Four-year-old Lisa's world turned upside down when her step-father moved in. Most of the time he was just violent but then he started making her do things to him she knew were wrong. Soon he was visiting her at night. Lisa begged her mother for help but she just shrugged, telling Lisa he would have his way. It was the greatest betrayal of all.At first Lisa's step-father would just make her stroke and massage his feet, hitting her if she stopped, but he soon wanted more. Much more. By the time she was 12 he was regularly abusing her. One day, when Lisa turned 16, she came home to discover that her mother had swapped bedrooms with her. 'You're my girlfriend now', her step-father told her. Lisa turned to her mother for help, but was met with a shrug. She wouldn't hear a word against her husband. 'Don't blame me,' she said. Her step-father's abuse was horrific but what completely tore her apart was knowing her mother knew and encouraged it.Trapped and increasingly desperate, Lisa tried to find a way out. But her isolation was complete. A few months later her mother told her she'd arranged for Lisa and her step-father to move into a flat together down the road. It was too much for Lisa to bear. 'Please don't make me, please,' she sobbed. But her mother just ignored her. Lisa was marched around to the flat with her possessions and her nightmare was complete.Alone with her step-father, Lisa's life became even more unbearable. Then one day, finally, she got the chance she'd been looking for to escape. Lisa bravely struck out on her own, petrified her mother would find her and hand her back into the waiting arms of her step-father. But Lisa's mother had no idea how determined she was to break away…

Four-year-old Lisa's world turned upside down when her step-father moved in. Most of the time he was just violent but then he started making her do things to him she knew were wrong. Soon he was visiting her at night. Lisa begged her mother for help but she just shrugged, telling Lisa he would have his way. It was the greatest betrayal of all.At first Lisa's step-father would just make her stroke and massage his feet, hitting her if she stopped, but he soon wanted more. Much more. By the time she was 12 he was regularly abusing her. One day, when Lisa turned 16, she came home to discover that her mother had swapped bedrooms with her. 'You're my girlfriend now', her step-father told her. Lisa turned to her mother for help, but was met with a shrug. She wouldn't hear a word against her husband. 'Don't blame me,' she said. Her step-father's abuse was horrific but what completely tore her apart was knowing her mother knew and encouraged it.Trapped and increasingly desperate, Lisa tried to find a way out. But her isolation was complete. A few months later her mother told her she'd arranged for Lisa and her step-father to move into a flat together down the road. It was too much for Lisa to bear. 'Please don't make me, please,' she sobbed. But her mother just ignored her. Lisa was marched around to the flat with her possessions and her nightmare was complete.Alone with her step-father, Lisa's life became even more unbearable. Then one day, finally, she got the chance she'd been looking for to escape. Lisa bravely struck out on her own, petrified her mother would find her and hand her back into the waiting arms of her step-father. But Lisa's mother had no idea how determined she was to break away…

It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.

Veteran author Susan Beth Pfeffer, who penned the young adult classic The Year Without Michael over twenty years ago, makes a stunning comeback with this haunting book that documents one adolescent's journey from self-absorbed child to selfless young woman. Teen readers won't soon forget this intimate story of survival and its subtle message about the treasuring the things that matter most—-family, friendship, and hope.--Jennifer Hubert

SHE WOKE UP WITH A NEW FACE . . .

Not only has Marla Cahill survived a deadly car accident, but her beautiful features have been restored through plastic surgery. She should be grateful. Instead, she's consumed by confusion . . . and panic. For the people gathered at her bedside — her family — are strangers. And so is the woman whose haunted eyes stare back from the mirror . . .

SHE WOKE UP WITH NO MEMORIES . . .

Secluded at the magnificent Cahill mansion, Marla waits for something to trigger recognition. Yet the only thing she's left with is the unshakable feeling that she is not who everyone says she is, and that something is very, very wrong . . .

. . . AND SHE WOKE UP TO MURDER

Determined to piece together the truth of her identity, she finds herself drawn to her brother-in-law, Nick — a man who seems both to want and despise her. And as her fractured mind slowly clears, Marla begins to have flashes of another life . . . of cruel betrayals and deadly secrets. Marla's life isn't just different — it's in danger, controlled by a twisted killer who's waiting for the right moment to strike . . . the moment Marla remembers . . .

Lots of people go through their entire life and, at the end of it, never find answers to the questions they've always wondered about. Or the reasons they stayed where they are, doing the same things day after day, week after week and year after year, always wondering why their lives never seemed to change. It can be tough to see your life from a different understanding when you're so close to it and living it every second of every day. Yet, what if there was a guide, a sort of "Here's something you may have forgotten or never even thought about" kind of written friend, whose only purpose is to help you see your life, your world, and those in it, a little differently. Perhaps differently enough to let just a tiny crack of fresh new light enter your heart and soul and inspire you to shift the way you've been thinking, from focusing so much on the problems, to now seeing more of the possibilities. If you answered, "Yes, I would like that," good news awaits. You're about to turn the pages and discover that friend who's been waiting all these years to speak to you. So smile. Your life and the way you see it will never be the same.

Lots of people go through their entire life and, at the end of it, never find answers to the questions they’ve always wondered about.

Or the reasons they stayed where they are, doing the same things day after day, week after week and year after year, always wondering why their lives never seemed to change.

It can be tough to see your life from a different understanding when you’re so close to it and living it every second of every day.

Yet, what if there was a guide, a sort of “Here’s something you may have forgotten or never even thought about” kind of written friend, whose only purpose is to help you see your life, your world, and those in it, a little differently.

Perhaps differently enough to let just a tiny crack of fresh new light enter your heart and soul and inspire you to shift the way you’ve been thinking, from focusing so much on the problems, to now seeing more of the possibilities.

If you answered, “Yes, I would like that,” good news awaits.

You’re about to turn the pages and discover that friend who’s been waiting all these years to speak to you.

So smile.

Your life and the way you see it will never be the same.

Lots of people go through their entire life and, at the end of it, never find answers to the questions they’ve always wondered about.

Or the reasons they stayed where they are, doing the same things day after day, week after week and year after year, always wondering why their lives never seemed to change.

It can be tough to see your life from a different understanding when you’re so close to it and living it every second of every day.

Yet, what if there was a guide, a sort of “Here’s something you may have forgotten or never even thought about” kind of written friend, whose only purpose is to help you see your life, your world, and those in it, a little differently.

Perhaps differently enough to let just a tiny crack of fresh new light enter your heart and soul and inspire you to shift the way you’ve been thinking, from focusing so much on the problems, to now seeing more of the possibilities.

If you answered, “Yes, I would like that,” good news awaits.

You’re about to turn the pages and discover that friend who’s been waiting all these years to speak to you.

So smile.

Your life and the way you see it will never be the same.

Isn't It Time You Followed Your Real  Dreams?

This extraordinary book  is designed to help you achieve them. In it,  Barbara Sher goes beyond the groundbreaking principles  introduced in her phenomenal number one best  seller, Wishcraft. Here she adds an  important new element to the practical advice,  success secrets, and motivational techniques that have  transformed so many lives... because thousands of  people have told her that they can't get what they  want because they just don't know what  they want.

Do those words sound  familiar? If so, you have a common problem, and  there is a solution. And Barbara Sher has a surprise  for you. You Do know what you  want. Your life is filled with clues. Everything you  do, or don't do, has a good reason behind it. With  profound wisdom and reassurance, she helps you  peel away the layers, reveal your true hopes and  aspirations, and discover exactly what has been  holding you back. Because whatever it is Can Be  Removed.

"A life without direction is a life without passion," says motivational specialist, therapist, and career counselor Barbara Sher. In I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was, a sort of broader, less dense, and less intimidating version of What Color Is Your Parachute?, she reveals how to "recapture long lost goals, overcome the blocks that inhibit your success, decide what you want to be, and live your dreams."

This is a perfect book for new college graduates or anyone sick and tired of languishing in a dead-end job or relationship--yet reluctant to make drastic life changes due to uncertainty about what would actually inspire them. I Could Do Anything combines the I'm-not-buying your-excuses inspiration of Dr. Laura Schlessinger with the soothing, analytic encouragement of Dr. Martin Seligman in his classic Learned Optimism. In other words, Sher will pick you up off your butt and get you moving. She's included enough self-analytical exercises in here to save you hundreds of dollars in therapy.

Whether you're looking to make improvements in your job or personal life, Sher will teach you how to determine what your goals are, and how to successfully reach them--even if right now the only thing you know is that you're vaguely to very unhappy and haven't the foggiest idea what to do with yourself.

Why no one who meets him ever stays the same What happens when a respected Christian journalist decides to put his preconceptions aside and take a long look at the Jesus described in the Gospels? Bestselling author Philip Yancey offers a new and different perspective on the life of Christ and his work---his teachings, his miracles, his death and resurrection, and ultimately, who he was and why he came. Join Yancey in discovering the Jesus you've never known: brilliant, creative, challenging, fearless, compassionate, unpredictable, and deeply satisfying. A Jesus fully capable of turning your life completely around.

An old adage says, "God created man in His own image and man has been returning the favor ever since." Philip Yancey realized that despite a lifetime attending Sunday school topped off by a Bible college education, he really had no idea who Jesus was. In fact, he found himself further and further removed from the person of Jesus, distracted instead by flannel-graph figures and intellectual inspection. He determined to use his journalistic talents to approach Jesus, in the context of time, within the framework of history.

In The Jesus I Never Knew, Yancey explores the life of Jesus, as he explains, "'from below,' to grasp as best I can what it must have been like to observe in person the extraordinary events unfolding in Galilee and Judea" as Jesus traveled and taught. Yancey examines three fundamental questions: who Jesus was, why he came, and what he left behind. Step by step, scene by scene, Yancey probes the culture into which Jesus was born and grew to adulthood; his character and mission; his teachings and miracles; his legacy--not just as history has told it, but as he himself intended it to be.

Yancey is not alone in his examination of the "real" Jesus. Publishing today is replete with writers committed to setting the story "straight,quot; joining countless others who, over the past 2,000 years, have determined to discover the truth about Jesus. But where others would deconstruct and discount, Yancey disarms and discloses. We become colleagues with him as he examines the accounts of the life of Jesus. And among the things that we discover is that Jesus himself leaves us few options: either he was who he said he was or he was nuts.

Philip Yancey was awarded the Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year award for this book in 1996 by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. It's not the first, nor the last, award Yancey has won for his writing. But the writing is not necessarily the great gift of this book. Yancey allows the reader to discover, along with him, The Jesus I Never Knew. --Patricia Klein

One day Sean wakes up with a strange realization: he is dead. Every part of him is acutely aware of his deceased state, but, in a time when death has been 'cured', it would be foolish of him to advertise his feelings. Could Sean convince anyone that death is still possible, or will he be made to regret the moment he opened his mouth? A satirical look at the power of society and humanity's outlook on death.

One day Sean wakes up with a strange realization: he is dead. Every part of him is acutely aware of his deceased state, but, in a time when death has been 'cured', it would be foolish of him to advertise his feelings. Could Sean convince anyone that death is still possible, or will he be made to regret the moment he opened his mouth? A satirical look at the power of society and humanity's outlook on death.

In THE DOG WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, Chet and Bernie attend a P.I. convention to try and make some new (and hopefully lucrative) connections. It's the sort of thing Bernie hates, but he's got to do something to get his business back on track. The head of a big international security company seems impressed with The Little Detective Agency and hires them for what appears to be an easy and well-paid assignment. Things take an unexpected turn and all sorts of trouble ensues. Tensions are further strained when a stray puppy who looks an awful lot like Chet turns up. So does Dylan McKnight, Suzie Sanchez's former boyfriend. With Chet and Bernie both dealing with affairs of the heart at the same time they are facing an unexpectedly tricky case, it's a good thing that our two intrepid investigators are looking out for each other-as they always do.