Novel Online

Best Seller Novels 2010

2010-12-30T22:35:00.000-08:00

Here is Amazon Best Seller List

Alice I Have Been: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin

2010-12-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

Samantha Eggar is a consummate actor, and the character of Alice Liddell Hargreaves, from girlhood into old age, is a great vehicle for her talents. The three young Liddell sisters who dominate the first half of the book are easily distinguished and thoroughly believable. So are their parents and the shy, stuttering Oxford professor Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), who entertains the girls with long, highly imaginative stories. Romance, mystery, and tragedy soon erupt in the life of the real Alice; fans of the classic and of smart, atmospheric contemporary fiction will find much to relish.

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Spellweaver: A Novel of the Nine Kingdoms (Nine Kingdoms 2)

2010-12-02T17:11:00.000-08:00

Ruith had long managed to ignore the magic in his veins, until aiding Sarah with her ill-fated quest forced him into places where his heritage was impossible to deny. Faced with an ever-increasing number of enemies who covet his power, Ruith must accept his birthright and gather his father's spells together so he can destroy them-or turn away and allow his father's evil to overcome the Nine Kingdoms.

Now, Ruith and Sarah must rely on each other more than ever-for everything they value is at risk: the Nine Kingdoms, their lives...and their hearts.

Click this link to get more information about this novel Spellweaver: A Novel of the Nine Kingdoms (Nine Kingdoms 2)

The Lost Saint: A Dark Divine Novel

2010-11-30T23:48:00.000-08:00

The non-stop sequel to The Dark Divine delivers an even hotter romance and more thrilling action than Bree Despain's first novel. Grace Divine made the ultimate sacrifice to cure Daniel Kalbi. She gave her soul to the wolf to save him and lost her beloved mother. When Grace receives a haunting phone call from Jude, she knows what she must do. She must become a Hound of Heaven. Desparate to find Jude, Grace befriends Talbot - a newcomer to town who promises her that he can help her be a hero. But as the two grow closer, the wolf grows in Grace, and her relationship with Daniel begins to crumble. Unaware of the dark path she is walking, Grace becomes prideful in her new abilities - not realizing that an old enemy has returned and deadly trap is about to be sprung. Readers, raveous for more Grace and Daniel, will be itching to sink their teeth into The Lost Saint.

Click this link to get more information about this novel The Lost Saint: A Dark Divine Novel

This Body of Death: An Inspector Lynley Novel

2010-11-30T23:42:00.000-08:00

On compassionate leave after the murder of his wife, Thomas Lynley is called back to Scotland Yard when the body of a woman is found stabbed and abandoned in an isolated London cemetery. His former team doesn't trust the leadership of their new department chief, Isabelle Ardery, whose management style seems to rub everyone the wrong way. In fact, Lynley may be the sole person who can see beneath his superior officer's hard-as-nails exterior to a hidden—and possibly attractive—vulnerability.

While Lynley works in London, his former colleagues Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata follow the murder trail south to the New Forest. There they discover a beautiful and strange place where animals roam free, the long-lost art of thatching is very much alive, and outsiders are not entirely welcome. What they don't know is that more than one dark secret lurks among the trees, and that their investigation will lead them to an outcome that is both tragic and shocking.

A multilayered jigsaw puzzle of a story skillfully structured to keep readers guessing until the very end, This Body of Death is a magnificent achievement from a writer at the peak of her powers.

Click this link to get more information about this novel This Body of Death: An Inspector Lynley Novel

Queen Hereafter: A Novel of Margaret of Scotland

2010-11-30T23:27:00.000-08:00

In King's follow-up to Lady Macbeth, Queen Margaret feeds the hungry and clothes the poor while war rages at home and abroad in 11th-century Scotland. Margaret transforms from devout exile into devout yet savvy queen when she marries King Malcolm Canmore, 18 years her senior and famous for killing Macbeth and his heir to the Scottish thrown. Newlywed Margaret first hears of Macbeth's unrepentant widow, Lady Gruadh, who has just sent her gifted granddaughter Eva to Malcolm's court to serve as bard, confidant, and spy. With Eva by her side, an emboldened Margaret embraces both Celtic and Latin religious traditions, aids the poor, frees prisoners, introduces the Scots to English manners, and helps negotiate peace. As she matures, Margaret's love for her husband and his people deepens and their relationship comes richly to life. Though clichés often plague the prose ("Tension and turbulence rode the air like dark clouds before a storm"), King's blend of historical figures and fictional characters turns a medieval icon into a believable mother, wife, and ruler. Quotes from original sources offer context and insight as to where the record ends and imagination begins.

Click this link to get more information about this novel Queen Hereafter: A Novel of Margaret of Scotland

The Great Teen Fruit War, A 1960' Novel [Hardcover]

2010-11-30T22:50:00.000-08:00

"The Great Teen Fruit War, A 1960' Novel" is author Jay Dubya's eighth e-book. The story takes place in Hammonton, New Jersey, an agricultural community midway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City. The Blues wear blue denim button-down waist-length jackets and are the sons of wealthy blueberry growers. The Reds wear James Dean' red zip-up jackets and are the sons of peach farmers. Bellevue Avenue in the center of town is the dividing line that separates blueberry country to the east and peach territory to the west.

"The Great Teen Fruit War" is a story for anyone who loves '50s and '60s teen culture. Romance, racial discrimination and conflict between the Reds and the Blues mix into a "coming of age" story that blends humor with drama, suspense and surprise into an action-packed adventure. Throw the town' greasers "The Ramrodders" into the conflict and events heat up in a hurry as the three highly volatile gangs interact.

When Goose Restuccio, the son of a Mafia kingpin joins the Reds he challenges Gabe Gillette, the leader of the rich-kid Blues. Goose's father's hit men get involved in some clever pranks played on the Blues, and the blueberry kids retaliate with deceptive tricks of their own. Soon strife escalates into violence. Goose is captured by Blues and then forced to rape a black girl, and after Crystal Davis becomes pregnant, her black friends ally with the Reds against a coalition of Blues and Ramrodders. The "Great Teen Fruit War" is the exciting sequel to "Black Leather and Blue Denim, A '50s Novel."

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Bloody Valentine (A Blue Bloods Book) (Blue Bloods Novel)

2010-11-29T21:40:00.005-08:00

Vampires have powers beyond human comprehension: strength that defies logic, speed that cannot be captured on film, the ability to shapeshift and more. But in matters of the heart, no one, not even the strikingly beautiful and outrageously wealthy Blue Bloods, has total control. In Bloody Valentine, bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz offers readers a new story about the love lives of their favorite vamps - the passion and heartache, the hope and devastation, the lust and longing. Combined with all the glitz, glamour, and mystery fans have come to expect, this is sure to be another huge hit in the Blue Bloods series.

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Sleepless: A Novel

2010-11-29T21:40:00.002-08:00

In Huston's impressive, challenging thriller set in a postapocalyptic Los Angeles, a devastating illness renders the afflicted unable to sleep. In about a year, those with SLP (as the sleepless illness is known) deteriorate and die. Amid the city's rampant violence and lawlessness, LAPD cop Parker Park Haas tries to persuade himself that a future exists for his newborn daughter. As the outside world becomes increasingly dangerous, Park pursues an undercover investigation that takes him deep into the milieu of an online game called Chasm Tide, into which many people have retreated. As in the author's Joe Pitt vampire series (My Dead Body, etc.), this book has at its heart a love story: Park's wife is dying from SLP, and Park begins to fear he may be getting it, too. Can the mysterious mercenary known only as Jasper help? Some fans of Huston's crime fiction may not be comfortable with a novel that itself resembles a role-playing game, but it will gain him a whole new readership.

Click this link to get more information about this novel Sleepless: A Novel

Peter & Max: A Fables Novel

2010-11-29T21:40:00.001-08:00

Fables follows a population of fairy tale characters seeking shelter in our world after their enchanted lands were conquered. Familiar figures like Snow White, Rose Red, the Beast and Belle, the Big Bad Wolf (a human PI in the mundane world) and others fill out a cast led by Peter Piper and his brother, Max. Sibling rivalry, magical flutes and, yes, pickled peppers factor in the clever, adventurous plot that sees Peter pursuing Bo Peep. Fans will find all the charm and in-jokes of the Fables universe intact; like Neil Gaiman, another acclaimed comic book author, Willingham writes without the help of thought bubbles and keeps everything clear enough that readers new to the series won't be confused for long. Though it toys with notions of mythology and its origins, this work still keeps true to the spirit of the Brothers Grimm: dark, fast-paced, moving and entertaining, with a few surprises along the way.

Click this link to get more information about this novel Peter & Max: A Fables Novel

The Union Quilters: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel

2010-11-29T21:40:00.000-08:00

In 1862 Water's Ford, Pennsylvania, abolitionism is prevalent, even passionate, so the local men rally to answer Mr. Lincoln's call to arms. Thus the women of Elm Creek Valley's quilting bee are propelled into the unknown. Constance Wright, married to Abel, a skilled sharpshooter courageous enough to have ventured south to buy his wife's freedom from a Virginia plantation, knows well her husband's certainty that all people, enslaved and free, North and South, need colored men like him to fight for a greater purpose. Sisters-in-law Dorothea Nelson and Charlotte Granger wish safe passage for their learned husbands. Schoolmaster turned farmer Thomas carries Dorothea's Dove in the Window quilt with him. Charlotte's husband, Dr. Jonathan Granger, takes more than a doctor's bag to his post at a field hospital. Alongside the devotion of his wife, pregnant with their second child, Jonathan brings the promise he made to his unrequited love, Gerda Bergstrom: "My first letter will be to you."

Together with the other members of the circle, the women support one another through loneliness and fear, and devise an ingenious business plan to keep Water's Ford functioning. That plan may forever alter the patchwork of town life in ways that transcend even the ultimate sacrifices of war.

Click this link to get more information about this novel The Union Quilters: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel

Live to Tell: A Detective D. D. Warren Novel

2010-11-29T20:21:00.003-08:00

At the heart of Gardner's outstanding fourth novel featuring Boston PD detective Warren (after The Neighbor) are some very sick kids, notably Lucy, a nine-year-old feral girl who self-mutilates when any attention is given to her, and Evan, an eight-year-old boy who during fits threatens to kill his mother. D.D gets involved after two grisly family annihilations lead to the locked-down pediatric psych ward in Cambridge that specializes in Lucy's and Evan's types of hard case. When a child is too sick and the parent can no longer handle care, the child ends up in the acute care facility under the tutelage of pediatric psych nurse Danielle, the lone survivor of her own family bloodbath. Coincidence? That's for D.D. to figure out--in the midst of a budding romance with police academy professor Alex Wilson and infuriating encounters with Andrew Lightfoot, resident "woo-woo expert" (that's cop talk for psychic), who works in tandem with the hospital. Plenty of red herrings keep readers guessing, but Gardner always plays fair in this tight and consistently engaging page-turner.

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The Last Time I Saw You: A Novel

2010-11-14T17:32:00.000-08:00

A high school reunion and all of its attendant dramas is the backdrop of Berg's rose-tinted latest (after Home Safe). For Dorothy Shauman, her 40th reunion is the chance to finally hook up with her high school crush. She prepares weeks in advance for the big night, strange as that may seem, preening in front of the mirror. As Berg surveys the gamut of emotions felt by Dorothy and some of her classmates, she zeroes in on an array of stereotypes—the hot girls, the jocks, the in crowd, the out crowd—and considers what makes each one tick, offering the vanilla revelation that the person on the inside doesn't always match the person on the outside. It's cleanly plotted, ably written, and sure to appeal to boomers staring down the barrel of their own 40th reunions.

Click this link to get more information about this novel The Last Time I Saw You: A Novel

The Cloud Pavilion: A Novel (Sano Ichiro)

2010-11-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

Starred Review. In Rowland's masterful 14th historical to feature Sano Ichiro, a year has passed since the events chronicled in 2008's The Fire Kimono, but the calm that has prevailed since the shogun made Sano and his archrival, Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, co-chamberlains is about to be shattered. Maj. Kumazawa Hiroyuki, Sano's estranged uncle, comes to him for help after the major's 33-year-old daughter, Chiyo, disappears. The detective-turned-politician manages to find Chiyo, but not before she has been violated. The search for her assailant becomes more complicated once word reaches Sano that Chiyo was the third in a series of victims, following an elderly nun and a powerful gangster's teenage daughter. Established fans will be pleased by how Rowland has developed Sano's son, Masahiro, along with other secondary characters they have become attached to, while newcomers should find the people, plot and early 18th-century Japanese setting hard to resist.

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The Preparation of the Novel: Lecture Course at the Collège de France (1978-1979) (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Crit

2010-11-14T17:24:00.000-08:00

"A group of us go in two cars to the Waterfall (a pretty little valley on the way to Rabat). The same, uninterrupted sadness, a kind of listlessness that (since a recent bereavement) bears upon everything I do, everything I think. Return, an empty apartment, a difficult time: the afternoon (I'll speak of it again). Alone, sad. Marinade. I reflect with enough intensity. The beginnings of an idea: something like a 'literary' conversion-it's those two very old words that occur to me: to enter into literature, into writing; to write, as if I'd never written before: to do only that.

Will I really write a novel? I'll answer this and only this. I'll proceed as if I were going to write one."

Completed just weeks before his death, the lectures in this volume mark a critical juncture in the career of Roland Barthes, in which he declared the intention, deeply felt, to write a novel. Unfolding over the course of two years, Barthes engaged in a unique pedagogical experiment: he combined teaching and writing to "simulate" the trial of novel-writing, exploring every step of the creative process along the way.

Barthes's lectures move from the desire to write to the actual decision making, planning, and material act of producing a novel. He meets the difficulty of transitioning from short, concise notations (exemplified by his favorite literary form, haiku) to longer, uninterrupted flows of narrative, and he encounters a number of setbacks. Barthes takes solace in a diverse group of writers, including Dante, whose La Vita Nuova was similarly inspired by the death of a loved one, and he turns to classical philosophy, Taoism, and the works of François-René Chateaubriand, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Kafka, and Marcel Proust.

This book uniquely includes eight elliptical plans for Barthes's unwritten novel, which he titled Vita Nova, and lecture notes that sketch the critic's views on photography. Following on The Neutral: Lecture Course at the Collège de France (1977-1978) and a third forthcoming collection of Barthes lectures, this volume provides an intensely personal account of the labor and love of writing.

Click this link to get more information about this novel The Preparation of the Novel: Lecture Course at the Collège de France (1978-1979) (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism)

The Secret Soldier (A John Wells Novel)

2010-11-14T17:21:00.000-08:00

John Wells may have left the CIA, but it hasn't left him. A mysterious call brings a surprise meeting with the aged monarch of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah. "My kingdom is on a precipice," he tells Wells. "Powerful factions are plotting against me, and my own family is in danger. I don't know who I can trust, but I'm told I can trust you."

Reluctantly, and with the secret blessing of the CIA, Wells goes undercover; but the more he learns, the more complicated things become, and soon he, too, is unsure whom to trust, in Saudi Arabia or Washington. One thing, however, is clear: If the conspirators prevail, it will mean more than the fall of a monarch-it may be the beginning of the final conflagration between America and Islam.

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Rescue: A Novel

2010-11-14T17:18:00.000-08:00

In Shreve's smooth if unsurprising latest (after A Change in Altitude), EMT Peter Webster is drawn to a woman he rescues at the scene of a one-car drunk driving accident. Webster is well intentioned, but alcoholic Sheila, with her dangerous history, could prove beyond his efforts to save her, though the two embark on an affair that evolves into marriage and parenthood with the birth of their daughter, Rowan. Sheila's drinking, meanwhile, escalates until she causes another accident, this time with young Rowan in the car, causing Webster to send Sheila away to avoid jail time. Years later, with not a word from long-gone Sheila, Rowan is a typically turmoil-ridden high school senior--moody, her grades slipping, drinking--and her tribulations prompt Webster to reach out to Sheila to help his daughter. Webster and Sheila are more type than character--good-hearted man, damaged woman incapable of love--and the paramedic rescue scenes feel mostly like opportunities for Shreve to show off her research. Still, the story runs like a well-oiled machine and should sate the author's fans.

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In Too Deep: Book One of the Looking Glass Trilogy (An Arcane Society Novel)

2010-11-14T17:14:00.000-08:00

Jayne Ann Krentz follows up her highly successful Dreamlight Trilogy- written in collaboration with her two alter egos, Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle-with a brand-new story arc that begins in a secluded coastal town in northern California.

Scargill Cove is the perfect place for Fallon Jones, confirmed recluse and investigator of the paranormal. It's a hot spot, a convergence point for unusually strong currents of energy, which might explain why the town attracts misfits and drifters like moths to a flame. Now someone else has been drawn to the Cove-Isabella Valdez, on the run from some very dangerous men.

When she starts work as Fallon's assistant, Isabella impresses him by organizing his pathologically chaotic office-and doesn't bat an eye at the psychic aspect of his job. She's a kindred spirit, a sanctuary from a world that considers his talents a form of madness. But after a routine case unearths an antique clock infused with dark energy, Fallon and Isabella are dragged into the secret history of Scargill Cove and forced to fight for their lives, as they unravel a cutthroat conspiracy with roots in the Jones family business . . . and Isabella's family tree.

Click this link to get more information about this novel In Too Deep: Book One of the Looking Glass Trilogy (An Arcane Society Novel)

The Street Lawyer: A Novel

2010-11-14T17:11:00.000-08:00

John Grisham is back with his latest courtroom conundrum, The Street Lawyer. This time the lord of legal thrillers dives deep into the world of the homeless, particularly their barely audible legal voice in a world dominated by large, all-powerful law firms. Our hero, Michael Brock, is on the fast track to partnership at D.C.'s premier law firm, Sweeny & Drake. His dream of someday raking in a million-plus a year is finally within reach. Nothing can stop him, not even 90-hour workweeks and a failing marriage--until he meets DeVon Hardy, a.k.a. "Mister," a Vietnam vet with a grudge against his landlord--and a few lawyers to fry. Hardy, with no clear motive, takes Brock and eight of his colleagues hostage in a boardroom, demanding their tax returns and interrogating them with a conviction that would have put perpetrators of the Spanish Inquisition to shame. Hardy, a man of few words and a lot of ammunition, mumbles cryptically, "Who are the evictors?" as he points a .44 automatic within inches of Brock's face. The violent outcome of the hostage situation triggers an abrupt soul-searching for the young lawyer, and Hardy's mysterious question continues to haunt him. Brock learns that Hardy had been in and out of homeless shelters most of his life, but he had recently begun paying rent in a rundown building; that means he has legal recourse when a big money-making outfit such as Sweeny & Drake boots him with no warning. When Brock realizes that his profession caters to the morally challenged, he sets out on an aimless search through the dicier side of D.C., ending up at the 14th Street Legal Clinic. The clinic's director, a gargantuan man named Mordecai Green, woos Brock to the clinic with a $90,000 cut in pay and the chance to redeem his soul. Brock takes it--and some of the story's credibility along with it; it's hard to believe that a Yale graduate who sacrificed everything--including his marriage--to succeed in the legal profession would quickly jump at the opportunity for low-paying, charitable work. However, Brock's search for corruption in the swanky upper echelons of Sweeny & Drake (via the toughest streets of D.C.) is filled with colorful characters and realistic, gritty descriptions. In the The Street Lawyer, Grisham once again defends the voiceless and powerless. In the words of Mordecai Green, "That's justice, Michael. That's what street law is all about. Dignity."

Click this link to get more information about this novel The Street Lawyer: A Novel

Though Not Dead: A Kate Shugak Novel

2010-11-14T17:08:00.000-08:00

In the newest entry in Dana Stabenow’s New York Times bestselling Kate Shugak series, Kate and the rest of the Park rats are stunned by the death of Old Sam, Kate’s eighty-seven-year-old uncle and foster father. In his will, he leaves almost everything to Kate, including a homestead deep in gold mining country that no one knew he had and a letter that reads simply, “Find my father.”

Easier said than done, since Sam’s father is something of a mystery: an outsider who disappeared shortly after learning about Sam’s existence, he took with him a priceless tribal artifact, a Russian icon. During the first three days of Kate’s search, she gets shot at, whacked in the head, and run off the road in deep snow and left for dead.

Interspersed with flashbacks from Sam’s fascinating life, including scenes from major events in Alaskan history, Kate does her best to fulfill Sam’s last wish—as various people follow her every move, in search of the icon, Old Sam’s gold, or possibly some other secret remnant of his long, mysterious life.

Click this link to get more information about this novel Though Not Dead: A Kate Shugak Novel

The Perfect Play (A Play-by-Play Novel)

2010-11-14T17:03:00.000-08:00

The last thing event planner Tara Lincoln needs is the jet-set lifestyle of a football pro like Mick Riley; even though their steamy and passionate one-night stand proved that Mick is an all-star-both on the field and in the bedroom.

Tara played the game of love once and lost big, and she doesn't intend to put herself out there again, especially with a certified heartbreaker. But when Mick sets his mind to win, nothing will stop him. And he has the perfect play in mind to catch this sultry vixen.

Click this link to get more information about this novel The Perfect Play (A Play-by-Play Novel)

Frostfire: A Novel of the Kyndred (KYNDRED NOVEL)

2010-11-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

As one of the genetically enhanced Kyndred, Lilah's mind-reading powers make her vulnerable to a mysterious biotech company willing to murder to acquire her superhuman DNA. But her true fear may come from her own Kyndred brethren...

Click this link to get more information about this novel Frostfire: A Novel of the Kyndred (KYNDRED NOVEL)

The Lady Most Likely...: A Novel in Three Parts

2010-11-14T16:51:00.000-08:00

Hugh Dunne, the Earl of Briarly, needs a wife—so his sister hands him a list of the very best young ladies on the market. And then, because he refuses to tear himself away from the stables where he trains Arabian racehorses, she invites all those ladies to a house party, along with some other bachelors, of course. So who will Hugh choose? The Botticelli-esque, enchanting Gwendolyn? The outspoken, delightful Katherine? If he doesn't work fast, he'll lose those ladies to his closest friends, and then where will he look for a wife? Perhaps, just perhaps, toward a lady who's not on a market at all, and would require a great deal of persuading...

Click this link to get more information about this novel The Lady Most Likely...: A Novel in Three Parts

Dead Zero: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel

2010-11-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

From New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter comes a thriller that plunges deep into the world of high-tech national security, the hearts and minds of those who kill for duty, and the latest mission for veteran sniper Bob Lee Swagger— who may have finally met the only man who can outshoot him.

Who killed Whiskey 2-2?

And why won’t it stay dead?

A marine sniper team on a mission in tribal territories on the Afghan-Pakistan border, Whiskey 2-2 is ambushed by professionals using the latest high-tech shooting gear. Badly wounded, the team’s sole survivor, Gunnery Sergeant Ray Cruz, aka “the Cruise Missile,” is determined to finish his job. He almost succeeds when a mystery blast terminates his enterprise, leaving a thirty-foot crater where a building used to be—and where Sergeant Cruz was meant to be hiding.

Months pass. Ray’s target, an Afghan warlord named Ibrahim Zarzi, sometimes called “The Beheader,” becomes an American asset in the region and beyond, beloved by State, the Administration, and the Agency. He arrives in Washington for consecration as Our Man in Kabul. But so does a mysterious radio transmission, in last year’s code. It’s from Whiskey 2-2.

MISSION WILL BE COMPLETED.

CONFIDENCE IS HIGH.

Is Ray Cruz back? Has he gone rogue, is he insane, or just insanely angry? Will he succeed, though his antagonists now include the CIA, the FBI, and the same crew of bad boys that nearly killed him in Zabol province? Not to mention Bob Lee Swagger and a beautiful CIA agent named Susan Okada who gives Swagger more than just a patriotic reason to take the case.

Swagger, the legendary hero of seven of Hunter’s novels from Point of Impact to last year’s bestselling I, Sniper, is recruited by the FBI to stop the Cruise Missile from reaching his target. The problem is that the more Swagger learns about what happened in Zabol, the more he questions the U.S. government’s support of Zarzi and the more he identifies with Cruz as hunter instead of prey.

With its hallmark accuracy on modern killing technologies, Dead Zero features an older, more contemplative Swagger, but never lets up on the razor-sharp dialogue, vivid characterizations, extraordinary action scenes, and dazzling prose that define Hunter’s landmark series. And with this installment, the stunning revelations— both political and private—will leave readers begging for more long after the last bullet finds its way home.

Click this link to get more information about this novel Dead Zero: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel

The White Queen: A Novel (The Cousins' War)

2010-11-14T16:41:00.000-08:00

Brother turns on brother to win the ultimate prize, the throne of England, in this dazzling account of the wars of the Plantagenets. They are the claimants and kings who ruled England before the Tudors, and now Philippa Gregory brings them to life through the dramatic and intimate stories of the secret players: the indomitable women, starting with Elizabeth Woodville, the White Queen.

The White Queen tells the story of a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition who, catching the eye of the newly crowned boy king, marries him in secret and ascends to royalty. While Elizabeth rises to the demands of her exalted position and fights for the success of her family, her two sons become central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the missing princes in the Tower of London whose fate is still unknown.

Click this link to get more information about this novel The White Queen: A Novel (The Cousins' War)

The Outlaws: a Presidential Agent novel

2010-11-14T16:38:00.000-08:00

Charlie Castillo's secret unit has been disbanded-but that doesn't mean he's out of business. As experience has painfully shown him, there are many things the intelligence community can't do, won't do, or doesn't do well, and he has the men and assets to help set things straight.

But the first opportunity, when it comes, is shocking: A FedEx package arrives, bearing photos of barrels containing some of the most dangerous biohazard materials on earth, all of which were supposed to have been destroyed during a raid on a secret Russian factory in the Congo. Who has them, and what do they want? Castillo has a feeling he's not going to like the answers.

Click this link to get more information about this novel The Outlaws: a Presidential Agent novel

Lucid Intervals: A Stone Barrington Novel

2010-11-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

It seems like just another quiet night at Elaine's. Stone Barrington and his former cop partner, Dino, are enjoying some pasta when in walks former client and all around sad sack Herbie Fisher...with a briefcase containing $14 million in cash.

Herbie claims to have won the money on a lucky lotto ticket, but he also says he needs a lawyer-and after a single gunshot breaks the window above his head and sends diners scrambling, Stone and Dino suspect Herbie might need a bodyguard and a private investigator, too.

Click this link to get more information about this novel Lucid Intervals: A Stone Barrington Novel

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel

2010-11-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart.

The Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But then his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition?

Click this link to get more information about this novel Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel

What the Night Knows: A Novel

2010-11-14T07:25:00.000-08:00

In the late summer of a long ago year, a killer arrived in a small city. His name was Alton Turner Blackwood, and in the space of a few months he brutally murdered four families. His savage spree ended only when he himself was killed by the last survivor of the last family, a fourteen-year-old boy.

Half a continent away and two decades later, someone is murdering families again, recreating
in detail Blackwood’s crimes. Homicide detective John Calvino is certain that his own family—his wife and three children—will be targets in the fourth crime, just as his parents and sisters were victims on that distant night when he was fourteen and killed their slayer.

As a detective, John is a man of reason who deals in cold facts. But an extraordinary experience convinces him that sometimes death is not a one-way journey, that sometimes the dead return.

Here is ghost story like no other you have read. In the Calvinos, Dean Koontz brings to life a family that might be your own, in a war for their survival against an adversary more malevolent than any he has yet created, with their own home the battleground. Of all his acclaimed novels, none exceeds What the Night Knows in power, in chilling suspense, and in sheer mesmerizing storytelling.

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The Emperor's Tomb (Cotton Malone)

2010-11-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

Hearing that his old friend Cassiopeia Vitt is in trouble, Malone follows the few clues he has and realises that they are in the middle of something huge, involving Russian and US oil interests and a centuries-old secret. After stumbling across two dead bodies and into the crosshairs of his former boss, Malone finds himself in a race to unravel the mystery of an emperor's tomb, a sinister society, and a deadly battle between two ruthless men for supremacy in China -- and the world.

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The Walking Dead Volume 13

2010-11-14T07:03:00.000-08:00

Life in the community is as near as Rick and his group can ever hope to come to life returning to normal. So why is Rick so on edge? Will his behavior spell doom for everyone else? Will they let it get that far?

Click this link to get more information about this novel The Walking Dead Volume 13

Night Star (The Immortals)

2010-11-14T06:55:00.000-08:00

In this installment, Ever and Damen face down bitter rivals, jealous friends and their own worst fears—all in the hope of being together forever. Night Star is guaranteed to mesmerize fans and leave them breathlessly awaiting the sixth and final book!

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The Athena Project

2010-11-14T06:50:00.000-08:00

The world’s most elite counterterrorism unit has just taken its game to an entirely new level. And not a moment too soon . . .

From behind the rows of razor wire, a new breed of counterterrorism operator has emerged.

Just as skilled, just as fearsome, and just as deadly as their colleagues, Delta Force’s newest members have only one thing setting them apart—their gender. Part of a top-secret, all-female program codenamed The Athena Project, four of Delta’s best and brightest women are about to undertake one of the nation’s deadliest assignments.

When a terrorist attack in Rome kills more than twenty Americans, Athena Team members Gretchen Casey, Julie Ericsson, Megan Rhodes, and Alex Cooper are tasked with hunting down the Venetian arms dealer responsible for providing the explosives. But there is more to the story than anyone knows.

In the jungles of South America, a young U.S. intelligence officer has made a grisly discovery. Surrounded by monoliths covered with Runic symbols, one of America’s greatest fears appears to have come true. Simultaneously in Colorado, a foreign spy is close to penetrating the mysterious secret the U.S. government has hidden beneath Denver International Airport.

As Casey, Ericsson, Rhodes, and Cooper close in on their target, they will soon learn that another attack—one of unimaginable proportions—has already been set in motion, and the greatest threat they face may be the secrets kept by their own government.

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Port Mortuary (A Scarpetta Novel)

2010-11-14T06:44:00.000-08:00

Port Mortuary, the title of Patricia Cornwell's 18th Scarpetta novel, is literally a port for the dead. In this fast-paced story, a treacherous path from Scarpetta's past merges with the high tech highway she now finds herself on. We travel back to the beginning of her professional career, when she enlisted in the Air Force to pay off her medical school debt and found herself ensnared in a gruesome case of what seemed to be vicious, racially motivated hate crimes against two Americans in South Africa. Now, more than twenty years and many career successes later, her secret military ties have drawn her to Dover Air Force Base, where she has been immersed in a training fellowship to master the art of CT-assisted virtual autopsy--a procedure the White House has mandated that she introduce in the private sector.

As the chief of the new Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts, a joint venture of the state and federal governments and MIT, Scarpetta is confronted with a case that could shut down her new facility and ruin her personally and professionally. A young man drops dead, apparently from a cardiac arrhythmia, eerily close to Scarpetta's new Cambridge home. But when his body is examined the next morning, there are stunning indications that he may have been alive when he was zipped inside a pouch and locked insider the Center's cooler. Various 3-D radiology scans reveal more shocking details about internal injuries unlike any Scarpetta has ever seen. These suggest the possibility of a conspiracy to cause mass casualties. She realizes that she is fighting a cunning and cruel enemy that is invisible as she races against time to discover who and why before more people die.

In Port Mortuary, Patricia Cornwell brings Scarpetta together with Marino, Benton, and Lucy in an intimate way that is reminiscent of the early novels, and we welcome a voice we haven't heard in years. The point of view is Scarpetta's, and this is her story.

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Awakened (House of Night)

2010-11-14T06:21:00.000-08:00

"My love, speak to me. Tell me everything." Neferet went to Kalona, kneeling before him, stroking the soft, dark wings that unfurled loosely around the immortal.
"What would you have me say?" He didn't meet her eyes.
"Zoey lives." Neveret voice was flat, cold, lifeless.
"She does."
"Then you owe me the subservience of your immortal soul." She started to walk away from him.
"Where are you going? What will happen next?"
"It is quite simple. I will ensure Zoey is drawn back to Oklahoma. There, on my own terms, I will complete the task you failed."

Exonerated by the Vampyre High Council and returned to her position of High Priestess at Tulsa's House of Night, Neferet has sworn vengeance on Zoey. Dominion over Kalona is only one of the weapons she plans to use against Z. But Zoey has found sanctuary on the Isle of Skye and is being groomed by Queen Sgiach to take over for her there. Being Queen would be cool, wouldn't it?
Why should she return to Tulsa? After losing her human consort, Heath, she will never be the same- and her relationship with her super hot warrior, Stark, may never be the same either...
And what about Stevie Rae and Rephaim? The Raven Mocker refuses to be used against Stevie rae, but what choice does he have when no one in the entire world, including Zoey, would be okay wtih their relationship? Does he betray his father or his heart?
In the pulse-pounding 8th book in the best selling House of Night series, how far will the bonds of friendship stretch and how strong are the ties that bind one girl's heart?

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Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy, Book 6)

2010-11-14T06:17:00.000-08:00

Murder. Love. Jealousy. And the ultimate sacrifice. Now, with Rose on trial for her life and Lissa first in line for the Royal Throne, nothing will ever be the same between them.

Click this link to get more information about this novel Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy, Book 6)

Crescent Dawn (Dirk Pitt Adventure)

2010-11-14T04:35:00.000-08:00

In A.D. 327, a Roman galley barely escapes a pirate attack with its extraordinary cargo. In 1916, a British warship mysteriously explodes in the middle of the North Sea. In the present day, a cluster of important mosques in Turkey and Egytp are wracked by explosions. Does anything tie them together?
NUMA director Dirk Pitt is about to find out, as Roman artifacs discovered in Turkey and Israel unnervingly connect to the rise of a fundamentalist movement determined to restore the glory of the Ottoman Empire and to the existence of a mysterious "manifest" lost long ago, ehich if discovered again...just masy cange the history of the world as we know it.

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Dead or Alive (Jack Ryan)

2010-11-14T02:41:00.000-08:00

For years, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his colleagues at the Campus have waged an unofficial and highly effective campaign against the terrorist who threathen western civilization. The most dangerous of these is the Emir. This sadistic killer has masterminded the most vicious attack on the west and has eluded capture by the world's law enforcement agencies. Now the Campus is on his trail. Joined by their latest recruits, John Clark and Ding Chavez, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his cousin, Dominick and Brian Caruso, are determined to catch the Emir and they will bring him in...dead or alive.

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Cross Fire (Alex Cross)

2010-11-14T02:07:00.000-08:00

Detective Alex Cross and Bree's wedding plans are put on hold when Alex is called to the scene of the perfectly executed assassination of two of Washington D.C.'s most corrupt, a dirty congressmen and a underhanded lobbyist. Next, the elusive gunman begins picking off other crooked politicians, sparking a blaze of theories, is the marksman a hero or a vigilante?

A Murderer Returns
The case explodes, and the FBI assign agent Max Siegel to the investigation. As Alex and Siegel battle over jurisdiction, the murders continue. It becomes clear that they are the work of a professional who has detailed knowledge of his victims movements, information that only a Washington insider could possess.

Caught In a Lethal Cross Fire
As Alex contends with the sniper, Siegel and the wedding, he receives a call from his deadliest adversary, Kyle Craig. The Mastermind is in D.C. and will not relent until he has eliminated Cross and his family for good. With a supercharged blend of action, deception, and suspense, Cross Fire is James Patterson's most visceral and exciting Alex Cross novel ever.

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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

2010-11-14T01:41:00.000-08:00

On a May afteroon in 1943, an army Air Foeces bomber crashed into the pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young liutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to life raft and pulling himself abroad. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.
The Liutenant's name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.
Ahead of Zamperini lay thousand of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutally with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraving wire of his will.
Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

2010-10-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to explain in words what the pictures are trying to say, and therefore my explanations are not precisely what I had in mind because they add shades of meaning which are not there. The reader can only interpret them in his own way, bringing his own observations to bear on the image he is looking at, so that he may agree or disagree with what I have tried to convey. When I set out to draw an idea, part of that idea is not yet formed and only takes shape and reveals itself as the drawing progresses. Consequently, the drawing acquires a life of its own and virtually takes over the direction it will follow -- or so it seems.

I have made a few notes about some of the pictures. The rest are self explanatory or purely illustrations.

THE WHITE RABBIT. Worried by time, hurrying and scurrying. Sane within a routine, slightly insane but more engaging when the routine is upset. Today's commuter.

THE DODO in this picture reminded me of an Archbishop and being as "dead as a dodo" it fitted perfectly. The other animals remind me of people I know, rather as Lewis Carroll apparently created them around friends and associates. The reader can place his own interpretation on them. It was never my intention to set everything in concrete.

I rather hate dogs. They seem to have soaked up all the worst in human nature. They are more human and even more stupid. In place of Tenniel's pug dog which perhaps was the fashionable dog when he drew the pictures, the poodle seems the most apt substitute. The dog is the perfect feed for the man who wants his ego pumped. He can take for granted the dog's blind loyalty and obedience. The dog fouls the pavement and the man fouls the rest of the world.

THE YOUNG INTELLECTUAL. Smoking hash, pedantic, who thinks he has something to say and sheds his opinions as easily as his skins.

THE FATHER WILLIAM set to me is the arrogance of youth versus the certainty of an old man's memories.

1. The young man reinforces his arrogance by using the old man's experience as a crutch.
2. Whilst throwing past standards out of the window the young man may often come back in through the door if he finds his
3. yardstick less than three feet.
4. An old man can become intense talking about right and wrong, and a youth can become bored as a result.
5. The old man showing he hasn't lost his touch but the young man finds it is all a big joke.

THE DUCHESS is an ex-starlet who married the aristocrat. A high-class tart gone to seed. Her tiny mind has developed a home-spun philosophy within a cultured environment in an effort to keep up appearances.

THE COOK found fame in the kitchen and enjoys her prima donna tendencies.

THE CHESHIRE CAT makes an ideal TV Announcer whose smile remains as the rest of the programme fades out.

The growth of the tea party tree turns logic upside down. It begins in a puzzle at its top and grows down to its roots.

THE HATTER represents the unpleasant sides of human nature. The unreasoned argument screams at you. The bully, the glib quiz game compère who rattles off endless reels of unanswerable riddles and asks you to come back next week and make a bloody fool of yourself again.

THE MARCH HARE is always standing close by. The "egger-on" urging the banality to plumb even greater depths. He always seems to be around to push someone into a fight.

THE DORMOUSE is always the dormouse. Harmless and nice. The man anyone in the office can take a rise out of. If you tread on his face he will smile right back at you.

THE BRITISH WORKMAN. Bickering about who splashed who and standing in the stuff all the time anyway.

THE MONARCH having evolved or developed into a shapeless mass of hangers-on, the State, H.M. Forces, the Church, the establishment walking on one pair of very well-worn legs. The King and Queen born into it and enveloped in it and lost in it, obliged to go through the motions automatically but surprising even themselves by their own outbursts.

The Duchess again The old con trying to glean from Alice some of the objectivity and honesty she lost years ago.

The croquet game when internal confusion disrupts the xvhole structure. Practically showing its knickers, the heaving mass struggles vainly to maintain its dignity and avoid humiliation.

THE GRYPHON to me is the commissionaire of a modern office block. His epaulettes are his wings. He is slow thinking, sometimes ignorant. If you walk into the building in a humble manner, he exercises his authority to the full and crushes you, but if you walk in looking important he will lick your boots. The only man in the building he can order about is the caretaker, so he is the mock turtle who may have more intelligence but is satisfied with his lot, or at least has accepted it graciously. They may also be quite good friends. The dance would express their nicer sides when they are.

THE LOBSTER wearing the old school tie joins exclusive clubs and reckons he is pretty sharp until a real shark comes along.

My only regret is that I didn't write the story.

Ralph Steadman - London - 1967

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The Great Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

2010-10-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

The Adventure of a Scandal in Bohemia
To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen; but, as a lover, he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer-excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.

I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to absorb all my attention; while Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker-street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries, which had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of my former friend and companion.

One night-it was on the 20th of March, 1888-I was returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to civil practice), when my way led me through Baker-street. As I passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw his tall spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his chest, and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his drug-created dreams, and was hot upon the scent of some new problem. I rang the bell, and was shown up to the chamber which had formerly been in part my own.

His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he stood before the fire, and looked me over in his singular introspective fashion.

"Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you."

"Seven," I answered.

"Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not tell me that you intended to go into harness."

"Then, how do you know?"

"I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and careless servant girl?"

"My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly have been burned had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful mess; but, as I have changed my clothes, I can't imagine how you deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has given her notice; but there again I fail to see how you work it out."

He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long nervous hands together.

"It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black mark of nitrate of silver6 upon his right fore-finger, and a bulge on the side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted his stethoscope, I must be dull indeed if I do not pronounce him to be an active member of the medical profession."

I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled, until you explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good as yours."

"Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room."

"Frequently."

"How often?"

"Well, some hundreds of times."

"Then how many are there?"

"How many! I don't know."

"Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed. By the way, since you are interested in these little problems, and since you are good enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick pink-tinted notepaper which had been lying open upon the table. "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud."

The note was undated, and without either signature or address.

"There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of the Royal Houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask."

"This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that it means?"

"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. What do you deduce from it?"

I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was written.

"The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper could not be bought under half-a-crown a packet. It is peculiarly strong and stiff."

"Peculiar-that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an English paper at all. Hold it up to the light."

I did so, and saw a large E with a small g, a P, and a large G with a small t woven into the texture of the paper.

"What do you make of that?" asked Holmes.

"The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather."

"Not at all. The G with the small t stands for 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a customary contraction like our 'Co.' P, of course, stands for 'Papier.' Now for the Eg. Let us glance at our Continental Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "Eglow, Eglonitz-here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking country-in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous glass factories and paper mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue triumphant cloud from his cigarette.

"The paper was made in Bohemia," I said.

"Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you note the peculiar construction of the sentence-'This account of you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian could not have written that. It is the German who is so uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper, and prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts."

As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the bell. Holmes whistled.

"A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes" he continued, glancing out of the window. "A nice little brougham9 and a pair of beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in this case, Watson, if there is nothing else."

"I think that I had better go, Holmes."

"Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell.10 And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity to miss it."

"But your client--"

"Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best attention."

A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there was a loud and authoritative tap.

"Come in!" said Holmes. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

This book included 12 adventures:
1. A Scandal in Bohemia
2. The Red-Headed League
3. A Case of Identity
4. The Boscombe Valley Mystery
5. The Five Orange Pips
6. The Man with the Twisted Lip
7. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
8. The Adventure of the Speckled Band
9. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb
10. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
11. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
12. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

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The ABC Murders

2010-10-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

"Mr Hercule Poirot--you fancy yourself, don't you, at solving mysteries that are too difficult for our poor thick-headed British police? Let us see, Mr.Clever Poirot, just how clever you can be."
Was the anomyous note a briliant challenge or a crackpot hoax?
The answer is as loud and clear as a woman's scream--precisely that of Alice Ascher, a shopkeeper in Andover bludgeoned to death on the job. Next to her corpse, a clue that's as simple as ABC. Alphabetically speaking, the master Belgian sleuth suspects it's now a matter of one down, twenty five to go...

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A Caribbean Mystery (Miss Marple Mysteries)

2010-08-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

The Tinny Carribean island of St.Honore is a tropical paradise. But for Miss Marple, enjoying a well-earned rest from her busy life in the village of St.Mary Mead, it is a place where nothing ever seems to happen. Until old Major Palgrave tells her the strange story of a suspected double murderer.
As rumors begin to circulate, the elderly sleuth is not alone in suspecting that things are not as they seem. And when a death that is indisputably murder occurs, Miss Marple finds an unlikely ally in the cantakerous crippled millionare Mr.Rafiel.

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A Pocket Full of Rye (Miss Marple Mysteries)

2010-08-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

A business man is found dead in his office with a handful of grain in his pocket. His wife is found dead in the parlor with honey dripping from her scone. And the maid is found strangled in the garden with a clothes pin attached to her nose. The work of an insane homicide maniac or the clever plan of a cold, calculating killer??

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A Murder Is Announced

2010-08-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

It's a simple party game where a secret murderer strikes, leaving the guests to play detective...except this time there's a real corpse. Now enter a real detective: Miss Jane Marple

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4.50 From Paddington

2010-08-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

Elspeth McGillicuddy is down from Scotland for a holiday and boards the 4:50 train from Paddington station to visit her friend Miss Marple. During the journey, another train pulls alogside, and through the window Mrs.McGillicuddy witnesses a tall, dark man strangling a blonde woman. She reports what she has seen, yet no one takes any notice. There is no report of any murder, no dead woman found on any train, and the police have no record of any persons reported missing that match the description given by Mrs.McGillicudy. Only Miss Marple believes her account, and realizing that the body must have been thrown off the train, with the help of maps and train timetables she pinpoints the exact spot where the body must be. With the help of her young friend Lucy Eylelesbarrow, she goes about the tricky task of uncovering a amurder, and a cunning murder..

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The Girls With The Dragons Tattoo

2009-12-31T01:51:00.000-08:00

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoois a mystery and detective novel. In 1966 sixteen-year-old Harriet Vanger, daughter of the CEO of the large family-run Vanger Corporation, goes missing from her family's island community and is never seen again. Not even a body is found, and her great uncle, Henrik Vanger, has explored every possible lead to discover what happened to his one and only favourite family member.

Over the last forty years her disappearance has become Henrik's obsession, and he's positive someone in the family murdered her - but they never found a motive, and without one he doesn't know who to suspect. Now, in 2005, Henrik has little time left as he grows old and plenty of money to indulge in his obsession one last time.

Mikael Blomkvist is a forty-something financial journalist and editor of Millennium magazine, a magazine he co-founded which prides itself on investigative journalism. But Blomkvist and the magazine have just suffered their first big blow: he's been convicted of libel against one of the biggest business entrepreneurs in Sweden, Hans-Erik Wennerström.

Wanting to keep a low profile and pretend he's been fired from the magazine in order to try and save it from further attack by Wennerström, Henrik Vanger's proposition comes at an ideal time. Mikael's father once worked for the Vanger Corporation, and Harriet herself had babysat little Mikael a few times. Henrik offers Blomkvist a year-long contract with the pretext of writing a history of the family - an autobiography of Henrik - while his real mission is to discover what happened to Harriet.

After some convincing, Blomkvist takes the job - but when he discovers the first new evidence since the tragedy occurred, he realises he needs help - and who better to go to than the private investigator who did such a good job on Blomkvist when Henrik hired her?

Lisbeth Salander is a quiet, secretive young woman who excels at what she does because she's also a genius hacker. With a troubled past and a dicey present, her trust in Blomkvist takes her by surprise. The two team up to discover the truth about Harriet, and to take Wennerström down.

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The Help

2009-12-31T01:36:00.001-08:00

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Helpis a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

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The Shack

2009-12-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shackwrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

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Finger Lickin' Fifteen

2009-12-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

Stephanie tries to keep out of trouble in this book, Finger Lickin' Fifteen. She has financial problems and relationship issues that she would rather avoid. She’s tracking felons who slip out of her clutches, and working for the delicious security expert, Ranger. The delectable cop, Joe Morelli, is also there.

When celebrity chef, Stanley Chipotle, arrives in Trenton for a barbecue sauce cook-off, he is decapitated. Stephanie’s best friend, ex-prostitute, Lula witnesses the event. Making the best of the situation, Lula decides to team up with Grandma Mazur, and enter the barbecue sauce competition.

Stephanie takes it all in her stride by hanging out at Ranger’s offices and sleeping in his bed. With guns blazing, cars burning and hormones raging, the heat is on.

Will she ever catch her ‘skips’? Will she find the reason for Ranger’s security company being compromised? Can she help Lula and her grandmother win the contest? And will she ever decide to marry Morelli?

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Dead and Gone

2009-12-30T18:59:00.000-08:00

Dead and Goneis the 9th book in Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire mystery series, featuring Sookie Stackhouse, a Southerner in Bon Temps with the ability to read minds. It's a series filled with supernatural beings, a bit of magic, romance and mystery.

In this latest installment of the series, the were-people and shape shifters have decided it is time to announce their existence to the world. The vampires have been more of less integrated into society for quite a while, and the two-natured folk feel the time has come to step outside of the proverbial closet. Their coming out is met with a mixture of fascination, excitement, fear and anger. When the body of a woman, partially shifted into her animal form, is found hanging from a cross in the back of Merlotte's, the bar and grill where Sookie works, it's a sure sign of a hate crime. The real question though is whether the murder took place as a warning to other shape shifters or was it more personal?

As if that wasn't enough, a civil war is brewing between the fairies, and Sookie is right in thick of it. Add to that the inquisitive FBI agents who are breathing down her neck and a rather disturbing turn in her relationship with one of her vampire friends.

Trouble always seems to find Sookie and it does not waste time finding her again in Dead and Gone. She is joined by some of her usual crowd: her brother Jason, whose neck I wasn't quick to want to ring this time around; the ever sexy and confident vampire Eric; Sam, Sookie's charming boss; Amelia, Sookie's witch roommate; ex-boyfriend and vampire Bill Compton; and, of course, a special appearance by none other than the King Bubba himself. And that's just for starters.

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Breaking Dawn

2009-12-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

After the happy ending of Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer continues the Saga with the fourth novel, Breaking Dawn
. In Eclipse, the story ends with the Cullens finally defeating Victoria, the ruthless, wild-haired vampire, set out to kill Bella Swan as revenge for the Cullens killing her mate, James.

In Breaking Dawn, marriage is the next big step in the protagonist, Bella Swan’s life. But she’s not just getting married to the guy next door, she’s marrying her gorgeous, intelligent, compassionate vampire fiancé, Edward Cullen. The vampire that was out to kill her is dead and now she gets to marry Edward Cullen.

This teen romance novel is compelling and fast-paced, with so many things happening at once. There’s the wedding, there’s the honeymoon, there’s the pregnancy and of course Bella’s best friend-who-wants-to-be-more-than-just-friends, Jacob Black, who plays a big part in this novel.

Breaking Dawnis first written from Bella’s point of view, then Jacobs, then back to Bella’s again. Although Meyer’s style of writing keeps you captivated by the story—by a gravitational pull—I couldn’t help but to be disappointed by not being able to read things from Edward’s point of view.

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Eclipse

2009-12-30T14:38:00.000-08:00

Bella Swan is torn between a wolf, Jacob Black, and a vampire, Edward Cullen. In the midst of this sharp triangle of love, an unexpected visitor appears and leaves an unfamiliar scent behind in Bella's bedroom. She later find out that this is the scent of Victoria, James' lover from Twilight , seeking revenge on Edward for killing James. She believes that it costs and eye for an eye, or a lover for a lover.

As we read, Victoria is building up a new born vampire army, for the Cullens to fight. In the meantime, Bella wants to become a vampire, but Edward wants them to get married first.

Will it be Edward or Jacob? Find out in Meyer's Eclipse

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New Moon

2009-12-30T14:05:00.000-08:00

New Moon is sequel to Twilight. The story begins when Bella's 18th birthday and a simple paper cut as she opens her presents leads Edward's brother Jasper to almost kill her - to keep her safe, Edward decides to sever ties with her, convincing her that the Cullen family must move on - must leave Forks - and so must she.

She does not take it well. After a week of being catatoinc and several months of going through the motions like a depressed zombie she discovers that if she does something reckless and her adrenaline gets going, she hears Edward's voice talking to her in her head. And so, in order to hear it again, she enlists the help of her friend from the reservation, Jacob Black, into restoring an old motorbike and teaching her how to ride it.

Jacob is the only one able to block out the pain of Edward's absence, so Bella starts spending a lot of time with him. When he suddenly breaks contact with her, she's determined to see him again. Which is when she discovers that the old tribal legends are not just superstitions: he's become a werewolf, a protector of the people - from the vampiric Cullen family, against which they have deep enmity. Only the treaty between them keeps them from attacking Edward and his family.

The pack of 5 werewolfs - all young men from the reservation - are on the track of a pair of vampires who are hunting for Bella and manage to kill one, Laurent. Victoria is still on the loose. Meanwhile, despite the danger, Bella is still doing what she can to hear Edward's voice again. So she decides to cliff-dive, which works, but she nearly drowns.

Edward's sister Alice, who sees the future, thinks she sees Bella die - and so rushes back to Forks. Unfortunately, his other sister Rosalie, who has never liked Bella, tells Edward what Alice saw - and when Edward calls the house asking for Bella's dad, Jacob tells him he's at the funeral, neglecting to say whose funeral. And so Alice sees Edward rushing to Italy to do whatever it takes for the ancient, royal vampire family in residence there, to kill him. Alice and Bella must race against time to prevent it.

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Twilight

2009-12-30T07:21:00.000-08:00

Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife—between desire and danger. Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, The Twilightcaptures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

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Deception Point

2009-12-20T23:25:00.001-08:00

Deception Point, a story that combines mystery, fiction, and science. Struggling to rebound from a series of embarrassing blunders that have jeopardized its political life at the start of this lively thriller, NASA makes an astounding discovery: there is a meteor embedded deep within the arctic ice. And it isn't just any meteor. Inside the huge rock, which crashed to earth in 1716, are fossils of giant insects proof of extraterrestrial life. Yet, given NASA's slipping reputation, the question arises: Is the meteor real or a fake? That uncertainty dogs NASA and its supporters in Brown's latest page-flipper, a finely polished amalgam of action and intrigue. Trying to determine the truth are intelligence agent Rachel Sexton and popular oceanographer Michael Tolland, both among the first to suspect something is amiss when the meteor is pulled from the ice. Their doubts quickly make them the targets of a mysterious death squad controlled by someone or something that doesn't want the public to hear the meteor may be a fraud. Together, Sexton and Tolland scramble across arctic glaciers, take refuge on ice floes, are rescued by a nuclear submarine, then find themselves trapped aboard a small research vessel off the coast of New Jersey. All the while, the nation's capital is buzzing as to whether NASA has engaged in deception. Or is NASA just a dupe for aerospace companies that have long wanted a bigger share of space contracts?

A rip-roaring action thriller by the author of The Da Vinci Code. This is a stand-alone focused on a Presidential election, NASA and a remarkable discovery. Another non-stop ride.

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Digital Fortress

2009-12-20T22:58:00.000-08:00

What would happen if every nation and person in the would, with a computer, could access every top secret file of the government? This is what Susan Fletcher and David Becker have to prevent in Digital Fortress: A Thrillerby Dan Brown. With a lot of action and suspense Digital Fortress is a book for anyone who likes action and mystery.

The United States government has just bought a huge computer that can unscramble any code called TRANSLTR. A top secret government agency called National Security Agency, NSA, has purchased this computer to prevent terrorist from sending coded messages to other terrorist inside or out of the United States. Thinking the people of the US may considerTRANSLTR a breech of privacy, the government never told any one about the device.

Susan Fletcher is the head Cryptographer at the NSA Crypto facility. David Becker is a foreign-language specialist Georgetown University. Commander Greg Strathmore is in charge of the facility. There also are three other Cryptographers and many engineers who work on TRANSLTR in the facility.

Susan Fletcher head Cryptographer notices a code that TRANSLTR has been working on for Eighteen hours, and most files take less than one hour. A few days latter a strange address sends them an email. Sending the email, let the NSA figure up a way to shut down Digital Fortress. The virus that will shut downTRANSLTER and expose the main government data bank to any one with Internet access. Exposing the data bank, will put the nation at risk of attack and total chaos of the citizens.

The NSA sends in David Becker to receive the ring that has the code to shut down Digital Fortress. In the mean time, Susan Fletcher is trying to convince the head boss of the whole operation that there is a problem. David is nearly shot to death, and Susan is nearly blown to bits. Will the two succeed?

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Angel and Demons

2009-12-20T22:45:00.000-08:00

If you enjoy suspense and mystery novels, Angels & Demons - Movie Tie-In: A Novelis a great novel. Dan Brown combines religion and science to create a rather controversial read.

The story starts out by introducing us to Robert Langdon by awakening him with a phone call. Maximillian Kohler summons him to the science base, CERN, for his expertise of symbolism following the murder of their top researcher. He was branded with the mark of the Illuminati, an anti-religious cult that was believed to have died out years ago. So why kill a man of science? His research had proved the existence of God’s force, in creating dark matter. His murderer gruesomely accessed his work and stole away to Vatican City. Soon after a terrorist threat was made, with no demands, and four of the preferiti were kidnapped. The preferiti were the preferred elects for the pope election. Meanwhile, the chamberlain has to take care of the election and make orders to find the dark matter. Robert is also kept very busy attempting to decipher the ancient Illuminati clues to locate the four preferiti, who are under the threat of murder. With the help of the murdered scientists daughter, Vittoria Vetra, they race across Rome to arrive a few seconds late.

The first of the preferiti was suffocated with dirt and branded with the ambigram of earth on his chest. At this point it’s impossible to put the book down. Brown’s use of mystery and riddles keeps you on the edge of your seat as you struggle along with Langdon to solve the puzzles. Robert ends up jumping out of a helicopter to save his life, and that’s how he solves the final problem. The most unsuspected person turns out to be the bad guy and the return of the Illuminati was used as a scare tactic. Because Vittoria and Robert were dependent on each other for that 24-hour action packed day, they began to feel attached to one another. At the very end they spend a romantic night together in celebration of saving Vatican City.

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The Da Vinci Code

2009-12-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

An ingenious code hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe. An astonishing truth concealed for centuries . . . unveiled at last.

The story of The Da Vinci Codebegin while in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Even more startling, the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci—and he guarded a breathtaking historical secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle—while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move—the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever.

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The Lost Symbol

2009-12-20T22:03:00.000-08:00

In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world’s most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbolis a masterstroke of storytelling--a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths . . . all under the watchful eye of Brown’s most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbolaccelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.

As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object--artfully encoded with five symbols--is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon’s beloved mentor, Peter Solomon--a prominent Mason and philanthropist--is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations--all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown’s novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbolis exactly what Brown’s fans have been waiting for . . . his most thrilling novel yet.

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To Kill A Mockingbird

2009-12-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

To Kill A Mockingbirdis a great story. The story is set in 1930s Maycomb, Alabama, and is told by Scout Finch. In it, she looks back to her childhood, between the ages of six and nine years. A lively, intelligent and fiercely loyal child, she has one older brother called Jem, whose main interest is football. Despite an age difference of nearly four years, the siblings are clearly very close. Their mother died when Scout was two and they have been brought up by their father, Atticus - who proves to be a man you can't help admiring. Calpurnia, their housekeeper, seems to have been a great help to Atticus in raising the children. At times, Scout seems to have seen her as something of an adversary, though they become much closer as time goes on. Among their neighbours are the mysterious Radleys - Mr. Arthur, better known as Boo Radley, hasn't been seen outside for many years. He has become something of a legend that inspires a certain amount of fear among the children. Another neighbour, Miss Maudie, is an entirely different proposition - a very likeable character, she proves to be a very good friend to the children and one of Maycomb's more admirable residents.

Another of the children's friends in Chet Baker Harris, a boy from Mississippi who is better known as Dill. He spends his summer with his Aunt Rachel, another of Scout's neighbours. Dill is the driving force behind one of the book's major themes : the quest to make Boo Radley come outside. The other theme, however, is a lot more serious - it deals with a court case where a black man has been charged with raping a white woman, on very flimsy evidence. The attitude of many of the townsfolk to the man in question, and to the black community in general, confuse the children greatly. The consequences of these attitudes have a direct impact on the Finch family, given that Atticus has been appointed the defence attorney.

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A Thousand Splendid Suns

2009-12-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Sunsis at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Sunsis a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

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The Kite Runner

2009-12-19T09:16:00.000-08:00

In the book, the protagonist, Amir, learns the importance of loyalty and trust. Growing up in antebellum Afghanistan, he lives with his father and their two Hazra servants. The younger of the two, Hassan, is Amir’s best friend throughout his childhood. One day, Hassan gets into a fight with a bellicose, rebellious boy who is twice his age. Amir secretly witnesses the ordeal and does not stand up for Hassan, who badly needs his assistance. As a result of his cowardice, Amir has to live with the remorse of letting Hassan down until he is granted an opportunity to, “be good again”(192). Many years later, while Afghanistan is immersed in constant fighting, Amir’s father’s old business partner, Rahim Khan, calls him back to Afghanistan to complete a very perilous task. On the phone, Rahim Khan explains to Amir that he is very sick and requires his presence immediately. In Afghanistan, Rahim Khan sends Amir to rescue Hassan’s only son from the clutches of a rampant talib. This journey proves to be perilous for both Amir and Sohrab, Hassan’s son, and Amir’s mental toughness proves to be essential to his cause.

The Kite Runneris very interesting because Amir does not represent the typical hero. Instinctively, he is not brave, courageous, strong-willed, or a domineering. Amir’s unsatisfactory characteristics are outweighed by his ability to learn from his past experiences. His willingness to recount his previous wrongdoings gives him the motivation to pursue and uphold the safety of Sohrab. The Kite Runneris an inspiring novel because it forces the reality of living in war torn Afghanistan upon the reader, who, before reading the novel, may not be able to empathize with many, if any, of the characters in the book.

The Kite Runneris an excellent book for any reader who wishes to broaden their understanding of their life’s purpose. This novel will show its readers how they may interpret the meaning of the world around them by utilizing the perspectives of others. Anyone who enjoys reading adventurous, suspenseful, and fulfilling books will be satisfied after reading The Kite Runner.

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The Professor and the Madman

2009-12-12T06:18:00.001-08:00

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (P.S.)tells about the making of Oxford English Dictionary. Its really suprising that there are an amazing story behind the making of that dictionary. Oxford English Dictionary was made for the duration of 40 years. It was one of the most ambitious project ever undertaken. This project was led by Professor James Murray. Within making this dictionary need a lot of volunteer to submitt words as much as possible. James Murray discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand words. When Professor James Murray insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light. Dr. Minor, an American Civil War Veteran, was an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

In this book was also explained step by step process to make Oxford Englidh Dictionary and elaborating words which used in this process.

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Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

2009-12-12T01:11:00.000-08:00

This book based on the true story that happens to Greg Morteson. Greg Morteson, a homeless mountaineer who following a 1993 climb of Pakistan's trescherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverihed mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he fulfill his promise with build 55 schools -especially for girls- that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on the earth.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit. This book glimpses into the culture and political strife in Pakistan and Afganisthan through the eyes of a man committed to helping the people who helped him after his climb on K-2 went awry. Greg Mortenson obviously has great love and respect for the people of Pakistan, their traditions, their culture, and humanity -something we don't learn much about in the headliness of the western media-. This book also provided a glimpse of the various factions that are in play in the region.

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