An alphabet rhyme in a pink purse-shaped book.

Open the pages of the pink purse to discover fun pictures and rhymes to help learn numbers from one to ten.

Clear-sighted, darkly comic, and tender, The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet is about a daughter’s struggle to face the Medusa of generational trauma without turning to stone. Growing up in the New Jersey suburbs of the 1970s and 1980s in a family warped by mental illness, addiction, and violence, Kim Adrian spent her childhood ducking for cover from an alcoholic father prone to terrifying acts of rage and trudging through a fog of confusion with her mother, a suicidal incest survivor hooked on prescription drugs. Family memories were buried—even as they were formed—and truth was obscured by lies and fantasies. In The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet Adrian tries to make peace with this troubled past by cataloguing memories, anecdotes, and bits of family lore in the form of a glossary. But within this strategic reckoning of the past, the unruly present carves an unpredictable path as Adrian’s aging mother plunges into ever-deeper realms of drug-fueled paranoia. Ultimately, the glossary’s imposed order serves less to organize emotional chaos than to expose difficult but necessary truths, such as the fact that some problems simply can’t be solved, and that loving someone doesn’t necessarily mean saving them.

New Novel Weaves Together Adventure, History and Romance Historical Two Volume Set Chronicles Battle between Slavery and Freedom, Love and Hate PORT COQUITLAM, British Columbia - Readers who have enjoyed historical fiction with a strong dash of adventure and a pinch of sex will surely love The Dark Side of the Mountain (published by AuthorHouse), the new epic in two volumes by S.A. Carter. Fueled by American historical events from 1854-1884, The Dark Side of the Mountain follows the adventures of John Saxton and Marcus Brown, who fight as Union guerillas against the Confederacy and all it stands for. Major Horatio Garrow and his son, Lucas, are mad men full of hate and greed, dedicated to one cause - their own. Along with a supporting cast of unforgettable characters both real and imaginary, these men are caught up in a vicious web of murder, dark secrets, betrayal and intrigue where only survival matters. In Volume One: The Dark Side of the Mountain; a young John Saxton watches helplessly as brutal slavers throw human cargo overboard to avoid capture by the "Africa Patrol." From then on, the Boston shipping heir becomes an implacable abolitionist bent on destroying slavery in America. Confederate spies, traitors and the dreaded Deacon Gang are arrayed against him. Can Saxton and his beautiful black bride, Virginia, survive a dangerous game of espionage, treachery and betrayal that culminates in the "honeymoon from hell?" As the Civil War divides and devours a nation, a black American guerilla force is carried behind Confederate lines by a unique sinking ship. Led by a giant Maasai warrior, they fight a determined and deadly foe from the eastern seaboard of America to its vast western plains. Even as the horror of war explodes around them, the Maasai Rangers embrace a common dream deep within the heart of Dixie. In Volume Two: The Dark Side of the Mountain; John Saxton is captured and thrown into the horror of Salisbury prison. Pursued by Major Horatio Garrow and his hapless brute of a companion Harley Blackstone, can Saxton survive? From his father's grave, a vengeful Lucas Garrow is led on a torturous search for stolen treasure. But a love fueled by the "Cause" and poisoned by greed, leads to a deadly confrontation. With America facing total ruination by blackmail; a battle erupts between a drug-addicted Lucas Garrow allied with the Klan, a militant underground colony of religious zealots, and the forces of justice bent on self-destruction. It all comes to an explosive conclusion not only deep within the heart of the Ozarks, but on Elder Mountain, Tennessee, where a utopia called Harmony Farm faces a forest fire out of control. Could Saxton and Marcus survive in an alien world and still find another dream called 'home'?