Sonoma tour guide Taylor O’Brian uncorks another intoxicating wine country mystery after discovering the body of an FDA inspector . . . in a tank of squashed grapes Taylor O’Brian, founder of “Off the Beaten Path”, takes small groups on wine country tours of romantic Sonoma County. Friends are everything in the tour business, so Taylor is happy to guide investors to the winery owned by her friend Tim Slade. But vintage turns to vinegar when an FDA inspector is found floating face down in one of Tim’s vats of squashed grapes. Tim is arrested on suspicion of murder, and Taylor and her friends rally to prove his innocence. But it’s not an easy task, especially since the winery proprietor’s acidic sense of humor tends to reap a harvest of sour grapes. Taylor’s investigation is withering on the vine until she discovers that Tim’s girlfriend, Mandy, is having an affair with a self-help guru. But before she has a chance to confront Mandy, Taylor finds Tim standing over the body of the dead guru. This tart-turn of events sends a bottle shock through Sonoma. Might Taylor’s friend really be a Zin-ful killer? If so, could Taylor be the next victim? The tour guide and her friends come to realize that the true murderer’s scent is obscured by an unsavory bouquet of red herrings. A complex mystery designed to delight the palate of wine and cozy mystery enthusiasts alike, Seven Deadly Zins is the second quirky installment in Nancy J. Parra’s Sonoma Wine Country mysteries.

Reading Skills Activities | Reading Comprehension | Finding Facts Improve Overall Reading Comprehension with Targeted Specific Skill Practice! Focusing on one comprehension skill at a time gives students the opportunity to master that skill and improve their general reading and comprehension skills. Finding Facts: Being able to find the facts in a story is a basic, yet essential, comprehension skill. It helps to lay the foundation for success in mastering other comprehension skills. You may want to introduce this skill by explaining to students that facts are small bits of information that make up the whole of a story. Skill Specific Activities There are 15 high-interest, short stories in this selection that include a variety of fiction and non-fiction topics. The follow up questions guide students to find the facts. The facts might be who, what, where or when. Or they might be the names of people and places, dates, times, and numbers. Each story is numbered instead of having a title. The last question for each story asks the students to give the story a title. This important activity helps to determine the student’s level of understanding the story’s main idea. Visual Lesson Each story has an engaging illustration designed to bring the story to life and help capture the interest of reluctant readers. To help sharpen inference skills, students can be asked to use the illustration to predict what the story is about. Teaching Opportunities These targeted activities are great for one-on-one intervention, small groups of students at multiple skill levels or whole class participation. Can be used for remediation, review, and transition classes. Details: Each short story is between 140 and 160 words and is written at a 2.0 to 3.5 reading level according to the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Scale. The interest level is grades 4 and up. Contents Include: • 15 high-interest, short stories • 15 pages of skill-specific questions focusing on Finding Facts • Answer Key

THEY'VE PROMISED THAT DREAMS CAN COME TRUE... After years of burning the midnight oil, Rebecca Carter finally hits the jackpot and lands an agent. Her book skyrockets to success and when the movie rights are sold, she flies to Hollywood to be a consultant. It’s a dream come true until she meets Cory, the Hollywood heartthrob who’s playing the lead role in her movie… Cory Hudson has it all; striking good looks and amazing talent. Yet fame comes at a huge cost, and as the pressures of his stardom mounts, Cory resorts to alcohol and drug use to ease the burden. It’s then, at one of his lowest moments, that he meets Rebecca—or more like confuses her with someone else. The encounter is disastrous and should result in nothing short of the two becoming mortal enemies, yet each are drawn to the other, Rebecca determined to help Cory overcome his drug and alcohol problems, and Cory drawn to Rebecca’s kindness even when he’s at his worst. A friendship soon blossoms, and everyone is watching, including one of Cory’s biggest fans . . . BUT FORGOT TO MENTION THAT NIGHTMARES ARE DREAMS, TOO... Penelope Fitzpatrick is a woman with a passion for the dark arts, and she doesn’t take kindly to Cory’s new friendship. At first, she watches from the shadows, waiting for her Dark Father to intervene, but when she begins to lose hope that she’ll ever get what she deserves, she decides to take matters into her own hands, no matter the cost…

“A magical anti-capitalist adventure.” —Annalee Newitz Nino Cipri's Finna is a rambunctious, touching story that blends all the horrors the multiverse has to offer with the everyday awfulness of low-wage work. It explores queer relationships and queer feelings, capitalism and accountability, labor and love, all with a bouncing sense of humor and a commitment to the strange. When an elderly customer at a Swedish big box furniture store — but not that one — slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but those two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago. To find the missing granny, Ava and Jules will brave carnivorous furniture, swarms of identical furniture spokespeople, and the deep resentment simmering between them. Can friendship blossom from the ashes of their relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Drawing inspiration from the epic story of the Apollo Moon Program, collected research, and his own life experiences, Dr. Anthony Paustian outlines the many small steps it takes to create success in life. With the practical tools described in this imaginative, easy-to-read book, Dr. Paustian teaches the principles of creativity, imagineering, leadership, focus, work ethic, and so much more.

From the trashy to the epic, from the classics to today's blockbusters, this cinefile’s guidebook reviews nearly 1,000 of the biggest, baddest, and brightest from every age and genre of cinematic science fiction! Once upon a time, science fiction was only in the future. It was the stuff of drive-ins and cheap double-bills. Then, with the ever-increasing rush of new, society-altering technologies, science fiction pushed its way to the present, and it busted out of the genre ghetto of science fiction and barged its way into the mainstream. What used to be mere fantasy (trips to the moon? Wristwatch radios? Supercomputers capable of learning?) are now everyday reality. Whether nostalgic for the future or fast-forwarding to the present, The Sci-Fi Movie Guide: The Universe of Film from Alien to Zardoz covers the broad and widening range of science-fiction movies. You’ll find more than just Star Wars, Star Trek, and Transformers, with reviews on many overlooked and under-appreciated gems and genres, such as ... Monsters! Pacific Rim, Godzilla, The Thing, Creature from the Black Lagoon Superheroes: Thor, Iron Man, X-Men, The Amazing Spider-man, Superman Dystopias: THX 1138, 1984, The Hunger Games Avant-garde masterpieces: Solaris, 2001, Brazil, The Man Who Fell to Earth Time travel: 12 Monkeys, The Time Machine, Time Bandits, Back to the Future Post-apocalyptic action: The Road Warrior, I Am Legend, Terminator Salvation Comedy: Dark Star, Mars Attacks!, Dr. Strangelove, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Mystery Science Theater 3000 Aliens! The Day the Earth Stood Still, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Contact, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Signs Mad scientists! Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Abominable Dr. Phibes Shoot-em-ups: Aliens, Universal Soldier, Starship Troopers What the...?: Battlefield Earth, Prayer of the Rollerboys, Repo: The Genetic Opera, Tank Girl, The 10th Victim Animation: WALL-E, Akira, Ghost in the Shell Small budgets, big ideas: Donnie Darko, Primer, Sound of My Voice, Computer Chess Neglected greats: Things to Come, Children of Men Epics: Metropolis, Blade Runner, Cloud Atlas and many, many more categories and movies!! In addition to the nearly one thousand science fiction film reviews, this guide includes fascinating and fun Top-10 lists and sidebars that are designed to lead fans to similar titles they might not have known about. The Sci-Fi Movie Guide: The Universe of Film from Alien to Zardoz will help ensure that you will never again have to worry about what to watch next. Useful both as a handy resource or a fun romp through the film world of science fiction. It also includes a helpful bibliography and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness.

Gerald tells of the very unusual animals he would add to the zoo, if he were in charge.

The day of the Ice Bowl game was so cold, the referees' whistles wouldn't work; so cold, the reporters' coffee froze in the press booth; so cold, fans built small fires in the concrete and metal stands; so cold, TV cables froze and photographers didn't dare touch the metal of their equipment; so cold, the game was as much about survival as it was about skill and strategy. On New Year's Eve, 1967, the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers met for a classic NFL championship game, played on a frozen field in sub-zero weather. The "Ice Bowl" challenged every skill of these two great teams. Here's the whole story, based on dozens of interviews with people who were there—on the field and off—told by author Ed Gruver with passion, suspense, wit, and accuracy.