Daily Archives: June 11, 2017

Dry: A Memoirby Augusten Burroughs

The Tenth Anniversary Edition of the New York Times bestselling book that has sold over half a million copies in paperback.
“I was addicted to “Bewitched” as a kid. I worshipped Darren Stevens the First. When he’d come home from work and Samantha would say, ‘Darren, would you like me to fix you a drink?’ He’d always rest his briefcase on the table below the mirror in the foyer, wipe his forehead with a monogrammed handkerchief and say, ‘Better make it a double.'” (from Chapter Two)

You may not know it, but you’ve met Augusten Burroughs. You’ve seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twentysomething guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn’t really a request) of his employers, Augusten lands in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey Jr. are immediately dashed by grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click and that’s when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life–and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that’s as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is true. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a Higher Power.

Woodwalker: Creatures of Light, Book 1by Emily B. Martin

“What on earth would I gain from that?” I asked him. “Risk my own neck by violating my banishment just to leave you? The sentence placed on me if I return is execution. If I’m entering the mountains again, I’d damn well better get something out of it.”

Exiled from the Silverwood and the people she loves, Mae has few illusions about ever returning to her home. But when she comes across three out-of-place strangers in her wanderings, she finds herself contemplating the unthinkable: risking death to help a deposed queen regain her throne.

And if anyone can help Mona Alastaire of Lumen Lake, it is a former Woodwalker—a ranger whose very being is intimately tied to the woods they are sworn to protect. Mae was once one of the best, and despite the potential of every tree limb to become the gibbet she’s hanged from, she not only feels a duty to aid Mona and her brothers, but also to walk beneath her beloved trees once more.

A grand quest in the tradition of great epic fantasies, filled with adventure and the sharp wit—and tongue—of a unique hero, Woodwalker is the perfect novel to start your own journey into the realm of magical fiction.

The Banished Landsby Benjamin Mester

Book One introduces Durian, a simple woodworker in the town of Suriya, seated at the edge of the kingdom. His ambition is modest: preserve the failing business handed down to him from his father. But strange things brewing in Thob Forest, his only source of timber, have strained him to the brink. A mysterious fog blankets the forest, and none are now brave enough to venture there. A dark plot unfolds as Durian and his friends discover ties between a strange wanderer and the warlike barbarian kingdom far to the north. Are the mysterious things happening in Thob Forest a prelude to invasion? What happens next will propel Durian and his curious friends into the middle of the oldest riddle in the history of their kingdom, twelve centuries in the making. This book is kid friendly.

Appetite for Innocenceby Lucinda Berry

Be careful what you post online. Your next check-in might lead him right to you…

A serial rapist is kidnapping teenage girls. But he’s not interested in just any teenage girls–only virgins. He hunts them by following their status updates and check-ins on social media. Once he’s captured them, they’re locked away in his sound-proof basement until they’re groomed and ready. He throws them away like pieces of trash after he’s stolen their innocence. Nobody escapes alive.

Until Ella.

Ella risks it all to escape, setting herself and the other girls free. But only Sarah–the girl whose been captive the longest–gets out with her. The girls are hospitalized and surrounded by FBI agents who will stop at nothing to find the man responsible. Ella and Sarah are the key to their investigation, but Sarah’s hiding something and it isn’t long before Ella discovers her nightmare is far from over.

Fans of The Butterfly Garden and The Girl Before will devour Appetite for Innocence

Unite! The 4 Mindset Shifts for Senior Leadersby Sal Silvester

For many senior leaders, promotion is just the start of a whole new set of unexpected challenges. There are executive leaders to please and junior leaders to lead. Many for the first time are asked to work on multiple teams with peers who have competing priorities. They might now be responsible for areas of the organization in which they don’t have technical expertise.

Some senior leaders seem to have advanced through the sheer force of driving results, often at the cost of high employee compliance and burnout. Others appear to have attained senior roles through the influence of their charismatic personality, without producing much in the way of sustained business outcomes. Too many leaders are promoted because of what they know or how long they have worked, rather than their skill in managing others. As the complexity of the senior leader role increases and the consequences of a leader’s behaviors are multiplied, how can one successfully make the transition to senior leadership? What does it take to succeed at that level?

Unite! The 4 Mindset Shifts for Senior Leaders explores the four shifts in mindset that help a senior leader balance both results and relationships so they can ultimately unite the people around them. Audiences will walk away with new insights and distinctions of how to transition successfully into senior leadership roles. Senior leaders will learn to fine tune how they function with their team and other senior leaders and to build a strong succession framework.

Beautiful Corpseby eden Hudson

The best thief in the history of the Revived Earth is back, and this time it’s personal.

A deadly plague is ravaging the world’s population and threatening to kill the only person Jubal Van Zandt cares about–himself. If he doesn’t find a cure soon, he’s dead.

The most promising lead is buried in the ruins of an ancient sunken city stalked by savage predators, cunning parasites, and the twisted souls of long-dead mages. It would take an army to get Jubal inside … or just one of the most renowned knights in Guild history. The one Jubal betrayed and left for dead eighteen months ago.

First Jubal has to convince her not to kill him. Then he has to convince her to help save him.

PRAISE FOR BEAUTIFUL CORPSE:
“Jubal Van Zandt is a terrible person–dark, arrogant, and narcissistic to his soul–yet you also can’t help but love him. And likewise, his story is a dark and often painful thing, but sprinkled with occasional glimpses of hope and maybe even redemption.”
–James A. Hunter, Author of the Yancy Lazarus Series and Viridian Gate Online

The Rogueby Lee Brainard

“Men’s hearts shall fail from fear…for the planets of the heavens shall be shaken” (Luke 21:26).

When rookie astronomer Irina Kirilenko discovers a planet-size comet in the Kuiper Belt on a collision course for Mars, she first faces stonewalling from the Minor Planet Center, then coercion and stricture from NASA. They press her to embrace an ingenious reinterpretation of her discovery and ban her from talking about it.

It slowly dawns on her that the government is fostering a massive conspiracy to keep the public oblivious to the truth–Earth is facing an existential threat. Unwilling to be silenced, she recruits fellow astronomer Ariele Serrafe to evaluate her discovery, placing both in the crosshairs of government agents.

Set in a dystopian vision of the near future, The Rogue, the first volume of the Planets Shaken series, weaves the threads of biblical prophecy, ancient history, government conspiracy, and electric universe theory into a thought-provoking, tensely plotted thriller–one that asks us to reconsider the nature of the universe and the destiny of the world.