“Faith, Hope and Gravity” is the spiritual, magical adventure of teenage Liam Kane as he discovers some of the same lessons Merrill Osmond learned as the world-traveling lead singer of the Osmond Brothers. Like Merrill, Liam is often misunderstood as he helps those seeking for purpose in their extraordinary talents. Liam's visionary abilities gain him international notoriety as “The Prophecy Boy” who swims with dolphins, dreams of a mysterious red door, and champions those who are often misjudged for their uncommon gifts. Surviving kidnapping, near-drowning, and imprisonment leads to the discovery that despite differences, when people respect each other and their wide variety of abilities, the thread of commonality that runs through mankind grows ever stronger. Turn the pages to join in this unforgettable journey.

When an elevator falls in a major city, nine lives intersect in surprising ways, both comic and tragic—through love and sex, poetry and dentistry; in offices, homes, and hotel rooms. Jill longs for Steve, who’s engaged to Barb, who hooks up with Peter, who’s already having an affair with Nan, who’s married to Marty, who subscribes to Elevator World. Meanwhile, nine stories off the ground, Douglas meets Tanya—who’s hoping to get pregnant with Hal—and a little miracle changes hands. By turns hilarious and profound, HOPE AND GRAVITY traces the barely perceivable threads that connect us all.

“My vocation was supposed to be joy, and I was speaking at funerals.” Shortly after being hired by Yale University to study joy, Angela Gorrell got word that a close family member had died by suicide. Less than a month later, she lost her father to a fatal opioid addiction and her nephew, only twenty-two years old, to sudden cardiac arrest. The theoretical joy she was researching at Yale suddenly felt shallow and distant—completely unattainable in the fog of grief she now found herself in. But joy was closer at hand than it seemed. As she began volunteering at a women’s maximum-security prison, she met people who suffered extensively yet still showed a tremendous capacity for joy. Talking with these women, many of whom had struggled with addiction and suicidal thoughts themselves, she realized: “Joy doesn’t obliterate grief. . . . Instead, joy has a mysterious capacity to be felt alongside sorrow and even—sometimes most especially—in the midst of suffering.” This is the story of Angela’s discovery of an authentic, grounded Christian joy. But even more, it is an invitation for others to seize upon this more resilient joy as a counteragent to the twenty-first-century epidemics of despair, addiction, and suicide—a call to action for communities that yearn to find joy and are willing to “walk together through the shadows” to find it.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.

In July 1745, Charles Edward Stuart landed in Scotland and raised his royal colours to stake his claim to the British throne. The Jacobite rebellion to oust the German King George of England began and many highland clans pledged their support for the struggle. The driving force for the novel is the transformation of James MacGillivray, the son of the clan chieftain, from a naive young Scottish highlander living the easy-going life of a cattle herder to the harsh reality of the battle-hardened warrior. With the help of Robbie, his older brother, he has to put aside his genial manner and force himself to serve his clan. The horror of warfare, the noise, smells, and inhumanity as men brutality slay one another eventually becomes second nature to his survival. The rebellion, nothing more than a folly, concludes in the humiliating defeat of the Jacobites in April 1746 on Culloden Moor, north of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. James, defeated in battle, lives as an exile in his own country, before being captured and sent to the prison hulks in England. He is then forced to enlist in the British Army as they attempt to subdue Ireland, he spies for the Irish Brotherhood, fights in the American Colonies as the British oust the French, and finally returns to Scotland where he can seek retribution against his wrongdoers. His journey into manhood is harrowing as he deals with imprisonment, betrayal, and personal loss. Throughout the ordeal, James placed his trust in an heirloom, a silver plaid brooch, a lucky talisman that has served him and his clan well in the past.

Food is more than simple sustenance. It feeds our minds as well as our bodies. It nurtures us emotionally as well as physically. It holds memories. In fact, one of the surprising consequences of globalization and urbanization is the expanding web of emotional attachments to farmland, to food growers, and to place. And there is growing affection, too, for home gardening and its “grow your own food” ethos. Without denying the gravity of the problems of feeding the earth’s population while conserving its natural resources, Seeds of Resistance, Seeds of Hope reminds us that there are many positive movements and developments that demonstrate the power of opposition and optimism. This broad collection brings to the table a bag full of tools from anthropology, sociology, genetics, plant breeding, education, advocacy, and social activism. By design, multiple voices are included. They cross or straddle disciplinary, generational, national, and political borders. Contributors demonstrate the importance of cultural memory in the persistence of traditional or heirloom crops, as well as the agency exhibited by displaced and persecuted peoples in place-making and reconstructing nostalgic landscapes (including gardens from their homelands). Contributions explore local initiatives to save native and older seeds, the use of modern technologies to conserve heirloom plants, the bioconservation efforts of indigenous people, and how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been successfully combated. Together they explore the conservation of biodiversity at different scales, from different perspectives, and with different theoretical and methodological approaches. Collectively, they demonstrate that there is reason for hope.

This book is a beacon for those who seek to intertwine their spiritual path with everyday actions of compassion and love. Whether you're an athlete pushing your physical and mental limits, a student exploring life's vast possibilities, or anyone yearning for a deeper sense of meaning, "HOPE" invites you to discover the sacredness in helping others.

She’s stuck on the wrong planet… Lena is supposed to be back on Earth, but any chance of returning home was stolen by the aliens who kidnapped her. She’s safe from those pirates now, but she’s going crazy on Aorsa with nothing to do. Her only hope lies with Solan, the smokin’ hot military leader responsible for rescuing her from her former captors. She’ll team up with him to earn her wings—literally—but no matter what, they’re not falling in love. He can’t claim a human… Things were simple in the military: follow orders, take out bad guys, protect his people. At home in Osais, Solan has a heap of family obligations and expectations he can’t live up to. Adding a human Match on top of things will only complicate matters, but a Matched unit could go far in the Synnr military. To bond with Lena, he has rules and one is more important than any other: their relationship is strictly professional. But when they fail to gel as a unit, they’re sent off to intensive training in the middle of nowhere. Just Solan, Lena, and a house determined to hone them into the best team they can be. When sparks start flying, there’s nothing to stop the two of them from crashing together with explosive heat. The Zulir Warrior Mates series brings you feisty women, alpha aliens, fated mates, and relationships hot enough to steam up your screen. This book is great for readers of paranormal romance and sci fi romance who love to read in their free time!