The flame of love burns bright in the second book of Sharon M. Draper’s award-winning Hazelwood High trilogy. When Gerald was a child he was fascinated by fire. But fire is dangerous and powerful, and tragedy strikes. His substance-addicted mother is taken from him. Then he loses the loving generosity of a favorite aunt, and a brutal stepfather with a flaming temper and an evil secret makes his life miserable. The one bright light in Gerald's life is his little half sister, Angel, whom he struggles to protect from her father, who is abusing her. Somehow Gerald manages to finds success as a member of the Hazelwood Tigers basketball team, and Angel develops her talents as a dancer, despite the trouble that still haunts them. And Gerald learns, painfully, that young friends can die and old enemies must be faced. In the end he must stand up to his stepfather alone in a blazing confrontation. In this second book of the Hazelwood High trilogy, Sharon M. Draper has woven characters and events from Tears of a Tiger in an unflinchingly realistic portrayal of poverty and child abuse. It is an inspiring story of a young man who rises above the tragic circumstances of his life by drawing on the love and strength of family and friends.

The Third Book in the Horseshoer Mystery Series, Featuring the Incorrigible Female Horseshoer, Rainy Dale Days before her wedding, Rainy Dale jumps at a chance to visit the fabled Black Bluff bull sale down in California, but things go awry when she is assaulted and her truck is stolen. In this twist on the “locked-room” form, more than one mystery is hidden on the ranch where Rainy and her dog, Charlie, end up. Everyone—the owners, ranch hands, angry neighbors, and perhaps even the deliveryman who brings coke coal for the ranch’s old-fashioned forge—is harboring a damaging secret. When Rainy realizes that even her dog knows a grisly hidden truth, the stakes are raised as high as life and death.

God Wants to Do Great Things Through You, But Whether or Not That Happens Depends Upon Who You Allow to Shape Your Life. Do You Insist on Following Your Own Imperfect Pattern for Change or Are You Willing to Allow God to Fashion Your Life Into a Masterpiece with His Signature? David Met God Through His Provision in the Wilderness, and it Forever Changed Him Into "a Man After God's Own Heart." a Man Who "Served God's Purpose in His Own Generation." Joseph Met God in the Dreams or His Youth, and When Those Dreams Were Finally Fulfilled, a Self-Important Young Man Was Transformed Into the Humble Leader of the Most Powerful Kingdom on Earth. You Could Say They Were Forged in the Fire As They Were Shaped by the Master. God Used the Difficult Circumstances in the Lives of Both David and Joseph to Prepare Them for What He Wanted to do Through Them. He Can do the Same for You, But Only When You Relinquish Control of Your Life and Thrust Yourself Blindly Into His Hands. It Doesn't Matter Whether You Are a Person Who Is Struggling Just to Know Who God is and How He Wants to Be a Part of Your Life; A New Christian Who is Growing in Your Faith; a Christian Who Feels Stuck in the Events Life Has Thrown Across Your Path; or a Christian Who Has Drifted From God's Purpose and Allowed the Fire in Your Heart to Dwindle to a Pile of Cooling Embers. Your Decision Will Determine Your Destiny. Life is Full of Trials and Circumstances That Are Beyond Your Control. The Way You Respond is Your Choice. When You Learn to Recognize God's Hand In Each Event of Your Life, You Can be Forever Fashioned Into a Person Who Serves His Purpose in Your Own Generation. That is Being Forged in the Fire -- Shaped by the Master. Book jacket.

The Civil War is often credited with giving birth to the modern American state. The demands of warfare led to the centralization of business and industry and to an unprecedented expansion of federal power. But the Civil War did more than that: as Melinda Lawson shows, it brought about a change in American national identity, redefining the relationship between the individual and the government. Though much has been written about the Civil War and the making of the political and economic American nation, this is the first comprehensive study of the role that the war played in the shaping of the cultural and ideological nation-state. In Patriot Fires, Lawson explains how, when threatened by the rebellious South, the North came together as a nation and mobilized its populace for war. With no formal government office to rally citizens, the job of defining the war in patriotic terms fell largely to private individuals or associations, each with their own motives and methods. Lawson explores how these "interpreters" of the war helped instill in Americans a new understanding of loyalty to country. Through efforts such as sanitary fairs to promote the welfare of soldiers, the war bond drives of Jay Cooke, and the establishment of Union Leagues, Northerners cultivated a new sense of patriotism rooted not just in the subjective American idea, but in existing religious, political, and cultural values. Moreover, Democrats and Republicans, Abolitionists, and Abraham Lincoln created their own understandings of American patriotism and national identity, raising debates over the meaning of the American "idea" to new heights. Examining speeches, pamphlets, pageants, sermons, and assemblies, Lawson shows how citizens and organizations constructed a new kind of nationalism based on a nation of Americans rather than a union of states—a European-styled nationalism grounded in history and tradition and celebrating the preeminence of the nation-state. Original in its insights and innovative in its approach, Patriot Fires is an impressive work of cultural and intellectual history. As America engages in new conflicts around the globe, Lawson shows us that issues addressed by nation builders of the nineteenth century are relevant once again as the meaning of patriotism continues to be explored.