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Join two aliens, Fedhisss and Urr, traveling in separate space vessels, on a joint mission to seek out and explore new regions and new life forms in the universe. During their second planetary stop, however, Fedhisss decides that he also wants to improve the overall quality of life in the universe, and he intends to do so by eradicating any concentrations of consciousness they may come upon that Fedhisss deems unworthy of existence. With that in mind, Fedhisss then wreaks total havoc on the planet they are visiting by destroying all of the life forms existing there. And when he sees that Urr is now strongly determined to stop him from making any further judgments, Fedhisss departs in his own ship, trying to leave Urr behind. Using the guidance system on his ship, Urr then manages to track Fedhisss to his next landing, the planet Earth.

"Dr. Ciaramicoli takes diversity down a new path by focusing on its relationship with empathy and its ability to transform communities."-Abbie Rosenberg, RN, NP Psychotherapist and Founder/Executive Director Mental Health Collaborative, Hopkinton, MAHave we come to a time where differences in color, religion, sexuality, or nationality are seen as threats to our way of life? Has exclusion and lack of interest in those suffering in other parts of the world become a way to protect us from our fears? When we close the door to those who seem dissimilar, we limit our potential for growth. Diversity expands the mind and enriches the soul; it is the antidote to groupthink.In The Triumph of Diversity, Dr. Ciaramicoli analyzes prejudice by tracing it to personal origins and relates true stories of courageous individuals who have overcome hatred, cruelty and sadism to become open-minded, loving resilient people. He re-emphasizes that we are in desperate need of those who unite rather than those who ostracize.Dr. Ciaramicoli shares his observations as a psychologist in clinical practice, his interviews with laymen, clinicians and clergy, and data from current research to conclude, as Thomas Paine said, "My Country is the World; my Religion is to do Good," and that learned prejudices can be laid bare and redirected to give way to genuine empathy and inclusion over exclusion.

In the autumn of 1895, citizens of Leadville, Colorado construct the Ice Palace: a last sign of hope for the fading silver mining town. There, on New Year's Eve beneath the magic lights and frozen ramparts of this fantastic ice marvel, June Selig and Nathan Grensky, dance and fall in love.Across the country in New York City, the waning years of the Gilded Age and a failed stock market gamble crushes the dreams of the Greenbaums. Only Tillie can save her family from ruin by entering into a marriage of convenience.Two decades later, Tillie, resigned to a passionless marriage, encourages her daughter Margie to live the romance she was denied and take a chance on the dashing, hard-drinking newsman Tommy Grensky, the Leadville Ice Palace lovers' son. But when the young couple travels to London in 1937, they encounter a changing Europe under the rise of Nazism.In The Ice Palace Waltz, two Jewish immigrant families-the rough and ready Western pioneers and the smooth, "our crowd" New Yorkers-come together in a riveting family saga amid the financial and social tumult of early twentieth century America. Baer's moving multigenerational novel traces the American Jewish experience and the enduring power of family and love.

Is he Liberal? Or is he Conservative? The highest judge in the land can't make up his mind.After languishing in The Depository for Foundlings and other Discarded Children, Leonard Zweig is adopted by staunch Conservative lawyer Milton and pious Liberal lawyer Miriam Zweig.When the Zweigs launch a secret program to indoctrinate Leonard in the dogma of their respective sects, his impressionable adolescent's mind bifurcates, causing him to involuntarily oscillate between Liberalism and Conservatism every few days-an affliction he can't shake even through law school and eventually municipal judgeship.Meanwhile, the Republic is mired in a judicial crisis. To stave off a leftward shift, Benito Ionesco, Leader of the Conservative-controlled legislature, searches for a viable way to end the crisis. Fortuitously, his secretary has recently read about Leonard's ideological switching in a tawdry tabloid.Will the Liberal Chancellor be willing to nominate a part-time Conservative to the highest Bench in the land? And if Leonard is confirmed, will he be treated as a pariah by his colleagues? Or will an aversion conditioning program leave him with a single ideological bias? This satirical novel hilariously exposes our current political climate, judicial system, and leaders.

From Independence to war.Mairbek Vatchagaev, the former press secretary and first adviser to Chechen President Maskhadov, chronicles the dramatic events that took place in Chechnya during the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Chechen war for independence. Engaged on one side of the Russian-Chechen conflict, he presents what he witnessed, how he became involved, how the struggle with Russia and the internal Chechen rivalries evolved, and how it impacted his family, his friends, his acquaintances, and the Chechen people.

From First Kiss to Forever: A Scientific Approach to Love is a fun and humorous, yet scientific, book about relationships. This book introduces the reader to relationship science. The chapters examine how people meet, select their mates, and fall in and out of love.Readers need not be scientists to understand the information presented. Each chapter relates present-day research to everyday experiences and real relationship issues confronted by couples. Each ends with take home tips/questions to help the reader apply the lessons in his/her own life.Do you want to understand the science behind finding a mate, maintaining long-lasting relationships, or even what makes some relationships doomed to fail? Help your relationships grow and flourish, and have a few hearty laughs along the way.

"Many of John Espy's thoughts are so wise they should be inscribed in stone."-Dr. Antonino Ferro, author of Reveries: An Unfettered Mind"From the author of the searing books on serial murder comes a collection of thoughts and pressures brewing during some forty years of practice."-Dr. Michael Eigen, author of The Psychotic Core Clinical Dicta and Contra Dicta examines the therapy process both from the inside out and the outside in. Over many years of sitting with patients and supervisees, John Espy found that the themes presented in his office had threads of similarities. Are we winsome or loathsome? Do we desire self-knowing or do we seek out more psychically sophisticated ways of self-deception? Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis is a psychic pilgrimage that reveals the depths of both our capacity to love and our capacity for hate. Life is not clean and no one gets out unscathed. We are fraught with temptations and unconscious desires to deceive ourselves by engaging in behaviors that undermine our own best self-interests. The best therapy results in an exploration of our illusions of who we imagine ourselves to be confronted by who in fact we are. Clinical Dicta and Contra Dicta explores these issues both visually and in narrative form. Iconic adages and clinical vignettes are presented as well as a treatise on how serial perpetrators use projective-identification to groom and ultimately ensnare their victims.

An absurdist tale of gas, grass, ass, and Vietnam.War has made Air Force pilot Slats Kisov an adrenaline junkie. Using his exceptional low-and-slow flying skills, he smuggles marijuana into Florida from the Bahamas.Will Slats' former battles with the Viet Cong, hijackers, PTSD, and Mother Nature prepare him for his most perilous battle of all-the one he must wage against Chief Bobby Ray Pistle?Strap yourself in and get ready for a bumpy ride. And one spectacular landing!

"Riveting, prophetic. Impressively well written."-Midwest Book Review"An important new book to add to the growing cli-fi world."-Dan Bloom, The Cli-Fi ReportPowerful, prophetic and poignant, Tales from The Warming is an anthology of ten short stories taking readers all over the world and over time to experience-in human terms-the growing impact of climate change.Story locations range from Bangladesh to Venice, Los Angeles to Polynesia, South Sudan to Southwestern China, Mount Kilimanjaro to the Persian Gulf, Miami to Greenland. The time frame is 2022 to 2059, a period during which the world is beginning to suffer the far reaching effects of this civilization-changing phenomenon.

Under the guise of mentor and muse, a frustrated writer and her ambitious teenage protégé take an illicit summer road trip fraught with racial and sexual tension. This is a compelling psychological novel about social norms, artistic ambition, and obsession.Maggie Barnett works in the media center of a school in Flint, Michigan where she meets Taezha Riverton, an aspiring teenage writer. After discovering that Maggie is also a writer, Taezha turns to her as both mentor and friend.Alone and childless, it's not enough for Maggie to take Tae to restaurants and poetry slams. Although Tae's mother has nothing against Maggie, she is less than thrilled when Maggie proposes to take her daughter on a summer road trip. Permission is never explicitly granted, but shortly after school is out for the summer, Maggie and Tae head for the Southeast.

We still seem to believe in the 'the ascent of man' and that we are superior to all other species, so surely we must be in charge of our destinies. But is it any more valid, believing a man is superior to a butterfly because he is cleverer, than believing a butterfly is superior to a man because it is more beautiful? It has been suggested that our unashamed vanity has been dealt three serious blows. The first was cosmological, dealt by Copernicus in 1543, who showed that we were not at the center of the universe; the second was biological, dealt by Darwin in 1859, who showed that we were just one small branch of the evolutionary tree of life; and the third was psychological, dealt by Freud in 1900, who showed that the unconscious mind had a far greater influence on us than we had ever thought possible. To these might be added yet a fourth blow to our vanity. It is a blow that is gradually being exposed by the inquiry into what makes us feel and think and act the way we do and how much our heredity and environmental experiences influence our behavior. Perhaps we're not quite as in charge of our destinies as we thought we were. Most of us think we learn from our experiences but perhaps we can do so only retrospectively and that this process is less about learning than conditioning.

Things were about to get as sticky as a pot of cheese fondue!Is Chloé dating a murderer? Who's stalking Nicole this time? Is the disturbed stranger from the woods friend or foe? And why in the world is 50+ year old Nora prancing about in push-up bras?Thirty year-old Amalia Kis' recently opened wine and cheese bistro is flourishing despite a rocky start; until she finds the dead body of the nephew of her evil nemesis, Mr. Leonardo.Things get smellier than Blue Cheese when she learns that everyone loathed and feared him. The suspect list steadily grows.Amalia's eccentric Hungarian parents move just minutes away and despite her best efforts, soon learn of the murder. To her surprise, her father eventually gets involved. Meanwhile, things steam up with new boyfriend Matt, who continues to discourage her involvement in the case. Nora, on the other hand, is right in the thick of things- and gets steamy with Mr. Leonardo! (Gag).In her accidental detective style, Amalia blunders through, trying to solve the murder.Will she be sharp, like an aged Irish Cheddar, or crumble like an aged Asiago?

"...a town where the moralists were power-mongering phonies, the feisty reporters who saw through them were just beginning to be women, and rock 'n' roll still ruled the AM dial."-Mike Miner, Chicago Reader"What I find so compelling is Emily's determination...I wish I'd met her at Riccardo's in 1975."-Rick Kogan, WGN radio host: "After Hours"Winter in Chicago journalist Emily Winter is the first reporter on the scene of a gruesome murder in the offices of CARD, a civic organization that investigates corruption in City Hall. Although she has proven herself to be a skilled reporter with at least one headline making story to her credit, her new TV boss assigns her to a more "ladylike" beat-lifestyle and feature stories.Determined to overcome the sexism that inhibits her career, Emily works her way into hard news coverage, including the story of the murder at CARD, but she faces major obstacles on all fronts as she pursues the killer.As the case twists and turns, Emily navigates the city she loves, relishing Chicago's architecture, neighborhood restaurants, culture and her beloved, if hapless, Chicago Cubs.Will she uncover the murderer and bring justice for those who depend on hard-working journalists to write the stories that define their lives? Find out in Winter Gets Hot!

Drugs, death and rock and roll on Chicago's AM radio dial...Before dawn in January, 1975, Emily detours from her normal route to work in the newsroom of Chicago's top pop rock station to investigate a crime scene. The police believe the body on the street is a suicide. Emily is stunned to discover that the dead woman is a dear friend since high school. Unable to fathom why Beni Steinart would take her own life, Emily begins an investigation that leads to a trunk-load of cocaine, Federal narcotics charges, abuse of power and a perplexing mystery - suicide or murder?Emily's reporting triggers an explosive battle between two men who tower over their city. Cary Chase is Chicago's most prominent bachelor, a wealthy entrepreneur whose mansion is the epicenter of Chicago's elite society. United States Attorney Tommy "Tommy Terrific" Jameson is ambitiously determined to rid his city of corruption on his way up to the Governor's office and perhaps even higher.Drawing on an eclectic roster of news sources and WEL colleagues and her own considerable talent and determination, Emily uncovers the full story of her friend's death in a remarkable confrontation which produces front page headlines and restores one life as it ruins another.

The thing about the truth is; it doesn't get out much...Colin Jekyll is an 'Events Manager'. And a liar. Colin's real name is Frank Canon, and his real job title is 'Reality Enforcer'. And the lies don't stop there; they only get bigger.Canon works for the Agency, protecting the status quo. A multilingual lone wolf with an unreliable history and a fear of flying, Canon covers up continuity errors; those inexplicable events most other people call 'miracles'. He adjusts outbreaks of clairvoyance and drunken weather, weeping statues and spontaneous dancing plagues before they become common knowledge, and before people begin to panic, because people's faith in consensus reality needs to be enforced.Fortunately for Frank and the Agency, most people are naturally suspicious of the truth.

To Hell with high school!The American education system is turned inside out when a frustrated teacher incites his students to stage an uprising.In a poor suburban community in southern Ohio, Dieter Vogel is a failing English teacher at a high school populated predominately by minority students. He is bullied by the basketball coach, neglected by the principal, ignored by his crush, Esther, and pressured to workout with Jose, the art teacher. At the end of the first day back after summer break, Dieter is visited by Satan, who takes the initial form of a Twinkie. Satan convinces Dieter to overthrow the school mascot, Gretel the Pretzel, so that the Devil can take its place. Dieter is promised Esther's love and the position of principal in return. All Dieter has to do is follow the Devil's advice and use classic literature to manipulate the students into a racially charged frenzy against the mostly white staff.

Dr. Alex Winter, a brilliant biomedical engineer, teams with Dr. Xiu Ling, a beautiful Chinese scientist, to discover a revolutionary cure for cancer. But Tando Pharmaceuticals, the world's largest and richest drug producer, also has an interest in the cure, and when they discover that the treatment is flawed as recipients begin to die after four months, causing a media frenzy and a drop in Tando's stock, they call upon their 'Mercenary Soldiers of Medicine' to maintain global domination.

To foil a killer Madame Lune must walk in his shoes, enter his evil mind, and eventually learn to kill...Who is the mysterious Madame Lune and why has watching Rue Lepic become a terrifying obsession for her? To the ordinary observer, Rue Lepic is a colourful street that meanders and climbs the northern part of Paris, from the Moulin Rouge in Pigalle's red light district to Montmartre, where stands the lofty basilica of Sacre Coeur. It is full of character and characters, with its open-air markets and traders, street cleaners and concierges. It plays host to waves of tourists teaming past cafés, restaurants and souvenir shops.There is, however, something else lurking beneath the layers of everyday life that lures the scrutiny of Madame Lune and fills her with fear. In their midst is another watcher-a monster who prowls the district. He is a killer-a serial killer, and he has identified his next victim.

Meet V.C. Almond, Mastermind Sleuth, Jack of Some Trades, and the Delmar Loop's Private Investigator Ordinaire.V.C. Almond's life is in the gutter. Divorced and broke, he's living in a rat trap apartment above the loudest punk music venue in the Delmar Loop. Worse, his dear friend Jake Kennedy, son of crime boss Big Jamie Kennedy, has just committed suicide.The night of Jake's funeral, V.C. returns home to find a surprise on his floor: Jake's freshly murdered, bullet-riddled body. Soon realizing Jake's double death appears destined to go unsolved, V.C. reluctantly agrees to help private detective Aldous Lewie crack the case.Stumbling upon the body of a man who's supposed to already be dead is just the first leg of V.C.'s journey down the rabbit hole.

"Gregory R. Piché's wide-ranging examination of these four major trials, their outcomes, and their lasting impact creates a spirited survey that will appeal to a diverse audience of historians, transportation buffs, legal beagles, and general-interest readers. It's thoroughly engrossing reading offering many insights and thought-provoking moments."-D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book ReviewHenry Ford: oracular genius, people's hero, or narcissistic, autocratic bully? In Gregory R. Piche's new book, The Four Trials of Henry Ford, four landmark court cases reveal the dark side of Ford's legal clashes and the quirks of his character and personality that ushered his image in the public's imagination from mechanical savant and populist sage to isolated, imperious bigot.In recounting the Ford litigation, Piché examines Ford's parallel manipulation of public media to advance his own political and narcissistic agenda to become a public sage and an American President. It follows the initial rise of his reputation as a Progressive capitalist to its ultimate erosion as a mean-spirited bigot and contributor to the propaganda that fueled the Holocaust.

Almost everybody who was born in the post-agrarian period separated by the two great wars grew up in a place whose growing pains were painfully obvious. It was into such a place that my parents moved with my brother and me in tow. Our house was small, but serviceable; our neighbors forthcoming, but not so morbidly curious that they pried, and our world expanded in one way as it shrank in another. The sky was as blue as it is said to be in heaven. And we were so adrift in space and time that we became the terrestrial astronauts that so troubled Rod Serling that he had to write something about us each week for television.Here the Main Streets of our grandparents were left to developers, who preferred parking lots to promenades. Here generously proportioned school buildings beckoned to a fertile population that would supply them so handily that, once a prototype was made, it could be endlessly reproduced. Here pastimes flourished as they never had before. Here mostly white people settled in as Ricky Nelson serenaded them. Here needs were synonymous with desires. And here a culture that was made possible by the received wisdom of Father Coughlin, Leo Durocher, and Lawrence Welk sat back, adjusted its goggles, and proceeded, with limitations that grew with every sack of fertilizer that guaranteed a more perfect lawn, to have the time of its life.It was here that I grew up and here (mostly) that I have roamed, from ball field to abbreviated living room to the topsy-turvy relations between hard reality and plausible delusion. I hope, in capturing some of its essence in prose, that the small underbellies which often lurk beneath the bigger ones become crudely, if only temporarily, visible.

An historical murder mystery based on real events.Who would want to murder the world's most famous philosopher?Turns out: nearly everyone.In 1649, Descartes was invited by the Queen of Sweden to become her Court Philosopher. Though he was the world's leading philosopher, his life had by this point fallen apart. He was 53, penniless, living in exile in the United Provinces, alone. With much trepidation but not much choice, he arrived in Stockholm in mid-October.Shortly thereafter he was dead.Enter Adrien Baillet. A likeable misfit with a mysterious backstory, he arrives just as the French Ambassador desperately needs an impartial Frenchman to prove that Descartes died of natural causes.But solving the mystery of Descartes's death (Baillet soon learns) requires first solving the mystery of Descartes's life, with all its dangerous secrets ... None of it is easy, as nearly everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted.But Baillet somehow perseveres, surprising everyone as he figures it all out-all the way to the explosive end.

A brilliant artificial intelligence (AI) scientist, Dr. Alan Boyd, develops a new program that integrates part of his brain with a computer's operating system. The program, Alan 2, can anticipate a user's needs and automatically perform many tasks. A large software company, International Microsystems (IM) desperately wants the program and tempts Dr. Boyd with huge sums of money, but when Dr. Boyd refuses their offer, IM sabotages his job, leaving him in a difficult financial situation.Dr. Boyd turns to Alan 2 for an answer to his financial problems, and Alan 2 develops plan Alpha, which is a cyber robin hood scheme to rob from rich corporations via a credit card scam.Alan and his girlfriend Kaitlin travel to Mexico where they live the good life funded by plan Alpha, but the FBI cybercrime division has discovered part of Alan 2's cyber escapades, and two agents, Rachel and Stu, trace the crime through the TOR network and Bitcoin.Alan 2 discovers the FBI is on to them and advises Alan and Kaitlin to change locations. A dramatic chase ensues taking them to St. Thomas, a cruise ship bound for Spain, and finally to Morocco.Will they escape detection? They will if Alan 2's Plan Beta can be implemented in time. Or is 'Plan B' something altogether different than it appears to be, something wholly sinister that will affect the entire population of the world?

A story of hopeless love-a serial philanderer and gambler married to a woman much younger-and impossible love-his wife, Casey Googan, and a black boxer. Turn of the century Boston comes alive with crew races, balloon races, boxing, rat-baiting, and fashion competitions judged by Isabella Stuart Gardner. Boston's sculling champion, blue-blood Foxhall Codman, is obsessed with the possibility that the phantom sculler who rowed through him in fog on the Charles River was a woman. Thirty-thousand spectators-Brahmins and geeks, catch-penny operators and thimble riggers-turn out for the epic race on the Charles, a battle of the sexes prefiguring Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean King seven decades later.