"South African-born Helena Kriel is commissioned to write the screenplay for what later become a hit Hollywood movie, Kama Sutra, based on the ancient Indian manuscript on sex and love. In the year she travels to India to do her research, back home in South Africa, her beloved brother Evan is diagnosed with AIDS. Little does she know that everything she seeks to learn about love will be revealed in the battle to keep Evan alive."--Back cover.

Decades fighting other people’s fires prepared Kelvin Cochran to face his own fiery trial. He overcame poverty, prejudice, and pain to fulfill a childhood dream of helping others, rising to the top of firefighting’s professional ladder in Atlanta, Georgia. At one time nationally recognized as “America’s fire chief,” Kelvin unexpectedly found himself caught in a fireball of controversy over his orthodox Christian beliefs, for which he ultimately was fired by the city—making him a focal point in a national battle over religious freedom. Misrepresented by activists and the media, Kelvin relied on his faith to bring him through. In due course he emerged from the flames of scandal unscathed, like the friends of the prophet Daniel who were thrown into the burning furnace. Kelvin’s story is a sobering warning of how Christians faithful to biblical teachings are increasingly at risk of persecution in today’s culture. It is also an inspiring example of overcoming racial prejudice and adversity, and finding the courage to take the heat and stand for the truth.

In the conclusion to her acclaimed Three Sisters Island trilogy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts masterfully evokes the quaint charm of New England, weaving a spellbinding tale of true love—and sheer magic. Mia Devlin knows what it’s like to love with your whole heart—and then watch your love walk away. Years ago, she and Sam Logan shared an incredible bond built on passion, legend, and fate. But then one day he fled Three Sisters Island, leaving her lost in memories of the magic they shared—and determined to live on her own. As the new owner of the island’s only hotel, Sam has returned to Three Sisters with hopes of winning back Mia’s affections. He is puzzled when she greets him with icy indifference—for the chemistry between them is still sizzling and true. Angry, hurt, and deeply confused, Mia refuses to admit that a desire for Sam still burns in her heart. But she’ll need his help—and his powers—to face her greatest, most terrifying challenge. And as the deadline for breaking a centuries-old curse draws near, they must take the first step toward destiny—and come together to turn back the dark… Don’t miss the other books in the Three Sisters Island Trilogy Dance Upon the Air Heaven and Earth

Fire as omen and elemental force, as metaphor and searing personal experience--these are the subjects Douglas McCulloh explores in Facing Fire: Art, Wildfire, and the End of Nature in the New West. California's diverse ecologies are fire-prone, fire-adapted, even fire-dependent. In the past two decades, however, West Coast wildfires have exploded in scale and severity. There is a powerful consensus that we have entered a new era--nature unbalanced, the end of the stable world. Douglas McCulloh has assembled the work of 16 artists who bring us incendiary images from active fire lines and psychic burn zones. Together the 16 artists face fire, sift its aftermath, struggle with its implications. Throughout is the uneasy sense that wildfire is a stand-in, a site of displacement for more immaterial fears, for the amorphous anxieties of the age. This book is published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name held at UCR ARTS: California Museum of Photography February 22-August 9, 2020.

NOW WITH A FOREWORD BY RON RASH AND AN APPRECIATION BY DWIGHT GARNER “One of the finest books I know about blue-collar work in America, its rewards and frustrations . . . If you are among the tens of millions who have never read Brown, this is a perfect introduction.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times On January 6, 1990, after seventeen years on the job, Larry Brown quit the Oxford, Mississippi, fire department to try writing full-time. In On Fire, he looks back on his life as a firefighter. His unflinching accounts of daily trauma—from the blistering heat of burning trailer homes to the crunch of broken glass at crash scenes—catapult readers into the hard reality that drove this award-winning novelist. As a firefighter and fireman-turned-author, as husband and hunter, and as father and son, Brown offers insights into the choices men face pursuing their life’s work. And, in the forthright style we expect from Larry Brown, his narrative builds to the explanation of how one man who regularly confronted death began to burn with the desire to write about life.

The #1 New York Times bestseller! “Witty, wise, and tender. It's a marvel.” —Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train and A Slow Fire Burning “To say I love this book is an understatement. It’s a deep psychological mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. It moved me to tears.” —Reese Witherspoon From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Our Missing Hearts comes a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs. Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood—and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster. Named a Best Book of the Year by: People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many more... Perfect for book clubs! Visit celesteng.com for discussion guides and more.

A memoir of loss and renewal in the wake of the most destructive wildfire in Texas history

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • From one of America’s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion that explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage—and a life, in good times and bad—that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later—the night before New Year’s Eve—the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma. This powerful book is Didion’ s attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness ... about marriage and children and memory ... about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.

The Team have settled back into their business after the travails of the second book. Stella has recovered from her kidnap and forced marriage attempt and is back running their African businesses. In Shanghai, Annie and Barry are preparing for Lin Fu’s leaving to get married in London. They decide that Barry must travel to Saudi Arabia and recruit Racel, the Philippine assistant to Barry’s bootlegging partners, Danny and Maria Winstone, over to China as the replacement for Lin Fu. When in Saudi Barry has to find a way to avoid the clutches of Maria Winstone who is insisting on a night with Barry as payment for releasing Racel from the Kingdom. In his own inimitable style Barry creates a hypnotic tantric illusion to facilitate their escape from Danny and Maria and gets Racel to China. The whole crew, including Stella and Mickey from Nigeria, travel to London for Lin Fu’s wedding to Morgan Transett the merchant banker. The wedding is carried out in style and while in London they meet up with Freddie Painter the hitman from the first book and the Team has to repay him by getting him out of the clutches of the law. Once back to their normal business Racel takes them to meet her cousin in the Philippines. To increase business Barry, Annie travel with her cousin to her home in the mountains and get embroiled in an Igorot village whose kids have been enslaved by a crazy priest. Repatriation of the kids to their families and becoming ever more spiritual and mystical while there. Racel meanwhile stays in Manila and has to take control of a situation and to assist in the rescue from kidnap and extermination of a whistleblower on a corrupt government broadband scandal. Unfortunately, the Chinese government are the ones doing the corrupting and they then have to leave quickly from the enquiries of the Chinese MSS state security service before being able to return to their new Head Office in Hong Kong. Annie and Barry have to use all her wit, magic, and more esoteric skills to save their livelihood again before returning to head office in Hong Kong. As usual when the Dream Team get travelling, there is sex, creative destruction, and bad people get killed, but all in the name of fairness and their own brand of justice. Throughout their adventures they never miss a chance to party and fight convention, or pomposity and turn morality on its head!