The inspiration for the NBC TV series "Rise," starring Josh Radnor, Auli'i Cravalho, and Rosie Perez — the incredible and true story of an extraordinary drama teacher who has changed the lives of thousands of students and inspired a town. By the author of The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino. Why would the multimillionaire producer of Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon take his limo from Manhattan to the struggling former steel town of Levittown, Pennsylvania, to see a high school production of Les Misérables? To see the show performed by the astoundingly successful theater company at Harry S Truman High School, run by its legendary director, Lou Volpe. Broadway turns to Truman High when trying out controversial shows such as Rent and Spring Awakening before they move on to high school theater programs across the nation. Volpe’s students from this blue-collar town go on to become Emmy-winning producers, entertainment executives, newscasters, and community-theater founders. Michael Sokolove, a Levittown native and former student of Volpe’s, chronicles the drama director’s last school years and follows a group of student actors as they work through riveting dramas both on and off the stage. This is a story of an economically depressed but proud town finding hope in a gifted teacher and the magic of theater.

One afternoon in 1987, two renegade climbers in Berkeley, California, hatched an ambitious plan: under the cover of darkness, they would rappel down from a carefully scouted highway on-ramp, gluing artificial handholds onto the load-bearing concrete pillars underneath. Equipped with ingenuity, strong adhesive, and an urban guerilla attitude, Jim Thornburg and Scott Frye created a serviceable climbing wall. But what they were part of was a greater development: the expansion and reimagining of a sport now slated for a highly anticipated Olympic debut in 2020. High Drama explores rock climbing's transformation from a pursuit of select anti-establishment vagabonds to a sport embraced by competitors of all ages, social classes, and backgrounds. Climbing magazine's John Burgman weaves a multi-layered story of traditionalists and opportunists, grassroots organizers and business-minded developers, free-spirited rebels and rigorously coached athletes.

After a summer of bliss with boyfriend KJ, Jayd Jackson returns to South Bay High (aka Drama High) to discover that she's been dumped, her former best friend is out to get her and KJ's new girl is looking to knock her out. With drama at an all-time high, Jayd, with a little help from Mama and her mystical bag of tricks, is about to get some lessons in who's really got her back - and, more importantly, when she's got to watch it.

While dealing with her friend Mickey's possible pregnancy and her conniving rival Misty, Jayd is torn between her ex, Jeremy, who is trying to get on the basketball team, and Rah, who is on the rebound, and must reconnect with her powerful lineage to escape the drama.

"Welcome to Memorial Middle School, where drama fills the classrooms and follows students home on the bus. Social awkwardness. Mean girls. Hallway gossip. It's all part of life in junior high, but maybe it helps to know you aren't alone. Can Lucia avoid the boy-girl party? Will Kamilla overcome her self-consciousness and try out for the play? Can Allie keep anyone from finding out her secret? Told in graphic format, Junior High Drama shows that while you can't escape the drama, you can certainly survive it."--Publisher's description.

In upstate Idaho, Ness Hook is run out of his mom's house by his bullying brother Shawn. In Redding, California, Tristan Carter is graduating college, but with no job and no prospects, she'll have to move back in with her parents. Then the world ends. After Ness discovers his best friend dead of disease, Shawn takes their family to the mountains to wait out the plague. As Tristan's parents fall sick, she's left to care for her younger brother Alden. Both sets of siblings dig in for the long haul. Humanity is reduced to splinters. And then the creatures who sent the virus appear in the sky. Flushed from the mountains, Shawn and Ness join a tribe at a nuclear power plant, where they plan to launch a guerrilla war against the invaders. In California, Tristan and Alden are taken prisoner. Separated from her brother, Tristan crosses the ruins of America to track him down. She will stop at nothing to get Alden back--but her fellow survivors prove even more dangerous than the monsters who broke the world. ~ Melt Down is the second book in the post-apocalyptic Breakers series. The series to date includes Outcome, Breakers, Melt Down, Knifepoint, Reapers, and Cut Off.

As Valentine's Day approaches, Jayd Jackson mourns the death of her friend Tre and tries to cope with her nemesis Misty's attempts to ruin her.