“You know, I actually think about that an awful lot, like, what is our purpose in life? Why am I here? I always think about some little kid being like, ‘What’d you do with your life?’ And me being like, ‘Well, I sold a bunch of floors.’� These are the words of Bjarki Thor Gunnarsson, the young man who manufactures the widest, purest, most metaphorical pine floorboards on the planet. At least, that’s what Matthew Clark believes. Set mostly in rural Maine, Bjarki, Not Bjarki is an expansive book. It is a standard work of journalism, describing with nuance and humanity the people and processes that transform the forest into your floor. It is also a meditation on what it means to know another person and to connect with them, especially in an increasingly polarized America. And it is a ghost story about marriage. It is an inquiry into the limits of language and certainty, a rumination on North American colonization, masculinity, gift cards, crab rangoon, bald eagles, and wood, all of it told in an exciting, energized, and original prose. Bjarki turns out to be someone quite different from whom the author had hoped. A new pine floor buckles. A coyote is shot. A diamond is lost. How do we make sense of the world and of ourselves, especially when the floor beneath us is so unstable; when nothing is quite what we had hoped it would be?

Distracted by the everyday routine of raising children, being a wife, and keeping a home, Lorraine Morrissey let life pass her by. Her wake up call comes when she realizes that with their children gone, her husband Richard is rarely home, and she's filling her solitary days with trivial tasks. A crazy idea to save her marriage leads to a summer beach vacation unlike any she's ever taken; one that involves unknowingly buying a haunted house.

Lacey Harrison has been dealt an unexpected hand in life: being a single mom. With her father's help and that of the residents at Royal Hills Nursing Home, she thrives and goes on to become a successful baker. She is content with her life but knows that she and her daughter Candy are missing something. Will things change for the better when Trent Childress moves into town and adds some spice to her sugar?

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is a scientific organization created in 1879, and is part of the U.S. government. Their scientists explore our environment and ecosystems, to determine the natural dangers we are facing. The agency has over 10,000 employees that collect, monitor, and analyze data so that they have a better understanding of our problems. The USGS is dedicated to provide reliable, investigated information to enhance and protect our quality of life. This is one of their reports.

This diary is the record of one man's thoughts and feelings as he undertakes the journey of a lifetime. He is the first astronaut in history to be sent to a distant world. Once there he encounters Sharanrala, a human teacher whose people were brought to her planet thousands of years ago. Together they explore her amazing world and discover a new perspective on human science and spirituality--one that might hold the key to solving some of the Earth's most pressing problems. Together they travel back through both time and space to arrive at the dawn of the twenty-first century, just in time to share their message with a world on the brink of a new awareness that may have the potential to solve some of the Earth's most pressing problems.