After winning Olympic silver, teen snowboarder Jake Taylor is struggling with sudden fame when he’s offered a gig he can’t refuse: becoming a spokesperson for a state-of-the-art athletic training facility. Training for its first competition, Jake relies on his faith to help him find ways to use his fame to help others . . . when athletes mysteriously start getting sabotaged one by one. Time is running out for Jake and his girlfriend, Sophie, to figure out what is going on before he is also sabotaged . . . or worse.

A host of catastrophes, natural and otherwise, as well as some pleasant surprises—like the sudden end of the cold war without a shot being fired—have caught governments and societies unprepared many times in recent decades. September 11 is only the most obvious recent example among many unforeseen events that have changed, even redefined our lives. We have every reason to expect more such events in future. Several kinds of unanticipated scenarios—particularly those of low probability and high impact—have the potential to escalate into systemic crises. Even positive surprises can be major policy challenges. Anticipating and managing low-probability events is a critically important challenge to contemporary policymakers, who increasingly recognize that they lack the analytical tools to do so. Developing such tools is the focus of this insightful and perceptive volume, edited by renowned author Francis Fukuyama and sponsored by The American Interest magazine. Bl indside is organized into four main sections. "Thinking about Strategic Surprise" addresses the psychological and institutional obstacles that prevent leaders from planning for low-probability tragedies and allocating the necessary resources to deal with them. The following two sections pinpoint the failures—institutional as well as personal—that allowed key historical events to take leaders by surprise, and examine the philosophies and methodologies of forecasting. In "Pollyana vs. Cassandra," for example, James Kurth and Gregg Easterbrook debate the future state of the world going forward. Mitchell Waldrop explores why technology forecasting is so poor and why that is likely to remain the case. In the book's final section, "What Could Be," internationally renowned authorities discuss low probability, high-impact contingencies in their area of expertise. For example, Scott Barrett looks at emerging infectious diseases, while Gal Luft and Anne Korin discuss energy security. How can we avoid

Story of Michael Oher, a rising gridiron star, who was rescued from the ghettos of Memphis and placed with a wealthy family to help develop his football skills.

Can you ever truly know someone? And what if you suspect the unthinkable? London, 2005. Despite her friends’ warnings, a young Englishwoman can’t resist her attraction to a charismatic Russian ex-soldier recently arrived in London. But, realising how deeply war-time incidents have affected him, she starts to suspect that he’s hiding a horrifying secret... Set in the year of London’s 7/7 terrorism attacks, Blind Side is a powerful tale of love and friendship, trauma and betrayal, secrets and obsession. A gripping, multi-faceted psychological mystery thriller that will stay with you long after you’ve reached the end, appealing especially to fans of Rosamund Lupton, Claire Mackintosh, Louise Doughty, Stella Rimington and Sadie Jones. “builds suspense brilliantly” — Gail Cleare, USA Today bestselling author of The Taste of Air “An absolutely stunning debut from Jennie Ensor; so thought-provoking and profound that every reader will get something different out of reading it” — The Book Magnet “I read this book over the course of the day without putting it down once. It’s a powerful and engaging novel, thought-provoking and difficult to forget once you’ve reached the end” — Reviewed The Book “a storyline that doesn’t let you go until the very last page”— Keeper of Pages “a thrilling psychological story that I really enjoyed and raced through” — The Last Word Book Review “Blind Side is a story that will keep you up until the early hours, totally gripping and full of suspense. A fantastic debut by Jennie Ensor and one I will highly recommend”— It’s All About the Books

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The book behind the Academy award-winning film starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw—over one million copies sold. When we first meet him, Michael Oher is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read and write. He takes up football, and school, after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets. Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability, his blind side.

On the blind side is an account of the rehabilitation of some of the men and women Lynda has trained when they lost their sight either through accident or illness or on the battlefield. They are all heroes. Theirs are stories of bravery and courage, of hope and fulfillment. Arriving at the Enid Whitaker Rehabilitation for the Blind at a crisis point in their lives, often suicidal, always downcast, they departed on completion of their course full of new ambition to conquer the world. Running in tandem with the stories of the rehabilitees are brief vignettes from Lyndas own history, glimpses into how she came to take up the work she did. The contents include chapters such as: In the beginningLyndas own background for doing the work Clash of the Titians a case history of one of the students Pancakes and snow...an account of optacon teaching Too much sugar about Diabetes Mellitus The book should appeal to the general reader, to those facing impending loss of sight, and those who are already blind, as well as to professionals in the field of blindness. It is an essentially human story of hope and courage which Lynda had the privilege to witness many, many times in the course of her career as the first locally trained Mobility Instructress in South Africa. Lynda was employed by the South African National Council for the Blind and later by St Dunstans for War Blinded Veterans.Today she freelances in the community.