Jake Halpern

Orphaned Wren and her friend Alec live on Edgeland, where the dead are prepared for the afterlife, but when they are accidentally sucked into the Drain, they find something unimaginable.

In the finale to the Dormia trilogy, the dreaded nursery rhyme comes to life at last as a dark Shadow Tree threatens to cause the world's end. But who will stop it? Alfonso is now an ageling, Resuza and Hill are slaves, Bilblox appears to be a traitor, and Leif is shipwrecked on the edge of a forbidding forest. An ancient prophecy states that the Tree can be destroyed, but the price must be paid in blood, and whoever tries faces certain death. Nonetheless, a hero must journey northward, across the great polar expanse, to Dargora, the mythical city built of ice and human bones. All hope rests on a hooded girl making a dangerous trek with a newborn baby, the only one who can change the course of fate.

After learning of his ancestral ties to Dormia, a hidden kingdom in the Ural Mountains whose inhabitants possess the ancient power of "wakeful sleeping," twelve-year-old Alfonso sets out on a mission to save the kingdom from destruction, discovering secrets that lurk in his own sleep.

"For the past few years, Jake Halpern has reported on fame for NPR. This book chronicles his journey through the underbelly of Hollywood and launches a broad investigation of America's fascination with the lives of celebrities. Why are sales of magazines like US Weekly skyrocketing while news magazines are down? Why do seemingly normal, educated people pay attention to whom Paris Hilton is currently dating? Halpern visits those most stricken with the obsession: aspiring celebrities, Hollywood insiders, and die-hard fans. He also meets several high-profile celebrities, including The Edge from U2, Rod Stewart, director Ed Zwick, and numerous insiders who rarely grant interviews. He also gathers considerable psychological, sociological, and even biological research from experts about why we want to become famous, why we experience a high when we come in close contact with celebrities, and why fame changes not only celebrities but those closest to them.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress

"A trip to the underworld of debt collection, where bankers team up with ex-burglars and few rules apply Bad Paper is a riveting expose;, a moving story of an unlikely friendship, and a gritty narrative of how scrappy entrepreneurs profit from our debts. Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper"--the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadowland, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place. It is a realm of indelible individuals who possess a swagger and vocabulary that even David Mamet could not invent. Halpern follows his collectors as they intimidate competitors with weapons, manage high-pressure call centers, and scheme new ways to benefit from American's debt-industrial complex. He also explores the history of collection agencies and reveals the human cost of a system that leaves hardworking Americans with little opportunity to retire their debts in a reasonable way. The result is a bravura work of storytelling that is also an important consciousness-raiser"-- "Frequent New Yorker contributor Jake Halpern investigates the shadowy, unregulated world of consumer debt collection, focusing on an unlikely friendship between a former banking executive and former armed robber who go in search of "paper," spreadsheets of uncollected debt sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar"--

"After escaping a Syrian prison, Ibrahim Aldabaan and his family fled the country to seek protection in America. Among the few refugees to receive visas, they finally landed in JFK airport on November 8, 2016, Election Day. The family had reached a safe harbor, but woke up to the world of Donald Trump and a Muslim ban that would sever them from the grandmother, brothers, sisters, and cousins stranded in exile in Jordan. Welcome to the New World tells the Aldabaans' story. Resettled in Connecticut with little English, few friends, and even less money, the family of seven strive to create something like home. As a blur of language classes, job-training programs, and the fearsome first days of high school (with hijab) give way to normalcy, the Aldabaans are lulled into a sense of security. A white van cruising slowly past the house prompts some unease, which erupts into full terror when the family receives a death threat and is forced to flee and start all over yet again. The America in which the Aldabaans must make their way is by turns kind and ignorant, generous and cruel, uplifting and heartbreaking"--