Fifteen-year-old Mary Lou Peters lives in the historic Southern Hotel in fictional Asheville, Maryland. Her life-long dream is to take over the hotel that her parents kept the same for so long. She discovers that she has an amazing gift that throughout these eight stories helps her solve previously unsolved mysteries, many having to do with the hotel’s eventful past. In the beginning, she has no friends besides friends of her parents. She meets all kinds of interesting people—her best friend Robby, energetic Julie, and even a few ghosts. Like everyone else, tragedies, celebrations, good and bad times are a part of Mary Lou’s life, and the hotel’s past. These stories take place in a hotel that is based on the real Southern Hotel in North Carolina. In July, 2005, I toured the hotel when it was for sale. The building and the history inspired this historical fiction collection about a mid-20th century family living in a prosperous small-town hotel.

Mary Lou and her family live in the Southern Hotel, a historic building her father has restored and operates. They live in the 1950s, in small town Maryland. Then Mary Lou discovers she has an unexpected gift. She has dreams and visions that transport her through time, mixing her up in mysteries, fires, and every sort of adventure, all in or around the Southern Hotel she has come to love.

Mary Lou and her family live in the Southern Hotel, a historic building her father has restored and operates. They live in the 1950s, in small town Maryland. Then Mary Lou discovers she has an unexpected gift. She has dreams and visions that transport her through time, mixing her up in mysteries, fires, and every sort of adventure, all in or around the Southern Hotel she has come to love.

The True History of Cozumel is an impeccably researched, iconoclastic account of the island's past that offers the reader accurate, detailed information that often disproves the dross masquerading as history found in tourist guide books, websites, and the like. By combing governmental archives, privately-held rare documents, and university microfilm collections, Hajovsky is able to explain through the presentation of first-hand accounts just how interesting Cozumel's history turns out to be. Chapters in the book run the gamut from: Pirates' testimony obtained through torture in the cells of the Holy Inquisition; The near annexation of Cozumel by the Republic of Texas in 1837; The role of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry in the resettlement of the island in 1848; Abraham Lincoln's attempt to buy Cozumel and use it as a colony to house freed, black slaves; The original "Indiana Jones" and his search for German spies on the island in WWI; General López de Santa Ana's role in developing the chewing gum fad that brought the island riches; To talking crosses, one-armed Christ statues, parrot-eating boas, and cannibalistic islanders.

"Homelessness is a perennial topic of concern at libraries. In fact, staff at public libraries interact with almost as many homeless individuals as staff at shelters do. In this book Dowd, executive director of a homeless shelter, spotlights best practices drawn from his own shelter's policies and training materials" --

Beloved New York Times bestseller M. C. Beaton's cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin—now the star of a hit T.V. show—is back on the case again in Down the Hatch. Private detective Agatha Raisin, having recently taken up power-walking, is striding along a path in Mircester Park during her lunch break when she hears a cry for help. Rushing over, she finds an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Swinburn, in the middle of the green—with the body of an old man lying at their feet. The man, who the coroner determines died by poisoning, was known as "the Admiral," a gardener notorious for his heavy drinking, and Chief Inspector Wilkes writes the death off as an accident caused by the consumption of weedkiller stored in a rum bottle. Agatha is not convinced that anyone would mistake weedkiller for rum but carries on with her work at Raisin Investigations, until she receives an anonymous tip that the Admiral’s death was no accident. Local gossip points to the Swinburns themselves as the killers, spurred by a feud at the club where they, as well as the Admiral, were members. Distraught at this accusation, they turn to Agatha to clear their name, and she takes the case—despite the warnings of Chief Inspector Wilkes. Agatha encounters one suspicious character after another, becoming further enmeshed in the Admiral’s own dark and shady past. And when she's run off the road, narrowly escaping with her life, and then another attack occurs, it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want the case closed—and will stop at nothing to prevent Agatha from solving it.