Richard Paul Evans, celebrated author of such national bestsellers as The Christmas List and Grace, returns this spring with THE WALK – the first of a new series that tells the poignant and inspirational tale of an advertising executive who loses everything, and decides to embark on an unforgettable journey that is as life-altering as it is life-affirming.

Alan Christofferson is a successful Seattle advertising executive who seems to have it all: a beautiful home, a sky-rocketing career, and an idyllic marriage to his childhood sweetheart, McKale. However, unbeknownst to him, on the day that Alan successfully pitches a three million dollar advertising campaign to a key account, events are already unfolding that will soon take from him everything he holds dear.

Within a few short weeks, Alan Christofferson loses everything: his company, his fortune, and even the woman he loves. Betrayed by his business partner, Kyle, stripped of most of his material possessions and all of his emotional connections, Alan is left adrift in a world that has suddenly grown cold and meaningless. At first he considers taking his own life; instead, equipped with little more than the clothes on his back and his diary, he sets off on a walk across America, from Seattle to Florida. THE WALK covers the first 12 days of Alan’s journey, which will take him over 250 miles, from Bellevue, WA to Spokane, WA. As he journeys across the country, Alan will learn how to move beyond despair toward a profoundly new understanding of life, helped along the way by the unexpected kindness of strangers.

Masterfully written and emotionally resonant, THE WALK is destined to become an instant classic. As always, Evans’ intimate grasp of human motivation and frailty lends an impressive authenticity to his writing. A tightly crafted and character-driven work of art, THE WALK shows Richard Paul Evans at his finest, his most inspirational and his most moving. Newcomers and existing fans alike will thrill to the story of Alan Christofferson’s spiritual journey, and will be eagerly awaiting the next installments.

To read an excerpt from Chapter One, click HERE.

RICHARD PAUL EVANS is the #1 bestselling author of The Christmas Box. His fourteen novels have each appeared on the New York Times bestseller list; there are more than thirteen million copies of his books in print. His books have been translated into more than 22 languages and several have been international best sellers. He is the winner of the 1998 American Mothers Book Award, two first place Storytelling World Awards for his children’s books, and the 2005 Romantic Times Best Women Novel of the Year Award. Evans received the Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award for his work helping abused children. He is the founder and CEO of BookWise, an international direct sales business. Evans lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, Keri, and their five children.

The inimitable Richard Jury returns in a thrilling tale of mystery, madness, and mistaken identity

Three months have passed since Richard Jury was left bereft and guilt- ridden after his lover's tragic auto accident, and he is now more wary than ever. He is deeply suspicious when requested on a case far out of his jurisdiction in an outlying village where a young woman has been murdered behind the local pub. The only witness is the establishment's black cat, who gives neither crook nor clue as to the girl's identity or her killer's.

Identifying the girl becomes tricky when she's recognized as both the shy local librarian and a posh city escort, and Jury must use all his wits and intuition to determine the connection to subse­quent escort murders. Meanwhile, Jury's nemesis, Harry Johnson, continues to goad Jury down a dangerous path. And Johnson, along with the imperturbable dog Mungo, just may be the key to it all.

Written with Martha Grimes's trademark insight and grace, The Black Cat signals the thrilling return of her greatest character. The superintendent is a man possessed of prodigious analytical gifts and charm, yet vulnerable in the most perplexing ways. 

To listen to an audio excerpt, click HERE.

Martha Grimes (born May 2, 1931) is an American author of detective fiction. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College. Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.

Another season of Elm Creek Quilt Camp has come to a close, and Bonnie Markham faces a bleak and lonely winter ahead with her quilt shop out-of-business and her divorce looming. A welcome escape comes when Claire, a beloved college friend, unexpectedly invites her to Maui to help launch an exciting new business: a quilter’s retreat set at a bed and breakfast amidst the vibrant colors and balmy breezes of the Hawaiian islands.

Soon Bonnie finds herself looking out on sparkling waters and banyan trees, helping to run Claire’s inn, planning quilting courses, and learning the history and intricacies of Hawaiian quilting. As her adventure unfolds, it quickly becomes clear that Claire’s new business isn’t the only excitement in store for her. Her cheating, soon-to-be ex decides he wants her stake in Elm Creek Quilts, which threatens not only her financial well-being but her dearest friendships as well. Luckily she has the distraction of the artistic challenge of creating her own unique Hawaiian quilt pattern—and new friends like Hinano Paoa, owner of the Nä Mele Hawai’i Music Shop, who introduces her to the fascinating traditions of Hawaiian culture and reminds her that love can be found when and where you least expect it. 

To read Chapter One, click HERE. 

Jennifer Chiaverini (born 1969) is an American quilter and author. She is best known for writing the Elm Creek Quilts novels. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she is also a former writing instructor at Penn State and Edgewood College. She lives with her husband and two sons in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to the fourteen volumes of the Elm Creek Quilts series, she is the author of three volumes of quilt patterns inspired by her novels, as well as the designer of the Elm Creek Quilts fabric lines from Red Rooster Fabrics.

To protect their world from the savage demon hordes, the Black Sorcerer Pug and Midkemia's clandestine protectors, the Conclave of Shadows, forged an uneasy alliance of formidable magical talents. Together, this brave band of wizards, demon masters, warriors, and elves defeated the brutal Demon King Maarg and turned back the onrushing death tide. 

But Maarg's fall has not stopped the demonic onslaught, and danger now looms greater than ever before. Amid the barren ridges of the Valley of Lost Men, in the shadows of an ancient Keshian fortress, the fearsome demon Dahun and the mad necromancer Belasco have joined forces, creating an unstoppable union of deathly black magics that even Pug and a united Conclave may not be strong enough to withstand. 

Battling the Demon Legion has taken a heavy blood toll on the valiant and dedicated magician, claiming the lives of nearly all those he loves. Though he is racked by despair and rage, Pug knows that the time for mourning must wait. Putting aside his pain, he and the Conclave and their allies—the cold-blooded master spy Jim Dasher; the fearsome young Knight-Adamant Sandreena; her former lover the necromancer Amirantha; two renegade Star Elves; and Pug's surviving son, Magnus—must marshal their resources against this latest threat. None can forget the dozens of worlds overrun by the demon plague and the millions of dead left behind in their wake. At the gates of darkness, where shadows hide even deeper shadows, these magical defenders will face what is sure to be the bloodiest, nastiest fight their land has ever seen. And as evil, mayhem, and dark magic are unleashed, none can predict if they—and Midkemia itself—will survive. 

To read Chapter One, click HERE.

Raymond Elias Feist (born 1945, Los Angeles, California) is an American author who primarily writes fantasy fiction. He is best known for The Riftwar Cycle series of novels and short stories. His books have been translated into multiple languages and have sold over 15 million copies. Raymond E. Feist's previous novels include the first volume in the Demonwar Saga, Rides a Dread Legion, the Darkwar Saga (Flight of the Nighthawks, Into a Dark Realm, and Wrath of a Mad God); the Conclave of Shadows (Talon of the Silver Hawk, King of Foxes, and Exile's Return); the Riftwar Legacy (Krondor: The Betrayal; Krondor: The Assassins; and Krondor: Tear of the Gods); the Serpentwar Saga (Shadow of a Dark Queen, Rise of a Merchant Prince, Rage of a Demon King, and Shards of a Broken Crown); the Riftwar Saga (Magician, Silverthorn, and A Darkness at Sethanon); Faerie Tale; The Prince of the Blood; and The King's Buccaneer. He lives in San Diego, California.

A powerful and redemptive novel of love and family, from the author of the bestselling Blue Shoe, Grace (Eventually), and Operating Instructions.

Rosie Ferguson is seventeen and ready to enjoy the summer before her senior year of high school. She's intelligent-she aced AP physics; athletic-a former state-ranked tennis doubles champion; and beautiful. She is, in short, everything her mother, Elizabeth, hoped she could be. The family's move to Landsdale, with stepfather James in tow, hadn't been as bumpy as Elizabeth feared.

But as the school year draws to a close, there are disturbing signs that the life Rosie claims to be leading is a sham, and that Elizabeth's hopes for her daughter to remain immune from the pull of the darker impulses of drugs and alcohol are dashed. Slowly and against their will, Elizabeth and James are forced to confront the fact that Rosie has been lying to them-and that her deceptions will have profound consequences.

This is Anne Lamott's most honest and heartrending novel yet, exploring our human quest for connection and salvation as it reveals the traps that can befall all of us.

To read an excerpt from Chapter One, click HERE.

Anne Lamott (born April 10, 1954, in San Francisco) is the author of several novels and works of non-fiction, and a progressive political activist. She is also an acclaimed public speaker and teacher of writing. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, her nonfiction works are largely autobiographical, with strong doses of self-deprecating humor. Marked by their transparency, Lamott's writings cover such subjects as alcoholism, single motherhood, and Christianity.

The bestselling author of Italian Grill and Molto Italiano delivers a gorgeous collection of mouthwatering recipes to bring some Italian favorites home.

Chef Mario Batali's zest for life infuses the casual Italian fare that has made his restaurant Otto Enoteca Pizzeria a perennially popular New York City destination. Now you can have the flavors of Otto at home, with Molto Gusto, a collection of recipes for everyone's favorites, from pizza, pasta, and antipasti to gelati and sorbetti. 

Mario has written the definitive book on great pizza making for the amateur, the novice, the foodie, and the gourmet cook, teaching how to make really great pizza at home without any fancy equipment. Here too are recipes for classic pizza, Otto's special pizzas, and even kids' pizzas.

Looking for something a little lighter? Try the antipasti. Based on seasonal vegetables, with a few recipes showcasing seafood and meat, these dishes can make up an entire, healthy meal. Also included are many of Mario's favorite simple pasta dishes, and to finish it all off, fantastic recipes for gelati, sorbetti, and copette.

Filled with Mario's infectious personality and love of robust flavors, and illustrated with luscious full-color photos, Molto Gusto makes it easy to spend a night on the town without leaving home.

Mario Batali is one of the most recognized and respected chefs working in America today, with fourteen restaurants—including his New York City flagship, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, as well as two restaurants in Los Angeles and three in Las Vegas—and a host of television shows, including the ever-popular Iron Chef America. He is also the author of eight cookbooks, among them the James Beard Award-winning Molto Italiano, the New York Times bestsellers Italian Grill and Spain...A Culinary Road Trip, the companion book to his prime-time PBS series Spain...On The Road Again. He has received such accolades as a GQ Magazine Man of the Year Award and the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef. Mario splits his time between New York City's Greenwich Village and northern Michigan with his wife and their two sons. He started the Mario Batali Foundation in May of 2008 with the mission to feed, protect, educate, and empower children.

With its lush gardens, stately town houses, and sprawling plantations, Savannah is the epitome of old Southern style, and who better to give you the grand tour than Paula Deen, the city’s most famous resident and anointed Queen of Southern Cuisine? 

In this gorgeous, richly illustrated book, Paula Deen shares a full year of Southern living. Whether it’s time to put out your best china and make a real fuss, or you’re just gathering for some sweet tea on the porch at dusk, Savannah style is about making folks feel welcome in your home. With the help of decorator and stylist Brandon Branch, you’ll learn how to bring a bit of Southern charm into homes from Minnesota to Mississippi. For each season, there are tips on decorating and entertaining. In the spring, you’ll learn how to make the most of your outdoor spaces, spruce up your porch, and make your garden inviting. In the summer, things get more casual with a dock party. Sleeping spaces, including, of course, the sleeping porch, are the focal point of this chapter. In the fall, cooler weather brings a return to more formal entertaining in the dining room, and in the winter, attention returns to the hearth, as Paula and her neighbors put out their best silver and show you how they celebrate the holidays. 

Paula loves getting a peek at her neighbors’ parlors, so she’s included photographs of some of Savannah’s grandest homes. From the vast grounds of Lebanon Plantation to the whimsically restored cottages on Tybee Island, you’ll see the unique blend of old-world elegance and laid-back hospitality that charmed Paula the moment she arrived from Albany, Georgia, with nothingbut two hundred dollars and a pair of mouths to feed. And she isn’t shy about giving you a window into her own world, either. From her farmhouse kitchen to her luxurious powder room, you’ll see how Paula lives when she’s not in front of the camera. 

Packed with advice and nostalgia, Paula Deen’s Savannah Style makes it easy to bring gracious Southern living to homes north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line. 

Paula Deen (born Paula Ann Hiers, on January 19, 1947) is an American cook, restaurateur, author, and Emmy Award-winning television personality. Deen resides in Savannah, Georgia, where she owns and operates The Lady & Sons restaurant with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen. She has also published five cookbooks.

A Pulitzer Prize–winning nonfiction author and Harvard entomology professor, Wilson (The Ants) channels Huck Finn in his creative coming-of-age debut novel. Split into three parallel worlds—ants, humans, and the biosphere—the story follows young Raff Cody, who escapes the humid summers in Clayville, Ala., by exploring the remote Nokobee wilderness with his cousin, Junior. In one adventure, sneaking onto the property of a reputed multiple murderer to peek at his rumored 1,000-pound pet alligator, 15-year-old Raff faces down the barrel of a rifle. Raff's aversion to game hunting, ant fascination, Boy Scout achievements, and Harvard education all support his core need to remain a “naturalist explorer.” A remarkable center section meticulously details the life and death of an ant colony. Nearing 30, Raff's desire to preserve the Nokobee reserve from greedy real estate developers galvanizes an effort to protect the sacred land and a surprise violent ending brings everything full circle. Lush with organic details, Wilson's keen eye for the natural world and his acumen for environmental science is on brilliant display in this multifaceted story about human life and its connection to nature.

To read Prologue, click HERE.

Edward Osborne Wilson (born June 10, 1929) is an American biologist, researcher (sociobiology, biodiversity), theorist (consilience, biophilia), naturalist (conservationist) and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, a branch of entomology. Wilson is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. He is known for his career as a scientist, his advocacy for environmentalism, and his secular-humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters. As of 2007, he is Pellegrino University Research Professor in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism.

“How long do I have to convince you that my brother is not capable of murdering sixty people?”

Christopher Rice, the author of four New York Times bestselling novels by the age of thirty, returns with his first female protagonist since The Snow Garden. In The Moonlit Earth, he delivers a compelling psychological thriller about a young woman who must act to save her brother’s reputation and life when he is accused of being involved in a terrorist event.

When Megan and Cameron Reynolds’s father walked out on their mother, they forged an unbreakable bond. If their father could not be there to take care of them, they would always be there to take care of each other. But life intervenes, and siblings go separate ways . . . until something happens to reforge that bond.

At thirty, faced with disappointments in career and romance, Megan Reynolds returns to the safety of Cathedral Beach, the home of her mother, who lives among the wealthy with no money of her own. Cameron worries that his sister will lose herself around their mother’s frivolous life, but Megan worries more about her brother. She worries that Cameron’s care- free charm, which makes him popular in both his work as a flight attendant on a luxury airline and the West Hollywood party scene he enjoys, could lead him into danger.

When a bomb goes off in a high-end hotel in Hong Kong, security-camera footage appears on television showing two men escaping: one Middle Eastern and one American. Megan and her mother recognize the young American as Cameron—and find that he has become enmeshed with a mysterious family of wealthy Saudis.

In her desperate journey to save her brother’s life, Megan uncovers a trail of secrets and intrigue that snakes from the decadent beaches of southern Thailand to the glass skyscrapers of Hong Kong— and finds herself part of a dark global conspiracy that involves a member of her own family. 

To listen to an excerpt, click HERE.

Christopher Travis Rice (born March 11, 1978 in Berkeley, California) is an American author. Rice has written four best-selling novels: A Density of Souls, The Snow Garden, Light Before Day, and Blind Fall. Christopher Rice comes from a family of authors. His parents are Anne Rice and the late poet Stan Rice; his aunt, Alice Borchardt, is a noted writer. He is also friends with fellow author Clive Barker. Unlike his famous mother, he does not write horror novels, but considers his books to be thrillers.

The roots of the mortgage bubble and the story of the Wall Street collapse-and the government's unprecedented response-from our most trusted business journalist.

The End of Wall Street is a blow-by-blow account of America's biggest financial collapse since the Great Depression. Drawing on 180 interviews, including sit-downs with top government officials and Wall Street CEOs, Lowenstein tells, with grace, wit, and razor-sharp understanding, the full story of the end of Wall Street as we knew it. Displaying the qualities that made When Genius Failed a timeless classic of Wall Street-his sixth sense for narrative drama and his unmatched ability to tell complicated financial stories in ways that resonate with the ordinary reader-Roger Lowenstein weaves a financial, economic, and sociological thriller that indicts America for succumbing to the siren song of easy debt and speculative mortgages.

The End of Wall Street is rife with historical lessons and bursting with fast-paced action. Lowenstein introduces his story with precisely etched, laserlike profiles of Angelo Mozilo, the Johnny Appleseed of subprime mortgages who spreads toxic loans across the landscape like wild crabapples, and moves to a damning explication of how rating agencies helped gift wrap faulty loans in the guise of triple-A paper and a takedown of the academic formulas that-once again- proved the ruin of investors and banks. Lowenstein excels with a series of searing profiles of banking CEOs, such as the ferretlike Dick Fuld of Lehman and the bloodless Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, and of government officials from the restless, deal-obsessed Hank Paulson and the overmatched Tim Geithner to the cerebral academic Ben Bernanke, who sought to avoid a repeat of the one crisis he spent a lifetime trying to understand-the Great Depression.

Finally, we come to understand the majesty of Lowenstein's theme of liquidity and capital, which explains the origins of the crisis and that positions the collapse of 2008 as the greatest ever of Wall Street's unlearned lessons. The End of Wall Street will be essential reading as we work to identify the lessons of the market failure and start to rebuild. 

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Roger Lowenstein, an American financial journalist, reported for the Wall Street Journal for more than a decade, including two years writing its "Heard on the Street" column, 1989 to 1991. Before becoming a full time journalist, Lowenstein was an attorney with various New Jersey law firms. Lowenstein has published three books and co-authored one. In addition, he has written for many publications, including Smart Money and The New York Times. Lowenstein is a regular book reviewer for The New York Times and has written a number of major articles and cover stories for the The New York Times Magazine. He is also a director of Sequoia Fund. His father, Louis Lowenstein, was an attorney and Columbia University law professor who wrote books and articles critical of the American financial industry.

For more than two hundred years after William Shakespeare's death, no one doubted that he had written his plays. Since then, however, dozens of candidates have been proposed for the authorship of what is generally agreed to be the finest body of work by a writer in the English language. In this remarkable book, Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro explains when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote his plays. Among the doubters have been such writers and thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Mark Twain, and Helen Keller. It is a fascinating story, replete with forgeries, deception, false claimants, ciphers and codes, conspiracy theories—and a stunning failure to grasp the power of the imagination.

As Contested Will makes clear, much more than proper attribution of Shakespeare’s plays is at stake in this authorship controversy. Underlying the arguments over whether Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, or the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare’s plays are fundamental questions about literary genius, specifically about the relationship of life and art. Are the plays (and poems) of Shakespeare a sort of hidden autobiography? Do Hamlet, Macbeth, and the other great plays somehow reveal who wrote them? 

Shapiro is the first Shakespeare scholar to examine the authorship controversy and its history in this way, explaining what it means, why it matters, and how it has persisted despite abundant evidence that William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays attributed to him. This is a brilliant historical investigation that will delight anyone interested in Shakespeare and the literary imagination. 

To read Prologue, click HERE.

James S. Shapiro (born 1955) is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and non-fiction author. Shapiro published widely on William Shakespeare and Elizabethan culture, co-directed two National Endowment for the Humanities Institutes on Shakespeare, co-edited the Columbia Anthology of British Poetry (1995), and served as the associate editor of the Columbia History of British Poetry (1994). He received awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Huntington Library, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for his publications and academic activities. He got the Hoffman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship on Marlowe and in 1997 the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference (SCSC), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, bestowed him the Roland H. Bainton Prize for his book Shakespeare and the Jews . He has written for a number of periodicals, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times Book Review, The Financial Times, and The Daily Telegraph. In 2006 he was named a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow as well as a Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Shapiro won the 2006 Samuel Johnson Prize as well as the 2006 Theatre Book Prize for his work "1599: a Year in the Life of William Shakespeare" . Shapiro has been on the faculty at Columbia University since 1985, teaching Shakespeare and other topics, and reviewing books for various publications.

In THE LANGUAGE GOD TALKS, Herman Wouk attempts to reconcile the sparring ideas of science and religion. Drawing on his own experiences and encounters with the masters of religion and science, such as Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, and Steven Weinberg, he addresses the eternal questions of why we are here, what purpose faith serves, and how scientific belief and fact fit into the picture.

In his classic graceful prose, Wouk introduces readers to figures of the 20th century who have had key roles in the arguments about science versus religion. Spanning an incredible breadth of time and illustrated with Wouk's own personal experiences, THE LANGUAGE GOD TALKS is a brilliant investigation and a worthy addition to the canon. 

To listen to an excerpt, click HERE.

Herman Wouk is a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish American author. He earned his living as a scriptwriter for Fred Allen before serving in World War II. His career as a novelist spans nearly six decades and has brought him resounding international acclaim. Herman Wouk's acclaimed books include The Will to Live On, This Is My God, Pulitzer Prize winner The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.  In 1998, Wouk received the Guardian of Zion Award. He and his wife currently live in Palm Springs, CA.

Bess Southerns, an impoverished widow, lives with her children in a crumbling old tower in Pendle Forest. Drawing on Catholic ritual, medicinal herbs, and guidance from her spirit-friend Tibb, Bess heals the sick and foretells the future in exchange for food and drink. As she ages, she instructs her best friend, Anne, and her granddaughter, Alizon, in her craft. Anne ultimately turns to dark magic, while Alizon struggles to accept the power she has inherited and dreams of a simpler life. But when a peddler suffers a stroke after exchanging harsh words with Alizon, a local magistrate tricks her into accusing her family and neighbors of witchcraft. Suspicion and paranoia reach frenzied heights as friends and loved ones turn on one another and the novel draws to an inevitable conclusion.

Sharratt interweaves well-researched historical details of the 1612 Pendle witch-hunt with a beautifully imagined story of strong women, family, and betrayal. Daughters of the Witching Hill is a powerful novel of intrigue and revelation.

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

MARY SHARRATT is an American writer who has lived in the Pendle region of Lancashire, England, for the past seven years. The author of the critically acclaimed novels Summit Avenue, The Real Minerva, and The Vanishing Point, Sharratt is also the co-editor of the subversive fiction anthology Bitch Lit, a celebration of female antiheroes, strong women who break all the rules.

Sara Moulton may be a professional chef and television personality, but she’s also a working mother who has to get dinner on the table for her husband and kids every night. In Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners, she shares more than two hundred new family-tested, family-pleasing recipes. Whether you’re new to the kitchen or just looking for a way to spice up your recipe repertoire, Sara’s carefully tested recipes are a great place to start.

Chicken Saltimbocca with Artichoke Sauce is a welcome change of pace, while Oven-Fried Fish Sticks are a lighter update of a kid-friendly classic. If you’re looking to experiment with new ingredients and cuisines without venturing beyond your local grocery, the Korean-inspired Clay Pot Vegetable Stew and Sara’s take on Vietnamese Bahn Mi make it easy to try global flavors.

For a quick, pulled-from-the-pantry meal, try Polenta Lasagna or BLT and Egg Pie. Shake things up and serve appetizers like Pork Sliders, Asian Style, and Manchego-Stuffed Figs Wrapped in Bacon for dinner, or declare Sandwich Night and serve Picadillo Sloppy Joes. If you have a vegetarian in the family or you’re just trying to economize, flip to the chapter on vegetarian mains for recipes for delicious and nutritious fare like Tortilla Pizza or Rustic Potato and Greens Pie. For dessert there’s Butterscotch Pudding Cake, Warm Chocolate Cheesecake, and much more. And finally, on Sunday, when you have a little more time to cook, there is a chapter for comfort food that will cure the end-of-the-weekend blues and get the week started right.

Perhaps most important to the overscheduled home cook, Sara’s recipes help you cook smarter, faster, and cleaner. Each recipe lists cooking and preparation times, and easy-to-follow instructions streamline the process by integrating prep and cleanup into each step. Sidebars on shopping, storing, preparing, and serving share the tips Sara has collected over many years of answering questions from home cooks across the country. Creative, crowd-pleasing, and fuss free, the recipes in Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners make family dinner a pleasure for everyone. 

To read some of Sara’s recipes, click HERE.

One of the hardest-working women in the food biz, Sara Moulton has been juggling multiple jobs for years. Admired by millions as the host of Cooking Live, Cooking Live Primetime, and Sara's Secrets, Moulton was one of the Food Network's defining personalities during the outlet's first decade. In addition to her work on the Food Network, the energetic Moulton has been the Executive Chef of Gourmet Magazine for the last twenty-three years. She is also the Food Editor of ABC-TV's Good Morning America, and the author of Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals and Sara Moulton Cooks at Home. In April of 2008, Moulton launched a new 20-episode television series on public television, entitled Sara's Weeknight Meals. Sara lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

Thomas Steinbeck has been praised by Publishers Weekly for his stylistic brilliance and “accomplished voice.” Now, his enthralling novel In the Shadow of the Cypress blends history and suspense with literary mastery and brings vivid realism to California’s rich heritage. 

In 1906, the Chinese in California lived in the shadows. Their alien customs, traditions, and language hid what they valued from their neighbors . . . and left them open to scorn and prejudice. Their communities were ruled—and divided—by the necessity of survival among the many would-be masters surrounding them, by struggles between powerful tongs, and by duty to their ancestors. 

Then, in the wake of natural disaster, fate brought to light artifacts of incredible value along the Monterey coast: an ancient Chinese jade seal and a plaque inscribed in a trio of languages lost to all but scholars of antiquity. At first, chance placed control of those treasures in the hands of outsiders—the wayward Irishman who’d discovered them and a marine scholar who was determined to explore their secrets. The path to the truth, however, would prove to be as tangled as the roots of the ancient cypress that had guarded these treasures for so long, for there are some secrets the Chinese were not ready to share. Whether by fate, by subtle design, or by some intricate combination of the two, the artifacts disappeared again . . . before it could be proved that they must have come there ages before Europeans ever touched the wild and beautiful California coast. 

Nearly a century would pass before an unconventional young American scientist unearths evidence of this great discovery and its mysterious disappearance. Taking up the challenge, he begins to assemble a new generation of explorers to resume theperilous search into the ocean’s depth . . . and theshadows of history. Armed with cutting-edge, modern technology, and drawing on connections to powerful families at home and abroad, this time Americans and Chinese will follow together the path of secrets that have long proved as elusive as the ancient treasures that held them.

This striking debut novel by a masterful writer weaves together two fascinating eras into one remarkable tale. In the Shadow of the Cypress is an evocative, dramatic story that depicts California in all its multicultural variety, with a suspense that draws the reader inexorably on until the very last page. 

To read an excerpt from Chapter One, click HERE.

Thomas Myles Steinbeck is a writer and the eldest son of Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck. He began his career on the 1960s as a motion picture cinematographer and photojournalist in Vietnam. He serves on the board of the Board of Directors of The Stella Adler Theater and The National Steinbeck Center. He has written numerous dramatic adaptations of his father's work as well as a number of original documentaries.  Steinbeck has sold numerous screenplays over the life of his career. In 2002, Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House published his first book of short stories entitled, "Down To a Soundless Sea". "In the Shadow of the Cypress" is his first novel. Thomas Steinbeck lives on the central coast of California with his wife.

Laura Bennett is not a soccer mom or a PTA mom or a helicopter mom—and she's certainly not mother of the year. Another breed of mother entirely, Laura is surely more Auntie Mame than June Cleaver. As a busy mother of six, Laura is on an impossible mission: raising a brood of fast-moving, messy, wild sons in the jungles of Manhattan. So what other choice does she have than to sit back, grab a martini, and let the boys be, er, boys?

In Didn't I Feed You Yesterday?, Laura gives her irreverent take on modern motherhood and proves that a strong sense of humor and an even stronger sense of self are the mother's milk of sanity. In a series of refreshingly candid and hilarious anecdotes, she unapologetically breaks every rule in the Brady Bunch playbook: She gives her kids junk food, plays favorites, and openly admits to having "a genetic predisposition to laissez-faire parenting." Children, she observes, don't need constant supervision from neurotic, perfectionist parents. Allow kids to make mistakes and entertain themselves and they'll turn out just fine—even if you do sometimes forget to pick them up from school. 

Beyond the mayhem of a life among males, Laura celebrates the glories of womanhood with a generous helping of wit and style. She gives thanks to the fashion gods for the essentials—red lipstick, Manolo Blahniks, and Lycra shapewear—but reminds us that true style comes from an inner compass that points directly at oneself. In every aspect of life, Laura gives one simple, powerful piece of advice: "Dress like you want it or stay home." 

Laura Bennett wowed viewers of Project Runway’s Season Three with her own politically incorrect brand of humor and sophisticated designs. Now a regular contributor on the Today show, she also writes a column on The Daily Beast and is working on a television adaptation of her book for FOX. Born and raised in New Orleans, Bennett received her undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Houston and attended the graduate program in the same field at Columbia University. Laura lives in New York City with her husband and six children, fittingly in the Fashion District.

Marcella di Pavarese Atkinson has always longed for love, warmth, understanding.  Seven years ago, she believed she had found it, although illicitly, with Cecil McClatchey–a married father of two, and a longtime summer acquaintance from Cape Cod.  But on the night their romance abruptly ended, Cecil’s wife was found dead, and Cecil died soon after, an uncharged suspect.  Now Marcella lives alone, divorced, estranged from her teenaged daughter, and hobbled by her grief and guilt.

Meanwhile, Cecil’s grown son, Jed, returns to the Cape for the summer for the first time in years, with his sister and her young children.  One morning, in an upstairs closet, he finds a bathing suit he recognizes as Marcella’s–a relic, unbeknownst to him, of his father’s affair.  A hunch, his years-long hunger for answers, and the memory of a teenaged crush send Jed looking for her.  But when Marcella and Jed, to their deep surprise, fall into a passionate affair of their own, they must hide it from their families and also begin, reluctantly, to look more closely at the past. What they find is shocking, heartbreaking, and, perhaps, the beginning of healing; but as they confront their shared pain, a crisis is brewing in the present that will force them, and us, to think about the very nature of love.

Lyrical and sensuous, The Swimming Pool is about devotion in all its forms:  between spouses, lovers, siblings and, especially, between parents and children. It is a story of how our most essential connections entwine, in the most surprising of ways, and how they endure. 

To read Chapter One, click HERE.

Holly LeCraw lives outside of Boston with her husband, who is a journalist, and three kids. Her short fiction and book reviews have appeared in a range of publications, including the Edge City Review and the Boston Book Review. Her short fiction was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Though a newcomer as a novelist, she grew up in the book industry.

Meet the ladies: a flock of smart, affectionate, highly individualistic chickens who visit their favorite neighbors, devise different ways to hide from foxes, and mob the author like she’s a rock star. In these pages you’ll also meet Maya and Zuni, two orphaned baby hummingbirds who hatched from eggs the size of navy beans, and who are little more than air bubbles fringed with feathers. Their lives hang precariously in the balance—but with human help, they may one day conquer the sky. 

Snowball is a cockatoo whose dance video went viral on YouTube and who’s now teaching schoolchildren how to dance. You’ll meet Harris’s hawks named Fire and Smoke. And you’ll come to know and love a host of other avian characters who will change your mind forever about who birds really are. 

Each of these birds shows a different and utterly surprising aspect of what makes a bird a bird—and these are the lessons of Birdology: that birds are far stranger, more wondrous, and at the same time more like us than we might have dared to imagine. In Birdology, beloved author of The Good Good Pig Sy Montgomery explores the essence of the otherworldly creatures we see every day. By way of her adventures with seven birds—wild, tame, exotic, and common—she weaves new scientific insights and narrative to reveal seven kernels of bird wisdom. 

The first lesson of Birdology is that, no matter how common they are, Birds Are Individuals, as each of Montgomery’s distinctive Ladies clearly shows. In the leech-infested rain forest of Queensland, you’ll come face to face with a cassowary—a 150-pound,man-tall, flightless bird with a helmet of bone on its head and a slashing razor-like toenail with which it (occasionally) eviscerates people—proof that Birds Are Dinosaurs. You’ll learn from hawks that Birds Are Fierce; from pigeons, how Birds Find Their Way Home; from parrots, what it means that Birds Can Talk; and from 50,000 crows who moved into a small city’s downtown, that Birds Are Everywhere. They are the winged aliens who surround us. 

Birdology explains just how very "other" birds are: Their hearts look like those of crocodiles. They are covered with modified scales, which are called feathers. Their bones are hollow. Their bodies are permeated with extensive air sacs. They have no hands. They give birth to eggs. Yet despite birds’ and humans’ disparate evolutionary paths, we share emotional and intellectual abilities that allow us to communicate and even form deep bonds. When we begin to comprehend who birds really are, we deepen our capacity to approach, understand, and love these otherworldly creatures. And this, ultimately, is the priceless lesson of Birdology: it communicates a heartfelt fascination and awe for birds and restores our connection to these complex, mysterious fellow creatures. 

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Sy Montgomery is a naturalist, author, documentary scriptwriter, and radio commentator who writes for children as well as adults. Among her award-winning books are The Good Good Pig, Journey of the Pink Dolphins, Spell of the Tiger, and Search for the Golden Moon Bear. She has made four trips to Peru and Brazil to study the pink dolphins of the Amazon; and on other expeditions, she was chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire; bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica; undressed by an orangutan in Borneo; and hunted by a tiger in India. She also worked in a pit crawling with eighteen thousand snakes in Manitoba; handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana; and swum with piranhas, electric eels, and dolphins in the Amazon. Research for this book included travel to China and Mongolia to see the latest discoveries of giant bird fossils, and to Australia to see the most dangerous birds in the world. She lives in New Hampshire.

With honest humor and raw self-revelation, bestselling author Donald Miller tells the story of growing up without a father and openly talks about the issues that befall the fatherless generation. Raw and candid, Miller moves from self-pity and brokenness to hope and strength, highlighting a path for millions who are floundering in an age without positive male role models. 

Speaking to both men and women who grew up without a father—whether that father was physically absent or just emotionally aloof—this story of longing and ultimate hope will be a source of strength. Single moms and those whose spouses grew up in fatherless homes will find new understanding of those they love as they travel along this literary journey. 

This is a story of hope and promise. And if you let it, Donald Miller’s journey will be an informal guide to pulling the rotted beams out from our foundations and replacing them with something upon which we can build our lives. 

To read Chapter One, click HERE.

Donald Miller (born August 12, 1971) is a best-selling American author and public speaker based out of Portland, Oregon who focuses on Christian spirituality as "an explanation for beauty, meaning, and the human struggle". Donald is the director of The Burnside Writers Collective, an online magazine. He is a frequent speaker, appearing at events such as the Women of Faith Conference, The Democratic National Convention, and Harvard University.

College golf is the breeding ground for the PGA, and the sport’s overlooked chapter. And in 1995 college golf saw its ultimate showdown. At the NCAA championship, a freshman who would become the sport’s biggest icon stood on the green in a sudden-death playoff that would settle the score in a tense and heated rivalry. Would Tiger Woods sink the putt?

Based on exhaustive reporting and interviews, The Last Putt tells the story of an epic rivalry that encapsulated the changing face of the game. On one side was Oklahoma State, a true golfing dynasty featuring the young bloods of a privileged golf family and a coach whose winning record and reputation for toughness made him a mythical figure. On the other side was Stanford, born of the creative recruiting of an unforgettable group of players: Notah Begay (golf ’s first prominent Native American), Casey Martin (who broke down barriers by playing with a severe disability), and Tiger Woods.

A stirring ensemble tale of young men carving out their futures on and off the course, The Last Putt makes for compelling, stroke-for-stroke reading down to the last putt. 

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

BRIAN MURPHY is a golf columnist for Yahoo! Sports and the host of the popular Murph and Mac morning radio show in San Francisco. From 2001 to 2004 he was the national golf writer at the San Francisco Chronicle.

NEIL HAYES is an award-winning columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and the author of the acclaimed When the Game Stands Tall.

Seized throws open the hatch on the shadowy world of maritime shipping, where third-world governments place exorbitant liens against ships, pirates seize commercial vessels with impunity, crooks and con artists reign supreme on the docks and in the shipyards—and hapless owners have to rely on sea captain Max Hardberger to recapture their ships and win justice on the high seas.

A ship captain, airplane pilot, lawyer, teacher, writer, adventurer, and raconteur, Max Hardberger recovers stolen freighters for a living.  In Seized, he takes us on a real-life journey into the mysterious world of freighters and shipping, where fortunes are made and lost by the whims of the waves.  Desperate owners hire Max Hardberger to “extract” or steal back ships that have been illegitimately seized by putting together a mission-impossible team to sail them into international waters under cover of darkness.  It’s a high stakes assignment—if Max or his crew are caught, they risk imprisonment or death.

Seized takes readers behind the scenes of the multibillion dollar maritime industry, as he recounts his efforts to retrieve freighters and other vessels from New Orleans to the Caribbean, from East Germany to Vladivostak, Russia, and from Greece to Guatemala.  He resorts to everything from disco dancing to women of the night to distract the shipyard guards, from bribes to voodoo doctors to divert attention and buy the time he needs to sail a ship out of a foreign port without clearance.  Seized is adventure nonfiction at its best. 

To read an excerpt from Chapter One, click HERE.

MAX HARDBERGER has been an airplane pilot, a lawyer, a high school teacher, a writer, an adventurer, and a ship captain on commercial freighters. Unique in his area of expertise, he has been repossessing illegitimately seized freighters for the last eighteen years.  His adventures have been featured by NPR, the Learning Channel, and the L.A. Times, among other publications.  When not on the high seas, he lives in Louisiana.

From the authors of the smash bestseller The Carrot Principle comes an inspiring and lively page-a-day guide to harnessing the remarkable power of the carrot—taking yourself and your team to new heights of success in work and life. 

Based on their twenty years of experience teaching leaders at Fortune 100 companies, as well as one of the largest research studies ever conducted on workplace satisfaction, Gostick and Elton share a wealth of wisdom about simple but amazingly effective ways to boost your productivity and work satisfaction by setting clear goals, communicating effectively, building trust, and offering recognition in ways that make others feel appreciated and motivated. 

Each engaging page of The Daily Carrot Principle features a core kernel of wisdom, enlivened by thoughtful and witty quotes from the likes of Thomas Edison, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Jim Collins, and Oprah Winfrey, plus a bonanza of insights from standout managers and employees the authors have studied. An easy-to-implement "carrot action" ends each page, providing the simple steps to begin applying this wealth of wisdom immediately.

Whether you are a business leader, team member, student, mom or dad, or anyone hoping to achieve more in your life, this book will be an inspiring and practical guide to unleashing your hidden potential and leading a richer life. 

Adrian Gostick is the author of several successful books on employee engagement and retention. The Carrot Principle by Simon & Schuster has been a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and The 24-Carrot Manager has been called a “must read for modern-day managers” by Larry King of CNN. In 2006, The Invisible Employee, from John Wiley & Sons also made the New York Times Bestseller list. Adrian’s books have been translated into over 20 languages and are sold in more than 50 countries around the world. As a leadership expert, he has appeared on network television and has been quoted in dozens of business publications and magazines.

Called the “apostle of appreciation,” by the Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest newspaper and “creative and refreshing” by the New York Times, Chester Elton is co-author of several successful leadership books. Elton’s books have been translated into over 20 languages and have sold 700,000 copies worldwide. As a motivation expert, Chester has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Fast Company magazine and the New York Times and has been featured on CNN, ABC “Money Matters,” MSNBC, National Public Radio and 60 Minutes. A sought-after speaker and recognition consultant, Chester is Senior Vice President of the Carrot Culture division with the O.C. Tanner Recognition Company

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden's lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it. 

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry's not fighting to save the world... 

He's fighting to save his child. 

To read excerpts from Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4, click HERE.

Jim Butcher (born in Independence, Missouri, United States, on October 26, 1971) is a New York Times Best Selling author most known for his contemporary fantasy book series The Dresden Files. He also writes the Codex Alera series. Butcher grew up as the only son of his parents, and has two older sisters. He currently lives in Independence with his wife, Shannon K. Butcher (an author of romance novels), one son, and his guard dog, Frostbite Doomreaver MacBane Butcher.