This new series from #1 New York Times best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz is The Mysterious Benedict Society for reluctant readers, chockful of humor, adventure and mischief, and set at an exclusive, secluded, high-tech institute everyone wants to get into.A handful of sixth-graders have been chosen to attend an exclusive weekend at the Octagon Valley Institute, the mysterious, high-tech lab of the uber famous multimillionaire, genius, recluse Onassander Octagon. What will they do there? No one is telling. Which just makes everyone want to get in.Edwin Edgefield has high hopes for the weekend—hopes he’ll meet other kids like him—kids who will accept him even though he’s got a photographic memory, genius level math skills and some very specific personality quirks. But when he meets the other kids, he starts to wonder if they’re all in the right place. There’s amateur rapper Kimmy, who’s obsessed with TikTok, violin-player Julie, who has zero social skills, and surfer dude Dilip, who’s well, a surfer dude. And then, strange things start to happen. Things that involve an escape room challenge, a zero-gravity chamber, a river full of piranhas and . . . some ninjas? Turns out the Octagon Valley is all about using teamwork to make the dream work, and these normally isolated kids might not all survive. But those who do will be treated to the greatest prize—and the biggest surprise—of their lives—a chance to be truly EXTRAordinary.

FIGHT CARD MMA: WELCOME TO THE OCTAGON Belfast 2013 Mickey The Rage Rafferty has gone through some tough times, but he's not ready to tap-out just yet. The Belfast widower has to take care of his eight-year-old daughter, Lily. However, his main talent is fighting and the only way he can make enough money off it to support his girl is to take dodgy underground matches paying off in bloodstained cash. Mickey's trainer, Eddie Smith, doesn't approve. He wants his most promising student to step into the cage as a real martial artist, not as a fool for thugs and gangsters. With Eddie on the verge of cutting him loose, Mickey is up against the cage – crushed between fast cash and a legitimate career. Mickey has some big decisions to make and some even bigger opponents to face. The MMA life can be harsh, and it's never easy ... Welcome To The Octagon. Praise for WEE ROCKETS “Gerard Brennan stands apart from the Irish crime fiction crowd with a novel rooted in the reality of today's Belfast. The author's prose speaks with a rare authenticity about the pain of growing up in a fractured society, shot through with a black humour that can only come from the streets. Wee Rockets is urban crime fiction for the 21st century, and Brennan is a unique voice among contemporary Irish writers.” – Stuart Neville “In Wee Rockets Gerard Brennan has written a fast paced, exciting story of West Belfast gang culture; brimming with violence, authentic street dialogue and surprising black humour. This is a great debut novel. Brennan takes us into the heart of Belfast's chav underclass, in a story that lies somewhere in the intersection between The Warriors, Colin Bateman and Guy Ritchie. This is the first in what undoubtedly will be a stellar literary career.” – Adrian McKinty "Brennan impressed me hugely with his debut novella The Point, and Wee Rockets has cemented my opinion that he belongs among the top rank of Northern Irish crime writers." – Loitering With Intent "So assured and mature you'd think this was his eight or ninth book, not one of his first." – Spinetingler Magazine "This is a tremendous book and I urge you to read it." – I Meant To Read That

Reaching the lost, straying and cast down sheep of our generation - For such a time as this. Read how it's done. The author shares real life experiences from victim to overcomer. And the good news is: You can too. In a compelling true story the author tells how, as a child she worked all day in fields of sticky tobacco plants and prickly cotton bolls; and how cleansing it was at the end of the day to take the path less traveled back to the farmhouse. It was the path less traveled, which led to a refreshing pool of cool spring water where she could wash away all the dust and grime of the fields. She compares this to the experience when as a "cast down" sheep she came back to "The Father," who with outstretched arms of love offered Rivers of Mercy through Acceptance, Forgiveness and Restoration. Starwitness is a Central Florida Native, and a survivor of The Great Depression. During World War II, she worked on the Manhattan Project, employed by Tennessee Eastman Corporation in Oak Ridge Tennessee. Starwitness is a Retiree of the State of Florida where she worked as Nursing Home Coordinator with a team of Doctors, Nurses and Social Workers. After Retirement, she authored "The Viet Nam Hero" which was used in the Honors Program in Valencia Community College. She also authored "AS IS," A True Story of Hope. Now comes her latest release: "WELCOME HOME" - " As Is" She and her husband live in Central Florida and are the proud parents of two outstanding daughters, Patricia Stenstrom Agnew and Sharon Sue Barker, as well as four great grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

A titanic psychological nail-biter, Welcome to Bravo dresses up the digital and analog worlds as protagonists vying for souls of the departed. This parochial-dystopian epic is driven by rich characters who propel a powerful narrative creating an inescapable addiction to the next page. As a contemporary science fiction thriller, the story is for anyone who ever wondered if the screens captivating our eyes and ensnaring our minds bear a false light, whose foundation of black glass is actually a dark portal conditioning the mind to embrace eternal alone-ness. Charon Mausolus founded and runs Everlasting Enterprises with the promise of Humans Eternally Living Life as an uploaded consciousness interred in hyper-scaled datacenter mausoleums. His technological genius is heralded by government sycophants and capitalistic cannibals looking to enrich themselves feeding off their fellow man. But these crypts of the digital age siphon souls to a sinister purpose, and reveal how the dialectic of Heaven and Hell has been disrupted by a Faustian bargain.

Preparing for war : Alabama to Richmond, January 14-June 20, 1861 -- Waiting for the great battle : Richmond to Manassas, June 21-July 21, 1861, Manassas to Centreville, Virginia : July 22-September 21, 1861 -- Camp at Centreville, Virginia : September 27-December 31, 1861 -- The road to the Peninsula : January 8-March 24, 1862 -- The Peninsula campaign and the Seven Days Battles : March 25-July 27, 1862 -- The Second Battle of Manassas to Fredericksburg, Virginia : August 9-November 18, 1862 -- The Fredericksburg campaign : December 3, 1862-February 9, 1863 -- Chancellorsville, Virginia, to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania : February 20-July 9, 1863 -- Orange, Virginia, to Petersburg, Virginia : August 22, 1863-October, 1864 -- Prison and home again : January 2-June 2, 1865 -- Epilogue -- Appendix A : List of the letters -- Appendix B : 9th Alabama Regiment casualties/enlistment totals -- Appendix C : 9th Alabama Regiment officers and infantry assignments -- Appendix D : Pvt. William Cowan McClellan's military record -- Appendix E : 9th Alabama regimental roster for Companies F and H