When matchmaker Freya Hansen-Adler is inspired by the holiday spirit, she’ll stop at nothing to see former Navy SEAL Harris and single mom Ava get the happily ever after they deserve… I set the bar pretty low when it comes to the holidays. I have to. As a Navy officer, I spend plenty of them far from anyplace I’d call “home”… sometimes getting shot like I did on my last SEAL mission. So, yeah, I set the bar low enough that I can roll over it. That is, until I meet my neighbor Ava. She’s the type of woman who bakes pecan pie and drinks egg nog. She carols with her neighbors and illuminates her house with enough tiny lights that it can probably be spotted by satellites. I bet she even owns a stack of ugly Christmas sweaters. She’s also got a son… and roots dug deep into this picturesque holiday town. Roots that make life with a Navy guy like me impossible. Ava is the last thing I need. Yet she’s all I want for Christmas.

Baggage. Do you have any idea of how much of it I carry? Do you know how many items are inside? Do you take note of the back aches that I contract? What are in these bags of mine? Taboos. Fears and insecurities. Scars from abusive and toxic relationships. I have a question for you though. What's in your bag?

"Charlotte and Tobias make more strange discoveries as they attempt to escape the sinister Witherwood Reform School."--

Baggage has gotten a bad rap. We think it's all bad. We think it makes us less likely to have good, healthy relationships today. But baggage isn't just the bad stuff that happened to us in the past. It's the lessons we've taken from the pain we carry. It's how what we've been through has actually made us stronger and more capable than we imagine. And it's how we're going to make our current relationships work. Far from minimizing past pain, pastor Ike Miller shows you how to go through the baggage you carry from a difficult childhood and pull out the good stuff. The intentionality you've developed. The empathy you've gained. The trust you value so highly. Miller shares from his own past in a dysfunctional family impacted by alcoholism and divorce, and his present as part of a healthy and loving family, to illustrate how to stop letting your past sabotage your present. You'll find no platitudes or pat answers here. Rather, you'll discover untapped riches of experience and knowledge you already have that can make your relationships thrive and change the course of your life and legacy.

In the spring of 2006, Bill Porter traveled through the heart of China, from Beijing to Hong Kong, on a pilgrimage to sites associated with the first six patriarchs of Zen. Zen Baggage is an account of that journey. He weaves together historical background, interviews with Zen masters, and translations of the earliest known records of Zen, along with personal vignettes. Porter's account captures the transformations taking place at religious centers in China but also the abiding legacy they have somehow managed to preserve. Porter brings wisdom and humor to every situation, whether visiting ancient caves containing the most complete collection of Buddhist texts ever uncovered, enduring a six–hour Buddhist ceremony, searching in vain for the ghost in his room, waking up the monk in charge of martial arts at Shaolin Temple, or meeting the abbess of China's first Zen nunnery. Porter's previously published Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits has become recommended reading at Zen centers and universities throughout America and even in China (in its Chinese translation), and Zen Baggage is sure to follow suit.

Let bestselling author Judy Astley sweep you away with this insightful, uplifting and hilarious novel where a family holiday turns into more of a torment than a treat... Perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan, Milly Johnson and Trisha Ashley. "I just love Judy Astley's books" - JILL MANSELL "Wickedly funny" - DAILY MAIL "A funny, warm and moving novel" - SUNDAY MIRROR "If I am feeling in need of blue skies and sunshine and none are to be had here I just pick [this] up and settle down to while away an hour or two" -- ***** Reader review "A really light and amusing story" -- ***** Reader review ****************************************************** IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT, DON'T BRING THE FAMILY As a penniless and partnerless house-painter with an expired lease on her flat and a twelve-year-old daughter, Lucy could hardly turn down her parents' offer to take them on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Caribbean. She'd just have to put up with her sister Theresa (making no secret of preferring Tuscany as a holiday destination) and brother Simon (worrying that there might be some sinister agenda behind their parents' wish to take them all away) with their various spouses, teenagers and young children. In a luxury hotel, with bright sunshine, swimming, diving, glorious food and friendly locals, any family tensions should have melted away in the fabulous heat. The children should have been angelic, the teenagers cheerful, the adults relaxed and happy. But some problems just refuse to be left at home.

I never thought I’d be starting over again in my 30’s. I’d stayed in dead-end relationships longer than I should have for the simple fear of being alone. In my mind, it was better to be attached and settle, compromising all the needs I had, than to be single and facing the prospect of dating. What started off as stories I’d tell friends and family, turned into a blog with one follower (a psychologist of all people) and now, 340 odd pages later, it’s a book. This is the story of dating in your 30’s however before we begin I’d like to offer two bits of advice: Ladies - have faith Men - just use your brains a little more. Please?