http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?fid4ct=25728 Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:23:46 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss RapidFeeds v0.1 -- http://www.rapidfeeds.com Detective Frank Mackey finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind twenty-two years ago when the suitcase belonging to his first love, Rosie Daly, shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place. The hotly anticipated third novel of the Dublin murder squad. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467137 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467137 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:31:00 EDT "When zookeeper Theodora 'Teddy' Bentley fishes the body of Koala Kate out of Gunn Landing Harbor, she discovers that her fellow zookeeper didn't drown; she was strangled. The clues to Koala Kate's killer implicate other animal keepers at Gunn Zoo, including Outback Bill, marsupial keeper and Kate's Aussie ex-boyfriend; and Robin Chase, the big cat keeper who's got it in for Teddy. Also displaying suspicious behavior are several 'liveaboarders' at the harbor; Speak-To-Souls, a shady 'animal psychic'; and even Caro, Teddy's much-married, ex-beauty queen mother. But murderers aren't all Teddy has to worry about. Her embezzling father is still on the run from the Feds, and the motor on her houseboat is failing. To pay for the repairs, Teddy agrees to appear on a weekly live television broadcast featuring misbehaving animals that range from a cuddly koala to a panicky wallaby--and all hell breaks loose in the TV studio. All the while, the killer is narrowing in on Teddy...." http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467136 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467136 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT Late one night Atlanta PI Dodge Hanley receives a phone call from his lost love, Houston realtor Caroline King, who asks him to come to Texas to help catch Oren Starks, a creepy over-the-top stalker who's out to kill Dodge and Caroline's 30-year-old daughter, Berry Malone. Dodge hasn't seen Berry since the day she was born. When Starks takes a shot at Berry in Caroline's house, hitting a work associate of Berry's instead, Dodge rushes to the rescue. While Merritt County deputy sheriff Ski Nyland, who falls for the equally smitten Berry, is no slouch on the case, the relentlessly ruthless Dodge plays the most crucial role in the effort to stop the bad guy. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467135 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467135 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT A dark tale of America's dysfunctional coming years, and of the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467134 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467134 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:29:00 EDT Fiona, a dog trainer who participates in canine search-and-rescue missions, is devastated after her fiancé is murdered, but her emotions are rekindled when Simon, a newcomer to town, brings his puppy Jaws to her for obedience training. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467133 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5467133 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:28:00 EDT Neither human nor vampire, bodyguard Celia Graves has become an Abomination--and everyone wants her dead. With the help of a few loyal friends--a sexy mage, a powerful werewolf, and a psychic cop--Celia does her best to stay alive. On the run from her enemies, Celia must try to discover who is behind her transformation ... before it's too late. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297688 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297688 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:39:00 EDT Meena Harper, forced to write about vampires even though she doesn't believe in them, falls in love with Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side. It's a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire hunters, would prefer to see him dead for. The problem is: Lucien's already dead! And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297683 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297683 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:39:00 EDT The Top End of Australia is a land teeming with crocodiles, poisonous snakes, and curious Aboriginal myths. It’s a strange place to choose to end one’s life, but that is what Dinah Pelerin’s wealthy American uncle has done. Dying of cancer, he has summoned his entire family – current wife, ex-wife, assorted children and niece – to a remote, comfortless lodge where he intends to rewrite his will and commit suicide with the aid of a rogue Australian physician with whom he shares a mysterious history. Dinah sees this time with her uncle as a last chance to learn the truth about her father, who died during the commission of a felony when she was a child. But when she arrives, she discovers that the truth has more and darker ramifications than she’d bargained on. Her artist brother thinks he’s possessed by the spirit of snake god who is moving his hand metaphysically across the canvas; her uncle, who isn’t really her uncle, is obsessed by a woman he married but could never possess; the rest of the family is seething with resentments; and a man none of them claims to know is murdered on a nearby island, impaled on the back of a sea turtle. A wannabe anthropologist with a passion for mythology, Dinah tries to sort out the complicated song lines of her own ancestors while struggling to understand Dreamtime and solve not one, but two bizarre murders. The Aboriginal concept of payback law takes on a terrible new meaning. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297682 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297682 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:38:00 EDT Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother's life. But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew--a reclusive, real-life gentle giant--she realizes that mysteries aren't solved in Mullaby, they're a way of life. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297681 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297681 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:37:00 EDT On her way to deliver the manuscript to her editor, bestselling novelist Octavia Frost reads a news crawl in Times Square and learns that her rock-star son, Milo, has been arrested for murder. Though she and Milo haven't spoken in years--an estrangement stemming from their tragic past--she drops everything to go to him. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297680 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297680 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:36:00 EDT John Costello and girlfriend Nadia became victims of the deranged "Hammer of God" killer who terrorized Jersey City throughout the summer of 1984. This murderer went after young courting couples in an attempt to "save their souls." Nadia was killed, but John survived. Physically and psychologically scarred, he withdrew from society and now only emerges to work as a crime researcher for a major newspaper. No one in New Jersey knows more about serial killers than John Costello. So, when a new spate of murders starts--all seemingly random and unrelated--he is the only one who can discern the pattern that lies behind them. But could this dark knowledge threaten his own life? http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297679 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297679 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:36:00 EDT A security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment that only six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte can stop. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297678 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5297678 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:35:00 EDT When Ansley Waller's fiancé Parish cancels their upcoming wedding, Ansley decides to leave Dallas and make a fresh start. In a surprise move, she heads to New York City to live with her recently widowed grandmother Vivian, who gives Ansley an ultimatum: get a job or go home. Before long, she's opening up her own cupcake shop and even trying her hand at dating. But the ways of Manhattan's eligible bachelors are altogether different from their Southern counterparts, and worse, someone's got a half-baked scheme to sabotage Ansley's new life. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266073 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266073 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:37:00 EDT Jet to London, Hollywood, and Italy; toss in a passionate star chef, a kindhearted paparazzo, and a reluctant male supermodel, and you have the makings of a wicked tale about LA's "beautiful people." http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266072 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266072 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:35:00 EDT In the dark tradition of Los Angeles noir, The Cleaners is the story of a ragtag team of for-hire trauma-scene cleaners led by ex-surgeon Robert Bellarmine. Contracted with sanitizing some of the nastiest crime and accident scenes in the tri-county L.A. basin, the team battles against what could only be described as the grim, unknowable face of the supernatural. But by focusing on the scientific explanation, no matter how aberrant or extraordinary, they counteract centuries-old superstition to prove things are seldom what they seem... In Absent Bodies, Bellarmine and his crew take on a series of gruesome tasks starting with a bloodbath that covers an entire neighborhood. This investigation leads them toward uncovering a disturbing mystery involving missing people - mostly children - which dates back longer than the history of the city itself. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266069 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266069 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:34:00 EDT When a cub reporter returns from an assignment covering a seance, the sorcerer in charge of the seance takes a liking to her and tries to make her into his latest assistant. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266068 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266068 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:34:00 EDT The child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation in Jamaica, July lives with her mother until a recently transplanted English widow decides to move her into the great house and rename her. She remains bound to the plantation despite her "freedom." The arrival of a young English overseer dramatically changes life in the great house. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266067 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266067 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:33:00 EDT In order to keep an eye on her half-sister, Shaylee, Julia Farentino takes a job at an elite boarding school in Oregon known for turning wayward kids around. Julia is suspicious of the school, because she knows of one student who disappeared, and has never been found. Soon she uncovers disturbing information about previous students. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266066 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266066 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:32:00 EDT "Constantine embarks on a desperate trail from the back streets of London to the detainment centers and battlegrounds of contemporary Iraq..." -- back cover. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266065 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266065 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:31:00 EDT A wake-up call to empowerment. Oscar-nominated actress, Grammy-winning entertainer, entrepreneur--Queen Latifah has done it all. Through everything she has encountered, she has come to love herself, including her flaws. But this transformation didn't happen overnight: The Queen had to overcome a series of challenges--difficult moments--before she knew she was going to emerge triumphant. We all have such moments. The question is, how can we learn from them and use them to turn ourselves into strong, confident women? Queen Latifah provides the often surprising answers in this inspiring book.--From publisher description. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266064 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266064 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:30:00 EDT Bonnie finds her summer fling boyfriend and fellow band member, Hayden, dead on the floor of a friend's London apartment. She proceeds to hide the corpse and obliterate every sign of her presence at the crime scene. Hayden's well-known involvement with other women could have provided Bonnie a motive for murder. To complicate matters, at least one more person appears to have altered the crime scene. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266063 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266063 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:30:00 EDT After a failed expedition to find a railway route to the West along the 38th parallel, Frémont finds himself trapped in the snowbound Colorado mountains. His choices are simple: die, or fight his way out. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266061 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266061 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:29:00 EDT Dugoni offers an awkward union of classic revenge tale and courtroom drama in his third legal thriller to feature Seattle attorney David Sloane (after Wrongful Death ). When eccentric toy designer Kyle Horgan claims that he was responsible for a young child's death in a wrongful death case, not respected pediatrician Peter Douvalidis, against whom Sloane is about to win a massive judgment, Sloane has cause for serious concern. Already conflicted about elements of the case, Sloane becomes alarmed at the revelation of a second child's death eerily similar to the one blamed on Dr. Douvalidis and more so when Horgan vanishes. Sloane's link with Horgan and his reputation as “the lawyer who doesn't lose” make him and his family a target for an ex-CIA assassin, Anthony Stenopolis. Effective courtroom scenes compensate only in part for Sloane's covert search for Stenopolis, which is a fitfully competent assembly of familiar thriller clichés. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266060 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266060 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:27:00 EDT Reviewed by Marlon James Of the many pitfalls lurking for the historical novel, the most dangerous is history itself. The best writers either warp it for selfish purposes (Gore Vidal), dig for the untold, interior history (Toni Morrison), or both (Jeannette Winterson). Allende, four years after Ines of My Soul , returns with another historical novel, one that soaks up so much past life that there is nowhere left to go but where countless have been. Opening in Saint Domingue a few years before the Haitian revolution would tear it apart, the story has at its center Zarité, a mulatto whose extraordinary life takes her from that blood-soaked island to dangerous and freewheeling New Orleans; from rural slave life to urban Creole life and a different kind of cruelty and adventure. Yet even in the new city, Zarité can't quite free herself from the island, and the people alive and dead that have followed her. Zarité's passages are striking. More than merely lyrical, they map around rhythms and spirits, making her as much conduit as storyteller. One wishes there was more of her because, unlike Allende, Zarité is under no mission to show us how much she knows. Every instance, a brush with a faith healer, for example, is an opportunity for Allende to showcase what she has learned about voodoo, medicine, European and Caribbean history, Napoleon, the Jamaican slave Boukman, and the legendary Mackandal, a runaway slave and master of black magic who has appeared in several novels including Alejo Carpentier's Kingdom of This World . The effect of such display of research is a novel that is as inert as a history textbook, much like, oddly enough John Updike's Terrorist , a novel that revealed an author who studied a voluminous amount of facts without learning a single truth. Slavery as a subject in fiction is still a high-wire act, but one expects more from Allende. Too often she forgoes the restraint and empathy essential for such a topic and plunges into a heavy breathing prose reminiscent of the Falconhurst novels of the 1970s, but without the guilty pleasure of sexual taboo. Sex, overwritten and undercooked, is where “opulent hips slithered like a knowing snake until she impaled herself upon his rock-hard member with a deep sigh of joy.” Even the references to African spirituality seem skin-deep and perfunctory, revealing yet another writer too entranced by the myth of black cultural primitivism to see the brainpower behind it. With Ines of My Soul one had the sense that the author was trying to structure a story around facts, dates, incidents, and real people. Here it is the reverse, resulting in a book one second-guesses at every turn. Of course there will be a forbidden love. Betrayal. Incest. Heartbreak. Insanity. Violence. And in the end the island in the novel's title remains legend. Fittingly so, because to reach the Island Beneath the Sea , one would have had to dive deep. Allende barely skims the surface. Marlon James's recent novel, The Book of Night Women was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266053 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266053 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:26:00 EDT After accidentally forwarding a filthy email to her entire company, Sarah is fired from her New York advertising job. During a visit to her dear sister Mackie back home in Houston, the reality of Mackie's years of unsuccessful pregnancies gives Sarah an idea—she can have a baby for Mackie! But then what Sarah thought would be a simple, loving deed gets incredibly complicated. Pregnancy hormones raging, Sarah develops a crush on Clive, her brother-in-law. Then her old boyfriend Everett reappears, and Sarah can't decode his feelings for her. And when her father announces his marriage to Dixie, a bedazzled cowgirl who couldn't be more different from the girls' late mother, emotions run high. Once Sarah gives birth, the sisters' relationship becomes strained, and Sarah needs to work out her feelings about Everett and returning to Manhattan vs. staying in Houston. VERDICT Center (Everyone Is Beautiful: The Bright Side of Disaster ) has written another thoroughly enjoyable girlish romp. The story is cute, the characters are likable, and there's enough depth to keep the reader from being covered in fluff.—Beth Gibbs, Davidson, NC http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266052 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266052 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:23:00 EDT A hundred years ago, Dr. Evan McGrath established a hospital in the Pacific Northwest that would never turn away a patient in need. In the process, Evan lost the love of his life while making a powerful enemy of hospital financier Marshall Alfredson. Today, the Alfredson Medical Center is internationally renowned for its care, but devastating family secrets, doomed relationships, and present-day medical disasters threaten not only the Alfredsons and McGraths but the legendary hospital itself. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266030 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266030 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:22:00 EDT The man convicted of murdering Jody's father, Billy Cosby, is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. Crosby has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father's innocence. As Jody revisits old wounds, startling revelations compel her to uncover the dangerous truth about her family's tragic past. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266029 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5266029 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:21:00 EDT "INNOCENT continues the story of Rusty Sabich and Tommy Molto who are, once again, twenty years later, pitted against each other in a riveting psychological match after the mysterious death of Rusty's wife"--Provided by publisher. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265354 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265354 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:38:00 EDT "Batman Reborn" begins here. The new Dynamic Duo hit the streets with a bang in their new flying Batmobile as they face off against an assemblage of villains called the Circus of Strange. They also tackle their first mission investigating a child who's been abducted by the mysterious Domino Killer. But will everything go smoothly? And who exactly are the new Batman and Robin? The newest era of The Dark Knight begins here! http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265348 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265348 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:38:00 EDT In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-seven extraordinary children were spontaneously born by women who had previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the children; when asked why, his only explanation was, 'To save the world.' These seven children form The Umbrella Academy, a dysfunctional family of superheroes with bizarre powers. Their first adventure at the age of ten pits them against an erratic and deadly Eiffel Tower, piloted by the fearsome zombie-robot Gustave Eiffel. Nearly a decade later, the team disbands, but when Hargreeves unexpectedly dies, these disgruntled siblings reunite just in time to save the world once again. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265347 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265347 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:37:00 EDT In every professional and high-amateur tournament the golfer is assisted by a caddy. To be sure, the caddy does more than just carry a bag and clean the clubs. Bartlett, a longtime golf writer for the major golf magazines, along with contributors from the Professional Caddies Association and pro golfers, describes what a caddy does and how the same principles can be applied when playing golf without a caddy. How much better would we score if we had a caddy to provide a yardage estimate, point out hidden dangers and subtleties, and confirm club selection? How much better would we play if we were accompanied by a coach and cheerleader? It is these things a caddy does—and even without a caddy they can be applied to one's personal game. The book is replete with narratives from both caddies and pro golfers illustrating these concepts. VERDICT All this, together with useful photographs, makes for a really good instructional guide that transcends the endless array of swing theories. This one's a solid choice for public library sports collections and for golfing readers.—Steven Silkunas, North Wales, PA http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265346 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265346 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:36:00 EDT When the lands of the ninth gate are found transformed by magic that has rendered them uninhabitable, the Thirteen Orphans and their allies are challenged to breach the world's Center within five elements from Chinese mythology, a quest that is complicated by a cruel betrayal. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265345 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265345 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:35:00 EDT The gospel artist describes the family challenges that hampered his youth, his dedication to helping others, and his street-wise perspectives on such topics as faith, family responsibilities, and African-American identity. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265344 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265344 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:35:00 EDT Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm," turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat in this on-the-ground account that follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265343 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265343 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:34:00 EDT Shakespearean scholar Kate Stanley and Ben Pearl, her partner in crime-solving, find themselves in a desperate race to discover a lost version of "Macbeth," said to contain rituals of witchcraft aimed at conjuring demonic forces to gain forbidden knowledge. However much Kate would like to dismiss such rituals as superstition, someone else appears willing to kill for them--and for the manuscript said to spell them out. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265337 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265337 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:17:00 EDT The year is 1970, and it's a long, hot summer. In a castle on a mountainside in Italy, half a dozen young lives are afloat on a sea of change, trapped inside the history of the sexual revolution. The girls are acting like boys, the boys are going on acting like boys, and Keith Nearing - twenty years old, a literature student all clogged up with the English novel - is struggling to twist feminism and women's ascendency toward his own ends. As revolutions go, this one might have been nonviolent, but it wasn't bloodless - and now, in the twenty-first century, the events of 1970 and their repercussions are finally catching up with Keith Nearing. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265267 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265267 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:16:00 EDT Bree Tanner joins the army of newborn vampires as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265265 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265265 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:15:00 EDT Thomas Steinbeck has been praised by "Publishers Weekly "for his stylistic brilliance and "accomplished voice." Now, his enthralling novel "In the Shadow of the Cypress "blends history and suspense with literary mastery and brings vivid realism to California's rich heritage. In 1906, the Chinese in California lived in the shadows. Their alien customs, traditions, and language hid what they valued from their neighbors . . . and left them open to scorn and prejudice. Their communities were ruled--and divided--by the necessity of survival among the many would-be masters surrounding them, by struggles between powerful tongs, and by duty to their ancestors. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265264 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265264 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:15:00 EDT As her husband's obsessions with science take a darker turn on the eve of World War II, Margaret Mayfield is forced to consider the life she has so carefully constructed. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265196 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265196 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:13:00 EDT Mary Beth Latham is first and foremost a mother, whose three teenaged children come first, before her career as a landscape gardener, or even her life as the wife of a doctor. Caring for her family and preserving their everyday life is paramount. And so, when one of her sons, Max, becomes depressed, Mary Beth becomes focused on him, and is blindsided by a shocking act of violence. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265194 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265194 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:13:00 EDT A tour bus crashes in a savage snowstorm and lands Jack Reacher in the middle of a deadly confrontation. In nearby Bolton, South Dakota, one brave woman is standing up for justice in a small town threatened by sinister forces--and Reacher will risk his own to save her from a coldly proficient assassin who never misses. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265193 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265193 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:12:00 EDT Just when it appears that all her hard work on Barack Obama's presidential campaign is about to pay off with a White House job, thirty-five-year-old Ida B. Wells Dunbar finds herself on Washington, D.C.'s post-election sidelines even as her twentysomething counterparts overrun the West Wing. She returns home to Atlanta, and her controversial civil rights icon father, Reverend Horace A. Dunbar. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265192 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265192 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:00:00 EDT The story of a young woman who, in a twenty-four hour period, journeys through startling moments of self-discovery that lead her to a courageous and life-altering decision. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265082 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265082 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:30:00 EDT When young lawyer David Martinez receives an ancient map from his dying grandfather, the mysteries of his past begin to open up before him. The map leads David into the heart of the dangerous Basque mountains, where a genetic curse lies buried and a frightening secret about the Western world's past is hidden. Meanwhile, London journalist Simon Quinn may have found his big break. A wealthy, elderly woman has been murdered in the most horrific fashion, and another homicide soon follows. Both victims came from villages in the Basque region, both were interred at a top-secret Nazi camp, both have been silenced for what they know about the experiments conducted on the Basques, the Jews, and a dwindling mystical tribe of pre-Caucasian locals called Cagots. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265081 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265081 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:30:00 EDT When the weather strands five women in the airport, a spur-of-the-moment decision to wait it out in a luxury suite leads to fast friendship, unexpected connections and unforgettable fun http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265078 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265078 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:29:00 EDT Fifteen never-before-published tales celebrate the newest incarnations of the werewolf -- modern monsters no longer confined to the forests. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265073 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265073 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:28:00 EDT "Nathalyia Fontaine has been the sole proprietor of the restaurant Fontaine since her husband died four years ago. She hasn't dated anyone in all those years, choosing not to open her heart again, or risk revealing her dark past. That is, until she meets Rafael Dunlap. Rafael is a hostage negotiator with his own set of problems. Though he loves women, he vows he'll never marry because his job is just too unpredictable. He can't imagine leaving a widow and children behind. But his thinking and game plan of loving and leaving changes when he meets Nathalyia. Though she tries to resist him, Rafael sweeps her into a whirlwind romance. When the unexpected happens, and Nathalyia is forced to keep it a secret, she ends things with Rafael before he can break her heart. But when Rafael is in harms way, will Nathalyia resolve to tell him the truth before it's too late? Or will past demons keep them apart forever?" http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265068 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265068 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:27:00 EDT The newly widowed Emma Andrews has always been wary of inheriting her mother's madness. Anticipating the opportunity to spend time with her family, especially cousin Roger's daughter Henrietta, Emma arrives at Dulwich Manor to find Hen acting strangely. When Mr. Valerian Fox appears, Emma fights her immediate attraction to this man who seems to know too much about Henrietta's troubles. When Mr. Fox reveals his belief that a vampire is nearby and that they must fight this evil together, Emma isn't sure if she believes him because she's insane or because it explains newly awakened abilities. VERDICT Readers who enjoy the current trend of genteel ladies fighting supernatural evil in days gone by (see A.E. Moorat's Queen Victoria, Demon Slayer , reviewed above) will be interested in picking up this first book in a promised trilogy. A large number of engaging characters populate this story, each with a unique role to play, and the pace alternates between slow discovery of scholarly knowledge and pulse-pounding action scenes. While there are a few anachronistic contemporary touches that don't fit this Victorian-era story, this is still an entertaining read.—Stacey Hayman, Rocky River P.L., OH http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265065 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265065 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:26:00 EDT A desperate search for income leads writer Francesca to Chicky, a spunky, red-haired octogenarian who wants Francesca to write the memoirs of her parents, Joe and Ellie, who toured the vaudeville circuit in the early 1920s. Francesca is reluctant to take the job, but Chicky's tales soon lure her into a showbiz era as irresistible and unlikely as the love story that unfolds. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265060 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5265060 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:26:00 EDT Olivier is the traumatized child of aristocratic survivors of the French Revolution. Parrot is the motherless son of an itinerant English printer. They are born on different sides of history, but their lives will be connected in the United States by an enigmatic one-armed marquis. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5117079 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5117079 Mon, 03 May 2010 16:17:00 EDT In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, Susannah Charleson clipped the powerful news photo of an exhausted handler and his search-and-rescue dog. A dog-lover and pilot with search experience herself, Charleson was so impressed by the extraordinarily important work these dogs did that she decided to volunteer. Once Susannah qualified to train a dog of her own, she got Puzzle, a strong, bright Golden Retriever. From the start Puzzle exhibited a unique aptitude for search-and-rescue work, but the puppy's willfulness challenged even Susannah, who had raised dogs for years. Scent of theMissingis the story of Susannah and Puzzle's adventures and the complex relationship they forge as they help in the pursuit and recovery of people who have fallen prey to crime,misadventure, or catastrophea teen gone missing, an Alzheimer's patient wandering in the cold, the debris of the space shuttleColumbiadisaster. From the earliest air-scent lessons to her final mastery of wholebody dialog, Puzzle emerges as a fully collaborative partner. Along the way Susannah and Puzzle learn to read the clues in the field, and in each other, to accomplish together the critical work neither could do alone. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5046481 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5046481 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:13:00 EDT Posing as Brother Bernard Sebastian of the Church of Evangelical Truth, Murdock dons a clerical collar to worm his way into the good graces and confidences of the wary residents of Owen, Texas, in order to stop a gang of ruthless bandits who have been terrorizing the Texas panhandle. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5046480 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5046480 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:13:00 EDT In 1176, King Henry II sends his daughter Joanna to Palermo to marry his cousin, the king of Sicily. Henry chooses Adelia Aguilar, his Mistress of the Art of Death, to travel with the princess and safeguard her health. But when people in the wedding procession are murdered, Adelia and Rowley must discover the killer's identity . . . and whether he is stalking the princess or Adelia herself. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044112 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044112 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:18:00 EDT When Nobel prize-winning physicist Michael Beard's personal and professional lives begin to intersect in unexpected ways, an opportunity presents itself in the guise of an invitation to travel to New Mexico. Here is a chance for him to extricate himself from his marital problems, reinvigorate his career, and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044110 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044110 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:17:00 EDT When Dub Walker's close friend Sheriff Mike Savage becomes the victim of a gruesome murder, the forensic expert is called upon to track down the serial killer who's been terrorizing the county. Having been involved in more than 100 cases of foul play and witnessed the bloody remains of rape, torture, and unthinkable mutilation, Dub thought he had seen it all--yet the killer is unlike any murderer Dub has ever encountered. Vacillating between wildly divergent personalities fueled by post traumatic stress disorder--at times calm, cold, and calculating; at others maniacal and out of control--the psychopath taunts, threatens, and outmaneuvers Dub at every turn. The stakes are suddenly elevated as Dub uncovers a deadly conspiracy tainted with unrestrained greed, corruption, and ties to the military establishment and the medical community. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044108 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044108 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:17:00 EDT For centuries, emperors, historians, and even the Vatican have tried to locate Ivan the Terrible’s magnificent Library of Gold — a long-missing archive containing gold-covered, bejeweled books dating all the way back to the ancient Greeks. Now one of the volumes, The Book of Spies, has surfaced, and along with it the highly secret book club that owns the Library of Gold. They form a cabal of the globe’s most powerful men – men who will do anything to achieve their aims and protect their interests. When the CIA discovers a connection between the legendary library and a bank account linked to terrorists, they turn to rare books curator Eva Blake for help. Soon an attempt is made on Eva’s life. Determined not only to survive but to uncover the truth, Eva turns to the only person she can trust—Judd Ryder, a former intelligence agent with his own agenda and a troubled past. Together, Judd and Eva embark on an international adventure from London to Rome, Istanbul, and Athens. Somehow they must do what no one else has been able to do – find the library and stay alive. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044107 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044107 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:16:00 EDT Dan Mercer stands accused of being a sexual predator thanks to the ambush journalism of Wendy Tynes, a tabloid TV reporter, who must cope with her husband's death caused by a drunken driver as well as reckon with the possibility of Mercer's innocence. When Tynes finds a link between a father of one of Mercer's alleged victims and others felled by scandal, she could become a killer's next victim. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044106 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044106 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:15:00 EDT A fascinating biography of a forgotten golf legend, a riveting whodunit of a covered-up killing, a scalding exposeacute; of a closed society-in To Win and Die in Dixie, award-winning writer Steve Eubanks weaves all these elements into a masterly book that resurrects a superb sportsman and reconstructs a startling crime. J. Douglas Edgar was the British-born golfer who broke every record, invented the modern swing, and coached such winners as Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur in history, and Alexa Stirling, the finest female player of her day. But on August 8, 1921, he was a man dead in the middle of the road, the victim, conventional wisdom said, of a hit-and-run. Comer Howell thought otherwise. He was an Atlanta Constitution reporter and heir to the paperrs"s fortune, a man frustrated by his reputation as the pampered bossrs"s son. To Howell, the physical evidence didnrs"t add up to a car accident. As he chronicled Edgarrs"s life, Howell discovered a working-class striver who had risen in the world through a passion to succeed, a quality the newspaperman admired. And as he investigated Edgarrs"s death, Howell also found a man whose recklessness may have doomed him to a violent demise. Cutting cinematically between Howellrs"s present and Edgarrs"s championship past,To Win and Die in Dixiebrilliantly portrays one manrs"s quest for excellence and anotherrs"s search for redemption and the truth. Their stories meet in a Southern society of plush country-club golf courses, vast wealth, and decadent secrets. Filled with the vivid golf writing for which its author is renowned,To Win and Die in Dixieis a real-life story both shocking and inspiring, a book that propels Steve Eubanks to a new level of literary achievement. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044104 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5044104 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:14:00 EDT Editorial Review - Publishers Weekly vol. 257 iss. 7 p. 112 (c) 02/15/2010 A Pulitzer Prize–winning nonfiction author and Harvard entomology professor, Wilson (The Ants ) channels Huck Finn in his creative coming-of-age debut novel. Split into three parallel worlds—ants, humans, and the biosphere—the story follows young Raff Cody, who escapes the humid summers in Clayville, Ala., by exploring the remote Nokobee wilderness with his cousin, Junior. In one adventure, sneaking onto the property of a reputed multiple murderer to peek at his rumored 1,000-pound pet alligator, 15-year-old Raff faces down the barrel of a rifle. Raff's aversion to game hunting, ant fascination, Boy Scout achievements, and Harvard education all support his core need to remain a “naturalist explorer.” A remarkable center section meticulously details the life and death of an ant colony. Nearing 30, Raff's desire to preserve the Nokobee reserve from greedy real estate developers galvanizes an effort to protect the sacred land and a surprise violent ending brings everything full circle. Lush with organic details, Wilson's keen eye for the natural world and his acumen for environmental science is on brilliant display in this multifaceted story about human life and its connection to nature. (Apr. ) http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025462 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025462 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:36:00 EDT Alfonse Rinaldo, the mysterious power-behind- the-throne at City Hall, the fixer who seems to control every little thing that happens in New York City, has a problem that even he can't fix--and he's come to Leonid McGill for help. It seems a young woman has disappeared, leaving murder in her wake, and it means everything to Rinaldo to track her down. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025461 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025461 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:36:00 EDT Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever. Written by a highly decorated Marine veteran over the course of thirty years, Matterhorn is a spellbinding and unforgettable novel that brings to life an entire world—both its horrors and its thrills—and seems destined to become a classic of combat literature. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025449 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025449 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:35:00 EDT Knox Bolling has always resented her beautiful sister, Charlotte, and blames Charlotte for her situation. She's 34, living on her parents' Kentucky horse farm and unable to commit to her boyfriend's repeated marriage proposals. Charlotte, on the other hand, has moved to New York City, where she dabbles in acting and holds a series of dead-end jobs before meeting money manager Bruce Tavert, who, after a brief courtship, proposes. Their intention to start a family, however, proves deadly for Charlotte, who dies in childbirth, leaving Bruce with premature twin boys and providing Knox with an opportunity to explore life outside of Kentucky by coming to New York to help Bruce. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025448 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025448 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:34:00 EDT Lexie Sinclair cannot stay. Enclosed within her parents’ genteel country lawn, she yearns for more. She makes her way to the big city, hungry for life and love, where she meets a magazine editor, Innes, a man unlike any she has ever imagined. He introduces her to the thrilling underground world of bohemian postwar London, and she learns to be a reporter, to know art and artists, to live her life fully and with a deep love at the center of it. When that love is threatened, she nearly loses the self she worked so hard to find. But then, she will create many lives, all of them unconventional. And when she finds herself pregnant by a man wholly unsuitable for marriage or fatherhood, she doesn’t hesitate for a minute to have the baby on her own, to be shaped by her love for her child. Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. Her boyfriend, Ted, traumatized by nearly losing her in labor, begins to recover lost memories. He cannot place them. But as they become more disconcerting and return more frequently, we discover that something connects these two stories—these two women—something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation. A stunning portrait of motherhood and the artist’s life in all their terror and glory, Maggie O’Farrell’s newest novel is a gorgeous inquiry into the ways we make and unmake our lives, who we know ourselves to be, and how even our most accidental legacies connect us. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025447 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5025447 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:33:00 EDT Head of the Sex Crimes Unit of the district attorney's office in Manhattan for decades, Linda Fairstein is America's most visible legal expert on sexual assault and domestic violence-which is why she writes some of the most compelling crime thrillers of our time and why her Alexandra Cooper series has been topping bestseller list for more than a decade. Fans turn to Fairstein for ripped-from-the-headline crimes, cutting-edge investigations, and vindication for victims. Linda Fairstein brings readers inside a world of which they can't get enough, but one they hope to never see in real life. And for her twelfth novel, Fairstein takes Alexandra Cooper inside a world she'd rather not see. New York City politics have always been filled with intrigue and behind-the-scenes deals. In Hell Gate, Alex finds her attention torn between investigating a shipwreck that has contraband cargo-human cargo-and the political sex scandal of a promising New York congressman now fallen from grace. When Alex discovers that a woman from the wreck and the congressman's lover have the same rose tattoo-the brand of a "snakehead", a master of a human trafficking operation-it dawns on her that these cases aren't as unrelated as they seem and that the entire political landscape of New York City could hang in the balance of her investigation. As Alex looks on at the nameless victims in the morgue, she realizes she's looking at the present-day face of New York's long, dark tradition of human trafficking-a tradition that began hundreds of years ago with slave trade from Africa, now a multimillion-dollar industry that will stop at no cost, even if that cost is Alex's life. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5000314 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5000314 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:09:00 EDT For two hundred years, painters, poets and musicians have come to the Catskill Mountain village of Arcadia Falls to escape the pressures of modern life and pursue their artistic visions, and Arcadia College was founded with a mission to nurture young artists and writers. When Meg Rosenthal gets an offer to teach at Arcadia College, it seems a godsend - an escape from a life that's fallen apart. She hopes, too, that Arcadia Falls will be a place where she and her daughter Sally can find some peace and reconciliation. But even though Arcadia Falls proves to be even more beautiful then Meg imagined, it is hardly peaceful. Soon she begins to realize that the public story behind the school conceals deceit, betrayal, and perhaps even murder. As Meg struggles to reconcile the choices she's made in her own life, she begins to fear that by coming to Arcadia Falls she's put herself and her daughter in danger. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5000312 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5000312 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:08:00 EDT Captures the eerie beauty, stark violence, and rugged character of Appalachia in a collection of stories that spans the Civil War to the present day. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5000311 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5000311 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:08:00 EDT It should be an open-and-shut case. Samuel Szajkowski, a recently hired history teacher, walked into a school assembly with a gun and murdered three students and a colleague before turning the weapon on himself. It was a tragedy that could not have been predicted. Szajkowski, it seems clear, was a psychopath beyond help. Yet as Detective Inspector Lucia May- the only woman in her high-testosterone office in the Criminal Investigations Department-begins to piece together the testimonies of the various witnesses, an uglier and more complex picture emerges, calling into question the innocence of others. But no one, including Lucia's boss, is interested. As the pressure to close the case builds and her colleagues' sexism takes a sinister turn, Lucia begins to realize that she has more in common with the killer than she could have imagined, and she becomes determined to expose the truth. Brilliantly interweaving the witnesses' accounts with Lucia's own perspective, A Thousand Cuts is a narrative tour de force from a formidable new voice in fiction. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5000310 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=5000310 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:07:00 EDT Playwright Eve Ensler writes fictional monologues and stories inspired by girls around the globe. Moving through a world of topics and emotions, these voices are fierce, alive, tender, complicated, imaginative, and smart. Girls today often find themselves in a struggle between remaining strong and true to themselves and conforming to society's expectations in an attempt to please. They are taught not to be too intense, too passionate, too smart, too caring, too open. They are encouraged to shut down their instincts, their outrage, their desires and their dreams, to be polite, to obey the rules. This book is a celebration of the authentic voice inside every girl and an inspiring call to action for girls everywhere to speak up, follow their dreams, and become the women they were always meant to be. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982884 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982884 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:28:00 EDT Nicodemus Weal has trained at the wizardly stronghold of Starhaven since he was a boy. His mentor, the famous wizard Agwu Shannon, taught him how to cast spells made from luminescent magical runes, how to peel written words off a page and make them physically real, how to protect himself with defensive paragraphs, and how to thrust sharply worded sentences at an enemy. Initially, Nicodemus showed great promise. Able to forge magical runes with great speed, he was once thought to be the Halcyon--a powerful spellwright prophesied to prevent the apocalypse known as the Disjunction. There was only one problem: Nicodemus couldn't spell. Every time he touched a magical text, he unintentionally corrupted it, turning a useful spell into a dangerous, potentially deadly misspell. Even now, at twenty-five, Nicodemus's problem remains so bad that he is allowed to use his magic only for janitorial tasks. While his peers advance as wizards, he is still an apprentice, living with other disabled spellwrights and reading knightly romances that fuel his dreams of escape and adventure. When a powerful wizard is murdered with a misspell, Nicodemus and Shannon both are suspected. Worse, Nicodemus dreams of a foreign city under attack from an ancient, godlike spell...and wakes to find Starhaven abuzz with news of that city's actual destruction. A second nightmare makes Nicodemus begin to question his own sanity. When there are more mysterious deaths, the authorities hunt him as a murderer. Tormented and desperate, Nicodemus has no choice but to flee his pursuers so that he can discover the truth about the murders, the nature of magic...and himself. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982879 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982879 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:27:00 EDT In this lyrical, exuberant follow-up to her 2007 novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives- one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz-that together incarnate the poet's timeless message of love. Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams's search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mirrors her own and that Zahara-like Shams-has come to set her free. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982878 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982878 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:26:00 EDT A tale inspired by the early Christian legend of Saint Brendán the Navigator and his quest to find the Isle of the Blessed follows his leadership of a group of monks on a dangerous ocean journey in search of Paradise. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982868 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982868 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:25:00 EDT “One Good Dog is a wonderful novel: a moving, tender, and brilliantly crafted story about two fighters—one a man, one a dog— hoping to leave the fight behind, who ultimately find their salvation in each other. Susan Wilson’s clear and unflinching style is perfectly suited for her story that strips away the trappings and toys we all hide behind, and exposes our essential need to give and accept love in order to thrive.”—Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain Adam March is a self-made “Master of the Universe.” He has it all: the beautiful wife, the high-powered job, the glittering circle of friends. But there is a price to be paid for all these trappings, and the pressure is mounting—until the day Adam makes a fatal mistake. His assistant leaves him a message with three words: your sister called. What no one knows is that Adam’s sister has been missing for decades. That she represents the excruciatingly painful past he has left behind. And that her absence has secretly tormented him all these years. When his assistant brushes off his request for an explanation in favor of her more pressing personal call, Adam loses it. And all hell breaks loose. Adam is escorted from the building. He loses his job. He loses his wife. He loses the life he’s worked so hard to achieve. He doesn’t believe it is possible to sink any lower when he is assigned to work in a soup kitchen as a form of community service. But unbeknownst to Adam, this is where his life will intersect with Chance. Chance is a mixed breed Pit Bull. He’s been born and raised to fight and seldom leaves the dirty basement where he is kept between fights. But Chance is not a victim or a monster. It is Chance’s unique spirit that helps him escape and puts him in the path of Adam. What transpires is the story of one man, one dog, and how they save each other—in ways they never could have expected. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982867 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4982867 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:24:00 EDT A once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes shoe designer and businesswomen Valentine Roncalli from the winding streets of Greenwich Village to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she finds a long-buried secret hidden deep within a family scandal. Once unearthed, the truth rocks the Roncallis and Valentine is determined to hold her family together as she longs to create one of her own. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4950877 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4950877 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:52:00 EDT Death's not so simple when there's money involved . . . - "When affluent New Yorker Joyce Hauptman dies suddenly, the investigator suspects something other than natural causes. Joyce's husband, Charles, stands to inherit her wealth and is the obvious suspect, but Detective Lenny Shaw quickly discovers that things aren't what they seem. As Charles maintains his innocence, and the influence of his powerful father-in-law intrudes, Lenny is hurled towards a conclusion that is as shocking as it is violent. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4950876 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4950876 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:51:00 EDT This debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white. In the tradition of Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, here is a portrait of a young girl--and society's ideas of race, class, and beauty. It is a winner of the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4950875 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4950875 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:50:00 EDT After the murder of Alice Hayward and the suicide of her husband, Reverend Stephen Drew flees the pulpit and is saved from despair only by a meeting with Heather Laurent, the author of wildly successful, inspirational books about angels. Heather, identifying deeply with Alice's daughter, Katie, mentors the young girl but soon suspects that Alice's husband may not have killed himself ... and that Alice had secrets only her minister knew. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4905609 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4905609 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:22:00 EDT Three unusual people--"defense intellectual" Richard Elster, who was involved in the management of the country's war machine; young documentary filmmaker Jim Finley, who is intent on documenting Elster's experience; and Elster's daughter Jessica, who behaves like an "otherworldly" woman from New York--train their binoculars on the desert landscape of California and build an odd, tender intimacy, something like a family. Then a devastating event throws everything into question. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4905608 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4905608 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:21:00 EDT Requiem in Vienna: A Viennese Mystery http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4905607 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4905607 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:17:00 EDT February, 1940. In San Francisco's Chinatown, fireworks explode as the city celebrates Chinese New Year with a Rice Bowl Party, a three day-and-night carnival designed to raise money and support for China war relief. Miranda Corbie is a 33-year-old private investigator who stumbles upon the fatally shot body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants it covered up, and the cops acquiesce. All Miranda wants is justice--whatever it costs. From Chinatown tenements, to a tattered tailor's shop in Little Osaka, to a high-class bordello draped in Southern Gothic, she shakes down the city--her city--seeking the truth. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4905602 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4905602 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:16:00 EDT In a story based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia tells of her life in the court at Elsinore, her love for Prince Hamlet, and her escape from the violence in Denmark. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901721 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901721 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:48:00 EDT California, 1985. Detective Tony Mendez, fresh from a law enforcement course at FBI headquarters, is charged with discovering the identity of a brutal, calculating psychopath. His search pushes him ever deeper into the lives of three children, and closer to the young teacher whose interest in recent events becomes as intense as his own. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901719 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901719 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:48:00 EDT In the rugged Black Hills of South Dakota, a childhood friendship matures into an adult passion when something ... or someone ... threatens Lil Chance and her dream to open a wildlife refuge. The heartless killing of Lil's beloved cougar and recollections of an unsolved murder catapult New York investigator Coop Sullivan into action to keep Lil safe. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901717 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901717 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:47:00 EDT Syd, a breathtakingly beautiful supermodel on a photo shoot in Hawaii, disappears and LA Times reporter Ben Hawkins, hoping to help the victim and get an idea for his next bestseller, gets a shocking visit that pushes him into an impossible-to-resist deal with the devil in this heart-pounding story of beauty and murder. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901716 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901716 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:46:00 EDT Engrossed in a new relationship to the point that her studies begin to suffer, college junior Veronica is devastated when a plea for help goes unheeded, but a surprising request from her mother teaches her about family, love, and independence. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901715 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901715 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:45:00 EDT From their first meeting on a New York City subway, the lives of two very different people--Sebastian, an adolescent growing up with a reclusive father, and Maria, a young single mother of two--are changed forever by their relationship. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901709 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901709 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:45:00 EDT In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen--terrified, but intrigued--is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901708 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4901708 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:44:00 EDT A chilling debut from a bright new talent— a masterful psychological thriller to delight fans of Nicci French and Minette Walters It’s every mother’s nightmare...One minute Jess Finnegan is strolling through the Tate Museum with her new husband Mickey and their 8-month old son. The next she is frantically searching for them—both have completely disappeared. As the police launch a massive manhunt, Jess discovers that the people closest to you are not always what they seem. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4885199 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4885199 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:06:00 EDT Portier de Savin-Duplais, failed student of magic, is reduced to tending the library at Sabria's last collegia magica, where he fights off despair with scholarship. When the king charges him to investigate an attempted murder that has disturbing magical resonances, Portier believes his dreams of a greater destiny might at last be fulfilled. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4885198 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4885198 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:06:00 EDT Pilot, navigator, engineer, doctor, scientist-ship's cat? All are essential to the well-staffed space vessel. Since the early days of interstellar travel, when Tuxedo Thomas, a Maine coon cat, showed what a cat could do for a ship and its crew, the so-called Barque Cats have become highly prized crew members. Thomas's carefully bred progeny, ably assisted by humans-Cat Persons-with whom they share a deep and loving bond, now travel the galaxy, responsible for keeping spacecraft free of vermin, for alerting human crews to potential environmental hazards, and for acting as morale officers. Even among Barque Cats, Chessie is something special. Her pedigree, skills, and intelligence, as well as the close rapport she has with her human, Janina, make her the most valuable crew member aboard the Molly Daise. And the litter of kittens in her belly only adds to her value. Then the unthinkable happens. Chessie is kidnapped-er, catnapped-from Dr. Jared Vlast's vet clinic at Hood Station by a grizzled spacer named Carl Poindexter. But Chessie's newborn kittens turn out to be even more extraordinary than their mother. For while Chessie's connection to Janina is close and intuitive, the bond that the kitten Chester forms with Carl's son, Jubal, is downright telepathic. And when Chester is sent into space to learn his trade, neither he nor Jubal will rest until they're reunited. But the announcement of a widespread epidemic affecting livestock on numerous planets throws their future into doubt. Suddenly the galactic government announces a plan to impound and possibly destroy all exposed animals. Not even the Barque Cats will be spared. With the clock racing against them, Janina, Jubal, Dr. Vlast, and a handful of very special kittens will join forces with the mysterious Pshaw-Ra-an alien-looking cat with a hidden agenda-to save the Barque Cats, other animals, and quite possibly the universe as they know it from total destruction. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4885197 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4885197 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:05:00 EDT Fate is on its way to the tenants of 66 Star Street, bringing with it love and tragedy, friendship and heartbreak, and the power to change lives ... One of them is falling in love; another is torn between two lovers. For some, secrets they want to stay buried will come to light and for others the unveiling of those secrets will have tragic consequences. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4885196 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4885196 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:04:00 EDT Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4860199 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4860199 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:16:00 EDT Former Army sniper Mercy Gunderson hunts down the killer of Native American teens in the first book in a gripping new mystery series. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4860198 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4860198 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:15:00 EDT Tim Farnsworth is a handsome, healthy man, aging with the grace of a matinee idol. His wife Jane still loves him, and for all its quiet trials, their marriage is still stronger than most. Then one day he stands up and walks out. And keeps walking. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827956 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827956 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:33:00 EDT Following the acclaimed Dog On It, the second mystery in the Chet and Bernie series featuring an irresistible canine narrator. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827955 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827955 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:32:00 EDT rom the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life. Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged. His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is—well, something quite different. We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler’s lovely novel resonates so deeply. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827949 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827949 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:29:00 EDT Pregnant veterinarian Maura Kelly, along with U.S. Marshall Jack Menard, risks everything, including the life of her unborn child, to unravel the mystery of a smuggler's cache of mutated animals, a puzzle that involves fractal intelligence, stem-cell research, and a secret history of the Book of Genesis. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827948 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827948 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:28:00 EDT Candy industry--Fiction. Family-owned business enterprises--Fiction. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827947 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827947 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:28:00 EDT A mesmerizing thriller -- told in reverse!The 13th Houris the story of a man given the chance to go back in time in one-hour increments to prevent a vicious crime from destroying his life.Nick Quinn is being held in jail, accused of the murder of his beloved wife, Julia. He knows she's dead; he saw her bloody corpse, shot in the head at point-blank range. The police tell him they found the murder weapon with his fingerprints on it in the trunk of his car. Nick is confused, grief-stricken --and completely innocent.At 9 p.m. on July 28, a gray-haired gentleman visits Nick in the police interrogation room and asks him a simple question:"If you could get out of here, if you could save her, would you?"He hands Nick a golden talisman that allows Nick to go back in time, one hour at a time, for a total of twelve hours. With each hour that Nick travels back, he finds more clues to the identity of Julia's real killer, but he also discovers that his actions in the past may have unexpected repercussions in the future.In his race against time to save the woman he loves most in the world, Nick will find that friends become enemies, old loyalties are tested, and Julia's murder is part of a larger scheme that has its roots in greed and vengeance. Nick has the ability to save Julia, the chance to put his own world in balance, but he is venturing down a precarious route. If he hasn't set things right by the thirteenth hour, his desperate attempts to save Julia's life may lead to a far greater catastrophe than he could have ever imagined.A surprising and utterly original thriller,The 13th Houris pure page-turning suspense -- full of double crosses, cliffhangers, and shocking revelations. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827860 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4827860 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:51:00 EDT When she’s not digging up bones or other ancient objects, quirky, tart-tongued archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives happily alone in a remote area called Saltmarsh near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants - not quite earth, not quite sea. When a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach nearby, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson calls Galloway for help. Nelson thinks he has found the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing ten years ago. Since her disappearance he has been receiving bizarre letters about her, letters with references to ritual and sacrifice. The bones actually turn out to be two thousand years old, but Ruth is soon drawn into the Lucy Downey case and into the mind of the letter writer, who seems to have both archaeological knowledge and eerie psychic powers. Then another child goes missing and the hunt is on to find her. As the letter writer moves closer and the windswept Norfolk landscape exerts its power, Ruth finds herself in completely new territory – and in serious danger. THE CROSSING PLACES marks the beginning of a captivating new crime series featuring an irresistible heroine. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4708595 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4708595 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:11:00 EDT When Colorado carpenter Gary Adams spots two mysterious creatures in the woods near his house, he calls on his friend, veterinarian Cammy Rivers for advice. But like Gary, Cammy has never seen an animal resembling this beautiful species. But when the Department of Homeland Security puts a call out for Gary and Cammy because of these animals, the two risk everything to protect the innocent creatures. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4668620 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4668620 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:20:00 EDT Andy Pickard, newly married, still unsure of himself and his choice of Rangering as a career, must unravel this tangled series of events and accomplish his mission of bringing an accused killer to justice. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618185 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618185 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:48:00 EDT English Captain Charles Hunter and his crew of ruffians sail from colonial Jamaica to infiltate a Spanish-controlled port, commandeering the galleon El Trinidad and its fortune in gold after a bloody battle. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618183 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618183 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:47:00 EDT In a time of drought and economic depression in 1934, Ella Barron runs her boardinghouse in Texas while caring for her son, Solly, and responds to the calm influence of one of her boarders, David Rainwater, while facing the tension and uncertainty around her. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618182 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618182 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:47:00 EDT Nathan Bedford Forrest was the most reviled and celebrated, loathed and legendary, of Civil War generals. We see Forrest off the battlefield, in the more hidden but no less telling moments of his life: wooing the woman who would become his wife; battling an addiction to gambling; overcoming his abhorrence of the bureaucracy of the army to rise to its highest ranks. We see him taking part in the business of slave trading, but treating his own slaves humanely. We see him with his slave mistress, with whom he fathered several children, and we see him reveal his gift for inspiring courage but not change. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618181 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618181 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:45:00 EDT The once peaceful city of Park Falls has been tainted by a series of gruesome murders and missing persons. Cynthia Ford, well known as the town crazy, comes forward to speak with retired police detective Derrick Peters one January afternoon. She claims to have information about the murders, but does she hold the key to unlocking the mystery or has she truly gone insane? To Derrick's disbelief she utters one word: Zombies. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618180 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618180 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:44:00 EDT McLaughlin and Kraus, authors of the popular novel The Nanny Diaries(2002), venture back to the 1980s in their third novel. Kate Hollis fell in love with Jake Sharpe in grade school, dated him in high school, and at 30, has yet to get over him. How can she when Jake, now a rock star with several hit singles to his name, has spent the last 10 years singing about her and about their relationship? When Kate hears that Jake has returned to their hometown with his new fiancee in tow, she jumps on a plane, ready to confront him for exploiting their personal memories in his quest for superstardom. But when Kate sees him again, all her old feelings churn to the surface, and her resolve weakens further when she learns he feels the same. But just as the novel barrels toward what appears to be the most cliched of endings, the authors pull out a surprise and give the reader, and Kate, a completely unexpected and wholly satisfying conclusion. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618179 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4618179 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:42:00 EDT Two hundred years ago, Britain lost the Napoleonic War and fell under the thumb of French domination. Gaining independence after decades of civil disobedience and anarchist bombings, the Socialist Republic of Britain is now a small, unimportant backwater connected by a railway bridge, steam-powered dirigible, and mutual suspicion to France. When a British diplomat is murdered to look like suicide, ferocious Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard stalks a ruthless murder squad through the heart of a Belle Epoque Paris, the center of the greatest empire in a world of steam-driven hansom cabs, automatons, and flying machines. LeBrock's relentless quest can lead only to death, truth... or war. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4614479 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4614479 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:52:00 EDT Why do England lose? Why does Scotland suck? Why doesn’t America dominate the sport internationally...and why do the Germans play with such an efficient but robotic style? These are questions every soccer aficionado has asked. Soccernomics answers them. Using insights and analogies from economics, statistics, psychology, and business to cast a new and entertaining light on how the game works, Soccernomics reveals the often surprisingly counterintuitive truths about soccer. An essential guide for the 2010 World Cup, Soccernomics is a new way of looking at the world’s most popular game. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4614477 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4614477 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:51:00 EDT In The Art of a Beautiful Game, Chris Ballard, the award-winning Sports Illustrated writer who has covered the NBA for the past decade, goes behind the scenes to examine basketball in ways that will surprise even die-hard fans. An inveterate hoops junkie who played some college ball, Ballard sits down with the NBA's most passionate, cerebral players to find out their tricks of the trade and to learn what drives them, taking readers away from the usual sports talk radio fodder and deep into the heart of the game. Ballard talks to Dwight Howard, a prolific shot-blocker, about the enervating feeling of meeting another man at the height of his leap; challenges Steve Kerr to a game of H-O-R-S-E to understand the mentality of a pure shooter; reveals the roots of Kobe Bryant's unmatched killer instinct; and spends time with LeBron James to better understand both his mental game and his seemingly unlimited physical skills. He tracks down renowned dunkers from Dominique to Shaq to explore the impact of the dunk on the modern game, shadows Shane Battier during his preparations to defend LeBron, takes lessons from a freethrow shooting guru who once hit 2,750 in a row, and attends an elite NBA training camp to feel the pain that turns a prospect into a pro. Packed with lively characters and basketball history, and grounded in superb writing and the reportage that is the hallmark of Sports Illustrated, The Art of a Beautiful Game is an often witty, always insightful look at the men like Steve Nash, Yao Ming, and Alonzo Mourning who devote themselves to this elegant and complicated sport. It ultimately provides basketball fans what they all want: an inside read on the game they love. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4614475 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4614475 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:50:00 EDT Western http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4614474 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4614474 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:48:00 EDT A landmark publication of the literary master's unfinished final work is a fragmented draft as hand-written on 138 index cards that were originally requested for destruction and have been released by his son, in a volume that features removable facsimile reproductions. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4561878 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4561878 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:19:00 EDT Nine new short works include the stories of a grieving mother who is aided by a surprising source, a woman's response to a humiliating seduction, and a nineteenth-century Russian émigré's winter journey to the Riviera. http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4561877 http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/?iid4ct=4561877 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EDT