Minor league baseball is quintessentially American: small towns, small stadiums, $5 tickets, $2 hot dogs, the never-ending possibility of making it big. But looming above it all is always the real deal: Major League Baseball. John Feinstein takes the reader behind the curtain into the guarded world of the minor leagues, like no other writer can. Where Nobody Knows Your Name explores the trials and travails of the inhabitants of Triple-A, focusing on nine men, including players, managers and umpires, among many colorful characters, living on the cusp of the dream. The book tells the stories of former World Series hero Scott Podsednik, giving it one more shot; Durham Bulls manager Charlie Montoya, shepherding generations across the line; and designated hitter Jon Lindsey, a lifelong minor leaguer, waiting for his day to come. From Raleigh to Pawtucket, from Lehigh Valley to Indianapolis and beyond, this is an intimate and exciting look at life in the minor leagues, where you’re either waiting for the call or just passing through.

The former Presidential Agent’s Office of Organizational Analysis has been disbanded. Charley Castillo and his colleagues have retired, and the sudden death of the President has brought an adversarial Commander-in-Chief into the Oval Office... But just because Castillo is out of the government doesn’t mean he’s out of business. He still has the skills and the manpower to do what others can’t or won’t do. And his first job is a real killer. A barrel filled with some nightmarishly lethal biohazard material has been shipped to an Army medical lab—material that Castillo and his men were supposed to have destroyed on a mission. Clearly, the message is that more of the deadly material remains. But who has it? And what do they want? With lives at stake—including his own—Castillo knows that he’s not going to like the answers one damn bit...

The New York Times bestselling collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the Academy Award nominated actress and star of Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect. Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird, and “10 percent defiant.” At the ripe age of thirteen, she had already resolved to “keep the crazy inside my head where it belonged. Forever. But here’s the thing about crazy: It. Wants. Out.” In Scrappy Little Nobody, she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations. With her razor-sharp wit, Anna recounts the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture as only she can—from her unusual path to the performing arts (Vanilla Ice and baggy neon pants may have played a role) to her double life as a middle-school student who also starred on Broadway to her initial “dating experiments” (including only liking boys who didn’t like her back) to reviewing a binder full of butt doubles to her struggle to live like an adult woman instead of a perpetual “man-child.” Enter Anna’s world and follow her rise from “scrappy little nobody” to somebody who dazzles on the stage, the screen, and now the page—with an electric, singular voice, at once familiar and surprising, sharp and sweet, funny and serious (well, not that serious).

In A Cowboy's Arms Bundle In A Cowboy's Arms Love On The Run. . . Colorado sheriff Dade Logan has waited twenty years to reunite with his long lost sister, Daisy. But when she finally turns up, they barely recognize each other. That's because the beautiful stranger isn't Daisy, but her childhood friend Maggie, on the run from an impending marriage. Moved by this last link to Daisy, Dade determines to bend any law that stands between him, his sister--and the intriguing Maggie. . . Maggie Sutton will risk anything to escape her fate, though accompanying the broad-shouldered sheriff in his pursuit of Daisy rattles her to the core. But as their search--and desire for one another--escalates, the two provoke a vicious bounty hunter, one who threatens their hopes for a future together. . . Praise for the novels of Janette Kenny "These are the western romances readers have enjoyed for decades." --Romantic Times on A Cowboy Christmas "Readers will enjoy every moment." –Romantic Times on One Real Man "With a cowboy like this, you can't lose!" --Linda Lael Miller on One Real Cowboy One Real Cowboy Straight From The Heart Cord Tanner has a very simple plan: get paid to be Beatrix Northroupe's husband for a month so the prim, but very sexy, Englishwoman can gain rightful ownership of her family's stud farm. Money in hand, he's going to get as far away from Revolt, Kansas, as a fast horse can take him. But Cord soon finds that he admires his Trixie's reckless courage--not to mention she's one great kisser. Maybe he's crazy to hope for a real future with her instead of heading for the hills, but now that someone's staking a dangerous claim to her farm, Cord's decided to stick around as long as the lady needs protecting. That wedding ring he put on her finger means her reputation is safe--and he's determined to win her heart. Cord Tanner may not be the most refined man on the frontier, but he sure is the lovingest. . . A Cowboy Christmas One Starry Night Reid Barclay doesn't have time for Christmas, not with trouble brewing at the Crown Seven Ranch. He's got prize thoroughbreds to protect and a long-ago wrong that he wants to make right. But the beautiful cook who's taken over the ranch kitchen is a welcome distraction, even if Ellie Jo Cade burns everything from gingerbread to roast beef. Her sweet face and womanly figure are pure temptation. . . Cornhusk angels. . .bright berry garlands. . .spun-sugar snow--everything about Christmas holds fond memories for Ellie Jo. She's doing her best to make peace with an ornery wood-burning stove and make the old ranch house truly festive. All she wants is to believe in Reid. . .and the only-at-Christmas magic that makes hearts glow. . . "Unique. . ." –Romantic Times on One Real Man, four-star review "Seductive plot and passionate romance." --Romantic Times on One Real Cowboy, four-star review

Nobody's Home is a bold view of the American novel from its beginnings to the contemporary scene. Focusing on some of the deepest instincts of American life and culture--individual liberty, freedom of speech, constructing a life--Arnold Weinstein brilliantly sketches the remarkable career of the American self in some of the major works of the past one hundred fifty years. Weinstein contends that American writers are haunted by the twin specters of the self as a mirage, as Nobody, and by the brutal forces of culture and ideology that deny selfhood to people on the basis of money, sex, and color of skin. His central thesis is that language makes possible freedoms and accomplishments that are achievable in no other realm, and that American fiction is a fascinating record of the human fight against coercion, of the kinds of maneuvering room that we may find in life and in art. This study is unique in several respects: it offers some of the keenest readings of major American texts that have ever been written, including some of the most significant works of the past decades, and it fashions a rich and supple view of the American novel as a writerly form of freedom, in sharp contrast to today's critical emphasis on blindness and co-option.

Joseph DeWittier Brokaw III, the patriarch of a powerful, influential, and dysfunctional family, is lying in bed ill with mysterious symptoms when a stranger emerges from the shadows and covers his face with a pillow. Without warning, Joseph Brokaw's time on earth has come to a tragic end. Joseph Brokaw had everything money could buy, but had lost the very thing he wanted most his four children. When a reading of his will reveals his intentions to leave half of his estate to a charitable foundation and the other half to his devoted friend and physician, Dr. Walton Sinclair, the already-strained family relationships seem damaged beyond repair. As suspicions, accusations, and animosity envelop the family, Dr. Sinclair suddenly finds himself a suspect and then a victim in a sequence of apparently unrelated sinister events that involve everyone closely associated with Brokaw. When Thomas Hardy, a homicide detective, is called in to investigate, he soon uncovers a common thread that may just solve the crime. In this intriguing mystery of secrets and betrayals, the murder of Joseph Brokaw leads Detective Hardy on a path of deception that results in a surprising twist.

Cliffhaven--Magnificent new resort near Big Sur. Surrounded by redwoods. Guarded by oceanside cliffs. Protected from prying eyes. By reservation only. Cliffhaven--Founded by a man with very special interests, catering to a very special clientele. Margaret and Henry Brown, vacationing New Yorkers innocently driving down the sea-washed coast of California, are just the right sort of people. Cliffhaven--It has a spectacular entrance, a three-star restaurant, lavish accommodations--and no exit!

We leave shadows, not footprints. Newlywed Danny McKenna’s honeymoon ends abruptly when he learns his father has died, uncannily, on the same day as his hero, Frank Sinatra. Returning home to his knotty Irish American family, Danny is confronted with a painful truth—while he knows everything about the famous singer, his own father is a mystery. Tasked with giving a eulogy for a man he hardly knows, Danny sets out to uncover his dad’s past—an immigrant’s tale of mid-twentieth-century America and the harsh realities of WWII lived in stark contrast to Frank Sinatra’s famously extravagant life. Along the way, Danny’s own demons nearly destroy him as he struggles to accept his father’s deepest secret—a journey that takes him into the heart of darkness before he learns to live in the light. ​Fame, family, and forgiveness are among the many themes in Doug McIntyre’s debut novel, a story full of vibrant scenery, gripping characters, humor, and profound moments of self-realization. Frank’s Shadow is a deeply (sometimes darkly) human story wrapped in the trappings of a delightfully gritty love letter to New York City’s less glamorous neighborhoods.

In her long career, Ugresic has published several novels (e.g., The Ministry of Pain), but she made her name with her essay collections, which have caused controversy and earned her the admiration of writers and critics abroad. In these latest musings, written over the course of several years, Ugresic leaves no stone unturned and no thought contained, doing what she does best: writing about the human condition through her own experience. Refusing to establish a central theme, she touches upon a wide range of topics: the paradox of multiculturalism, metaphors as our "defense against nightmares," the eerie similarities between capitalism and communism, and ways in which we try to rise hopelessly above our less-than-perfect existence. Along the way, she pays homage to the works of literature that have influenced her own creative process, in an effort to pay "a symbolic literary tax on narcissim" because "writing is not the humblest of vocations." Perhaps not, but Ugresic certainly knows how to balance being a critic with being criticized. Recommended for all libraries collecting cultural criticism.--Mirela Roncevic, Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

'These essays ... live and grow in the mind' James Campbell, Independent Being a writer, says James Baldwin in this searing collection of essays, requires 'every ounce of stamina he can summon to attempt to look on himself and the world as they are'. His seminal 1961 follow-up to Notes on a Native Son shows him responding to his times and exploring his role as an artist with biting precision and emotional power: from polemical pieces on racial segregation and a journey to 'the Old Country' of the Southern states, to reflections on figures such as Ingmar Bergman and André Gide, and on the first great conference of African writers and artists in Paris. 'Brilliant...accomplished...strong...vivid...honest...masterly' The New York Times 'A bright and alive book, full of grief, love and anger' Chicago Tribune