Adult

You want to leave a mark, not a blemish. Be a hero, not a spectator. You want to be interesting. (Who doesn’t?) But sometimes it takes a nudge, a wake-up call, an intervention! --- and a little help. This is where Jessica Hagy comes in. A writer and illustrator of great economy, charm and insight, she’s created HOW TO BE INTERESTING, a uniquely inspirational how-to that combines fresh and pithy lessons with deceptively simple diagrams and charts.

James Claussen has played Santa for years, but now that he's a widower, he's lost interest --- in everything. So his daughter, Brooke, kidnaps him from the mall (in his Santa suit!) and takes him to Icicle Falls. She's arranged a special Christmas at the lodge owned by long-widowed Olivia Wallace and her son, Eric. And yet…Brooke wants Dad to be happy, but she's not ready to see someone else's mommy kissing Santa Claus. 

In A MOUNTAIN OF CRUMBS, Elena Gorokhova describes coming of age behind the Iron Curtain and leaving her mother and her Motherland for a new life in the United States. Now, in RUSSIAN TATTOO, Elena learns that the journey of an immigrant is filled with everyday mistakes, small humiliations and a loss of dignity. But through perseverance and resilience, she gradually adapts to her new country.

Nikola Tesla was a man forever misunderstood. From his boyhood in what is present-day Croatia, where his father, a Serbian Orthodox priest, dismissed his talents, to his tumultuous years in New York City, where his heated rivalry with Thomas Edison yielded triumphs and failures, Tesla was both demonized and lionized. TESLA: A PORTRAIT WITH MASKS captures the whirlwind years of the dawn of the electrical age, when his flair for showmanship kept him in the public eye.

When New York Times foreign correspondent J. B. Collins hears rumors that an al-Qaeda splinter cell --- ISIS --- has captured a cache of chemical weapons inside Syria, Collins knows this is a story he must pursue at all costs. Knowing that terrorist forces are already trying to bring down two Arab governments in the region --- Iraq and Syria --- can Collins uncover the truth before it’s too late? Or will the terrorists succeed in setting their sights on the third target and achieving genocide?

Twenty-year-old Lenore Fulcher's father wants to marry his daughter off to one of his business partners --- who is 17 years her senior --- an idea that is out of the question for Lenore. Kolbein Booth, a young lawyer from Chicago, arrives in Seattle looking for his headstrong sister, who he believes may have answered an advertisement for mail-order brides. Is this the man Lenore has been searching for? She may not have long to find out...

A lifelong student of the Bible, Pastor Rob Morgan has spent 40 years learning about maximizing each day and becoming purposeful and productive. Now he has found a simple plan that works --- featuring 10 biblical principles that transcend human wisdom. These patterns can be implemented today whether you’re a student or an octagenarian, a novice or an executive, and help you develop a perpetually effective life.

For years, Charlotte Withersby has been free to pursue her love of plants and flowers by assisting her botanist father. But an intrusive uncle has convinced her father that Charlotte's future is to be a wife and mother. Her father is so dependent on her assistance that Charlotte believes he'll soon change his mind...and then Edward Trimble shows up. Suddenly juggling more suitors than she knows what to do with, Charlotte is caught in a trap of her own making. Will she have no choice but to leave her beloved flowers behind?

What if the Bible were seen less as a tablet of ink than as a table of food? FROM TABLET TO TABLE invites readers to explore the importance of The Table in biblical theology, and what it might mean for us to bring back the table to our homes, our churches and our neighborhoods. Leonard Sweet explores how our failure to understand and appreciate “the most sacred item of furniture in every home” has created such a deficit in our fast-food, take-what-you-like-smorgasbord, together-but-separate society.

When Xerxes, king of Persia, issues a call for beautiful young women, Hadassah, a Jewish orphan, is forcibly taken to the pagan ruler's palace. The girl known to the Persians as Esther eventually wins the king's heart and a queen's crown. She keeps her ethnic identity a secret until she learns that an evil and ambitious man has won the king's permission to exterminate all Jews. Purposely violating an ancient Persian law, Esther risks her life in order to save her people...and bind her husband's heart.