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Missing Lynx (Elite Operatives #3)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouWhen a sadistic serial killer known as the Headhunter resurfaces, a government blunder forces the Elite Operatives Organization into action. Operation Mask falls to Lynx. She has the determination, skills, and most importantly, the right profile, but her youth and lack of experience in the field could put more than the mission in jeopardy. Her search takes her deep into the jungles of Asia, where she must battle not only the ruthless purveyors of the international skin trade, but also her growing feelings for a mysterious mercenary with her own agenda for the Headhunter.
Dying to Live (Elite Operatives #4)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouBritish socialite Zoe Anderson-Howe's pampered life is abruptly shattered when she's taken hostage by FARC guerrillas while on a business trip to Bogota. While her father struggles to come up with the ransom, she must endure hardships that test her both mentally and physically. Elite Operative Fetch has been living in the Colombian jungle for six months on a mission to infiltrate the FARC and orchestrate the rescue of western hostages. When Zoe is added to her assignment, Fetch's sense of duty must override the disdain she initially feels for the self-indulgent tabloid queen. The task of freeing Zoe gains new urgency when it appears she may be the key to stopping a mysterious new virus that is racing across the globe, killing indiscriminately. The support Fetch counted on is needed elsewhere. Can she get Zoe out of there on her own, and will that be enough to save the millions of lives in peril? Fourth in the romantic intrigue series: Elite Operatives
Demons are Forever (Elite Operatives #5)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouBehind closed doors, everyone suffers from some kind of demon. Veteran Elite Operative Landis "Chase" Coolidge's latest mission requires every bit of her considerable tracking skills because she has to locate a colleague kidnapped by a brilliant scientist responsible for the deaths of millions. Former op Phantom is along for the ride, desperate to find her missing lover. By day, Heather Snyder works in the New York fashion industry. But her secret life as a high-class call girl thrusts her into the middle of a global black market organ harvesting ring and draws the interest of the EOO. No stranger to the world of call girls, Chase revels in her latest assignment, until she discovers that Heather is the one woman who can change her roguish ways.
Ill Will (Micky Knight Mystery #7)
by J. M. RedmannFirst, do no harm. But as New Orleans PI Micky Knight discovers, not every health care provider follows that dictum. She stumbles into a tangle of the true believers to the criminally callous, who use the suffering of others for their twisted ends. In a city slowly rebuilding after Katrina, one of the most devastated areas is health care, and the gaps in service are wide enough for the snake oil salesmen--and the snakes themselves--to crawl through. First, her investigation is driven by anger, but then it becomes personal as someone very close to Micky uses her cancer diagnosis to go where Micky cannot, into the heart of the evil where only the ill are allowed. Micky is her only lifeline out. Can Micky save her in time to get to the medical treatment she desperately needs to survive? This is the seventh Micky Knight mystery.
The Gemini Deception (Elite Operatives #6)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouAgent Harper "Shield" Kennedy's specialty within the Elite Operatives Organization is security, although she's long lost any gratification from babysitting most VIPs. However, her new assignment--to safeguard the U. S. president--will prove to be the biggest challenge of her career. Shield's mission to protect the first female chief executive is complicated by threats to her own life when she begins to question the president's orders. Loner Ryden Wagner is content with her life as a florist until she becomes a pawn in a political deception involving the highest office in the land. Trapped in a dangerous game where one false move could cost Ryden her life, she has to rely solely on the president's new bodyguard. As an attraction between the two women grows, so does the urgency for answers, but will the truth bring them together or tear them apart? Sixth in the romantic intrigue series: Elite Operatives
The Shoal of Time (Micky Knight Mystery #8)
by J. M. RedmannMichele "Micky" Knight, a New Orleans PI, meets an out-of-town team of investigators who are working a human trafficking case. They want someone local to show them around. It sounds easy, and a woman with smiling green eyes is asking. But it stays easy only if Micky stops asking questions-and she's never been good at that. What starts out as a tourist tour of the underside of New Orleans turns into a risky game of cat and mouse, and twists even further as Micky is caught between the good guys and the bad guys, each willing to do whatever it takes-including getting rid of an inconvenient PI-to achieve their ends. Who can she trust? And who's trying to kill her?
My Boys and Girls Are in There: The 1937 New London School Explosion
by Ron RozelleOn March 18, 1937, a spark ignited a vast pool of natural gas that had collected beneath the school building in New London, a tiny community in East Texas. The resulting explosion leveled the four-year-old structure and resulted in a death toll of more than three hundred—most of them children. To this day, it is the worst school disaster in the history of the United States. The tragedy and its aftermath were the first big stories covered by Walter Cronkite, then a young wire service reporter stationed in Dallas. He would later say that no war story he ever covered—during World War II or Vietnam—was as heart-wrenching. In the weeks following the tragedy, a factfinding committee sought to determine who was to blame. What soon became apparent was that the New London school district had, with almost all local businesses and residents, tapped into pipelines carrying unrefined gas from the plentiful oil fields of the area. It was technically illegal, but natural gas was in abundance in the “Oil Patch.” The jerry-rigged conduits leaked the odorless “green” gas that would destroy the school. A long-term effect of the disaster was the shared guilt experienced—for the rest of their lives—by most of the survivors. There is, perhaps, not a better example than Bill Thompson, who was in his fifth grade English class and “in the mood to flirt” with Billie Sue Hall, who was sitting two seats away. Thompson asked another girl to trade seats with him. She agreed—and was killed in the explosion, while Thompson and Hall both survived and lived long lives, never quite coming to terms with their good fortune. My Boys and Girls Are in There: The 1937 New London School Explosion is a meticulous, candid account by veteran educator and experienced author Ron Rozelle. Unfolding with the narrative pace of a novel, the story woven by Rozelle combines the anguished words of eyewitnesses with telling details from the historical and legal record. Released to coincide with the seventy- fifth anniversary of the New London School disaster, My Boys and Girls Are in There paints an intensely human portrait of this horrific event.
The Collinwood Tragedy: The Story of the Worst School Fire in American History
by James Jessen BadalMarch 4, 1908, was an ordinary morning in Collinwood, Ohio, a village about ten miles outside of Cleveland. Children at Lakeview Elementary School were at work on their lessons when fifth-grader Emma Neibert noticed wisps of smoke, a discovery that led to a panicked stampede inside the school--the chaos of nine teachers trying to control and then save pupils in overcrowded classrooms. Outside, desperate parents and would-be rescuers fought to save as many children as possible, while Collinwood's inadequate volunteer fire department--joined by members of the Cleveland fire department--fought a losing battle with the rapidly spreading blaze. While some inside jumped from the building to safety, most were trapped. Ultimately, 172 children, two teachers, and one rescue worker were killed, and the Collinwood community was irrevocably changed. The fire's staggering death toll shocked the entire country and resulted in impassioned official inquiries about the fire's cause, the building's structure, and overall safety considerations. Regionally, and eventually nationwide, changes were implemented in school structures and construction materials. The Collinwood Tragedy: The Story of the Worst School Fire in American History describes not only the events of that fateful day but also their lingering effects. James Jessen Badal's extensive research reveals how the citizens of Collinwood were desperate to find someone to blame for the tragedy. Rumor and suspicion splintered the grieving community. And yet they also rose to the challenge of healing: officials reached out to immigrant families unsure of their rights; city charities, churches, and relief agencies responded immediately with medical help, comfort for the bereaved, and financial support; and fundraising efforts to assist families totaled more than $50,000--more than $1 million in today's terms.
Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire, America's Deadliest Rock Concert
by John BarylickOn February 20, 2003, the deadliest rock concert in U.S. history took place at a roadhouse called The Station in West Warwick, Rhode Island. That night, in the few minutes it takes to play a hard-rock standard, the fate of many of the unsuspecting nightclub patrons was determined with awful certainty. The blaze was ignited when pyrotechnics set off by Great White, a 1980s heavy-metal band, lit flammable polyurethane “egg crate” foam sound insulation on the club’s walls. In less than 10 minutes, 96 people were dead and 200 more were injured, many catastrophically. The final death toll topped out, three months later, at the eerily unlikely round number of 100. The story of the fire, its causes, and its legal and human aftermath is one of lives put at risk by petty economic decisions―by a band, club owners, promoters, building inspectors, and product manufacturers. Any one of those decisions, made differently, might have averted the tragedy. Together, however, they reached a fatal critical mass. Killer Show is the first comprehensive exploration of the chain of events leading up to the fire, the conflagration itself, and the painstaking search for evidence to hold the guilty to account and obtain justice for the victims. Anyone who has entered an entertainment venue and wondered, “Could I get out of here in a hurry?” will identify with concertgoers at The Station. Fans of disaster nonfiction and forensic thrillers will find ample elements of both genres in Killer Show.
Gone at 3: The Untold Story of the Worst School Disaster in American History
by David M. Brown Michael WereschaginBased on scores of interviews and an intimate understanding of a community torn by tragedy, Gone at 3:17 is the definitive study of the 1937 New London school explosion. This engrossing narrative of sorrow and survival burrows deep inside one of the greatest disasters in American history.
Art on Fire
by Hilary SloinArt on Fire is the apparent biography of subversive painter Francesca deSilva, the founding foremother of "pseudorealism," who lived hard and died young. But in the tradition of Vladimir Nabokov's acclaimed novel Pale Fire, it's a fiction from start to finish. It opens with Francesca's early life. We learn about her childhood love, the chess genius Lisa Sinsong, as well as her rivalry with her brilliant sister Isabella, who publishes an acclaimed volume of poetry at the age of twelve. She compensates for the failings of her less than attentive parents by turning to her grandmother who is loyal and adoring until she learns Francesca is a lesbian, when she rejects her. Francesca flees to a ramshackle cabin in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, working weekends at the flea market. She breaks into the gloomy basement of a house, where she begins her life as a painter. Much to her confusion and even dismay, fame comes quickly. Interspersed with Francesca's narrative are thirteen critical "essays" on the paintings of Francesca deSilva by critics, academics, and psychologists-essays that are razor-sharp satires on art, lesbian life, and the academic world, puncturing pretentiousness with every paragraph. Art on Fire is a darkly comic, pitch-perfect, and fearless satire on the very art of biography itself. Art on Fire is the latest winner of the Bywater Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Heekin Foundation Award, the Dana Awards, and the Story Oaks Prize. It was mistakenly awarded the nonfiction prize in the Amherst Book and Plow Competition.
State of Grace
by Sandra MoranBirdie Holloway is a typical eleven-year-old growing up in a small, corn-fed Kansas town in the early 1980s--that is until her best friend, Grace, is brutally murdered. Suddenly, everything changes for Birdie, and everything she believes she knows about her insulated small town life is called into question. Obsessed in figuring out who killed her friend, Birdie spends years trying to find the murderer. Eventually, she connects with someone who is every bit as interested in the case as she is. Someone who knows how close she is to solving the murder. Someone who will kill again to keep her quiet. Sandra Moran authored the critically acclaimed novels Letters Never Sent, Nudge, The Addendum, and All We Lack. Final revisions on State of Grace, the first novel written, but the last to be published, were completed in September 2015. Less than a month later, she was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. She passed away in early November. Bywater Books, in concert with her spouse, Cheryl Pletcher, has published the complete manuscript as it was written.
Harold and Maude
by Colin HigginsNineteen-year-old Harold Chasen is obsessed with death. He fakes suicides to shock his self-obsessed mother, drives a hearse, and attends funerals of complete strangers. Seventy-nine-year-old Maude Chardin, on the other hand, adores life. She liberates trees from city sidewalks and transplants them to the forest, paints smiles on the faces of church statues, and "borrows" cars to remind their owners that life is fleeting-- here today, gone tomorrow! A chance meeting between the two turns into a madcap, whirlwind romance, and Harold learns that life is worth living, and how to play the banjo. Harold and Maude started as Colin Higgins's master's thesis at UCLA film school before being made into the 1971 film directed by Hal Ashby. The quirky, dark comedy gained a loyal cult following, and in 1997 it was selected for inclusion on the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. Higgins's novelization was released with the original film but has been out of print for more than thirty years. Fans who have seen the movie dozens of times will find this a valuable companion, as it gives fresh elements to watch for and answers many of the film's unresolved questions.
Let the Faggots Burn: The Upstairs Lounge Fire
by Johnny TownsendOn Gay Pride Day in 1973, someone set the entrance to a French Quarter gay bar on fire. In the terrible inferno that followed, thirty-two people lost their lives, including a third of the local congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church, their pastor burning to death halfway out a second-story window as he tried to claw his way to freedom. A mother who'd gone to the bar with her two gay sons died alongside them. A man who'd helped his friend escape first was found dead near the fire escape. Two children waited outside of a movie theater across town for a father and step-father who would never pick them up. During this era of rampant homophobia, several families refused to claim the bodies, and many churches refused to bury the dead. Author Johnny Townsend pored through old records and tracked down survivors of the fire and relatives and friends of those killed to compile this fascinating account of a forgotten moment in gay history.
Capable of Honor (Advise and Consent #3)
by Allen DruryFirst published in 1966. It is one of the most fundamental questions facing America today: How justifiably, or irresponsibly, do the volatile and unbiased American media—press, television and radio—attempt to interfere with, and control, the political process and the foreign policy of the nation? In a hotly fought Presidential primary, the news media fractures along ideological lines, supporting and distorting the candidates’ records, manipulating the news rather than covering it. Capable of Honor, the third novel in the grand, bestselling Advise and Consent saga, is a compelling blockbuster that shines a harsh and revealing spotlight on how the media shapes the news, guides public opinion, creates policy—and tries to shape history itself. FROM THE MASTER OF SPELLBINDING POLITICAL FICTION, AUTHOR OF ADVISE AND CONSENT.
Stepping Stone
by Karin KallmakerMotion picture producer Selena Ryan has the impossible: Fame and fortune and her integrity. Her reputation for playing fair in an industry rife with games has earned her respect from other producers, writers, and actors. She's learned the lesson that plenty of people would like to use her to get what they want--a starring role or some other way into the movies. Most of them feel no obligation to return any favors she might give. Burned badly by actress Jennifer Lamont, who used her and left her with a devastating aftermath, she's wary of everyone related to the industry. Surrounded by gatekeepers to keep the hopeful at bay, aspiring starlets have tried every trick in the book to make Selena's acquaintance. When Gail Welles literally lands in Selena's lap, she suspects another ploy. Jennifer's sudden announcement that Selena is still her one-and-only is equally ill-timed and suspect. Selena wants everyone to leave her alone, even if that means living without love. Lights, camera and action are the backdrop for this novel of taking chances by Golden Crown and Lambda Literary award-winning author Karin Kallmaker.
The Tower of the Antilles
by Achy Obejas"Questions of personal and national identity percolate through the stories in Obejas's memorable short fiction collection, most of which is set in Cuba, the author's birthplace. . . These 10 stories show Obejas's talent, illuminating Cuban culture and the innermost lives of her characters. " --Publishers Weekly "By turns searing and subtly magical, the stories in Obejas' vividly imagined collection are propelled by her characters' contradictory feelings about and unnerving experiences in Cuba. . . For all the human tumult and deftly sketched and reverberating historical and cultural contexts that Obejas incisively creates in these poignant, alarming tales, she also offers lyrical musings on the mysteries of the sea and the vulnerability of islands and the body. Obejas' plots are ambushing, her characters startling, her metaphors fresh, her humor caustic, and her compassion potent in these intricate and haunting stories of displacement, loss, stoicism, and realization. " --Booklist "Obejas's stories demonstrate an acute understanding of being caught between two places and cultures as different as America and Cuba. " --Library Journal "Achy Obejas's collection is about fictional Cuban migrants who never quite escape the land they've left. " --Electric Literature "It's a joy to return to Obejas's work; her prose, crisp, crystalline, and controlled, covering the wide spectrums of anger, desire, longing, and wonder in the face of immigration. . . Obejas sneaks under the skin, revealing emotions tied up at the dock, cuts the rope, and sets them free. The Tower of the Antilles proves, once again, why Achy Obejas is one of the most important Cuban writers of our time. " --The Miami Rail "This summer is the perfect opportunity to get to know the work of this Cuban-American writer. The stories collected in her new book tell the story of various Cubas--Cuba throughout the ages, Cuba from different perspectives, but always Cuba in all its vibrant, troubled, conflicting beauty. " --Barnes & Noble/B&N Reads, included in"12 Must-Read Indie Books Coming This Summer" Praise for Achy Obejas: "Obejas writes like an angel, which is to say: gloriously. . . one of Cuba's most important writers. " --Junot Diaz The Cubans in Achy Obejas's story collection are haunted by islands: the island they fled, the island they've created, the island they were taken to or forced from, the island they long for, the island they return to, and the island that can never be home again. In "Superman," several possible story lines emerge about a 1950s Havana sex-show superstar who disappeared as soon as the revolution triumphed. "North/South" portrays a migrant family trying to cope with separation, lives on different hemispheres, and the eventual disintegration of blood ties. "The Cola of Oblivion" follows the path of a young woman who returns to Cuba, and who inadvertently uncorks a history of accommodation and betrayal among the family members who stayed behind during the revolution. In the title story, "The Tower of the Antilles," an interrogation reveals a series of fantasies about escape and a history of futility. With language that is both generous and sensual, Obejas writes about existences beset by events beyond individual control, and poignantly captures how history and fate intrude on even the most ordinary of lives.
Washington's Monument: And the Fascinating History of the Obelisk
by John Steele GordonThe colorful story behind one of America's greatest monuments and of the ancient obelisks of Egypt, now scattered around the world. Conceived soon after the American Revolution ended, the great monument to George Washington was not finally completed until almost a century later; the great obelisk was finished in 1884, and remains the tallest stone structure in the world at 555 feet. The story behind its construction is a largely untold and intriguing piece of American history, which acclaimed historian John Steele Gordon relates with verve, connecting it to the colorful saga of the ancient obelisks of Egypt. Nobody knows how many obelisks were crafted in ancient Egypt, or even exactly how they were created and erected since they are made out of hard granite and few known tools of the time were strong enough to work granite. Generally placed in pairs at the entrances to temples, they have in modern times been ingeniously transported around the world to Istanbul, Paris, London, New York, and many other locations. Their stories illuminate that of the Washington Monument, once again open to the public following earthquake damage, and offer a new appreciation for perhaps the most iconic memorial in the country.
Black Lives Matter
by Sue Bradford Edwards Duchess HarrisBlack Lives Matter covers the shootings that touched off passionate protests, the work of activists to bring about a more just legal system, and the tensions in US society that these events have brought to light. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
One Last Thing (Elite Operatives #7)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouBlood is thicker than pride. The final book in the Elite Operative Series brings together foes, family, and friends to start a new order. Special Agent Switch needs to get close to Greek tycoon Konstantinos Lykourgos, the prime suspect in the theft of a priceless ancient icon from a monastery on Mount Athos. His accomplice is the EOO's recurring nemesis: Theodora Rothschild, aka TQ, the Broker. Ariadne Lykourgos, heir to her father's shipping empire, expects to have a much-needed holiday on the family yacht with her friends. But the arrival of a new crew member challenges her values and tests her loyalties. Will Agent Switch be strong enough to keep secrets from Ariadne, and will Ariadne be able to cope with the truth?
The Girl on the Edge of Summer (Micky Knight Mystery #9)
by J. M. RedmannMicky Knight reluctantly takes on two cases, one for money, one for pity. The first is a trawl through archives to solve a century old murder, for an arrogant grandson who thinks riches should absolve his family of any sins. The other, to answer a mother’s anguish as she tries to understand her daughter’s suicide. Micky sees no happy ending to either case; the dusty pages of history aren’t going to give up their secrets after holding them for so long. And even if she finds answers for the mother’s questions, nothing will bring her daughter back. But as Micky discovers, the past is never past and a young girl can lead a complicated, even dangerous, life. The secrets, both past and present, are meant to remain hidden--only the first murder is hard. The rest come easy. A Micky Knight Mystery
Donny Hathaway Live (33 1/3 Ser. #117)
by Emily J. LordiIn January of 1979, the great soul artist Donny Hathaway fell fifteen stories from a window of Manhattan’s Essex House hotel in an alleged suicide. He was 33 years old and everyone he worked with called him a genius. Best known for “A Song for You,” “This Christmas,” and classic duets with Roberta Flack, Hathaway was a composer, pianist, and singer committed to exploring “music in its totality.” His velvet melisma and vibrant sincerity set him apart from other soul men of his era while influencing generations of singers and fans whose love affair with him continues to this day.
Crisis Point: Why We Must - and How We Can - Overcome Our Broken Politics in Washington and Across America
by Tom Daschle Trent Lott Jon SternfeldTom Daschle and Trent Lott are two of the most prominent senators of recent time. Both served in their respective parties' leadership positions from the 1990s into the current century, and they have almost sixty years of service between them. Their congressional tenure saw the Reagan tax cuts, a deadlocked Senate, the Clinton impeachment, 9/11, and the Iraq War. Despite the tumultuous times, and despite their very real ideological differences, they have always maintained a positive working relationship, one almost unthinkable in today's hyper-partisan climate. In their book, Daschle and Lott come together from opposite sides of the aisle to sound an alarm on the current polarization that has made governing all but impossible; never before has the people's faith in government been so dismally low. The senators itemize damaging forces--the permanent campaign, the unprecedented money, the 24/7 news cycle--and offer practical recommendations, pointing the way forward. Most crucially, they recall the American people, especially our leaders, to the principles enshrined in the Constitution, and to the necessity of debate but also the imperative of compromise--which will take leadership, vision, and courage to bring back. Illustrated with personal stories from their own eminent careers and events cited from deeper in American history, Crisis Point is an invaluable work that comes at a critical juncture. It is a work of conscience, as well as duty, written with passion and eloquence by two men who have dedicated their lives to public service and share the conviction that all is far from lost.
We Are the Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama
by E. J. Dionne Jr. Joy-Ann ReidA collection of Barack Obama's greatest speeches selected and introduced by columnist E. J. Dionne and MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid. We Are the Change We Seek is a collection of Barack Obama's 26 greatest addresses: beginning with his 2002 speech opposing the Iraq War and closing with his final speech before the United Nations in September 2016. As president, Obama's words had the power to move the country, and often the world, as few presidents before him. Whether acting as Commander in Chief or Consoler in Chief, Obama adopted a unique rhetorical style that could simultaneously speak to the national mood and change the course of public events. Obama's eloquence, both written and spoken, propelled him to national prominence and ultimately made it possible for the son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas to become the first black president of the United States. These speeches span Obama's career--from his time in state government through to the end of his tenure as president--and the issues most important to our time: war, inequality, race relations, gun violence and human rights. The book opens with an essay placing Obama's oratorical contributions within the flow of American history by E. J. Dionne Jr. , columnist and author ofWhy The Right Went Wrong, and Joy Reid, the host ofAM Joyon MSNBC and author ofFracture.
Not Dead Enough (Mickey Knight Mystery #10)
by J. M. RedmannA woman wants to find her missing sister. That should be easy for an experienced PI like Micky Knight. Until the woman—or someone who looks like her—ends up in the morgue. Micky finds herself in a tangled mess, not knowing who the real victim is, or how her name keeps coming up in places it shouldn’t. Like newly minted Realtor Karen Holloway’s house sale papers, as the contact for another missing buyer, one who looks a lot like Micky’s client. The same woman? The sister? Micky has to uncover what the game is and who’s playing. Because the stakes are murder.