Theodora Madsen has everything she’s ever hoped for: a distinguished career as a homicide detective with the Dayton Police Department, a woman she loves, and a baby on the way. While Theo and Bree nest and plan for their family’s future, two sixteen-year-old Ohio girls vanish—one from Dayton and the other from Brecksville—each leaving behind a bloody handprint. Then a routine interview goes disastrously wrong, and Theo’s injured and facing a lengthy recovery. With her professional future uncertain and the cases growing cold, Theo scrambles to piece together the links between the girls. But the clock is ticking and time is running out.

Over the course of nineteen essays, Alan Watts ("a spiritual polymatch, the first and possibly greatest" —Deepak Chopra) ruminates on the philosophy of nature, ecology, aesthetics, religion, and metaphysics. Assembled in the form of a “mountain journal,” written during a retreat in the foothills of Mount Tamalpais, CA, Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown is Watts’s meditation on the art of feeling out and following the watercourse way of nature, known in Chinese as the Tao. Embracing a form of contemplative meditation that allows us to stop analyzing our experiences and start living in to them, the book explores themes such as the natural world, established religion, race relations, karma and reincarnation, astrology and tantric yoga, the nature of ecstasy, and much more.

Compiled by a leading scholar of Chinese poetry, Clouds Thick, Whereabouts Unknown is the first collection of Chan (Zen) poems to be situated within Chan thought and practice. Combined with exquisite paintings by Charles Chu, the anthology compellingly captures the ideological and literary nuances of works that were composed, paradoxically, to "say more by saying less," and creates an unparalleled experience for readers of all backgrounds. Clouds Thick, Whereabouts Unknown includes verse composed by monk-poets of the eighth to the seventeenth centuries. Their style ranges from the direct vernacular to the evocative and imagistic. Egan's faithful and elegant translations of poems by Han Shan, Guanxiu, and Qiji, among many others, do justice to their perceptions and insights, and his detailed notes and analyses unravel centuries of Chan metaphor and allusion. In these gems, monk-poets join mainstream ideas on poetic function to religious reflection and proselytizing, carving out a distinct genre that came to influence generations of poets, critics, and writers. The simplicity of Chan poetry belies its complex ideology and sophisticated language, elements Egan vividly explicates in his religious and literary critique. His interpretive strategies enable a richer understanding of Mahayana Buddhism, Chan philosophy, and the principles of Chinese poetry.

ONE OF TEN LONGLISTED IN THE 2021 SHELF UNBOUND BEST INDIE BOOK COMPETITION 1993. For 18-year-old Beth Adamski, life is just starting to take shape. She's set to attend Indiana University in the fall, her boyfriend and her best friend are like family, and the graveyard shifts she works at Walmart will help her save up for an apartment of her own. But when her parents die in a tragic car accident, Beth not only discovers that she has a sister; she also finds that her parents weren't exactly who she thought they were. Determined to find her sister, Beth sets out on a journey that leads her to discover more about herself than she could have ever imagined. 1953. Every day, Milwaukee-born Jim Robinson watches his mother wait for his MIA father to return home from the Korean War. As the years pass and his father never appears, young Jim grows lonely, resigned to a life of solitude, until Sal Conti—a crusty, old, Italian stone carver living nearby—takes Jim under his wing. As Jim grows older, his life's journey takes him from a sheltered and secure life in Milwaukee, to the war-torn jungle of southern Vietnam. Back in the U.S. after his service ends, Jim searches for a place to call home and the one thing he longs for most: connection. Spanning decades and continents, Whereabouts Unknown links two unlikely characters who may just have what the other one is looking for. Insightful, captivating, and timeless, Whereabouts Unknown is about the bonds of family—the family we're born with and the one we create.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are typified by an enemy who strikes from the shadows; sniper fire, RPG's, and suicide bombers are his modus operandi. But above all others, this enemy's favorite weapon is the improvised explosive device (IED). Ranging from the simplest of construction to the most sophisticated of all gadgetry, the IED represents a grave threat to American soldiers all over the world. In this kind of fight, there is only one kind of soldier uniquely qualified to deal with these destructive weapons of war: the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technician. With over 8 years of experience in EOD, Staff Sergeant John Breuer knows a thing or two about danger. As an EOD team leader, he's encountered more than his fair share of IEDs. But when he's betrayed by the Iraqi Army and sold to insurgents, this bomb technician must confront a different kind of horror: being listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN). Tortured and exploited for propaganda purposes, Jack must use his skills as a soldier and as a bomb technician to escape his captors, before they have a chance to remove his head from his body. An action-packed adventure, DUTY STATUS WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN, is a thoughtful tale of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and the soldiers who fight there, with a focus on realism and technical details that only experience can convey. Devoid of politics, this novel tells an unblemished story of America's fight in the Global War on Terror (GWOT), and of Her soldiers' day-to-day struggle.

A powerful memoir from the late former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history. Rumsfeld addresses the challenges and controversies of his illustrious career, from the unseating of the entrenched House Republican leader in 1965, to helping the Ford administration steer the country away from Watergate and Vietnam, to the war in Iraq, to confronting abuse at Abu Ghraib. Along the way, he offers his plainspoken, first-hand views and often humorous and surprising anecdotes about some of the world's best-known figures, ranging from Elvis Presley to George W. Bush. Both a fascinating narrative and an unprecedented glimpse into history,Known and Unknown captures the legacy of one of the most influential men in public service.

Syndicated columnist and grammarian, Don Ferguson is an inveterate note-taker, recording mistakes in grammar or word usage and when observing an incorrect punctuation mark. It seems that people make the same mistakes over and over again. Accumulating a small mountain of short, cryptic notes, Ferguson wondered how they might be made useful, perhaps to his children in the years to come. Out of these thoughts, Ferguson's column "Grammar Gremlins" was born and now this book. Ferguson's work should not be confused with a "school lesson", nothing boring or schoolteacherish, in a nineteenth century stereotypical sense of the word. The reader will find this book interesting and charming; and consistent with our age of sound bites and demands for brevity, the segments are mercifully short but energized with useful, interesting, and thoughtful information. Ferguson's material comes from snippets of conversations overheard on the street, from correspondence that crosses his desk, from public speakers, and from brochures and pamphlets, among many other sources. It seems that no one is exempt from grammar and usage problems.