Did you ever have a recurring dream only to wake up one day and find it was NOT a dream?Wembley is an average and very successful fourteen-year-old. Everything comes easily to Wembley: the good and the bad; but still not without some effort. Of Welsh origin himself he can trace his ancestry back to both the Picts and the Celts. Once enemies, this proud warrior blood is now combined and flowing through the veins of our 21st Century youth. His parents had le...

In this fresh collection of "Roughneck Grace" columns, New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry reinforces his reputation as a writer navigating between the transcendent ("The conga line was no longer a line, but rather a fluid knot of nearly a thousand happy children winding in and around itself throughout the aisles of the auditorium while Cyril Paul and the Calypso Monarchs played from the stage."), the quotidian ("Outside my window the June evening is winding down a...

A part-time emergency medical technician humorously chronicles life in a small Wisconsin town, featuring tales of romance and auto repair.Hilarious and heartfelt, Truck: A Love Story is the tale of a man struggling to grow his own garden, fix his old pickup, and resurrect a love life permanently impaired by Neil Diamond. In the process, he sets his hair on fire, is attacked by wild turkeys, and proposes marriage to a woman in New Orleans. The result is a su...

Brief essays by New York Times bestselling author Michael Perry on memorials and mercy, storms and farewells, family and fowl, barnyard ballets, the Sunday night sads, the wisdom of roadies, cucumbers and kindness, quotidian asparagus, appropo malaprops, pickleball, sushi boats and weird TV, the poetics of garlic, contrails, Mobius mind-grooves, quietude, Christmas tree injuries, cats, waffle houses, puffy partridges, bonfire bonhomie, dating in a hearse, and more. Gathered from his most r...

In 1545, in a remote Carpathian monastery, a tormented monk carves a throne from black oak felled beneath a blood moon. Its armrests are clawed hands straining to seize, its seat a lattice of thorns, its back an inverted Last Judgment where demons drag screaming angels into hell. Cursed in its final hour by a dying anti-cardinal, the Whispering Throne grants its sitter visions of tomorrow—exactly twenty-four hours ahead—but always two paths: one true, one the perfect, smiling lie. Choose w...

Another in a series (including From the Top, Roughneck Grace, Million Billion, and Peaceful Persistence) of collected brief essays by New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry. "Although these pieces were written during times of unrest and pandemic, they drew on human connection," says Perry. "Week after week, slowly at first, and then regularly, I received messages, emails, comments, and sometimes even a handwritten note from readers who weren't looking to me for advice...

In the near future, the world doesn't end with mushroom clouds or alien ships. It ends with a five-year-old girl from a nowhere Texas town running a fever that won't break.Lily Cole starts coughing in Crawford, Texas—a place of feed stores, Friday night football, and a little Tex-Mex café where everyone knows your order before you sit down. Her dad, Ethan, does what any parent would do: he carries her, burning with fever and whispering nonsense under her breath, into the tiny local...

Eight-year-old Danny Woods can do things no kid should be able to do—hear thoughts, feel fear like it's his own, and move the world with a shove of his mind. Every time he uses it, it costs him: migraines, panic, and blank spots he can't explain.After a fresh start in Texas with mom Nora, a glossy flyer arrives for the Gifted & Exceptional Youth Program—and a woman who calls herself Archer begins knocking. She's polite. Patient. An...

Introduction to Statistics in Criminal Justice and Criminology: A Practical Approach to Calculating, Using, and Interpreting Data provides students with a clear, structured path to the quantitative tools that shape empirical inquiry in the field. Written by an interdisciplinary team spanning criminal justice, psychology, mathematics, and computer science, this textbook emphasizes the practical purposes of statistical thinking while explaining how data is organized, described, comp...

New York Times bestselling author, humorist, and speaker Michael Perry delivers real-world lessons on leadership, creativity, resilience, and entrepreneurship.Entertaining and fundamentally useful no matter the form of art or business you pursue, Improbable Mentors & Happy Tangents is a masterclass in identifying unexpected opportunities and concludes with a chapter titled, "The Most Improbable Mentor Move of All."This witty and insightful book details how unlikely encounte...

A concise, detailed examination of the Siege of the International Legations and its aftermath, featuring special artwork and maps.In 1900 a violent rebellion swept northern China – the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers were a secret society who sought to rid their country of the pernicious influence of the foreign powers who had gradually acquired a stranglehold on China. With the connivance of the Imperial Court they laid siege to the legation quarter of Peking. Trapped...

What if it took the loss of everything you loved for you to become whom you were meant to be?The Prophecy is found by Miraden, the Enchanter of Light, quite by accident, and yet right on schedule, while his Dark brother, Tophet, is still searching and grasping to gain influence and control over The Realms of the Crystal Orb. But the Prophecy is protected, for now; allowed to grow and learn of his true identity -- his destiny -- so that he can join forces wi...