To escape from a Texas jail or prison once is unusual. To do it four times is incredible. To do it four times in five years and always on a Friday the 13th is the stuff of legend. Welcome to the world of Steven Russell. Con artist. Thief. Swindler. Embezzler. Hopeless romantic. A husband and father, Russell was a church organist, prosperous businessman, and onetime Boca Raton cop before turning to his life of crime. Arrested for a string of felonies, with a specialty in fraud, his real expertise turned out to be his uncanny ability to escape from jail. Between 1993 and 1998, he orchestrated a string of prison breaks that were as audacious as they were ingenious. Using whatever unlikely materials were at handa Magic Marker, a pay phone, a walkie-talkie, a pair of stolen bright red women's stretch pantsalong with an innate talent for analytical thinking and boundless quantities of sheer nerve, Russell again and again arranged his own "early releases" from jail. Unfortunately, for Russell, staying out of jail is another matter entirely. Over the years, it became increasingly clear that Russell's talent for escape is matched only by his knack for getting arrested. One thing always seems to trump Steven Russell's careful planning, cool head, and instinct for self-preservationlove. Russell cannot resist the urge to try and spring the great love of his lifea fellow inmate named Phillip Morris. In I Love You Phillip Morris, journalist Steve McVicker goes right to the heart of this improbable-but-true story of crime, punishment, and passion. Thanks to unprecedented and exclusive access to Russell, his family, and his friends, he retraces Russell's journey from small-town businessman to flamboyant white-collar criminal and jailhouse Houdini. It's the darkly comic tale of a man with a spectacular ability to manipulate almost everyone he meets, yet who is himself helpless in the face of love.

Life After Phillip Morris is the second installment of the life story of gay, four-time prison escapee, fraudster and conman, Steven Russell. The first half of his life was made into the book/film I Love You Phillip Morris.

Sir Phillip knew that Eloise Bridgerton was a spinster, and so he'd proposed, figuring that she'd be homely and unassuming, and more than a little desperate for an offer of marriage. Except . . . she wasn't. The beautiful woman on his doorstep was anything but quiet, and when she stopped talking long enough to close her mouth, all he wanted to do was kiss her . . . and more. Did he think she was mad? Eloise Bridgerton couldn't marry a man she had never met! But then she started thinking . . . and wondering . . . and before she knew it, she was in a hired carriage in the middle of the night, on her way to meet the man she hoped might be her perfect match. Except . . . he wasn't. Her perfect husband wouldn't be so moody and ill-mannered, and while Phillip was certainly handsome, he was a large brute of a man, rough and rugged, and totally unlike the London gentlemen vying for her hand. But when he smiled . . . and when he kissed her . . . the rest of the world simply fell away, and she couldn't help but wonder . . . could this imperfect man be perfect for her?

Can a hardcore gamer survive a real-world crisis? Seventeen-year-old Alex Brooks is obsessed with becoming an e-athlete. What teen wouldn’t want to make a million dollars playing video games professionally? Especially if you’ve got a real shot at it like Alex. His mom, a television producer in Hollywood, casts her son in a reality show about young gaming hopefuls seeking fame and fortune. This gives him great exposure in the industry. On top of that, His dad owns an up-and-coming tech business that is about to launch a revolutionary product. Life couldn’t be better--or could it? Truth be told, Alex doesn’t need to go pro as bad as he needs to grow up, and what teen really wants to do that? He’s popular with other gamers but his over-inflated ego makes him obnoxious to almost everyone else. He hides a deep secret--the cavernous void in his life that nothing seems to fill. He thrives on a false sense of accomplishment but is haunted by an inescapable sense of loneliness. He has lived in the shadow of his dad’s relentless pursuit of building a tech empire while watching him fail to keep his family from falling apart. What will it take for Alex to gain a new perspective on what it means to become a man and what it takes to be a hero? Everything changes when Alex goes missing. He must face a life or death struggle in a foreign culture that doesn’t have a power grid. Man or computer mouse? His digital world didn’t prepare him for the challenges that are about to confront him. Alex is not ready to rescue anyone, he needs to be rescued. For those who really know Alexander, why would anyone want to save him? This coming-of-age story follows Alex as he is forced to grow up the hard way through extraordinary circumstances, which cause him to re-evaluate what’s important in life, his need for God, and the positive influence of older mentors. Adventure, danger, romance, survival, despair and Providence are the ingredients that help remake his life.

An educator learned that to connect with his students, he needed to connect with himself.

In this searing meditation on the bonds of family and the allure of extremist faith, one of today’s most celebrated Christian writers recounts his unexpected journey from a strict fundamentalist upbringing to a life of compassion and grace—a revelatory memoir that “invites comparison to Hillbilly Elegy” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “Searing, heartrending . . . This stunning tale reminds us that the only way to keep living is to ask God for the impossible: love, forgiveness, and hope.”—Kate Bowler, New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason Raised by an impoverished widow who earned room and board as a Bible teacher in 1950s Atlanta, Philip Yancey and his brother, Marshall, found ways to venture out beyond the confines of their eight-foot-wide trailer. But when Yancey was in college, he uncovered a shocking secret about his father’s death—a secret that began to illuminate the motivations that drove his mother to extreme, often hostile religious convictions and a belief that her sons had been ordained for a divine cause. Searching for answers, Yancey dives into his family origins, taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods of the Bible Belt to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church sanctuaries; from family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and childhood awakenings through nature, music, and literature. In time, the weight of religious and family pressure sent both sons on opposite paths—one toward healing from the impact of what he calls a “toxic faith,” the other into a self-destructive spiral. Where the Light Fell is a gripping family narrative set against a turbulent time in post–World War II America, shaped by the collision of Southern fundamentalism with the mounting pressures of the civil rights movement and Sixties-era forces of social change. In piecing together his fragmented personal history and his search for redemption, Yancey gives testament to the enduring power of our hunger for truth and the possibility of faith rooted in grace instead of fear. “I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write,” says Yancey. “So many of the strands from my childhood—racial hostility, political division, culture wars—have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward.”

An inspiring and challenging devotional exposition on one of the best-loved Scripture passages, 1 Corinthians 13.