Popular books

Jeremy Robinson

The Didymus Contingency

<p class="description">IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, AND WITNESS ANY EVENT, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? When Dr. Tom Greenbaum faces that question after successfully discovering the secret to time travel, he knows the time, place and event he will witness: the death and failed resurrection of Jesus Christ. Dr. David Goodman, Tom’s colleague and closest friend follows Tom into the past, attempting to avert a time-space catastrophe, but forces beyond their control toss them into a dangerous end game where they are tempted by evil characters, betrayed by friends, pursued by an assassin from the future and haunted by a demon that cannot be killed. Jeremy Robinson’s novel, The Didymus Contingency, blends the cutting-edge science of Crichton with the religious mystery of the Left Behind series to create his own unique and bold thriller. It’s a fast paced page turner like no other. Not to be missed!-- James Rollins, international bestselling author of Ice Hunt, Sandstorm and Map of Bones</p><

Karen Rose

Die For Me

Douglas Reeman

Dive in the Sun

Only one team can destroy the German floating dock that is large enough to hold a major warship and still stand a chance of surviving -- the crew of HM Midget Submarine XE 51.<

Veronica Roth

Divergent

Divergent Trilogy 01<

Mary Doria Russell

Doc

David Rosenfelt

Dog Tags

David Rakoff

Don't Get Too Comfortable

Ian Rankin

Doors Open

Liz Reinhardt

Double Clutch

<p>What happens when you fall for the perfect guy...twice...in one day?Brenna Blixen spent her freshman year homeschooling in Denmark; now that she's back in the States, she's determined to make her sophomore year unforgettable. And by unforgettable, she imagined awesome classes, fun friendships, and maybe a little romance. What she got was a whole lot of romance, and all at once. The same day that dark, brooding Saxon Maclean charmed her with his killer good looks and whip-smart wit, Jake Kelly stole her breath away with his heart-wrenching smile and intelligent, thoughtful focus.But Saxon is a proud player who makes it clear that he doesn't know why he can't get Brenna off of his mind and out of his system, and Jake's sweet and humble attitude hides a secret past life that might be darker and more complex than Brenna is willing to deal with. Complicating the matter is the fact that Saxon and Jake were once best friends and are now arch-enemies...and the more Brenna finds out about their connection to each other, the more intrigued and worried she becomes.Between keeping the peace with her lovingly over-protective parents, designing t-shirts for her high school's rising punk band, keeping up her grades in classes split between academic and technical high school, and running the track like a maniac, Brenna has enough to worry about with out juggling two guys who make her heart thud and drive her crazy all at once. She has to make a choice, but how is she supposed to do that when giving her heart to one of them might mean breaking the other's?Recommended Age Group: Older YA</p><

Justina Robson

Down to the Bone

<p class="description">Lila Black, half robot, all attitude, returns in her fifth all-action adventure. Lila Black faces her greatest challange yet as she takes herself, her dead lover and the AI in her head into death’s realm.<br>The Quantum Gravity series, set in a world where our reality mixes with other dimensions that are the homes to Faeries, elementals and demons, is unique in modern SF - a series that is willing to incorporate legend, myth and magic while maintaining a rigorous approach to scientific and pyschological reality.<br>And in Lila Black Justina Robson has created an enduringly strong yet quirkily human and flawed heroine.</p><

Kat Richardson

Downpour

<div><p>After being shot in the back and dying-again- Greywalker Harper Blaine's only respite from the chaos is her work. But while conducting a pre-trial investigation in the Olympic Peninsula, she sees a ghostly car accident whose victim insists that he was murdered and that the nearby community of Sunset Lakes is to blame. </p><p>Harper soon learns that the icy waters of the lake hide a terrible power, and a host of hellish beings under the thrall of a sinister cabal that will use the darkest of arts to achieve their fiendish ends...  </p></div><

Katherine Russell Rich

Dreaming in Hindi

D B Reynolds

Duncan

<div>Washington, D.C. … capital of an empire. Powerful. Exhilarating. Corrupt. And in the shadows … vampires far older than the nation itself. <br><br>A power unto himself, Duncan has served at Raphael’s side for a hundred and fifty years. But long laid plans have finally borne fruit, and the time has come for Duncan to leave Raphael and tackle the greatest challenge of his life. He will face treacherous vampires and murderous humans. He will rock the halls of human power if necessary. But Washington, D.C. will be his. <br><br>Emma Duquet cares nothing for vampire politics. She just wants to find her missing roommate and best friend, Lacey. But Lacey’s been playing with vampires of a particularly dangerous kind, and Emma will have to deal with the new vampire in town if she’s going to find her friend. <br><br>Battling powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets, Duncan and Emma will dig beneath the corruption and depravity that is Washington, D.C. and uncover the most heinous conspiracy of all…</div><

Brian Ruckley

The Edinburgh Dead

<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Edinburgh 1827. In the starkly-lit operating theatres of the city, grisly experiments are being carried out on corpses in the name of medical science. But elsewhere, there are those experimenting with more sinister forces.Amongst the crowded, sprawling tenements of the labyrinthine Old Town, a body is found, its neck torn to pieces. Charged with investigating the murder is Adam Quire, Officer of the Edinburgh Police. The trail will lead him into the deepest reaches of the city’s criminal underclass, and to the highest echelons of the filthy rich.Soon Quire will discover that a darkness is crawling through this city of enlightenment – and no one is safe from its corruption. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Brian Ruckley was born and brought up in Scotland. After studying at Edinburgh and Stirling Universities, he worked for a series of organizations dealing with environmental, nature conservation and youth development issues. He lives in Edinburgh. Find out more about Brian Ruckley at www.brianruckley.com. </p><

Alan Ross

Effected Intent

<div><p class="description">### Product Description</p> <p class="description">Steve Pfister is a reticent polymer chemist who lives in the past, unable to let go of his military experience. His latest invention gets the attention of some high level government officials, leading to an opportunity to work on a top secret project with national security implications. </p> <p class="description"><br>Life couldn’t be more routine for computer programmer Bill Miller, until he stumbles on information that he shouldn’t have, including a bioterrorism plot. Unable to come forward with the information, he needs to find an ally to believe him before it’s too late. </p> <p class="description"></p></div><

Judith Rock

The Eloquence of Blood

An exciting new discovery" (Library Journal) returns to seventeenth-century Paris with a new historical novel of intrigue. Christmas in Paris, 1686. The spirit of the season is shattered when Martine Mynette is murdered while trying to prove that she is the adopted daughter of the last surviving Mynette heir and thus claim her inheritance-money that the family otherwise intended to go to the Jesuit school, Louis le Grand. Now, with Jesuits being implicated in Martine's death, rhetoric teacher Charles du Luc will not rest until he finds her murderer... "<

Richard Russo

Empire Falls

Empire Falls es el nombre de la pequeña ciudad. El pueblo tuvo una época dorada, pero nada queda de todo aquello. Las fábricas cerraron, la gente emigró y el futuro se antoja incluso más oscuro que el presente. El lugar de reunión es el Empire Grill, propiedad, como casi todo en el pueblo, de Francine Whiting. Se trata de una suerte de restaurante, regentado por Miles Roby, de 42 años, el protagonista de la novela. Miles estuvo a punto de escapar del pueblo, pero el último año de universidad regresó por la muerte de su madre. De eso hace veinte años; ahora está a punto de divorciarse de Janine, tiene una hija adolescente, Tick, y espera pacientemente que muera la señora Whiting para que el Empire Grill sea de su propiedad. Este sería el hilo argumental, sencillo pero tremendamente enrevesado en cuanto nos vemos inmersos en el complicado universo de las relaciones personales. Porque si bien Miles es el protagonista —¿o acaso lo sea Empire Falls?—, nos encontramos ante una novela coral donde cada uno de los personajes tiene su propia historia. Todos tienen sus secretos. Desde luego que el del propio Miles, que constituye el epicentro de la obra, es el más doloroso; pero lo mismo ocurre con su padre; con la señora Whiting, dominante y orgullosa o con Walt Comeau, el amante y futuro esposo de Janine. Richard Russo nos mueve en un doble plano, el psicológico y el social, el interno y el externo. En muchos casos, uno y otro se funden de tal forma que resulta difícil discernir el ámbito al que pertenece lo uno o lo otro; como cuando nos aproximamos a cada uno de los matrimonios que aparecen, todos ellos fracasados. La sospecha de la señora Whiting, quien piensa que la gente se casa con la persona inadecuada por motivos equivocados, resulta dolorosamente cierta. Como también es la de Max, que “Sabía, por ejemplo, qué venía después de la mala suerte: una suerte aún peor”. La metáfora de la novela la encontramos ya en el “Prólogo”, donde aparece a C. B. Whiting, esposo de la señora Whiting, intentando cambiar el cauce del río Knox. Porque la fuerza de la dinámica social de Empire Falls, como la del río, difícilmente pueden alterarse o domesticarse. Sinopsis: http://www.elcultural.es<

John Ringo

Empire of Man #01 - March Upcountry

EDITORIAL REVIEW: **The Royal Brat is in Trouble** Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang MacClintock didn't understand. He was young, handsome, athletic, an *excellent* dresser, and third in line for the Throne of Man...so why wouldn't anyone at Court *trust* him? Why wouldn't even his own mother, the Empress, explain *why* they didn't trust him? Or why the very mention of his father's name was forbidden at Court? Or why his mother had decided to pack him off to a backwater planet aboard what was little more than a tramp freighter to represent her at a local political event better suited to a third assistant undersecretarv of state? It probably wasn't too surprising that someone in his position should react by becoming spoiled, selfcentered and petulant. After all, what else did he have to do with his life? But that was before a saboteur tried to blow up his transport. Then warships of the Empire of Man's worst rivals shot the crippled vessel out of space. Then Roger found himself shipwrecked on the planet Marduk, whose jungles were full of damnbeasts, killerpillars, carnivorous plants, torrential rain, and barbarian hordes with really *bad* dispositions. Now all Roger has to do is hike halfway around the entire planet, then capture a spaceport from the Bad Guys, somehow commandeer a starship, and then go home to Mother for explanations. Fortunately, Roger has an ace in the hole: Bravo Company of Bronze Battalion of The Empress' Own Regiment. If anyone can get him off Marduk alive, it's the Bronze Barbarians. Assuming that Prince Roger manages to grow up before he gets all of them killed.<

Salman Rushdie

The Enchantress of Florence

David L Robbins

The End of War - A Novel of the Race for Berlin - [World War II 02]

Laura Resnick

Esther Diamond #02 - Doppelgangster

<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This gleeful, clever sequel to 2006's <em>Disappearing Nightly</em> teams up actress and singing waitress Esther Diamond with the magic-savvy but utterly unworldly Max the Magician and his slobbering canine familiar, Nelli, to discover how and why New York's mobsters are being magically duplicated. Complicating matters is Esther's suspicious would-be boyfriend, handsome Irish-Cuban police detective Connor Lopez, who would prefer a straightforward investigation involving neither Esther nor magic. Resnick introduces a colorful cast of gangsters and their associates, including a thrice-bereaved mob widow and an attractive young priest, as she spins a witty, fast-paced mystery around her convincingly self-absorbed chorus-girl heroine. Sexy interludes raise the tension between Lopez and Esther as she juggles magical assailants, her perennially distracted agent, her meddling mother, and wiseguys both friendly and threatening in a well-crafted, rollicking mystery. <em>(Jan.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>"In Laura Resnick's <em>Doppelgangster</em>, the New York actress is 'resting' between roles by working as a singing waitress at a Manhattan mob restaurant because wiseguys tip well. Then duplicated gangsters appear, bullets start flying, and it's up to Esther and her friend Max the Magician to fight Evil by stopping the gang war before it starts killing the wrong people. And if she has time, maybe Esther can actually keep a hot date with her hunky detective friend Lopez, who doesn't believe in magic. Yet. Unplug the phone and settle down for a fast and funny read." <br />--<em>New York Times</em> bestselling author Mary Jo Putney <br /></p><

Laura Resnick

Esther Diamond #03 - Unsympathetic Magic

<h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>From the award-winning author of <em>Doppelgangster</em> comes the newest novel in the popular <em>Esther Diamond</em> series </strong> <br /></p><p>Acting jobs don't grow on fire escapes, so struggling actress Esther Diamond is outraged when her guest role as a hooker on controversial TV drama <em>The Dirty Thirty</em> is jeopardized by zombies, angry spirits, and a voodoo curse. But will Esther's courage backfire and end up leading her to become a human sacrifice on the altar of the sinister supernatural powers that are taking over New York City? </p><

Laura Resnick

Esther Diamond #04 - Vamparazzi

No Description Available<

Craig Russell

Eternal

David Adams Richards

Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace

James Rollins

Excavation

<div><h3>Review</h3><p>From the opening scene high in the Andes to the stunning finish, Excavation is a real page turner. -- <em>Douglas Preston, co-author with Lincoln Child of THE ICE LIMIT</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>High in the Andes, Dr. Henry Conklin discovers a 500-year-old mummy that should not be there. While deep in the South American jungle, Conklin's nephew, Sam, stumbles upon a remarkable site nestled between two towering peaks, a place hidden from human eyes for thousands of years. Ingenious traps have been laid to ensnare the careless and unsuspecting, and wealth beyond imagining could be the reward for those with the courage to face the terrible unknown. But where the perilous journey inward ends—in the cold, shrouded heart of a breathtaking necropolis—something else is waiting for Sam Conklin and his exploratory party. A thing created by Man, yet not humanly possible. Something wondrous . . . something terrifying. </p></div><

Frank Riley

The Executioner

The vote was three to two for death! Jacques had no choice. He was a public servant with a duty....<

Ian Rankin

Exit Music

It's late in the fall in Edinburgh and late in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he is simply trying to tie up some loose ends before his retirement, a new case lands on his desk: a dissident Russian poet has been murdered in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. Rebus discovers that an elite delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, looking to expand its interests. And as Rebus's investigation gains ground, someone brutally assaults a local gangster with whom he has a long history. Has Rebus overstepped his bounds for the last time? Only a few days shy of the end to his long, controversial career, will Rebus even make it that far?<

Kenneth Robeson

The Exploding Lake

Ruth Rendell

Face of Trespass

<h3>Product Description</h3><p>He had been a promising young novelist when he met Drusilla. Their affair was now over, but the slide into violence had just begun. </p><h3>From AudioFile</h3><p>One problem with audiobooks is that you can't flip to the end of the book to find out what happens. Nor can you skip pages when the action rattles your nerves. Both these coping techniques would be tempting here as the dramatic narration of Ric Jerrom amplifies the nail-biting effect of Ruth Rendell's prose. Although there's no actual violence, the tension builds as an impoverished British writer becomes captivated--and manipulated--by a beautiful woman who wants him to kill her wealthy husband. It is her seductive voice, so superbly reproduced by the narrator, that casts an increasingly ominous spell. As the plot tightens, the voice gets lower and lower and more and more sinister until, at the end, it has become a sibilant whisper. Pity any timid souls who listen to that voice before bedtime! J.C. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine </p><

Michelle Ray

Falling for Hamlet

Meet Ophelia: a blonde, beautiful high-school senior and long-time girlfriend of Prince Hamlet of Denmark. Her life is dominated not only by her boyfriend's fame and his overbearing family, but also by the paparazzi who hound them wherever they go. As the devastatingly handsome Hamlet spirals into madness after the mysterious death of his father, the King, Ophelia rides out his crazy roller coaster life, and lives to tell about it. In live television interviews, of course.Passion, romance, drama, humor, and tragedy intertwine in this compulsively readable debut novel, told by a strong-willed, modern-day Ophelia.<

William Rabkin

A Fatal Frame of Mind

Lisa Marie Rice

Fatal Heat

Former Navy SEAL Max Wright is out of the SEAL Teams forever after being almost killed by an Afghani RPG. He retreats to his former XO's beach house to lick his wounds. He wants to snarl at the world but finds it hard to snarl at his new neighbor, his XO's beautiful goddaughter, Paige Waring, who also comes with a ridiculously likable, totally undisciplined dog.As a plant geneticist, Paige has always been focused on her work, but when she and her dog run into Max, she recognizes the lonely, shattered man behind the rugged exterior. To her mind, sexiness always comes with a white lab coat, not with acres of tanned muscle and a tough mind-set.When Paige's work becomes the target of criminals and she's abducted, Max springs into action. Though still terribly wounded, this tough as nails SEAL goes on his last mission--stopping at nothing to save the woman he loves.<

Anne Rice

The Feast of All Saints

Arturo Pérez Reverte

The Fencing Master

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Fey #01 - The Sacrifice

<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Defying their Black King in order to rally an attack on the peaceful Blue Isle, warrior-prince Rugar and his fearless daughter, Jewel, do not suspect that the islanders, under young prince Nicholas, have prepared to defend themselves. </p><

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Fey #02 - The Changeling

<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Years after a political marriage fails to bring peace to the land of Blue Isle, Jewel learns that the son she and her husband have been raising is a changeling and launches a rescue mission in the Shadowlands. </p><h3>Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</h3><p><em>He put words to the memory years later, when he tried to tell people of it. Some doubted he could remember, and others watched him as if stunned by his clarity. But the memory was clear, not as a series of impressions, but as an experience, one he could relive if he closed his eyes and cast his mind backward. An inverse Vision. None of his other memories were as sharp, but they were not as important. Nor were they the first:</em><br /></p><p>Light filled the room. He opened his eyes and felt himself emerge like a man stepping out of the fog. One moment he had been absorbing, feeling, learning--the next he was thinking. The lights clustered near the window, a hundred single points revolving in a circle. The tapestry was up, as if someone were holding it.  He turned his head--it was his newest skill--but he saw only the curtained wall of the crib. Voices floated in from the other room--his mother's voice, sweet and familiar, almost a part of himself; and a man's voice--his father's?<br /></p><p>His nurse sat near the fireplace, her head tilted back, her bonnet askew. She was snoring softly, a raspy sound that sometimes covered the voices. He could barely see her face over the edge of his crib. It was a friendly face, with gentle wrinkled features, a rounded nose, and a generous mouth. Her eyes were closed, her mouth open, her nostrils fluttering with each inhalation. He reached toward her, but his fingers gripped the soft blanket instead.<br /></p><p>A cool breeze touched him tentatively, smelling of rain and the river. The lights parted to let a shadow in. The shadow had the shape of a man, but it was dark and flat and crept across the wall. He put his baby finger in his mouth and sucked, eyes wide, watching the shadow. It slid over the tapestries and across the fireplace until it landed on his nurse's face. Her snoring stopped.<br /></p><p>He whimpered, but the shadow did not look at him. Instead, it molded itself against his nurse's features. Her hands moved ever so slightly as if to pull it off, then she began twitching as if she were dreaming. Her eyes remained closed, but her snoring stopped.<br /></p><p>His mother's voice penetrated the sudden silence. "You will not give him a common name! He is a Prince in the Black King's line. He needs to be named as such!"<br /></p><p>The nurse's breathing became regular. The twitching stopped. Except for the blackness covering her face, she appeared almost normal.<br /></p><p>"I thought Fey named their children after the customs of the land they're in." His father's voice.<br /></p><p>"Names have to have meaning, Nicholas. They are the secret to power."<br /></p><p>"I do not see how your name gives you power, Jewel."<br /></p><p>The breeze blew over him again. He peered over his blanket at the window. The lights were no longer revolving. They had formed a straight line from the window to his curtained crib. The lights were beautiful and tiny, the size of his fingertips. They gathered around his crib, twinkling and sparkling. Suddenly he was warm. The air smelled of sunlight.<br /></p><p>"I'll agree to the name if you tell me what it means." The voices moved hack and forth, near and away, as if his parents were circling each other in the next room.<br /></p><p>"I don't know what it means, Jewel. But it has been in my family for generations."<br /></p><p>"I swear"--his mother sounded angry--"it was easier to make the child than it is to name him."<br /></p><p>"It was certainly more fun."<br /></p><p>He turned to the curtained wall, wishing he could see through it, wishing they would come to him. The lights hovered above him. They were so beautiful. Blue and red and yellow. He pulled his finger out of his mouth and raised it toward the lights.<br /></p><p>By accident, he touched a blue light and pulled his hand away with a startled cry. With the smell of sulfur and a bit of smoke, the blue light became a tiny naked woman with thin wings shimmering on her back. Her skin was darker than his, her eyebrows swept up like her wings, and her eyes were as alive as the lights.<br /></p><p>"Got him," she said.<br /></p><p>His fingers hurt. He sniffled, then looked at his nurse. The shadow still covered her face, and she was still breathing softly. He wanted her to see him. But she slept.<br /></p><p>The tiny woman landed on his chest, put her hands on his chin, and looked into his eyes. "Ah," she said. "He's ours, all right." <br /></p><p>Her hands tickled his skin. The other lights gathered around her. With a series of pops, they became more winged people, all dark, all graceful and small. The men had thick beards, the women, hair that cascaded over their shoulders.<br /></p><p>They landed around him, their bare feet making tiny indentations on the thick blanket. He was too startled to cry. They examined his features, poking at his skin, tugging on his ears, tracing the tiny<br />points.<br /></p><p>"He's one of ours," the woman said.<br /></p><p>"Skin's light," one of the men said.<br /></p><p>"Lighter," another man corrected. Their voices were tiny too, almost like little bells.<br /></p><p>In the other room, his mother giggled. He moved at the sound, knocking some of the little people over. He stretched out a hand, reaching for her. She giggled again, deep in her throat.<br /></p><p>"Nicholas, it's been just days since the babe."<br /></p><p>His father laughed too.<br /></p><p>The little people got up. One of the men came very close. He squinted, making his small eyes almost invisible. "Nose is upturned."<br /></p><p>"So?" the woman asked, her wings fluttering.<br /></p><p>"Our noses are straight."<br /></p><p>"He has to have some Islander."<br /></p><p>"Rugar said leave him if there is no magic."<br /></p><p>The woman put her hands on her hips. "Look at those eyes. Look at how bright they are. Then tell me there's no magic."<br /></p><p>"The magic is always stronger when the blood is mixed," said another woman.<br /></p><p>In the other room, his mother's laugh grew closer. "Nicholas, let's just see the babe. Maybe we can decide what to call him then."<br /></p><p>The little people froze. His hands were still grasping. Outside the protection of the crib, the air was cold. The little people had brought deep warmth with them.<br /></p><p>"Stay for a moment," his father said.<br /></p><p>"The Healer said--"<br /></p><p>"Healers be damned."<br /></p><p>The little people waited another moment, then the woman snapped her fingers. "Quickly," she said.<br /></p><p>Their wings fluttered, and the group floated above him, as pretty as the lights. He wasn't sure of them. Touching them had hurt, but they were so lovely. So lovely.<br /></p><p>They fanned out around him, holding strands as thin as spiderwebs. They flew back and forth, weaving the strands. The woman stood near his head, outside of the strands, clutching a tiny stone to her chest.<br /></p><p>"Hurry," she said.<br /></p><p>"Nicholas, really." His mother laughed again. "Stop. We can't."<br /></p><p>"I know," his father said. "But it's so much nicer than fighting. Maybe we shouldn't call him anything."<br /></p><p>"Can you imagine?" she said. "He's a grandfather and his friends all call him 'baby.'"<br /></p><p>The strands had formed a piece of white gauze between him and the world. The shadow moved on his nurse's face, lifting away a tiny bit and glancing over its flat shoulder at the flying people.<br /></p><p>"Not yet," the woman said.<br /></p><p>The shadow flattened out over the nurse once more.<br /></p><p>The gauze enveloped him and his blankets. He felt warm and secure. The little people held the edges of the gauze and lifted him from the crib.<br /></p><p>He could see the whole room. It was big. His nurse sat in one corner, the shadow over her face, her eyelids moving back and forth. A bed with filmy red curtains sat in the far side of the room, and chairs lined the walls. All the windows were covered with tapestries, and the tapestries were pictures of babies being born, being held, being crowned. Only one window was open--the window the people had come through.<br /></p><p>Floating was fun. It felt like being held. He snuggled into his blankets and watched the little woman put the stone on his pillow.<br />Then the door handle turned. The little woman floated above the crib, shooing the others away with her hands. "Hurry!" she whispered. "Hurry!"<br /></p><p>"We might wake him up, Jewel," his father said.<br /></p><p>"Babies sleep sound."<br /></p><p>"Wait," he said. "Let me find out what the name means. Then we can have a real talk.  lf it has no meaning, then--"<br /></p><p>"Find out who had the name before," she said. "That's important."<br /></p><p>They were almost to the window. He had forgotten his mother. He wanted her to float with him. He rolled over, making the little people curse. The net swung precariously. He cried out, a long plaintive wail.<br /></p><p>"Shush!" the little man nearest him said.<br /></p><p>The shadow lifted off the nurse's face. She snorted, sighed, and sank deeper in sleep. The shadow crawled over the fireplace toward the window.<br /></p><p>He cried out again. The nurse stirred and ran a hand over her face. His feet were outside. It was raining, but the drops didn't touch him. They veered away from his feet as if he wore a protective cover.<br /></p><p>The nurse's eyes flickered open. "What a dream I had, baby," she said. "What a dream."<br /></p><p>He howled. The little people hurried him outside even faster. She went to the crib and looked down. His gaze followed hers. In his bed, another baby lay. Its eyes were open but empty. The nurse brushed her hand on its cheek.<br /></p><p>"You're cold, lambkins," she said.<br /></p><p>The little woman huddled in the curtain around the crib. She moved her fingers and the baby cooed. The nurse smiled.<br /></p><p>He was staring at the baby that had replaced him. It looked like him, but it was not him. It had been a stone a moment before.<br /></p><p>"Changeling," he thought, marking not just his first... </p><

Thomas E Ricks

Fiasco

<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>Fiasco</em> is a more strongly worded title than you might expect a seasoned military reporter such as Thomas E. Ricks to use, accustomed as he is to the even-handed style of daily newspaper journalism. But Ricks, the Pentagon correspondent for the <em>Washington Post</em> and the author of the acclaimed account of Marine Corps boot camp, <em>Making the Corps</em> (released in a 10th anniversary edition to accompany the paperback release of <em>Fiasco</em>), has written a thorough and devastating history of the war in Iraq from the planning stages through the continued insurgency in early 2006, and he does not shy away from naming those he finds responsible. His tragic story is divided in two. The first part--the runup to the war and the invasion in 2003--is familiar from books like <em>Cobra II</em> and <em>Plan of Attack</em>, although Ricks uses his many military sources to portray an officer class that was far more skeptical of the war beforehand than generally reported. But the heart of his book is the second half, beginning in August 2003, when, as he writes, the war really began, with the bombing of the Jordanian embassy and the emergence of the insurgency. His strongest critique is that the U.S. military failed to anticipate--and then failed to recognize--the insurgency, and tried to fight it with conventional methods that only fanned its flames. What makes his portrait particularly damning are the dozens of military sources--most of them on record--who join in his critique, and the thousands of pages of internal documents he uses to make his case for a war poorly planned and bravely but blindly fought.</p><p>The paperback edition of <em>Fiasco</em> includes a new postscript in which Ricks looks back on the year since the book's release, a year in which the intensity and frequency of attacks on American soldiers only increased and in which Ricks's challenging account became accepted as conventional wisdom, with many of the dissident officers in his story given the reins of leadership, although Ricks still finds the prospects for the conflict grim. <em>--Tom Nissley</em></p><p><strong>A Fiasco, a Year Later</strong></p><p>With the paperback release of Thomas Ricks's <em>Fiasco</em>, a year after the book became a #1 <em>New York Times</em> bestseller and an influential force in transforming the public perception (and the perception within the military and the civilian government as well) of the war in Iraq, we asked Ricks in the questions below to look back on the book and the year of conflict that have followed. On our page for the hardcover edition of <em>Fiasco</em> you can see our earlier Q&amp;A with Ricks, and you can also see two lists he prepared for Amazon customers: his choices for the 10 books for understanding Iraq that aren't about Iraq, a collection of studies of counterinsurgency warfare that became surprisingly popular last year as soldiers and civilians tried to understand the nature of the new conflict, and, as a glimpse into his writing process, a playlist of the music he listened to while writing and researching the book. </p><p><strong>Amazon.com:</strong> When we spoke with you a year ago, you said that you thought you were done going back to Baghdad. But that dateline is still showing up in your reports. How have things changed in the city over the past year? </p><p><strong>Thomas E. Ricks:</strong> Yes, I had promised my wife that I wouldn’t go back. Iraq was taking a toll on both of us--I think my trips of four to six weeks were harder on her than on me. </p><p>But I found I couldn't stay away. The Iraq war is the most important event of our time, I think, and will remain a major news story for years to come. And I felt like everything I had done for the last 15 years--from deployments I'd covered to books and military manuals I’d read (and written)--had prepared me to cover this event better than most reporters. So I made a deal with my wife that I would go back to Iraq but would no longer do the riskiest things, such as go on combat patrols or on convoys. I used to have a rule that I would only take the risks necessary to "get the story." Now I don't take even those risks if I can see them, even if that means missing part of a story. Also, I try to keep my trips much shorter. </p><p>How is Baghdad different? It is still a chaotic mess. But it doesn't feel quite as Hobbesian as it did in early 2006. That said, it also feels a bit like a pause--with the so-called "surge," Uncle Sam has put all his chips on the table, and the other players are waiting a bit to see how that plays out. </p><p><strong>Amazon.com:</strong> One of the remarkable things over the past year for a reader of <em>Fiasco</em> has been how much of what your book recommends has, apparently, been taken to heart by the military and civilian leadership. As you write in your new postscript to the paperback edition, the war has been "turned over to the dissidents." General David Petraeus, who was one of the first to put classic counterinsurgency tactics to use in Iraq, is now the top American commander there, and he has surrounded himself with others with similar views. What was that transformation like on the inside? </p><p><strong>Ricks:</strong> I was really struck when I was out in Baghdad two months ago at how different the American military felt. I used to hate going into the Green Zone because of all the unreal happy talk I'd hear. It was a relief to leave the place, even if being outside it (and contrary to popular myth, most reporters do live outside it) was more dangerous. </p><p>There is a new realism in the U.S. military. In May, I was getting a briefing from one official in the Green Zone and I thought, "Wow, not only does this briefing strike me as accurate, it also is better said than I could do." That feeling was a real change from the old days. </p><p>The other thing that struck me was the number of copies I saw of <em>Fiasco</em> as I knocked around Iraq. When I started writing it, the title was controversial. Now generals say things to me like, "Got it, understand it, agree with it." I am told that the Army War College is making the book required reading this fall. </p><p><strong>Amazon.com:</strong> And what are its prospects at this late date? </p><p><strong>Ricks:</strong> The question remains, Is it too little too late? It took the U.S. military four years to get the strategy right in Iraq--that is, to understand that their goal should be to protect the people. By that time, the American people and the Iraqi people both had lost of lot of patience. (And by that time, the Iraq war had lasted longer than American participation in World War II.) Also, it isn't clear that we have enough troops to really implement this new strategy of protecting the people. In some parts of Baghdad where U.S. troops now have outposts, the streets are quieter. Yet we're seeing more violence on the outskirts of Baghdad. And the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk make me nervous. I am keeping an eye on them this summer and fall. </p><p>The thing to watch in Iraq is whether we see more tribes making common cause with the U.S. and the Iraqi government. How long will it last? And what does it mean in the long term for Iraq? Is it the beginning of a major change, or just a prelude to a big civil war? </p><p><strong>Amazon.com:</strong> You've been a student of the culture of the military for years. How has the war affected the state of the American military: the redeployments, the state of Guard and Reserves troops and the regular Army and Marines, and the relationship to civilian leadership? </p><p><strong>Ricks:</strong> I think there is general agreement that there is a huge strain on the military. Essentially, one percent of the nation--soldiers and their families--is carrying the burden. We are now sending soldiers back for their third year-long tours. We've never tried to fight a lengthy ground war overseas with an all-volunteer force. Nor have we ever tried to occupy an Arab country. </p><p>What the long-term effect is on the military will depend in part on how the war ends for us, and for Iraq. But I think it isn't going to be good. Today I was talking to a retired officer and asked him what he was hearing from his friends in Iraq about troop morale. "It's broken," he said. Meanwhile, he said, soldiers he knows who are back home from Iraq "wonder why they were there." Not everyone is as morose as this officer, but the trend isn't good. </p><p><strong>Amazon.com:</strong> You quote Gen. Anthony Zinni in your postscript as saying the U.S. is "drifting toward containment" in Iraq. What does containment of what will likely remain a very hot conflict look like? You've written in your postscript and elsewhere that you think we are only in act III of a Shakespearean tragedy. I wouldn't describe Shakespeare's fifth acts as particularly well contained. </p><p><strong>Ricks:</strong> I agree with you. Containment would mean some sort of stepping back from the war, probably beginning by halving the American military presence. You'd probably still have U.S. troops inside Iraq, but disengaged from daily fighting. Their goals would be negative ones: prevent genocide, prevent al Qaeda from being able to operate in Iraq, and prevent the war from spreading to outside Iraq. (This was laid out well in a recent study by James Miller and Shawn Brimley, readable at http://www.cnas.org/en/cms/?368.) </p><p>Containment probably would be a messy and demoralizing mission. No one signs up in the U.S. military to stand by as innocents are slaughtered in nearby cities. Yet that might be the case if we did indeed move to this stance and a full-blown civil war (or a couple) ensued. And there surely would be refugees from such fighting. Either they would go to neighboring countries, and perhaps destabilize them, or we would set up "refugee catchment" areas, as another study, by the Brookings Institute, proposed. The open-ended task of guarding those new refugee camps likely would fall to U.S. troops. </p><p>The more you look at Iraq, the more worrisome it gets. As I noted in the new postscript in the paperback edition, many strategic experts I talk to believe that the consequences of the Iraq war are going to be worse for the United States than was the fallout from the Vietnam War. </p><p><strong>Amazon.com:</strong> A year and a half is a long time, but let's say that we have a Democratic president in January 2009: President Clinton, or Gore, or Obama. What prospect would a change in administration have for a new strategic opening? Or would the new president likely wind up like Nixon in Vietnam, owning a war he or she didn't begin? </p><p><strong>Ricks:</strong> Not such a long time. President Bush has made his major decisions on Iraq. Troop levels are going to have to come down next year, because we don't have replacements on the shelf. So the three big questions for the U.S. government are going to be: How many troops will be withdrawn, what will be the mission of those who remain, and how long will they stay? Those questions are going to be answered by the next president, not this one. </p><p>My gut feeling is the latter: I think we are going to have troops in Iraq through 2009, and probably for a few years beyond that. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if U.S. troops were there in 15 years. But as I say in <em>Fiasco</em>, that's kind of a best-case scenario. </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The main points of this hard-hitting indictment of the Iraq war have been made before, but seldom with such compelling specificity. In dovetailing critiques of the civilian and military leadership, Washington Post Pentagon correspondent Ricks (Making the Corps) contends that, under Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith, the Pentagon concocted "the worst war plan in American history," with insufficient troops and no thought for the invasion's aftermath. Thus, an under-manned, unprepared U.S. military stood by as chaos and insurgency took root, then responded with heavy-handed tactics that brutalized and alienated Iraqis. Based on extensive interviews with American soldiers and officers as well as first-hand reportage, Ricks's detailed, unsparing account of the occupation paints a woeful panorama of reckless firepower, mass arrests, humiliating home invasions, hostage-taking and abuse of detainees. It holds individual commanders to account, from top generals Tommy Franks and Ricardo Sanchez on down. The author's conviction that a proper hearts-and-minds counter-insurgency strategy might have salvaged the debacle is perhaps naive, and pays too little heed to the intractable ethnic conflicts underlying what is by now a full-blown civil war. Still, Ricks's solid reporting, deep knowledge of the American military and willingness to name names make this perhaps the most complete, incisive analysis yet of the Iraq quagmire. Photos.<br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><

David Rosenfelt

First degree

SUMMARY: The mysterious legacy of defense attorney Andy Carpenter's late father has made him a rich man--22 million dollars rich, to be exact. But as Andy relaxes in his office, imagining ways to spend his money, he has an unexpected visitor: a stranger who confesses to decapitating and burning a man--cooly relying on the confidentiality of attorney-client privilege. When an innocent man is charged with the crime, Andy decides to take on the case. But the case becomes personal when, in a stunning development, Andy's client is exonerated and his girlfriend, Laurie Collins, is accused of the crime. When the man who originally confessed to the murder turns up dead, Andy realizes that this is much bigger than one crime. Who committed the murders? Who framed Laurie? In the case of his life, Andy must prove Laurie's innocence in this thrilling mystery from the always inventive David Rosenfelt.- Open and Shut (Mysterious Press, 5/02) was a Mystery Guild(R) Featured Alternate. Bulgarian, French, and German rights to the book were sold before publication. Its 5/03 mass market release will tie in with the hardcover release of First Degree.- David Rosenfelt writes legal mysteries with the same authority and sense of drama that has ensured the success of Robert B. Parker, Robert Crais, and Harlan Coben.<

Selwyn Raab

Five Families

<h3>Review</h3><p>'Talk about stranger than fiction. Selwyn Raab tells riveting, true tales of the fabled mob figures. It's 'The Godfather' annotated - a classic piece of reporting by a man who knows the bloody, brutal, corrupt territory.' - Mike Wallace, '60 Minutes' </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>"Talk about stranger than fiction. Selwyn Raab tells riveting, true tales of the fabled mob figures. It's 'The Godfather' annotated -- a classic piece of reporting by a man who knows the bloody, brutal, corrupt territory." -- Mike Wallace, '60 Minutes' This extensively researched account of the fabled New York mob figures we alternately despise and glamorize provides the most comprehensive history of the city's criminal empires that have intimidated, killed and fleeced Americans and confounded law enforcement for over 100 years. From their New York headquarters, the Bonnano, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese crime 'familes' have created a vast domain with outposts along the East Coast, Florida, California and Las Vegas. With influence over everything from the price of fruit and vegetables, waterfront commerce in America's largest port, the construction industry, local and national government, the FBI, even refuse collection and the heroin trade, the Cosa Nostra's hold on everyday life is unprecedented. Selwyn Raab has managed to persuade mafiosi and their helpmates to talk candidly for the first time, and he unravels their mysterious codes and culture to elucidate the art of surviving in a volatile criminal environment. In the light of the success of John Dickie's bestselling 'Cosa Nostra' and the enduring allure of the Mafia in pop culture ('The Sopranos', 'The Godfather Returns'), this fascinating and definitive work is at once a history of the world's most sophisticated and lucrative underworld phenomena and an investigation into the pillage of New York's richest city and region. Selwyn Raab not only reveals where the bodies are buried, he brings them back to life. </p><

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