Hard-charging Philadelphia banker Jack Oliver has always made tough choices and sacrifices to achieve success, but when his mid-sized banking group is bought out by a mega-chain, Jack finds himself knocked from the top rung to the bottom of the ladder. When the stress of the merger lands him in the hospital, he realizes that his wife and kids hate him and his mistress is only interested in the number of zeros in his paycheck. When Jack is approached by Benny, the old-fashioned president of a small Virginia bank, he doubts he could ever work for such a small-town guy after his cut-throat career. Left without the success he once craved and the family he undervalued, Jack may discover how to reclaim what he had taken for granted and lead a new kind of 'questionable life'.

The murder of a local contractor may be the final nail in the coffin for Tricia Miles in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling Booktown series. It's a busy summer in Booktown. Contractor Jim Stark is in great demand: he’s overseeing a number of projects, including Angelica Miles's newly constructed building on Main Street, finishing up the new brew pub, and gutting a stone mansion off Main Street that Angelica bought to be the world headquarters for Nigela Ricita Asssociates. It’ll house office space where her marketing staff and the rest of the NR Associates clerical personnel will work. Tricia Miles and Angelica arrive at the mansion before their workday to see how the construction is going. They find the place unlocked and Stark’s right-hand man, Sanjay Arya, dead—bludgeoned to death. The loss of the contractor’s top man threatens all the projects in the works, which would effectively ruin the expensive marketing plan that the Chamber of Commerce has been working. Is Jim a suspect? (He’d be stupid to kill the person he depends on to keep the projects going.) But Stark also thinks his wife, who was very chummy with Sanjay, might have been cheating on him with the second-in-command, making him a likely suspect. Once again Tricia finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation, but can she find the killer before he or she has the chance to bring the hammer down?

In the wake of an infection that has left Baton Rouge unsettled and roiling with the ‘undead’, three young friends – Mazoch, Vermaelen and Rachel – band together to search for Mazoch’s missing father. Their mission is to visit all the places he once lingered: his favourite fast food restaurants, the movie theatre he frequented with his son and the city park. As hurricane season looms, uncertainty and suspicion of each other’s motives threatens to pull the group apart, but still, the friends’ search continues. Over the course of a week, day after day, they haunt the places Mazoch’s father once haunted, confronting the same persistent hope that faces all who grieve: that whomever, whatever they have lost, will return to them, in one shape or another. Turning typical zombie fare on its head, Bennett Sims delivers a wise and philosophical rumination on the nature of memory and loss in this remarkable debut novel.

A fresh collection of fan-favorite webcomics have made their way to print for the very first time, along with brand-new, never-before-seen strips. But this is no mere collection of comic strips! Cyanide & Happiness: Twenty Years Wasted (A Questionable Recollection Of The First Two Decades) also features the mostly-true history of Cyanide & Happiness as told by its creators – Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, and Dave McElfatrick. Reverently assembled with firsthand commentary, never-before-seen internal documents, insights into their creative process, and, yes, even incriminating photographs. Kris, Rob, and Dave will walk down memory lane, stopping at twenty different Cyanide & Happiness strips that tell the story of their history thus far.

Sharing your faith doesn’t have to be complicated. Christians are called to be a witness for Christ in daily life, to surprise people around us with the good news of the gospel. Yet putting that mission into regular practice can seem overwhelming. Author Michael Frost, a renowned expert on evangelism, offers refreshingly simple tactics to make evangelism fulfilling, exciting, and effective. Surprise the World teaches clear and practical tools for making evangelism part of your daily life. This short and easy read covers the BELLS method, along with thought-provoking questions and prompts for applying each habit. You’ll learn about each of the five habits: Bless others Eat together Listen to the Spirit Learn Christ Understand yourself as Sent by God into others’ lives Ideal for personal use or training groups on evangelism, the inspiring lessons in this book will transform your view of evangelism in daily life. “A timely wake-up call for believers. A concise and helpful encouragement to those seeking to live on-mission in their communities.” —Ed Stetzer, author and pastor “Eminently doable, entirely practical, and exceptionally effective!” —Felicity Dale, author of An Army of Ordinary People “If every believer developed a lifestyle that included these 5 habits, I’m convinced a great spiritual awakening would take place.” —Al Engler, mission director of Nav Neighbor

Known as The Despicable Earl, Lord Noah Acton has one of the most wretched reputations in all of England. A rakehell of the worst sort, there is no merry widow he won’t flirt with and no courtesan he won’t bed. However, Noah, now the Duke of Springford, has a dark secret he’s kept hidden for years. A secret that has nearly corrupted his soul and could destroy him completely if it ever comes to light. Lady Priscilla Trew has been in love with Noah since they were children. However, after her birthday ball, it’s become clear to her that Noah will never be hers. Fleeing to the Lake District, Cilla hopes to enter into a contract marriage with a half-Scottish, half-English viscount and hopefully forget how much she still loves a man who will never marry her. When Noah follows Cilla to the north, she quickly learns that getting over a man she’s loved all of her life isn’t nearly as easy as she believes, especially when he’s right there in front of her! Can Cilla and Noah find their way to the altar or will his secrets condemn him to a life alone and force her into a loveless marriage with a man who isn’t quite as charming as he appears? This 111,500 word novel is written in the modern, Regency romance style for a slightly hotter and sexier read. It may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

We are all losing all the time. Four titanic forces—time, mortality, forgetting, and confusion—win victories over us each day. We all “know” this yet we keep dreaming of beautiful fulfillments, shapely culminations, devotions nobly sustained—in family life, in romance, in work, in citizenship. What obsesses Halliday in Losers Dream On is how to recognize reality without relinquishing the pleasure and creativity and courage of our dreaming. Halliday’s poetry exploits the vast array of dictions, idioms, rhetorical maneuvers, and tones available to real-life speakers (including speakers talking to themselves). Often Halliday gives a poem to a speaker who is distressed, angry, confused, defensive, self-excusing, or driven by yearning, so that the poem may dramatize the speaker’s state of mind while also implying the poet’s ironic perspective on the speaker. Meanwhile, a few other poems (for instance “A Gender Theory” and “Thin White Shirts” and “First Wife” and “You Lament”) try to push beyond irony into earnestness and wholehearted declaration. The tension between irony and belief is the engine of Halliday’s poetry.

The emergence of Pentecostalism in Ghana has attracted a massive following and generated institutions that have significantly impacted Christian discourse and national life. The movement has produced prominent leaders who have developed exemplary Christian education programs and generated volumes of Christian literature unprecedented in Ghanaian Christianity. Nevertheless, public opinion often upbraids church leaders for unethical conduct. Despite the concern for high moral standards set by Pentecostal church polity and ministerial ethical codes, reports of Pentecostal ministerial misconduct appear regularly in the media. Although congregation members and perceptive public observers appreciate the constructive moral impact of Pentecostal ministers, instances of promiscuity, power abuse, financial misappropriation, and superstition reveal a gap between ethical ideals and practice. As this research reveals, factors behind unethical ministerial conduct include inadequate training, poor accountability, and a general low level of ethical reflection. Good Pastors, Bad Pastors suggests that a multidimensional approach of responsible reportage, emphatic moral education, appropriate but sympathetic response to moral failure, and peer-review accountability could help uphold a higher standard of ministerial ethics.

Smoke Breaks Is a collection of Flash Fiction or short stories under a thousand words. They are fast paced and perfect when you only have time for a three minute diversion from your life which can be hectic at best. Every story is unique but every story is the same, much like our crazy lives and those of everyone we know. In this case, it's the lunacy of my own life which may find you thinking you've got it pretty good.