Charlene Pell wears her scars like badges of honor—she has never hidden them.

Thirty years ago, on a sunny afternoon, Charlene was on a private flight to Cat Island, Bahamas, when the unthinkable happened: the plane, piloted by her fiancé, experienced a mechanical problem and crashed in a fiery inferno. When Charlene awoke, she discovered that 64 percent of her body had been burned, and her fiancé had died.

In This Altered Body is the compelling story of Charlene’s physical and emotional odyssey to reclaim her life and identity after surviving a tragedy that left her facially disfigured and grieving. As Charlene begins the long, painful process of recovery, she fears she will never be loved again, because her outward beauty has been destroyed and our society, obsessed with flawless skin and superficial beauty, stigmatizes disfigurement. But through dogged determination, Charlene overcomes difficult obstacles both physical and emotional—and learns from the experiences of other burn survivors to never write off her dreams and to be open to possibilities . . . including love. Brimming with insight from a life of perseverance, In This Altered Body is a piercing memoir about tragic loss and the resilience of the human spirit.

Perfect for fans of Anthony Bourdain’s irreverent food-as-adventure writing, Misfit Chef chronicles award-winning chef Christopher J. DeStefano’s wild journey at his former restaurant Christopher’s Table, an acclaimed food shop on the North Shore of Boston.

One part memoir, one part cookbook—with a dash of late-night adventure—Misfit Chef celebrates both food and people. DeStefano tells it all, from his humble roots growing up in his grandparents’ small-town New England grocery store to leading culinary adventures through the streets of Paris. He recounts opening his dream restaurant, hosting wild parties with drag queens in his restaurant's kitchen, and escaping a catering job that literally went up in flames.

Each chapter of DeStefano’s story is complemented by gorgeous photographs and thirty-eight signature Christopher’s Table recipes, including roast pork tenderloin with poached plums, oven fried chicken, farmhouse gazpacho, and grilled peaches with mascarpone cream and crumbled amaretti. Misfit Chef celebrates the power of food and reminds us of how it can bind us to the very best bits of life.

“Weigel’s story is sure to energize and inspire you to live every day to the fullest.”
—Dean Karnazes, New York Times bestselling author of Ultramarathon Man

A powerful memoir about a dad navigating loss, fighting cancer, surviving, and thriving alongside the most important person in his life—his daughter.

Paul Weigel’s life always felt hard. Throughout his isolated childhood, with distant and detached parents, losing his college sweetheart in a horrible tragedy, and enduring the unexpected death of his father, Weigel spent his life in despair. It all just hurt.

Everything changed when his daughter was born.

From day one, Weigel and his daughter shared an incredible bond. She was a constant source of peace and inspiration to him, and he was determined to give her the love and security he’d never had. His life and the family that he’d dreamed about seemed to be finally getting on track—that is, until a devastating cancer diagnosis threatened that future.

But this time around, Weigel chose hope. If you believe in the impossible, he told himself, the incredible can come true. Using this mantra, Weigel pushed forward, determined to show his daughter true strength and power. Facing the ups and downs of his illness and treatment with courage, he trained for and completed an Ironman triathlon within six months of finishing chemotherapy, and he continued to be a dedicated father.

In Iron Dad, Weigel celebrates the unique bond between fathers and daughters and shares an inspiring story of finding and clinging to the joy in life, no matter the odds.

“Peter Turchin brings science to history. Some like it and some prefer their history plain. But everyone needs to pay attention to the well-informed, convincing and terrifying analysis in this book.” —Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics

From the pioneering co-founder of cliodynamics, the groundbreaking new interdisciplinary science of history, a big-picture explanation for America's civil strife and its possible endgames

Peter Turchin, one of the most interesting social scientists of our age, has infused the study of history with approaches and insights from other fields for more than a quarter century. End Times is the culmination of his work to understand what causes political communities to cohere and what causes them to fall apart, as applied to the current turmoil within the United States. 

Back in 2010, when Nature magazine asked leading scientists to provide a ten-year forecast, Turchin used his models to predict that America was in a spiral of social disintegration that would lead to a breakdown in the political order circa 2020. The years since have proved his prediction more and more accurate, and End Times reveals why.

The lessons of world history are clear, Turchin argues: When the equilibrium between ruling elites and the majority tips too far in favor of elites, political instability is all but inevitable. As income inequality surges and prosperity flows disproportionately into the hands of the elites, the common people suffer, and society-wide efforts to become an elite grow ever more frenzied. He calls this process the wealth pump; it’s a world of the damned and the saved. And since the number of such positions remains relatively fixed, the overproduction of elites inevitably leads to frustrated elite aspirants, who harness popular resentment to turn against the established order. Turchin’s models show that when this state has been reached, societies become locked in a death spiral it's very hard to exit.

In America, the wealth pump has been operating full blast for two generations. As cliodynamics shows us, our current cycle of elite overproduction and popular immiseration is far along the path to violent political rupture.  That is only one possible end time, and the choice is up to us, but the hour grows late.

Alexandra Chan thinks she has life figured out until, in the Year of the Ram, the death of her father—her last parent—brings her to her knees, an event seemingly foretold in Chinese mythology.

A left-brained archaeologist and successful tiger daughter, Chan finds her logical approach to life utterly fails her in the face of this profound grief. Unable to find a way forward, she must either burn to ash or forge herself anew.

Slowly, painfully, wondrously, Chan discovers that her father and ancestors have left threads of renewal in the artifacts and stories of their lives. Through a long-lost interview conducted by Roosevelt’s Federal Writers’ Project, a basket of war letters written from the Burmese jungle, a box of photographs, her world travels, and a deepening relationship to her own art, the archaeologist and lifelong rationalist makes her greatest discovery to date: the healing power of enchantment.

In an epic story that travels from prerevolution China to the South under Jim Crow, from the Pacific theater of WWII to the black sands of Reynisfjara, Iceland, and beyond, Chan takes us on a universal journey to meaning in the wake of devastating loss, sharing the insights and tools that allowed her to rebuild her life and resurrect her spirit. Part memoir, part lyrical invitation to new ways of seeing and better ways of being in dark times, the book includes beautiful full-color original Chinese brush paintings by the author and fascinating vintage photographs of an unforgettable cast of characters. In the Garden Behind the Moon is a captivating family portrait and an urgent call to awaken to the magic and wonder of daily life.

“An ideal introduction to that awful yet important page in our history, as well as a vivid and fast-paced refresher for those better acquainted with the past.” –Gregory J.W. Urwin, Professor of History at Temple University and author of Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island

September 1939. To fuel his hate-filled quest for global supremacy and an eternal Third Reich, German dictator Adolf Hitler orders a blitzkrieg attack against Poland, a gateway into the East where prized lands and economic resources await. A sea of tanks and troops storm across the border, prompting Polish allies Britain and France to declare war on Nazi Germany. The conflict soon widens, consuming the European continent and beyond. In late 1941, Japanese forces strike American naval forces at Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into a blistering Pacific brawl. For the second time in the twentieth century, the world is at war, and the consequences will prove devastating, pushing humankind to the brink of utter catastrophe.

The Fight of Their Lives: A 21st Century Primer on World War II is a riveting account of the peril and resiliency that marked the darkest chapter in human history. From blood-soaked clashes across farm fields and jungle islands, to the code rooms and factory floors that powered the Allies to final victory, the fast-paced narrative fully documents the epic struggle that claimed at least sixty million lives. Styled to appeal to all audiences, The Fight of Their Lives is a timely read, from the legacies that remain supremely relevant today, to the lessons humanity cannot afford to learn again.

STARLIGHT IN THE DAWN: The Poetic Priestess Who Chose to Fight

Step into the banks of the ancient Euphrates around 2300 BCE.

A high priestess' epic struggle for power in the men's world of ancient Sumer. At the dawn of civilization, the beautiful daughter of Sargon the Great and the High priestess of the Sumerian city of Ur confronts the intrigue of politics. She leaves the ivory tower of the priesthood and rises to unforeseen challenges. Intimidated when alone, she faces down and disgraces the king not fearing the stakes. The event has its consequence. This is a gripping story of Enheduanna, the first literary person of ancient history. She was of a stellar reputation for centuries. Her story is based on her words.


Editorial Reviews

"Loved it. This is an engaging novel with good characters set in a unique time period. Recommended for anyone who loves ancient history. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a tale of a strong woman in a historical setting new to them." Linda Ulleseit, Reedsy discovery

"A powerful story of social change, with several key characters coming together to change their destinies, relationships, and future...the clash between religious and political forces and the evolution of characters in a story replete with action, psychological transformation, and challenges to belief systems alike... engrossing and filled with different kinds of insights, with romance added to the backdrop.... based on the first literary author on record. Readers will find the story hard to put down." Diane Donovan, Donovan'sLiterary Services/Midwest Review

A thriller and dramatic epic from one of the cradles of civilization, an ambitious and symbolic novel...impressively well researched and realized, and this richly imagined past feels immediate and authentic. Starlight in the Dawn, a stellar work of historical fiction" Self-Publishing Review

"A solid introduction to the ancient world under Sargon, STARLIGHT IN THE DAWN will leave most casual novel-readers and historical-fiction aficionados wanting more." Indie Reader Review

" 'Fate and faith are like friends who fail.'

Sridhar's narrative is driven by compelling world-building and character development. The author demonstrates his strong knowledge of history spanning multiple cultures. It is an educating and entertaining read. RECOMMENDED.

Sridhar's Candlelight in a Storm was the 2018 Eric Howard Book Award da Vinci Eye finalist" US Review of Books.

"The astounding amount of research the author did is simply amazing - to be able to recreate a history of a time period that little is known about and to build a world that is believable, entertaining with fully fleshed-out characters, and educational to boot is worth a round of applause...this is an engrossing insightful tale, full of texture on a heightened scale, a spiritual plane, as the reader hovers over the words and finds a connection across time and space. This is a book for true historical aficionados and is not a read-in-one-sitting type of book, as it is necessary to let some of the discussions between characters and the activities soak in for a bit so you can understand the depth of what is going on on the surface and behind the scenes." Historical Fiction Company.

Six months after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, Charles “Muggins” Sommers was drafted into the US Army. Shipping out for England in 1943, he suggested to his wife they begin numbering their correspondence. By the time he arrived home, he had sent around five hundred letters filled with insightful and moving snapshots of the life of a U.S. soldier in England during the war.

Susan Sommers Thurman’s WWII Letters from England chronicles the true stories of Burtonwood—the joint US-UK facility and then the largest military airbase in the UK. In this book, you’ll learn about everyday life in the military for a noncombat solider during the war, as told by a soldier who spent almost three years stationed at Burtonwood.

Discover a fascinating snapshot of history. Get WWII Letters from England today!

“A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and further will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.”

— Daisaku Ikeda

Papa the Popular Printer is an extraordinary nonfiction story about protagonist James Henry Forniss. He amazingly evolves from a young man as a shoe shiner, to become a successful Professional Printer. Akin to today's “IT” Information Technologist. His ingenious transformation was rare for a colored man especially in the south during the post slavery 20th Century era.

This true story depicts challenges Colored people faced to overcome racial barriers to advance in America in the early 1900’s. Children will learn about “The Power of One”! and how one determined youth with strong faith, confidence and courage to “never give up” transformed his life and many others.

JH became a Community Activist whose influence dramatically enhanced the development of his hometown, Uniontown, Alabama.

In this book, you will learn:

• The Power of One.
• Historical challenges for "Colored People" faced during the 1900's Post Slavery Era.
• The importance of practicing strong faith.
• The importance of persistence and its impact to your life.
• How to gain courage and confidence.

Papa The Popular Printer delves into history and explores the challenges that colored individuals navigated during the post-slavery era. Discover the essence of strong faith, courage, and confidence. Join the movement of change and get a copy now!

He is the last person to touch them before they die.
His face is the last they see before they are executed.
He stands there with one last goal: to get them to heaven.

276 TIMES CHAPLAIN Jim Brazzil has sat in death’s waiting room. He has listened to confessions in the eleventh hour. The last moment of the condemned, when everything bubbles up to the surface and they have to share.

Now Jim is the one dying, ready for his last confession.

THE AWARD-WINNING Swedish journalist Carina Bergfeldt and the American prison pastor start a conversation that ends up changing both their lives. He is older, patient, and wise. She is young, restless, and angry.

IN HIS HOUSE in the Texan countryside, their discussions about death and sorrow, hope, atonement, and love create a magical journey.

How are we supposed to live our lives?
Can one always be forgiving?
And what day is actually a good day to die?

Praise:

”Brilliant, Bergfeldt! … Touching, uplifting, and awful at the same time.”

"A book to bury yourself in. Whether or not you have a strong faith, it is healing to take part in their conversation."

”A touching and disturbing book, but also an experience. Maybe even an awakening.”

One wife’s story of caring for her husband with dementia—and the lessons for caregivers she learned along the way.

After the death of her husband, author Donna Larkin realized that she—and the other women in her dementia caregivers’ support group—had accumulated invaluable strategies and tools that might be helpful for others recently finding themselves in a similar situation. In Enduring: A Story of Love, Dementia, and Lessons Learned, Larkin shares a chronology of her husband’s Alzheimer’s disease and her caregiving approaches, including those gleaned from her support-group friends and experts she met along the way.

An honest, loving, and unflinching portrait of caregiving, Enduring draws on nine years’ worth of notes, emails, and journal pages written while full-time caregiving at home and while later helping to transition her husband into a memory-care facility. A chronicle of the couple’s journey from diagnosis to passing, her stories—with vulnerability, straight talk, and good humor—uniquely illustrate what it means to be a full-time caregiver for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease.

As Larkin and her husband faced down the realities of his condition, a problem-solving approach kept her focused on finding solutions where possible—while her heart kept her focused on the man she knew her husband to be and the love they still shared in the face of many obstacles. For anyone struggling with the realities of a loved one’s battle with dementia, Enduring is a reminder that you are not alone.

The story of a single mom’s pursuit of a dream to start an alpaca farm in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina.

At thirty-seven, Jane Lee Rankin receives news that upends her life: she’s pregnant. Lee is a cancer survivor eighteen months in remission. Her boyfriend won’t commit, and her father is unsupportive. When she decides to raise the baby by herself, Lee feels the scornful glances and judgmental whispers of her conservative hometown.

Armed only with a dream and a toddler, Lee marches into Banner Elk, North Carolina, a place where she knows no one, to start an alpaca farm. As a novice first-generation farmer, Lee faces nature’s most potent setbacks, from disastrous weather events to attacks from predators. And yet, she forges on. With vivid storytelling, Farm Family features a cast of memorable animal characters—including alpacas, Millie, Celeste, Frosty, and Wildcard—and immerses readers into the not-always-pretty world of farming. At Apple Hill Farm, Lee trades fear for freedom. She trades disdain for dignity. She learns that her connection to animals is more vital than she knew, and with bravery and persistence, she creates a home—a farm family.

"Hilarious one moment, poignant the next... An author with ten lifetimes' worth of experiences, Kaplan has penned far more than a writer's story but an evocative and witty tour back in time to the French Riviera as most only dream of it. Clever and—best of all—true, Once Upon a Villa belongs at the top of every reader's list." – NY Times bestselling author Tosca Lee


In this wise, warm-hearted, witty, and LOL hilariously funny true account, New York Times bestselling author Andrew Kaplan tells what it’s like when he, his wife, and two-year-old son decided to chuck it all and live the fantasy in a villa by the sea in that extraordinary corner of the world – part international café society, part billionaires’ playground, part provincial France – that is the French Riviera.

Whether it’s matching wits with French bureaucracy, searching for the perfect bouillabaisse, encounters with con men, eccentric ex-pats, and Monaco’s royal family, partying with the international set on Onassis’ yacht, playing chess with a philosophical police chief, or adventures and friendships with the rich and famous and the presumably standoffish French, Once Upon a Villa will transport you to a fascinating and shrewdly-observed world that you will savor like your first-morning bite of pain au chocolate.

So pour yourself a glass of wine, open the book, and Santé!


Early Readers can't get enough of this delightfully charming memoir:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “A delightful memoir of life on the French Riviera!…It is hilarious…The writing style is very good and easy to read with lots of dialogue. It felt as though the author was having a conversation with me…” –Goodreads reviewer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Andrew Kaplan's "Once Upon a Villa" is as a gust of fresh air… a refreshingly nuanced approach…The author's accounts of the writing process, interspersed with anecdotes that give the story its (situational) humor, made me feel as though I had been lent the very eyes writing…” –Netgalley reviewer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “A thoroughly enjoyable work!… The lightness of the writing was perfect with the glamour of the setting and characterization…Once Upon a Villa is definitely on my list for gifts…” –Goodreads reviewer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “This is my first book by Mr Kaplan, and I enjoyed everything about it very much. First and foremost it’s hilarious…There are a couple of moments of sadness, however, the Author does a masterful job with the events and the aftermath, bringing us back to the general levity of this story…I highly recommend this book!” –Goodreads reviewer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Once Upon a Villa is a charming memoir overflowing with notable names, tasty wines, fabulous food and interesting ex-pats…I wholeheartedly recommend this memoir! You are guaranteed a fascinating escape to the French Riviera.” –Goodreads reviewer

Before smartphones or international data plans, global adventure travel required extensive pre-trip research, solid street smarts, survival ingenuity, human interaction, guidebooks, paper maps, cross-cultural knowledge, and a shit ton of luck. This compelling memoir follows Brandon Wolfe and his international companions as they navigate that world of wanderology 12,000 km/7,450 miles by land and water throughout several countries within Southeast Africa.

Brandon and his comrades find themselves evading wild animals, braving disease, encountering natural wonders, meeting unforgettable locals, and even scrambling to overcome their own stupidity to take in every dose of pure adventure. This riveting expedition explores the openness in authentic friendships, revels in the uncertainties within technology-free travel, captures the wonder of human resilience, yet also gets candid on the victories and struggles that come along with an addiction to adventure.

Cold Beer and a Hot Dart is a rollicking, hedonistic coming of age story that blends excitement, heart, wit, and self-reflection into a captivating, old school backpacking journey.

*Product Review Disclaimer*- some reviews that have been posted are in reference to the first edition of Cold Beer and a Hot Dart, which was published in 2015 and since been discontinued.

An instant New York Times bestseller

From the bestselling author of The Cost of These Dreams

The story of how Julian Van Winkle III, the caretaker of the most coveted cult Kentucky Bourbon whiskey in the world, fought to protect his family's heritage and preserve the taste of his forebears, in a world where authenticity, like his product, is in very short supply.

As a journalist said of Pappy Van Winkle, "You could call it bourbon, or you could call it a $5,000 bottle of liquified, barrel-aged unobtanium." Julian Van Winkle, the third-generation head of his family's business, is now thought of as something like the Buddha of Bourbon - Booze Yoda, as Wright Thompson calls him. He is swarmed wherever he goes, and people stand in long lines to get him to sign their bottles of Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve, the whiskey he created to honor his grandfather, the founder of the family concern. A bottle of the 23-year-old Pappy starts at $3000 on the internet. As Julian is the first to say, things have gone completely nuts.

Forty years ago, Julian would have laughed in astonishment if you'd told him what lay ahead. He'd just stepped in to try to save the business after his father had died, partly of heartbreak, having been forced to sell the old distillery in a brutal downturn in the market for whiskey. Julian's grandfather had presided over a magical kingdom of craft and connoisseurship, a genteel outfit whose family ethos generated good will throughout Kentucky and far beyond. There's always a certain amount of romance to the marketing of spirits, but Pappy's mission statement captured something real: "We make fine bourbon - at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but always fine bourbon." But now the business had hit the wilderness years, and Julian could only hang on for dear life, stubbornly committed to preserving his namesake's legacy or going down with the ship.

Then something like a miracle happened: it turned out that hundreds of very special barrels of whiskey from the Van Winkle family distillery had been saved by the multinational conglomerate that bought it. With no idea what they had, they offered to sell it to Julian, who scrambled to beg and borrow the funds. Now he could bottle a whiskey whose taste captured his family's legacy. The result would immediately be hailed as the greatest whiskey in the world - and would soon be the hardest to find.

But now, those old barrels were used up, and Julian Van Winkle faced the challenge of his lifetime: how to preserve the taste of Pappy, the taste of his family's heritage, in a new age? The amazing Wright Thompson was invited to be his wingman as he set about to try. The result is an extraordinary testimony to the challenge of living up to your legacy and the rewards that come from knowing and honoring your people and your craft. Wright learned those lessons from Julian as they applied to the honest work of making a great bourbon whiskey in Kentucky, but he couldn't help applying them to his own craft, writing, and his upbringing in Mississippi, as he and his wife contemplated the birth of their first child. May we all be lucky enough to find some of ourselves, as Wright Thompson did, in Julian Van Winkle, and in Pappyland.

Enter the operating room with Dr. William Meffert as he shares generations’ worth of his family’s wartime surgery experiences.

William Meffert is a surgeon. His father was a surgeon. And now, so is his son. Three generations familiar with incisions, blood, and loss. From World War II and Vietnam to modern operating rooms, they have all fought the battle for human life. Now, Meffert journeys with his son to chart his family’s history through the changing world of combat surgery and beyond to reveal the universal truths that connect them across generations.

As Meffert travels with his son to field hospital locations of World War II and Vietnam, they encounter detailed memories of trauma surgery, wounded soldiers, and the effects of war—a stark reminder of its cost on humankind. Throughout, Meffert meditates on the lasting impact of conflict and the pressures of a surgeon’s life, from being forced to make immediate life-or-death decisions for unknown patients, to the realities of blood and gore, to the difficulty of sharing these experiences with the uninitiated.

Linking together the individual lives of grandfather, father, and son, There Were No Flowers is a story of war, surgery, trauma, and the joys of fatherhood, family, and love in the face of it all.

The first volume in Hunter S. Thompson’s bestselling Gonzo Papers offers brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in his signature style.

Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the bestselling “Gonzo Papers” is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style.

Ranging in date from the National Observer days to the era of Rolling Stone, The Great Shark Hunt offers myriad, highly charged entries, including the first Hunter S. Thompson piece to be dubbed “gonzo”—“The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” which appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in 1970. From this essay, a new journalistic movement sprang which would change the shape of American letters. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful ‘60s and ‘70s.