The chronicles of a turtle-challenged marriage, in which the unsuspecting bride first thinks the groom's obsession with turtles is--apart from being cute--ancient history. Then she too becomes a "turtle lover" and co-owner of 14 turtles.

“This book will have you laughing so hard you cry . . . As Confessions aptly demonstrates, military spouses lead interesting lives.” —Tara E. Crooks, cofounder of Army Wife Network As the wife of a Marine Corps officer, Mollie Gross learned the hard way to laugh instead of cry at what she could not control—and as she quickly discovered, nearly everything was out of her control. A standup comedienne, Mollie explores everything about the “issued” spouse, from deployment and the stress of having a husband in a combat zone, to the realization that marriage changes when your husband returns home from war. Nothing is taboo or out-of-bounds in this funny, poignant memoir, including the “parties” military wives throw for themselves before hubby returns. (You’ll have to read the book to find out about those.) “Mollie Gross is the Chelsea Handler of the milspouse community. She’s unfiltered, honest, and hilarious, with an underlying message to stop whining and be proud. Think of it as heartfelt humor for the home front.” — Military Spouse magazine “Mollie’s no-holds-barred account of what it was like during her first four years of being married to a Marine, dealing with the moves, wartime deployments, and life on the home front, will leave you laughing, crying, and shaking your head in disbelief asking, ‘Did she really just say that!?’” — Kristine Schellhaas, founder of USMC Life

Arlyn Singer believes in destiny and in love. But fate played a trick on her the night John Moody knocked on her door to ask for directions. Arlyn and John are complete opposites, but are drawn together like magnets even when it becomes clear that theyll bring each other nothing but grief.

A “compelling” up-close memoir of a career spent among marine mammals and a portrait of the daily lives of dolphins (Publishers Weekly). Working among charismatic and clever dolphins in the wild is a unique thrill—and this book invites us shore-bound dreamers to join Maddalena Bearzi as she travels alongside them. In a fascinating account, she takes us inside the world of a marine scientist and offers a firsthand understanding of marine mammal behavior, as well as the frustrations and delights that make up dolphin research. Bearzi recounts her experiences at sea, tracing her own evolution as a woman and a scientist from her earliest travails to her transformation into an advocate for conservation and dolphin protection. These compelling, in-depth descriptions of her fieldwork also present a captivating look into dolphin social behavior and intelligence. Drawing on her extensive experience with the metropolitan bottlenose dolphins of California in particular, she offers insights into the daily lives of these creatures—as well as the difficulties involved in collecting the data that transforms hunches into hypotheses and eventually scientific facts. The book closes by addressing the critical environmental and conservation problems facing these magnificent, socially complex, highly intelligent, and emotional beings. “Pairing vivid images of bottlenose dolphins swimming together and caring for one another with descriptions of the meticulous scientific work required to record their behavior, Maddalena Bearzi sheds light on the life of a field biologist…A beautifully written account.”—Library Journal

Tracy Beckerman’s kids have flown the coop, which has left her plenty of time to further settle into the happy life of a happy wife to a loving husband. Flowers are blooming, tails are wagging ... and the ducks are on the verge of a hostile takeover. In this collection of top hits from her nationally syndicated column, “Lost in Suburbia,” Beckerman forges a path through the blissful chaos of her idyllic life in suburban New Jersey. She somehow manages to keep her cool despite an unending wave of dining disasters, awkward conversations with the doctor’s office receptionist, and the horrors of *gasp* aging! Beckerman lays it all out with the refreshing honesty, humor, and sage advice that you’d expect from your best friend in the ‘burbs. “Cool suburban mom” is not an oxymoron. Sharp, witty, and irreverent, Beckerman will have you rolling with laughter and checking your toilet paper supply.

Covering all facets of the biology of a little-known genus, Peter V. Lindeman’s lavishly illustrated Map Turtle and Sawback Atlas is both a scientific treatise and an engaging introduction to a striking group of turtles. Map turtles and sawbacks, found in and along rivers from Texas to Florida and north to the Great Lakes, fascinate ecologists and evolutionary biologists. Over a short geologic time span, these turtles achieved exceptional biological diversification. Their diets are also exceptionally diverse, and a significant difference in size distinguishes males from females. Adult males are typically half or less the shell length of adult females, making map turtles and sawbacks the champions of sexual dimorphism among not only turtles but all four-legged vertebrates. Aesthetics also draw biologists and hobbyists to map turtles and sawbacks. While the male Sabine map turtle may look to some like a “pencil-necked geek,” as the author puts it, markings on the shell, limbs, head, and neck make map turtles among the most attractive turtles on earth. Sawbacks feature a striking ridge down their shell. Few turtles show themselves off to such advantage. Photographs included here of Graptemys basking poses reveal to what improbable heights these turtles can scale, the spread-eagle sunning stances they adopt, the stacking of individuals on a crowded site, and the heads that warily watch the world above the waterline. In lively prose, Lindeman details the habitat, diet, reproduction and life history, natural history, and population abundance of each species. A section on conservation status summarizes official state, federal, and international designations for each species, along with efforts toward population management and recovery as well as habitat preservation. The author also outlines promising avenues for future research, ranging from the effects of global climate change on populations to strategies for combating expansion of the pet trade.

Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Too Late and It Ends With Us. #1 New York Times Bestseller · USA Today Bestseller · Globe and Mail Bestseller · Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.

Cramer takes readers on a no-holds-barred tour of life on Wall Street--revealing how the game is played, who breaks the rules, and who gets hurt.

In this O Me of Little Faith Ebook, author Jason Boyett brings you a transparent and personal account of his own of struggles with doubts and unbelief in living out his faith. With humor and frankness, Boyett uses personal anecdotes and a fresh look at Scripture to explore the realities of pursuing Christ through a field of doubt.After three decades of knowing God, understanding Christianity, and living a Christian life, Boyett has come to the place where he can voice the tough questions and travel the road of uncertainty with blinders off, candor on. The message along the way is one of encouragement: Relax. Rely on the grace of a merciful God, a kind father who realizes that his finite creatures must have doubts, should have questions, and will have trouble making sense of an infinite Creator. Ultimately, Boyett concludes that doubt and faith are not polar opposites, but actually work together, existing side-by-side. Uplifting, entertaining, hopeful, O Me of Little Faith will strike a chord with you and any Christian who's dealing with the uncertainties of living life in pursuit of a God who occasionally seems to disappear.

This audacious and illuminating memoir by Richard Baum, a senior China scholar and sometime policy advisor, reflects on forty years of learning about and interacting with the People’s Republic of China, from the height of Maoism during the author’s UC Berkeley student days in the volatile 1960s through globalization. Anecdotes from Baum’s professional life illustrate the alternately peculiar, frustrating, fascinating, and risky activity of China watching — the process by which outsiders gather and decipher official and unofficial information to figure out what’s really going on behind China’s veil of political secrecy and propaganda. Baum writes entertainingly, telling his narrative with witty stories about people, places, and eras. China Watcher will appeal to scholars and followers of international events who lived through the era of profound political and academic change described in the book, as well as to younger, post-Mao generations, who will enjoy its descriptions of the personalities and political forces that shaped the modern field of China studies.