Thirteen years ago, Kristina Kuzmič , was a broke and defeated mother of two; recently divorced; juggling jobs and sleeping on the floor next to her kids. She never imagined that a lo-fi cooking show she pieced together to reach other moms in the trenches would get Oprah’s attention. Today, she speaks directly to her 2.8 million Facebook followers in honest, funny parenting videos on topics from “Mind your own Motherhood” to a satirical PSA “4 Reasons women should NEVER breastfeed in public.” Her star is rapidly rising, and she recently took her message of acceptance and resilience on the road to 22 sold-out cities. Her witty, knowing, and sympathetic voice is captured on the page in her first book HOLD ON, BUT DON’T HOLD STILL: Hope and Humor from My Seriously Flawed Life.

Kristina Kuzmič was born in Croatia and is a world-renowned speaker known for her unique insight and humor on family-related topics. She currently lives in Southern California with her husband, where her more important, rewarding, and exhausting careers include being a sanitation engineer, chef, chauffeur, and conflict-resolution guru for her three (mostly satisfied) clients—her children.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Operation Treadstone is a top-secret CIA Black Ops program that made uses behavior modification to turn government agents into virtually superhuman assassins.  The agents can lead normal lives until “activated,” at which point they become killing machines deployed to undertake nearly impossible missions.  Treadstone made Jason Bourne an unstoppable force, but he's not the only one.

Treadstone has nearly ruined Adam Hayes. They trained him to be a nearly invincible assassin, but it also cost him his family. Adam only wants normalcy, but the savage voices in his head still haunt him and control his responses. Now living in rural Washington state and scraping by as a carpenter, his marriage is a shambles and he hates being separated from his young son, but at least he has left Treadstone in the past…until he receives a mysterious email from a former colleague stating, “By the time you get this I’ll be dead…”.  Soon after, Adam is attacked by an unknown hit team at his job site.

Now, Adam is wholly sucked back into the Treadstone universe and must regain the skills they taught him––lightning reflexes and a cold conscience––in order to discover who the would-be killers are, and why they have come after him now. Are his pursuers enemies from a long-ago mission? Rival intelligence agents? Or, perhaps, someone inside Treadstone? His search will lead him to the highest levels of government and place him once more in the path of the extreme danger he thought he’d left behind.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joshua Hood is the author of Warning Order and Clear by Fire. He graduated from the University of Memphis before joining the military and spending five years in the 82nd Airborne Division. He was a team leader in the 3-504 Parachute Infantry Regiment in Iraq from 2005-2006 where he conducted combat operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. From 2007-2008, Hood served as a squad leader with the 1-508th Parachute Infantry Regiment in Afghanistan where he was decorated for valor in Operation Furious Pursuit. On his return to civilian life he was a sniper team leader on a full time SWAT team in Memphis, TN, where he was awarded the lifesaving medal. Currently he works as the Director of Veteran Outreach for the American Warrior Initiative.

Robert Ludlum was the author of twenty-seven novels, each one a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 225 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. He is the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, and the Jason Bourne series––The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum––among others. Mr. Ludlum passed away in March 2001.

In FRANKLIN & WASHINGTON: The Founding Partnership (William Morrow), Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson delivers a masterful, first-of-its-kind dual biography of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington,  revealing their partnership’s centrality to the American founding—and their enduring relevance. Vastly different men, Benjamin Franklin—abolitionist freethinker from the urban North—and George Washington— slaveholding general from the agrarian South—were the indispensable authors of American independence and the two key partners in the attempt to craft a more perfect union at the Constitutional Convention, held in Franklin’s Philadelphia and presided over by Washington. And yet their teamwork has been little remarked upon in the centuries since.

Author Bio:

Edward J. Larson received the Pulitzer Prize in History for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. He is the coauthor of Modern Library’s The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison and the author of The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783–1789, and A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign. He was an inaugural Library Fellow at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. Larson is University Professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and received his PhD in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Larson travels widely as a media commentator, visiting instructor, and guest speaker. An Ohio native, Larson now lives in California.

Michael P. Balzano, Ph.D., the author of DYSLEXIC: My Journey, was a high-school drop out who couldn’t hold down a job. The son of working-class immigrants who lived pay check-to-paycheck, Balzano was known as “Crazy Mikey” for his unruly behavior. He was thrown out of one Catholic school, a public school, and the military. He lost dozens of minimum-wage jobs for his disruptive behavior. Not one of his teachers recognized that Balzano had a learning disability, which was the source of his bad behavior.

From his earliest days, when Balzano looked at the printed page, the letters appeared to him in reverse order. Had his teachers been trained to identify learning disabled students at the time he was in elementary school, it would have been clear that he was dyslexic. In DYSLEXIC, Balzano describes his life as an example of what other learning-disabled students can achieve. His book is a call to action for parents, teachers, and school counselors not only to recognize the signs of dyslexia and other learning disabilities, but also to understand the importance of alternative paths to success besides college.

Balzano went to college after he became a craftsman, and credits his success in life to entering an optical apprenticeship, which taught him self-discipline. He encourages learning-disabled students to consider careers in the trades or industrial arts and to enter college, if that is their goal, after entering apprenticeships in the trades. “An apprenticeship can change your child’s life,” says Balzano.

ABOUT MCHAEL P. BALZANO

Appearing out of nowhere to horrify the quiet resort town of Sanibel Island, Florida, dozens of identical, ordinary-looking shoes float in on the tide and are washed up on the tropical beach–each one with a crudely severed human foot inside.

Called away from vacation elsewhere in the state, Agent Pendergast reluctantly agrees to visit the crime scene–and, despite himself, is quickly drawn in by the incomprehensible puzzle. An early pathology report only adds to the mystery. With an ocean of possibilities confronting the investigation, no one is sure what happened, why, or from where the feet originated. And they desperately need to know: are the victims still alive?

In short order, Pendergast finds himself facing the most complex and inexplicable challenge of his career: a tangled thread of evidence that spans seas and traverses continents, connected to one of the most baffling mysteries in modern medical science. Through shocking twists and turns, all trails lead back to a powerful adversary with a sadistic agenda and who–in a cruel irony–ultimately sees in Pendergast the ideal subject for their malevolent research.

Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock met on May 12, 1975 and formed Air Supply.The band recently performed their 5000th concert in Las Vegas. Last month they were proclaimed the top 5 Greatest Aussie Bands of All Time. They perform about 130 concerts each year, including this Thursday night at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

I talked to Graham about songwriting, how the band has lasted, and their very first tour with Rod Stewart. Photo credit: Denise Truscello.

About MINOR DRAMAS & OTHER CATASTROPHES:

When a devoted teacher comes under pressure for her progressive curriculum and a helicopter mom goes viral on social media, two women at odds with each other find themselves in similar predicaments, having to battle back from certain social ruin.

Isobel Johnson has spent her career in Liston Heights sidestepping the community’s high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of Anti-Americanism and a liberal agenda, she’s in the spotlight. Meanwhile, Julia Abbott, obsessed with the casting of the school’s winter musical, makes an error in judgment that has far-reaching consequences for her entire family.

Brought together by the sting of public humiliation, Isobel and Julia learn firsthand how entitlement and competition can go too far, thanks to a secret Facebook page created as an outlet for parent grievances. The Liston Heights High student body will need more than a strong sense of school spirit to move past these campus dramas in an engrossing debut novel that addresses parents behaving badly and teenagers speaking up, even against their own families.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathleen West is a veteran middle and high-school teacher. She graduated with a degree in English from Macalester College and holds a Master's degree in literacy education from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis with her hilarious husband, two sporty sons, and very bad goldendoodle.

Imagine an event that brings hundreds of Members of Congress—from both chambers and parties— together for an evening to learn about and revel in American history. Not only is it true, it’s happened more than 38 times over the past six years.

In 2013, David Rubenstein, philanthropist and co-founder of The Carlyle Group, approached the Librarian of Congress with an idea for an event series in which Members of Congress could put politics aside and immerse themselves in the history of the nation. Thereafter began the Congressional Dialogue series: a dinner event held several times a year during which historic artifacts are exhibited and Rubenstein interviews bestselling and award-winning authors and historians for a Congressional audience. Now, in Rubenstein’s The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians (available October 29, 2019), these compelling conversations with the biggest names in American history are presented for all to learn and enjoy.

In this lively collection of dialogues, esteemed historians explore the subjects they intimately know and understand. There’s Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton, Walter Isaacson on Benjamin Franklin, Doris Kearns Goodwin on Abraham Lincoln, Taylor Branch on Martin Luther King Jr, Chief Justice John A. Roberts Jr. on the Supreme Court, and more. With encyclopedic knowledge on their respective subjects, these experts answer questions like: How close did the world come to its first nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis? Why has John Adams long been given so much less public praise and attention than the other Founding Fathers? How did Ronald Reagan, a former B-movie actor who failed twice to get his party’s presidential nomination, become one of the most consequential presidents of the latter half of the twentieth century?

Rubenstein, a lifelong history enthusiast, has become an insightful and revealing interviewer through his role as President of the Economic Club of Washington, DC and as host of Bloomberg’s The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations. He coined the phrase “patriotic philanthropy” and tirelessly advocates for causes that elevate history’s importance and accessibility in our nation. Rubenstein has purchased rare copies of historic documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Magna Carta to ensure they’re put on public display at places like the Smithsonian and the National Archives. He’s helped finance the restorations of historical landmarks like Washington Monument, Monticello, and the Lincoln Memorial so people may visit and be inspired to learn more about American history. In this vein, Rubenstein will donate all royalty revenues from sales of The American Story to the Library of Congress’s Literacy Awards.

About the author: David M. Rubenstein is a Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest and most successful investment firms. Mr. Rubenstein is Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Rubenstein is an original signer of The Giving Pledge, and a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, and the MoMA’s David Rockefeller Award, among other philanthropic awards. Mr. Rubenstein is the host of The David Rubenstein Show on Bloomberg TV and PBS. He lives in Maryland.

Piper Manning’s about as tough as they come, she’s had to be. She raised her siblings and they’ve thankfully flown the coop. All she has to do is finish fixing up the lake house her grandparents left her, sell it, and then she’s free.

When a massive storm hits, she runs into a tall, dark and brooding stranger, Camden Reid. There’s a spark there, one that shocks her. Surprising her further, her sister and brother return, each of them holding their own secrets. The smart move would be for Piper to ignore them all but Cam unleashes emotions deep inside of her that she can’t deny, making her yearn for something she doesn’t understand. And her siblings…well, they need each other.

Only when the secrets come out, it changes everything Piper thinks she knows about her family, herself…and Cam. Can she find a way to outrun the demons? The answer is closer than she thinks—just as the new life she craves may have already begun.

New York Times Bestselling Author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold, and visit her website, ww.jillshalvis.com, for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

Few of us realize that much of our language in the workplace inhibits creative problem-solving and escalates uncertainty and stress. In both high-pressure situations and everyday scenarios, in each meeting and email, we have the opportunity to empower (or disempower) our colleagues. In Turn the Ship Around!, former US Navy Captain David Marquet, told the incredible story of abandoning command-and-control leadership on his submarine and empowering his crew to turn the worst performing submarine to the best performer in the fleet. In LEADERSHIP IS LANGUAGE, you'll learn how choosing your words can dramatically improve decision-making and execution on your team