They came by boat from a starving land—and by the Underground Railroad from Southern chains—seeking refuge in a crowded, filthy corner of hell at the bottom of a great metropolis. But in the terrible July of 1863, the poor and desperate of Paradise Alley would face a new catastrophe—as flames from the war that was tearing America in two reached out to set their city on fire.

“Compelling…A bracing work of art and a loving tribute” (Los Angeles Times), this propulsive, stunning book illuminates the experience of living with schizophrenia like never before. Sandra Allen did not know their uncle Bob very well. As a child, Sandy had been told Bob was “crazy,” that he had spent time in mental hospitals while growing up in Berkeley in the 60s and 70s. But Bob had lived a hermetic life in a remote part of California for longer than Sandy had been alive, and what little Sandy knew of him came from rare family reunions or odd, infrequent phone calls. Then in 2009 Bob mailed Sandy his autobiography. Typewritten in all caps, a stream of error-riddled sentences more than sixty, single-spaced pages, the often-incomprehensible manuscript proclaimed to be a “true story” about being “labeled a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic,” and arrived with a plea to help him get his story out to the world. “Searing” (O, The Oprah Magazine), “enthralling” (Star-Tribune, Minneapolis), and “a marvel” (Esquire), A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise shows how Sandy translated Bob’s autobiography, artfully creating a gripping coming-of-age story while sticking faithfully to the facts as he shared them. Sandy also shares background information about their family, the culturally explosive time and place of their uncle’s formative years, and the vitally important questions surrounding schizophrenia and mental healthcare in America more broadly. The result is a heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious portrait of a young man striving for stability in his life as well as his mind, and an utterly unique lens into an experience that, to most people, remains unimaginable. “Thrilling…Gorgeous…a watershed in empathetic adaptation of ‘outsider’ autobiography” (The New Republic), A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise is a dazzlingly, daringly written book that’s poised to change conversations about schizophrenia and mental illness overall.

Josephine will discover more than she bargained for as her world collides with the Plain people of Lancaster County. Josephine Dronberger was a scared teenager when she left her baby in the care of an Old Order Amish couple. But seventeen years have passed and Josie longs to reconnect with her daughter. Lindaùas the couple named the childùis promised to Stephen Ebersol, the bishopÆs grandson. They plan to marry in the fall. When her birth mother comes to Paradise, Linda is drawn to a world sheÆs never known. Will the direction sheÆs been heading since birth be suddenly derailed, and who will stand by her convictionsùmother or daughter?

From the moment Riley Sinclair stepped onto Paradise Island, Bahamas, and into her new job as director of guest relations at a five-star resort, she felt the pieces of her once-broken life finally coming together. But the waters become choppy when Riley discovers that some who come to the Atlantis hotel arrive with more than just suitcases and suntan lotion in tow. They're accompanied by their lurking demons, paralyzing secrets, and overwhelming fears. Riley and three women guests are in desperate but unknowing need of each other, eventually forging unlikely yet powerful friendships. With a hurricane headed straight for the island, together they embark on a journey of laughter and lunacy, heartache and healing.

Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he's discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They've already killed his sister, so he's not surprised when he discovers an old friend and her partner are next on the Sidhe's hitlist. He helps not only to foil the assassination attempt, but also to muddy the scene of the crime, leaving the Angels Nual and Taro sanMalia presumed dead - and free to join his crusade to expose the insidious influence of the Sidhe, and their evil plans to enslave the human race again. Their mission takes them across human-space, from utilitarian hub-points to rich, exotic planets - where they discover that a brilliant vacation spot hides some of the darkest secrets of all. And that's when they discover how easy it is for the hunters to become the hunted ...

In Trapped in Paradise, during World War II, four Catholic nuns from California were caught behind enemy lines in the South Pacific. Two of these Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange were teachers and two were nurses. Having arrived In the Solomon Islands in December, 1940, they were new to missionary life, new to a culture not their own, new to the languages spoken on their island and new to navigating in the geography that surrounded them. On December 7, 1941, a year and a day after the nuns arrived in the Solomons, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. After that devastating air-strike, the Japanese quickly and strategically occupied many of the islands of the South Pacific. What the nuns didn't know was that the Japanese wanted to occupy their island, Buka, and they wanted it fast! Buka, a small island just north of the large island of Bougainville, offered the Japanese a strategic site for an airfield to support their invasion of the rest of the South Pacific, including Australia. When the nuns had left Wilmington, California in 1940, one of them, Sister Hedda Jaeger, a nurse, was tasked with keeping a journal that was sent back periodically to their religious community in Orange, California. In good times and bad, Sister Hedda was faithful to recording their story. This first person account documents their journey-from their eager anticipation about their new mission, to adapting to the realities of native culture, to sheer terror as they run from the invading Japanese. Once in hiding on the larger island of Bougainville, they learn that other missionaries in the Solomons had been tortured and executed. Throughout their adventures and later ordeals, they are protected by the Marist priests, experienced missionaries who knew the lay of the land and feared for the sisters' fate should they be captured. After many months of hiding in the jungle and with no communication with the larger world, the sisters were ultimately rescued by United States submarine Nautilus in a high risk mission on New Year's Day 1943. The book tells the story of these four courageous and devoted women, the natives they taught and nursed, the priests who hid and protected them, and the incredible physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges they faced. After the end of the war, the Sisters of St. Joseph returned again to serve the people of the Solomon Islands. An epilogue describes the fate of the principal missionaries, both those who survived and those who died at the hands of the Japanese. The sisters' journal, related writings, maps, and original photographs form the basis for this book.