World famous author and former police lieutenant T.M.Drake struggles with an agonizing literary dry spell after his wife's fatal bout with cancer in 1998. Now a widower in July of 2002, he battles with life itself, as well as the business of composition. Not a creative sentence on paper for months. That is, until Friday night, when neighbor Nicole Banks dies in a fiery explosion at her home one block down the street. The result of defective plumbing? Lana Sands, her workmate at a local fitness center, insists that an unknown assailant murdered the lovely young widow - and Miss Sands fears she will be next. In this fortuitous twist of fate, Tom (Drake) and Lana become personally (and romantically) involved as they delve into the cause of Miss Banks' demise. Questions (and bodies) mount and their lives curiously resemble one of Drake's recent best sellers. Who is the second victim discovered in the rubble of that explosion, and why is he there? When Nicky's married suitor dies a few days later, is this another accident - or murder? What about the death of Nicole's analyst not long after the other 'mishaps'? And finally, do these events have anything to do with the fact that Mrs. Banks' husband perished in the World Trade Center Tragedy the previous year? So many questions emerge over such a few days in the placid world of Tom's home town: York, Pennsylvania. The answers change his life forever, in this tale of healing and renewal for Thomas Michael Drake.
Young superheroes Alexa and Rachael Casaday return to that abandoned factory, the backdrop for the near fatal climax of Book 1: Super Kids. They rescue Isaac Fromme, the cruelly mistreated gentleman who vanished--imprisoned in a crypt beneath the crumbling building. Could Fromme be a vampire, one of the "good" ones? Why is this elusive man researching a grotesque creature originally thought to be a figment of local imaginations? The Casadays must use their extraordinary gifts again to prevent misguided individuals from destroying the beast. Will their superpowers make the world right again in the wilds of South Jersey? Monsters AND vampires? Fascinating.
Kristen Marsh dreams. By merely clutching something as she falls asleep at night her imagination conjures up a dream pertaining to this object. An amazing gift? to this ten-year-old it's more a curse, even though it may predict an event in the future or explain one from the past. When Kristen visits her grandparents' farm at Christmas, she snuggles at night beneath a patchwork quilt made of family remnants from years ago. Imagine the dreams produced from these scraps of cloth where she learns of a dark family secret, and how - Today - She can right a wrong of the past.
When citizens take collaborative action to meet the needs of their community, they are participating in the social economy. Co-operatives, community-based social services, local non-profit organizations, and charitable foundations are all examples of social economies that emphasize mutual benefit rather than the accumulation of profit. While such groups often participate in market-based activities to achieve their goals, they also pose an alternative to the capitalist market economy. Contributors to Scaling Up investigated innovative social economies in British Columbia and Alberta and discovered that achieving a social good through collective, grassroots enterprise resulted in a sustainable way of satisfying human needs that was also, by extension, environmentally responsible. As these case studies illustrate, organizations that are capable of harnessing the power of a social economy generally demonstrate a commitment to three outcomes: greater social justice, financial self-sufficiency, and environmental sustainability. Within the matrix of these three allied principles lie new strategic directions for the politics of sustainability. Whether they were examining attainable and affordable housing initiatives, co-operative approaches to the provision of social services, local credit unions, farmers’ markets, or community-owned power companies, the contributors found social economies providing solutions based on reciprocity and an understanding of how parts function within the whole—an understanding that is essential to sustainability. In these locally defined and controlled, democratically operated organizations we see possibilities for a more human economy that is capable of transforming the very social and technical systems that make our current way of life unsustainable.
Haunting, powerful, and compelling, this is Eric Volz's story. Twenty-five-year-old Eric Volz moved to Nicaragua in 2005 in pursuit of paradise. Drawn to the town of San Juan del Sur for its pristine beaches and economic potential, he quickly fell in love with the country. Eric's life was taking off like a dream. Then the nightmare began. On November 21, 2006, Eric's ex-girlfriend was tragically murdered in San Juan del Sur. The sleepy town quickly ignited into a volatile, angry mob. The day he helped lay Doris Ivania Jimenez to rest, Eric was arrested for her murder. Author Michael Glasgow delves into the multilayered story of American Eric Volz. Beginning with Nicaragua's dubious history with and mistrust of the United States, Glasgow leaves no stone unturned in examining the reasons behind the bizarre and tragic circus surrounding Eric Volz's trial and conviction.
In the haunting tradition of Joe McGinniss's Fatal Vision and Mikal Gilmore's Shot in the Heart, True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa weaves a spellbinding tale of murder, love, and deceit with a deeply personal inquiry into the slippery nature of truth. The story begins in February of 2002, when a reporter in Oregon contacts New York Times Magazine writer Michael Finkel with a startling piece of news. A young, highly intelligent man named Christian Longo, on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for killing his entire family, has recently been captured in Mexico, where he'd taken on a new identity -- Michael Finkel of the New York Times. The next day, on page A-3 of the Times, comes another bit of troubling news: a note, written by the paper's editors, explaining that Finkel has falsified parts of an investigative article and has been fired. This unlikely confluence sets the stage for a bizarre and intense relationship. After Longo's arrest, the only journalist the accused murderer will speak with is the real Michael Finkel. And as the months until Longo's trial tick away, the two men talk for dozens of hours on the telephone, meet in the jailhouse visiting room, and exchange nearly a thousand pages of handwritten letters. With Longo insisting he can prove his innocence, Finkel strives to uncover what really happened to Longo's family, and his quest becomes less a reporting job than a psychological cat-and-mouse game -- sometimes redemptively honest, other times slyly manipulative. Finkel's pursuit pays off only at the end, when Longo, after a lifetime of deception, finally says what he wouldn't even admit in court -- the whole, true story. Or so it seems.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.