In The Aftermath, Julie Atwood is settling into a new normal in remote Smoky Flats, along with her son and father. While the U.S. continues spiraling into violence and instability, Julie and her family hone their survival skills as they prepare to endure their first harsh winter in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Joining with others and building new friendships, Julie bolsters Smoky Flats’ security, sense of community, and commerce among residents. Together, they protect themselves from outside intruders, mountain lions, and food shortages. Meanwhile, back in Oregon, life for Julie’s ex-husband, Steve, and his new infant, worsens. He falls victim to a crumbling employment sector and housing crisis, and is forced to live in horrendous conditions while working to further a radical liberal agenda. His money and supplies are quickly dwindling, and nearby protests are becoming more violent. Before long, Steve is beholden to a local gang and their demands on him become a matter of life or death. Although hundreds of miles apart, Julie and Steve’s worlds collide when circumstances become so grim that he is forced to ask for Julie’s help to save his daughter’s life. Julie is now faced with a dilemma. She must weigh her moral obligation to help an innocent person against putting her own life in danger to do so. In this second book of the A Great State trilogy, the everyday realities for those who prepared clash with the realities of those who did not. Lives are lost, and danger and uncertainty creep around every corner. Despite it all, there remains a sense of hope and renewal, and a vision for a future when people and the country can thrive again.

It's 2026, and the Alpha Centauri supernova has risen like a second sun, rushing Earth toward its last summer. Floods, fires, starvation and disease paralyze the planet. A flash of gamma rays has destroyed all microchips worldwide, leaving an already devastated Earth without communications, transportation, weaponry or medicine. The disaster sets three groups of survivors on separate quests. A militant cult seizes the opportunity to free their leader from her long court-mandated coma. Three cancer patients also search for a man in judicial sleep: the brilliant scientist - and monstrous criminal - who alone can continue the experimental treatment that keeps them alive. From a far greater distance come the survivors of the first manned Mars expedition, struggling homeward to a world that has changed far beyond their darkest fears. And standing at the crossroads is one man, U.S. President Saul Steinmetz, who faces a crucial decision that will affect the fate of his own people... and the world.

Julie Atwood is struggling with the day-to-day challenges of being a single mom. She works for a non-profit by day and clips coupons by night. The time in between is spent doing homework with her son. She wants a stable and secure life for him, but she needs a new start for herself. That won’t come easy, though. Julie is recently divorced, financially stressed, and still reeling from a violent attack in her past. She is determined to make it on her own, however. She learns self-defense skills and enrolls in a women’s-only firearms class. That’s where she meets a like-minded woman who helps take her skills to the next level. Julie’s personal evolution continues as she uses her couponing know-how to stockpile essential food and survival supplies. She will become self-reliant—and never be a victim again. The urgency of her efforts takes on new importance as society begins unraveling around her. America is divided. Conservatives and liberals are at war. Then the newly elected president cuts funding to so-called Sanctuary States, including her home state of Oregon. Julie loses her job. Everyone who lives off the government gets desperate. Riots. Crime. Fire. Julie needs to flee to the safety of her family cabin in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Can she get there, though? There is an exodus of people, and the conservative states—now called Great States—have established border checkpoints. Refugees are being turned away. Will she be one of them? Will Steve, her ex-husband, let her take their son far away? Will he demand to go with them? There is a wildfire at hand. Civilization is crumbling. And Julie is running out of time. The Divide is the first book in the A Great State trilogy.

A variety of important but lesser-known dimensions of the Chancellorsville campaign of spring 1863 are explored in this collection of eight original essays. Departing from the traditional focus on generalship and tactics, the contributors address the campaign's broad context and implications and revisit specific battlefield episodes that have in the past been poorly understood. Chancellorsville was a remarkable victory for Robert E. Lee's troops, a fact that had enormous psychological importance for both sides, which had met recently at Fredericksburg and would meet again at Gettysburg in just two months. But the achievement, while stunning, came at an enormous cost: more than 13,000 Confederates became casualties, including Stonewall Jackson, who was wounded by friendly fire and died several days later. The topics covered in this volume include the influence of politics on the Union army, the importance of courage among officers, the impact of the war on children, and the state of battlefield medical care. Other essays illuminate the important but overlooked role of Confederate commander Jubal Early, reassess the professionalism of the Union cavalry, investigate the incident of friendly fire that took Stonewall Jackson's life, and analyze the military and political background of Confederate colonel Emory Best's court-martial on charges of abandoning his men. Contributors Keith S. Bohannon, Pennsylvania State University and Greenville, South Carolina Gary W. Gallagher, University of Virginia A. Wilson Greene, Petersburg, Virginia John J. Hennessy, Fredericksburg, Virginia Robert K. Krick, Fredericksburg, Virginia James Marten, Marquette University Carol Reardon, Pennsylvania State University James I. Robertson Jr., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong delivers spine-chilling thrills as a small town deals with the fallout of a school shooting. Secrets don't remain hidden for long in this read: perfect for fans of Kara Thomas's Darkest Corners and Lynn Weingarten's Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls. Three years ago, Skye's brother Luka died in a mass shooting at the local high school. But there's no sympathy for Skye and her family because Luka wasn't a victim -- he was a shooter. Now, Skye returns to the small town she had fled to start anew. But the scars of the past don't heal easily. And there's one person Skye dreads seeing most: Jesse Matin. Her childhood crush and former best friend until the massacre tore them apart. Told in alternating points of view, Skye and Jesse wade into the mystery of what took place that fateful day. But someone clearly doesn't want Skye back in town, and when she and Jesse uncover new evidence that could clear Luka's name, it becomes obvious that someone wants the past to stay buried. In the aftermath of violence, someone has to pay. Blood for blood. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a mind-bending thriller that will have readers keeping the lights on.

In 2003, Rachel Cusk published A Life's Work, a provocative and often startlingly funny memoir about the cataclysm of motherhood. Widely acclaimed, the book started hundreds of arguments that continue to this day. Now, in her most personal and relevant book to date, Cusk explores divorce's tremendous impact on the lives of women. An unflinching chronicle of Cusk's own recent separation and the upheaval that followed—"a jigsaw dismantled"—it is also a vivid study of divorce's complex place in our society. "Aftermath" originally signified a second harvest, and in this book, unlike any other written on the subject, Cusk discovers opportunity as well as pain. With candor as fearless as it is affecting, Rachel Cusk maps a transformative chapter of her life with an acuity and wit that will help us understand our own.