Friendship for Grown-Ups: What I Missed and Learned Along the Wayby Lisa Whelchel

Do you long for a true friend?

"Isn't that what we all want? To be seen, in all our glory, for better or worse, the good, the bad, and the ugly and still be embraced?"

If only such friendships were easy to find. And keep. For Lisa Whelchel and millions of others, friendship is a challenge. The vulnerability, trust, balance, grace, and time required to develop and maintain strong friendships do not come easily.

Growing up as an actress in Hollywood, there were few people Lisa could trust, and even fewer to guide her. By the time she reached adulthood, she had learned to be self-sufficient. She was strong, she was "safe," and she was lonely.

One day, Lisa found that "the desire to experience connection was stronger than the desire to be safe." She determined right then to finally understand friendship: how to create one, sustain it, and experience the sheer joy of having it. But it wasn't easy.

Since then, she has traveled the ups and downs of friendship, learning about herself, others, and the kinds of friendship God designed.

A speaker, teacher, and compelling storyteller, Lisa writes from her heart and her head, sharing her story and helping women understand how to cope with the strengths and weaknesses of friendship, and basing all her advice on the foundation of our ultimate relationship with the Savior.

The Devil's Highway: A True Storyby Luis Alberto Urrea

The author of "Across the Wire" offers brilliant investigative reporting of what went wrong when, in May 2001, a group of 26 men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona. Only 12 men came back out. "Superb . . . Nothing less than a saga on the scale of the Exodus and an ordeal as heartbreaking as the Passion . . . The book comes vividly alive with a richness of language and a mastery of narrative detail that only the most gifted of writers are able to achieve.--"Los Angeles Times Book Review."

Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happinessby Jessica Valenti

A provocative and intimate exploration of modern parenthood by "a gutsy young third wave feminist" – The New York Times

If parenting is making Americans unhappy, if it's impossible to "have it all," if people don't have the economic, social, or political structures needed to support parenting, then why do it? And why are anxious new parents flocking to every Tiger Mother and Bébé-raiser for advice on how to raise kids?

In Why Have Kids?, Valenti explores these controversial questions through on-the-ground reporting, startling new research, and her own unique experiences as a mom. She moves beyond the black and white "mommy wars" over natural parenting, discipline, and work-life balance to explore a more nuanced reality: one filled with ambivalence, joy, guilt, and exhaustion. A must read for parents as well as those considering starting a family, Why Have Kids? is an explosive addition to the conversation about modern parenthood.

Pop-Out Girlby Irene Woodbury

Jen and Colton's lives soon unravel when Zane Hollister, Jen's toxically jealous ex-boyfriend, returns to Las Vegas after two years in prison and discovers they're a couple. Stalking and taunting them for months gets him nowhere, so Zane masterminds a devilish zip-line accident and a terrifying car crash. Later, there's a kidnapping and forced marriage, and then a horrific drive-by shooting. where Zane hits Colton's boss, Matt, by mistake as he aims for Colton.

With Matt lingering in a coma, Jen's cocktail-waitress mother Brandi hears his name on the local news and realizes he's her first love of decades past--and Jen's real father.

Will Matt emerge from his coma to reunite with Brandi and Jen? Do the cops nab Zane, who's hiding out in Hawaii? And can Jen and Colton's love survive Zane's lethal jealousy?

There's a happy ending for some, but not for all, in POP-OUT GIRL.

Enigma: What Lies Beneathby Ditter Kellen

Doctor Abbigail Sutherland is used to being alone. Between twelve hour shifts at the hospital and looking after her eccentric father, she has very little time for much else. Until an unexpected call one night, sends her racing to the lab where she discovers a secret that could change the world forever.
Hauke awakens after an underwater explosion, strapped to a bed and on his way to a site known as Area 51. His only hope for survival lies in Abbie Sutherland, the beautiful doctor that saved his life. Amidst a deadly virus, seemingly impossible to stop, and a corrupt Government placing a price on their heads, Hauke and Abbie run for their lives, uncovering conspiracies, deceptions, and a love that won't be denied...

Recommend reading the books in order. This is not a serial, and it does have a happy ever after, but the story moves forward with a new hero and heroine in the next book.

Cold War Trilogy -- A three-Book Boxed Setby William F. Brown

Three of the authors' best-selling historic action-adventure thrillers, plus a fourth bonus novel, all for the price of two. Over 1200 pages of exciting reading at a 50% savings, it's the best deal on the web.

You get Winner Lose All, Amongst My Enemies, and Thursday at Noon, plus a bonus copy of Aim True, My Brothers. Together they have 286 Five-Star ratings on almost 500 Reviews, an average of 4.4 Stars.

Set in the spring of 1945, "Winner Lose All" features American, Russian, British agents fighting themselves and the Gestapo over the German weapons technology which will determine the world's balance of power for years to come. At the center of "Amongst My Enemies" is a rusting German U-boat lying on the bottom of the Baltic. Inside is a fortune in gold and stolen art, and secret that could tear NATO apart. In "Thursday at Noon", reviewed in The New Yorker and set in Egypt in 1962, a burned-out CIA agent is all that stands between German rocket scientists, the CIA, KGB, a coup in Cairo, and a new Middle-East war.

Need a pool book, beach book, or some good reads for a long plane ride? These fast-paced spy stories are known for their pacing, twisting plot lines, and some deliciously evil bad guys. See if you don't agree.