Microsoft’s associate general counsel shares a story that is “as nuanced as it is hopeful� (Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader) about his rise from childhood poverty in pre-gentrified New York City to a stellar career at the top of the technology and music industries in this stirring true story of grit and perseverance. For fans of Indra Nooyi’s My Life in Full and Viola Davis’s Finding Me. As an accomplished Microsoft executive, Bruce Jackson handles billions of dollars of commerce as its associate general counsel while he plays a crucial role in the company’s corporate diversity efforts. But few of his colleagues can understand the weight he carries with him to the office each day. He kept his past hidden from sight as he ascended the corporate ladder but shares it in full for the first time here. Born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Jackson moved to Manhattan’s Amsterdam housing projects as a child, where he had already been falsely accused and arrested for robbery by the age of ten. At the age of fifteen, he witnessed the homicide of his close friend. Taken in by the criminal justice system, seduced by a burgeoning drug trade, and burdened by a fractured, impoverished home life, Jackson stood on the edge of failure. But he was saved by an offer. That offer set him on a better path, off the streets and eventually on the way to Georgetown Law, but not without hard knocks along the way. From public housing to working for Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, and its founder, Bill Gates, to advising some of the biggest stars in music, Bruce Jackson’s Never Far from Home is “an important story, extremely well told, that should serve as a lesson on how we got here and where we need to go� (Fred D. Gray, activist and civil rights attorney).

This fun fable teaches children the importance of having self-control and explains how true change—the kind only the great King Jesus can bring—always starts in our hearts.   In the city of Thad, no one is more powerful than King Ira. But Thad has a big problem: Their king has no self-control. When Ira’s anger leads to destruction, Lady Wisdom points the wayward king back to Jesus. After confessing his sins, King Ira is free to serve his people with love, care, and yes, self-control.   More than just a cute bedtime story, King Ira’s tale can lead to meaningful talks with your children about our everyday battle with sin and how we can ask God to help us resist the temptation to act out. This and other great suggestions for family discussions are included in the back of the book.   The King Who Found His Self-Control will engage your children and equip you to teach your young ones more about how King Jesus can rule in their hearts.                   

From Microsoft's President and one of the tech industry's wisest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates.

Microsoft President Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: when your technology changes the world, you bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create.

This might seem uncontroversial, but it flies in the face of a tech sector long obsessed with rapid growth and sometimes on disruption as an end in itself. While sweeping digital transformation holds great promise, we have reached an inflection point. The world has turned information technology into both a powerful tool and a formidable weapon, and new approaches are needed to manage an era defined by even more powerful inventions like artificial intelligence. Companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the future, and governments will need to regulate technology by moving faster and catching up with the pace of innovation.

In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne bring us a captivating narrative from the cockpit of one of the world's largest and most powerful tech companies as it finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These are challenges that come with no pre-existing playbook, including privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of artificial intelligence, big tech's relationship to inequality, and the challenges for democracy, far and near. While in no way a self-glorifying "Microsoft memoir," the book pulls back the curtain remarkably wide onto some of the company's most crucial recent decision points as it strives to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats it also presents. There are huge ramifications for communities and countries, and Brad Smith provides a thoughtful and urgent contribution to that effort.

In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith takes us behind the scenes on some of the biggest stories to hit the tech industry in the past decade and some of the biggest threats we face. From Edward Snowden's NSA leak to the NHS WannaCry ransomware attack, this book is essential reading to understand what's happening in the world around us.

Like a building site well-stocked with quality raw materials, your church abounds with possibilities--life-changing ministries just waiting to be developed. The Equipping Church Guidebook shows you how. Refining and expanding groundbreaking material, this in-depth approach helps you identify, equip, and empower lay ministers who will profoundly influence your church and your community. Behind this volume lies a massive body of research on hundreds of equipping churches across the country. Now you and your leadership team can reap the benefits with this exhaustive, hands-on resource. Nothing else compares with it. Designed and field-tested by today s leading architects of equipping ministry, Leadership Training Network, The Equipping Church Guidebook is a blueprint for custom-building the systems and culture that are ideal for your church. Part one, Building an Equipping Ministry Vision and Culture, explains what an equipping church is, walks you through the conceptual stages, and helps your church transition to equipping vision and values. Part two, Building an Equipping Ministry System, helps you lay relational and strategic foundations, and then build on them an equipping system that gives structure and effectiveness to every aspect of church life. The Equipping Church Guidebook includes * Detailed information, clear instructions, and helpful examples * Abundant charts, graphs, and diagrams * Worksheets and assessment forms to help you apply the concepts in this book * Practical suggestions and checklists * 'Contractors Conferences' to foster dialogue and decision-making as a leadership team Together with The Equipping Church, this guidebook helps you and your leadership team catch and implement the vision of Ephesians 4:11-13--equipping the saints for works of service that lead to spiritual maturity--in your church. One of the most challenging and exciting journeys in your church s life lies ahead of you. Let the adventure begin "

Police & Society, Ninth Edition, offers an in-depth and analytical look at policing, from police behavior and organization to operations and historical perspectives. Focusing on the relationship between the police and the community and how it has changed throughout the years, the authors explore the most important theoretical foundations and incisive research on contemporary policing and show how that research is put into practice. The text is enhanced by extensive pedagogy and a unique chapter on higher education and policing.

When a deranged loner kills 26 people in a Pennsylvania schoolyard, the country is stunned and devastated. Among those catatonic with grief is Jo Matheson, an organic farmer who lost her goddaughter in the shooting. Sam Jackson, an egotistical right-wing TV talking head, has slidingratings and faces imminent cancellation. He arrives in Pennsylvania and during a rant, he blames the parents of the dead children. He intends the tirade to be his last salvo but, incredibly, his ratingsclimb, while Jo watches from her farmhouse in upstate New York, incensed. Sam rides the wave, shouting that its time to take the country back from the left-wing weaklings who dont have the courage to protect their children. When he is asked to run for Congress, he accepts and amplifies his message. Watching these developments in horror, Jo finally decides that there actually is something she can do.She kidnaps Sams ten-year-old daughter.

Does your family have an emergency plan to ride out the aftermath of a disaster? Can you imagine anything more frightening than not being able to communicate with loved ones, to know that they are all right and to report you are as well? The Red Cross and FEMA websites have online checklists to follow in the event of an emergency, but they leave out critical information. They tell you to have an emergency radio with AM, FM and Weather capabilities but don't explain how to find the stations that are provided with emergency information. They don't explain why cell phones may not operate during a disaster. They don't tell you how you can stay in touch with family and friends by radio. This book explains how to actually use those emergency radios in plain language, and in a step-by-step format. In plain language you will learn about different radios that are available to you and how to use them. With a little training, on your own and with this book, you can use two-way radios to communicate with your loved ones, regardless of whether phone and cell towers are functioning. In addition, you can use these same radios to stay abreast of changing conditions and changing emergency situations.

Brad Smith, a "funny, poignant, evocative" (Dennis Lehane) crime novelist, debuts a new series set in upstate New York featuring jack-of-all trades, Virgil Cain, who must clear his name of two murders while on the run from the law in this spirited country noir.
Mickey Dupree is one of the most successful criminal attorneys in upstate New York, having never lost a capital murder case. That is the upside of being Mickey. The downside: Mickey has a lot of enemies and one of them drives the shaft of a golf club through his heart, leaving him dead in a sand trap at his exclusive country club.
The cops, led by a dim-witted detective named Joe Brady, focus their attentions on Virgil Cain. Just two weeks earlier Virgil told a crowded bar that "somebody ought to blow Mickey's head off," after the slippery lawyer earned an acquittal for Alan Comstock, the man accused of murdering Virgil's wife. Comstock, a legendary record producer, gun nut, and certifiable lunatic, has returned to his estate, where he lives with his wife, the long suffering Jane.
It appears to Virgil that the fix is in when Brady immediately throws him into jail with no questions asked. In order to set things right, Virgil escapes from jail, determined to find Mickey's killer himself. Aside from a smart and sexy detective named Claire Marchand, everybody is convinced that Virgil is the culprit. When Alan Comstock is discovered with six slugs in his body the day after Virgil's escape, his guilt is almost assured. Now it is up to Virgil to convince everyone of his innocence--by finding the killer before he winds up as the next victim.

Learning about wine has been a lifelong journey for Angelo Tavernaro. Reading this book will make you feel like you are taking a trip with a friend who knows all the best places to stop and sip the wine. As a result of years of learning and teaching others about wine, this book contains an in-depth description of wine grape varietals from throughout the world. It is a remarkable combination of hard facts interspersed with opinions and perceptions from years in the wine industry, an intriguing combination. With the depth of information, this book will appeal to both the beginning wine lover to those working in the hospitality and wine service industry. Learn the history of wines crafted in countries around the world. What makes their wine special? Find out if it is the grape varietal or the terroir. Whether you are a connoisseur or just entering the world of wine, reading this book will infect you with a new passion for wine.

Legacy is the authors account of the trials he has encountered throughout his life and the lessons he has learned from them.

Back in the Garden, work was fun. Yet, in today's fallen world, joy and work are rarely used in the same sentence. But God really does intend for us to find joy in our work. Join Raymond Bakke, Brad Smith, and Bill Hendricks as they explore what the Bible says about the purpose of business and our right to a joyful workplace. No matter where you spend those 50 or 60 hours during the week--whether it's in business, government, or the nonprofit sector; in church, at home, or anywhere else--God intends for you to find joy in your work. This 10-week study accompanies Joy at Work, a book by Dennis W. Bakke, co-founder and CEO of AES, a worldwide energy giant with 40,000 employees in 31 countries. Shaped by his faith, Bakke recounts his quest to create the most fun workplace ever--using principles established in the Garden. This study provides the biblical map that he used as he charted and led that journey. Starting with the Genesis record of creation and moving through Revelation, this Bible study supplements Joy at Work with: Biblical readings that unveil the principles behind each chapter in Joy at Work A synthesis of theological principles Reflective questions to prepare readers for small-group discussion Questions for small-group discussion Guidelines for immediate and long-term application for business and nonprofit leaders at all levels of corporations and organizations. The Joy at Work experience has the power to profoundly change your workplace and your life.

The hunter becomes the hunted: Carl Burns pursues the ruthless gang who targeted him in this fast-paced, suspenseful thriller. Happily ensconced at River Road Farm and planning to start their own maple syrup business, life is good for Carl Burns and his partner Frances, who also stars in her own TV show. But, unwittingly, Frances's TV exposure has attracted unwelcome attention. Targeted by a gang of small-time criminals who need to get their hands on a large amount of cash - fast, Carl and Frances's perfect lives are shattered in an instant. With clues as to the gang's identity thin on the ground, the cops' hands are tied. It's up to Carl to track down the perpetrators and bring them to justice - in whatever way he can.

Carl Burns returns to his hometown to uncover a viper's nest of corruption and dark secrets in this tense and twisting novel of suspense . . . After ten years' absence and a spell in prison, Carl Burns has returned to his hometown of Rose City to offer support to his estranged daughter Kate, currently one of four witnesses testifying against former Mayor Joseph Sanderson III, who stands accused of multiple counts of underage rape. Carl is determined to get justice for Kate, whatever it takes. But with his former sister-in-law Frances his only ally, he finds himself incurring the wrath of powerful enemies as he attempts to uncover the shocking truth beneath the layers of corruption and lies which engulf the town.

Carl Burns returns to his hometown to uncover a viper's nest of corruption and dark secrets in this tense and twisting novel of suspense . . . After ten years' absence and a spell in prison, Carl Burns has returned to his hometown of Rose City to offer support to his estranged daughter Kate, currently one of four witnesses testifying against former Mayor Joseph Sanderson III, who stands accused of multiple counts of underage rape. Carl is determined to get justice for Kate, whatever it takes. But with his former sister-in-law Frances his only ally, he finds himself incurring the wrath of powerful enemies as he attempts to uncover the shocking truth beneath the layers of corruption and lies which engulf the town.

Carl Burns returns to his hometown to uncover a viper's nest of corruption and dark secrets in this tense and twisting novel of suspense: first in a brand-new series. After ten years' absence and a spell in prison, Carl Burns has returned to his hometown of Rose City to offer support to his estranged daughter Kate, currently one of four witnesses testifying against former Mayor Joseph Sanderson III, who stands accused of multiple counts of underage rape. Carl is determined to get justice for Kate, whatever it takes. But with his former sister-in-law Frances his only ally, he finds himself incurring the wrath of powerful enemies as he attempts to uncover the shocking truth beneath the layers of corruption and lies which engulf the town.