Forced into retirement, Evan Smoak gets an urgent request for help from someone he didn't even suspect existed—in Prodigal Son, the next New York Times bestselling Orphan X book from Gregg Hurwitz. As a boy, Evan Smoak was pulled out of a foster home and trained in an off-the-books operation known as the Orphan Program. He was a government assassin, perhaps the best, known to a few insiders as Orphan X. He eventually broke with the Program and adopted a new name—The Nowhere Man—and a new mission, helping the most desperate in their times of trouble. But the highest power in the country has made him a tempting offer—in exchange for an unofficial pardon, he must stop his clandestine activities as The Nowhere Man. Now Evan has to do the one thing he’s least equipped to do—live a normal life. But then he gets a call for help from the one person he never expected. A woman claiming to have given him up for adoption, a woman he never knew—his mother. Her unlikely request: help Andrew Duran—a man whose life has gone off the rails, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, bringing him to the deadly attention of very powerful figures. Now a brutal brother & sister assassination team are after him and with no one to turn to, and no safe place to hide, Evan is Duran’s only option. But when the hidden cabal catches on to what Evan is doing, everything he’s fought for is on the line—including his own life.

In today’s society many young people have lost sight of the value of money and seem to believe that money really does "grow on trees." Part expose and part survival guide, Prodigal Sons and Material Girls addresses the nagging issue faced by many parents today – why do their children have such unrealistic expectations about money? The book is divided into two comprehensive parts. Part I outlines the disturbing facts about America’s possession-crazed youth and the society that has distorted their views. You’ll be introduced to everything from the "three-headed monster"—a high-powered triumvirate of consumer products companies, media conglomerates, and advertising agencies that has tremendous influence over your children—to the distorted view of the American Dream as shaped by principles known as "The Teen Commandments." In learning what you’re up against you can teach financial responsibility from a position of strength. In Part II, Dungan offers creative and convincing examples on how to leverage his highly successful "Share-Save-Spend" approach to money – critical elements for you to help your children break free from the materialism that has become ingrained in our society. Through insightful anecdotes and simple exercises, you will learn how to: Talk to your children about money Understand the difference between financial wants and needs Increase the probability of your children having a prosperous life Raise your children’s marketing IQ Maintain healthy financial boundaries Set a healthy example for your children to follow The "Share–Save–Spend" methodology will help your children establish healthy financial habits and will undoubtedly become their foundation for making a lifetime of responsible financial decisions. Nathan Dungan is an innovative leader in the financial services industry. Over the past 15 years, he has been a top-performing financial advisor outside of Philadelphia, PA and most recently served as Vice President of Marketing for Lutheran Brotherhood (now Thrivent Financial for Lutherans), a $57 billion member-owned financial services company with nearly 3 million members. Dungan is a frequent speaker and workshop leader and has been widely quoted on this subject in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and has appeared on CNN and PBS.

“Brilliantly conceived and plotted ... Read this book. You’ll thank me later.” -- David Baldacci The first in the international bestselling series! Who is Orphan X? The Nowhere Man is a legendary figure spoken about only in whispers. It’s said that when he’s reached by the truly desperate and deserving, the Nowhere Man can and will do anything to protect and save them. But he’s not merely a legend. “Excellent...A smart, stylish, state-of-the-art thriller...might give Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books a run for their money.”—The Washington Post Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He’s also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as an Orphan, an off-the-books black box program designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence asset: An assassin. Evan was Orphan X—until he broke with the program and used everything he learned to disappear. But now someone is on his tail. Someone with similar skills and training who will exploit Evan’s secret new identity as the Nowhere Man to eliminate him. “Hurwitz melds nonstop action and high-tech gadgetry...in this excellent series opener.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

With over a million copies sold, this classic work is essential reading for all who ask, “Where has my struggle led me?” A chance encounter with a reproduction of Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son catapulted Henri Nouwen on an unforgettable spiritual adventure. Here he shares the deeply personal and resonant meditation that led him to discover the place within where God has chosen to dwell. As Nouwen reflects on Rembrandt’s painting in light of his own life journey, he evokes a powerful drama of the classic parable in a rich, captivating way that is sure to reverberate in the hearts of readers. Nouwen probes the several movements of the parable: the younger son’s return, the father’s restoration of sonship, the elder son’s resentfulness, and the father’s compassion. The themes of homecoming, affirmation, and reconciliation will be newly discovered by all who have known loneliness, dejection, jealousy, or anger. The challenge to love as God loves, and to be loved as God’s beloved, will be seen as the ultimate revelation of the parable known to Christians throughout time, and is here represented with a vigor and power fresh for our times.

The Arch® Book series tells popular Bible stories through fun-to-read rhymes and bright illustrations. This well-loved series captures the attention of children, telling scripturally sound stories that are enjoyable and easy to remember.

OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! It's the most powerful force in the universe, our only hope for love and forgiveness, and a foretaste of eternal life: amazing, radical, life-changing grace. Millions of lives have been changed by award-winning author Philip Yancey's startling exploration of grace at street level. Grace is the one thing the world can't duplicate, the healing force we need, and the key to transforming a broken world. In this revised and updated edition of his personal and provocative book, Yancey offers true portraits of grace's life-changing power. These stories, set in the midst of life's stark realities, evoke such questions as: If grace is God's love for the undeserving, how do I get it? How well are we dispensing grace to a world that knows far more of strife and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Can grace make a difference in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust, and how can it withstand the brutality of hate? With powerful stories, rich theology, and practical suggestions, Yancey challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately needs to know, What's So Amazing About Grace?

The New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Newsweek called renowned minister Timothy Keller "a C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century" in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, Keller takes his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity and uses the parable of the prodigal son to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation. Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way.

Reclaiming our prodigal sons and daughters offers a penetrating portrayal of the rootlessness of many of today's youth and a powerful, four-step plan for reaching them. The unique feature of this book is its accent on the spiritual dimension of contemporary youth problems and on the role that members of faith communities can play in reclaiming youth in conflict.

The fourth entry in this “compelling, passionate, and gritty” (Daily Mail, UK) series by internationally acclaimed bestselling author Colleen McCullough sends Carmine Delmonico on a heart-pounding ride through the world of toxic substances and brilliant biochemists to pursue a mysterious killer on the loose. When Chubb University biochemist Millie Hunter notices that a deadly neurotoxin is missing from her laboratory refrigerator, she knows the situation is grave: the poison, extracted from a blowfish, shuts down the nervous system, leading to a slow, gruesome, and virtually unstoppable death. The very next night, Millie and her husband, another exceptional biochemist, attend a black tie dinner for an old friend, John Hall. John’s stepmother, an exotic former Yugoslavian model, has assembled some of the most important—and eccentric—people from Chubb University for a lavish dinner. Notably missing is John’s Aunt Emily, who holds an old family grudge. After dinner, the men retire for cigars and whiskey, and John suddenly falls to the floor and dies a horrible death. The cause: a dose of the missing neurotoxin, administered through a tiny puncture wound in his neck. As the bodies pile up and the coroner keeps pointing to the neurotoxin, Captain Carmine Delmonico must find the killer fast. Assisted by his brilliant colleague Delia and his constant wife Desdemona (an excellent cook), Delmonico follows the trail—no matter how close to home it may lead.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1968.