A stunning debut novel, The End of Always tells the story of one young woman's struggle to rise above a vicious family legacy and take charge of her own life. In 1907 Wisconsin, seventeen-year-old Marie Reehs is determined: she will not marry a violent man, as did her mother and grandmother before her. Day after day, Marie toils at the local laundry, watched by an older man who wants to claim her for his own. Night after night, she is haunted by the memory of her mother, who died in a mysterious accident to which her father was the only witness. She longs for an independent life, but her older sister wants nothing more than to maintain the family as it was, with its cruel rules and punishments. Her younger sister is too young to understand. At first, it seems that Marie's passionate love affair with a charismatic young man will lead her to freedom. But she soon realizes that she too may have inherited the Reehs women's dark family curse. Set in the lush woods and small towns of turn-of-the-century Wisconsin, and inspired by real events in the author's family history, The End of Always is a transcendent story of one woman's desperate efforts to escape a brutal heritage. Both enthralling and deeply lyrical, Randi Davenport's novel is also an intensely affecting testament to the power of determination and hope, and a gripping reminder of our nation's long love affair with violence.

Now a New York Times Bestseller. The creator of the wildly popular award-winning podcast Hardcore History looks at some of the apocalyptic moments from the past as a way to frame the challenges of the future. Do tough times create tougher people? Can humanity handle the power of its weapons without destroying itself? Will human technology or capabilities ever peak or regress? No one knows the answers to such questions, but no one asks them in a more interesting way than Dan Carlin. In The End is Always Near, Dan Carlin looks at questions and historical events that force us to consider what sounds like fantasy; that we might suffer the same fate that all previous eras did. Will our world ever become a ruin for future archaeologists to dig up and explore? The questions themselves are both philosophical and like something out of The Twilight Zone. Combining his trademark mix of storytelling, history and weirdness Dan Carlin connects the past and future in fascinating and colorful ways. At the same time the questions he asks us to consider involve the most important issue imaginable: human survival. From the collapse of the Bronze Age to the challenges of the nuclear era the issue has hung over humanity like a persistent Sword of Damocles. Inspired by his podcast, The End is Always Near challenges the way we look at the past and ourselves. In this absorbing compendium, Carlin embarks on a whole new set of stories and major cliffhangers that will keep readers enthralled. Idiosyncratic and erudite, offbeat yet profound, The End is Always Near examines issues that are rarely presented, and makes the past immediately relevant to our very turbulent present.

An urban neighborhood remakes itself every day—and unmakes itself, too. Houses and stores and streets define it in one way. But it’s also people—the people who make it their home, some eagerly, others grudgingly. A neighborhood can thrive or it can decline, and neighbors move in and move out. Sometimes they stay but withdraw behind fences and burglar alarms. If a neighborhood becomes no longer a place of sociability and street life, but of privacy indoors and fearful distrust outdoors, is it still a neighborhood? In the late 1960s and 1970s Carlo Rotella grew up in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood—a place of neat bungalow blocks and desolate commercial strips, and sharp, sometimes painful social contrasts. In the decades since, the hollowing out of the middle class has left residents confronting—or avoiding—each other across an expanding gap that makes it ever harder for them to recognize each other as neighbors. Rotella tells the stories that reveal how that happened—stories of deindustrialization and street life; stories of gorgeous apartments with vistas onto Lake Michigan and of Section 8 housing vouchers held by the poor. At every turn, South Shore is a study in contrasts, shaped and reshaped over the past half-century by individual stories and larger waves of change that make it an exemplar of many American urban neighborhoods. Talking with current and former residents and looking carefully at the interactions of race and class, persistence and change, Rotella explores the tension between residents’ deep investment of feeling and resources in the physical landscape of South Shore and their hesitation to make a similar commitment to the community of neighbors living there. Blending journalism, memoir, and archival research, The World Is Always Coming to an End uses the story of one American neighborhood to challenge our assumptions about what neighborhoods are, and to think anew about what they might be if we can bridge gaps and commit anew to the people who share them with us. Tomorrow is another ending.

The world likes to believe life is a series of endings. Some are good, others bad, but things always end. In the modern age, the movie ends, the television show ends, the book finishes with "The End", and we start to believe life is about endings. Yet life continues, without end. Recently, my young nephew died, but the next day life went on without him. This book is based on the premise that endings are just new beginnings. Everyone can end, with the beginning in mind. Giving up the concept of "everything ends" is one of the most important steps in business continuity. People love to talk about Succession Planning, but few ever accomplish the task. The numbers are staggering. The US Department of Labor Statistics tell us after one year in business, 20% of new businesses in America fail, but after 20 years only about 20% of those same businesses will have survived. Of those who survive, less than 20% will continue to a second generation! Most businesses have a cessation plan (a plan that leads to a business ceasing to exist), while very few have succession plans (a plan that leads to a business not only continuing, but thriving after the founder exits). In his book, "Always End with the Beginning in Mind", Donald White takes you on his journey that resulted in a successful business continuation, and will give a founder of a business the steps necessary for a succession plan to actually succeed. A well-thought out and properly executed Succession Plan is a classic win-win. In fact, it is a win-win-win. It is a win for the company, namely the clients and staff who are able to enjoy continuity after the founder's exit. It is a win for the successor, who is able to build on the success of the founder. Finally, it is a win for the founder, who is able to exit on their own volition and see what they have built continue to prosper for years to come. Firms can succeed into perpetuity. They do not need to eventually cease. A businessperson who exits a business without seeing their exit as an ending, but as a new beginning, both for themselves and the business, can enjoy seeing the firm they spent a lifetime building continue to prosper after the business transitions to new leadership and simultaneously enjoy a new season of life personally. Do not leave business continuity to fate! Read this book and discover the tools necessary to move from a reactive cessation plan to a proactive plan of succession.

The first comprehensive treatment of how the United States has handled the final stages of its conflicts-from World War I to Iraq-spoiled repeatedly by leaders' failures to plan clearly for what to do when the guns fall silent. Concerned with not repeating past errors, our leaders miscalculate and prolong the conflict or invite unwelcome results. In his penetrating analysis of past, present, and future wars, Rose suggests how to break this cycle.

Lara Jean is having the best senior year ever! She's head over heels in love with her boyfriend, her dad's getting remarried and Margot's coming home for the summer. But change is looming on the horizon. While Lara Jean is having fun, she can't ignore the big life decisions she has to make. Will she have to leave the boy she loves behind?

A journey back in time that explores what happened—and what could have happened—from creator of the wildly-popular podcast Hardcore History and 2019 winner of the iHeartRadio Best History Podcast Award. Dan Carlin has created a new way to think about the past. His mega-hit podcast, Hardcore History, is revered for its unique blend of high drama, enthralling narration, and Twilight Zone-style twists. Carlin humanizes the past, wondering about things that didn’t happen but might have, and compels his listeners to “walk a mile in that other guy’s historical moccasins.” A political commentator, Carlin approaches history like a magician, employing completely unorthodox and always entertaining ways of re-looking at what we think we know about wars, empires, and leaders across centuries and millennia. But what happens to the everyman caught in the gears of history? Carlin asks the questions, poses the arguments, and explores the facts to find out. Inspired by his podcast, Hardcore History challenges the way we look at the past and ourselves. In this absorbing compendium, Carlin embarks on a whole new set of stories and major cliffhangers that will keep readers enthralled. Idiosyncratic and erudite, offbeat yet profound, Hardcore History examines issues that are rarely presented, and makes the past immediately relevant to our very turbulent present.