From the Pulitzer Prize finalist, a sharp and compassionate investigation of the root causes of the epidemic of drug abuse, violence, and despair among "mainstream" American teenagers In the past few years, it has become painfully clear that all is not well with the children of middle-class America. Beyond the shootings at Columbine, hardly a day goes by without stories of drug use, binge drinking, fatal accidents, and senseless suicides among middle-class adolescents. But the "why" of these tragedies has eluded us. In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed sociologist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elliott Currie rejects such predictable answers as TV violence, permissiveness, and inherent evil. Instead, drawing on years of interviews, he links this crisis to a pervasive "culture of exclusion" that has left young people facing an ever more unforgiving world. Currie describes a society in which severe punishment and "zero tolerance" of adolescent misbehavior have become the norm, where "tough love" and medications have replaced engagement and guidance. Broadening his inquiry, he dissects the changes in middle-class life that have enforced newly rigid divides between winners and losers and imposed an extraordinarily harsh culture-and not just on kids. Vivid, compelling, and deeply empathetic, The Road to Whatever is a profound investigation of what has gone wrong for so many American teenagers and a stark indictment of a society that has lost the will-or the capacity-to care.

THE ROAD TO WHATEVER, looks at Buddhism from a pop-culture perspective only to find that "Whatever" is a magic word that let's you know exactly where a person stands on any given matter. Whatever is everything and nothing at all; just as Nirvana is nothingness yet all encompassing.

From the Pulitzer Prize finalist comes a sharp and compassionate investigation of the root causes of the epidemic of drug abuse, violence, and despair among "mainstream" American teenagers.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). • From the bestselling author of The Passenger A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.

'Stay Healthy, Be Happy, Live Longer' addresses the reality that tens of millions of ordinary people are allowing heart disease, and other related conditions such as obesity, diabetes and blood pressure, to creep up on them and impact their lives detrimentally. Not because they don't know how to keep them at bay -we all know that already-, but because they cannot sustain the rigorous day-to-day lifestyle changes recommended by the medical profession and indeed, with the best of intentions, by most of the other books on the subject. It faces squarely the reality that old habits can be deep-rooted and new lifestyle changes difficult to make permanent. Uniquely it gently motivates the reader to make whatever degree of change they are able to habitualize. It provides the readers with a clear understanding of the benefits to be gained from making the changes, and a practical methodology of change that can ebb and flow in harmony with the readers' own natural tendencies and preferences.

Life is a precious gift. Find contentment, joy and peace in all you have received from God. After many years, looking back on all the good things God has done.