Travel

Touched (The Marnie Baranuik Files Book 1)by A.J. Aalto

The media has a nickname for Marnie Baranuik, though she’d rather they didn’t; they call her the Great White Shark, a rare dual-talented forensic psychic. Twice-Touched by the Blue Sense–which gives her the ability to feel the emotions of others, and read impressions left behind on objects–Marnie also has a doctorate in preternatural biology and a working knowledge of the dark arts. She is considered without peer in the psychic community.

Then her first big FBI case ended with a bullet in one shoulder and a chip on the other, a queasy heart and a serial killer in the wind, leaving her a public flop and a private wreck. When the FBI’s preternatural crimes unit tracks her down at a remote mountain lodge for her insight on a local case, her quiet retirement is promptly besieged by a stab-happy starlet, a rampaging ghoul, and a vampire-hunting jackass in tight Wranglers. Marnie figures the only real mystery is which one will kill her first.

Too mean to die young, backed up by friends in cold places, and running with a mouth as demure as a cannon’s blast, Marnie Baranuik is about to discover that there’s no such thing as quitting time when you’re Touched.

The Devil You Knowby Terry Tyler

Every serial killer is someone’s friend, spouse, lover or child….

Young women are being murdered in the Lincolnshire town of Lyndford, where five people fear someone close to them might be the monster the police are searching for.
One of them is right.

Juliet sees an expert’s profile of the average serial killer and realises that her abusive husband, Paul, ticks all the boxes.

Maisie thinks her mum’s new boyfriend seems too good to be true. Is she the only person who can see through Gary’s friendly, sensitive façade?

Tamsin is besotted with her office crush, Jake. Then love turns to suspicion…

Steve is used to his childhood friend, Dan, being a loud mouthed Lothario with little respect for the truth. But is a new influence in his life leading him down a more sinister path?

Dorothy’s beloved son, Orlando, is keeping a secret from her–a chilling discovery forces her to confront her worst fears.

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is a character-driven psychological drama that will keep you guessing until the very end.

From Shy to Hi: Tame Social Anxiety, Meet New People and Build Self-Confidenceby Michal Stawicki

The quiet masses: the curse of being shy

Shyness exists in every corner of the world, every level of society, every workplace and school, in boardrooms, bars, churches and bus stops, in places large and small. The digital age, with all the interconnection it offers, has only made things worse. For those living under the shyness curse, life can be discomforting at best and terrifying at worst. While many people experiencing social anxiety simply resign themselves to the fact and retreat from social interaction, this need not be the case.

OK, so I am shy. So what? That’s just who I am.

While shyness may seem just as much a part of you as your elbow, the difference between your elbow and your shyness is that you weren’t born with your shyness. It was cultivated and fostered over the years (quite possibly unknowingly) through the processes of your (sneaky) mind. There is good news here for you. You might never succeed at thinking away your elbow, but you can apply your mind’s amazing power to banish your social anxiety for good!

Tell it All A Woman’s Life in Polygamyby Fanny Stenhouse

“In these pages, a woman, a wife and mother, speaks the sorrows and oppressions of which she has been the witness and the victim.” Harriet Beecher Stowe

Fanny Stenhouse’s famous work Tell it All is a withering attack on the practice of polygamy that developed as a prominent tenet of Mormon faith in the nineteenth century.

She begins her story with an account of how as a young woman her family had converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and how she had attracted the attention, and subsequently married, T. B. H. Stenhouse.

Living in Europe they were unaware of how their religion was developing in the Midwest and how the practice of plural marriage was beginning to become ever more prevalent among the members of their faith.

Responding to encouragement and counselling they eventually emigrated to the promised land of Utah and to their horror they began to learn that the rumors of Joseph Smith’s polygamic revelation were true and that some of the church leadership, such as Brigham Young, had over fifty wives.

Tell it All provides fascinating insight into how the Mormon faith was developing in the mid-nineteenth century and how women such as Fanny were struggling to come to terms with doctrines such as polygamy.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints largely distanced itself from polygamy in the later-nineteenth century, much due to the work of women such as Fanny Stenhouse and others including a former wife of Brigham Young, Ann Eliza Young.

This book also uncovers some of the other darker moments of Mormon history such as the Mountains Meadows Massacre, in which the men and women of an emigrant wagon train were indiscriminately slaughtered by Mormons of the Nauvoo Legion.

“added more details on polygamy, on Brigham Young’s life in polygamy, and on the Mountains Meadows Massacre” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal

Fanny Stenhouse was an early Mormon pioneer who, along with her husband T. B. H. Stenhouse, defected from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, largely due to their disagreements with the church about polygamy. Tell it All A Woman’s Life in Polygamy was first published in 1872 and Fanny passed away in 1904.

Ruthless: Book 6 of the Mia Kazmaroff Mysteriesby Susan Kiernan-Lewis

A new serial killer always kills on Friday and next morning sends a body part and note saying where to find the body to Atlanta Major Crimes division. When Mia’s new stepsister is abducted, Mia thinks she knows things the police don’t. Should she stay out of it and let the police do their job? One thing is sure: The clock is ticking down and unless someone acts quickly, her stepsister will be the killer’s next victim.

My Creative Billionaireby Ali Parker

From USA Today Best Selling author Ali Parker

Being rich means living up to the expectations of others… even when you don’t want to.

Matt’s always known what it was like to live on the high end of society, and where his brother and father love it… he hates it. A creative at heart, he’s forced into the world of Accounting to help stand beside the family name and build an empire from the ground up. His true passion is art, life and love.

Erica is the Chief Advertising Officer for Bryant Accounting Firm and has had her eye on the CEO’s son, Matthew for quite some time. He’s a bit docile in public, and often plays the fool, but something tells her that a very different man exists just beneath the surface. She’s willing to wager her career by taking Matt beneath her wing, and hopefully to her bed.

Steady As She Goesby John Molloy

This delightful book is a must for the avid reader. As his journey through youth begins, so does his understanding of the culture of his ship board life and the traits, good and bad of his companions. He brings an insight into the often mysterious habits of people in countries half a world away from his homeland in Ireland. Side by side with his skills as a seaman, he shows through his exciting writing that he has further skills which give this book an authority which will surely stand as a record of life at sea in a time of great change for seafarers, ashore and afloat.
Its light-hearted and humorous approach guarantees continuous enjoyment to the reader. It becomes a constant companion until the final page is read. Don’t miss it.
Capt. Douglas

Sign on for an unforgettable voyage round the oceans of the world; from the frozen Arctic to the tropical coast of Java. A true-life story of coming of age in the 1950s Irish merchant navy, with adventure, romance and heartbreak.

Digital Stockholm Syndrome in the Post-Ontological Ageby Mark Jarzombek

MIT professor, Mark Jarzombek, rethinks the increasingly tight but for most people invisible relationship between humans and algorithms. The modern person is increasingly determined by data exhaust—an invisible anthropocentric ether of ones and zeros that is a product of our digitally monitored age. The author argues that the world has become designed to fuse the algorithmic with the ontological into a new geo-political relationship. Digital Stockholm Syndrome in the Post-Ontological Age looks at the history of this relationship, but also proposes a new theoretical understanding that helps explain the rise of paranoia as the new normal. Described as a “loose, funny, incisive, informative, post-historical manifesto,” the book sees data technology less a question about computers, than as a hallucinogenic regime that has trapped nation states and corporations – not to mention hackers of various sorts – into ever grander schemes of inter-dependency. As a result, the core philosophical question, ‘Who am I?’ has now to be addressed in ways that are fundamentally different from even a decade ago, especially since ‘the social’ today has become a vast laboratory where our data is processed and manufactured – and of course inevitably ‘lost’ or ‘stolen.’ As we play our part in these vast transgressive networks, what does it even mean then to be human? Though the issues are serious and pressing, the book is meant to be easily accessible to the general reader.

Epiphany – THE GOLDINGby Sonya Deanna Terry

Rosetta Melki, an idealist whose philanthropy dream has been all but crushed by her sole-parent struggles, is enchanted by Our True Ancient History. Lillibridge’s tale about a gold-obsessed empire (and the sprites they oppress: elfin clan dwellers whose currency of choice is kindness) has evoked a memory Rosetta cannot explain.

Rosetta’s website surrounding the reading group she’s begun with friends has inspired the emergence of other Lillibridge book clubs. Her own Sydney group meets fortnightly at a vintage bungalow, the rental home she secured to escape a gruesome intruder.

In a more affluent part of Sydney, finance executive Matthew Weissler (polished, successful, admired) has been questioning his slave-to-the-dollar existence and his marriage to a tantrum-throwing shopaholic. And now he’s questioning his sanity after finding he’s been followed by an elf.

But who is the creepy intruder? A prowler from the suburb Rosetta and her teenaged daughter fled…or a traveller from the past, determined to suppress an ancient memory that will change the world forever?

The Nanny Songby Misty Mount

Mallory Riscoe is no stranger to dysfunction. Despite her tumultuous childhood, at age twenty-two, she has established herself as a fully functional, self-made woman. However, the safe, mundane life she’s created for herself is quickly turned upside down when she’s falsely accused of theft and promptly fired.

Meanwhile, a dismal pall hangs over the Colt residence. Since the death of his wife, Brendan Colt has struggled to care for his children, Kason and Meela. Each is lost in their own deep grief, but there is more to this family than meets the eye.

Two worlds collide when Mallory accepts the job as nanny to the Colt children. Mallory begins to feel a connection, a whisper of trust between them, that could mean there is still hope for everyone involved to heal. But when an unspeakable secret is uncovered, that bond–and possibly Mallory’s life itself–is now at risk.

Can Mallory unlock the mystery intertwined in this chaotic family or will all hope of closure be lost forever?