The Big 5 Oh

The big 5-0 is barreling down on Olivia, but this year she's determined to outwit her "birthday curse."

For more than two decades, For Better or For Worse has captivated readers around the globe. This best-selling contemporary cartoon-syndicated since 1979-now appears in more than 2,000 newspapers throughout the U.S., Canada, and twenty-three other countries. The strip reflects universal family feelings so well it's translated from English into eight languages.What makes creator Lynn Johnston's portrayal of the Patterson family and friends so beloved shines once again in The Big 5-0, a collection comprising cartoons from August 1998 through June 1999. This book follows the blooming romance of son Michael and his girlfriend, Deanna, daughter Elizabeth's last year in high school, and John, the father, turning 50. The book overflows with the heartwarming and realistic family exchanges that have become For Better or For Worse trademarks.

With combined career sales of twelve million books, the two most revered and trusted names in Christian finance—Ron Blue and the late Larry Burkett—offer the ultimate book about how to build a solid financial future as retirement approaches.Your Money after the Big 5-0 equips readers with the knowledge, financial tools, and wisdom needed to ensure their fiscal well-being in the second half of life. By following Burkett and Blue’s definitive direction, we learn to build a portfolio that provides for our family, honors God, and better positions us to bless the generations that follow with a legacy of stewardship and resources.

Olivia Wallace has a birthday curse . . . or so she thinks. It was a broken heart on her 16th, a car accident on her 21st, pneumonia on her 30th, and a fall down a flight of stairs on her 35th. There were Ohio blizzards on her 38th, 39th, and 40th; and six days before her 45th, she lost the love of her life to a heart attack. Numbing grief stole that birthday and a couple more to follow and, on the morning of her 48th birthday, she received the call she’d dreaded ever since losing her mom so many years ago…she was diagnosed with stage-3 ovarian cancer. The doctors didn’t hold out a lot of hope, but Liv survived and maintained her faith. Months of surgeries and chemotherapy and radiation treatments followed. But now, as her 50th birthday creeps up the icy Ohio path toward her, her hair has grown back, her energy level is up, and she is officially cancer free. It makes her nervous. After everything she’s gone through, Liv hates the idea of driving on icy roads and returning to work as an O.R. nurse in a local Cincinnati hospital. Her best friend Hallie knows just the thing to break Liv out of the winter doldrums, while providing a safe haven of warmth, sunshine, and a time to regroup: a holiday in the Florida sunshine!

The Big FIVE O Four friends... one VERY big birthday ‘A lovely, fun, light-hearted read’ Adele Parks

Not distributed; available at Arkansas State Library.

The underlying promise of every exciting medical discovery, diet, and exercise program is the same: do this, buy this, or eat this and you will look better, live longer, and be healthier. But few books can make the promise of this one: if you adapt these five simple, virtually-free suggestions you will live a longer and healthier life, guaranteed. This is no fad study. Each of the recommendations outlined in this book has been proven by an overwhelming number of tests, trials, and studies to increase health and lifespan. There are no gimmicks, no catches, no ifs, ands, or buts. Presented by a trusted expert, Dr. Sanjiv Chopra's The Big Five includes easily digestible data and startling results from real studies conducted by reputable universities and involving thousands of subjects. Readers of The Big Five can see for themselves that, without a doubt, these five simple actions offer many more proven benefits than the latest expensive supplements, fad diets, jazzy exercise programs, and state-of-the-art gym equipment.

I Need You to Know is a book of family reading, however you might want to define ‘family’. First and foremost, it is a book about the history of Fionn’s family, as narrated by his mother, whose motto is “Tell (almost) every truth.” While it’s a story about two particular families coming together as one, it also explores the nature of family generally, the imperfections, jealousies, and secrets that lie side by side with its loyalties, unconditional love, and frankness. Family are the friends you can’t avoid. Erin’s advice to her son on living with family is somewhat longer and more positive than Lord Chesterfield’s 18th Century advice to a young man contemplating marriage: “Don’t.”