They Call Me Pudge

With 14 All-Star appearances, 13 Gold Gloves, a Most Valuable Player Award, and, of course, a World Series ring, Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez has more than earned his spot in Cooperstown as one of the best Major League catchers of all time. In They Call Me Pudge, Rodriguez tells the story of his unforgettable baseball journey, from signing his first professional contract as a 16 year-old in Puerto Rico, to his years in Texas, Detroit, and beyond, to the World Series stage in Miami, and behind the doors of the Texas Rangers front office. Rodriguez's accomplishments, his teammates, and his biggest challenges all receive time in the spotlight in this refreshing memoir of a life and Hall-of-Fame career.

In this One Life to Live tie-in novel, Jamie Ferrara is a spunky, attractive detective engaged to Rod Wolenski, the Chief of Detectives, seeking answers in her friend's murder and battling old feelings for Garth, the boy who broke her heart.

Clown Town is true story/social Chicago history of a baby boomer's struggle with death phobia filtered through a child's perspective. The title refers to an imaginary world created by the young protagonist, Pudgie, to pacify his younger friend's curiosity about the real world of school. Pudgie's real world, however, is a horrific world of indignity, humiliation, anger, and fear. Clown Town is a utopian world of fantasy for young boys growing up in a Chicago suburb during the 1950s. The Prologue establishes the adult first-person narrator in the present tense. He is forced to reminisce about his youth when the eminent death of his mother rekindles old fears and personality quirks that had haunted his life. His journey backward leads the reader to the death of a neighborhood man, the death of Pudgie's grandfather, and the death of a schoolmate in a historic Chicago school fire of 1958. Pudgie also struggles with a volatile temper when teased about his crossed left eye. The temper threatens his existence in a "normal" school. Along the way, the narrative treats the reader to a nostalgic look at the 1950s (the music, the cars, the TV shows, the movies, the mores), a naive child's interpretation of sex, and an adult perspective of childhood adventures such as smoking, competing in sports, and participating in petty crime.

When her free-spirited mother dies in a tragic accident, sixteen-year-old Alexandria Lee is forced to leave her West Coast home and move in with a wealthy grandmother she's never known in Savannah, Georgia. By birth, Alex is a rightful if unwilling member of the Magnolia League-Savannah's long-standing debutante society. But white gloves and silk gowns are a far cry from the vintage t-shirts and torn jeans shorts she's used to. Alex is the first in decades to question the Magnolia League's intentions, yet even she becomes entangled in their seductive world. The members enjoy youth, beauty and power...but at what cost? As Alex discovers a pact between the Magnolias and the Buzzards, a legendary hoodoo family, she discovers secrets-some deadly-hidden beneath the glossy Southern veneer. New York Times bestselling author Katie Crouch's poignant and humorous voice shines in this enchanting and mysterious story about girls growing up in a magical Southern city.

Carlton Fisk retired having played in more games and hit more home runs than any other catcher before him. A baseball superstar in the 1970s and 80s, Fisk was known not just for his dedication to the sport and tremendous plays but for the respect with which he treated the game. A homegrown icon, Fisk rapidly became the face of one of the most storied teams in baseball, the Boston Red Sox of the 1970s. As a rookie making only $12,000 a year, he became the first player to unanimously win the American League Rookie of the Year award in 1972, upping both his pay grade and national recognition. Fisk's game-winning home run in Game Six of the hotly-contested 1975 World Series forever immortalized him in one of the sport's most exciting televised moments. Fisk played through an epic period of player-owner relations, including the dawn of free agency, strikes, and collusions. After leaving Boston under controversy in 1981, he joined the Chicago White Sox, where he played for 12 more major league seasons, solidifying his position as one of the best catchers of all time. Doug Wilson, finalist for both the Casey Award and Seymour Medal for his previous baseball biographies, uses his own extensive research and interviews with childhood friends and major league teammates to examine the life and career of a leader who followed a strict code and played with fierce determination.

Joe Angel: The Guardian Games Book One is a fiction adventure filled with sports, faith, humor, and angels battling demons. DANIEL WALSH is a high school senior, a can't miss first round Major League Baseball prospect, just months away from a multimillion dollar signing bonus. Everything's perfect until Daniel meets Joe, an angel with attitude. JOE ANGEL has it made. He lives in heaven, and when he travels to earth, he battles and defeats demons in The Guardian Games. Everything's perfect until Joe meets Daniel, a human whose weak faith frustrates the angel. THE GUARDIAN GAMES pit angels against demons in a series of challenges that occur on Earth but are invisible to human eyes... unless you're Daniel Walsh and can convince an angel to let you see into the supernatural realm.

Two friends battle feelings for each other as they work together to renovate a school bus into a home in this charming romance novel from the viral TikTok author of Next of Kin and Out on a Limb. “Warm, sexy, and vulnerable . . . Hannah Bonam-Young needs to be on your romance radar.”—Hannah Grace, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Icebreaker Lane is in the middle of an identity crisis. Her friends are all partnered up, her career is heading nowhere, and simply put, she’s not happy. So, after a night out celebrating her birthday, she makes one hell of an impulsive purchase: a giant yellow forty-eight-passenger school bus that she intends to make her home. With little-to-no renovation experience but a large sum of inheritance money, Lane enlists the help of her friend Matt—a mechanic by trade, handyman by practice, and hottie by nature. While their mutual attraction is undeniable, Matt and Lane have silently agreed that a friendship is the only thing that can ever exist between them. Matt’s a total family guy with “settle down with me” tattooed across his forehead, whereas Lane is entirely commitment averse. It could never work . . . right?