In the second Maidels of Morning Star novel by fan-favorite author Charlotte Hubbard, the five friends who have teamed up to transform an abandoned barn into an Amish marketplace are enjoying the success of their fledgling enterprise. What's even more remarkable is the gift the business bestows upon each of these unmarried women--the unexpected blessing of love as the new school teacher and the bishop find strength in their growing bond. Leaving Flaud's Furniture to teach at the community's new school is a joy for Lydianne Christner. Old Order Amish, but new to Morning Star, she's grateful that the congregation trusts her with the position--but she panics when handsome Bishop Jeremiah Shetler asks about the life she left behind. If anyone discovers the secret she's hiding, she would, quite rightly, be shunned. A widower, Bishop Jeremiah admires young Lydianne's youthful energy and skill with the children. He's also curious about her past, and the burden he senses on her heart. When his request to court her is refused, he's stung, and lonelier than ever. It isn't until a crisis prompts a tearful Lydianne to confess to him that Jeremiah is faced with a choice that requires all of his faith--and teaches them both that love and forgiveness go hand in hand.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Red Rising thrilled readers and announced the presence of a talented new author. Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level. Now comes the exhilarating next chapter in the Red Rising Saga: Morning Star. ITW THRILLER AWARD FINALIST • “[Brown’s] achievement is in creating an uncomfortably familiar world of flaw, fear, and promise.”—Entertainment Weekly Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within. Finally, the time has come. But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender. Praise for Morning Star “There is no one writing today who does shameless, Michael Bay–style action set pieces the way Brown does. The battle scenes are kinetic, bloody, breathless, crazy. Everything is on fire all the time.”—NPR “Morning Star is this trilogy’s Return of the Jedi. . . . The impactful battles that make up most of Morning Star are damn near operatic. . . . It absolutely satisfies.”—Tordotcom “Excellent . . . Brown’s vivid, first-person prose puts the reader right at the forefront of impassioned speeches, broken families, and engaging battle scenes . . . as this interstellar civil war comes to a most satisfying conclusion.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A page-turning epic filled with twists and turns . . . The conclusion to Brown’s saga is simply stellar.”—Booklist (starred review) Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga: RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2015 Reality TV and advanced technology make for high drama in this political thriller that combines the military action of Zero Dark Thirty with the classic science fiction of The Forever War. Lieutenant James Shelley, who has an uncanny knack for premeditating danger, leads a squad of advanced US Army military tasked with enforcing the peace around a conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. The squad members are linked wirelessly 24/7 to themselves and a central intelligence that guides them via drone relay—and unbeknownst to Shelley and his team, they are being recorded for a reality TV show. When an airstrike almost destroys their outpost, a plot begins to unravel that’s worthy of Crichton and Clancy’s best. The conflict soon involves rogue defense contractors, corrupt US politicians, and homegrown terrorists who possess nuclear bombs. Soon Shelley must accept that the helpful warnings in his head could be AI. But what is the cost of serving its agenda?

Phaethon offers a comparative study of the Phaethon myth.

As two grown siblings explore their complicated history over one hot Fourth of July weekend, they come to terms with the experiences that put such distance between them and discover the imperfect love that ties them—from the winner of the PEN/Malamud Award and “one of our most gifted writers” (Chicago Tribune). Hugh Welch has cared for his little sister Dorsey ever since they were children, when Dorsey looked at him as though he were a god. But when Dorsey returns to their small Michigan hometown with a successful career as an astrophysicist and a happy family life, Hugh, who has a long habit of worrying about his sister, realizes that it’s his own life he has to cure, not Dorsey’s.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pierce Brown’s relentlessly entertaining debut channels the excitement of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. “Red Rising ascends above a crowded dys­topian field.”—USA Today ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—Entertainment Weekly, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness “I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.” “I live for you,” I say sadly. Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.” Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he toils willingly, trusting that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so. Praise for Red Rising “[A] spectacular adventure . . . one heart-pounding ride . . . Pierce Brown’s dizzyingly good debut novel evokes The Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies, and Ender’s Game. . . . [Red Rising] has everything it needs to become meteoric.”—Entertainment Weekly “Ender, Katniss, and now Darrow.”—Scott Sigler “Red Rising is a sophisticated vision. . . . Brown will find a devoted audience.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga: RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER

In the third Maidels of Morning Star novel by fan-favorite author Charlotte Hubbard, the five unmarried Amish friends who teamed up to transform an abandoned barn into the Morning Star Marketplace are preparing for a joyous Christmas season. But will the holiday also bring unexpected tidings of love? Founded by five unmarried and enterprising Amish maidels, the new Morning Star Marketplace in small-town Missouri is preparing for a joyous Christmas season. But will the holiday also bring unexpected tidings of love? Twin sisters Molly and Marietta Helfing are eagerly anticipating Christmas, with Marietta fully re-covered from cancer and their noodle making business thriving. But Molly clearly misses having former tenant Pete Shetler and his rambunctious dog, Riley, around. Marietta can't ignore Molly's feelings for Pete--or the anxiety it stirs within her. Convinced her illness has made her unmarriage-able, Marietta wonders what kind of life she'll have if her sister marries--despite Molly's promise to never leave her behind... Then a fire destroys the home of Amish neighbors and Molly and Marietta graciously make room for widower Glenn Detweiler, his dat, and his two young boys. When Pete returns to help the fami-ly rebuild, Molly relishes her reunion with the handsome carpenter, while Marietta delights in moth-ering Glenn's boys--and is surprised by her poignant bond with their quiet, brooding father. Soon everyone is wondering if this season will bring the blessing of a merry double wedding to Morning Star...

Seven years before Richard Preston wrote about horrifying viruses in The Hot Zone, he turned his attention to the cosmos. In First Light, he demonstrates his gift for creating an exciting and absorbing narrative around a complex scientific subject--in this case the efforts by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains of California to peer to the farthest edges of space through the Hale Telescope, attempting to solve the riddle of the creation of the universe. Richard Preston's name became a household word with The Hot Zone, which sold nearly 800,000 copies in hardcover, was on The New York Times's bestseller list for 42 weeks, and was the subject of countless magazine and newspaper articles. Preston has become a sought-after commentator on popular science subjects.

Amateur astronomers who have been disappointed by the results of an observing session can take comfort in the guidance of this book, which advises how to still gain useful experience in seemingly "failed" nights at the telescope. In a world with imperfect seeing conditions, incredible observing sessions are often mixed with less inspiring ones, discouraging the amateur observer. This book is designed to minimize subsequent disappointment for astronomers who encounter a few bad observing sessions, helping novice observers take something worthwhile away each and every time they go out under the night sky, regardless of the observations that were originally planned. Almost every observer remembers his first sight of ringed Saturn, hanging in the blackness of space. Practitioners agree that there is something special about visual observing. Real-time observations at the eyepiece can provide fleeting yet intense feelings that connect us with the universe in unique ways. But when expectations aren't met at the eyepiece, there are other ways to profit from the practice of astronomy. These rewards, though less showy, are well worth cultivating. This is a book that will help the reader see what constitutes a “successful” visual observing session. It explains the nature of the objects that the observer is seeing and advises how best to use their equipment. There are many hints and tips about how best to locate, recall, and record observations, including suggestions for trips to areas where there are dark skies and to public observatories. Amateur astronomy is a journey from the urban backyard all the way to dark rural skies, and with this guide the journey can be smooth.

Morningstar Mercredi was born and lived in the north – Fort Chipewayan and Fort McMurray in Alberta, Uranium City in Saskatchewan, and a number of small communities. Sexually abused from an early age, by family members and the boyfriends she turned to for consolation, she was promiscuous, alcoholic and a drug user by the time she was thirteen. She married when she was sixteen and had a son two years later. Everything was a struggle. Days and weeks of sobriety were followed by weeks and months of drinking and self-­abuse. Then, when her son was four, things began to change. Morningstar found support, from the community, from her son, and from within herself, to be a good mother, find employment, keep relationships and reconnect with her family. Today, she is a strong and creative member of her community, and eager to tell her story of defeat and ultimate ­triumph. Sadly, the first part of this story is all too common, while the second is all too rare. But Morningstar is a shining example that it can be done. She is honest and ­self-­critical in her descriptions of many attempts and repeated failures. She gives enormous credit to her son, for his constant love, his determination to be honest with her, and his unfailing confidence in her ability to ­succeed.