"In this searing and deeply researched examination of the promises and realities of racial integration, award-winning Washington Post journalist Laura Meckler aims to uncover where the problem lies and to shed light on what's being done to move forward-in housing, in education, and in the promise of shared community. In the late 1950s, Shaker Heights became a national model for housing integration. And beginning in the seventies, it was known as a...

Small town romance heads to the wilds of New Zealand in the first installment of a brand-new contemporary series by Jackie Ashenden. Brightwater Valley, New Zealand, is beautiful, rugged, and home to those who love adventure. But it's also isolated and on the verge of becoming a ghost town. When the town puts out a call to its sister city of Deep River, Alaska, hoping to entice people to build homes and businesses in Brightwater, ex paratrooper Chase...

Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times,...

Levi King has never met a woman he couldn't charm--until he meets Indigo Jameson. One of Brightwater Valley's newest citizens, the prickly woman gets under his skin like no one else ever has. Indigo doesn't trust people as a rule. She trusts men--especially handsome ones--least of all. And Levi is the handsomest man she's ever seen. Much to her chagrin, the gorgeous adventure guide seems intent on befriending her. Somehow, Levi manages to get past...

A Small-Town Dreams Story! Prince Charming is the man next door. Small-town business owner Jason Brewster has big dreams: world travel, adventure, and most of all, a passionate romance worthy of a fairy tale. But he doesn't believe fantasies can come true…. Until Adam moves in next door. He's handsome, cultured, European, and best of all, interested in Jason. It's like something out of the stories Jason loves. But Adam-whose real name is Amadeo...

"I wanna become a teacher and then teach in another country," an eight-year-old Canadian girl decided. By the age of twenty-five, she had checked this-her main goal in life-off her bucket list. In March 1992, Lorna Stuber stepped off an Air Canada plane in Tokyo, and embarked on a three-year adventure in a country she had never even thought about visiting until six months prior. Teaching ESL in a suburb of Tokyo-sometimes charging her way ahead,...

"Traces the ... story of Merl Eberly and his Clarinda A's baseball team, which he tended over the course of five decades, transforming them from a town team to a collegiate summer league powerhouse. Along with Ozzie Smith, future manager Bud Black, and star player Von Hayes, Merl developed scores of major league players (six of which are currently playing). In the process, Merl taught them to be men, insisting on hard work, integrity, and responsibility"--Dust...

"A lively and introspective look into Oklahoma City, where colorful city officials business leaders, artists, and sports fans have turned an unassuming Southwestern city into a thriving metropolis with a dazzling basketball team"--

American cities, once economic and social launch pads for their residents, are all too often plagued by poverty and decay. One need only to look at the ruins of Detroit to see how far some once-great cities have fallen, or at Boston and San Francisco for evidence that such decline is reversible. In Boom Towns, Stephen J.K. Walters diagnoses the root causes of urban decline in order to prescribe remedies that will enable cities to thrive once again....

The Straw Hats drop anchor at a town overrun by scallywags, so Nami makes the boys swear to stay out of trouble. But when the Bellamy Pirates come looking for a fight, Luffy may have to break his promise!