The Lost Dream

Mike Jefferson grew up like a lot of Canadian kids, obsessed with hockey and consumed with making it to the NHL. His father, Steve, and his family were determined to do anything and everything to make their son's dreams come true. So how did this promising young man's hockey career turn into a harrowing real-life crime story played out in sensational news reports? Coach and agent David Frost fast-tracked Jefferson's route to the NHL, but at a staggering cost to almost everyone involved. Along the way, the affable young man turned against his parents, changed his name to Danton, and descended into a spiral of paranoia and violence that finally cut short the career he had sacrificed everything for when he was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder. In this fast-paced and gripping story, veteran hockey journalist Steve Simmons digs beneath the surface to answer questions that have left Canadians shocked and fascinated. How did Frost get such a grip on Danton and his family? How did his parents allow this to happen? What exactly was Danton's relationship with Frost? And whom did Danton hire a hitman to kill--his father or his agent?

Mansel Blackford's The Lost Dream explores the history of city planning in five Pacific Coast cities - Seattle, Portland, Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles - during the Progressive Era. Although city planning had diverse roots, Blackford shows that much of the early planning originated with businessmen who viewed it as a way to shape their urban environments both economically and socially. During the opening years of the twentieth century, the business and political leaders in each of these cities began developing comprehensive city plans encompassing harbor improvements, new street and transportation facilities, civic centers, and parks and boulevards. As Blackford shows, businessmen worked through both established political channels and newly formed bodies outside of those channels to become leaders in the planning process. As the planning campaigns evolved, businessmen found themselves both joined and opposed by ever-changing coalitions of professionals, politicians, and workers. The way that businessmen had previously interacted with these other parties greatly affected their success in obtaining their goals, but ultimately, Blackford claims, politics lay at the heart of planning. The proposed plans were accepted or rejected in heated citywide elections in which, to be successful, businessmen had to convince others to vote with them - a feat they achieved in only one city. Nevertheless, these plans were often later adopted in some piecemeal fashion, and Blackford concludes his study with an analysis of the legacy of Progressive Era city planning for later periods. The Lost Dream makes significant contributions to our understanding of city planning in America and particularlyin the American West.

Mike Jefferson started out as a suburban kid who dreamed of making it to the NHL, with parents determined to do anything and everything to make their son’s dream come true. So how did this promising young man’s hockey career turn into a harrowing crime story played out in sensational news reports? Coach and agent David Frost fast-tracked Jefferson’s route to the NHL, but at a staggering cost. Along the way, the affable young man turned against his parents, changed his name to Danton, and descended into a spiral of paranoia and violence that finally cut short the career he had sacrificed everything for when he was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder. In this fast-paced and gripping story, veteran hockey journalist Steve Simmons digs beneath the surface to answer questions that have left Canadians shocked and fascinated. How did Frost get such a grip on Danton and his family? How did Frost work himself into such a position of trust in the world of minor hockey? What exactly was Danton’s relationship with Frost? And who was it that Danton hired a hitman to kill—his father or his agent? Full of the insights from one of Canada’s most-trusted hockey columnists, who is intimately familiar with both minor hockey and the big leagues, The Lost Dream is the story of the dark side of our fascination with a game Canadians love.

In the wake of devastating tragedy, Charlotte MacLeod has come home to Strathaird Castle on Scotland's ethereal Isle of Skye. Burdened by guilt and pain, she remains determined to shelter her daughter from truths she herself can't face. But the arrival of Bradley Harcourt Ward shatters her tenuous peace. The handsome American with whom Charlotte once shared friendship—and, almost, passion—is now heir to the castle and land. But he is a man torn between his duties at the helm of an empire and his growing desire to return to the land of his forefathers. And his arrival ignites a string of dramatic events that will change their lives. For the secrets that have haunted Strathaird Castle will suddenly catapult Charlotte into a glorious new destiny in which she is finally free to love. But to claim the happiness she has so long been denied, she must harness the powerful legacy of three generations of MacLeods—a bold and indomitable will to fight for the impossible.

This intriguing and artful book will re-awaken the original dream within the hearts of young and old alike. Filled cover to cover with exquisite artwork depicting the original scenes, along with in-depth historical facts woven throughout, this book will enlighten and educate all to the wonderful and rich history of this "One Nation Under God."

A #1 New Release in Action & Adventure Literary Fiction! For most people, sleeping is an obstacle; something to get out of the way so they can get back to their day. For others, it's an escape to nothing; a blissful break from the wears of life. It's the opposite for me. I live so that I can dream. I trudge through work so that I can go home and close my eyes, awakening in the real world-one where dreams really do come true. A place where I can fight a king instead of my ever-disappointed boss, where I'm a warrior instead of a glorified telemarketer. A place where I matter. Tigers instead of taxes. Monsters instead of men with too much power. Reality is just the word we came up with to accept a boring life; a birthing place for grander ideas we so desperately wish could come true. I choose to live in a world where they do. ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ Lost in a Dream is an adult fiction in the vein of Ready Player One, but with fantasy elements in place of sci-fi. It is a bold and unique novel that has something for you to love.

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice The fascinating, forgotten story of the 1970s attempt to build a city dedicated to racial equality in the heart of “Klan Country” In 1969, with America’s cities in turmoil and racial tensions high, civil rights leader Floyd McKissick announced an audacious plan: he would build a new city in rural North Carolina, open to all but intended primarily to benefit Black people. Named Soul City, the community secured funding from the Nixon administration, planning help from Harvard and the University of North Carolina, and endorsements from the New York Times and the Today show. Before long, the brand-new settlement – built on a former slave plantation – had roads, houses, a health care center, and an industrial plant. By the year 2000, projections said, Soul City would have fifty thousand residents. But the utopian vision was not to be. The race-baiting Jesse Helms, newly elected as senator from North Carolina, swore to stop government spending on the project. Meanwhile, the liberal Raleigh News & Observer mistakenly claimed fraud and corruption in the construction effort. Battered from the left and the right, Soul City was shut down after just a decade. Today, it is a ghost town – and its industrial plant, erected to promote Black economic freedom, has been converted into a prison. In a gripping, poignant narrative, acclaimed author Thomas Healy resurrects this forgotten saga of race, capitalism, and the struggle for equality. Was it an impossible dream from the beginning? Or a brilliant idea thwarted by prejudice and ignorance? And how might America be different today if Soul City had been allowed to succeed?

The extraordinary story of how Georgia State University tore up the rulebook for educating lower-income students "Georgia State . . . has been reimagined—amid a moral awakening and a raft of data-driven experimentation—as one of the South's more innovative engines of social mobility." —The New York Times Won’t Lose This Dream is the inspiring story of a public university that has blazed an extraordinary trail for lower-income and first-generation students in downtown Atlanta, the birthplace of the civil rights movement. Over the past decade Georgia State University has upended the conventional wisdom that large numbers of students are doomed to fail simply because of their economic background or the color of their skin. Instead, it has harnessed the power of big data to identify and remove the obstacles that previously stopped them from graduating and completely transformed their prospects. A student from a mediocre high school working two jobs to make ends meet is now no less likely to succeed than a child of wealth and privilege—an earth-shaking achievement that is reverberating across every college campus in the country. With unique access to the key players and drawing on his skills as an investigative reporter, Andrew Gumbel delivers a thrilling, blow-by-blow account of a long battle to determine whether universities exist for their students or vice versa. The story is told through the visionary leaders who overcame fierce resistance to tear up the rules of their own institution and through the many remarkable students whose resilience and determination, often against daunting odds, inspired the work at every stage. Their success shows how the promise of social advancement through talent and hard work, the essence of the American dream, can be rekindled even in an age of deep inequalities and divisive politics.