A delightful and hilarious companion for anyone taking a trip and an indispensable work for any fan of Jan Morris.With her travel chronicles unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, Jan Morris's legendary books on Venice, Manhattan, and Trieste have made her one of our most beloved writers. Now reflecting back on over half a century, Morris has decided to write not about the destinations but about the people she has encountered. Whether writing as James or later as Jan, Morris introduces us to a panoply of memorable characters—the Sherpa guide who first scaled Mt. Everest, the lascivious Manhattan cabbie, and the proverbial spy in the raincoat. She provides insightful portraits of the famous, such as Harry Truman and Jordan's King Hussein, and glimpses of the infamous, including Adolf Eichmann. Recalling human encounters on six continents, she paints a vibrant, funny, and moving picture of humanity. Ultimately, no figure comes into clearer focus than Morris herself,...

In his third espionage thriller (see THE ASSASSIN and THE AMERICAN) Kealey remains out of control and fun to watch, but has lost some of his edge. Still this terrorist vs. anti-terrorist High Noon tale is fast-paced and filled with action of a blow em up variety. Readers who enjoy a high octane tale will be pleased with Andrew Britton's latest escapade though it reads too similar to his hero's A book encounters. An “invisible” is CIA-speak for the ultimate intelligence nightmare: a terrorist who is an ethnic native of the target country and who can cross its borders unchecked, move around the country unquestioned, and go completely unnoticed while setting up the foundation for monstrous harm. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

“When you close the book, you’ll miss these characters. But The Well and the Mine doesn’t just give you characters who’ll stay with you—it gives you a whole world.Ӊ€”Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man. A novel of warmth and true feeling, The Well and the Mine explores the value of community, charity, family, and hope that we can give each other during a time of hardship. In a small Alabama coal-mining town during the summer of 1931, nine-year-old Tess Moore sits on her back porch and watches a woman toss a baby into her family’s well without a word. This shocking act of violence sets in motion a chain of events that forces Tess and her older sister Virgie to look beyond their own door and learn the value of kindness and lending a helping hand. As Tess and Virgie try to solve the mystery of the well, an accident puts their seven-year-old brother’s life in danger, revealing just what sorts of sacrifices their parents Albert and Leta have made in order to give their children a better life, and the power of love and compassion to provide comfort to those we love.

The cataclysmic conclusion to the international bestselling Brethren trilogy 1295 A. D. The Christian empire in the Holy Land lies in ruins. Returning to Paris, Knight Templar Will Campbell is at a crossroads. He has sworn to uphold the principles of the Anima Templi, a secret brotherhood within the Order whose aim is peace, but peace seems ever more impossible.The Temple has forged an alliance with Will's enemy, King Edward of England, vowing to help him wage war on Scotland. Will now faces a bitter choice: to stay with the Temple and fight another war he doesn't believe in, or to break his vows and forge his own path to peace, even if that too means fighting...for the Scots. Will is unaware that an even more ominous threat is rising, for there is a warrior king on the throne of France whose desire for supremacy knows no bounds and who will stop at nothing to fulfill his twisted ambitions. The fight for the holy land is over, but the Temple's last battle has just...

A funny and revealing memoir of one man’s journey into and out of the New York City police department. In 2001, Paul Bacon was a typical young New Y orker: hip, liberal, overeducated, a little aimless. But then 9/11 happened. Hearing a call to duty—and lacking any better employment options—he joined the NYPD, with the earnest hope of making his hometown a safer place. Silly him. In Bad Cop, Paul recounts his ill-conceived experiment in public service, focusing on his own professional handicaps: his glass jaw, his overly trusting nature, and his fear of confrontation. The book begins with his police academy training, when he falls in love with the beautiful cadet Clarabel (and develops an unhealthy attraction to his sidearm). T he story follows him through an awkward apprenticeship and out onto the streets, where the touchy-feely Paul is transformed into the rough-and-tumble Officer Bacon. Through amazing accounts of his escapades on the Harlem beat, his memoir emerges as both a celebration and a send-up of the legendary force that protects New Y ork—most of the time.From Publishers WeeklyFor almost four years after the 2001 World Trade Center tragedy, freelance writer Bacon chronicles his quest in this humorous book to do his best as a New York City cop, yet the arduous task of law enforcement was much more than he imagined. Self-described as a hip, overeducated liberal, the author had worked at home for five years for an online company before joining the NYPD force, but the collective experience of the police academy and being a Harlem beat cop eventually wears him down emotionally. Everything gnaws at his resolve, including the grueling cycle of drug collars, the rousting of crooks and a crush on a disinterested Latina police officer. When Bacon later unravels during a security detail in a manic Jerry Lewis–style comic scene, he writes: I was no good as a bad cop and not bad enough to be a good cop. I'm lucky I made it out alive. Bacon, now a scuba instructor on Maui, provides readers with a madcap yarn of handcuffs, broken hearts and the thin blue line. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThis memoir by a man who should never have strapped on a police holster has a wonderful narrative arc, spanning Bacon’s pre-NYPD series of menial jobs, a police career that lasted from 2001 to the 2004 Republican National Convention and that left him confused and exhausted, and a neat resolution as a life-saving scuba instructor in Maui. The events of September 11 (Bacon witnessed the collapse of the South Tower) propelled him from a desk job to policing in the worst part of Harlem. Feelings of civic pride and duty led Bacon to the streets, but what resulted was a series of humiliations and misadventures that he renders in excruciatingly comic detail. Part of the comedy and truth of this memoir is the way it counters expectations: the hero never does catch on with or win over either cops or perps, or he never becomes good at his job. A vivid and insightful saga of the wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time. --Connie Fletcher

SUMMARY: After agreeing to be a surrogate mother for her best friends, Mattie Carey can't wait to give them the biggest gift of all. She's put aside her dreams of finding Mr. Right and has set her mind on her new role.Moving to Sydney, the last person Mattie expects to meet is her perfect man. Jake Devlin, her temporary flatmate, is cheeky, charming, intriguing… But it's so not the right time for Mattie to fall in love….

Thirteen tales of happiness, heartbreak, and desire from the acclaimed author of Home Cooking and Happy All the Time In the title story of this elegant and insightful collection, a book illustrator meets the man of her dreams and struggles to say good-bye to her old self: the perfect houseguest who delighted in the dinner parties of her married friends and always went home alone. "A Mythological Subject" is the tale of an adulterous affair that arrives unexpected and unwanted, like a natural disaster, but is no mistake. In "The Smile Beneath the Smile," Rachel Manheim, an ardent and intelligent young woman, must finally decide what to do about her unavailable lover. "A Girl Skating" is a delicate and haunting portrait of the unbridgeable divide between life and art, poetry and nature. The warmth, humor, and emotional honesty that characterize Laurie Colwin's writing are on full display in The Lone Pilgrim. Each of these sublime stories...

First crush, first love, first kiss—Nell finds summer romance and rediscovers her passion for music in this addition to the sweet and clean Flirt series.Shipped off to camp for the summer, Nell isn’t looking forward to campfires, (too many) sing-alongs, and a WiFi-free existence. And no matter how much she wants to keep a low profile, Nell knows it’ll be impossible. Her family is folk music royalty, and she’s the best fiddle player at the camp. With no other option, Nell jumps feet first into a world of music lessons, craft classes, and countless renditions of Kumbaya—exactly what she was hoping to escape.But Jacob—a fellow musician at the camp—decides to remind Nell of her folk music–loving roots. He sees her talent and can’t understand why she’s pushing music and her family away. Jacob convinces Nell to go with him on a series of cliché camp adventures, in the hopes that she’ll begin to see herself...

Our narrator's days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage for company, he was unprepared for the doctor's diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can set about tackling his bucket list, the Devil appears with a special offer: in exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, he can have one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week . . .Because how do you decide what makes life worth living? How do you separate out what you can do without from what you hold dear? In dealing with the Devil our narrator will take himself – and his beloved cat – to the brink. If Cats Disappeared from the World is a story of loss and reconciliation, of one man's journey to discover what really matters in modern life.This beautiful tale is translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland, who also translated The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide. Fans of The Guest Cat will also surely...

Kids Series:  The Elijah ProjectBook 2:  The Enemy Closes InIn book two of the series, Zach, Piper, and six-year-old Elijah's motor home breaks down. It is their only means of escape. As they desperately wait for repairs, Zach meets a beautiful runaway who dabbles with the supernatural. Soon he falls victim to the same spiritual counterfeits that deceive her. Now the evil forces, both human and supernatural, move in to capture them.