One life ended in tragedy. Another challenged by a promise. Will a teen's twenty-year journey to make his dad proud change him into the man he's meant to be? In 1966, Jim Pepperman comes home from practice to the news that his dad has died in an oil rig accident. Not only has the high school football star lost his mentor and best friend, but when his mom moves the family from Texas to New Jersey, he's forced to say goodbye to his home, his team, and his chance for a football scholarship. Facing senior year in a new school with no friends, Jim struggles to keep the promise he made after his dad died to be a substitute father for his two younger sisters and a shoulder for his mom. But stepping into his dad's shoes at seventeen feels impossible, the same way giving up the dream to play pro ball is harder than Jim thought. And senior year is just the beginning.
When Jim and Laura Pepperman find a musty German Olympic jacket and an old journal in their attic, they stumble onto a gripping pre-World War II story of a cousin Jim knows nothing about. After a career-ending injury forces Hans Pepperman to lose his spot on the 1936 Olympic boxing team, he trades his athletic aspirations for a degree in mechanical engineering and secures his dream job working for the famous Willy Messerschmitt. Tasked to solve the stalling issues of the BF109 fighter plane engine, Hans finds himself smack in the middle of the Abwher Intelligence Service's radar. Pro-Germany but anti-Nazi, he reluctantly agrees to help flush out the spy leaking secret information on the BF109 engine to foreign agencies . . . and finds himself a suspect of espionage and murder. Unsure who to trust, he must unravel the tangle of lies he's caught in before he falls prey to the Nazi agenda slowly and stealthily taking over the country he loves.
This book, authored by three preachers known for their ability to communicate in today's language, focuses on the particular challenge of effective week in week out preaching.
The war on terror is heating up. The fanatical new Sultan of Brunei decides to make his presence felt on an international scale-with a nightmarish biological attack on San Francisco. Now it's time for Raptor Force to extinguish the Holy Fire...with the Sultan's blood.
Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson first teamed up to write Category 7, vividly portraying the devastating impact of a powerful hurricane on New York City. Now Evans and Jameson return with Frozen Fire, another edge-of-the-seat thriller that mixes atmospheric science with cutting-edge technology. Eager to exploit a potentially lucrative energy source, billionaire Dennis Cavendish has begun to tap the crystalline methane under the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Eco-terrorism kills his science team and releases gigatons of poisonous methane into the water and atmosphere, causing untold deaths. If the release isn't stopped, all life on Earth will soon disappear. Suspected of the sabotage and marooned far from home, Cavendish's beautiful and brainy security chief, Victoria Clark, along with methane expert Dr. Sam Briscoe and the US government, must find a way to seal the break in the ocean floor and nullify the methane that is already poisoning the planet. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Finalist, 2021 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award For John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner, there was one simple rule in politics: “You’ve got to bloody your knuckles.” It’s a maxim that applies in so many ways to the state of Texas, where the struggle for power has often unfolded through underhanded politicking, backroom dealings, and, quite literally, bloodshed. The contentious history of Texas politics has been shaped by dangerous and often violent events, and been formed not just in the halls of power but by marginalized voices omitted from the official narratives. A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles traces the state’s conflicted and dramatic evolution over the past 150 years through its pivotal political players, including oft-neglected women and people of color. Beginning in 1870 with the birth of Texas’s modern political framework, Bill Minutaglio chronicles Texas political life against the backdrop of industry, the economy, and race relations, recasting the narrative of influential Texans. With journalistic verve and candor, Minutaglio delivers a contemporary history of the determined men and women who fought for their particular visions of Texas and helped define the state as a potent force in national affairs.
Texas politicians are a lively, sometimes controversial, always entertaining breed, and the ways they have chosen to put themselves and their messages before the public are equally as interesting. Anything and everything that can be printed with a candidate's name, image, and slogan—from buttons and bumper stickers to chewing gum, pocket knives, and plastic pickles—is likely to turn up in a Texas political campaign. Though many consider these items ephemeral, collectors value political memorabilia as a fascinating "sound bite" record of the candidates and issues that engaged the voting public over decades. Texas Political Memorabilia presents just such a pictorial history of Texas politics, the first ever compiled. Drawn from the vast personal collection of Chuck Bailey and augmented with items from other private and public collections, this book presents the most exceptional, most memorable, and most informative examples of Texas political memorabilia. The featured items cover everything from the presidential campaigns of Lyndon Johnson and both George Bushes, to U.S. House and Senate elections, to statewide races for governor and the Texas House and Senate, to county and city elections. All the major figures of twentieth-century Texas politics—as well as Sam Houston and Davy Crockett—are represented in the book. To set the images in context, Chuck Bailey and Bill Crawford provide background on the candidates, races, and issues that inspired many of the pieces pictured in the book. From LBJ's Stetson-shaped ashtrays to Jake Pickle's plastic squeaker pickles to George W. Bush's "W" buttons, Texas Political Memorabilia is a treasure trove of the nuts and bolts and buttons of Texas politics.
James Cantrill, hard-working businessman, family man, the guy next door, thinks he's having a day from hell when he is unexpectedly fired. But, hell gets hotter-- he's kidnapped, hustled onto a corporate jet, and smuggled to Puerto Rico. There he finds himself embroiled in a brutal, global conspiracy, involving CODE 936, the obscure IRS tax code which secretly benefits hundreds of huge manufacturers in Puerto Rico. What James knows may get him killed. Out of her mind with worry, Trish, his partner and wife, struggles to find him. She, his daughters, friends, his trusted lawyer, and, finally, the FBI endeavor to discover his whereabouts while trying to penetrate this airtight cover-up. They soon learn that a number of ruthless people will go to any length to make sure James is never found and the truth is never revealed. Powerfully evocative and steeped in international intrigue, CODE 936, is a riveting expose' of the IRS tax code, corporate greed, medical fraud, torture, corporate corruption, and managed healthcare. It is also a story of love, undaunted courage, and spiritual triumph.
Bill Warren's Keep Watching the Skies! was originally published in two volumes, in 1982 and 1986. It was then greatly expanded in what we called the 21st Century Edition, with new entries on several films and revisions and expansions of the commentary on every film. In addition to a detailed plot synopsis, full cast and credit listings, and an overview of the critical reception of each film, Warren delivers richly informative assessments of the films and a wealth of insights and anecdotes about their making. The book contains 273 photographs (many rare, 35 in color), has seven useful appendices, and concludes with an enormous index. This book is also available in hardcover format (ISBN 978-0-7864-4230-0).
Rediscovering Church is the candid story of Willow Creek Community Church’s phenomenal growth, from 100 members meeting in a Palatine, Illinois, movie theater to its present Sunday morning attendance of 15,000. Bill Hybels and his wife, Lynne, tell about Willow Creek’s beginnings, its struggles, the philosophy behind its success, and the strategies that have made it a model for church growth. The first half of the book, written by Lynne Hybels, explores the early years of Willow Creek and the personal accounts behind one of this century's most remarkable church stories. It offers an honest look at the ways God has used both the strengths and weaknesses of His people, creating a church of believers who have had tremendous impact for Christ in their community. In the second half of Rediscovering Church, Bill Hybels helps you apply the strengths of Willow Creek's ministry philosophy to your own congregation's mission. From mission statements to developing leadership, making sound financial decisions, and handling growth, Bill stresses that God wants to build His church to be an effective and committed community of faith that reaches out to a hurting world, to be the body of Christ in real and tangible ways. Rediscovering Church draws on the experiences of Willow Creek to show how one fellowship crystallized its mission and methodology, its vision and values. The Willow Creek story provides an example that churches and individuals alike can turn to for inspiration, encouragement, and a means of uncovering the pattern for their own unique mission and ministry.
In one of the most unprecedented developments in the history of national politics, George W. Bush abruptly emerged to lead all presidential aspirants in the national polls for the 2000 election. Yet voters know very little about the man, beyond his famous name and his place in one of the nation's most powerful political dynasties. First Sonis a true, riveting family saga about extraordinary power and politics in America and in the unharnessed state--a state of mind--called Texas. The story begins with the turn-of-the-century emergence of the influential Bush-Walker clan and of Prescott Bush, the Connecticut patrician who ingrained in his family an ethos that continues to exert influence on his son, former President George Bush, and his grandsons, George W. and Jeb. How these scions of the Bush dynasty struggle to live up to their enduring legacy is the central theme of this colorful and perceptive portrait the first authentative book on the governor of Texas. In the past year, award-winning Texas writer Bill Minutaglio has met with George W. Bush and interviewed dozens of people close to him, from his brother Governor Jeb Bush of Florida to uncles and cousins, from current and former political advisers to high-ranking insiders from his father's years in the White House. Fraternity buddies, political operatives, George W.'s employers, and even ardent critics of the Bush family bring this story to life--from the society circles in his native Connecticut to the family compound in Maine to the backwaters of his adopted Texas. The result is a book that is nuanced, insightful, and surprising in the contradictions and complexities it reveals about this man. First Sonvividly reconstructs George W. Bush's boarding-school days at one of the country's most exclusive institutions; his tenure in one of Yale's secret societies and as president of his unfettered fraternity; his attempts to follow his family's million-dollar path into the wide-open Texas oil patch; his role in major league baseball as the public face and head cheerleader for the Texas Rangers; and, finally, his rise to governor of Texas and national political force, executed with more hard-edged calculation than many people realize. Written with precision, verve, and fair-minded balanace,First Sonwill be the political story of 2000--the eye-opening tale of a natural-born politician. From the Hardcover edition.
An adventurous ride through the most blisteringly hot regions of science, history, and culture. Melting glaciers, warming oceans, droughts-it's clear that today's world is getting hotter. But while we know the agony of a sunburn or the comfort of our winter heaters, do we really understand heat? A bestselling scientist and nature writer who goes to any extreme to uncover the answers, Bill Streever sets off to find out what heat really means. Let him be your guide and you'll firewalk across hot coals and sweat it out in Death Valley, experience intense fever and fire, learn about the invention of matches and the chemistry of cooking, drink crude oil, and explore thermonuclear weapons and the hottest moment of all time-the big bang. Written in Streever's signature spare and refreshing prose, Heat is an adventurous personal narrative that leaves readers with a new vision of an everyday experience-how heat works, its history, and its relationship to daily life.
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