In the depths of the Great Depression, Ellie suffers another crash—that of her marriage. She’s left struggling to restore her shattered life, feeling as damaged as the stained-glass panels she refurbishes for Chicago’s historic structures. While visiting her aunt in Marietta, Ohio, a charming river town, Ellie encounters towboat captain Wyatt and feels a searing attraction to him. But thanks to past and subsequent wounds, her attempts at opening herself to love seem futile. Her hope for love and her determination to find the place she belongs are further complicated by her tendency to make impulsive decisions. In her journey, Ellie draws on an unrealized level of courage and learns she must identify her brightest passions in charting her course.

Twelve-year-old Mattie wrestles with her crush on Gemma as they participate in their school production of Romeo and Juliet in what School Library Journal calls “a fine choice for middle school libraries in need of accessible LGBTQ stories.” Twelve-year-old Mattie is thrilled when she learns the eighth grade play will be Romeo and Juliet. In particular, she can’t wait to share the stage with Gemma Braithwaite, who has been cast as Juliet. Gemma is brilliant, pretty—and British!—and Mattie starts to see her as more than just a friend. But Mattie has also had an on/off crush on her classmate Elijah since, well, forever. Is it possible to have a crush on both boys AND girls? If that wasn’t enough to deal with, things offstage are beginning to resemble their own Shakespearean drama: the cast is fighting, and the boy playing Romeo may not be up to the challenge of the role. And due to a last-minute emergency, Mattie is asked to step up and take over the leading role—opposite Gemma’s Juliet—just as Mattie’s secret crush starts to become not-so-secret in her group of friends. In this funny, sweet, and clever look at the complicated nature of middle school romance, Mattie learns how to become a lead player in her own life.

En route to their home planet of Tethys after fighting in the interplanetary wars, Don Slade and his crew face a long and arduous journey and a welcome home fraught with dangers.

Detective-Lieutenant Matt Warners children died in a fire he arrived too late to save them. Shortly afterward, wife committed suicide with his service revolver and took a part of him with her to the grave. Alone and beaten down by the guilt of always being too late, Matt is handed the most difficult case of his career. Women are being attacked. Theyre beaten and raped, then given flowers and a verse of poetry. Hes sure it means something, but has no idea what it could be, so he turns to the local librarian for help. Shes not only able to recognize a link, but also identify the verses as parts of Shakespearean plays. Weaving together the literary history and character motivation, it becomes apparent someone is after a specific woman and using the attacks to terrorize her. Finally able to determine the woman in danger, Matt is willing to mobilize the entire police force to protect her. But she doesnt want his help . . . Will he get to her in time to save her life? Or will her death paralyze him with guilt forever after?

Concise field guide to stars and constellations presented in a month-by-month selection of stars charts. Explains celestial phenomena, workings. A gem.

Following an introductory chapter on stellar fundamentals, the story begins of the lives and deaths of the stars. The authors take us on a journey from the sun, a comparatively young star, to supernovae - manifestations of dramatic death. On the way, the reader, advanced undergraduate or beginning postgraduate, is presented with such topics as stellar evolution, the hydrodynamics of stellar interiors, variability, and solar and stellar activity. This comprehensive but rigorous text, building on the theoretical and observational advances of recent years - for instance, astrophysical theory in the light of Supernova 1987A - is required reading for all serious students of astronomy.

Throughout the four hundred thousand years that humanity has been collecting fossils, sea urchin fossils, or echinoids, have continually been among the most prized, from the Paleolithic era, when they decorated flint axes, to today, when paleobiologists study them for clues to the earth’s history. In The Star-Crossed Stone, Kenneth J. McNamara, an expert on fossil echinoids, takes readers on an incredible fossil hunt, with stops in history, paleontology, folklore, mythology, art, religion, and much more. Beginning with prehistoric times, when urchin fossils were used as jewelry, McNamara reveals how the fossil crept into the religious and cultural lives of societies around the world—the roots of the familiar five-pointed star, for example, can be traced to the pattern found on urchins. But McNamara’s vision is even broader than that: using our knowledge of early habits of fossil collecting, he explores the evolution of the human mind itself, drawing striking conclusions about humanity’s earliest appreciation of beauty and the first stirrings of artistic expression. Along the way, the fossil becomes a nexus through which we meet brilliant eccentrics and visionary archaeologists and develop new insights into topics as seemingly disparate as hieroglyphics, Beowulf, and even church organs. An idiosyncratic celebration of science, nature, and human ingenuity, The Star-Crossed Stone is as charming and unforgettable as the fossil at its heart.

When aliens-obsessed sixteen-year-old Blaise Davis is abducted by his birth family, he learns that he is not a twin but a triplet, that his adoption was not interstate but interstellar, and that his birth father may or may not be the greatest villain in the universe. After severely injuring his twin brother Wimpy in a fit of rage four years ago, Blaise is the "normal" one nobody notices, the one who can't stop the neighbor bully or get the girl. But destiny awaits. Blaise and Wimpy were born in a distant galaxy. Their enigmatic birth father, Goby, has big plans. When they are snatched from Earth and then lost in space, Blaise's anger becomes a superpower and Blaise becomes BLAZE - and must find out who he really is, follow his heart and control his rage before Goby can control his mind... and the fate of the universe.

He said . . . She said. Publicist Wendy Mann has always competed hotly with her rival Daniel Blackstone, but this time they’re headed for a collision. Wendy’s job is on the line if she doesn’t save the image of a spoiled young starlet who’s posting provocative pictures of herself all over the Internet in a snarky attempt at revenge on her former boyfriend. Daniel is representing the ex, a onetime teen heartthrob who never grew up. With the feuding Hollywood pair scheduled to appear on the same Las Vegas awards show, Daniel and Wendy are determined to do whatever it takes to defend their own clients. Unfortunately, the chemistry between Wendy and Daniel is even more explosive than that of their Hollywood stars. L-O-V-E was always a four-letter word for these two ultra-competitors; they never counted on the scorching heat that erupts between them. But Wendy’s high-gloss exterior hides a dark past—one that’s lurking behind the bright Vegas lights. Their careers are on the line, and so is Wendy’s life. . . .