"Rising to the Top: A Journey Inspired by Drake" offers a captivating and detailed look into the life of Aubrey Drake Graham, charting his remarkable ascent from humble beginnings to global superstardom. This biography delves deep into the pivotal moments, personal struggles, and groundbreaking achievements that have defined Drake's illustrious career. The story begins in Toronto, where Aubrey's multicultural upbringing and musical influences from his father, Dennis Graham, shape his early years. Despite the challenges of a single-parent household, Aubrey's passion for music and performance emerges early, setting the stage for his future endeavors. Transitioning from his role as Jimmy Brooks on "Degrassi: The Next Generation," Aubrey begins to pursue music in earnest. His early mixtapes, "Room for Improvement" and "Comeback Season," highlight his potential and attract attention within the music industry. The breakthrough mixtape, "So Far Gone," featuring hits like "Best I Ever Had," propels him into the mainstream and leads to a deal with Young Money Entertainment. As Drake, Aubrey's debut album "Thank Me Later" and subsequent releases like "Take Care" and "Nothing Was the Same" establish him as a leading figure in hip-hop and R&B. The biography explores his relentless work ethic, innovative use of social media, and ability to blend genres, which have made him a trendsetter and a global icon. "Rising to the Top" also examines Drake's influence on pop culture and his contributions to the music industry. From his collaborations with diverse artists to his ventures in business and philanthropy, the book captures the essence of an artist who continually pushes boundaries. Readers gain insight into Drake's personal life, his experiences with fame, and the challenges he has overcome. Enriched with anecdotes and interviews, this biography provides a comprehensive portrait of Drake, offering inspiration for anyone who dares to dream big. "Rising to the Top: A Journey Inspired by Drake" is an engaging and motivational story of perseverance, creativity, and staying true to oneself, celebrating the remarkable journey of an artist whose impact continues to resonate worldwide.

A Seattle Times Best Book of the Year A Buzzfeed Best Nonfiction Book of the Year "Nimura paints history in cinematic strokes and brings a forgotten story to vivid, unforgettable life." —Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha In 1871, five young girls were sent by the Japanese government to the United States. Their mission: learn Western ways and return to help nurture a new generation of enlightened men to lead Japan. Raised in traditional samurai households during the turmoil of civil war, three of these unusual ambassadors—Sutematsu Yamakawa, Shige Nagai, and Ume Tsuda—grew up as typical American schoolgirls. Upon their arrival in San Francisco they became celebrities, their travels and traditional clothing exclaimed over by newspapers across the nation. As they learned English and Western customs, their American friends grew to love them for their high spirits and intellectual brilliance. The passionate relationships they formed reveal an intimate world of cross-cultural fascination and connection. Ten years later, they returned to Japan—a land grown foreign to them—determined to revolutionize women’s education. Based on in-depth archival research in Japan and in the United States, including decades of letters from between the three women and their American host families, Daughters of the Samurai is beautifully, cinematically written, a fascinating lens through which to view an extraordinary historical moment.

They were supposed to be on vacation. Instead, Joe and Rachel Tucker and their kids, Valerie and Zack, have suddenly found themselves in a place much farther away. They've arrived in a country known as Elaria, a kingdom with ties to a lost world, and the Tuckers are soon embroiled in an old prophecy concerning its salvation. With help from some new friends, the Tucker family will have to face a myriad of dangers and challenges""and some creatures they've never seen before""if they want to find a way home. Joe and Rachel and their kids must evade capture and use their wits, their talents, and their faith in the Lord to succeed before time runs out. And on the way, perhaps they can somehow help rid Elaria of the two evil rulers who occupy the throne. Can the Tuckers find their way home before Moon Rise? And can they bring light and hope to a kingdom where darkness reigns? But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. ""1 Peter 2:9 (AKJV)

Montaigne's English Journey examines the genesis, early readership, and multifaceted impact of John Florio's exuberant translation of Michel de Montaigne's Essays. Published in London in 1603, this book was widely read in seventeenth-century England: Shakespeare borrowed from it as he drafted King Lear and The Tempest, and many hundreds of English men and women first encountered Montaigne's tolerant outlook and disarming candour in its densely-printed pages. Literary historians have long been fascinated by the influence of Florio's translation, analysing its contributions to the development of the English essay and tracing its appropriation in the work of Webster, Dryden, and other major writers. William M. Hamlin, by contrast, undertakes an exploration of Florio's Montaigne within the overlapping realms of print and manuscript culture, assessing its importance from the varied perspectives of its earliest English readers. Drawing on letters, diaries, commonplace books, and thousands of marginal annotations inscribed in surviving copies of Florio's volume, Hamlin offers a comprehensive account of the transmission and reception of Montaigne in seventeenth-century England. In particular he focuses on topics that consistently intrigued Montaigne's English readers: sexuality, marriage, conscience, theatricality, scepticism, self-presentation, the nature of wisdom, and the power of custom. All in all, Hamlin's study constitutes a major contribution to investigations of literary readership in pre-Enlightenment Europe.

Set in the Middle East, a boy struggles against monsters, mankind, the environment, and with his own growing pains. The story starts in modern-day Kurdistan, where the boy has been dragged by his family against his will when he and his siblings are transported back through time into a strange land with intriguing customs with only their beloved grandpa to lead the way. They are forced to forget their former life and are plunged into an epic journey to save mankind from the chaos dragon, Tiamat. The Drake Epics: Journey to Qara is filled with fast-paced action, mystery, intrigue, and self-discovery.

After suffering a defeat to the dark lord Caedus must become stronger. The overseer of the realm decided for him, his adoptive sister Emilia, and the king's ward Alanna to become the new Phoenix Squadron, but first, they must find Spartacus, the legend from the stories and Caedus' grandfather, only he knows of the magic that could be a threat to Lord Mathis. In secret, the dark lord resurrected Cedric and erased his memories to keep him as his most powerful follower. Cedric and Lord Mathis are gathering an army to take over Cresthill and kill the king, but could the newly appointed phoenix squadron find Spartacus and become powerful enough to save the kingdom? A tale of new friends and adventure awaits......

In a world where beliefs are real, actualized by will, expressed by intent, Yip Chi Chuan, a young martial and spiritual ascetic, flees as the only home he has ever known, the ancient monastery of the Priests of K’un Lun, is destroyed by a newly ascendant extradimensional evil. Cast out and alone, Yip strikes out on a quest spanning the breadth of his home world of Ea’ae and into the greater macroverse beyond in an attempt to unseat an all-consuming Darkness rooted in his once vaunted Order’s distant past. Will Yip, the last of his kind to walk the wide world beyond his fallen sanctuary, succeed where his mighty brethren failed in Ages past? Unfortunately for Yip, the answer appears all too clear.... Without the guidance and teachings of his lineage, pursued by malevolent supernatural agents of the Cabal, unable to fully defend himself in a world steeped in magic, his own quest may fail before it ever begins. Unfazed by his own limitations, guided by his inner vision and direct experience of the energies of life, the radiant chi suffusing and enlivening the world all around, he is determined to triumph where others have faltered. To win forward, he will need help... but first he must survive. A blend of Eastern mysticism and Western fantasy, Shadow’s Rise is the first book of the Chronicles of the Fists, an epic trilogy recounting Yip’s adventures against all odds.

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How well do you know the life of one of Britain’s great maritime heroes? Discover the truth behind a man who remains a legendary figure of history more than four hundred years after his death. Sir Francis Drake’s career is one of the most colourful on record. The most daring of the corsairs who raided the West Indies and Spanish Main, he led the English into the Pacific, and cirumnavigated the world to bring home the Golden Hind laden with Spanish treasure. His attacks on Spanish cities and ships transformed his private war into a struggle for surivival between Protestant England and Catholic Spain, in which he became Elizabeth I's most prominent admiral and marked the emergence of England as major maritime nation. ‘Excellent...It deserves to become the standard Drake life. His scholarship is impeccable’ Frank McLynn, Sunday Telegraph