From the television we watch and the films we consume to the experience of user-generated content, this volume explores various forms of popular culture as teaching tools. Teaching popular culture well hinges on the application, not the mere inclusion of popular culture artifacts. It is the nuance of praxis where theory meets practice, the artful marriage of academic knowledge with popular culture. In this volume, the authors leverage popular culture as a powerful teaching tool that is fam...

Matthews dream is to be a writer. Too bad hes the only one who seems to see the potential in himself. During his senior year of high school, Matt is beginning to feel the pressures of his dreams closing in around him. Still, he has no idea how he should go about being a writer at all. That is, until his English teacherthe intolerable Ms. Castroinforms him that he will be tutoring a sophomore by the name of Lexi OReilly. Suddenly, Matthew finds something worth writing about. As his writing ...

**The plan was to sell the family bookstore and flee Texas, not play sheriff . . . “**Joan Hess and Margaret Maron [fans] will find much to appreciate in this series.” —Kings River Life MagazineWhen kindergarten teacher Charli Rae Warren hightailed it out of Hazel Rock, Texas, as a teen, she vowed to leave her hometown in the dust. A decade later, she’s braving the frontier of big hair and bigger gossip once again . . . but this time, she’s saddled wit...

“Value, worth – these are things I don’t have. College degree, great job – none of it matters if you look in the mirror and can’t find anything to love.” Candace Jones.Structure, dedication, and determination are the traits Candace Jones has survived on. Life is a school of hard knocks.Lance “Rush” Miller works hard and plays even harder.He lives his life from one adrenaline rush to the next. He has it made and he knows it.What happens when firm res...

Janelle Marshall's life is finally going according to plan. Her perfect, upscale career—and her perfect, successful boyfriend—will make her future as secure and predictable as her childhood never was. And with luck, Little Bill, the grandfather who raised her, will someday understand why she’d rather play it safe than be impulsive. But just when she should be happiest, she gets a distressing call: Little Bill has gone missing. Now Janelle must go to the one place she's long avoided—the tin...

Running an independent bookstore in small-town Hazel Rock, Texas, doesn’t sound like a high-risk pursuit. But when a fundraiser reveals a story with a truly killer ending, Charli Rae Warren will need to scramble to sort out the deadly plot…Sponsoring the literacy drive to benefit the foster care system should be a feel-good endeavor, but one of Charli’s helpers is definitely on another page. Charli’s dad is distracted and keeping something secret, which Charli suspects is ...

A sweet contemporary romance about a boy who falls in love with his best friend and the girls who help them get together.Jamie Peterson has a problem: Even though he tries to keep his feelings to himself, everyone seems to know how he feels about Mason, and the girls in his art class are determined to help them get together. Telling the truth could ruin Jamie and Mason’s friendship, but it could also mean a chance at happiness. Falling in love is easy, except when it’s not, and Jam...

“What smart, memorable, inventive stories these are—skilled, insightful, full of heart.”—Joan Silber, author of Ideas of HeavenAlethea Black's deeply moving and wholly original debut features a coterie of memorable characters who have reached emotional crossroads in their lives. Brimming with humor, irony, and insights about the unpredictable nature of life, the unbearable beauty of fate, and the power that one moment, or one decision, can have to transfor...

"Elise Sax will win your heart." -- Jill Shalvis, New York Times bestselling author"Fans of laugh-out-loud romantic suspense will enjoy this author as she joins the ranks of Janet Evanovich, Katie MacAllister, and Jennifer Crusie."--Booklist"Elise Sax will make you laugh. Her larger-than-life characters jump off the page and make crazy seem like a fun place to hang out."--Christie Craig, New York Times bestselling author of Texas Hold 'Em“Elise Sax belongs on every ...

From the bestselling author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier comes an "exhilarating, searing" (The Washington Post) collection of short stories framed by two unforgettable linked narratives.“With this collection, Ann Packer takes her place among today’s best authors of literary fiction.” —The Minneapolis Star-TribuneA wife struggles to make sense of her husband’s sudden disappearance. A mother mourns her teenage so...

Bestselling author Katherine Applegate presents Home of the Brave, a beautifully wrought middle grade novel about an immigrant's journey from hardship to hope.Kek comes from Africa. In America he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He's never walked on ice, and he falls. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter – cold and unkind.In Africa, Kek lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his m...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “An extraordinary short story collection that deserves our closest attention.”—Detroit Free Press“Elizabeth Berg’s gift as a storyteller lies most powerfully in her ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, the remarkable in the everyday.”—The Boston GlobeIn this superb collection of short stories, Elizabeth Berg takes us into pivotal moments in the lives of women, when memories and events co...