- Table View
- List View
Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster
by Stephen L. CarterThe bestselling author delves into his past and discovers the inspiring story of his grandmother’s extraordinary life She was black and a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s—and without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected twenty lawyers to help him clean up the city’s underworld, she was the only member of his team who was not a white male.Eunice Hunton Carter, Stephen Carter’s grandmother, was raised in a world of stultifying expectations about race and gender, yet by the 1940s, her professional and political successes had made her one of the most famous black women in America. But her triumphs were shadowed by prejudice and tragedy. Greatly complicating her rise was her difficult relationship with her younger brother, Alphaeus, an avowed Communist who—together with his friend Dashiell Hammett—would go to prison during the McCarthy era. Yet she remained unbowed.Moving, haunting, and as fast-paced as a novel, Invisible tells the true story of a woman who often found her path blocked by the social and political expectations of her time. But Eunice Carter never accepted defeat, and thanks to her grandson’s remarkable book, her long forgotten story is once again visible.
Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz
by John Kander Fred EbbThe autobiography, in dialogue, of the composer and lyricist of Chicago and Cabaret as well as a wise and witty memoir of forty years of American musicals.Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb are the longest-running composer-lyricist team in Broadway history, having first joined forces in 1962. The creators of such groundbreaking musicals as Chicago, Cabaret, and Kiss of the Spider Woman, Kander and Ebb have helped to push American musical theater in a more daring direction, both musically and dramatically. Their impact on individual performers has been great as well, starting with the handpicked star of their first musical: an untested nineteen-year-old named Liza Minnelli (who writes of this experience in her introduction).Colored Lights covers the major shows of Kander and Ebb's partnership, from Flora, The Red Menace (starring a then-unknown Liza) to The Visit, due to open on Broadway in 2004. The pages and musicals in between reveal what has made theirs such a long-lived musical partnership--and one so valued by the artists they have worked with. In recounting the genesis and controversies of Cabaret, reflecting on the superstar mentality of such artist as Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand, and recalling their work with Bob Fosse on Chicago (as well as their views on the blockbuster 2002 film), John Kander and Fred Ebb provide a history not only of their own lives but also of the American musical theater of the late twentieth century.
Irish Linen: A Nuala Anne Mcgrail Novel (Nuala Anne McGrail Novels #10)
by Andrew M. GreeleyThe perils of wartime add special urgency to latest mysteries being investigated by Nuala Anne McGrail and her adoring husband, Dermot Coyne. More than a little fey, Nuala has a well-deserved reputation for getting to the bottom of even the most tangled intrigues, even when they may be taking place on the other side of the world.Desmond Doolin, an idealistic young man from their West Side Chicago neighborhood, has gone missing in Iraq. Having flown off to the Middle East in the name of peace, he hasn't been heard of since. The U.S. government denies any knowledge of his whereabouts, and his grieving family has all but written him off as dead, but Nuala is convinced that there's more to the story . . . and herself won't stop asking questions until she finds out what has really become of Desmond, one way or another.Meanwhile, a parallel investigation uncovers the story of another young man abroad in dangerous times. Poking around in the past, Dermot and Nuala happen upon the memoirs of Timothy Patrick Clarke, the Irish ambassador to Nazi Germany, who risked his life for the sake of a beautiful German widow . . . and a secret plot to kill Adolf Hitler.Working together as always, Nuala and her husband find themselves engrossed in the secrets of the past, the present, and two very different wars. Irish Linen is another captivating installment in a series that Publishers Weekly calls "immensely entertaining." At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A Life of Privilege, Mostly: A Memoir
by Gardner BotsfordGardner Botsford's A Life of Privilege tells the fascinating and humorous story of his WWII experiences, from his assignment to the infantry due to a paperwork error to a fearful trans-Atlantic crossing on the Queen Mary, to landing under heavy fire on Omaha Beach and the Liberation of Paris. After the war, he began a distinguished literary career as a long-time editor at the New Yorker, and chronicles the magazine's rise and influence on postwar American culture with wit and grace.
Is Rape a Crime?: A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto
by Michelle BowdlerLonglisted for the 2020 National Book Award for NonfictionTIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020Publishers Weekly, Best Books of 2020New York Times New & Noteworthy AudiobooksLit Hubs Most Anticipated Books of 2020Starred Review Publishers WeeklyStarred Review Shelf Awareness"Is Rape a Crime? is beautifully written and compellingly told. In 2020, we were all looking for solutions and this book was right on time. It is one we should all be reading." —Anita Hill"This standout memoir marks a crucial moment in the discussion of what constitutes a violent crime."—Publishers Weekly, Best Books of 2020 She Said meets Know My Name in Michelle Bowdler's provocative debut, telling the story of her rape and recovery while interrogating why one of society's most serious crimes goes largely uninvestigated.The crime of rape sizzles like a lightning strike. It pounces, flattens, destroys. A person stands whole, and in a moment of unexpected violence, that life, that body is gone.Award-winning writer and public health executive Michelle Bowdler's memoir indicts how sexual violence has been addressed for decades in our society, asking whether rape is a crime given that it is the least reported major felony, least successfully prosecuted, and fewer than 3% of reported rapes result in conviction. Cases are closed before they are investigated and DNA evidence sits for years untested and disregardedRape in this country is not treated as a crime of brutal violence but as a parlor game of he said / she said. It might be laughable if it didn’t work so much of the time. Given all this, it seems fair to ask whether rape is actually a crime.In 1984, the Boston Sexual Assault Unit was formed as a result of a series of break-ins and rapes that terrorized the city, of which Michelle’s own horrific rape was the last. Twenty years later, after a career of working with victims like herself, Michelle decides to find out what happened to her case and why she never heard from the police again after one brief interview. Is Rape a Crime? is an expert blend of memoir and cultural investigation, and Michelle's story is a rallying cry to reclaim our power and right our world.
The Golden Rose: Book Two Of The War Of The Rose (The War of the Rose #2)
by Kathleen BryanKathleen Bryan returns with the sequel to The Serpent and the Rose.Beautiful Averil is now the Duchess of Quitaine, but to keep her people safe, she made a vow to the traitor King of Lys. After a year, she would come to his Court in Lutece, and choose a husband from the men he offers her. Averil must produce an heir – not only to Quitaine, but also to all of Lys; for she is the only daughter of the King's sister, and he has no wife or child of his own.But Averil's heart is in the keeping of a powerful young Knight of the Rose, Gerient, a man she can never marry. The two share a bond of magecraft as well as love, for between them lies the power to raise the Wild Magic of the world, the only force that can defeat the King's quest to release the Serpent God of Chaos from his mystic prison. And when Averil learns that the King is building a fleet to attack the Ladies of the Isle, to destroy them as he destroyed the Orders of the Knights of the Rose in Lys, she rebels against her sworn duty, and flees to Gerient's side. Together they will raise their powers to protect both the Isle and the remnants of the Rose.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing: A Fable
by William Peter BlattyBased on his own experiences in tinseltown, Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing is a hilarious satire of Hollywood fame and misfortune from William Peter Blatty, the New York Times bestselling author of The Exorcist.Once an auteur of renown, Jason Hazard hasn't directed a film in years, more famous for being the husband of movie star, Spritely God. When he accepts an offer to direct the adaptation of the bestselling novel, The Satanist, all hell breaks loose as Hazard's deal with the devil to resurrect his career threatens to consume his very soul.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Green-Eyed Lady: A Mystery (The Jack MacTaggart Mysteries #2)
by Chuck Greaves"Take John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware, and the best of John Grisham's protagonists, shake and serve, and you'll have Jack MacTaggart." —Chelsea CainAward-winning author Chuck Greaves returns with the rollicking sequel to his acclaimed debut novel, Hush Money.U.S. Senate candidate Warren Burkett has a history of marital infidelity. Three weeks before Election Day, Burkett comes to the aid of a beautiful green-eyed lady, only to find himself alone and naked in a stranger's home from which a priceless painting is missing. As the resulting scandal threatens to tilt the election, the painting turns up in a most unexpected place . . . and so does a dead body.Hired to defend Burkett and unravel the deepening mystery, Jack MacTaggart must traverse a minefield of ruthless politicians, felonious art dealers, swarming paparazzi, the amorous wife of Burkett's billionaire opponent, her mobbed-up brother, and a district attorney with an old score to settle.With the electoral clock ticking and the press following his every move, Jack's investigation leads him on a roller-coaster ride through the lofty heights and gritty depths of Los Angeles and Southern California, lending new meaning to the adage that all's fair in love and politics.
Deep Black: Conspiracy (Deep Black Ser. #6)
by Stephen Coonts Jim DeFeliceA Secret Service agent is dead, an apparent suicide. A presidential candidate narrowly escapes an assassin's bullet. And Desk Three, a convert branch of the NSA, is searching for a chilling connection deep inside The Republic of Vietnam.Once, Charlie Dean was a Marine sniper in Quang Nam Province. Today he's a Deep Black operator, returning to Vietnam to find the source of some threatening e-mails. Instead, he comes face to face with a man he had once hunted down…and thought he had killed.Back in the U.S., Deep Black agent Lia DeFrancesca has uncovered the trail of a killer in Dean's path. Now, with every asset, weapon, bug and high-tech magic wand Desk Three can wave, the agents enter a terrifying global race against time. Because ghosts of the past have risen to life…to strike a death blow into the heart of the U.S.A.Stephen Coonts' Deep Black Conspiracy, cowritten with Jim DeFelice, is the sixth book in this technothriller series.
The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies
by David ThomsonThe Big Screen tells the enthralling story of the movies: their rise and spread, their remarkable influence over us, and the technology that made the screen—smaller now, but ever more ubiquitous—as important as the images it carries.The Big Screen is not another history of the movies. Rather, it is a wide-ranging narrative about the movies and their signal role in modern life. At first, film was a waking dream, the gift of appearance delivered for a nickel to huddled masses sitting in the dark. But soon, and abruptly, movies began transforming our societies and our perceptions of the world. The celebrated film authority David Thomson takes us around the globe, through time, and across many media—moving from Eadweard Muybridge to Steve Jobs, from Sunrise to I Love Lucy, from John Wayne to George Clooney, from television commercials to streaming video—to tell the complex, gripping, paradoxical story of the movies. He tracks the ways we were initially enchanted by movies as imitations of life—the stories, the stars, the look—and how we allowed them to show us how to live. At the same time, movies, offering a seductive escape from everyday reality and its responsibilities, have made it possible for us to evade life altogether. The entranced audience has become a model for powerless and anxiety-ridden citizens trying to pursue happiness and dodge terror by sitting quietly in a dark room.Does the big screen take us out into the world, or merely mesmerize us? That is Thomson's question in this grand adventure of a book. Books about the movies are often aimed at film buffs, but this passionate and provocative feat of storytelling is vital to anyone trying to make sense of the age of screens—the age that, more than ever, we are living in.
A Shadow's Bliss: A Novel of Georgian England (The Tales of the Jewelled Men #4)
by Patricia VeryanShe had dreamed of that magical experience called falling in love. And, dreaming, she had conjured up a dashing and handsome gentleman...A far cry from Crazy Jack, a penniless and nameless vagrant, haunted by disgrace and the shadow of some terrible tragedy. Dreams are all that the graceful Jennifer Britewell has had of love and marriage since a childhood accident left her barren. Now, try as she might, the generous lady cannot bring herself to believe the town gossip about "Crazy Jack." It would be beneath her to consider him anything but a servant. But when he allows her to see traces of his honesty, intelligence, and gallantry, all warnings of her possible disgrace fade into the mists of Cornwall...
Dragon and Phoenix (Dragonlord #2)
by Joanne BertinIn Dragon and Phoenix, the sweeping sequel to Joanne Bertin's hugely successful fantasy epic The Last Dragonlord, Linden and Muarynna must rescue a trapped dragon from an evil princess.Once every thousand years the phoenix of Jehanglan burns to death in a magical release. For millennia the emperors of Jehanglan have tried to harness the awesome power of the phoenix's rebirth. One has finally succeeded, using black magic and the enslavement of a dragon.Far away at the Crown of the World, Dragon-lord Linden and his new wife, Maurynna, are trying to live the life of happy newlyweds. But all is not well. Since her first Change into dragon-form, Maurynna has been unable to duplicate it. And as her inability to Change drives her into a dark abyss of depression, Linden begins to doubt the love he was once so sure of...At this time of personal crisis, these two must journey to Jehanglan and marshall all of their diplomatic and martial skill to penetrate the treachery of the empire and set free the phoenix. But to do so they must face the dragon--the dragon who just might be a Dragonlord gone mad....At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America
by Henry WiencekAn Imperfect God is a major new biography of Washington, and the first to explore his engagement with American slaveryWhen George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his slaves free; earlier he had said that holding slaves was his "only unavoidable subject of regret." In this groundbreaking work, Henry Wiencek explores the founding father's engagement with slavery at every stage of his life--as a Virginia planter, soldier, politician, president and statesman. Washington was born and raised among blacks and mixed-race people; he and his wife had blood ties to the slave community. Yet as a young man he bought and sold slaves without scruple, even raffled off children to collect debts (an incident ignored by earlier biographers). Then, on the Revolutionary battlefields where he commanded both black and white troops, Washington's attitudes began to change. He and the other framers enshrined slavery in the Constitution, but, Wiencek shows, even before he became president Washington had begun to see the system's evil. Wiencek's revelatory narrative, based on a meticulous examination of private papers, court records, and the voluminous Washington archives, documents for the first time the moral transformation culminating in Washington's determination to emancipate his slaves. He acted too late to keep the new republic from perpetuating slavery, but his repentance was genuine. And it was perhaps related to the possibility--as the oral history of Mount Vernon's slave descendants has long asserted--that a slave named West Ford was the son of George and a woman named Venus; Wiencek has new evidence that this could indeed have been true.George Washington's heroic stature as Father of Our Country is not diminished in this superb, nuanced portrait: now we see Washington in full as a man of his time and ahead of his time.
Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous
by Don FosterFrom the professor who invented literary forensics--and fingered Joe Klein as the author of Primary Colors--comes the inside story of how he solves his most challenging casesDon Foster is the world's first literary detective. Realizing that everyone's use of language is as distinctive as his or her DNA, Foster developed a revolutionary methodology for identifying the writer behind almost any anonymous document. Now, in this enthralling book, he explains his techniques and invites readers to sit by his side as he searches a mysterious text for the clues that whisper the author's name.Foster's unique skills first came to light when a front-page New York Times article announced his discovery that a previously unattributed poem was written by Shakespeare. A few weeks later, Foster solved the mystery that had obsessed America for months when he identified Joe Klein as the author of Primary Colors. Foster also took on a case involving the elusive Thomas Pynchon. And his contributions to the Unabomber and JonBenet Ramsey cases have led the FBI and several police forces to hire him to train their organizations. Introducing a fascinating new field of forensics, Author Unknown will appeal to mystery fans--and to everyone interested in words and the writer's craft.
Deeper Than Need: A Secrets And Shadows Novel (The Secrets & Shadows Novels #1)
by Shiloh WalkerTIME HEALS ALL WOUNDS.Eager to put a dark, troubled past behind her, Trinity Ewing buys an old house that will make the perfect refuge for her and her young son once renovations are complete. The last thing on her mind is finding someone new...but the contractor she's hired is an irresistible distraction-and Trinity can't help but fantasize about all the business they could be doing behind closed doors.SO DOES ONE MAN'S TOUCH.Noah Benningfield thought he'd put his demons behind him. But the moment he lays eyes on Trinity. The temptation he feels is too powerful to deny. Soon the attraction between them explodes into something neither of them could have imagined. But their desire will be put to the test when a shocking local murder has them dodging danger at every turn. Can the beautiful and damaged Trinity trust someone like Noah, whose own past is as haunted as her own? The only thing she knows for sure is that she can't live without a man who makes her feel this good-over and over again...in Deeper Than Need by Shiloh Walker.
Cowl
by Neal AsherWith Cowl, Neal Asher, acclaimed author of Gridlinked and The Skinner, has created a powerful time-travel novel for the 21st Century, a violent thrill ride that will leave you breathless In the far future, the Heliothane Dominion is triumphant in the solar system, after a bitter war with their Umbrathane progenitors. But some of the Umbrathane have escaped into the distant past, where they can position themselves to wreak havoc across time and undo their defeat. The most fanatical of them is the superhuman Cowl, more monstrous than any of the creatures outside his prehistoric redoubt. Cowl sends his terrifying hyperdimensional pet, the torbeast, hunting through all the timelines for human specimens. It sheds its scales -- each one an organic time machine -- where its master orders. Anyone who picks one up is dragged back to the dawn of time, where Cowl awaits. Then the beast can feed, growing ever larger . . . In our own near-future, Tack is one of U-gov's programmable killers. When a scale latches onto him, his doom seems inevitable, but the Heliothane have other ideas: they can use Tack against Cowl. Tack is no stranger to violence, but the Heliothane, hardened in their struggle for humanity's very existence, have much to teach him. He will need it all for his encounter with Cowl.Once one of Tack's targets, Polly escaped with her life when a torbeast scale snatched her. Now, like Tack, she must learn fast as she is dragged back to Day Zero. To cheat death again, she will have to help him save the human race.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Cinnamon Toasted: A Spice Shop Mystery (Spice Shop Mystery Series #3)
by Gail OustA mouth-watering entry in Gail Oust's delicious Spice Shop series, Cinnamon Toasted is sure to delight cozy fans of all stripes.Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Case in point: Piper Prescott's former mother-in-law Melly. Beneath her twin sets and pearls beats the heart of a geek—a geek whose programming changes for the point-of-sale software in Piper's shop have the owners of the program ready to make her an offer she can't refuse. "Trusty" Rusty Tulley and Chip Balboa swing by Brandywine Creek—just in time for the town's annual Oktoberfest, which has cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom flying off Piper's shelves in record numbers. News spreads faster than a text message, and Melly is the toast of the town.But it isn't long before Melly's status changes to public enemy number one when Chip's body is found at the foot of her basement stairs. Questions start to pile up when handsome police chief Wyatt McBride arrives on the scene and the coroner sets the time of death for the previous evening. McBride wants to know why it took Melly so long to report the incident—especially after she admits to arguing with Chip about the contract he wanted her to sign. Piper knows Melly would never hurt a fly, so she enlists the help of her BFF Reba Mae to clear her name—but can they find the real killer before Melly gets sent away for good?
The River Beyond the World: A Novel
by Janet PeeryA National Book Award Finalist for FictionSet in the Texas/Mexico border country in the years from 1944 to the present, The River Beyond the World is the story of two women on the edge of sexual, moral, political, and spiritual divides. Luisa Cantú is a girl from a Sierra Madre mountain village. After being impregnated in a fertility ritual of ancient origin, she leaves Mexico to work in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas as a housemaid for Mrs. Eddie Hatch, a woman with a strong will and a narrow worldview. Their complex relationship—by turns mystical and pragmatic, serious and comic—reveals the many ways human beings can wound one another, the nature of love and sacrifice, and the possibility of forgiveness.
Automatic Reload: A Novel
by Ferrett SteinmetzFerrett Steinmetz’s high-octane cyberpunk romance Automatic Reload about a tortured mercenary and the genetically enginnered assassin he loves. Meet Mat, a tortured mercenary who has become the perfect shot, and Silvia, an idealistic woman genetically engineered to murder you to death.Together they run for the shadiest corporation in the world...and realize their messed-up brain chemistry cannot overpower their very real chemistry. Automatic Reload is the genre's most unexpectedly heartfelt romantic comedy with explosions, perfect for fans of both Altered Carbon and Atomic Blonde.“Shadowrun with a conscience.”—Hugo Award-winning author Jim C. Hines “LUXURIATES in the intricate beauty that is technology, exults in the mechanics of cyberpunk. And it does all this while being a ROM-COM with a lot of EXPLOSIONS.”—Cassandra Khaw, finalist for the British Fantasy and Locus Awards for Hammers on BoneAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Precious Thing: A Novel
by Colette McBethI know her inside out. I know what she's thinking, I know what she wants. So I can't give up on her, she knows I never will.Some friendships fizzle out. Rachel and Clara promised theirs would last forever.They met in high school when Rachel was the shy, awkward new girl and Clara was the friend everyone wanted. Instantly, they fell under one another's spell and nothing would be the same again. Now in their late twenties Rachel has the television career, the apartment and the boyfriend, while Clara's life is spiraling further out of control. Yet despite everything, they remain inextricably bound. Then Rachel's news editor assigns her to cover a police press conference, and she is shocked when she arrives to learn that the subject is Clara, reported missing. Is it abduction, suicide or something else altogether?Imagine discovering something about your oldest friend that forces you to question everything you've shared together. The truth is always there. But only if you choose to see it. In Colette McBeth's Precious Thing.
Deep Black: Biowar (Deep Black Ser. #2)
by Stephen Coonts Jim DeFeliceIn Stephen Coonts's Deep Black: Biowar, cowritten with Jim DeFelice, Dr. James Kegan, a world-renowned scientist specializing in germ warfare, has vanished from his upstate New York home. But this is no ordinary missing-persons case. Kegan has left behind an unidentified dead man with a .22 caliber hole in his skull-and a contact trail that leads to an alleged terrorist cell.Unraveling the mystery is a job for Kegan's best friend, NSA operative Charlie Dean. His mission is to infiltrate the scientist's circle of associates and decipher Kegan's confidential research. Dispatched to cover Charlie is Delta Force trooper Lia Francesca. The trail leads them to the core of a widespread killer fever that's been dormant for centuries-and its link to a virus that's quickly spreading victim by victim. With time running out Charlie and Lia must find Kegan, uncover his secrets, cut a terrorist threat to the quick, and stop the unimaginable outbreak of a new biological nightmare.
Whatever Mother Says . . .: A True Story of a Mother, Madness and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Classics)
by Wensley ClarksonTo neighbors, she was the brave single mother...Raising her five kids alone in a rundown section of Sacramento, Theresa Cross Knorr seemed like the ultimate survivor. But her youngest daughter, 16-year-old Terry, told police another story: one almost too terrible to believe.But accused of imprisoning her children in a house of horrors...According to Terry, Theresa--no longer the petite brunette she once was--had turned insanely jealous of her pretty eldest daughters and enlisted the help of her two teenaged sons in a vicious campaign against their sisters.Of beating, torturing and killing her own flesh and blood...Terry's gruesome tale told how Theresa had drugged, handcuffed and shot 16-year-old Suesan, allowing her wounds to fester, until the day she ordered her sons to burn their sister alive. Next, Terry said Theresa severely beat 20-year-old Sheila and then locked her in a stifling broom closet, so that when the girl finally starved to death, her brothers dumped her body in the same desolate mountain range where they had cremated Suesan.She could be one of the most evil murderesses of our time...It took Terry five agonizing years to convince authorities to investigate her grisly accounts of burning flesh, starvation and torture...of a mother from hell, so sadistic and so deranged, she had become her children's own executioner.Wensley Clarkson's Whatever Mother Says ... is the true story of a mother, madness and murder.
Awakenings: Guardians Of Aandor, Book One (Guardians of Aandor #1)
by Edward LazellariCal MacDonnell is a happily married New York City cop with a loving family. Seth Raincrest is a washed-up photographer who has alienated even his closest friends. The two have nothing in common—except that they both suffer from retrograde amnesia. It's as if they just appeared out of thin air thirteen years ago, and nothing has been able to restore their memories. Now their forgotten past has caught up to them with a vengeance.Cal's and Seth's lives are turned upside down as they are stalked by otherworldly beings who know about the men's past lives. But these creatures aren't here to help; they're intent on killing anyone who gets in their way. In the balance hangs the life of a child who might someday restore a broken empire to peace and prosperity. With no clue why they're being hunted, Cal and Seth must accept the aid of a strange and beautiful woman who has promised to unlock their secrets. The two must stay alive long enough to protect their loved ones, recover their true selves—and save two worlds from tyranny and destruction.Awakenings launches a captivating fantasy saga by an amazing and talented new storyteller.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Talking to the Dead
by George Noory Rosemary Ellen GuileyThroughout history, people have sought ways to contact the dead and spirits. Such experiences challenge beliefs and often set people on a path of deeper exploration, looking for validation—and ways to have controlled, direct contact. Do spirit communication devices really work? What are the prospects of someday being able to pick up a cell phone or sit in front of a webcam and talk to the Other Side? While proof of contact is still elusive, there is an abundance of tantalizing evidence and experience to inspire people.For the past century, inventors have been inspired by the spirits themselves to create telephone, video, radio, and computers to attempt real-time, two-way communication with the dead and other entities.Talking to the Dead explores the colorful history and personalities behind spirit communications, weaving together spirituality, metaphysics, science, and technology. It examines the idea that new technology can connect to the ancient and universal wisdom of the "music of the spheres"; that contact with the spirit realms can be made through the vibrations of sound.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone
by Astra TaylorWhat is democracy really? What do we mean when we use the term? And can it ever truly exist?Astra Taylor, hailed as a “New Civil Rights Leader” by the Los Angeles Times, provides surprising answers.There is no shortage of democracy, at least in name, and yet it is in crisis everywhere we look. From a cabal of plutocrats in the White House to gerrymandering and dark-money compaign contributions, it is clear that the principle of government by and for the people is not living up to its promise. The problems lie deeper than any one election cycle. As Astra Taylor demonstrates, real democracy—fully inclusive and completely egalitarian—has in fact never existed. In a tone that is both philosophical and anecdotal, weaving together history, theory, the stories of individuals, and interviews with such leading thinkers as Cornel West and Wendy Brown, Taylor invites us to reexamine the term. Is democracy a means or an end, a process or a set of desired outcomes? What if those outcomes, whatever they may be—peace, prosperity, equality, liberty, an engaged citizenry—can be achieved by non-democratic means? In what areas of life should democratic principles apply? If democracy means rule by the people, what does it mean to rule and who counts as the people? Democracy's inherent paradoxes often go unnamed and unrecognized. Exploring such questions, Democracy May Not Exist offers a better understanding of what is possible, what we want, why democracy is so hard to realize, and why it is worth striving for.