"In an alternative 2011, the Mental Parity movement takes hold. Americans now embrace the sacred, universal truth that there is no such thing as variable human intelligence. Because everyone is equally smart, discrimination against purportedly dumb people is 'the last great civil rights fight.' Tests, grades, and employment qualifications are all discarded. Children are expelled for saying the S-word ("stupid") and encouraged to report parents who...

It is a find of inestimable value for Karen Holloway. The battered manuscript she holds in her hand-written in the nineteenth century and bearing the mysterious attribution "Ismene"-could prove a boon to the eager young English professor's career. But Karen's search for the author's true identity is carrying her into the gray shadows of the past, to places fraught with danger and terror. For the deeper she delves into Ismene's strange tale of gothic...

"Psychology professor Dr. Denilyn Rossi contends that the past is either a shadow that haunts us or a force that propels us. The choice is ours, she tells her students. What she doesn't tell them is that her own past is a shadow she can't seem to shake. Fear has immobilized her and is taking a costly toll. Adelia Sanchez, however, has embraced Dr. Rossi's teaching. She is ready to confront fear and render it powerless--using the trauma of her past...