It is 2001 in Vancouver, Canada. Guy Myles is a literary editor at a boutique publishing house. Yearning to revamp his bland life, he lands a job interview at a rival firm in New York, buys a van, and schedules a road trip. Just before he leaves, a manuscript about the late Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s life is dropped on his desk with a tight timeline. He must review it while traveling. His road trip quickly spirals into an adventure reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz. Guy tangles with his neighbors - members of a wicked motorcycle gang, the Broomsticks. Their mysterious dog, Ruby, sneaks into Guy’s van during a storm, and she becomes his first companion. The Broomsticks demand Ruby’s return, and a cross-country chase ensues. While evading capture, Guy meets a spacey waitress well-versed in random facts, the cynical, sometimes cruel daughter of an aging Hollywood movie star, a former supermodel assistant with a troubled past, and an Australian animal communicator who reveals a surprise connection. A Creature Unlike Any Other pays homage to Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, her biography wrapped in a fictional road-trip story based on the Wizard of Oz.

"Today's Supreme Court is unlike any other in American history. This is not just because of its jurisprudence. It is because today's Court is uniquely distanced from the democratic processes that buttress its legitimacy. For example, five of the nine justices took their seats after winning confirmation with the support of senators who won far fewer votes than their colleagues in opposition, and three of these five justices were also nominated by a president who lost the popular vote. In A Supreme Court Unlike Any Other, Kevin J. McMahon explains the broad historical developments that have brought us here. Drawing on historical and contemporary data and deep knowledge of Court battles during presidencies ranging from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, he offers new insight into the shifting politics of nominating and confirming justices, the changing pool of nominees considered for the Supreme Court, and the increased salience of the Court in presidential and congressional elections. A Supreme Court Unlike Any Other is an eye-opening account of today's Court within the context of US history and the broader structure of contemporary politics"--

Book 1 is a series of stories of my company-grade years beginning with learning to be a Marine Corps officer, then naval aviator. My first squadron experiences include learning to fly the first Marine Corps CH-53, being deployed overseas to Vietnam for my first of three combat tours, which are all described in book 1. The memoir stories contained in this book and a separate book 2 range in intensity from combat conditions during my three tours in the Vietnam War to unique escape-and-evasion-training experiences and to various leadership challenges and achievements, both in command positions as well as Marine Corps Headquarters' assignments, during his twenty-five-year career in the United States Marine Corps. Sgt. Charles Pogany (Pogy), LCpl. Arthur J. Pailes (A. J.), and Sgt. William Whitehurst (Whitey) have had the pleasure and honor to serve alongside Colonel Wemheuer. The three of us proudly represent the enlisted Marines in our Squadron and are proud to say that we flew with Colonel Wemheuer, then a captain, as his crew chief and aerial gunners under numerous intensive combat conditions. His calmness and clear-thinking during combat conditions gave us all the needed confidence in ourselves. The enlisted men held him in the highest respect and esteem. We flew with him with confidence that his experience and superb aviator skills would accomplish our missions and bring us all safely back to base. When we launched on our missions, we knew that the enemy was in for a major and painful demise. Instilled in his leadership traits were the Marine Corps core values of honor, courage, and commitment that made us formidable Marines with a mission. It was an honor to serve with him. Semper fidelis, Sgt. Charles Pogany (Pogy), LCpl. Arthur J. Pailes (A. J.), and Sgt. William Whitehurst (Whitey)

This PEN/Hemingway Award winner about coming of age in Los Angeles is a “little gem of a novel . . . a masterwork of Hollywood fiction” (Salon). He’s a child of 1940s Hollywood—specifically, Casa Fiesta, a ranch in the Malibu hills that he shares with his mother, a onetime Broadway headliner, and his father, a star of Westerns. But when his parents fall out of favor in Tinseltown, the narrator of this exquisitely crafted dark comedy loses his youthful idyll and accompanies his lovesick mother on a vodka-soaked international quest for romance and redemption. Meanwhile, his father lives in “diminished circumstances” in California, clinging to his silver-screen mementos, trusting that, someday soon, his ex-wife and his career will return. Tired of tending bar at his mother’s parties and listening to his father’s sad tales of former glory, the boy moves in with his best friend’s family in Beverly Hills. But nothing in La-La Land is quite what it seems, and when his new home turns out to be just as dysfunctional as the last, our teenage hero must somehow learn to accept his parents while finding the courage to break free and become his own man. This award-winning novel, “a kind of Catcher in the Rye for the Cheap Trick generation” (GQ), was cited by the Guardian as one of the “ten best neglected literary masterpieces.” Written by a New York Times–bestselling author who was a child of Hollywood movie stars himself, it has been praised for its “spectacularly deadpan humor” by the Atlantic Monthly and called “an insightful coming-of-age tale” by the Austin Chronicle.

Along with General Claire Chennault's "Flying Tigers," the men and planes of the 490th Bomb Squadron became famous as the "Burma Bridge Busters." From late 1942 to the end of the war, their incredible feats of low-level bombing and strafing of Japanese-held bridges, airfields, and troop facilities in occupied Burma hindered the Japanese advance in Asia, and provided critical air support for the allies fighting on the ground. The author's uncle, a radioman/waist gunner in the 490th, was killed on a mission in the waning days of the war. This book is both a search for his memory, and a tribute to the squadron in which he proudly served and sacrificed his lifethe "Burma Bridge Busters." The author was born and raised in Chicago. In addition to writing and traveling, he is an avid fisherman, hunter, and scuba diver. He has published Seasons of Harvest, a three-volume historical novel, and is at work on a second novel titled Cumberland Road. This book is his first nonfiction work.

It’s become fashionable among the liberal elite to downplay, deride, even deny America’s greatness. The political correctness police insist that America is “hated” around the world for being too big, too powerful, too rich, too successful, too loud, too intrusive. And besides, it’s not nice to brag. They are completely missing the point. America’s greatness, America’s exceptional greatness, is not based on that fact that we are the most powerful, most prosperous—and most generous—nation on earth. Rather, those things are the result of American Exceptionalism. To understand American Exceptionalism, as Newt Gingrich passionately argues in A Nation Like No Other, one must understand our unique birth as a nation. American Exceptionalism is found in the simple yet utterly remarkable principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.” Our nation is exceptional, continues Newt, because we—unlike any nation before or since—are united by the belief and the promise that no king, no government, no ruling class has the power to infringe upon the rights of the individual. And when such a government attempts to do so, we will vigorously reject them. Sadly, many politicians and leaders today have forgotten our sacred commitment to these ideals. Our government has strayed alarmingly far from the scope of limited powers framed by our Founders. Meanwhile, the liberal media seek out, and sometimes create, stories intended to portray America as a bully and a thief. Even our own president seems clueless, assuring us that yes, yes, he believes in American exceptionalism, just like the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism and the British in British exceptionalism. But American Exceptionalism is not about cheerleading for the home team. It’s about recognizing and honoring the history-making, world-changing ideals our Founding Fathers enshrined to make this a nation of the people, by the people, for the people. And, as Lincoln warned, we must rededicate ourselves to those principles, lest our truly exceptional nation perish from this earth.

In this commentary Old Testament scholar Bo Lim and theologian Daniel Castelo work together to help the church recover, read, and proclaim the prophetic book of Hosea in a way that is both faithful to its message and relevant to our contemporary context. Though the book of Hosea is rich with imagery and metaphor that can be difficult to interpret, Lim and Castelo show that, with its focus on corporate and structural sin, Hosea contains a critically important message for today’s church.

The lives of the Saints are one of the most powerful ways God draws people to himself, showing us the love and the joy we can find in him. But so often, these Saints seem distant—impossibly holy or dull or unlike us in race and age and state in life. In Saints Around the World, you’ll meet over one-hundred Saints from more than sixty countries, including Saints with different disabilities, strengths, and struggles. The beautiful illustrations and captivating storytelling will introduce you and your children to new heavenly friends while also helping you fall more in love with Jesus. Each story in this book is written not only to capture the imagination but also to speak about God’s tremendous love and our call to be saints. There are stories in Saints Around the World for when you feel like life isn’t fair, when people are being unkind to you, when you’ve made a terrible mistake, when you’re struggling at school, when prayer is hard. And there are stories of shouting down Nazis, of fleeing a murderous villain, of making scientific discoveries, of smoking a cigar while enemy soldiers amputate your leg. There are scared Saints, brilliant Saints, weak Saints, adventurous Saints, abused Saints, overjoyed Saints, disabled Saints—and the point of every one of them is the love of God. Whether you’re checking the map to find Saints who look like you or perusing the extensive indices to find Saints with your skills or struggles, you’ll find countless stories in this book that remind you how very possible holiness is.