A thrilling story of scientific detective work and medical potential that illuminates the newly understood role of microglia—an elusive type of brain cell that is vitally relevant to our everyday lives. “The rarest of books: a combination of page-turning discovery and remarkably readable science journalism.”—Mark Hyman, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY WIRED Until recently, microglia were thought to be helpful but rather boring: housekeeper cells in the brain. But a recent groundbreaking discovery has revealed that they connect our physical and mental health in surprising ways. When triggered—and anything that stirs up the immune system in the body can activate microglia, including chronic stressors, trauma, and viral infections—they can contribute to memory problems, anxiety, depression, and Alzheimer’s. Under the right circumstances, however, microglia can be coaxed back into being angelic healers, able to make brain repairs in ways that help alleviate symptoms and hold the promise to one day prevent disease. With the compassion born of her own experience, award-winning journalist Donna Jackson Nakazawa illuminates this newly understood science, following practitioners and patients on the front lines of treatments that help to “reboot” microglia. In at least one case, she witnesses a stunning recovery—and in others, significant relief from pressing symptoms, offering new hope to the tens of millions who suffer from mental, cognitive, and physical health issues. Hailed as a “riveting,” “stunning,” and “visionary,” The Angel and the Assassin offers us a radically reconceived picture of human health and promises to change everything we thought we knew about how to heal ourselves.

Damien is an assassin, a man with no home and a tortured past. Sold into slavery as a young boy, he is trained to kill with cold calculation, without remorse. As a reward for his ruthless success, he is given a chance to earn his freedom from his cruel master. One last mission. One final person to slay...Lady Aurora of Acquitaine is the epitome of purity and goodness, beloved by all her people. She lives her life trying to atone for her mother's cruelty by being a fair and just ruler. Secretly she fears that one day her mother's murderer will return for her.When Damien enters Aurora's life, tempting her with promises of dark passion and forbidden lust, he threatens to tear her peaceful world apart with shadowy secrets of his own.Can Aurora's light heal Damien's dark spirit or will his evil consume her? The eternal battle of good versus evil, love versus hate, dark versus light, all come to a shattering climax in this historical romance set in medieval England.

This is what I know: My name is Angel. My age is fourteen (I think). I have an X-shaped scar on my face, always have. My hair color is blond, and my eyes are blue. I have migraines, and they give me nightmares. These are the facts, pure and simple. But nothing is simple in Angel’s life when a student ends up dead. Now, more than ever, it is crucial for her to blend in. But when her every move is being watched and tested; will Angel make it through her training alive?

While channeling Robin Hood's "steal from the rich and give to the poor" attitude at a local politician's house, ex-con Katie Logan witnesses a forced suicide. Dirty or not, supernatural or not, he didn't deserve to die, especially not by his own hand. But with her record, stepping forward as a witness isn't an option. On the run from the police and the murderer, she turns to The Bound Ones for help. When a beautiful woman comes to The Bound Ones, half-angel assassin Cain is immediately drawn to her. But when she fingers him as the killer, he can come to only one conclusion. The twin he thought was dead is very much alive...and trying to send him a message. Unfortunately, that message is: "You're next." It's a race against time as Cain fights to save the woman he's falling in love with before his brother Abel destroys them both.

He's not that kind of angel.Jarrid is a "Bound One": half angel, half human, trained from childhood to enforce Heaven's laws on earth. An assassin with no remorse. And no choice. When he discovers an ancient ritual called Ascension, which might give him a shot at freedom, he can't resist his lifelong dream. He only needs to find one last Renegade angel and take him down...using a certain woman to flush the angel out of hiding.She's not what he's expecting.News reporter Ionie Gifford has no clue an outlaw angel wants her dead, much less why, but she does know one thing: the enigmatic Jarrid, with his penetrating silver eyes and his worship-worthy body, is her ticket to the city's supernatural underworld, where she might finally be able to locate her mother's killer. For that kind of information, she's willing to risk everything...They can't be together -- but can't keep apart...Blindsided by Ionie's beauty and tenacity, Jarrid finds the millennia-old glacier around his heart melting. But when he's faced with a choice, will he sacrifice Ionie for freedom from his brutal servitude--or agree to be bound for eternity, to protect the life of the woman he's falling in love with?From novelist Tricia Skinner comes a story that will have fans of action-packed love stories applauding. Seamlessly combining elements of paranormal romance and gritty urban fantasy, the Angel Assassins series is a heart-pounding spin on angel mythology.

The prophesied child has been found. Many factions will fight to gain control of him. Will the Drakim rise again? Jake Avalon lives a privileged life on his Grandfather's estate. He has everything a 16 year old boy would want, money, freedom and great friends. His life, however, begins to unravel when he encounters a man hiding in a corn field on the estate. The man turns out to be the brother he didn't know he had, Xavier, his protector. Jake is a phenomenon, he is half human and half angel. He is the prophesied child, who would re-establish an ancient order of angel assassins. He bears the mark of The Drakim, destined to become a very powerful man and all hell, heaven and everything in between wants a piece of that power. Some will come to take that power for evil, others as leverage to secure their own precarious position of power. There are those, like his brother and a certain suspected renegade archangel called Gabriel, who will do everything in their power to ensure that Jake has a choice.