The Reluctant Hero

After nearly 10 years of conflicted silence, a celebrated 9/11 survivor--who helped a woman in a wheelchair escape the North Tower minutes before it collapsed--describes what it was like for him living with memories of 9/11 for the past decade.

Adrian Mole meets South Park as an outrageously crude 13-year-old boy learns some important lessons.

What She Needs . . . Texas in the 1880s is a wild and lawless land, where a woman fending for herself is a rare breed. Andrea Jackson is just that. A woman who went against the grain by writing bestselling novels instead of marrying and staying at home. But with her muse, and her money dried up, she’s in desperate need of a hero. And Sheriff Matthew Knight has just the right material. Only He Can Give . . . Matthew doesn’t know what to make of the sassy, bright-eyed, temptress who insists on following him around. He’s nobody’s hero, and he doesn’t believe in fairy tales. What he is, is a man. With a man’s needs. And there’s something about the feisty, determined, vixen, he just can’t seem to shake . . . Previously published in My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

A heartwarming and playful adventure that will inspire young readers to be a good neighbor and friend, based on the brave actions of the Australian wombat. Wombat liked her things just so. Everything had its place, and nothing was out of order. She couldn’t say the same about her neighbors. But that was their business, and Wombat didn’t concern herself with others’ business. When a very hot, dry summer causes dangerous fires in their neighborhood, a group of animals are desperate to find water and shelter. It will take the quiet heroism of a neighbor to provide resources and a cozy, cool, and safe burrow—a reluctant wombat who demonstrates the inspiring power of community. Wombat, the Reluctant Hero is inspired by the heroic and very real actions of the wombat, an animal that has helped other creatures survive droughts and wildfires in its native Australia. Author Christian Trimmer and illustrator Rachel Gyan celebrate this amazing mammal, who definitely has a thing or two to teach us about being a good neighbor.

'At 0900 on Sunday 01 July my CO handed me three letters to read. The first was from the Governor General, the second from the Prime Minister and the third was from the Minister of Defence. These letters informed me that I had been awarded the Victoria Cross for New Zealand (V.C.).' Cpl Bill (Willie) Apiata, V.C. Corporal Willie Apiata became the first New Zealander since the Second World War to be awarded the Commonwealth's highest military award for his actions with the NZ SAS in Afghanistan. From his early life in small town East Coast New Zealand to his actions in the deserts of Afghanistan, this is his story in his words. This book will not only establish the place of Corporal Apiata in New Zealand's history but will give an insight into the nature of a man who is truly a reluctant hero. While to most of us his actions seemed extraordinary and heroic, Corporal Apiata felt he was an ordinary Kiwi just 'doing his job'.

Tom Clavin and Danny Peary chronicle the life and career of baseball’s “natural home run king” in the first definitive biography of Roger Maris—including a brand-new chapter to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his record breaking season. Roger Maris may be the greatest ballplayer no one really knows. In 1961, the soft-spoken man from the frozen plains of North Dakota enjoyed one of the most amazing seasons in baseball history, when he outslugged his teammate Mickey Mantle to become the game’s natural home-run king. It was Mantle himself who said, "Roger was as good a man and as good a ballplayer as there ever was." Yet Maris was vilified by fans and the press and has never received his due from biographers—until now. Tom Clavin and Danny Peary trace the dramatic arc of Maris’s life, from his boyhood in Fargo through his early pro career in the Cleveland Indians farm program, to his World Series championship years in New York and beyond. At the center is the exciting story of the 1961 season and the ordeal Maris endured as an outsider in Yankee pinstripes, unloved by fans who compared him unfavorably to their heroes Ruth and Mantle, relentlessly attacked by an aggressive press corps who found him cold and inaccessible, and treated miserably by the organization. After the tremendous challenge of breaking Ruth’s record was behind him, Maris ultimately regained his love of baseball as a member of the world champion St. Louis Cardinals. And over time, he gained redemption in the eyes of the Yankee faithful. With research drawn from more than 130 interviews with Maris’s teammates, opponents, family, and friends, as well as 16 pages of photos, some of which have never before been seen, this timely and poignant biography sheds light on an iconic figure from baseball’s golden era—and establishes the importance of his role in the game’s history.

When Harry Jones discovers that former friend Zac Kravitz's life is in danger, a debt of honour sends him on a perilous rescue mission to Ta'argistan, a mountainous and landlocked former Soviet republic bordering Russia, China and Afghanistan. Muscling his way onto a delegation of MPs who happen to be paying the state a visit, Harry finds an unlikely ally in the stubbornly independent Martha and together they devise a plan to break Zac out of the ancient high-walled prison in the capital, Ashkek. But when, in the depths of winter, the attempt backfires and Harry finds himself taking Zac's place, he realises that he has been lured, unawares, into a terrifying web of international conspiracy.