912 Antarctic expedition and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in &‘O-Rings.&’ . . . Essays like Virginia Hughes&’s &‘23 and You&’ investigates the effects of availability of individual genetic information on human interactions, while pieces like Maryn McKenna&’s &‘Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future&’ and Kate Sheppard&’s &‘Under Water&’ remind us of unpleasant futures which we have in large part created ourselves. But Barbara Kingsolver&’s &‘Where it Begins,&’ a lyrical musing on connectedness, or Wilson&’s optimistic, bug-loving &‘The Rebirth of Gorongosa,&’ reveal that among the strange, shocking, or depressing, there is still unadulterated joy to be found.&” —Publishers Weekly &“Undeniably exquisite . . . meditations that reveal not only how science actually happens but also who or what propels its immutable humanity.&” —Maria Popova, Brain Pickings Contributors include: Katherine Bagley • Nicholas Carr • David Dobbs • Pippa Goldschmidt • Amy Harmon • Robin Marantz Henig • Virginia Hughes • Ferris Jabr • Sarah Stewart Johnson • Barbara J. King • Barbara Kingsolver • Maggie Koerth-Baker • Elizabeth Kolbert • Joshua Lang • Maryn McKenna • Seth Mnookin • Justin Nobel • Fred Pearce • Corey S. Powell • Roy Scranton • Kate Sheppard • Bill Sherwonit • Rebecca Solnit • David Treuer • E.O. Wilson • Carl Zimmer

Imagine This: Creating the Work You Love

by Maxine Clair

&“Inspiring, engrossing, and informative, this is a book for all people—whether or not they consider themselves artists.&” —Tayari Jones, New York Times bestselling author Maxine Clair, award-winning author of the critically acclaimed short story collection Rattlebone and the novel October Suite, has assembled a deeply inspirational yet practical book to help readers access their inner creativity. Imagine This is a beautifully written set of deeply personal stories from which Clair draws examples of how we can be aware of the now, keep ourselves motivated, and create work of which we are proud. Imagine This explains how some of us consciously choose the vehicle through which we express our magnificence—be it business, art, science, or other—while others of us have dutifully plied a trade in arenas that society has suggested are worthwhile, with self-expression only fixed on a hobby. Both, Clair maintains, can contribute to a good life. Occasionally, however, a moment comes that is sufficiently insistent on deep examination. In that moment we float the possibility for expression of a greater self. Imagine This shows readers how to be aware of these moments and how our inner creativity is always seeking an outlet. By combining captivating memoir with step-by-step advice, Clair helps us find and develop our own unique and personal creative outlets. &“A guidebook to fulfilling one&’s aspirations and harnessing creative energy that seamlessly blends thorough practical advice with the vivid language and pathos of memoir.&” —Houston Style Magazine

Never Stop: A Memoir

by Simba Sana

A memoir from the cofounder of the nation&’s largest black-owned chain of bookstores. &“A candid testimony of struggle and achievement.&” —Kirkus Reviews Never Stop is the wrenching memoir of Simba Sana, the cofounder and former leader of Karibu Books, a major indie-bookselling phenomenon and perhaps the most successful black-owned company in the history of the book industry. In this memoir, Sana reveals how his experience with Karibu jumpstarted his lifelong journey to better understanding himself, human nature, faith, and American culture—which ultimately helped him develop the powerful personal philosophy that drives his life today. Born Bernard Sutton in Washington, DC, Sana grew up in the cycle of poverty and violence that dominated inner-city life in the seventies and eighties. Sana&’s academic success got him into college, where his life increasingly embodied the contradictions that plagued his youth. Committed to self-improvement and self-discipline, he grew into a successful businessman while becoming an impassioned Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist. He lived the corporate life at Ernst & Young by day while leading radical consciousness-raising groups by night. Building Karibu became Sana&’s opportunity to bind the disparate elements of his life together. Ultimately, though, the paradoxes in his identity and his accumulated emotional wounds confounded his effort to overcome his business reversals, and everything Sana built—his marriage, family, and business—was lost in an incredibly brief period of time. Sana had to rebuild his life—and his identity—and set out to do so in a way that focused principally on the meaning and importance of love. &“Hands down one of the best explorations into the Black male psyche I&’ve ever read.&” —Essence

And Then There Were Nuns: Adventures In A Cloistered Life

by Jane Christmas

&“The best kind of memoir, revealing, refreshing, and reflective enough to make readers turn many of the questions on themselves.&” —Booklist (starred review) With humor and opinions aplenty, a woman embarks on an unconventional quest to see if she is meant to be a nun. Just as Jane Christmas decides to enter a convent in mid-life to find out whether she is &“nun material,&” her long-term partner Colin, suddenly springs a marriage proposal on her. Determined not to let her monastic dreams be sidelined, Christmas puts her engagement on hold and embarks on an extraordinary year-long adventure to four convents—one in Canada and three in the UK. In these communities of cloistered nuns and monks, she shares—and at times chafes and rails against—the silent, simple existence she has sought all of her life. Christmas takes this spiritual quest seriously, but her story is full of the candid insights, humorous social faux pas, profane outbursts, and epiphanies that make her books so relatable and popular. And Then There Were Nuns offers a seldom-seen look inside modern cloistered life, and it is sure to ruffle more than a few starched collars among the ecclesiastical set. &“A lovely, heartfelt tale. Get thee to a bookstore and buy it.&” —A. J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically &“In fluid and often playful prose, she introduces women and men (she spent a week at a monastery on the Isle of Wight) who have devoted their lives to prayer, including a skydiving 90-year-old nun.&” —Maclean&’s

Seeking Sickness: Medical Screening and the Misguided Hunt for Disease

by Alan Cassels

&“Alan Cassels strips layers of expectation, hype, jargon, false-starts, and conflicts of interest off the medical screening mantra.&” —Nortin M. Hadler, author of Worried Sick Why wouldn&’t you want to be screened to see if you&’re at risk for cancer, heart disease, or another potentially lethal condition? After all, better safe than sorry. Right? Not so fast, says Alan Cassels. His Seeking Sickness takes us inside the world of medical screening, where well-meaning practitioners and a profit-motivated industry offer to save our lives by exploiting our fears. He writes that promoters of screening overpromise on its benefits and downplay its harms, which can range from the merely annoying to the life threatening. If you&’re facing a screening test for breast or prostate cancer, high cholesterol, or low testosterone, someone is about to turn you into a patient. You need to ask yourself one simple question: Am I ready for all the things that could go wrong? &“With engaging clarity backed by academic rigor, Cassels discusses a variety of popular investigational procedures . . . an excellent way to start the important process of self-education.&” —Quill & Quire &“Smartly written and very readable.&” —Brian Goldman, MD, author of The Secret Language of Doctors &“Cassels tackles this touchy topic, looking at it test by test. His overarching message is that modern medicine has &‘overpromised&’ with claims that screening will save our lives. He contends that with the lack of hard evidence on benefits, the evidence of harm from by such screening, as well as the multi-billion dollar interests at stake, we should approach this kind of screening with great precaution.&” —Canadian Women&’s Health Network

Good Eating's Quick Breads: A Collection Of Convenient And Unique Recipes For Muffins, Scones, Loaves, And More

by Chicago Tribune

A selection of no-fail, simple bread recipes—from muffins to pancakes to sweet and savory loaves from the Chicago Tribune&’s award-winning food writers. Good Eating&’s Quick Breads provides a broad selection of quick bread recipes—all of which are made with a leavening agent like baking powder or soda instead of yeast to permit immediate baking—that are easily prepared and always enjoyed. An engaging and helpful introduction to baking quick breads precedes recipes that cover everything from scones, muffins, and pancakes to biscuits, savory loaves, and sweet loaves baked with fruits, nuts, and spices. For those who rarely bake, or even for those who regularly do looking for something new, quick breads are perfect sure-success recipes that can be prepared for any occasion. Written in the friendly tone of the Chicago Tribune and compiled from recipes kitchen-tested by the staff&’s award-winning food writers, Good Eating&’s Quick Breads is a terrific addition to any home cook&’s library. Filled with full-color photographs, helpful hints, and interesting back-stories, this book is a wonderful, straightforward way to add a unique twist to any chef&’s repertoire.

Banish Your Inner Critic: Silence the Voice of Self-Doubt to Unleash Your Creativity and Do Your Best Work

by Denise Jacobs

&“Gives you the practical tools you need to own the room by owning yourself. Banish that inner devil&’s advocate and become as powerful as you can be.&” —Alan Cooper, software alchemist, cofounder of Cooper As the Founder and Chief Creativity Evangelist of &“The Creative Dose,&” Denise Jacobs teaches techniques to make the creative process more fluid, methods for making work environments more conducive to personal productivity, and practices for sparking innovation. Now, in her book, Banish Your Inner Critic, Denise shows you how to defeat those barriers that are holding you back and achieve success through a positive mental attitude. Banish Your Inner Critic shows you how to move beyond that mental block to your creative ideas, realize instant relief and lasting insight, and: · Identify and quiet the voice of self-doubt in your head · Master 3 powerful practices that will transform how you relate to yourself and your creativity forever · Overcome the fear of not knowing enough or not being original enough · Free yourself from comparisons, overwhelm, high self-criticism and self-sabotage · Transform your self-talk into a tool for success · Generate more creative ideas than ever before · Embrace your expertise and share your brilliance with the world Banish your Inner Critic to start doing your best work, achieving excellence, and contributing meaningfully to the world! &“If you&’re interested in diving deep into your own creative genius, this book will give you an abundance of ways to do that.&” —Michelle Villalobos, &“The Superstar Activator&” & founder of The Women&’s Success Summit &“A book I believe will inspire a new generation to step out of the shadows and shine.&” —Paul Boag, author of User Experience Revolution

Tatar Empire: Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia

by Danielle Ross

An in-depth study of the relationship between the Russian government and its first Muslim subjects who served in the vanguard of the empire’s colonialism. In the 1700s, Kazan Tatar (Muslim scholars of Kazan) and scholarly networks stood at the forefront of Russia’s expansion into the South Urals, western Siberia, and the Kazakh steppe. It was there that the Tatars worked with Russian agents, established settlements, and spread their own religious and intellectual culture that helped shaped their identity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Kazan Tatars profited economically from Russia’s commercial and military expansion to Muslim lands and began to present themselves as leaders capable of bringing Islamic modernity to the rest of Russia’s Muslim population. Danielle Ross bridges the history of Russia’s imperial project with the history of Russia’s Muslims by exploring the Kazan Tatars as participants in the construction of the Russian empire. Ross focuses on Muslim clerical and commercial networks to reconstruct the ongoing interaction among Russian imperial policy, nonstate actors, and intellectual developments within Kazan’s Muslim community and also considers the evolving relationship with Central Asia, the Kazakh steppe, and western China. Tatar Empire offers a more Muslim-centered narrative of Russian empire building, making clear the links between cultural reformism and Kazan Tatar participation in the Russian eastward expansion.“This is a rich study that makes important contributions to the historiography of the Russian Empire, sharpening our picture of an empire in which lines between colonizer and colonized were far from clear.” —The Middle Ground Journal

Sharks in the Rivers

by Ada Limón

“A wonderful book” from the National Book Award for Poetry finalist that explores themes of dislocation and danger (Bob Hicok, author of Red Rover, Red Rover).The speaker in this extraordinary collection finds herself dislocated: from her childhood in California, from her family’s roots in Mexico, from a dying parent, from her prior self. The world is always in motion—both toward and away from us—and it is also full of risk: from sharks unexpectedly lurking beneath estuarial rivers to the dangers of New York City, where, as Ada Limón reminds us, even rats find themselves trapped by the garbage cans they’ve crawled into. In such a world, how should one proceed? Throughout Sharks in the Rivers, Limón suggests that we must cleave to the world as it “keep[s] opening before us,” for, if we pay attention, we can be one with its complex, ephemeral, and beautiful strangeness. Loss is perpetual, and each person’s mouth “is the same / mouth as everyone’s, all trying to say the same thing.” For Limón, it’s the saying—individual and collective—that transforms each of us into “a wound overcome by wonder,” that allows “the wind itself” to be our “own wild whisper.”“Through the steamy, thorny undergrowth, up through the cold concrete, under the swift river, Limon soars and twirls like a bird, high on heart.” —Jennifer L. Knox, author of Crushing It

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