This is a story about faith, perseverance, determination, and will. It is a story about love, music, travel, family, and friends. It is a story about change, loss, and forced separation. The novel is a work of fiction weaving life experiences into a multi-dimensional story: Charles Pendleton, unable to be settled and determined to do more than merely exist, sacrifices the present in search of the future; Simone duPont seeks love, had the love of a father, was betrayed by the love of an impulse, but is devoted to keeping her love alive; Raul Montenegro, a man who finds his strength in helping others, seeks peace through acts of kindness and generosity; Napoleon Brice, a man of small stature and lofty dreams, achieves a moment of fame and leaves a legacy of pain and suffering. As a web of family and friends serve as constant reminders of stability and security the demons and memories of the past tug at the true calling of life—the challenge: to find the thing that is meaningful, hold on to it at all costs, and achieve the dream, the goal, and the true purpose of life.

In What if Things Were Made in America Again Jim Stuber poses three haunting questions: Why does it seem like everything is made somewhere else? Isnt that causing a problem? If it is, what can be done about it? The answers are surprising. We learn how the U.S. gave whole industries away pursuing free trade and fighting communism. How trade morphed into globalization, three billion people joined the world economy in the age of oversupply, and China changed everything by becoming the worlds workshop, to the detriment of developed and developing countries alike. How all this resulted in six million lost manufacturing jobs and lower wages for most Americans, outweighing any gains from lower prices of the foreign goods. How these job losses destroyed lives, families, and communities, while our political and intellectual elites told us how good this was for everyone. How the future portends more jobs lost to Mexico, China, and India, including white collar jobs, in a race to the bottom threatening our future. Most importantly, we learn how consumers can solve the problem: what sets this book apart is an action plan that can immediately be implemented by individual Americans.

Through life we experience many things, and most of us will find some broken places along the way. This book is based upon Jeremiah 18, the story of the potter and the clay. The effects of sin, words spoken over you, a bad beginning, a broken spirit, and any number of things can shape the person we become. But there is good news for the life surrendered to the hands of the Lord. Whatever the scar that you bear, He has it covered. He has always known your heart and what it would take to bring you to your knees. This is his placeHis opportunity to take you into His hands and make you again. Will you allow the process? And do you believe? God waits. He waits for permission. He waits and longs for a willing heart ready for change. This is where the healing can take place.

“A bravura performance…An entertaining book” (Kirkus Reviews) about the dramatic 2016 World Chess Championship between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, which mirrored the world’s geopolitical unrest and rekindled a global fascination with the sport. The first week of November 2016, hundreds of people descended on New York City’s South Street Seaport to watch the World Chess Championship between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin. By the time it was over would be front-page news and thought by many the greatest finish in chess history. With both Carlsen and Karjakin just twenty-five years old, it was the first time the championship had been waged among those who grew up playing chess against computers. Originally from Crimea, Karjakin had recently repatriated to Russia under the direct assistance of Putin. Carlsen, meanwhile, had expressed admiration for Donald Trump, and the first move of the tournament he played was called a Trompowsky Attack. Then there was the Russian leader of the World Chess Federation being barred from attending due to US sanctions, and chess fanatic and Trump adviser Peter Thiel being called on to make the honorary first move in sudden death. That the tournament even required sudden death was a shock. Oddsmakers had given Carlsen, the defending champion, an eighty percent chance of winning. It would take everything he had to retain his title. Author Brin-Jonathan Butler was granted unique access to the two-and-half-week tournament and watched every move. The Grandmaster “is not the usual chronicle of a world-championship chess match….Butler offers insight into what it takes to become the best chess player on the planet...A vibrant and provocative look at chess and its metaphorical battle for territory and power” (Booklist).

Unlock the secrets to creating random mazes! Whether you're a game developer, an algorithm connoisseur, or simply in search of a new puzzle, you're about to level up. Learn algorithms to randomly generate mazes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and dimensions. Bend them into Moebius strips, fold them into cubes, and wrap them around spheres. Stretch them into other dimensions, squeeze them into arbitrary outlines, and tile them in a dizzying variety of ways. From twelve little algorithms, you'll discover a vast reservoir of ideas and inspiration. From video games to movies, mazes are ubiquitous. Explore a dozen algorithms for generating these puzzles randomly, from Binary Tree to Eller's, each copiously illustrated and accompanied by working implementations in Ruby. You'll learn their pros and cons, and how to choose the right one for the job. You'll start by learning six maze algorithms and transition from making mazes on paper to writing programs that generate and draw them. You'll be introduced to Dijkstra's algorithm and see how it can help solve, analyze, and visualize mazes. Part 2 shows you how to constrain your mazes to different shapes and outlines, such as text, circles, hex and triangle grids, and more. You'll learn techniques for culling dead-ends, and for making your passages weave over and under each other. Part 3 looks at six more algorithms, taking it all to the next level. You'll learn how to build your mazes in multiple dimensions, and even on curved surfaces. Through it all, you'll discover yourself brimming with ideas, the best medicine for programmer's block, burn-out, and the grayest of days. By the time you're done, you'll be energized and full of maze-related possibilities! What You Need: The example code requires version 2 of the Ruby programming language. Some examples depend on the ChunkyPNG library to generate PNG images, and one chapter uses POV-Ray version 3.7 to render 3D graphics.

Revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide with translations in 29 languages. After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found herself working in palliative care. During the time she spent tending to those who were dying, Bronnie's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had cared for had expressed. The post gained so much momentum that it was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. At the request of many, Bronnie subsequently wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, to share her story. Bronnie has had a colourful and diverse life. By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for everyone, if we make the right choices, to die with peace of mind. In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a courageous, life-changing book that will leave you feeling more compassionate and inspired to live the life you are truly here to live.

Stirring meditations on living with a strong connection to the environment, both physical and psychological. The second full-length collection from award-winning poet Chris Dombrowski, Earth Againtransports readers to an imaginative world where identity is explored and expanded. With a mixture of long poems and shorter pieces, Dombrowski probes birth, death, sex, memory, and our blessed but treacherous engagement with the natural world. While he writes from a number of points of view and employs both male and female speakers, much of the collection's singular insight centers around masculine identity and being a husband and a father. Readers come away transformed, "like the land / gasping as it does each late winter evening when / the sky at tree line, nearly sapphiric, goes black," as these poems prove Dombrowski to be a truly original American voice. Comprised of three sections—each of which concludes with a long poem—Earth Againpresents a range of narrative and emotions in dexterous rhythms, unexpected shifts, and unforgettable metaphors. Dombrowksi introduces readers to arresting images like "the parataxis of her ass," "cerulean, alchemical light," "Molly with the sun in her mouth," and "labyrinthine, lanky-stemmed, dew-magnified" leaves. These details combine with Dombrowski's note-perfect language, which alternates between the most colloquial and the most elevated of diction. Readers will be challenged to consider spirituality alongside Scooby-Doo Band-aids, and to meditate on death after the mower has chewed up a plastic dinosaur, as Dombrowski revels in exploring our connection to the environment and one another. Fans of Dombrowski's previous collection, By Cold Water(which was noted as a contemporary poetry bestseller by the Poetry Foundation in 2009), along with other poets and poetry lovers will appreciate the attention to detail and the imaginative intensity of the poems in Earth Again.