When Pearl's sheltered life shatters in the 1930s when her mother dies, her only option is to move in with poor family relations and shuck oysters in the local plant on Oyster Island, Maryland. Determined to live a morally proper life, the last thing she wants is an affair with a white man, but Caleb, the plant owner, knows a pearl when he sees one. The successful widower is the "oyster king" of the island, but his intense desire for his forbidden new employee, a woman of color, threatens everything he's built. What begins as a private sexual liaison flowers into strong feelings that don't fit the social mores of the island. When their secret is discovered, they risk losing everything. They dared to pluck the pearl, but will their love be strong enough to keep it forever?

In this prequel to "The Winter Calf", Iris Littleton is alarmed when the handsome stranger knocking on her door offers more than meets the eye. Later, a voice leads her high onto the mountain where she finds the skull of a lost child.

Life is fleeting. Love is a gift. In this coming of age novel set in the 1970s, Gene Hull is whitewashing the trunks of Arizona citrus trees when he spots a beautiful girl and falls instantly in love. The girl is vulnerable and shy. Though Gene breaks through her reserve, a date at a wave park turns into a near disaster, and Gene must call on the one person he can always rely on—his doctor father. Although the girl survives and Gene wins her over, what will happen when they leave for college? Is she truly “the one,” or will distance drive them apart? When a freak accident blows a hole in Gene’s freshman year, his grades tank, and he bobbles the ball with the love of his life. She’s gone forever. Not only that, but he’ll never get into med school on grades alone. Hoping to improve his chances of admission, he spends the summer trailing a famous heart surgeon. But can Gene, determined to live up to his father’s legacy, turn his summer in the “Heart Room”—an operating theater of chilling cold, bone saws, and macabre humor—into an experience that would make his father proud? Will he ever love again? If you like novels where family life is complicated, and parents’ expectations trickle down into their children’s lives, then you’ll love Gregory D. Williams’ roman à clef about life, love, and finding one’s own true path. Buy Open Heart today for an inside look at a team of surgeons healing broken hearts and a young man trying desperately to heal his own.

Pearls of Power reviews the social science that explains our implicit, instinctual appraisal of people, and how these subliminal automatic appraisals influences choices in elections and in the workplace in the selection of leaders. This book focuses on a limited but critical aspect of leadership – how to get the role. It is not a book on leadership skills, but rather on how to look that part, as this is essential for gaining access to leadership roles. Citing hundreds of hundreds scientific studies, Dr. Lewis explains how subtle characteristics in the candidate’s appearance affect voter behavior sufficiently to move election results by several percentage points; enough to swing most competitive elections. These same characteristics influence how we are perceived in the workplace and greatly impact hiring and promotion into leadership roles. Pearls of Power then outlines the steps a candidate can take to improve the way they are perceived by others, and how to make subtle changes in their appearance that increase the perception of competence, capacity and strength. Since most voters never meet the candidate, photos have a crucial influence on elections. Pearls of Power describes how to different camera lenses, lighting, and camera angle can change how we are perceived, and how different persons can highlight or minimize aspects of their appearance to best present themselves. Although any political or job candidate may benefit from the advice provided in Pearls of Power, it is written with women in mind. There are chapters on how to use of cosmetics, jewelry, accessories, and on hair and clothing styles that best present the candidate. The book provides guidance on how the candidate can best present themselves when interviewed on radio or television, and gives advice on what not to wear on live camera. Pearls of Power councils the reader on how they can develop a persona with executive presence so that others perceive them as leaders, in order to give the reader a greater voice and more powerful role, both in society and in their careers.

Nationally bestselling author Liz Carlyle presents her most tempting romance to date—a sinfully sensual tug-of-war between heavenly desires and earthly delights. He was a scoundrel, a scamp, and a hopeless skirt-chaser. So it shouldn't have been so surprising when Sir Alasdair awoke after a night of debauchery to see a young lass on his doorstep...with a baby in her arms. She was beautiful, brazen, and utterly bankrupt. So it shouldn't have been so shocking when Miss Hamilton accepted the rogue's scandalous proposal to move in with him...and become the baby's governess. One little sin brought them together. But when one man's wicked charms are matched by one woman's fiery spirit, one little sin can lead to another...and another...and another...

The studioli of the ducal palaces at Urbino and Gubbio, Italy, demonstrate architecture's capacity to transact between the mental and physical realms of human experience. Constructed between 1474 and 1483 for the military captain Federico da Montefeltro and his young motherless son, the studioli may be described as treasuries of emblems: they contain not things but images of things, rendered with remarkable perspectival exactitude. These small, image-filled chambers reflect how architecture and its ornament equipped a quattrocento mind with metaphors for wisdom and methods for statecraft and intellectual activity. Drawing on the densely layered imagery in the studioli and text sources readily available to the Urbino court, Robert Kirkbride examines the position of the studioli in the Western tradition of the memory arts, considering how architecture bridged the mathematical arts, which lent themselves to mechanical pursuits, and the art of rhetoric, a discipline central to memory and eloquence. As subtle ramifications of material and mental craft, the studioli provided ideal methods for education and prudent governance, extending an ancient legacy of open-ended models that were conceived to activate the imagination and exercise the memory. At the time of their construction, the studioli represented the leading edge of technologies of visual representation and offer a case study of how contemporary advances in interactive technologies reactivate and transform ancient metaphors for thought and learning.

Princess Annie sets sail on the high seas in the sixth tale of the irresistible Wide-Awake Princess series. When Princess Annie's father and uncle fall ill and no doctors in Treecrest can cure them, there's only one person who might be able to help -- a healer who lives in Skull Cove, all the way on the other side of the world. To journey there, Annie and Liam must set sail on dangerous seas full of sea monsters and magical creatures. There, Annie finds out that the only cure for her father is a giant pearl that's been stolen and held captive by a protective sea witch. Can Annie find the pearl before it's too late? Look for the other books in the Wide-Awake Princess series: The Wide-Awake Princess Unlocking the Spell The Bravest Princess Princess in Disguise Princess Between Worlds Princess Before Dawn And these other magical series by E.D. Baker: Tales of the Frog Princess The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker More Than a Princess Magic Animal Rescue and more!