Madigan Library Popular Collection: March 2025

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder, Freya Lockwood and Aunt Carole are on the hunt once again to return priceless stolen antiques and catch a dangerous criminal abord a cruise ship. When a painting vanishes from a maritime museum and a dead body is found nearby, the newly established Lockwood Antique Hunter's Agency, Freya Lockwood and her Aunt Carole, are called to investigate. Following a lead that takes them aboard a glamorous antiques cruise sailing toward the Red Sea in Jordan, they quickly discover that the ships art gallery is filled with stolen antiquities. Each antique is also listed in Freya's late mentor's journals that detail unsolved cases. In chasing a murderer with a stolen painting, they may have found something more sinister than they could've imagined... Their hunt soon turns deadly when they learn the enigmatic and dangerous art trafficker named The Collector could be on board. But on a ship full of antiques enthusiasts--plus some unexpected familiar faces--will Freya and Carole be able to discover the Collector's identity and stop his murderous plans before the ship docks? Or will the killer strike again?

From the New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over and Flying Solo, a podcast producer agrees to host a new series about modern dating--but will the show jeopardize her chance at finding real love? "Romantic, smart, and exactly the book we all need right now. I adored this."--Annabel Monaghan, author of Nora Goes Off Script "You'll sink into this story and never want it to end."--Elissa Sussman, author of Funny You Should Ask Cecily Foster loves to make podcasts. She fiercely protects her colleagues, dearly adores her friends, and never misses dinner with her sister. But after a disastrous relationship with a colleague who stole her heart and her ideas, she's put romantic love on hold. When the boss who's disappointed her again and again finally offers her the chance to host her own show, she wants to be thrilled. But there's a catch--actually, two catches. First, the show will be about Cecily's dating life. And second, she has to follow the guidance of influencer and newly minted relationship coach Eliza Cassidy, whose relentlessly upbeat attitude seems ready-made for social media, not real life. Cecily would rather do anything other than put her singledom on display (ugh) or take advice from the internet (UGH). But when her boss hints that doing the show is the only way to protect a friend's job, she realizes she has no choice. To make matters more complicated, once she's committed to twenty blind dates of Eliza's choosing, Cecily finds herself unable to stop thinking about Will, a photographer she helped to rescue a very big and very lovable lost dog. Even though there are sparks between the two, Will's own path is uncertain, and Eliza's skeptical comments about Cecily's decision-making aren't helping. On the one hand, Will seems great. But on the other hand . . . don't they all? As Cecily struggles to balance the life she truly desires and the one Eliza wants to create for her, she finds herself at a crossroads. Can Cecily sort through all the advice and find a way to do what she loves without losing herself in the process?

Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be. Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.  

The first book in a blockbuster new series from USA Today bestseller, Ward Larsen! In the wilds of Siberia, a top-secret Russian fighter goes missing on a test flight. The Russian Air Force begins a search, oblivious to their error: they are looking in the wrong spot. The pilot, Colonel Maxim Primakov, has crash landed during an attempted defection.The new chief of CIA clandestine operations, David Slaton, wants desperately to find him, but only one man is in a position to reach Primakov--Tru Miller, a rookie operator. Slaton plots a rescue deep inside Russia, not realizing that he will have to outfox the one other man who knows the truth. Victor Dubonin is a general in Russian intelligence. His search for Primakov is deeply personal--and if he doesn't succeed it will cost him his life.Soon a small group of Americans, including its top female test pilot, Kai Drake, find themselves hunted in the wilds of Russia. Their survival will depend on one thing--just how resourceful and lethal they can be.

All Hamish Macbeth wants is a quiet life in his peaceful home in the Highland village of Lochdubh. But when his newly-assigned constable arrives, he presents Hamish with a surprise and a secret. Getting to the bottom of the secret becomes the least of Hamish's problems when he meets a family who have a score to settle with a sinister man who has mysteriously gone missing. Discovering a murdered woman's body puts further pressure on Hamish, especially when it becomes clear that the murdered woman and the missing man are linked. To Hamish's horror, he then finds himself working on the murder case with the despicable Detective Chief Inspector Blair-his sworn enemy-who has been drafted in under curious circumstances. With a growing list of suspects, ever more bewildering circumstances and Blair hindering him at every turn, Hamish must find the murderer before anyone else falls victim.   Never has a quiet life seemed further from his grasp!

Taking over her parents' estate-sale business is not the life's work that Emma Lewis bargained for.  Yes, she grew up helping them empty people's nests, but nothing prepared her for her biggest and stickiest "get"--the grand, beautiful house of ill repute masquerading as a decidedly beddable B and B.   Should Emma turn down potential clients in need of decluttering just because they are shady, escort-y, and proud of it? No. A girl must make a living. Around some hairpin turns Lipman ingeniously reveals a straight shot to happiness.

How well does she truly know the man she loves? And what danger does she face if her entire life has been built on a lie? It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla's life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But, when she wakes, her husband Luke isn't there, and in his place is a cryptic note. Then it starts. Breaking news: there's a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive, and tell her Luke is involved. But he isn't a hostage. Her husband - doting father, eternal optimist - is the gunman. What she does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind that morning says... 

A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this "lushly painted" (People) historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam. Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian--an enigmatic and volatile man--spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. That journey takes a unexpected turn when Marguerite, accused of betrayal, is brutally punished and abandoned on a small island. Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she'd never before needed. Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

A woman invited to her wealthy fiance's family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret--and that she's been there before, by the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods. A whirlwind romance. When Theodora Scott met Connor--wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family--she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he's brought her to Idlewood, his family's isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives. Stay away from Connor Dalton. Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can't ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood. I've been here before. Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.

Kerry's life is in shambles: Her husband has left her, her drinking habit has officially become a problem, and though the deadline for her big book deal--the one that was supposed to change everything--is looming, she can't write a word. When she sees an ad for a caretaker position at a revitalized roadside motel in the Catskills, she jumps at the chance. It's the perfect getaway to finish her book and start fresh.  But as she hunkers down in a blizzard, she spots something through the window: a pale arm peeking out from a heap of snow. Trapped in the mountains and alone with a dead, frozen body, Kerry must keep her head and make it out before the killer comes for her too. But is the deadly game of cat-and-mouse all in her mind? The body count begs to differ . . .

A Parisian department store, a mysterious necklace and a woman's quest to unlock a decade-old mystery are at the center of this riveting novel of love and survival, from New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before, when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe --and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war.    Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss Ian, with whom she shares a romantic history.  The necklace leads them to discover the dark history of Lévitan--a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison, and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France.   Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the department store and Franny's death. But nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever. Inspired by the true story of Lévitan, Last Twilight in Paris is both a gripping mystery and an unforgettable story about sacrifice, resistance and the power of love to transcend in even the darkest hours.  

From celebrated New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry comes the latest installment in his wildly popular Cotton Malone series--now in development as a streaming series. The Medici Return takes Cotton to Italy to solve a five hundred year-old mystery.   Cotton Malone is on the hunt for a forgotten 16th century Pledge of Christ--a sworn promise made by Pope Julius II that evidences a monetary debt owed by the Vatican, still valid after five centuries--now worth in the trillions of dollars.  But collecting that debt centers around what happened to the famed Medici of Florence--a family that history says died out, without heirs, centuries ago.  Who will become the next prime minister of Italy, and who will be the next pope? Finding answers proves difficult until Cotton realizes that everything hinges on when, and if, the Medici return.

With his lover imprisoned in a Russian gulag, the Gray Man will stop at nothing to free her in this latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. A winter sunrise over the great plains of Russia is no cause for celebration. The temperature barely rises above zero, and the guards at Penal Colony IK22 are determined to take their misery out on the prisoners--chief among them, one Zoya Zakharova. Once a master spy for Russian foreign intelligence, then the partner and lover of the Gray Man, she has information the Kremlin wants, and they don't care what they have to do to get it. But if they think a thousand miles of frozen wasteland and the combined power of the Russian police state is enough to protect them, they don't know the Gray Man. He's coming, and no one's safe.

Edie Walker's life is not going as planned. At thirty-five, she feels stuck: in her career, in her love life, and in her tiny San Francisco studio apartment. It doesn't help that her best friend, Peter Masterson, is basically the über successful male version of her--and she's hopelessly, unrequitedly in love with him. But when Peter breaks up with his girlfriend of seven years, Edie thinks her life might finally be turning around. He'll discover how toxic dating app culture is and realize that Edie has been right for him all along. Except Peter almost immediately lands a date with Anaya Thomas, a gorgeous, whip-smart professor and writer of feminist literature who even Edie--reared in the culture of tech bros--is smitten by. Unlike the women Peter has dated before, Anaya is like an alternate reality version of Edie--one with shampoo commercial hair and a meaningful career, who definitely doesn't spend her weekends scrolling social media alone in her apartment. It's only a matter of time before Peter falls head over heels for this woman; Edie herself is infatuated after one meeting. Then, Anaya is found dead in her apartment. Right after a date with Peter. Driven by her near-fanatic love of Anaya's work and a desperate need to prove Peter's innocence, Edie begins searching for clues to what really happened that night. As her obsession with the investigation grows, so do her doubts in Peter. When the truth finally comes to light, Edie must decide where her loyalties lie, who deserves justice--and who deserves to be punished. Provocative, tense, and compulsively readable, Nothing Serious is a shrewdly observed, astonishingly heartfelt debut combining a darkly funny takedown of online dating with an honest examination of the challenges women face every day--but don't dare discuss--from a brilliant new voice in contemporary fiction.

Psychologist Alex Delaware and Homicide Detective Milo Sturgis race against time to find a twisted killer in this riveting thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling "master of suspense" (Los Angeles Times). People come to Los Angeles to chase their dreams. Sometimes they find themselves cast into a nightmare. And sometimes, the most ardent dreamers turn out to be the most vicious monsters. The body of an aspiring actress is found dumped near a hospital emergency room. She's been drugged and murdered and the motive for the callous crime remains maddeningly out of reach. Until, a prime suspect materializes. Another Hollywood hopeful. Only to be shot dead by a sniper using a weapon that turns out to have been catalogued in a previous murder. And another, before that. It's not long before more bodies begin piling up. What makes the murderous spree baffling is the apparent lack of connection among the victims. Is this the work of a random thrill killer, the toughest of all cases to unravel? But as Alex and Milo dig deeper they're faced with an even knottier scenario: a highly complex killer with deep-seated motivation that will require all of their highly honed skills to decipher. The latest page-turner from #1 New York Times bestseller Jonathan Kellerman, is a tale of psychological complexity, dark suspense, and shocking surprises. A wild ride through L.A.'s surreal underbelly climaxed by an edge-of-the chair conclusion.

I'm sure you believe you know their story from reading that other book, which told you an inspiring tale about four sisters. It told you a story, but did it tell you the story? Four sisters, each as different as can be. Through the eyes and words of Jo, their characters and destinies became known to millions. Meg, pretty and conventional. Jo, stubborn, tomboyish, and ambitious. Beth, shy and good-natured, a mortal angel readily accepting her fate. And Amy, elegant, frivolous, and shallow. But Jo, for all her insight, could not always know what was in her sisters' thoughts, or in their hearts. With Jo away in New York to pursue her literary ambitions, Meg, Beth, and Amy follow their own paths. Meg, newly married with young twins, struggles to find the contentment that Marmee assured her would come with domesticity. Unhappy and unfulfilled, she turns to her garden, finding there not just a hobby but a calling that will allow her to help other women in turn. Beth knows her time is limited. Still, part of her longs to break out of her suffocating cocoon at home, however briefly. A new acquaintance turns into something more, offering unexpected, quiet joy. Amy, traveling in Europe while she pursues her goal of becoming an artist, is keenly aware of the expectation that she will save the family by marrying well. Through the course of her journey, she discovers how she can remain true to herself, true to her art, and true to the love that was always meant to be. Purposefully leaving Jo off the page, authors Liz Parker, Ally Malinenko, and Linda Epstein draw inspiration from Alcott's real-life sisters, giving the other March women room to reveal themselves through conversations, private correspondence, and intimate moments-coming alive in ways that might surprise even daring, unconventional Jo.

London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment. May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they're stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden. Inspired by a true story in Sayers' own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels.

Before the Rebellion, the Empire reigns, in book one of a trilogy told through the eyes of Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera--for fans of Andor. "In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire! For a safe and secure society!"   With one speech and thunderous applause, Chancellor Palpatine brought the era of the Republic crashing down. In its place rose the Galactic Empire. Across the galaxy, people rejoiced and celebrated the end of war--and the promises of tomorrow. But that tomorrow was a lie. Instead, the galaxy became twisted by the cruelty and fear of the Emperor's rule.   During that terrifying first year of tyranny, Mon Mothma, Saw Gerrera, and Bail Organa face the encroaching darkness. One day, they will be three architects of the Rebel Alliance. But first, each must find purpose and direction in a changing galaxy, while harboring their own secrets, fears, and hopes for a future that may never come unless they act.

Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. That is until an unbearable tragedy strikes. New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who's in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the "party of the year." Meanwhile, Charlotte is now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met's celebrated Department of Egyptian Art. She's consumed by her research on Hathorkare--a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant. The night of the gala: One of the Egyptian art collection's most valuable artifacts goes missing, and there are signs Hathorkare's legendary curse might be reawakening. Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, and a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she'd never return: Egypt. But if they have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past--which may mean leading them both directly into danger.

A year after her child is born, Jane suffers a series of strange episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations, and an inexplicable sense of dread. Three days after her first visit to a psychiatrist, Jane suddenly goes missing. A day later she is found unconscious in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, in the midst of what seems to be an episode of dissociative fugue; when she comes to, she has no memory of what has happened to her. Are Jane's strange experiences the result of being overwhelmed by motherhood, or are they manifestations of a long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died twenty years ago and who warns her of a disaster ahead? Jane's symptoms lead her psychiatrist ever deeper into the farthest reaches of her mind and cause him to question everything he thinks he knows about so-called reality--including events in his own life. Karen Thompson Walker's profound and beautifully written novel is both a speculative mystery about memory, identity, and fate and a mesmerizing literary puzzle about the bonds of love--between mother and child, between a man and a woman, and among those we've lost but who may still be among us.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job--or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn't even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail's ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max's past.

Lila Kennedy has a lot on her plate. A broken marriage, two wayward daughters, a house that is falling apart, and an elderly stepfather who seems to have quietly moved in. Her career is in freefall and her love life is . . . complicated. So when her real dad--a man she has barely seen since he ran off to Hollywood thirty-five years ago--suddenly appears on her doorstep, it feels like the final straw. But it turns out even the family you thought you could never forgive might have something to teach you: about love, and what it actually means to be family.

One winter morning, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at a hospital in Seoul. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet--a white bird called Ama. A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon's house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal--or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn't yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into the darkness that awaits her at her friend's house. Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully illuminates a forgotten chapter in Korean history, buried for decades--bringing to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering, it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable violence--and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be.

A riveting literary page-turner that maps the extremes to which a family will go in order to protect their own. No one appears more surprised than Hailey Gelman when she comes under suspicion for the murder of her soon-to-be ex-husband Jonah. Hailey--nicknamed Sunshine by her mother for her bright outlook and ever-present smile--has always tried to do what is expected of her and is regarded as the family peacemaker. But is anyone, including Hailey, who she has always seemed to be? The months leading up to Jonah's death have been fraught, including a bitter separation and a messy custody battle over their young daughter, Maya. When Hailey files a motion to relocate to Florida so she can be near her family, Jonah retaliates and the divorce begins to spiral dangerously out of control. Sherry, Hailey's mother, will stop at almost nothing to keep Jonah from getting what he wants. Nate, Hailey's impetuous and protective older brother, has tried to keep his distance, but he can't stand to see his little sister suffer. And then there's Solomon, the patriarch, who is keeping a secret that threatens the stability and security Sherry has worked so hard to maintain. Soon, they are forced to reckon with who they are as individuals and as a family, and just how far they will go for each other. Inspired by a true story, We Would Never is a gripping mystery, an intimate family drama, and a provocative exploration of loyalty, betrayal, and the blurred line between protecting and forsaking the ones we love most.

When renowned anonymous author J. R. Alastor hires former aspiring writer Mila del Angél to host a writing retreat at his private manor off the coast of Maine, she jumps at the chance--particularly since she has an axe to grind with one of the invitees. The guest list? Six thriller authors, all masters of deceit, misdirection, and mayhem. Confess the crimes, survive the tropes. Alastor and Mila have masterminded a week of games, trope-fueled riddles, and maybe a jump scare or two--the perfect cover for Mila to plot a murder of her own. But when a guest turns up dead--and it's not the murder she planned--Mila finds herself trapped in a different narrative altogether. One by one, you'll lose your turn. With a storm isolating the island, and the body count rising, Mila must outwit a killer who knows literally every trick in the book. Until only one of us remains . . .

The first African American Rockette charts her journey to one of the world's most celebrated dance troupes in this gripping memoir that, for the first time, goes behind the velvet curtains at Radio City's legendary holiday show. "Smashing through glass windows and paving the way for others requires a special blend of bravery and perseverance. Being a pioneer involves breaking down stubborn barriers, challenging closed-minded people and navigating through instances of racism and prejudice. This journey often included facing ongoing resistance from individuals who were unwilling to embrace change. It's believing in your dream--that you can be and do whatever it is that you love."--Jennifer Jones The Radio City Rockettes are as American as baseball, hot dogs, and the Fourth of July. Their legendary synchronized leg kicks, precise lines, and megawatt smiles have charmed audiences for a century. But there is a hidden side to this illustrious national institution. When the Rockettes began in 1925, Black people were not allowed to dance on stage with white people. However, during the Civil Rights Movement, dance history changed significantly when Black and white dancers were permitted to perform together, marking a moment of progress and inclusivity in the world of dance and entertainment. Even so, as late as the early 1980s, Rockette director Violet Holmes said having "one or two Black girls in the line would definitely distract." In 1987 the 63-year color barrier at Radio City was finally broken by one brave and tenacious woman. When she arrived, Jennifer Jones was met with pushback--a fierce resistance she details in this intimate and inspiring memoir. After overcoming seemingly impossible odds to join the line of The Rockettes, a PR director summoned the Black dancer to her hotel room and announced, "You're old news, nobody cares about you, your story or anything about you. You're just lucky to be here." Those words would haunt this shy, insecure biracial woman, who had always felt like an outsider. Like Gelsey Kirkland's iconic Dancing on My Grave, Becoming Spectacular allows us to walk in Jones' tap shoes--beautiful and glittering, yet painful and binding. Bringing into focus the wounded life of a trailblazer, this searing memoir is also a triumphant celebration of a spirit who refused to be counted out.

From LA Times bestselling author Mallory O'Meara, the story of America's first professional stuntwoman, Helen Gibson, who rose to fame during a time when women ruled Hollywood. Helen Gibson was a woman willing to do anything to give audiences a thrill. Advertised as "The Most Daring Actress in Pictures," Helen emerged in the early days of the twentieth-century silent film scene as a rodeo rider, background actor, stunt double, and eventually one of the era's biggest action stars. Her exploits on motorcycles, train cars, and horseback were as dangerous as they were glamorous, featured in hundreds of films and serials--yet her legacy was quickly overshadowed by the increasingly hypermasculine and male-dominated evolution of cinema in the decades that would follow her. Award-winning author Mallory O'Meara presents her life and career in exhilarating detail, including: Helen's rise to fame in The Hazards of Helen, the longest-running serial in history How Helen became the first-ever stuntwoman in American film The pivotal role of Helen's contemporaries--including female directors, stars, and stuntwomen who shaped the making of cinema as we know it. Through the page-turning story of Helen's pioneering legacy, Mallory O'Meara gives readers a glimpse of the Golden Age of Hollywood that could have been: an industry where women call the shots.  

In How to Win at Travel, Brian Kelly shares his greatest tips and strategies to experience the world in ways you never thought possible. This compre­hensive guide is a road map with all of the knowledge and tools you need to become an expert traveler. Get practical advice on a range of topics, including how to find the cheapest flights; effectively leverage airline, hotel, and credit card loyalty programs; conquer your fear of flying; beat jet lag; and score free flights and upgrades. Kelly also covers the ins and outs of travel insurance and getting the right credit cards to make your travel more affordable and enjoyable. He discusses the art of dealing with travel mishaps, speaks to the technology you need to manage modern travel, and shares ideas for pinpointing the best destination for you. Whether you're a young adult traveling solo, a road warrior business traveler, a growing family looking for new experiences, or a retiree ready to explore the world, reach for this guide to plan an unforgettable trip. Easy to read, informative, and inspirational, How to Win at Travel is the definitive travel guide for your next adventure, no matter how big or small.

From the deaf baseball legend and MLB Ambassador for Inclusion, a powerful anthem of ability diversity and overcoming the odds for readers of Nyle DiMarco's Deaf Utopia and sports memoirs such as Imperfect by Jim Abbott, Des Linden's Choosing to Run, and Limitless by Mallory Weggemann. FOREWORD BY NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME MEMBER CAL RIPKEN, JR. On a September night in Montreal in 1993, Curtis Pride got his first Major League hit, prompting a long, emotional standing ovation from the crowd of 45,757 fans. Profoundly deaf since birth, Pride couldn't hear their thunderous applause. But as the cheers grew louder and more insistent, he realized he was feeling those vibrations within his chest-an undeniable acknowledgment of an extraordinary achievement. Pride went on to play in 420 more major-league games over eleven different seasons with the Montreal Expos, Detroit Tigers, Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels, and New York Yankees. He was then hired as head baseball coach at Gallaudet, the world's leading university for deaf and hard of hearing students and was also named Major League Baseball's Ambassador for Inclusion. Pride has received countless national and local awards for his achievements and his service in inspiring and educating others. With candor, warmth, and humor, Pride writes from the heart in I Felt the Cheers. From the first time he played T‑ball at age six and got a couple of hits, he dreamed of playing in the major leagues. No matter how unlikely it seemed, or how much skepticism he faced from teammates or coaches, Pride stayed resolute. Far from it being a disadvantage, he came to see that his deafness could sometimes be a secret weapon, forcing him to use senses that other players take for granted. Curtis's personal journey is unique, but his message is a powerful, universal one, sure to resonate deeply with everyone who has faced difficult challenges. I Felt the Cheers is living proof that dreams can come true, no matter how impossible they seem.

The definitive biography of Lorne Michaels, the man behind America's most beloved comedy show "The kind of biographical monument usually consecrated to founding fathers, canonical authors and world-historical scientific geniuses."--The New York Times "Readers are treated to the Holy Grail for any journalist hoping to crack the show: a warts-and-all week in the life of SNL, where Morrison gets to see the real process of putting the thing together."--Variety Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of Saturday Night Live, he has become a revered and inimitable presence in the entertainment world. He's a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys--and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him. He's "Obi-Wan Kenobi" (Tracy Morgan), the "great and powerful Oz" (Kate McKinnon), "some kind of very distant, strange comedy god" (Bob Odenkirk). Lorne will introduce you to him, in full, for the first time. With unprecedented access to Michaels and the entire SNL apparatus, Susan Morrison takes readers behind the curtain for the lively, up-and-down, definitive story of how Michaels created and maintained the institution that changed comedy forever. Drawn from hundreds of interviews--with Michaels, his friends, and SNL's iconic stars and writers, from Will Ferrell to Tina Fey to John Mulaney to Chris Rock to Dan Aykroyd--Lorne is a deeply reported, wildly entertaining account of a man singularly obsessed with the show that would define his life and have a profound impact on American culture.

The business triumphs of Bill Gates are widely known: the twenty-year-old who dropped out of Harvard to start a software company that became an industry giant and changed the way the world works and lives; the billionaire many times over who turned his attention to philanthropic pursuits to address climate change, global health, and U.S. education. Source Code is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It's the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today: his childhood, his early passions and pursuits. It's the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden death of his best friend; of his struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers in the dawn of a new era; of embarking in his early teens on a path that took him from midnight escapades at a nearby computer center to his college dorm room, where he sparked a revolution that would change the world. Bill Gates tells this, his own story, for the first time: wise, warm, revealing, it's a fascinating portrait of an American life.

A globe-trotting work of relentless investigative reporting, this is the first major book to expose the catastrophic reality of the multi-billion-dollar global garbage trade. Dumps and landfills around the world are overflowing. Disputes about what to do with the millions of tons of garbage generated every day have given rise to waste wars waged almost everywhere you look. Some are border skirmishes. Others hustle trash across thousands of miles and multiple oceans. But no matter the scale, one thing is true about almost all of them: few people have any idea they're happening. Journalist Alexander Clapp spent two years roaming five continents to report deep inside the world of Javanese recycling gangsters, cruise ship dismantlers in the Aegean, Tanzanian plastic pickers, whistle-blowing environmentalists throughout the jungles of Guatemala, and a community of Ghanaian boys who burn Western cellphones and televisions for cents an hour, to tell readers what he has figured out: While some trash gets tossed onto roadsides or buried underground, much of it actually lives a secret hot potato second life, getting shipped, sold, re-sold, or smuggled from one country to another, often with devastating consequences for the poorest nations of the world.  Waste Wars is a jaw-dropping exposé of how and why, for the last forty years, our garbage -- the stuff we deem so worthless we think nothing of throwing it away -- has spawned a massive, globe-spanning, multi-billion-dollar economy, one that offloads our consumption footprints onto distant continents, pristine landscapes, and unsuspecting populations. If the handling of our trash reveals deeper truths about our Western society, what does the globalized business of garbage say about our world today? And what does it say about us?