In the Service of Your Country? How to Challenge the Military System and Win! by Paul L. Kirn
Lieutenant Colonel Kirn is faced with numerous challenges, including political, emotional, psychological, and physical, revolving around his life’s journey through the military and beyond. He’ll lead you through the malaise associated with attacking unfair performance evaluations and the tornadic activity that extreme life events can throw at you. The high level of success Kirn achieves—with the spirit of perseverance—is documented within these pages and recognized by others. If you’re looking for inspiration and the know-how to navigate the military framework, In the Service of Your Country? is for you!
The Rabbi’s Suitcase by Robert Kehlmann
Inspired by history and a trove of love letters, The Rabbi’s Suitcase recounts how, in the early 1880s, a battered steamship, overcrowded with Orthodox Jewish travelers, makes a treacherous journey from Lithuania to Jerusalem, the home of their patriarchs. On board, Yosef Siev, a twelve-year-old mystic, is entranced with wild-haired Chana. Their story is told against a backdrop of Ottoman rule, the privations of WWI, and British Mandatory uprisings.
In 1926 Yosef and Chana’s seventeen-year-old granddaughter, Zipora, enters into a forbidden relationship with Reuven, a young Lithuanian immigrant destined, as a close ally of David Ben Gurion, to become a founder of the State of Israel. The liaison extracts a heavy toll. With dreams of self-discovery and a better future for herself and her family, Zipora travels to America determined to contribute to Reuven’s studies at the Sorbonne. Conflicts arise over issues of politics, gender inequality, and fidelity, forcing heart-wrenching decisions.
Regard for the Living by Timothy M. Savage
An ancient and long-forgotten creature is preying on vulnerable residents in Philadelphia. After a chance encounter, former Navy corpsman and Afghanistan veteran Kevin Maloney begins to hunt it, determined to rid the city of the ghoulish menace. Frustrated as the creature continues to take victims, Kevin eventually traps and kills it, almost losing his life in the process.
But when victims begin to emerge again, Kevin is recruited by a secret faction of the Catholic Church to find out how the creature is replicating and exterminate it before it can spawn again. After frustrating false starts, distractions, and a tragic loss, Kevin closes in on his quarry, determined this time to eliminate it for good.
Midnight in Crystal City by R. R. Beach
Michael, a private contractor working for a Washington DC–based government agency, finds himself stuck in Crystal City due to contract issues. He’s lonely; his wife died in a car crash long ago, and his only daughter refuses to take his calls. Michael’s days are spent working on project changes with his government liaison Donna, but now that’s stalled too.
Unable to sleep in his stale hotel room, Michael takes a late-night walk through the empty streets. He is startled by a huge homeless man, who stops him and asks for a cigarette. Michael is sure he’s getting mugged, but instead the man tells him he was part of an outlandish Cold War plot to assassinate a top Russian official at the Moscow Olympics, and he speaks of a shadowy CIA agent known only as Blue Ties.
Over time Michael discovers the truth of the plot, the tendrils of which still linger about the dark corners of Crystal City. He soon realizes that just having knowledge of the story could put his life in jeopardy.
The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty by Kirsten Mickelwait
Raised in New York’s Gilded Age, pampered heiress Sara Wiborg dreams of a more creative life than the rigid future prescribed for her. It’s only when she meets Gerald Murphy that she finds a man who shares her creative, aesthetic ideal and, after a friendship of eleven years, they marry despite the strong disapproval of her family.
Against the sizzling Jazz Age backdrop of 1920s Paris and Antibes, Sara’s innate style and gift for friendship attract the bohemian elite of the new century—including Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, and Dorothy Parker. But by the 1930s, her fortune is lost and tragedy strikes—not once, but twice. Sara’s strength and resilience allow her to find a new equilibrium over time, long after the parties have ended. A heartbreaking story of love and loss, The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty follows Sara through her very modern life to reveal how tragedy can be healed by faith, unconditional love, and a creative mind.
The Cavern by Kelly Keevins
It has been five years since biochemical warfare destroyed the world. Five years since anyone could breathe the air outside of the cavern. And almost five years since the inhabitants of the cavern have seen any outsiders besides the group known as the Elite, who allow them to live there. Until Elsie shows up.
Elsie can’t remember where she came from or how she got here. And she doesn’t remember the world ending. Luckily, the cavern inhabitants are kind and understanding—except for Angelo, who thinks she is a spy for the Elite. Soon Elsie becomes enmeshed in cavern living and indispensable to those around her. But Angelo can’t help but wonder if she knows more than she’s letting on.
A dystopian young adult novel, The Cavern explores questions of hope, love, and survival at the world’s end.
A Rooftop in Jerusalem by Michael Kinnamon
When Daniel Jacobs decides to spend his junior year abroad in Israel, he never dreams he’ll fall in love with both Jerusalem’s Old City and an Israeli woman, Shoshana. It’s the year religion becomes a part of his identity, from the heights of a simple rooftop. A year he encounters the tragic complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. A year that begins a four-decade-long love affair, as complicated and heartbreaking as the political conflict with which it’s intertwined. As Daniel moves through life-through marriage and divorce, career and travel-he returns periodically to Jerusalem, where his heart faithfully remains.
A Rooftop in Jerusalem brings the Old City’s walls, holy sites, and inhabitants to life, while putting a human face on headlines from the Middle East.
Downriver: Memoir of a Warrior Poet by Ryan McDermott
We all face trauma. How we confront it defines who we become.
Downriver follows Ryan McDermott on a gripping and deeply personal journey through war, ambition, loss, and redemption. From losing his childhood home to foreclosure to facing the unseen scars of the 2003 Iraq invasion and navigating the cutthroat world of Wall Street at the moment of its 2008 collapse, McDermott’s experiences reflect the highs and lows of the American dream. Here he explores his fight to build a family, confront his past, and reclaim his identity.
Interwoven with poignant poetry, Downriver is a story of resilience, self-discovery, and the enduring power of hope-a journey that will inspire readers to examine their own history, embrace their truth, and reconnect with what matters most.
The Shocking Truth Behind What Men Really Think About Women by Sandy Camillo
Societal bias makes it difficult for men to reveal their innermost thoughts about women without fear of retaliation. THE SHOCKING TRUTH Behind What Men REALLY Think About Women exposes these secrets to help women better understand the men in their lives.
Using meticulous research and candid male and female responses to an anonymous survey, Sandy Camillo invites you to join her on an eye-opening journey through history, tracing men’s views on women across different eras. You’ll also eavesdrop on three fictional characters, Jim, Noah, and Buddy, who meet monthly at their neighborhood bar to share intimate stories of the women in their lives.
Are you adventurous enough to delve into the sometimes good, bad, and outright ugly things that men think about women?
High Flight: A Pilot’s Journey Through Life by Richard Hess
Richard Hess, born John Patrick Aliano, began life in a typical middle-class household. His parents divorced when he was just a toddler, and after his mom remarried, she gave him her new husband’s surname, further distancing him from his paternal roots. Growing up on New York’s mean streets with an abusive stepfather taught Richard grit at a very early age.
This grit followed him into the United States Air Force, which became his surrogate patriarch for the next twenty-eight years. During his service, from the cockpit of high-performance jet aircraft, Richard learned to leave his scars behind. Now, after fifty years of marriage, raising three kids, fighting in nine war zones, and traveling to countless countries, he’s gained a certain perspective on life.
Richard’s years spent as a military pilot, airline captain, and businessman have given him an education in life, love, and faith-an education that begs to be shared.
