John Thorne, who coached the Tigers of Wheaton Warrenville South/Wheaton Central High School for 22 years once said, "Football is so much like life: you get knocked down, you suffer devastating losses, you make huge mistakes, but you have to get right back up. You have no choice." Thorne's Tigers followed that script for many years before emerging as one of Illinois' preeminent high school football programs in the 1990s ultimately producing more than 80 Division I college athletes, as well as nearly 90 Division II and Division III athletes and a handful of All-Americans and NFL players along the way – not to mention seven state championships. The Ghosts of Wheaton is the story of how champions are made. With play-by-play detail, author Thom Wilder chronicles not only the games but the players, their struggles, their strengths, and their leadership in their quest to rekindle the gridiron greatness of Red Grange.

In celebration of the National Football League’s 100th season, noted football historian Chris Willis brings to life the story of Red Grange, the nation’s first NFL star, in this definitive biography. Harold “Red” Grange became a national sensation as a junior halfback at the University of Illinois in the 1920s. He quickly joined other great athletes of the Roaring Twenties such as Bobby Jones, Jack Dempsey, and Babe Ruth in enthralling audiences on the radio and in newspapers on a daily basis. A year later the "Galloping Ghost" stunned the country by dropping out of school after his last collegiate game and going pro with the six year old NFL, signing with the Chicago Bears. In Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL’s First Superstar, Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of a humble football player who rose to fame in the 1920s and became an icon. With unlimited access and complete cooperation of the Grange family, Willis offers new insight into Grange’s rags-to-riches story, including details about his tomboy mother who died when Grange was six years old and never-before-published information on Grange’s barnstorming tour with the Chicago Bears that instantly gave credibility to the fledgling NFL. With over fifty original interviews, personal letters to and from Grange, and more than forty photos, this definitive biography reveals in intimate detail the life of a sports pioneer. Whether as a player, coach, broadcaster, pitchman, Hall of Famer, ambassador, or icon, Red Grange was, and still is, the face of the early NFL and one of the greatest athletes of all-time.

Jessica Seeker's life can be summed up in one word: derelict. Abandoned at birth, bounced from foster home to foster home, and labeled a freak because of her psychic abilities, Jessica has been running from her past for so many years that she never learned what it was to have self-worth. Gang-raped and left for dead, Jessica is saved by a strange Medicine Woman and Shaman who keeps rambling on about "Our Mothers" and Jessica's destiny. Once she has healed physically, Jessica is given a crash course in the ways of the ancestors. Unbeknownst to her, she is being groomed to be the Medicine Woman's successor. Fighting her destiny tooth and nail, Jessica finally realizes that this is where she belongs. This is what gives her an identity, a home, and a family. Her resolve and her new powers are tested too soon when she is summoned to solve a mystery involving a serial killer from her childhood. The killer is back, but this time he wants Jessica, and the life of a young girl is also in jeopardy if Jessica does not fulfill her destiny. Will Jessica face her worst fears and enter the realm that has been haunting her visions for so long? Will she be in time to save the endangered girl?

A city is not merely its structures but also its citizens, the men and women working hard and raising families, aspiring to ideals or lofty dreams. Since its founding as a farm community by tough New England sodbusters, Wheaton has provided residency for an amazing array of personalities, from ex-slave William Osborne to astronaut Shannon Lucid, from sculptors to preachers, from intensely focused athletes to "ordinary" citizens performing extraordinary, selfless acts. As Carl Sandburg, poet laureate of Illinois, mused, "These are the people, with flaws and failings, with patience, sacrifice, devotion, the people." Portraying glimpses of their humor, insight, dedication, and ability, this book seeks to celebrate only a fraction of these fascinating individuals, the true heart and soul of the city--and the nation.

From Rhys Bowen, the author of In Farleigh Field, comes the next Molly Murphy mystery: The Ghost of Christmas Past. Semi-retired private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is suffering from depression after a miscarriage following her adventure in San Francisco during the earthquake of 1906. She and her husband, Daniel, are invited for Christmas at a mansion on the Hudson, and they gratefully accept, expecting a peaceful and relaxing holiday season. Not long after they arrive, however, they start to feel the tension in the house’s atmosphere. Then they learn that the host couple's young daughter wandered out into the snow ten years ago and was never seen again. Molly can identify with the mother's pain at never knowing what happened to her child and wants to help, but there is so little to go on. No ransom note. No body ever found. But Molly slowly begins to suspect that the occupants of the house know more than they are letting on. Then, on Christmas Eve, there is a knock at the door and a young girl stands there. "I'm Charlotte," she says. "I've come home."

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The changes in Old Town Pasadena reflect the changes within ourselves. The area has been sanitized, and several good restaurants have moved in. However, it has also become safe and clean. #2 I was a has-been actor, and the Ghost of My Career Yet to Come, when I was kicked in the nuts by a Hooters waitress. I had spent my life talking about what I did when I was a kid, when I could have been doing something with my life. #3 I made a choice that would drive my life and haunt me for years: I would get out of my Star Trek contract and go on to a huge career in movies. I would prove to everyone that I was a great actor, and that Star Trek was just a small part of my résumé. #4 I was passionate about acting, but not edgy. I was obsessed with acting, and spent several years trying to make a comeback.

"This volume chronicles the history of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, beginning with its creation as a Female Seminary in 1834 and concluding with the 1955 decision to increase substantially in size, a process that commenced in 1957. This latter event brought to a close 123 years during which Wheaton Seminary and College had remained tied to the precepts and fiscal resources of the founding family, the Wheatons."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"Prudence Eleanor Vilkas was born with heart-shaped wings on her back. Although they were removed, the adult Prudence searches for a greater connection to her past. When she reunites with her long-estranged Lithuanian grandfather, they set off on a journey to discover a lineage of miraculous bird-women who traversed continents and fought wars to unearth their extraordinary place in the world"--Page [4]of cover.

This expansive, multivolume reference work provides a broad, multidisciplinary examination of the Civil War period ranging from pre-Civil War developments and catalysts such as the Mexican-American War to the rebuilding of the war-torn nation during Reconstruction. The Civil War was undoubtedly the most important and seminal event in 19th-century American history. Students who understand the Civil War have a better grasp of the central dilemmas in the American historical narrative: states rights versus federalism, freedom versus slavery, the role of the military establishment, the extent of presidential powers, and individual rights versus collective rights. Many of these dilemmas continue to shape modern society and politics. This comprehensive work facilitates both detailed reading and quick referencing for readers from the high school level to senior scholars in the field. The exhaustive coverage of this encyclopedia includes all significant battles and skirmishes; important figures, both civilian and military; weapons; government relations with Native Americans; and a plethora of social, political, cultural, military, and economic developments. The entries also address the many events that led to the conflict, the international diplomacy of the war, the rise of the Republican Party and the growing crisis and stalemate in American politics, slavery and its impact on the nation as a whole, the secession crisis, the emergence of the "total war" concept, and the complex challenges of the aftermath of the conflict.