Retire early, sell everything, buy a boat and sail around the world. What could go wrong? Told with great suspense and sparkling with wry humor, Escape from the Ordinary captures the terrors and pleasures that come with forging ahead against great odds on the adventure of a lifetime.

“Gentleman Jim is a special forces hero – and he is one of mine too." Sir Ranulph Fiennes, OBE The trailblazing sequel to Gentleman Jim: The Wartime Story of a Founder of the SAS. Following his death-defying Second World War, Gentleman Jim Almonds would never settle to an ordinary job. The SAS was disbanded but as a thirty-year-old Captain, he still hungered for adventure. After training Emperor Hailie Selassie’s Army in Ethiopia, he went as Second-in-Command of a bandit-chasing outfit in the new ‘Wild West’ of Eritrea. He was on active service in so-called peacetime. Atrocities and killings were common, but British justice was swift during a race against time as Almonds brought terrorism under control before the implementation of a United Nations decision to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia. Meanwhile, he embarked on personal adventuring and exploration alone in the wilds, rivers and highlands of Ethiopia, sometimes coming close to death. He was still the great escaper. The SAS reformed in Malaya and Almonds ran straight to the battle again. Back with the Regiment, he parachuted into the jungle to clear communist terrorists out of Malaya. In the early days of the Malayan Emergency, he improvised insertion techniques, close quarter combat training and led the long slow marches out. The success of this British campaign has been largely unsung – until now. In Singapore, Almonds took time out to design and hand-build boats in which he and his family sailed around the Straits of Johor. Another opportunity took him to the Gold Coast as a Major in the West African Frontier Force. He witnessed Independence as the British Union Flag was lowered and Ghana was created. He built a riverboat and navigated the mighty Volta River, before it was dammed, through dense equatorial jungle from Yeji to the sea. He even built, by hand (no power tools), a thirty-foot ocean-going ketch – designed and memorized whilst in an Italian Prisoner of War camp. He sailed out into the mid-Atlantic and home to England. He had no modern steering aids, no health and safety and no radio – yet an uncanny sense of direction. In the dog days of Empire, the story captures the snapshot detail of the many countries he visited during his three-month intercontinental voyage. The account is set in a meticulously researched context, fully sourced and contains a comprehensive index, maps and glossaries.

In this action-packed sequel to Saving Fable perfect for readers of The Land of Stories and The Phantom Tollbooth, Indira finds herself thrown into a quest full of dragons, unlikely allies, and high stakes. It's been a year since Indira rescued the city of Fable and landed a starring role in a story of her own. Now Indira's ready for a well-earned vacation. Too bad her advisors have other plans. In preparation for her story's sequel, Indira has been enrolled in the Hero's Journey tutorial, a quest designed to teach her how to be a team player. Indira's assigned crew is a mix of familiar faces and new friends, each hoping to follow in her footsteps into a story. Indira is ready for this new challenge--until someone crashes their quest. The intruder is more powerful than anyone she's faced before and begins transforming Ordinary into a giant video game. Indira's team will have to level up and outplay their opponent, or else the world's most beloved stories might be lost forever.

To stay competitive in today’s market, organizations need to adopt a culture of customer-centric practices that focus on outcomes rather than outputs. Companies that live and die by outputs often fall into the "build trap," cranking out features to meet their schedule rather than the customer’s needs. In this book, Melissa Perri explains how laying the foundation for great product management can help companies solve real customer problems while achieving business goals. By understanding how to communicate and collaborate within a company structure, you can create a product culture that benefits both the business and the customer. You’ll learn product management principles that can be applied to any organization, big or small. In five parts, this book explores: Why organizations ship features rather than cultivate the value those features represent How to set up a product organization that scales How product strategy connects a company’s vision and economic outcomes back to the product activities How to identify and pursue the right opportunities for producing value through an iterative product framework How to build a culture focused on successful outcomes over outputs

Of all the resistance organizations that operated during the war, about which much has been written, one stands out for its transnational character, the diversity of the tasks its members took on, and the fact that, unlike many of the known evasion lines, it was not directed by Allied officers, but rather by group of ordinary citizens. Between 1942 and 1945, they formed a network to smuggle Dutch Jews and others targeted by the Nazis south into France, via Paris, and then to Switzerland. This network became known as the Dutch-Paris Escape Line, eventually growing to include 300 people and expanding its reach into Spain. Led by Jean Weidner, a Dutchman living in France, many lacked any experience in clandestine operations or military tactics, and yet they became one of the most effective resistance groups of the Second World War. Dutch-Paris largely improvised its operations-scrounging for food on the black market, forging documents, and raising cash. Hunted relentlessly by the Nazis, some were even captured and tortured. In addition to Jews, those it helped escape the clutches of the Nazis included resistance fighters, political foes, Allied airmen, and young men looking to get to London to enlist. As the need grew more desperate, so did the bravery of those who rose to meet it. Using recently declassified archives, The Escape Line tells the story of the Dutch-Paris and the thousands of people it saved during World War II. Author Megan Koreman, who was given exclusive access to many of the archives, is herself the daughter of Dutch parents who were part of the resistance.

Seventeen-year-old Mattie has a hidden obsession: escapology. Emphasis on hidden. If anyone from school finds out, she’ll be abandoned to her haters. Facing a long and lonely summer, Mattie finally seeks out Miyu, the reclusive daughter of a world-renowned escape artist. Following in Houdini’s footsteps, Miyu helps Mattie secretly transform herself into an escapologist and performance artist. When Will, a popular athlete from school, discovers Mattie’s act at an underground venue, Mattie fears her secret persona will be exposed. Instead of outing her, though, Will tells Mattie a secret not even his girlfriend knows. Through a blossoming friendship, the two must find a way to express their authentic selves. Told through the perspectives of the witty main characters, this funny and fresh debut explores the power of stage personas and secret spaces, and speaks to the uncanny ways in which friendships transform us.

In some way or another most of us are "stuck"-in a secret sin we can't control or maybe by an inability to stand up for ourselves. In Escaping the Matrix, authors Gregory A. Boyd and Al Larson use the vehicle of The Matrix film trilogy to argue that our struggles with habitual sin, thought patterns, damaged emotions, and phobias happen because we do not know how to take charge of the way we experience reality. The authors draw on biblical and psychological insights to provide practical resources for helping believers escape the matrix of the world system that ensnares them. While this book is aimed at the newest generation of Christian readers, all ages will be inspired by the book's innovative strategies for experiencing a deeper life in Christ.