Turning Point

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In Danielle Steel’s powerful new novel, four trauma doctors—the best and brightest in their field—confront exciting new challenges, both personally and professionally, when given an unusual opportunity. Bill Browning heads the trauma unit at San Francisco’s busiest emergency room, SF General. With his ex-wife and daughters in London, he immerses himself in his work and lives for rare visits with his children. A rising star at her teaching hospital, UCSF at Mission Bay, Stephanie Lawrence has two young sons, a frustrated stay-at-home husband, and not enough time for any of them. Harvard-educated Wendy Jones is a dedicated trauma doctor at Stanford, trapped in a dead-end relationship with a married cardiac surgeon. And Tom Wylie’s popularity with women rivals the superb medical skills he employs at his Oakland medical center, but he refuses to let anyone get too close, determined to remain unattached forever. These exceptional doctors are chosen for an honor and a unique project: to work with their counterparts in Paris in a mass-casualty training program. As professionals, they will gain invaluable knowledge from the program. As ordinary men and women, they will find that the City of Light opens up incredible new possibilities, exhilarating, enticing, and frightening. When an unspeakable act of mass violence galvanizes them into action, their temporary life in Paris becomes a stark turning point: a time to face harder choices than they have ever made before—with consequences that will last a lifetime.

Artificial Intelligence is here, today. How can society make the best use of it? Until recently, "artificial intelligence" sounded like something out of science fiction. But the technology of artificial intelligence, AI, is becoming increasingly common, from self-driving cars to e-commerce algorithms that seem to know what you want to buy before you do. Throughout the economy and many aspects of daily life, artificial intelligence has become the transformative technology of our time. Despite its current and potential benefits, AI is little understood by the larger public and widely feared. The rapid growth of artificial intelligence has given rise to concerns that hidden technology will create a dystopian world of increased income inequality, a total lack of privacy, and perhaps a broad threat to humanity itself. In their compelling and readable book, two experts at Brookings discuss both the opportunities and risks posed by artificial intelligence--and how near-term policy decisions could determine whether the technology leads to utopia or dystopia. Drawing on in-depth studies of major uses of AI, the authors detail how the technology actually works. They outline a policy and governance blueprint for gaining the benefits of artificial intelligence while minimizing its potential downsides. The book offers major recommendations for actions that governments, businesses, and individuals can take to promote trustworthy and responsible artificial intelligence. Their recommendations include: creation of ethical principles, strengthening government oversight, defining corporate culpability, establishment of advisory boards at federal agencies, using third-party audits to reduce biases inherent in algorithms, tightening personal privacy requirements, using insurance to mitigate exposure to AI risks, broadening decision-making about AI uses and procedures, penalizing malicious uses of new technologies, and taking pro-active steps to address how artificial intelligence affects the workforce. Turning Point is essential reading for anyone concerned about how artificial intelligence works and what can be done to ensure its benefits outweigh its harm.

When being yourself isn't good enough, who should you be? Told in dual perspectives, this provocative and timely novel for middle-school readers by Paula Chase, the acclaimed author of So Done and Dough Boys, will resonate with fans of Jason Reynolds, Rebecca Stead, and Renée Watson. Best friends Rasheeda and Monique are both good girls. For Sheeda, that means keeping her friends close and following her deeply religious and strict aunt’s every rule. For Mo, that means not making waves in the prestigious and mostly White ballet intensive she’s been accepted to. But what happens when Sheeda catches the eye of Mo’s older brother, and the invisible racial barriers to Mo’s success as a ballerina turn out to be not so invisible? What happens when you discover that being yourself isn’t good enough? How do you fight back? Paula Chase explores the complex and emotional issues that affect many young teens in this novel set in the same neighborhood as her acclaimed So Done and Dough Boys. Friendship, family, finding yourself, and standing your ground are the themes of this universal story that is perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds, Rebecca Stead, and Renée Watson.

A reckoning with one of our most beloved art forms, whose past and present are shaped by gender, racial, and class inequities—and a look inside the fight for its future Every day, in dance studios all across America, legions of little children line up at the barre to take ballet class. This time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, bodies, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance. In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its devastating shortcomings: the power imbalance of an art form performed mostly by women, but dominated by men; the impossible standards of beauty and thinness; and the racism that keeps so many people of color out of ballet. As the rigid traditions of ballet grow increasingly out of step with the modern world, a new generation of dancers is confronting these issues head on, in the studio and on stage. For ballet to survive the twenty-first century and forge a path into a more socially just future, this reckoning is essential.

From one of the world’s most beloved Bible teachers comes a timely, compelling, and comprehensive biblical interpretation of Bible prophecy, the end times, and the apocalypse viewed through the lens of current world events. Many Christians struggle to understand the Book of Revelation. “The end times.” “The apocalypse.” “The day of judgment.” These terms are both fascinating and frightening – but what do they really mean? Drawing from decades of study, Dr. Jeremiah explains every key sign of the approaching apocalypse and what it means for you, including international, cultural, heavenly, tribulation, and end signs. With his engaging writing style and clear analysis of how current world events were foretold in the Bible, The Book of Signs is an encouraging guide to the Book of Revelation. In The Book of Signs, Dr. David Jeremiah offers answers to questions including: What does the Bible tell us about the future? How much can we understand about biblical prophecy and its application in our lives? What signs and signals will precede the end of everything as we know it? Which of those signs and signals have already come to pass, which are we experiencing now, and which are still to come? An epic and authoritative guide to biblical prophecy, The Book of Signs is a must-have resource for Christians seeking to navigate the uncertainties of the present and embrace God’s promises for the future with a renewed sense of hope and purpose.

A compelling vision of a new reality, a reconciliation of science and the human spirit for a future that will work The dynamics underlying the major problems of our time—cancer, crime, pollution, nuclear power, inflation, the energy shortage—are all the same. We have reached a time of dramatic and potentially dangerous change, a turning point for the planet as a whole. We need a new vision of reality, one that allows the forces transforming our world to flow together as a positive movement for social change. Now distinguished scientist Fritjof Capra gives us that vision, a holistic paradigm of science and spirit. “This splendid and thoughtful book is an essential guide for anyone inquiring about the place of science and metascience in our contemporary culture. Those who enjoyed Fritjof Capra’s Tao of Physics should not expect a sequel; this is a much more ambitious book that attempts and succeeds in presenting a whole worldview from the viewpoint of a committed and experienced physicist who also writes from within the North American culture…. It is unusually detailed and thorough in its inclusion of the conventional and the alternative approaches to topics ranging from ecology through medicine and psychology to economics. It is at once scholarly and easy to read.”—Jim Lovelock, New Scientist

A "riveting and illuminating" Bill Gates Summer Reading pick about how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don't (Yuval Noah Harari), by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the landmark bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel. In his international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in his third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises while adopting selective changes -- a coping mechanism more commonly associated with individuals recovering from personal crises. Diamond compares how six countries have survived recent upheavals -- ranging from the forced opening of Japan by U.S. Commodore Perry's fleet, to the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, to a murderous coup or countercoup in Chile and Indonesia, to the transformations of Germany and Austria after World War Two. Because Diamond has lived and spoken the language in five of these six countries, he can present gut-wrenching histories experienced firsthand. These nations coped, to varying degrees, through mechanisms such as acknowledgment of responsibility, painfully honest self-appraisal, and learning from models of other nations. Looking to the future, Diamond examines whether the United States, Japan, and the whole world are successfully coping with the grave crises they currently face. Can we learn from lessons of the past? Adding a psychological dimension to the in-depth history, geography, biology, and anthropology that mark all of Diamond's books, Upheaval reveals factors influencing how both whole nations and individual people can respond to big challenges. The result is a book epic in scope, but also his most personal yet.

From the bestselling author of The MAGA Doctrine! Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk shares a vision for America’s future embracing first principles, free markets, and small government. Kirk provides a roadmap on how to return to a free America, with an emphasis on reaching our youth and engaging them in the process. During the 2016 Presidential election cycle, it has become clear that there is growing frustration on the part of many Americans with the general direction of the nation. There has been an abandonment of the principles of free markets and limited government upon which America was founded. We didn't get to this point over just the last eight years and it’s going to take more than one or two election cycles to reverse it. In Time for a Turning Point Charlie Kirk shows exactly what needs to be done and how it needs to be done to restore America's freedom. This is a book of hope, not despair—book of action, not condolences.