As Olympic snowboarder Corey LaCroix and skier Elise Brandies ride the razor's edge between victory and defeat on the slopes, they also face a heat neither of them is prepared for in their safe worlds of snow and ice. The stakes become steeper than any mountain either of them will ever face when legacies and hearts collide at breakneck speed.

In the Celtic way of prayer the divine glory was intertwined with the ordinariness of everyday events like the patterns on carvings and illuminated gospels. The modern prayers in this book beautifully recapture that tradition. They were composed in a small parish in the north of England to help individuals and groups rediscover the use of life's simple rhythms in their worship of the Eternal Presence. Here are prayers for individual devotions and for corporate worship, as well as for quiet days and retreats.

Major General William S. Rosecrans (1819–1898) was one of the most fascinating and tragic figures of the Civil War. In September 1863 President Lincoln and Congress considered him the most able general on the Union side, but only one month later “Old Rosy” was removed from his command and then quickly forgotten. With The Edge of Glory, William M. Lamers returns this imposing, colorful figure to his rightful place in history. Lamers examines Rosecrans’s experiences at Iuka and Corinth during the Mississippi campaign, the strategic brilliance that led to the withdrawal of Bragg’s men from Tullahoma and Shelbyville, and his role as commander of the Army of the Cumberland in the Tennessee battles of Stone’s River and the disastrous Chickamauga. Yet the demise of Rosecrans’s distinguished military career, Lamers illustrates, was not a result of his humiliating defeat at Chickamauga but of his difficult, uncompromising personality and the scorn he aroused in many of his superiors, including General Ulysses S. Grant and Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s secretary of war. Although Rosecrans fell short of greatness as a military commander, Lamers deftly shows that he did indeed reach “the edge of glory.”

Present oil prices are destroying the economies of Iran and Russia. Is this what happens when we push two of our biggest enemies to a breaking point? We can only wait and see but. should it happen, how could we possibly fight 3 million men and machines on their soil. If the Russians step in and help nuclear options are off the table, Closing the busiest sea route for oil will cause a spike that could destroy the faltering World economy and enable the Russians to make $billions. We have to stop them and this may be the only option. The best trained soldiers in the world in lightning attacks. Violence, death, destruction, money and sex combine in this almost futuristic look at the world tomorrow..................End

In these pages, Rent offers what most theater books can't: a chance to step behind the curtain and feel the electricity of a stage phenomenon as it unfolds. Rent has single-handedly reinvigorated Broadway and taken America by storm. Sweeping all major theater awards, including the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama, as well as four 1996 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score for a Musical, Rent captures the heart and spirit of a generation, refleting it onstage through the emotion of its stirring words and music, and the energy of its young cast. Now, for the first time, Rent comes to life on the page -- through vivid color photographs, the full libretto, and an utterly compelling behind-the-scenes oral history of the show's creation. Here is the exclusive and absolutely complete companion to Rent, told in the voices of the extraordinary talent behind its success: the actors, the director, the producers, and the librettist and composer himself, Jonathan Larson, whose sudden death, on the eve of the first performance, has made Rent's life-affirming message all the more poignant.

They practice for years in cold, dark rinks with a single dream; they train for decades for one moment: to skate onto the ice with the whole world watching to try to win the Olympic gold medal. If they stumble, the gold is gone. If they succeed, their lives can be changed forever. In Edge of Glory Christine Brennan tells the riveting stories of the world’s best figure skaters as they travel through the most intense year of their young lives. As she did in the bestselling Inside Edge, Brennan goes backstage at major competitions and behind the scenes at the practice rinks to chronicle the figure skaters’ quest for victory at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. The year opens with the 1997 U.S. national championships in Nashville, where the teenage Michelle Kwan, a favorite for the Olympic gold medal, dissolves on the ice during a wrenching four-minute performance. As Kwan bursts into tears leaving the rink, tiny Tara Lipinski arrives on the ice and steals the show. The crowd roars, and a new ice queen—all seventy-five pounds of her—is crowned. Tara shrieks in delight as she begins a run of historic victories, but she knows that she is paying a high price for winning. Living apart from her father, Tara can find her practice sessions overwhelming, and sometimes leaves the ice in a frenzy as her mother watches in horror. In the 368 days from Nashville to Nagano, other women will vie for the gold, including the unpredictable Nicole Bobek, the lyrical Lu Chen, and even a college graduate, Tonia Kwiatkowski, who would love simply to make the U.S. team. The men's competition has turned into an unprecedented jumping contest, led by Canada's controversial Elvis Stojko. But the men's field is deep, and nothing is certain when a skater flies into the air for a four-revolution jump. Todd Eldredge of the United States and Russia's Alexei Urmanov and Ilia Kulik are chasing Stojko, as are some youngsters, including America's top jumper, Michael Weiss. On the way to the Olympics, Brennan catches up with the famous and infamous, including Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul, Brian Boitano, Scott Hamilton, Rudy Galindo, and the exquisite Russian pairs. She introduces us to the people behind the scenes: the edgy agents who are never far from their cellular phones; the attentive coaches and choreographers who have devised the intricate moves that will determine who wins the gold and who does not; and the stern judges, who control the sport from their rinkside seats. But Edge of Glory is, ultimately, the story of the athletes who compete in the most popular and beloved of all winter sports. What drives these skaters through the year? What do they fear? What are their dreams? More importantly, who will win? And who will lose?