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Mental Fitness

Shawn Talbott

"An important read for anybody who is sick of covering up the underlying problems with medications and explore non-pharmaceutical solutions." –Emeran A. Mayer, MD, Distinguished Professor at UCLA and author of The Mind Gut Connection and The Gut-Immune Connection

Achieve a balanced mood, clear thinking, and abundant energy through transformative methods based on groundbreaking research on the gut-heart-brain-axis.

Depression, anxiety, and burnout are the plague of modern times. Mental wellness issues afflict millions of people worldwide and account for billions of dollars spent on pharmaceuticals and “feel better” products. Unfortunately, most of these solutions make us feel “different” but not really “better”–and certainly not how we want to feel. Nurturing the Brain-Body-Biome is the superhighway to improve physical energy, mental acuity, and emotional well-being through nutrition, movement, and mindset.

Written by expert Psychonutritionist Dr. Shawn Talbott―a nutritional biochemist who has dedicated years of research and a dozen books to the study of nutritional psychology―Mental Fitness provides a clear, actionable path to optimize the connection across the Brain-Body-Biome and feel better naturally.

No Hiding in Boise

Kim Hooper

"With this novel, Kim Hooper has created magic from the seemingly impossible. In her hands, the gossamer threads that tie three perfect strangers to each other following a shared tragedy, become nothing less than a transformative bond of human connection. Honest, brave, messy and unsparing, her characters are fearless pioneers in the darkness, and ultimately shed light for us on the most precious gift of all…life after loss." –Brad Silberling, Writer/Director of Moonlight Mile, Director of City of Angels 

When Angie is awakened by a midnight call from an officer with the Boise Police Department, she thinks there must be a misunderstanding. The officer tells her that her husband was involved in a shooting at a local bar, but how can that be possible when her husband is sleeping right next to her? Except when she turns to wake him, he isn’t there.

Tessa is the twenty-three-year-old bartender who escapes to a backroom storage closet during the shooting. When it comes to light that five people were killed, she is burdened with the question of why she survived.

Joyce wakes up to a knock at her front door, a knock she assumes is her wayward son, Jed, who must have lost his keys. It’s not Jed, though. Two police officers tell her that Jed is dead, shot at the bar. Then they deliver even worse news: “We have reason to believe your son was the shooter.”

So begins the story of three women tied together by tragic fate―a wife trying to understand why her now-comatose husband was frequenting a bar in the middle of the night, the young woman who her husband was apparently pursuing, and a mother who is forced to confront the reality of who her son was and who she is.

Conquering Jerusalem

Stephen Dando-Collins

AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN STEPHEN DANDO-COLLINS PROVIDES UNPARALLELED NEW INSIGHT INTO THE FIRST JEWISH REVOLT

Dando-Collins details the conflict from both sides of the 7-year campaign. His examination of the revolt draws upon numerous archaeological and forensic discoveries made in recent years to illuminate the people and events as never before.

Neither side emerges from the conflict unscathed. Both were at times equally heroic and barbaric. In the end, the Jewish freedom fighters lost the war and lost Jerusalem, their holy city– the focus of the campaign by both sides. Yet today, Jerusalem is once more the heart of the Jewish faith, while, thanks to Christianity–an offshoot of Judaism–the Roman Empire and its gods are long gone.

Conquering Jerusalem illustrates that faith can have its rewards, and the tables can be turned, if you wait long enough.

To Dust You Shall Return

Fred Venturini

"Venturini doesn't write in words and sentences. Instead, he lines the page with barbwire, concertina wire and spike strips that deliver the story deep into the reader's skin." –#1 New York Times Bestselling Author Chuck Palahniuk

A town ruled by evil. A man ruled by darkness. Only one can survive.

Curtis Quinn is a Chicago mob legend with a particular set of skills and a price on his head. When the woman he loves disappears, Curtis follows her trail to the occult town of Harlow, where no one is allowed to leave, and an enigmatic, sinister overlord known only as “the Mayor” rules by an autocratic regime.

Beth Jarvis is a plucky teenager unwrapping the secrets of her hometown―Harlow―and the mysterious ceremony that awaits her on her eighteenth birthday. What Beth doesn’t know is the truth about her sister Kate, who escaped their strange town over a decade ago and has evaded the Mayor and his disciples ever since.

What Curtis doesn’t know is that Kate is the woman he’s fallen in love with, and she’s running from a threat far greater than the mobsters who want to kill him. His fate collides with Beth’s as she tries to escape Harlow and the disgusting fate that awaits her, and Curtis finds himself unraveling a mystery that leads to an impossible and terrifying conclusion―that the Mayor of Harlow is more than just a man, and the hardest target he’s ever tried to kill.

One Stupid Thing

Stewart Lewis

“Like The Breakfast Club set during a New England summer...One Stupid Thing captures the nuances of power and self-doubt that shape the lives of today’s text-obsessed youth." ―Foreword Reviews

It was just one stupid thing that happened…

Summer on Nantucket Island. Three high school friends drinking warm beer on a rooftop. Everything is cool until a seemingly innocent game takes a sinister turn, and the course of their lives is changed forever.

For a year, they keep it a secret, until the following summer when they meet a mysterious girl with her own dark past who may have the answers they are looking for.

A story about friendship, mistakes, and the quest for redemption, One Stupid Thing follows Jamie, Sophia, Trevor, and Violet as they contend with the consequences of their choices, navigate the drama in their individual lives and try to uncover what really happened on that fateful night.

Paradise, WV

Rob Rufus

In a poor West Virginia town decimated by the opioid epidemic, teenagers Henry and Jane have it worse than most. Their father is Hollis Lusher, a convicted serial killer known as “the Blind Spot Slasher.”

Despite being bullied and ostracized, the siblings maintain their father’s innocence. But now, a popular true-crime podcast is coming to town, and their presence turns all eyes to the Blind Spot Slasher’s case . . . and Henry and Jane.

Meanwhile, an eager young officer, Lieutenant Elena Garcia, is put on the case of a missing girl. Despite warnings from her superiors, Garcia begins to dig deeper into the case and realizes there may be other mysteries buried in the flood of opioid-related crimes. With many deaths quickly labeled as overdoses, or “No Human Involved,” she fears the drug epidemic has created the perfect storm for a Blind Spot Slasher copycat to thrive. Unless that is, they never caught the real Blind Spot Slasher.

An amateur private investigator is also on the case: Henry’s new friend, Otis. A home-schooled genius with his own family issues and a suspicion their father might be innocent, Otis makes it his mission to help Henry and Jane find the real killer. As the three probe into the evidence, they discover a possible connection between the killings and a doomsday, snake-handling cult—propelling them all down the dark backroads of Appalachia to find justice for Hollis and themselves.

Cherry Blossoms

Kim Hooper

From the author of the critically-acclaimed debut People Who Knew Me comes the story of one man’s determination to abandon his will to live.

Jonathan Krause is a man with a plan. He is going to quit his advertising job and, when his money runs out, he is going to die. He just has one final mission: A trip to Japan. It’s a trip he was supposed to take with his girlfriend, Sara. It’s a trip inspired by his regrets. And it’s a trip to pay homage to the Japanese, the inventors of his chosen suicide technique.

In preparation for his final voyage, Jonathan enrolls in a Japanese language class where he meets Riko, who has her own plans to visit her homeland, for very different reasons. Their unexpected and unusual friendship takes them to Japan together, where they each struggle to make peace with their past and accept that happiness, loneliness, and grief come and go―just like the cherry blossoms.

Haunted by lost love, Jonathan must decide if he can embrace the transient nature of life, or if he must choose the certainty of death.

Diabhal

Kathleen Kaufman

"Imagine a world of old magic that exists beside our own, but one that is darker, grittier, and more dangerous  than you ever imagined. Kathleen Kaufman's Diabhal rings with ominous truths." —Alma Katsu, author of The Hunger

"…an engrossing tale of magic, darkness, and natural order"  —Publishers Weekly

Diabhal (gaelic for “devil”) follows Ceit Robertson as she explores the true nature of evil and wickedness. In her world of cults, exorcisms, and unspeakable horrors, she discovers that perhaps the devil is not what we should truly fear.

Diabhal is the story of cults, exorcisms and the devil in 1980’s era Los Angeles. Ceit Robertson, age ten, is the next Matrarc to the Society, a cultish, matriarchal group living in an inconspicuous cul-de-sac in Venice Beach. When Ceit’s mother is attacked by spirits from the old world, a failed exorcism results in Ceit’s exile into the foster care system in Los Angeles. She eventually lands in the infamous MacLaren Hall, a very real and historically auspicious center for disturbed and abandoned children in El Monte, CA. Diabhal is the sympathetic story of the devil in Los Angeles. The exploration of the true nature of evil and how intention colors what our definition of wickedness truly is. Ceit grows into a force of nature, as she contains the potential and mythology of the darkest degree, but discovers that perhaps the devil is not what we should truly fear.

Caligula: The Mad Emperor of Rome

Stephen Dando-Collins

Explore all of the murder, madness, and mayhem in Ancient Rome during the reign of the mad emperor, Caligula.

In this book about Rome’s most infamous emperor, expert author, Stephen Dando-Collins chronicles all the palace intrigues and murders that led to Caligula becoming emperor, and details the horrors of his manic reign and the murderous consequences brought about at the hand of his sister Agrippina the Younger, his uncle Claudius and his nephew Nero. 

Skillfully researched, Dando-Collins puts the jigsaw pieces together to form an accurate picture of Caligula’s life and influences. Dando-Collins’ precise and thorough examination of the emperor’s life puts Caligula’s paranoid reign into perspective, examining the betrayals and deaths he experienced prior to his time in power and the onset of a near-fatal illness believed to have affected his mental health.

Tiny

Kim Hooper

"...a delicate, beautiful tale of sadness, recovery, and the role of hope in human resilience." —Publishers Weekly

In this poignant and uplifting story of hope, redemption and the power of the human spirit, Tiny follows the harrowing journeys of Nate, Annie, and Josh—three people unwittingly tied together by fate.

Nate and Annie Forester are faced with every parent’s worst nightmare when their three-year-old daughter, Penelope, is hit by a car. In the aftermath of her death, the distance between them grows. Nate just wants to return to some version of normal, while Annie finds herself stuck in the quicksand of her grief. Josh – third party to the nightmare – was behind the wheel on the fateful day Penny ran into the middle of the street. Unable to stop thinking about Nate and Annie, Josh has started to stalk them, thinking up ways to apologize when he witnesses Annie leave with her suitcase in tow.

Nate is trying to stay strong, but is slowly losing his mind as he faces the suspicions of Annie’s family and the police in the wake of Annie’s disappearance. Annie has run away in an attempt to start a secret new life in a 100-square-foot house in the middle of nowhere. And Josh, who desperately wants forgiveness, feels he is responsible for reuniting the people whose lives he changed forever. What unfolds is a beautiful and awe-inspiring tale of grace, forgiveness, and love.

Mammoth

Jill Baguchinsky

The summer before her junior year, paleontology geek Natalie Page lands a coveted internship at an Ice Age dig site near Austin, Texas. Natalie, who’s also a plus-size fashion blogger, depends on the retro style and persona she developed to shield herself from her former bullies, but vintage dresses and designer heels aren’t compatible with digging for fossils.

But nothing is going to dampen her spirit. She’s exactly where she wants to be, and gets to work with her hero, the host of the most popular paleontology podcast in the world. And then there’s Chase, the intern, who’s seriously cute, and Cody, a local boy who’d be even cuter if he were less of a grouch.

It’s a summer that promises to be about more than just mammoths.

Until it isn’t.

When Natalie’s paleontologist hero turns out to be anything but, and steals the credit for one of her accomplishments, she has to unearth the confidence she needs to stand out in a field dominated by men. To do this, she’ll have to let her true self shine, even if that means defying the rules and risking her life for the sake of a major discovery. While sifting through dirt, she finds more than fossils―she finds out that she is truly awesome.

Sidewalk Dance

Fletcher Michael

From the author of Glass Bottle Season comes a gritty new coming-of-age novel that examines what happens when one man’s desperate journey to become a New York Writer leaves him more “tortured” than “artist.”  

Sidewalk Dance is a portrait of the artist as a deluded self-saboteur. Haunted by his brother’s tragic death in the War in Afghanistan and unable to process this trauma, Fisher shuns his elitist pedigree by abruptly quitting Yale Law School, changing his name to Fish, and moving to New York City. Once there, he sets about reinventing himself as a doomed playwright. Unfortunately for Fish, he is more of an idealist than a talent; a dreamer more than a doer. His delusions of grandeur quickly lead him into an abyss of self-doubt, addiction, identity crisis, and isolation.

The pregnancy of his would-be muse, Madame Meticulous, the debaucherous tendencies of his alter ego, Partiboy, and the impending destruction of the Hell’s Kitchen art gallery where he works combine to complicate Fish’s pursuit of literary legacy. His central delusion is that by cloaking himself in the trappings and lifestyle of the tortured artist (hurling his iPhone off the Brooklyn Bridge, smoking hand-rolled cigarettes, growing out his hair, drunkenly clobbering a typewriter late at night), he will somehow become one. As paternity, unemployment, creative sterility, and romantic abandonment loom, Fish clings to a misguided hope that the staging of his play will make all well again.