IN SEARCH OF A NEW LIFE OUT WEST, BRAZOS FORTUNE FINDS HIS FAMILY ENDANGERED BY THE VERY QUEST HE HOPED WOULD SAVE THEM. With these simple words, Brazos Fortune sets out on his journey in the first of Stephen Blys new Fortunes of the Black Hills series. When locals threaten the lives and property of his family. Brazos abandons his Texas homestead for a new ranch in the West he has seen in a dream. Its a war against corrupt lawmen, wild outlaws, and bitter winter weather as Brazos wrestles with his newfound hunger for gold and the burning desire to be reunited with his family. He must test himself against the untamed frontier, confront the greedy miners who try his Christian convictions, and find the new home God showed him Beneath a Dakota Cross.

"Perhaps every woman will lie for the man she lies with."-Sarah Wakefield August 18, 1862. On the Sioux reservation in southwestern Minnesota, Indians desperate for food and freedom rise up against whites in the region. Sarah Wakefield, the wife of a physician, is taken captive with her two babies. Their fate falls into the hands of the warrior Caske, with whom she has slim acquaintance. As war rages, little does she know how entwined their lives will become. Beneath the Same Stars is the gripping story of two people, caught between worlds, who are willing to do almost anything to defend those they care about-including each other. But the drama is bigger than themselves. Tragic forces have been set in motion.... Inspired by actual events surrounding the U.S.-Dakota War. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Beneath the Same Stars "I come from a family descended from Gabriel Renville (Ti Wakan, Sacred Lodge), a Sisitunwan headman who helped to resolve the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. But among my people that conflict never ended. It still divides us today. We were once a strong, spiritual people. We need reminders of who we really are and where we come from. Beneath the Same Stars helps us reexamine our own history and identity. Will that create some positive change among us? I hope so, for the sake of our children, most of all."-Darlene Renville Pipeboy, independent Dakota scholar and elder "This is a sensitive portrait of a complicated woman caught in the politically and culturally fraught conflict that led to the U.S.-Dakota War. It both reflects the prejudices and divisiveness of that time and offers bridges to help heal the rifts between and within the communities that continue to be affected by the events of 1862 and their aftermath. The novel turns historical figures into living, breathing embodiments of the conflict, making tangible both the historical events and the contemporary impact of those events on all the affected communities. It raises questions and concerns of substance rather than trying to resolve them and is a constructive contribution to the dialogue we continue to need."-Carol Chomsky, Professor, University of Minnesota Law School, and author of "The United States-Dakota War Trials: A Study in Military Injustice" "Beneath the Same Stars weaves feeling and concern into the tragic landscape of the U.S.-Dakota Conflict. Readers are taken on a journey beyond history-book headlines and into the world of a woman who, despite confusion and weakness, dares to care. The story has echoes for today-it invites us all to acknowledge and appreciate cultural differences despite the ever-present social anxiety directing us not to."-Jim Green, former director, Institute for Dakota Studies, Sisseton Wahpeton Tribal College; co-director, Center for Indigenous Teaching, Sinte Gleska University "This novel, whose title beautifully expresses the ongoing relevance of the so-called "past," should be widely read and discussed in schools and communities. Through impressive research and powerful storytelling, Cole-Dai contextualizes one of this country's most tragic histories exceptionally well. Beneath the Same Stars is a significant contribution to the literature of cross-cultural understanding."-Charles L. Woodard, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, South Dakota State University, and author of Ancestral Voice: Conversations with N. Scott Momaday

An abandoned English village holds generations of dark secrets that are about to be uncovered in this gothic thriller by the author of A Dark Dividing. Some fifty years ago, Priors Bramley was emptied of its residents—all for the sake of a Cold War experiment with chemical weapons that went wrong. Since then, the cordoned off town has been known at The Poisoned village. But the locals don’t know the half of it. Now, as The Poisoned Village is set to be reopened, its secrets are set to be unleashed. Tracing the contagion leads inexorably to the long-abandoned Cadence Manor, once home to generations of secretive, powerful bankers and their elegant wives. What happened there in the years before the World War I? What murderous madness infected the family? And what is the source of the eerie music that, even now, can be heard drifting down the crumbling village streets?

"Our lives will always be in the hands of our mothers, whether we like it or not." Nazia doesn't mind when her friends tease and call her a good beti, a dutiful daughter. Growing up in a working-class family in Karachi, Pakistan, Nazia knows that obedience is the least she can give to her mother, who has spent years saving and preparing for her dowry. But every daughter must grow up, and for fourteen-year-old Nazia that day arrives suddenly when her father gets into an accident at work, and her family finds themselves without money for rent or food. Being the beti that she is, Nazia drops out of school to help her mother clean houses, all the while wondering when she managed to lose control of her life that had been full of friends and school. Working as a maid is a shameful obligation that could be detrimental to her future -- after all, no one wants a housekeeper for a daughter-in-law. As Nazia finds herself growing up much too quickly, the lessons of hardship that seem unbearable turn out to be a lot more liberating than she ever imagined.

This young readers’ edition of Christina Baker Kline’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel Orphan Train follows a twelve-year-old foster girl who forms an unlikely bond with a ninety-one-year-old woman. Adapted and condensed for a young audience, Orphan Train Girl includes an author’s note and archival photos from the orphan train era. This book is especially perfect for mother/daughter reading groups. Molly Ayer has been in foster care since she was eight years old. Most of the time, Molly knows it’s her attitude that’s the problem, but after being shipped from one family to another, she’s had her fair share of adults treating her like an inconvenience. So when Molly’s forced to help an a wealthy elderly woman clean out her attic for community service, Molly is wary. But from the moment they meet, Molly realizes that Vivian isn’t like any of the adults she’s encountered before. Vivian asks Molly questions about her life and actually listens to the answers. Soon Molly sees they have more in common than she thought. Vivian was once an orphan, too—an Irish immigrant to New York City who was put on a so-called "orphan train" to the Midwest with hundreds of other children—and she can understand, better than anyone else, the emotional binds that have been making Molly’s life so hard. Together, they not only clear boxes of past mementos from Vivian’s attic, but forge a path of friendship, forgiveness, and new beginnings.

When Jill Kandel married Johan, a man from the Netherlands, she never imagined the influence her father-in-law, Izaak, would hold over her life. Beneath his calm demeanor and clerical garb, Izaak carried the wounds of growing up in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Childhood chaos led him to become a man who had all the answers. For everyone. Except himself. Izaak ended his own life-while still a healthy man-using legalized euthanasia in the Netherlands. The long tumultuous relationship between daughter-in-law and father-in-law was over. But Kandel couldn't move on. Ten years later, still exhausted by thoughts of Izaak, she returned to the Netherlands to search for understanding.The Clean Daughter is a story about building family across cultural, linguistic, and geographical divides. The complicated ways families both destroy and heal one another underpin Kandel's story of a family held together by tenacity, curiosity, and courage

A hot young writer, Eugene Cross' writing is at once humorous and sexy, intelligent and provocative, and composed and controlled.