Bittersweet, funny and touching, Larry McMurtry's The Desert Rose is the story of Harmony, a Las Vegas showgirl. At night she's a lead dancer in a gambling casino; during the day she raises peacocks. She's one of a dying breed of dancers, faced with fewer and fewer jobs and an even bleaker future. Yet she maintains a calm cheerfulness in that arid neon landscape of supermarkets, drive-in wedding chapels, and all-night casinos. While Harmony's star is fading, her beautiful, cynical daughter Pepper's is on the rise. But Harmony remains wistful and optimistic through it all. She is the unexpected blossom in the wasteland, the tough and tender desert rose.

A detailed account of Coretta Scott King's upbringing in a family of proud, land-owning African Americans with a devotion to the ideals of social equality and the values of education, as well as her later role as her husband's most trusted confidant and advisor.

Jack Halliday struck it rich in the 1860 silver boom in Virginia City! As Annalee and her mother travel to join him in Nevada, their joy turns to ashes. They're unprepared for the savage mountain winter that traps them in a desperate struggle for survival. At this critical moment, lawman Brett Wilder arrives in town. He's looking for the gunslinger who crippled his father—and he suspects Jack. When Annalee and Brett meet as they each search for Jack, they must face what they believe about the sovereignty of God, justice, and mercy. They also must discover whether their growing love for one another will melt like snow into an icy mountain stream or bloom like a rose in the desert.

Isabella Lilias Trotter (1853-1928) was an artist and a missionary for over 38 years to the Muslims of Algeria. John Ruskin, the famous art critic, didn't believe that ladies could paint before he met Lilias. He changed his mind after he met her and believed that if she would give her life to painting she could become the greatest painter of the nineteenth century. Ruskin believed that if she would devote herself to art "she would be the greatest living painter and do things that would be immortal. " He was unhappy that she was spending so much time on the streets of London, helping with the YWCA, when he thought she ought to be painting. Lilias, however, decided to give up her career in art in order to serve God. She always remained a good friend of Ruskin's though, and they wrote many letters when she was in Algeria. She also wrote several books - beautifully illustrated by herself, including: Parables of the Cross (1894), Parables of the Christ-Life (1899), and a book for Sufi Muslims, The Way of the Sevenfold Secret.

When Will, a young gay gender-fluid artist is abandoned by the one person he cares most about in the world, he's left desperate and broken, with nowhere to turn. All he has is the phone number of a man who once purchased a few of his paintings and had propositioned him with the opportunity of a lifetime. A year later, Will feels confident, sexy, and desperately in love with Dorian, the owner of New Orleans' underground gay brothel; Desert Rose. The money is good, the sex is better, and every day is a party, until Will realizes things are not what they seem. Every day then becomes a battle between obligation, love, true happiness, and the devastating guilt that Will's newest client, Nikolai, makes him smile more than Dorian ever has.

The power of love and the strength of women working together are proved once again. When Rose Macklin is asked to help Alec Thurston, the one man she’s ever truly loved, by coming to Palm Desert, California, she doesn’t hesitate. He’s dying of cancer and needs her help overseeing the sale of his hotel, the Desert Sage Inn, to another hotel group. With her marketing skill and as the owner of a very successful blog, she’s his perfect choice to make the sale a smooth transition while ensuring the new owners will maintain the reputation and image of the upscale property after the sale. She arrives to find Alec has summoned two other women to help with the project. Lily Weaver was once Alec’s assistant, and Willow Sanchez was like a daughter to him. They join forces to help him, lovingly accepting his nickname for them—the Desert Flowers, similar to the well-known Charlie’s Angels of TV fame. When Rose is assigned to work alongside Hank Bowers, an independent consultant to the hotel company’s team, she shudders at his reputation as an outgoing guy who always uses sports analogies and is certain they won’t get along. But Alec counsels her to give Hank a chance and, later, as they work together as a team, Rose is left to wonder if falling for one another is part of Alec’s secret plan even if one of Hank’s grown daughters fights the idea. A series for those who love stories about strong women facing challenges and finding love and happiness along the way. Be sure to read the other upcoming books in the Desert Sage Inn series: Lily, Willow, and Mistletoe and Holly Other series written by Judith Keim are receiving a lot of love: the Hartwell Women Series, The Beach House Hotel Series, the Fat Fridays series, the Salty Key Inn Series, the Chandler Hill Inn series, and the books in the Seashell Cottage Collection.

Health / Self-Help Using the healing properties of flower essences is an ancient art, spanning many cultures. Flower essences are safe and powerful catalysts that anyone can use. Not only do they bring clarity to the conscious mind and develop many intuitive abilities, but they also resolve negative beliefs and directly affect us at the level where we make decisions about our emotions, health, vitality and relationships. Flower essences unlock our inherent positive qualities such as love, courage and joy. Naturopath Ian White has taken this age-old study and applied it to the flowering plants of the Australian bush, showing that the energy and power in the ancient lands of Australia are manifested in the healing properties of its plants. In Australian Bush Flower Essences, he gives an informative yet personal picture of fifty bush flower essences from all over the country, as well as detailed information about their preparation and use in all areas of healing. He also provides a bibliography of important works about natural healing and an index of illnesses and their treatment. Fully illustrated, Australian Bush Flower Essences is the most comprehensive and farreaching book yet written about this important modality. It is designed to allow anyone to feel competent and confident in using these essences to bring about health, harmony and well-being. IanWhite is a highly respected practitioner and teacher of naturopathy and kinesiology. His family have been natural health practitioners specializing in herbal medicine for five generations. www.ausflowers.com.au