A celebratory new book in a beloved series about Ricky, for children ages 4 and up.

Come for a visit in Bear Country with this classic First Time Book® from Stan and Jan Berenstain. Join Papa, Mama, and Brother, as they help Sister celebrate her birthday. The special day is not all fun and games when Sister becomes overwhelmed by all of the festivities. This beloved story is a perfect way to teach children about birthdays and what’s most important about them.

At the 1984 Olympics, American Scott Hamilton skated into the history books when he claimed a gold medal in Sarajevo. Beside him the entire time was his coach, Don Laws. A member of the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame and a U.S. Junior Champion, Laws is one of the most respected and admired ice skating coaches in the world. In addition to Hamilton, Don was the coach of champions Michael Weiss and Patrick Chan. This authorized biography tells the story of Law's exemplary life and chronicles his singular dedication to figure skating. Don Laws: The Life of an Olympic Figure Skating Coach recounts Don's youth, from his childhood in Washington, D.C. to his Junior Men's Figure Skating Championship to his triumphs as a coach on the international stage. Featuring personal interviews with many of his former pupils, this humorous and enlightening biography captures Don's dedication to the sport and to his students. In addition, this book goes behind the scenes of the controversial new judging system--for which Laws was one of only four coaches worldwide to take part in its creation--as well as touches upon the break between Don Laws and his star pupil, Patrick Chan. Including exclusive interviews with Scott Hamilton, Michael Weiss, premier Russian coach Tamara Moskvina, former International Skating Union member Sonia Bianchetti, and current ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta, this book is a one-of-a-kind look at a man who never broke from his beliefs and ideals and never wavered in his love for the sport. A chapter devoted to skating techniques laid out by Laws will be a helpful tool for figure skating coaches; but for the figure skater, and for any fan of the sport, it will be the stories, interviews, photographs, and history that make this book entertaining and inspiring.

The author was raised in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California, when the Valley was a wide-open area of orange groves, homes and estates. The large estates were owned by the movie stars such as Roy Rogers and other stars in their heyday. After marriage, my husband and I desired to raise our family in a country atmosphere with a minuscule population. We sold our first home in the valley in order to move to the tiny town of Acton, in the mountainous countryside sixty miles north of Los Angeles. The time line of book is 1928 to 2011 with many odd happening in our lives and unusual memories and pleasant days in the country. We cleared the land, put down a well, and built our home ourselves and raised a family of four children. Upon completion of the house it was necessary to move the home if we wished to continue living in it. It was a new home and yes we wanted it, but this proved to be frightening experience and a near tragic disaster! This is only one of the many unusual happenings in our life in the country. Unwanted animals are freely given to people who live in the country from friends. In this manner, we acquired a burro that soon gave birth to a strong baby burro (on its first day of birth, kicked our young son and knocked him down), several dogs, a beautiful horse and another burro. Life in the country was always surprising and a pleasant place to raise a family, sometimes difficult but nice! We knew friends in a circle of twenty miles in every direction. Our two sons still live in Acton, our daughters have moved to the beach cities in California.

Claudia is an intelligent kind natured young lady For the most part she was happy but at times sadness would prevail. Often she would worry about her years of being single, wondering why this would be the case. Her friend Cheryl sets her up on a blind date with Ricardo. This develops into a serious relationship that produces a child. But this once kind natured man turns into a horrible jealous person, so Claudia opts for single parenthood. One day a strange feeling comes over Claudia and in almost an instant, she begins to develop love for Ricardo. Claudia spends the next few years working on getting her man back by any means necessary. This obsessive love reduces Claudia into being a shadow of her former self. She then decides that if she cannot be with Ricardo then life is not worth living. Through Claudias journey, strange and shocking things are revealed to her. and those closest to her are not whom they seem. Does Claudia find the strength to overcome the haunting truth of her past and destroy this suicidal love or will it be the death of her. A truly riveting supernatural tale of things unseen and fascinating revelations of spirituality

Edgy Manhattan shutterbug Rachel Solomon can't wait to escape her difficult Midwestern Jewish family of doctors—and her crazy, condescending WASP friend and photography mentor, Elizabeth Mann. Not so easy when Elizabeth marries Rachel's surgeon-brother, moves to the Midwest, and becomes the daughter Rachel's mother always wanted—one who pops out four babies in a row, who are named after Rachel's dead Yiddish-speaking relatives. Although Rachel long ago rejected the suburban female role, she's shocked to find she's been replaced. With unsparing candor, sparkling emotional insights, and hilarity, the girl who cut herself out of old photographs now has to fight her way back into the Solomons' photo albums, homes, and hearts. From the author of the hilarious fictional debut Speed Shrinking—which became an international phenomenon—and the acclaimed memoir of past passion Five Men Who Broke My Heart comes a new book that blows the lid off of the secrets of female friendship. Based on a true story, Susan Shapiro's darkly comic novel Overexposed chronicles the brilliantly twisted tale of two strong women who wind up switching lives.

This book looks at how the classic television series fits into the cultural milieu of mid-century America. I Love Lucy incorporates key themes of the 1950s American political scene and classic American values of family, social mobility, community, individualism and work, keeping in mind that “Luck” as Machiavelli said “is the arbiter of half of what we do.” As the beloved American TV queen, Lucy Ricardo is a psychologically complicated character, conflicted between her role as a 1950s housewife and her wish to be a star. She is an icon of social mobility, going from a small New York City apartment to a country house in a swanky suburb, and an example of the “transitional” woman who wants to have it all. Is she a feminist? Is she a conformist? Does she prefer the country to the city? Whether she is working on the chocolate factory assembly line, baking bread, or achieving the American dream, Lucy is always “speeding it up!”