Adult

Author A.J. Jacobs discovers that his coffee --- and every other item in our lives --- would not be possible without hundreds of people we usually take for granted: farmers, chemists, artists, presidents, truckers, mechanics, biologists, miners, smugglers and goatherds. By thanking these people face to face, Jacobs finds some much-needed brightness in his life. Gratitude does not come naturally to Jacobs --- his disposition is more Larry David than Tom Hanks --- but he sets off on the journey on a dare from his son. And by the end, it’s clear to him that scientific research on gratitude is true. Gratitude’s benefits are legion: It improves compassion, heals your body and helps battle depression.

Jack and Maria live in a claustrophobic Manhattan apartment with their eight-year-old son. While they both love Jonah, they don’t seem to have much else in common. When Jack finds out about a new extramarital dating app, he quickly meets Sophia, who goes by the online name Fugitive Red. Jack and Sophia hit it off and have a steamy online affair. When Jack agrees to rendezvous with Sophia at her townhouse, he discovers her dead and immediately becomes a person of interest in the murder. Convinced that Sophia’s husband is the killer, Jack sets out to prove his innocence and save his marriage. Instead, he leaves a trail of dead bodies in his wake. Worse, he discovers that he has been the victim of a sinister scheme that may cost him his life.

On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed. Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens.

Divorce lawyer Leigh Huyett knows all too well that most second marriages are doomed to fail. Yet five years in, she and Pete Conley couldn’t be happier with their blended family. But one rainy Friday night, Peter and Leigh receive horrific news. Peter’s son Kip, a high school senior, has crashed his truck and been arrested for drunk driving. And Leigh’s 14-year-old daughter, Chrissy, was with him. Twelve hours later, Chrissy is dead and Kip is charged with manslaughter. Leigh does her best to rally behind Peter and Kip. That is, until Kip changes his story and claims that he wasn’t driving after all --- Chrissy was, and he swears there is a witness. As they hurtle toward Kip’s trial date, husband and wife are torn between loyalty to their children and to each other, while the mystery of what really happened that night looms large.

On an unnamed island country 10 years after the collapse of a U.S.-supported regime, Lena suspects that the powerful senator she was involved with back in her student activist days is taking advantage of a young woman who's been introducing him at rallies. When the young woman ends up dead, Lena revisits her own fraught history with the senator and the violent incident that ended their relationship. Why didn't Lena speak up then, and will her family's support of the former regime still impact her credibility? What if her hunch about this young woman's death is wrong?

Gretchen and Steve have been married for a long time. Living in San Francisco, recently separated, with two children and demanding jobs, they’ve started going to a marriage counselor. Unfolding over the course of 10 months and taking place entirely in the marriage counselor’s office, John Jay Osborn’s LISTEN TO THE MARRIAGE is the story of a fractured couple in a moment of crisis, and of the person who tries to get them to see each other again.

In the dead of winter, state troopers pull two young women and their car from an icy river. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene --- half frozen but alive. What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community’s memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river 10 years earlier, and whose killer may still live among them. Determined to find answers, the surviving young woman soon realizes that she’s connected to the earlier unsolved case by more than just a river. The deeper she plunges into her own investigation, the closer she comes to dangerous truths, and to the violence that simmers just below the surface of her hometown.

In 2015, John Burke's IMAGINE HEAVEN uncovered an exhilarating picture of Heaven, drawn from Scripture and illustrated with true stories of near-death experiences. This New York Times bestseller offered real-life evidence that supported readers' faith and answered some of their most pressing questions about life after death. Now you can meditate daily on the realities of Heaven with the IMAGINE HEAVEN DEVOTIONAL. Each of the 100 devotions in this book includes a near-death story from IMAGINE HEAVEN, Scripture and a prayer, as well as brand-new stories and content that will help you meditate on the life to come as you apply God's heavenly promises to how you live life today.

In 1989, Jodi McCarty is 17 years old when she’s sentenced to life in prison. When she’s released 18 years later, she finds herself at a Greyhound bus stop, reeling from the shock of unexpected freedom but determined to chart a better course for herself. Not yet able to return to her lost home in the Appalachian Mountains, she heads south in search of someone she left behind, as a way of finally making amends. There, she meets and falls in love with Miranda, a troubled young mother living in a motel room with her children. Together they head toward what they hope will be a fresh start. But what do you do with your past --- and with a town and a family that refuses to forget, or to change?