Scout Shannon's whole family died the day the Space Farers dropped an asteroid on their domed city. Now she lives alone, out in the wild with only her dogs for company. She prefers it that way. But Scout finds herself at a crossroads. One road leads back to a quiet life snug under the protective dome of a city. The other road leads to a life in the rebellion, a life of adventure and excitement but also danger. Dare she try to find the rebels hiding in the hills? Then a chance encounter with a stranger from the other side of the galaxy threatens to derail what remains of Scout's life. The entire galaxy awaits her, if she survives the next four days. "Under Falling Skies", a young adult science fiction novel, set on a remote planet with a distinctly Old West feel. For fans of gunslinging women and young girl assassins. And dogs.

It all started with Penelope.Or perhaps Jane, for Jane's letter sent Edgar on the first leg of his improbable journey.The man Penelope wed in Edgar's place lies at the bottom of the sea, her heart with him. Bedridden, she vomits sea water and slowly drowns. She needs her heart back. But Jane lost something else, something more than her heart."On Desperate Seas" follows a ship searching for the remains of the Sir John Franklin Expedition but finding something deadlier lurking beneath the Arctic Sea.

A teenage girl must grapple with her agoraphobia as romance blossoms with her new neighbor in this YA novel—“a poignant work, infused with humor” (School Library Journal). Seventeen-year-old Norah Dean hasn’t left the house in years. Her agoraphobia and OCD are so intense that when groceries are left on the porch, she can’t even step out to get them. Struggling to snag the bags with a stick, she meets Luke. He’s sweet and funny, and he just caught her fishing for groceries. Because of course he did. Norah can’t leave the house, but can she let someone in? As their friendship grows deeper, Norah realizes Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can lie on the front lawn and look up at the stars. One who isn’t so screwed up. Readers themselves will fall in love with Norah in this deeply engaging portrait of a teen struggling to find the strength to face her demons.

Author Jeffrey Cox conducts a thorough and compelling investigation of the Java Sea Campaign, the first major sea battle of the Pacific War, which inflicted huge costs on the Allies and set the stage for Japan's rout across the Pacific and Indian oceans. Few events have ever shaken a country in the way that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor affected the United States. The Japanese forces then continued to overwhelm the Allies, attacking Malaya with its fortress of Singapore, and taking resource-rich islands in the Pacific in their own blitzkrieg offensive. Allied losses in these early months after America's entry into the war were great, and among the most devastating were those suffered during the Java Sea Campaign, where a small group of Americans, British, Dutch, and Australians were isolated in the Far East – directly in the path of the Japanese onslaught. It would be the first major sea battle of World War II in the Pacific.

Ku-Aya drives her goats towards home, but danger follows close at their heels. Hungry hyenas desperate for food, sure, but something worse that drives the hyenas on. The fog. It rolls in from the mountains at sunset. The cities built walls to protect them, but Ku-Aya's village lies bare, only standing stones marking the graves of her ancestors keep her safe. If she reaches them in time. A stranger fights the hyenas but stands in motionless terror at the fog. Ku-Aya knows a citydweller when she sees one, but why so far from the cities? "In the Waste Places", a high fantasy set in the "Goddess-Bereft World", continues the story of Enanatuma from the story "Oil Fire".

When a demon takes up residence in the princess's chambers, the onmyoji of Heian-Kyo find themselves fatally outmatched. They send for a famed onmyoji from a distant prefecture but his widow Chiaki arrives in his place. How can this old woman succeed where master onmyoji failed? The head of the order believes her the real power behind her husband, but the young apprentice Kenji suspects Chiaki hides another, deeper secret. Set in the ornately structured world of tenth century Japan, “The Onmyoji’s Wife” shows just how much power a good marriage can generate.

When Pa left Pete in charge of his sisters on the farm overnight he stated only one rule: no talking to the Greens.No need to spell that out, Pete thinks. Every child knows never to speak to the Greens. An easy rule to follow. The Greens keep to themselves.Then a Green turns up in the yard with a strange object. The Green wants something. They refuse to leave until Pete figures it out. And Pete always strives to be neighborly."Beingly Neighborly", a science fiction short story originally published in Analog magazine.

Murdina Ritchie put everything on the line to earn one chance to prove herself at the Oymyakon Foreign Service Academy. Just one chance. Despite the bad reputation that comes with her family name, despite the bullies desperate to see her fail, she refuses to back down from any opportunity to show her worth. Everyone at the academy knows her skill, knows her inability to compromise in the pursuit of excellence, and knows her drive for success at all costs that borders on desperation. But all of that common knowledge works against her when a bullying upper class cadet dies in a freak training accident that looks a lot like murder. Because now everyone knows that Murdina Ritchie tops any possible list of suspects. Suddenly she finds a goal beyond proving her worth: proving her own innocence. This is the second book in the complete six-book THE RITCHIE AND FITZ SCI-FI MURDER MYSTERIES series.

The 21st century sustains one significant commonality with the decades of the preceding century. The majority of individuals parenting on their own and heading one-parent families continue to be mothers. Even so, current trends in globalization (economic, political, cultural) along with technological advancement, shifts in political, economic and social policy, contemporary demographic shifts, changing trends in the labor sector linked to global economics, and developments in legislative and judicial output, all signify the distinctiveness of the current moment with regard to family patterns and social norms. Seeking to contribute to an existing body of literature focused on single motherhood and lone parenting in the 20th century, this collection explores and illuminates a more recent landscape of 21st century debates, policies and experiences surrounding single motherhood and one-parent headed families.

History sleeps beneath them all, but only she sees it. Lafayette Eloi always knew her parents thought differently from others. They kept their books buried beneath her mother’s house. They spoke an old language in the dead of night, whispering behind closed doors and bolted shutters. She grew up in a village where no one was related to her, and she never knew why. Then, after her mother died, her father came to fetch her. Now she and her mother’s dog assist her father in his work. The work discussed in whispers in the dark. The work that had cost Lafayette so much all her young life. But now she learns just how much her father’s work means to their entire world. Only no one knows anything about it. Only her father. And only Lafayette. Because the work that consumed her father’s entire life and her mother’s too now nibbles at the fringe’s of Lafayette’s own life. And she cannot refuse its call.