Adult

Nothing reveals the gaps in our theology like a big, bad battle. In her first book, BEAUTIFUL BATTLEFIELDS, Bo Stern discussed the ways her family’s battle with ALS has made them stronger and more effective than they have ever been --- crediting the mercy of God and a solid understanding of His character. In her new book, RUTHLESS, Bo’s theology gets wonderfully practical as readers discover what God does for them and through them during “battles” they are engaged in.

In a world where atheism is a growing movement, especially in the university setting, it’s typical for students today to face doubts about the Christian faith. In fact, many have wondered at one time or another if the Bible stories about Jesus could possibly be true. Now students can join Greg Monette as he explores the fascinating basis for belief in the biblical Jesus.

The goal of GOD'S NOT DEAD is to help readers develop “a faith that is real and credible --- and strong enough to help others find faith in God.” To that end, Rice Broocks outlines a roadmap that guides seekers to acknowledge the most basic truths of Christianity. Persuasive arguments crafted with tools borrowed from logic, science and philosophy, as well as scripture, solidify the faith of the Christian reader and provide starting points for discussions with skeptics.

Joyce Carol Oates is an unparalleled investigator of human flaws. In these eight stories, she deftly tests the bonds between damaged individuals --- a brother and sister, a teacher and student, two strangers on a subway --- in the fearless prose for which she’s become so celebrated. She confronts, one by one, the demons within us. Sometimes it’s the human who wins, and sometimes it’s the demon.

In the summer of 1876, San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead. The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny's murderer to justice --- if he doesn't track her down first.

A beautiful young woman appears fully dressed in an overflowing bathtub at the Frangipani Hotel in Hanoi. A jaded teenage girl in Houston befriends an older Vietnamese gentleman she discovers naked behind a dumpster. A trucker in Saigon is asked to drive a dying young man home to his village. In these evocative and always surprising stories, the supernatural coexists with the mundane lives of characters who struggle against the burdens of the past.

Wherever the Ghosts in the Mind painting goes, death seems to follow. Danni, the owner of an eccentric antiques shop, and Quinn, a private detective, have discovered that they have separate but complementary talents when it comes to investigating unusual situations and are quickly drawn into the case. The people in the portrait might be dead, but something seems to wake them and free them to commit bloody crimes. Cafferty and Quinn must discover what that is. And they have to destroy it --- before it destroys them.

Over the course of one school year --- seventh grade --- 12-year-old Kevin Brockmeier sets out in search of himself. Along the way, he happens into his first kiss at a church party, struggles to understand why his old friends tease him at the lunch table, becomes the talk of the entire school thanks to his Halloween costume, and booby-traps his lunch to deter a thief.

Duluth PD Lieutenant Jonathan Stride discovers a young woman, Cat Mateo, hiding in his bedroom. Cat is the daughter of a woman he tried and failed to protect from a violent husband years ago. When Cat asks Stride for protection from a mysterious person she claims is trying to kill her, Stride is driven by guilt and duty to help her. But should he be afraid for --- or of --- this damaged girl?

THE INSURGENTS tells the inside story of the small group of soldier-scholars, led by Gen. David Petraeus, who plotted to revolutionize the oldest, stodgiest institution in America --- the military. Working from secret documents, private emails, and interviews with more than 100 key characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Fred Kaplan details how these men and women forged a community (a “cabal,” some of them called it), manipulated the bureaucracy, and changed official policy.