An adoptive mother writes the book she wishes had been available -- sympathetic, up-to-date, useful, hopeful and highly readable -- when her family welcomed a little girl not knowing that she struggled with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). When Bonnie and her husband adopted Colette, she was three years old. Big for her age, she had walked alone at eleven months, had excellent verbal skills, a thick mane of curly blonde hair and a sturdy little body. They were thrilled with their gregarious second daughter, a great sister for six-year-old Cleo. But although Colette was bright and delightful, a litany of problems soon presented itself. By the time she hit first grade, her parents were coping with her frequent stealing and lying, and her learning difficulties, which necessitated special education. At the age of fourteen, she discovered drugs and sex; by eighteen, in spite of the love and support provided by her adoptive family, she was a crack addict living on the streets. After seven frustrating years of consulting numerous therapists, a TV item gave Bonnie the answer -- and sent her on a quest for diagnosis and help for her daughter. In general, our society has little compassion for those thousands of individuals whose damaged brains lead them to crime, homelessness and addiction. Few realize that they behave as they do as the result of brain damage caused by their mothers’ drinking during pregnancy. FASD is Canada’s most common, most expensive, yet most preventable mental disability. FASD can be beaten, but as usual, education is key. This book is a tool that could help the 300,000 Canadians currently affected by FASD, and reduce the number of babies born with FASD in the future. -- FASD is a new umbrella term that includes Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE), Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ARND) and Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS). -- FASD is caused by women drinking alcohol while pregnant. -- So-called “moderate” drinking can do considerable damage to the fetal brain. -- Individuals with FASD may seem normal, but their damaged brains can result in learning disabilities, impulsivity, lying, stealing, tantrums, violence and aggression, inability to predict consequences or learn from experience, lack of conscience, and addictions. -- FASD is the biggest single cause of intellectual impairment in most industrialized countries. -- Research indicates that a high percentage of homeless people, and at least 25% of juvenile and adult offenders suffer from undiagnosed FASD. More than 50% of individuals with FASD will experience school drop-out, trouble with the law, addiction, and unemployment. More than 90% will experience mental health problems. -- The general public, not to mention many professionals, know very little about either FASD or the fact that no amount of alcohol in pregnancy has been established as safe for the fetus.

Welcome back to the brash, brutal new world of the twenty-fifth century: where global politics isn’t just for planet Earth anymore; and where death is just a break in the action, thanks to the techno-miracle that can preserve human consciousness and download it into one new body after another. Cynical, quick-on-the-trigger Takeshi Kovacs, the ex-U.N. envoy turned private eye, has changed careers, and bodies, once more . . . trading sleuthing for soldiering as a warrior-for-hire, and helping a far-flung planet’s government put down a bloody revolution. But when it comes to taking sides, the only one Kovacs is ever really on is his own. So when a rogue pilot and a sleazy corporate fat cat offer him a lucrative role in a treacherous treasure hunt, he’s only too happy to go AWOL with a band of resurrected soldiers of fortune. All that stands between them and the ancient alien spacecraft they mean to salvage are a massacred city bathed in deadly radiation, unleashed nanotechnolgy with a million ways to kill, and whatever surprises the highly advanced Martian race may have in store. But armed with his genetically engineered instincts, and his trusty twin Kalashnikovs, Takeshi is ready to take on anything—and let the devil take whoever’s left behind.

Damaged Angels is the first collection of short fiction by Larry Benjamin. The 13 stories in this collection give voice to the invisible, the damaged: the drug addicts and hustlers, the mentally ill, the confused, and the men who fall in love with them, all of them bravely trying to make a place for themselves in the world of unbroken men. Their worlds are sometimes the mean streets of decaying cities, sometimes the great beyond and, once, the earth itself.Often dark, always evocative and lyrical, these stories delve into the lives of men clearly less-than-perfect and explore love in the context of disease and oncoming death as in &"The Cross," drug addiction, as in "The Seduction of the Angel Gabrielle," and mental illness in "Two Rivers." These stories explore the possibility that less-than-perfect is sometimes perfect.

On a sweltering Fourth of July, the suicide of fourteen-year-old Maureen Bower’s father shatters her security. She fears that eventually, everyone she loves will abandon her. With the words, “May I have this dance,” Frank Russo introduces himself to Maureen at a roller-skating rink. As he teaches her skate dancing, she falls deeply in love with him. Meanwhile, the country advances further into World War 2. They wait until they feel it is safe to marry only to return from their honeymoon to find Frank’s draft notice. He leaves for the Pacific and is gone for the next three years. When Frank’s best friend, Harvey, dies at Normandy, Maureen’s closest friend, June, walks out of her life too. Frank returns from the war physically and emotionally scarred, Maureen does her best to mend him until their first child’s birth hastens his recovery. They share rich experiences, develop close friendships, raise two daughters and eventually welcome the young women’s husbands into their lives. When their children move from Brooklyn, New York to suburban Connecticut, Frank and Maureen follow and become active volunteers at the Bristol Senior Center. On the night of Lieutenant William Calley’s conviction for the Mai Lai Massacre however, Frank is overcome with guilt. When he confesses his own wartime atrocities to Maureen, she struggles to understand the man she thought she knew. Through fifty-plus years of marriage, Frank becomes the center of Maureen’s world until his sudden death shatters her faith and rekindles her deep fear of abandonment. She can’t escape from the crushing loneliness. Friends, family and even ministers are helpless to lift her from her depression. Maureen finds tasks like driving a car, paying the bills, even cleaning the house overwhelming and her smallest joy feels like a betrayal to Frank. As she prepares to end her suffering, help comes from the unlikeliest of sources: Doris Cantrell. Following an abusive childhood, a troubled marriage and estrangement with her own daughter, Doris is as damaged as is Maureen. The mistreatment she inflicts on others evidences her contempt, yet underneath it all, Maureen senses a deep sadness. Doris refuses to sympathize with Maureen’s plight and persists in exposing her to different experiences and new ways of living. Maureen also refuses to accept that Doris’s past gave her the right to abuse people in the present or to neglect her bond with her daughter. Both women lack the strength or will to help anyone. Nevertheless, God has His own plan for these wounded angels. The inconsolable widow and the uncontrollable social misfit manage to support and help heal each other. They do this, not despite their brokenness, but because of it. Maureen and Doris become close friends. As Maureen heals, the widower, Larry Kowalski, reenters her life. Through their shared experiences of love and loss, they fall deeply in love. However, will her daughters understand her being with another man? In addition, can Maureen’s friendship with Doris survive her love for Larry?

L. E. Modesitt's bestselling fantasy novels set in the magical world of Recluce have established a standard of entertainment in contemporary fantasy. "In Modesitt's universe, where good and evil, chaos and order, are in perpetual conflict, a young wizard finds that his destiny is to strike a balance, but at considerable personal cost. Modesitt creates a deeper and more intricate world with each volume," says Publishers Weekly. "Modesitt's elaborate and intelligent working out of a systemof magic and a system of technology parallel to it is becoming more the lifeblood of the Recluce books with every new volume. . . . His saga continues to gain in popularity," says Booklist. Each Recluce novel tells an independent story that nevertheless reverberates though all the other Recluce novels to deepen and enrich the reading experience. Now in Fall of Angels, Modesitt moves deep into Recluce's past to chronicle the founding of the Empire of the Legend, the almost mythological domain ruled by woman warriors on the highland plateau of the continent of Candar. He tells the story from the point of view of Nylan, the engineer and builder whose job it is to raise a great tower on the plateau known as the Roof of the World. Here the exiled women warriors will live and survive to fulfill their destiny. Here a revolutionary new society will be born . . . if Nylan can get the tower built and defenses in place before the rulers of the lowland nations come with their armies to obliterate them all. And if Nylan can learn to control the magical powers that are growing within him. Thus Modesitt relates the story of how magic comes into the world of Recluce, in a fantasy novel destined to please the growing Recluce audience and win new readers to the series. Fall of Angels is the sixth book of the saga of Recluce.

A Nazi doctor. A Jewish rebel. A little girl. Each one will fight for freedom--or die trying. Imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto, Elsi discovers her mother's desperate attempt to end her pregnancy and comes face-to-face with the impossibility of their situation. Risking her own life, Elsi joins a resistance group to sabotage the regime. Blonde, blue-eyed Matilda is wrenched from her family in Romania and taken to Germany, where her captors attempt to mold her into the perfect Aryan child. Spirited and brave, she must inspire hope in the other stolen children to make her dreams of escape a reality. Willem, a high-ranking Nazi doctor, plans to save lives when he takes posts in both the ghetto and Auschwitz. After witnessing unimaginable cruelties, he begins to question his role and the future of those he is ordered to destroy. While Hitler ransacks Europe in pursuit of a pure German race, the lives of three broken souls--thrown together by chance--intertwine. Only love and sacrifice might make them whole again.

Armed with a magic amulet which bestows eternal life on the wearer, a powerful knight protects the fortress of Grimhold, where the magical people of his world reside. But when his closest friend is pulled into the evil sway of the Devil's Armor, only the Sword of Angels can defeat it.

Guardian angels keep a wandering baby safe.

Richard Anderson’s best friend Melanie vanished when they were six, and while the police never found her, a part of her remained—a living shadow that is now Richard’s closest friend. For years, Richard never questions the shadow ... until a new girl moves to town, claiming to be Melanie.

The collective stories in this deeply moving and powerful book represent the thoughts and experiences of some of the most courageous women I know. They strive to come to grips with the unexplained tolerance and silence of others during their suffering as little girls. Much they have forgotten or their minds repressed in order to keep their sanity; to make a life for themselves in this sometimes hostile world. These wonderful women have tried to go on living as normal a life as they can; suppressing the rage bottled up inside them; repressing the horrible memories which haunt them. Many keep quiet about their suffering; not because they have nothing to say; but because they are supremely better in character and virtue than those men who abused them. Some of these men probably gloat in their seeming success in molesting these girls-now-women; thinking they got away scot-free, but they are so very long. These women will have their great character highlighted in Heaven's Hall of Fame; while these molesters will end up in the Hall of Shame. We salute these survivors; hope and pray that your stories will encourage and empower others. You have suffered in silence, now we hope that your stories will speak volumes to all decent men and women; that they may know the plight of millions of little girls, some already being abused, while others are targets for abuse by other molesters who deal in the inferior and dark world of incest and child sexual abuse. We pray that your lives will be changed and healed. Robert McElroy, D.Min., is a pastor in Terrell, Tx., a Pharmacist in Dallas, Tx. He received his BS (Fla. A&M Univ.); MA (Dallas Theological Seminary) and D.Min. (Southern Methodist Univ.). He is an author, lecturer, and friend.