The Stars Are Falling

Growing up, Jude McCallister was the bane of my existence. My best friend. Fiercest ally. The most annoying boy in the world.At eighteen, the boy I loved to hate became the man I couldn't live without.We were young. Madly in love. Invincible. Strong enough to weather any storm.Cocky enough to believe that no amount of time or distance could destroy us.When Jude finally returned home from overseas, it should have been cause for celebration. But the man I'd fallen in love with was gone, and in his place was someone I no longer recognized. I can't do this, the note said. I'm sorry. Now, after six long years he's back. Only my heart ... it doesn't beat just for him anymore.

A “persuasive . . . heartfelt and vividly written” call to counter systemic racism and build national solidarity in America (Publishers Weekly). The American Promise enshrined in our Constitution states that all men and women are inherently equal. And yet racism continues to corrode our society. If we cannot overcome it, Theodore Johnson argues, the promise that made America unique on Earth will have died. In When the Stars Begin to Fall, Johnson presents a compelling blueprint for the kind of national solidarity necessary to mitigate racism. Weaving together history, personal memories, and his family’s multi-generational experiences with racism, Johnson posits that solutions can be found in the exceptional citizenship long practiced in Black America. Understanding that racism is a structural crime of the state, he argues that overcoming it requires us to recognize that a color-conscious society—not a color-blind one—is the true fulfillment of the American Promise. Fueled by Johnson’s ultimate faith in the American project, grounded in his family’s longstanding optimism and his own military service, When the Stars Begin to Fall is an urgent call to undertake the process of overcoming what has long seemed intractable.

This is a novel about people who find themselves in the middle of a horrific conflict and how they survive. Their choices affect their families, the people they love, and the course of their lives. Their stories start before the events in Sudan touch them, following them through challenges and triumphs, as they rebuild their lives. What they have in common with the rest of us is that their journeys are about finding out what kind of people they are: Should they try to draw strength from their anger or should they let it go? Is it better to stick with what you know or find the courage to change?

Nineteen-year-old Jenny is more content staring at the night sky than joining her friends on a night on the town. She's only known them two months, since classes began for her second year at university, but she's already head over heels with one of her housemates, Dale. Every conversation she's had with Dale has ended with her stuttering out an excuse to escape. Then the first meteor blazes through the night, landing close enough to shake the house. Suddenly, she's the one with all the answers, the one her friends and Dale turn to. Having spent so much time glued to a telescope, they expect her to know what's happening. But Jenny's never seen a meteor big enough to impact, and certainly never the thing that rises from the crater. It's a man who glows with a light so hot, everything in its path is disintegrated. Soon after, the night sky is turned to day, coming alive with hundreds more, all with one mission: rid Earth of that which is killing her. Earth has been watched, and the things watching have decided that the human race's time is up. Too much damage has been done, and they have decided that it's time to let Earth recover, to start again. The only way they see that happening is by wiping out the human race. Jenny knows another way, one that will save both Earth and humanity. But it isn't simply a case of finding the nearest official and explaining everything. No one wants to listen to a nineteen-year-old and her friends. They must take their idea directly to the Stars and somehow convince them to listen. But to get there they first have to survive, and survival comes at a price.

Fern Michaels’ Christmas novels are pure holiday magic—uplifting stories of love, family, and friendship in irresistible settings. Here, a ski instructor finds her skills, and her heart, put to the test courtesy of a visiting movie star in this special seasonal tale that will delight Fern fans and those who love Mary Kay Andrews, Debbie Macomber, and RaeAnne Thayne. Emily Ammerman has always felt at home amid the ski runs and slopes of Snowdrift Summit, the Colorado resort her family has operated for decades. Snow is her element, and she doesn’t hesitate when a new client asks her to train him to ski The Plunge, one of Colorado’s most treacherous runs. But Zach Ryder is no regular client. On screen, he’s famous for starring as a daring CIA officer who always saves the day. In real life, he’s just as handsome and charming as his alter ego, though not everyone is impressed. Some are concerned about what kind of impact these slick showbiz types will have on their town. As for Emily—she’s got a secret, and it’s one she can’t reveal to anyone, especially not to Zach: she’s his biggest fan. But she’s also a professional. She’ll train him till he’s ready to tackle any slope, but she won’t fall in love with him, the way so many others have. Still, not everything in life can be planned, and sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t help but fall . . .

After more than a century of debate about the significance of imperial cults for the interpretation of Revelation, this is the first study to examine both the archaeological evidence and the Biblical text in depth. Friesen argues that a detailed analysis of imperial cults as they were practiced in the first century CE in the region where John was active allows us to understand John's criticism of his society's dominant values. He demonstrates the importance of imperial cults for society at the time when Revelation was written, and shows the ways in which John refuted imperial cosmology through his use of vision, myth, and eschatological expectation.

When a young girl suffering her own tragedy finds an injured dog, she can't resist helping him. Both having braved the worst the world has to throw at them, they form an unbreakable bond. They picture their future as an endless stream of adventures filled with love, laughter, and good times. But life has one last cruel trick to play...