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An ancient legend says that Jesus had a twin brother, Thomas. An extra-Biblical text that dates from perhaps as early as the late first century CE (which would make it the same age as the Biblical Gospels) claims to be the secret teachings of Jesus as recorded by Judas Didymos Thomas. The Greek word Didymos and the Aramaic word Thomas both mean twin. While only several Greek fragments of this manuscript, dating to the early second century CE, actually exist, a manuscript written in Coptic from the fourth century was discovered in 1945. This Gospel of Thomas contains 114 purported sayings of Jesus, many of which resemble passages in the New Testament. Drawing upon years of extensive research in early Jewish and Christian history and recent work on the historical Jesus, acclaimed novelist Ron Cooper focuses on Thomas of Nazareth, old and bitter after years of self-imposed exile from his homeland, who returns to Jerusalem to write a book about his identical twin brother Jesus. Disgusted by how others have perverted his brothers message, Thomas wants to set the record straight. But in doing so, he must try to unravel the enigma that was Jesus. Provocative, inventive, and sure to be controversial, The Gospel of the Twin draws upon scriptural and ancient, non-Biblical sources to present an imaginative version of the founding of Christianity through scenes of violence, tenderness, and mistaken identity that will change the way the world thinks about Jesus. For fans of such books as Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan, Killing Jesus by Bill OReilly, and even such Dan Brown novels as The Da Vinci Code, Coopers The Gospel of the Twin will also appeal to readers of such sophisticated Bible scholars as Bart Erhman, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and Elaine Pagels, all of whom have written academic works as well as books more accessible to the general reader. With The Gospel of the Twin, Cooper provides a potentially controversial, compellingly human, and thoroughly readable page-turner -- his own brilliant version of what many call "the greatest story ever told".

In the crushing complacency of suburbia, mid-life crises pop in on men''s lives unannounced. For one Long Island podiatrist, it takes an impromptu act of vandalism just to make him aware of his own being. Walking home in the sub-zero wind chill of a Friday night, he stumbles on a bottle of horseradish, twisting his ankle, and in a moment of adrenaline-fuel anger, chucks it over his shoulder ... and through the window of a popular store selling tween fashions. This one tiny, out-of-character impulse turns his life vivid and terrifying, triggering waves of fear, crooked cops, and suspicions of anti-Semitism, both accurate and paranoid. The story is told by this same podiatrist, an often hysterical, endearingly wide-eyed, and entirely nameless narrator, to what he regards as the perfect audience: a comatose college friend. Yet, our narrator''s most unique quality lies simply in his glowing love for his wife Alyse, the girl of his dreams whom he met in college and still can''t quite believe he married. She is the mother of his two children, Esme and Charlie, who are just starting to come into their own minds and experiencing their first encounters with prejudice. Chock full of heart and humour, this is the debut novel of former Seinfeld writer Peter Mehlman, shows how one man''s story is never really his story alone -- it is the story of his family, of his friends, of those he neglected, of those he remembers, of his enemies, and of his hopes, failures, dreams, and realities. And how one man''s moment of rage snowballs into an entirely new life for him and his neighbours.

Allie Argos, her parents long ago imprisoned, has grown up under the dubious care of her nasty foster mother, Oda Friendly, and her horrible sons, in Baltimore''s crumbling, long ago abandoned, and somehow ever-shifting Greaser Hotel. The arrival of the hotel''s owner, ageless capitalist Marvin Greaser, prompts Allie''s closest friend, the magical and somehow talking cat Jerome, to engineer her escape. The first of a planned trilogy, award-winning young adult author J Scott Fuqua''s urban fantasy is a thrilling and surreal adventure, bolstered by 115 remarkable and vivid illustrations.

When it comes to surviving the joys of parenthood, take Sandi Kahn Shelton's advice: You Might As Well Laugh. In this hilarious collection of essays and columns, Shelton offers humor as the best therapy for post-modern parenting. From lost keys and broken appliances to chicken pox and outrageous homework assignments, this working mother of three explores the everyday quirks and joys of fast-paced family life with wit and candor.Hailed as a young Erma Bombeck, Shelton has a knack for finding the absurd details that can wreak havoc on a household. Her wide-eyed, embracing style has made her the number one humor columnist among working mothers all over the country. Shelton has been writing her "Wit's End" column for Working Mother magazine since 1989 and her weekly column in the New Haven Register since 1987.When it comes to surviving the joys of parenthood, take Sandi Kahn Shelton's advice: You Might As Well Laugh. In this hilarious collection of essays and columns, Shelton offers humor as the best therapy for post-modern parenting. From lost keys and broken appliances to chicken pox and outrageous homework assignments, this working mother of three explores the everyday quirks and joys of fast-paced family life with wit and candor.

Kaufman''s Hill opens with a prosaic neighbourhood scene: The author and some other young boys are playing by the creek, one of their usual stomping grounds. But it soon becomes clear that much more is going on; the boy-narrator is struggling to find his way in a middle-class Catholic neighbourhood dominated by the Creely bullies, who often terrify him. It''s the Pittsburgh of the early and mid-1960s, a threshold time just before the counter-culture arrives, and a time when suburban society begins to encroach on Kaufman''s Hill, the boy''s sanctuary and the setting of many of his adventures. As the hill and the 1950s vanish into the twilight, so does the world of the narrator''s boyhood. "My pappy says if you''re going to be afraid of everything, you may as well live in the sewer" are the words that first open the narrator''s eyes. And once he befriends the enigmatic, erratic, but charismatic Taddy Keegan, he becomes bolder and no longer lives in abject fear of the Creelys. The narrator''s relationship with Taddy proves to be unconventional, though. Taddy, caught in his own imaginary universe, is often unaware of companions around him. The narrator focuses on uncovering the mystery of Taddy: Why does he live his life like he''s a performer? Who is he really? The narrator''s world is a mix of exhilarating freedom -- because of absent parents, teachers, and priests -- and imminent dangers. And his home life is problematic. The narrator observes his taciturn father as he copes with manic behaviours and cyclically repeating problems, while his mother struggles to better the life not just of her young son, but that of her African American cleaning woman in a time of racial animosity and racially-related urban violence. The boy watches his parents with eyes too young to truly understand, and is increasingly disappointed by an increasingly remote father who rarely speaks to him. As the narrator matures, his self-concept shifts within a widening world that includes disconcerting sexual experiences with public school girls, and his struggle to frame himself within the realm of the Catholic Church. He finds flaws with all but one religious figure, an aunt, who is a sublime and mystical presence in his life. The narrator joins sports teams that bring him back to the same kind of childhood "friends" he wanted to escape, and he questions whether he himself could act like a bully. When he begins high school, the narrator, at a dramatic moment, leaves boyhood behind, which might just include leaving Taddy Keegan behind as well. John C Hampsey''s "Kaufman Hill" is lyrical and profound. It captures the dynamics of the lost world of boyhood in a way no one has before. No wonder the late, great historian Howard Zinn called it "the best book written on American boyhood in decades".

The year is 2021 and the money is still green. The fully privatized city of Tulsa, OK, is home to Sara Paige Christie, a teenage girl with her heart set on a film career in L.A. and her camera trained on the graffiti-covered walls of the city''s outskirts. In pursuit of a documentary subject that might propel her from college hopeful to film school admittee at USC, Sara has focused her ambitions upon a singularly ubiquitous tag -- WH2RR?? From the facades of storefronts to the walls of public restrooms, the tag is appearing nearly everywhere. Its stark all-capital letters and demanding question marks have captured Sara''s imagination, even as the private security personnel of Free Force Tulsa (FFT) scramble to eliminate the marks with power washers, gray-overs, and full censorship, stripping even photographs of the tags from the locally accessible Internet. Sara has no doubt that there is meaning hidden in plain sight, and she sets off on a mission to find the person behind the mysterious tags while balancing an already full life: her final exams, her wild best friend, a physical fitness test that threatens her GPA, and a family that seems almost oblivious to what''s happening just down the street from their suburban home. With the exception, perhaps, of her father. A retired Marine turned FFT investigator, Sara''s dad has been on the trail of the graffiti artist for his own professional reasons. And if he knows what''s going on, he''s not telling Sara. And they''re not the only ones on the hunt... Tensions are rising in town and beyond. Between the machinations of the city''s home-grown megachurch, Chosen Hill, and the movements of a growing camp of homeless citizens parked just beyond Tulsa''s comfort and security, life in Tulsa is about to become very interesting, and Sara just might be in the right place to catch it all on film... but only if she survives.

With so much written, rumored, told, and retold about Marilyn Monroe, it's amazing to consider how much we still don't know. On the screen she was iconic, radiant, and yet her talent so rarely earned her respect. In life she was intelligent, brilliant, and yet regarded as little more than Hollywood's blonde bombshell.She was the wife of baseball stars and playwrights and the plaything of the president. She was full of life, even as drugs and depression drove her ever-closer to death.But who was the real Marilyn Monroe, beyond the hit films and the headlines? Take away Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Prince and the Showgirl, Some Like It Hot and The Misfits, and who was the Norma Jean underneath?Psychoanalyst and longtime biographer Dr. Alma Bond has explored the hidden lives of remarkable women like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Camille Claudel. Now she turns her analytical eye to the untold story of Marilyn Monroe, the woman everyone wanted to see and touch, but whom almost no one actually wanted to know.Dr. Bond imagines, in detail, a several-year stretch during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Marilyn, an exceedingly fragile figure, submits to analysis on the couch of Manhattan psychoanalyst Dr. Darcy Dale. When Marilyn returns to Hollywood, their sessions turn to correspondence as the truth of Marilyn's final years is revealed.Brilliantly, entertainingly, and movingly, Marilyn Monroe: On the Couch shows just what lay beneath Marilyn's iconic beauty. Dr. Dale, a fictional stand-in for the author, sees Marilyn Monroe as few ever have, both inside and out, and transfers those insights to readers. It's impossible to imagine anyone providing a better, more complete, intimate, and unforgettable understanding of this truly remarkable, even pivotal figure in film and sexual history.