A modern teen, raised in an orphanage learns that her family may still be alive – trapped in a world of magic. “Holy crap! This book freaking powns!” That’s what fans are saying about Jefferson Smith's debut fantasy novel. Spunky and irreverent, 13-year-old Tayna is every villain’s worst nightmare: an uncooperative victim who refuses to play by his rules. After living her entire life in a cruel orphanage, Tayna discovers that she may never have actually been an orphan in the first place and flees from nunnish captivity to search for her real family. But time is running out and she has two entire worlds to search: one filled with shopping malls and televisions, and another filled with Brownies, Djin and magic!

For over thirty years, John Simpson has travelled the world to report on the most significant events of our time. From being punched in the stomach by Harold Wilson on one of his first days as a reporter, to escaping summary execution in Beirut, flying into Teheran with the returning Ayatollah Khomeini, and narrowly avoiding entrapment by a beautiful Czech secret agent, Simpson has had an astonishingly eventful career. In 1989 he witnessed the Tiananmen Square massacre, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism throughout Eastern Europe and, only weeks later, in South Africa, the release of Nelson Mandela. With Simpson's uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time, this autobiography is a ring-side seat at every major event in recent global history. 'So vivid I could feel my heart beating' Jonathan Mirsky, Spectator 'great stories, sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious' Daily Telegraph

This book represents the shear insanity of real stories and real places that are so bizarre no one wants to believe they exist. I can understand that, but (as the saying goes) some things are true whether we choose to believe them or not. This book represents the greatest hits of all my weirdest stories, places and experiences. I hope you enjoy them all. You can view all my books at http://jsi4.tripod.com/js/storejs.html

Back in 1968 Diana Page was going to graduate from the University of Michigan without much hope for marriage or a career. She didn't have a boyfriend, so a prospective husband was unlikely to materialize before the semester ended, and a bachelor's in political science wasn't going to make her easily employable. The solution? Join the Peace Corps where she could help change the world . . . and possibly meet a guy who shared her values. Thus began Diana's adventures. Her travels as a journalist and diplomat took her down the dangerous roads of Latin American history from the 1960s into the twenty-first century. With excerpts from diaries, letters, and news articles, she weaves together a narrative of war and peace, presidents and peasants, but mostly of ordinary people who teach her about life. She also runs into a few extraordinary people along the way: Fidel Castro, Isabel Peron, Pele, Jorge Luis Borges, and Hilary Clinton among others. Looking for Love in Strange Places: A Memoir for My Stepdaughters is a hopeful, humorous account of what happens when you seize the day -- without too many expectations for the future.

Just as World War I introduced Americans to Europe, making an indelible impression on thousands of farmboys who were changed forever “after they saw Paree,” so World War II was the beginning of America’s encounter with the East – an encounter whose effects are still being felt and absorbed. No single place was more symbolic of this initial encounter than Hawaii, the target of the first unforgettable Japanese attack on American forces, and, as the forward base and staging area for all military operations in the Pacific, the “first strange place” for close to a million soldiers, sailors, and marines on their way to the horrors of war. But as Beth Bailey and David Farber show in this evocative and timely book, Hawaii was also the first strange place on another kind of journey, toward the new American society that began to emerge in the postwar era. Unlike the largely rigid and static social order of prewar America, this was to be a highly mobile and volatile society of mixed racial and cultural influences, one above all in which women and minorities would increasingly demand and receive equal status. With consummate skill and sensitivity, Bailey and Farber show how these unprecedented changes were tested and explored in the highly charged environment of wartime Hawaii. Most of the hundreds of thousands of men and women whom war brought to Hawaii were expecting a Hollywood image of “paradise.” What they found instead was vastly different: a complex crucible in which radically diverse elements – social, racial, sexual – were mingled and transmuted in the heat and strain of war. Drawing on the rich and largely untapped reservoir of documents, diaries, memoirs, and interviews with men and women who were there, the authors vividly recreate the dense, lush, atmosphere of wartime Hawaii – an atmosphere that combined the familiar and exotic in a mixture that prefigured the special strangeness of American society today.

Upon attaining a degree in Earth System History from the University of Saurat, Rachel Elam, the school's star atol player, her fianc, and two friends receive a fully financed tour to study the old, disregarded planet called Earth. All of her life she has been enchanted by the planet, the origin of many life forms in her galaxy. She is excited to explore it now. Retired cop Sodedo Ronah, a true curmudgeon, runs the travel bureau and knows that Earth is not a place where the young graduate and her friends should visit. However, he is forced by sworn code to keep the true use of the planet a secret. Knowing that he is forced to allow a journey that will end in disaster, he and a colleague set out to help the young travelers. Upon their arrival, Rachel and her friends quickly discover that Earth is now being used by society as a prison for the most violent criminals in the populated planetary systems. With their survival at stake, Rachel must rely on her courage, intellectual resourcefulness, and her athletic prowess to escape the planet and save her friends and herself.

Is your prayer life as exciting as a funeral service? If given the choice between praying and a root canal, would you choose the latter? If asked what part of prayer you enjoy the most, would you reply, "When it's finished?" Seeing God in Strange Places offers a mixture of humorous and sobering stories that help lead the reader toward intimacy with the Creator. The book answers the age-old question, how does one become conscious of God's presence in the daily grind of life? A stagnant prayer life can evolve into a stirring and enriching experience, where the awareness of God's presence brings about hope to whatever you face. Max W. Jackson attended Ohio State University, and completed the course of study at Garret Theological Seminary in Chicago. His ministry began in 1984 as a part-time local pastor before he was ordained as Deacon in the United Methodist church. He presently is serving three churches in Ohio. The Jacksons have two children, a son and daughter, and four grandchildren.

Lessons Learned in Strange Places is an intriguing, yet true, account of author Jane Coopers travels to various places around the world. Chronicling her numerous adventures, Jane provides a fascinating picture of many different countries, some of which are now closed to tourism, and especially to American tourists. The most important aspects of her stories are the lessons that were learned along with the answers to many prayers, which she and her mother experienced as they entered and exited these countries. For example, their trip to Iraq in 1974 not only required patience but also a great deal of prayer. It was at this time that Jane learned the importance of yielding to Gods will. Arriving in Iraq with her mother for a Christmas holiday with no lodging secured, by chance they met an American woman and her German husband at the airport. The couple offered them a place to stay that turned out to be a blessing. In addition to the wonder of various lessons learned along the way, the amazing answers to prayer were just as impressive. Lessons Learned in Strange Places offers the anticipation of what the next problem might be, how the author handled each one, and the astonishing end resultsand the part that prayer and faith played in each adventure.

The jack-o'-lanterns, with their wicked smiles and evil glares, are gone for another year. The turkey are happy to announce that Thanksgiving has come and gone. There are few to be seen. Inside all the houses of Waterford, trees are being raised and decorated from top to bottom with sparkling lights, hanging bulbs for kitties to swat, and candies to fill many a dream. Such was the case in the Lion house one late December day until Jack, the policeman, knocked on the front door. Then, the season