From the New York Times bestselling author of Save Me, Think Twice and Look Again comes an explosive new novel about a woman faced with the ultimate choice: should she help someone from her past at the expense of her future? Jill Farrow is a suburban mom who has finally gotten her and her daughter's lives back on track after a divorce. She loves being a pediatrician and is about to remarry, while her daughter, Megan, is a happily over-scheduled thirteen-year-old. But Jill's life is turned upside down when her ex-stepdaughter, Abby, shows up and delivers shocking news: Jill's ex-husband is dead. Abby insists that he was murdered-and pleads with Jill to help find his killer. Jill reluctantly agrees to make a few inquiries, and soon discovers that the story doesn't add up...As she digs deeper, her actions threaten to rip apart her new family, destroy their hard-earned happiness, and even endanger her own life. Yet how can Jill turn her back on a child she loves and once called her own? What are the limits of love, loss, and family? "This thrilling testament to a mother's relentless love may well be Scottoline's best novel to date."-Library Journal (starred review) on Come Home "Relentless...jaw-dropping."-David Baldacci

The author of the acclaimed Proust and the Squid follows up with a lively, ambitious, and deeply informative book that considers the future of the reading brain and our capacity for critical thinking, empathy, and reflection as we become increasingly dependent on digital technologies. A decade ago, Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid revealed what we know about how the brain learns to read and how reading changes the way we think and feel. Since then, the ways we process written language have changed dramatically with many concerned about both their own changes and that of children. New research on the reading brain chronicles these changes in the brains of children and adults as they learn to read while immersed in a digitally dominated medium. Drawing deeply on this research, this book comprises a series of letters Wolf writes to us—her beloved readers—to describe her concerns and her hopes about what is happening to the reading brain as it unavoidably changes to adapt to digital mediums. Wolf raises difficult questions, including: Will children learn to incorporate the full range of "deep reading" processes that are at the core of the expert reading brain? Will the mix of a seemingly infinite set of distractions for children’s attention and their quick access to immediate, voluminous information alter their ability to think for themselves? With information at their fingertips, will the next generation learn to build their own storehouse of knowledge, which could impede the ability to make analogies and draw inferences from what they know? Will all these influences change the formation in children and the use in adults of "slower" cognitive processes like critical thinking, personal reflection, imagination, and empathy that comprise deep reading and that influence both how we think and how we live our lives? How can we preserve deep reading processes in future iterations of the reading brain? Concerns about attention span, critical reasoning, and over-reliance on technology are never just about children—Wolf herself has found that, though she is a reading expert, her ability to read deeply has been impacted as she has become increasingly dependent on screens. Wolf draws on neuroscience, literature, education, and philosophy and blends historical, literary, and scientific facts with down-to-earth examples and warm anecdotes to illuminate complex ideas that culminate in a proposal for a biliterate reading brain. Provocative and intriguing, Reader, Come Home is a roadmap that provides a cautionary but hopeful perspective on the impact of technology on our brains and our most essential intellectual capacities—and what this could mean for our future.

The amazing true story of a herd of elephants, the man who saved them, and the miracle of love that brought them home. One day in 1999, Lawrence Anthony and Françoise Malby hear that a herd of wild African elephants need a new home. They welcome the elephants to their wildlife sanctuary—Thula Thula—with open arms. But the elephants are much less sure they want to stay. How will Lawrence prove to them that they are safe and loved? What follows is a gorgeously illustrated real-life story of a friendship . . . and the story of the miraculous way that love given freely will return—greater and more wonderful than it began. • TOUCHING ANIMAL FRIENDSHIPS: Owen and Mzee, Tarra and Bella, Rescue and Jessica . . . touching true stories of the emotional bonds possible between species are charming, and speak to the limitlessness of love. • ELEPHANT APPEAL: Elephants are one of the most fascinating and charming wild animals in all of nature. This heartwarming true story will intrigue and inspire children, and turn even the most reluctant readers into elephant enthusiasts. • CONSERVATION THEME: This book tells the true story of caring for one of the world's most beloved endangered animals: the African elephant. This book is a great, upbeat jumping-off point for discussions of the importance of preserving endangered species and their environments. • ENGAGING NONFICTION: There's no better way to get readers hooked on factual books than to offer them real-life stories with heart and meaning. • STRONG CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS: The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) emphasize learning about animal habitats/biomes in K–2 curriculums, while later grades address topics like conservation and endangered species. With a depth of research and an engaging, highly visual narrative, this book is an excellent resource for librarians and primary school educators. Perfect for: • Kindergarten and elementary school teachers • Parents and grandparents • Librarians • Lovers of animals, wildlife, and the natural world • Zoo and natural history museumgoers

With a Foreword by Scott Hahn, bestselling author of The Lamb's Supper God has something extraordinary planned for your life . . . In our fast-paced, highly technological world, this statement might sound a bit lofty, but the lives of millions of souls who have come before us attest to this simple truth: God has a wonderful plan in store for you. With these words, Tom Peterson, founder and president of Catholics Come Home, a nonprofit multimedia organization dedicated to promoting Catholic evangelization, offers inspiration for believers from all walks of life, whether lapsed or practicing, to deepen their faith and draw them closer to Jesus and His Church. In a series of moving stories and personal anecdotes, Tom relates how after rediscovering his faith, he experienced God's unfailing love, and soon found his true purpose in life. You can too! Drawing from scripture, his own struggles and discoveries, and the lives of the saints as well as ordinary individuals, the author offers seven ways to enter into a more deeply personal relationship with Jesus. These are pearls that you can share with others to illuminate the importance of the Catholic faith and open wide the door to a homecoming celebration.

Asserts that America is straying from its democratic ideals and faltering in a rapidly globalized world community, and challenges policies that are based on a priority of making America "number one" in the world while examining the economic and politicalforces that have brought about contemporary problems.

NOW THE HALLMARK MOVIES & MYSTERIES ORIGINAL TIME FOR ME TO COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! The fireplace is lit, the snow is falling, and sleigh bells echo in the distance—it’s Christmas, and it’s time to come home in this charming holiday novel based on Dorothy Shackleford and Blake Shelton’s hit song. Thirty-five-year-old Heath Sawyer has finally made it to the big-time as a country music star. After a year full of the kind of success he could only dream of, it’s December 23, and he’s headlining a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden. It’s only as the lights on the stage go down and the Christmas lights outside come on that Heath realizes there’s just one place he wants to be for the holidays: back home in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. But journeying anywhere on Christmas Eve is never easy, and with flight delays, inclement weather, and the unexpected company of a feisty young woman who’s about to become his traveling companion, Heath will need a Christmas miracle to make his way home in time to open presents. Filled with touching anecdotes inspired by the real holiday memories of Blake Shelton and Dorothy Shackelford, Time for Me to Come Home is a sweet and funny story that celebrates the spirit of Christmas and the true meaning of finding your way back home. “It’s funny how going back can get you back to where you belong. It’s the difference between just a melody and my favorite Christmas song.”

ONE OF THE “BEST WOMEN’S FICTION OF 2019 (SO FAR)”—MARIE CLAIRE ONE OF THE “61 BOOKS WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO READING IN 2019”—THE HUFFINGTON POST ONE OF THE “16 FICTION RELEASES TO WATCH FOR”—WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS ONE OF THE “BEST NEW BOOKS COMING OUT WINTER 2019”—SOUTHERN LIVING ONE OF THE “10 NEWLY-RELEASED BOOKS THAT WILL GIVE YOU AN EXCUSE TO STAY INDOORS THIS WINTER”—O MAGAZINE “I loved, loved this novel” —Lily King “What more can I say—perfect” —Judy Blume “In this intricate, delicate-as-rice-paper novel, an American painter living in Beijing and trying to clean up her act at a yoga retreat makes gains in fits and starts, ‘a butterfly, flitting from leaf to leaf.’”—O Magazine From the widely praised author of Paris Was the Place—a shattering new novel that bravely delves into the darkest corners of addiction, marriage, and motherhood When Elsey’s husband, Lukas, hands her a brochure for a weeklong mountain retreat, she knows he is really giving her an ultimatum: Go, or we’re done. Once a successful painter, Elsey set down roots in China after falling passionately for Lukas, the tall, Danish MC at a warehouse rave in downtown Beijing. Now, with two young daughters and unable to find a balance between her identities as painter, mother, and, especially, wife, Elsey fills her days worrying, drinking, and descending into desperate unhappiness. So, brochure in hand, she agrees to go and confront the ghosts of her past. There, she meets a group of men and women who will forever alter the way she understands herself: from Tasmin, another (much richer) expat, to Hunter, a young man whose courage endangers them all, and, most important, Mei--wife of one of China’s most famous artists and a renowned painter herself--with whom Elsey quickly forges a fierce friendship and whose candidness about her pain helps Elsey understand her own. But Elsey must risk tearing herself and Lukas further apart when she decides she must return to her childhood home--the center of her deepest pain--before she can find her way back to him. Written in a voice at once wry, sensual, blunt, and hypnotic, Elsey Come Home is a modern odyssey and a quietly dynamic portrait of contemporary womanhood.