Blindside

Follows one young man from his impoverished childhood with a crack-addicted mother, through his discovery of the sport of football, to his rise to become one of the most successful, highly-paid players in the NFL.

When New York City's Mayor is desperate to find his missing daughter, Detective Michael Bennett steps in to help the Mayor and strike a deal to save his son in prison. Bennett and the mayor have always had a tense relationship, but now the mayor sees in Bennett a discreet investigator with family worries of his own. Just one father helping another. The detective leaps into the case and sources lead him to a homicide in the Bronx. The victim has ties to a sophisticated hacking operation—and also to the mayor's missing daughter, Natalie, a twenty-one-year-old computer prodigy. The murder is part of a serial killing spree, one with national security implications. And suddenly Bennett is at the center of a dangerous triangle anchored by NYPD, FBI, and a transnational criminal organization. Michael Bennett has always been an honorable man, but sometimes—when the lives of innocents are at stake—honor has to take a back seat. Survival comes first.

FBI agents Savich and Sherlock face two baffling cases in this riveting novel of knife-edge suspense from #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter. When 6-year-old Sam Kettering manages to escape after being kidnapped, FBI Agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich join forces with the boy’s father Miles—an ex FBI agent—to pursue his kidnapper, a creepy, charasmatic Southern evangelist. As if the kidnapping case weren’t enough, Savich and Sherlock are at the same time desperate to find the cold-blooded killer of three high school math teachers in the Washington, D.C. area.

The football star made famous in the hit film (and book) The Blind Side reflects on how far he has come from the circumstances of his youth. Michael Oher shares his personal account of his story, in this inspirational New York Times bestseller. Looking back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, Michael talks about the goals he had to break out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family. Eventually he grasped onto football as his ticket out and worked hard to make his dream into a reality. With his adoptive family, the Touhys, and other influential people in mind, he describes the absolute necessity of seeking out positive role models and good friends who share the same values to achieve one's dreams. Sharing untold stories of heartache, determination, courage, and love, I Beat the Odds is an incredibly rousing tale of one young man's quest to achieve the American dream.

What goes on tour, stays on tour…UNTIL NOW! All, and I do mean all, rugby players the world over are from the same mould. They are friendly, convivial, generally well mannered, muscular, motivated, heavy drinkers with a high testosterone level, but above all trustworthy...Until now. This treacherous author has let the pussy out of the bag and touring is no longer a simple visa permit from the wife. From the author, Jon Prichard: "I joined the British Club of Bangkok and immersed myself if their rugby team becoming captain for a few years and then as a playing and moaning Chairman. The BC and an Asian based Rhino’s RFC have taken me on innumerable rugby tours throughout Asia and beyond and in late 2017 I decided to make some written tales of those adventures. The tales are true and risqué in every way and some are seriously adult reading. There are also tales of simple experiences of living and working in Asia, but most have a rugby flavour."

FBI agents Savich and Sherlock face two baffling cases in this riveting novel of knife-edge suspense from #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter. When 6-year-old Sam Kettering manages to escape after being kidnapped, FBI Agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich join forces with the boy’s father Miles—an ex FBI agent—to pursue his kidnapper, a creepy, charasmatic Southern evangelist. As if the kidnapping case weren’t enough, Savich and Sherlock are at the same time desperate to find the cold-blooded killer of three high school math teachers in the Washington, D.C. area.

A host of catastrophes, natural and otherwise, as well as some pleasant surprises—like the sudden end of the cold war without a shot being fired—have caught governments and societies unprepared many times in recent decades. September 11 is only the most obvious recent example among many unforeseen events that have changed, even redefined our lives. We have every reason to expect more such events in future. Several kinds of unanticipated scenarios—particularly those of low probability and high impact—have the potential to escalate into systemic crises. Even positive surprises can be major policy challenges. Anticipating and managing low-probability events is a critically important challenge to contemporary policymakers, who increasingly recognize that they lack the analytical tools to do so. Developing such tools is the focus of this insightful and perceptive volume, edited by renowned author Francis Fukuyama and sponsored by The American Interest magazine. Bl indside is organized into four main sections. "Thinking about Strategic Surprise" addresses the psychological and institutional obstacles that prevent leaders from planning for low-probability tragedies and allocating the necessary resources to deal with them. The following two sections pinpoint the failures—institutional as well as personal—that allowed key historical events to take leaders by surprise, and examine the philosophies and methodologies of forecasting. In "Pollyana vs. Cassandra," for example, James Kurth and Gregg Easterbrook debate the future state of the world going forward. Mitchell Waldrop explores why technology forecasting is so poor and why that is likely to remain the case. In the book's final section, "What Could Be," internationally renowned authorities discuss low probability, high-impact contingencies in their area of expertise. For example, Scott Barrett looks at emerging infectious diseases, while Gal Luft and Anne Korin discuss energy security. How can we avoid being blindsided by unforeseen events? There is no easy or obvious answer. But it is essential that we understand the obstacles that prevent us first from seeing the future clearly and then from acting appropriately on our insights. This readable and fascinating book is an important step in that direction.

Fresh off a championship medal, Jake Taylor’s parents have dragged him to a middle-of-nowhere town in Colorado, far from where he wants to be. Smart and savvy, Sophie has spent the summer before her junior year of high school avidly following Jake Taylor in every article she can find, but now she sees the “truth” behind the story — he’s really just a jerk. When the only thing they can see is each other’s flaws, how can Jake and Sophie work together to figure out what’s really been happening at the abandoned silver mine? Follow Sophie and Jake into secret tunnels as they unravel the mystery and challenge each other to become who God wants them to be.