Imagine the mid-1980s, last day of school, summer break. A teen rushes to meet his mother, who is being released from the hospital after cancer surgery. When the teen arrives, he finds out his mother is dead, but his ex-gangbanging dad, who's been in jail the last eight years, is at the hospital, ready to take the teen home.

Mendel is a coming-of-age story about a high school senior who must learn how to forgive as he navigates life without his mother. Things come to a head when the teen accidentally finds his mom's diary. In the journal, he discovers his mother's dreams of becoming a collegiate track star were derailed due to getting pregnant with him. To honor his mother, he joins Mendel's track team, but before he could cash in on any scholarship offers, his father's thuggish past catches up with them when a gun-toting nemesis comes seeking revenge. The teen must decide between saving his own life or sacrificing it all to save his estranged father.

It's the late 1960s on Chicago's south side. Neighborhoods in this part of the city are changing colors virtually overnight as African Americans and Hispanics move in great numbers from southern states to opportunities in the rust belt cities of the Northeast and Midwest. Racial tensions between whites and blacks increase sending many white families scurrying off to the surrounding suburbs. Gang activity spreads like a virus through the South and West Sides of the city as crime rates begin a decade-long march to unprecedented levels. Enrollment in private Catholic schools peaks before beginning a long, slow decline by the end of the century.

This is the setting for Men of Mendel, a personal account of growing up in the inner-city in a time of social upheaval while attending one of Chicago's many, all-boys Catholic high schools. Men of Mendel is an often hilarious and sometimes irreverent recollection of life among the Augustinian Fathers. They had the unenviable task of providing a quality, -college preparatory- education to 1,000 post-pubescent, mischievous boys, hell-bent on trying to outsmart them.

This is not a work of fiction as all the crazy things that happened at the school took place exactly as recounted. If you are one of the many thousands of people who attended a parochial school, surely these tales with resonate with you. They will bring back memories of a time when corporal punishment at the hands of black-robed agents of God was viewed as a necessary evil in the proper education of Catholic children.

Enjoy Steve Beck and "The Beck Effect"! 'Life Is Short, So Live It Now...' is a compilation of lessons and insights gained by the author throughout his personal and professional lives. As Steve says, "I thought at 23 that I knew everything or ALMOST everything...I now know just how little I knew!")

This book is designed to be picked up once in a while when you feel the need - or to grab a lesson for yourself every day. Either way, this book is filled with insights intended to provide you, the reader, with inspiration for living your best life each and every day, and it's Steve Beck's wish that these insights resonate with you.

For more information on Steve Beck and "The Beck Effect", visit www.beckseminars.com.

Eighteen-year-old Marine recruit William V. Taylor Jr. and his brother Marines are assembled into a new reaction force that is immediately tested in the fire of a bloody conflict known as Operation Beaver Cage. After a traumatic first fight, they push through back-to-back operations with little time to rest or reflect. Those who survive will return home ensnared by everlasting memories of a real, but entirely surreal nightmare. Now after more than fifty years of holding everything in, Taylor shares his experience in explicit and often horrific detail and with a reverent honor for those Marines who did not live to tell the tale.

Veteran cops, Ed Hammer's and Russ Sonneveld's job was to investigate crimes committed by state employees.What they uncovered was a pattern of bribes for licenses that filtered cash to the campaign war chest of their boss, George Ryan. Ryan and his cronies covered up the bribery scheme along with other crimes. Then a fatal crash occurred. Reverend Scott Willis and his wife Janet watched as their children burned to death in the family van. Hammer and Sonneveld linked that accident to the bribery fundraising scheme. It was politics as usual, Illinois style. Ryan was eventually elected Governor. Then federal authorities began looking into Hammer's and Sonneveld's allegations uncovering a dishonest governor and his crooked political organization. Finally, thirteen years after the death of the six children and 76 convictions later, Ryan began his serving a six and one half years sentence in a federal prison.This is the story through Ed Hammer's eyes of the events the led to Ryan's demise.

One of the most influential institutions of higher learning in the world, the University of Chicago has a powerful and distinct identity, and its name is synonymous with intellectual rigor. With nearly 170,000 alumni living and working in more than 150 countries, its impact is far-reaching and long-lasting.

With The University of Chicago: A History, John W. Boyer, Dean of the College since 1992, presents a deeply researched and comprehensive history of the university. Boyer has mined the archives, exploring the school’s complex and sometimes controversial past to set myth and hearsay apart from fact. The result is a fascinating narrative of a legendary academic community, one that brings to light the nature of its academic culture and curricula, the experience of its students, its engagement with Chicago’s civic community, and the conditions that have enabled the university to survive and sustain itself through decades of change.