Shirley McDowell, the owner of a Teddy Bear Hospital, meets Michael, a fireman who's planning a surprise marriage proposal to his girlfriend on Christmas Eve. Through a serendipitous mishap, Michael's engagement ring is misplaced inside a stuffed animal being repaired at the shop. Shirley and Michael work together tracking down the missing teddy bear in a quest to find the lost ring, becoming closer in the process.

author : Stéphane Ternoise Translated by Kate-Marie Glover (http://www.frenchauthor.info) The Teddy (Bear) Whisperer Act 1 The little girl, sitting up in bed, is barely visible amongst all her cuddly toys. There are cuddly toys all over her bedroom. All the children (a minimum of 5, speaking parts included) enter on tiptoes. They look round admiringly, smiling ecstatically as they point out to one another various cuddly toys. 1st child : - Watch your step ! 2nd child : - Even her pillow is completely covered. 3rd child : - Her shelves are even worse than my grandma with her pots of jam. 4th child : - It’s worse than my grandpa’s toolbox. A child from the chorus : Worse than my mum’s wardrobe. The little girl smiles as though she has only just noticed the other children. 3rd child : - It’s the little girl with 200 teddy bears, they’re everywhere, they’re everywhere ! A child from the chorus (repeating this air in a whisper): It’s the little girl with 200 teddy bears, they’re everywhere, they’re everywhere ! 4th child : - It’s the little girl with 200 teddy bears, and we all wish that she would share. (Jean-Luc Petit éditions)

Ava Fisher is a flamboyant flake. Kenny Summers is a recent high school graduate. Luvon Ramsey is a junk dealer. Marie Elrod is a handicapped sixteen year old. Their mutual error is saying Hello to a very charming psychopath. Each ends up strangled and holding onto a Teddy Bear with a knife in its back. The serial killer is hidden in plain sight and has his focus on Olivia Haines, an English teacher at Fairfield High School in West Los Angeles. She considers herself a stranger to these murders until one day someone leaves her an unusual calling carda strangled cat dangling in her classroom. She is suddenly aware she is being scheduled as murder victim number five. Olivia is rapidly convinced she is in a life and death struggle between the killer and herself and one of them will not survive. Using every teaching skill she possesses, she wages an all out battle for survival against a very lethal psychopath. If you like Agatha Christies Miss Marple, youll certainly relish Olivia Haines in Teddy Bear Murders.

Toronto Book Award Winner Cordelia Strube is back with another caustic, subversive, and darkly humorous book Stevie, a recovering alcoholic and kitchen manager of Chappy’s, a small chain restaurant, is frantically trying to prevent the people around her from going supernova: her PTSD-suffering veteran son, her uproariously demented parents, the polyglot eccentrics who work in her kitchen, the blind geriatric dog she inherits, and a damaged five-year-old who landed on her doorstep and might just be her granddaughter. In the tight grip of new corporate owners, Stevie battles corporate’s “restructuring” to save her kitchen, while trying to learn to forgive herself and maybe allow some love back into her life. Stevie’s biting, hilarious take on her own and others’ foibles will make you cheer and will have you loving Misconduct of the Heart (in the immortal words of Stevie’s best line cook) “like never tomorrow.”

The Llama Who Had A Hole Through His Head heralds an exciting new voice in the world of comic writing. Filled with quirky surrealism and inspired buffoonery, this debut collection of fantastical tales takes lives on the fringe of the familiar and, with an inventive and inimitable brand of humour, pushes them to the brink of the absurdly ridiculous and beyond. A young Peruvian sheep laments his unhappiness. A thespian experiences the highs and lows of Tinseltown. A bullied boy is granted three wishes by a fallen star. A famous detective is called upon to solve a curious and colourful case. A manicurist confronts a biblical colossus. A squirrel receives taxation advice from an unexpected source. And an infamous athlete seeks to have history rewritten. Each of the thirteen stories in this book shows that when the uncanny and the real collide, the world can be a truly weird, wonderful and exceedingly funny place.

The incredible story of how one man went from a hired hunter to becoming one of America’s top champions for this iconic animal. In this wonderous and eye-opening exploration, Steve Searles, the reknown and respected "Bear Whisperer" of Mammoth Lakes, takes the reader on a journey into the lives of these remarkable creatures and the world we share. In the late 1990s, the town of Mammoth Lakes, California hired Steve Searles as a hunter to cull half its troublesome bear population. But as he began to prepare for the grim task, the bears soon won him over, and Searles realized there had to be a better way. He soon developed non-lethal tactics to control their behavior and overpopulation that heralded a landmark moment in the care and handling of the American black bear. But change was not without its challenges. To some, his success was dismissed due to his lack of formal academic training. Yet Searles never wavered in his commitment, and eventually became not just local folk hero but a nationally recognized expert. This high school dropout saved not just the bears, but, in many ways, his community. In a tradition that runs from John Muir to Bear Grylls, Searles finds a fellowship with nature and a deeper meaning in the world of bears. Do bears understand things we don’t? Are they dialed in to some greater natural force? Unlike us, bears waste little time on unreasonable fears. Bears are fully in the moment. They have an inner peace that seems to offset their power and strength. That may explain why no other animal on the planet is as revered as the bear. As Searles shares his remarkable knowledge and we become immersed in the ursine world, you’ll never look at bears or nature the same way again. Warm and poignant, and perfect for anyone who has been fascinated by the natural world, What the Bears Know shows that wisdom and fulfillment can come from unexpected places.