The air was all gone, and coldness overtook her, as though she had fallen into icy water and was sinking into the blackness. Her stomach churned, as it was wont to do these days. He would not marry her. She was ruined.

THE ARRIVAL OF TWO ELIGIBLE GENTLEMEN at Netherfield Park sends ripples of excitement through nearby Meryton. But Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy are not the only additions to the neighbourhood raising eyebrows. An unremarkable cottage in the woods between Netherfield and Meryton also has new tenants. One of them—a lively little girl with an adventurous spirit, a love of the outdoors, and a past shrouded in mystery—draws the notice of more than one local.

ELIZABETH BENNET—YOUNG, INTELLIGENT, and UNFASHIONABLY INDEPENDENT—forms a poor first impression of the haughty Mr Darcy. On closer acquaintance, and against her better judgment, her disgust begins to give way to more tender feelings. Yet standing in the way of any potential romance is the closely guarded history of a certain little girl in a cottage in the woods. Elizabeth might be ready to disclose her hidden affections, but she is about to learn that some things are better kept secret, and some hearts are safer left untouched.FALLEN is a novel length Pride and Prejudice variation

Pursuing a more Purposeful Life? Assimilate stories from 39 patients with incurable Lung Cancer as they share their experiences, hopes, and strengths to find meaning in your life. 

Life is an unfinished project, and similarly, finding meaning is an uncompleted task. But how exactly do we find meaning? How do people find strength? The diagnosis of cancer or other terminal cases create significant adversity. So how do people develop resilience? How do they keep going? These questions had been tackled for centuries by philosophy and religion. So what is there to add?

While there is no such thing as a School of Life Professor, you now have a viable alternative. Morhaf Al Achkar obtained his Ph.D in education and is currently a practicing family physician at the University of Washington. He was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Since then, his research has focused on the experiences of patients living with cancer. This book is based on interviews he did with 39 patients who live, like him, with advanced illness. He explored how these patients find meaning, cope, and build resilience. Using his own experiences and deep knowledge of philosophical concepts, Morhaf shares his understanding of a meaningful life from the perspective of someone aware of his own finitude. 

Inside Roads to Meaning and Resilience with Cancer™, you will:

• Confront questions about life, meaning, and your legacy before it is too late 
• Gain a new perspective on the meaning of living that transcends culture and social status
• Learn countless coping strategies across various disciplines to build your individual Resilience
• Acquire a positive and realistic perspective on your life that promotes hope and healing for your body, mind and spirit.
• And much, much more!

This is a compelling book by an author who is wearing multiple hats — as a doctor, an academic, a lung cancer advocate, and ultimately, a patient himself. Dr. Alachkar’s knowledge-based, yet deeply personal and relateable book will give you a variety of viewpoints on questions like the meaning of life, finding hope in a terminal diagnosis, building resilience, finding or losing one’s faith in a higher power, and much more! From its heartfelt personal accounts of how these strong individuals cope with cancer, to the thought-provoking search for meaning that underlies it all, this book is sure to run you through your complete gamut of emotions. If you seek a greater capacity for empathy or find relief in shared experiences, acceptance of altering realities and changed identities, then you can’t afford to miss this book.

♥ This book is about the essence of the human experience at its limits. It is for Every Reader! ♥

The most advanced soldiers in human history are about to become obsolete.

Engines. Genetically modified warriors that keep the great Nova Alliance war machine churning against the enemy Coalition. Most days, Engines are all that stand between salvation and chaos. Led by legendary Engine, Captain Akira Hayashi, Shadow Squad has fought on the frontlines for a decade. They are on the brink of victory when the Coalition launches a series of desperate and devastating attacks that cripple the Nova Alliance restoration sites vital to save the dying planet.

As the sites burn and Earth’s hope of salvation fades, Shadow Squad is equipped with neural implants to connect them to Apeiron, the first hybrid-human-AI entity. She is coded for what Captain Hayashi believes is an impossible task—peace. But war isn’t the only threat to the Earth. Apeiron has uncovered a deadly secret with implications that could end all life. This rapidly approaching threat can be stopped only if humanity bands together on what will become known as E-Day, a pivotal moment that will determine the evolution—or the extinction—of the entire human race.

Odo Whitley is translucent, human frosted glass, eyes peering through him, never at him. His achingly lonely existence is upended when a strange girl with flaming orange hair passes him a cryptic note in science class, sending the two unlikely new friends on an interdimensional quest for a mysterious lost doll.

With help from the enigmatic man in the gray hat, a huge yellow octopus from Plindor, a lovely old brainless dead lady, and their new boss at the Serendipity Salvage Company, Odo Whitley and Sephie Crumb must travel to the terrifying world of Atroxia and find the doll before it falls into the hands of the murderous children of Sensus.

When Kelly J. Baker finished her Ph.D. in religion, she imagined that she would end up in the tenure-track job for which she trained. She had done everything right: written a provocative and well-researched book, given presentations at national conferences, published articles, and created and taught a number of popular classes.

Doing everything right, however, doesn’t guarantee anything if the career you trained for is no longer sustainable. The economic depression in 2008 gutted the job market for tenure-track jobs in the humanities, so she couldn’t find her dream job. Instead, she worked for years as an underpaid non-tenure-track instructor. But after five years of job rejections and a new baby on the way, she took a year off to figure out if the career she trained for was actually the life she wanted: a grace period.

Baker documents her transition out of academia and the emotional turmoil of rebuilding a life beyond what she had dreamed of. Baker resists telling an easy story about her exit from the academy into a post-academic career; she does not smooth over the hard reality of transitions. She describes the importance of patience and the realization that the lives we imagine for ourselves are tenuous at best and often are impossible to achieve. In the end, she lets go of the dream, building a life with her family and a new career. Along the way, she provides a ray of hope for all who desire a new path in life.

“As much as Grace Period is a memoir,…it is a book about dreams: what they give us, what they take from us, how they break us, and how they re-make us.” -The Tallahassee Democrat

“In a series of vivid and beautiful essays, Baker uses her changing relationship to academia to reflect on ‘grace periods,’ those moments (or strings of moments) when you leave one possible future behind without quite knowing what’s next.” -Derek Attig, Ph.D., Book Riot