The destruction of the trapped German forces in the Falaise pocket in August 1944 is one of the most famous episodes of the Normandy campaign. But myths have grown up around accounts of the battle, and its impact on the course of the war is sometimes misunderstood. In this meticulously researched and perceptive study Anthony Tucker-Jones dispels misconceptions about the battle, describes the combat in graphic detail and reassesses the outcome in the context of the campaign to liberate Europe. He takes a broad view of the sequence of operations that culminated in the battle at Falaise, tracing the course of the campaign mainly from the German viewpoint. For two bloody months the Germans held the Allies at bay following the D-Day landings, but then they were blocked in at Falaise and the area became a killing ground. Some liken the event to Hitler’s defeat at Stalingrad, while others argue the victory was flawed because so many German troops escaped. [Contain tables. Best viewed with CoolReader.]

The President of Russia and the United States are meeting in The Ukraine to sign a treaty that would give The Crimea back to The Ukraine. Stalinists in Russia, led by a fanatic named Andrei Kulagin, are violently opposed to any action where Russia gives up territory. The group worships Joseph Stalin and they are going to kidnap the two Presidents and hold them hostage to stop the treaty. They have captured a nuclear missile site in Russia and are willing to risk WWIII to get what they want. Justin and the gang have been invited to the meeting so Justin can write a story about it. Not surprisingly, given the gangs history they end up right in the middle of things. Will they get out alive? How will it end?

A study of the elaborate personalities that develop within prison walls, and their tenuous relation to prisoners' past lives and crimes. A convicted drug addict and murderer adapts to the gloom, fascination and eroticism of the new camaraderie

Wszystko to zaczęło się dwa wieki temu, kiedy w skałach Marsa odkryto puste podziemne miasto i po raz pierwszy podło słowo "Wędrowcy". Kierownik Wydziału Wydarzeń Nadzwyczajnych Maksym Kammerer, opowiada…

A graduate student working in animal genetics, Beth Coldwell is in town to track and tag big cats in the wild. Her prospects for the summer only improve when she meets Kelan and Reidar Falke and decides the sexy brothers are the right pair to fulfill her other, less than scientific, desires... But her research is a threat to the Falke family secret. When Kelan, in cougar form, is captured, that secret comes closer than ever to being revealed. He escapes, but not before Beth draws a blood sample, and analysis shows this is no ordinary mountain lion. Kelan and Reidar cannot deny the powerful attraction they feel toward Beth. She might just be their destined mate. But if they reveal themselves to her, will she embrace who they are or see them as just another science experiment?

She couldn't believe her eyes. Stressed out ad-exec Dakota wandered into Catamount Outfitters in search of a guide for a wilderness excursion. She didn't expect to be greeted by not one, but five of the most ruggedly delicious-looking men she'd ever seen. Not to mention a live cougar guarding the shop. The Falke brothers have more than just good looks in their genes. Eldest brother Axel agrees to guide Dakota on her mountain trek. In cougar form, Axel's twin, Gunnar, was there as a protection from predators—but he had his eye on the sexy client instead. Into the wild... While the rule with clients was "paws-off," both Axel and Gunnar couldn't resist Dakota's seductive Native American beauty and determination. As cold days led to hot nights in the cabin, Axel and Gunnar wondered if they'd finally found a woman strong enough to tame them

Veterinarian Heidi Falke can tell that something isn't as it seems when she rescues an injured jaguar. Black jaguars aren't native to the area, and as a Falke, Heidi knows that some men can walk in the shape of a beast...literally. She won't let this seductive shapeshifter leave without getting some answers. Javier Montero is on a mission: find the shapeshifter who killed his family and get the justice he deserves. This unexpected detour won't put him off for long, and what he has with Heidi can't be anything more than sex--even if it does feel different from anything he's ever known. With Javier, Heidi discovers passion she never thought possible. She wants their connection to lead to a future together. Javier made a vow never to mate again after his loss...but if he wants to keep Heidi in his life, he'll have to decide how far he'll go for vengeance

The first-hand account of one special forces team’s operations in the Falklands War in 1982. The book covers: preparation and departure; at sea; planners and hoaxers; Ascension Island; and HMS Intrepid in bomb alley

Džeimss Gripando Falkona ultimāts Kāds bezpajumtnieks ar īesauku FaIkons uzrāpies uz Maiami tilta un draud nolēkt, ja netiks izpildīta viņa vienīgā prasība—atļauta īsa saruna aci pret aci ar Majami mēra meitu. Dīvainā skrandaiņa aizstāvību uzņemas advokāts Džeks Sviteks, kurš allaž nesavtīgi centies aizstāvēt ikvienu, par kura nevainību ir pārliecināts. Tā kā šī nav pirmā reize, kad Falkons izmisīgi mēģinājis panākt sarunu ar mēra meitu, tiesa Džeka klientam piemērojusi krietnu drošības naudu 10 000 dolāru. Tomēr advokātam par lielu brīnumu savādais klients, kas mitinās krastmalā, pamestā auto vrakā, tiešām šo summu iemaksā… Džeimss Gripando raksta dinamiskā, psiholoģiski spraigā stilā. Ar advokāta Džeka Sviteka tēlu Gripando iepazīstināja jau agrāk izdotajā romānā "Labirints". Arvien pārsteidz Gripando romānu intensitāte un nežēlīgais asums, tomēr jaunajā darbā rakstnieks ir pārspējis pats sevi. Viņa romāni tulkoti vairāk nekā divdesmit valodās un ir ārkārtīgi pieprasīti visā pasaulē. Jau no pirmās lappuses šajā trilleri Gripando tā saista uzmanību, ka jūs lasāt augu nakti bez pārtraukuma. Harians Hobens Sviteks ir vēsais džeks. Un tikpat apbrīnojams ir grāmatas autors. Maiami advokāts Džeks Sviteks nemaz nevēlas iegūt jau­nu klientu, vismaz ne tādu, kas ir bezpajumtnieks un ieslo­dzīts par to, ka draudējis nolēkt no tilta. Taču kopš brīža, kad Džeku uzaicina aizstāvēt kādu cilvēku, kas pazīstams ar vār­du Falkons, notiek kaut kas pārsteidzošs. Vispirms jau tiesa Falkonam pieprasa iemaksāt desmit tūkstošus dolāru lielu drošības naudu. Un Falkons dzīvo pamestā automobilī, kura bagāžniekā tiek atrasts nežēlīgi noslepkavotas sievietes līķis. Panikā bēguļodams, Falkons sagrābj par ķīlnieku Džeka labāko draugu Teo. Viņi ieslēdzas moteļa istabā, un tagad Teo vairs nav vienīgais, kura liktenis ir atkarīgs no Falkona žēlas­tības. Džekam jāsadarbojas ar policistiem un lādzīgo starp­nieku, lai atbrīvotu Teo un pārējos gūstekņus, pirms Falkons varētu izdomāt, ka viņam vairs nav ko zaudēt, un ķīlniekus nogalināt. Taču Džeks vēl nezina, ka Falkonam ir daudz plašāki no­domi un ka aiz kulisēm atrodas citi cilvēki, kurus nekas neap­turēs centienos aizkavēt atklat viņu briesmīgos noslēpumus. Noskannējis grāmatu un failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis KONTINENTS RĪGA 2007 No angļu valodas tulkojis Uldis Kokts Vāka dizains Dairis Hofmanis © Džeimss Gripando, 2007 © Tulkojums latviešu valodā, mākslinieciskais noformējums, "Apgāds "Kontinents"", 2008

Written before stalking became a social issue, Stephen Dixon’s novel about a young man’s obsessive love for a beautiful woman takes place over twenty-four hours in New York City

The mountain of Kinder Scout offers the most incredible views of the Peak District, but when thick fog descends there on a walking party led by enigmatic Darius Roth, this spectacular landscape is turned into a death trap that claims a life. For DI Ben Cooper however, something about the way Faith Matthew fell to her death suggests it was no accident, and he quickly discovers more than one of the hikers may have had reason to murder their companion. To make things worse, his old colleague DS Diane Fry finds herself at centre of an internal investigations storm that threatens to drag Cooper down with it

The New York Times bestselling author of On Dublin Street and Down London Road returns with a story about letting go of the past and learning to trust in the future… When Hannah Nichols last saw Marco D’Alessandro, five long years ago, he broke her heart. The bad boy with a hidden sweet side was the only guy Hannah ever loved—and the only man she’s ever been with. After one intense night of giving into temptation, Marco took off, leaving Scotland and Hannah behind. Shattered by the consequences of their night together, Hannah has never truly moved on. Leaving Hannah was the biggest mistake of Marco’s life, something he has deeply regretted for years. So when fate reunites them, he refuses to let her go without a fight. Determined to make her his, Marco pursues Hannah, reminding her of all the reasons they’re meant to be together.… But just when Marco thinks they’re committed to a future together, Hannah makes a discovery that unearths the secret pain she’s been hiding from him, a secret that could tear them apart before they have a real chance to start over again…

A girl with a past she can't remember. A guy with a past he can't forget. Ivy McAllister had it all. Perfect boyfriend. Perfect life. Perfect future. Or so they tell her. Because one night, on a dark country road, a fiery crash changed everything…and Ivy can’t remember what happened. Now, two years later, at a new college far from home, she tries to regain control of her life, but her plans don’t include a tattooed, motorcycle-riding, indie music-obsessed guy with his own sorority girl fan club. Jon Priestly is the hottest guy at Pacific State University. Just ask his groupies. But with a dark past he must keep hidden, he shuts himself off emotionally and trusts no one. That is…until he meets a broken girl with haunting green eyes and secrets of her own. Ivy shouldn’t be attracted to Jon. They’re wrong for each other in every possible way. Yet as they spend time together, something about him—everything about him—feels so right. But when threats from her past make her question what little she does remember, Ivy must decide whether to run again or trust the one person she can’t live without

Follett takes you to a time long past with brio and razor-sharp storytelling. An epic tale in which you will lose yourself." – The Denver Post on World Without End Ken Follett's World Without End was a global phenomenon, a work of grand historical sweep, beloved by millions of readers and acclaimed by critics as "well-researched, beautifully detailed [with] a terrifically compelling plot" (The Washington Post) and "wonderful history wrapped around a gripping story" (St. Louis Post- Dispatch) Fall of Giants is his magnificent new historical epic. The first novel in The Century Trilogy, it follows the fates of five interrelated families-American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh-as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams enters a man's world in the Welsh mining pits…Gus Dewar, an American law student rejected in love, finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson's White House…two orphaned Russian brothers, Grigori and Lev Peshkov, embark on radically different paths half a world apart when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution…Billy's sister, Ethel, a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts, takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German embassy in London… These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as, in a saga of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St. Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty. As always with Ken Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. It is destined to be a new classic. In future volumes of The Century Trilogy, subsequent generations of the same families will travel through the great events of the rest of the twentieth century, changing themselves-and the century itself. With passion and the hand of a master, Follett brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again

In the last years of the Crusade, Macharius comes to Loki. This heavily industrialised world is the bastion of the Lord Solar's arch-nemesis, the traitor Richter. Formerly one of Macharius's trusted advisors, Richter's betrayal is indicative of the low morale and dissent amongst the Imperial forces. Brought to the edge of the known galaxy, thrust into a plague-ridden hell of trench warfare, Macharius faces his sternest test. As the end of the Crusade dawns, this could be an end to the Imperium's war and the final fall of Macharius

 Thanks to its unique combination of human and vampire residents, Morganville, Texas, is a small college town with big-time problems. When student Claire Danvers gets the chance to experience life on the outside, she takes it. But Morganville isn't the only town with vampire trouble...  Claire never thought she'd leave Morganville, but when she gets accepted into the graduate program at MIT, she can't pass up the opportunity. Saying good-bye to her friends is bittersweet, especially since things are still raw and unsettled between Claire and her boyfriend, Shane.  Her new life at MIT is scary and exciting, but Morganville is never really far from Claire's mind. Enrolled in a special advanced study program with Professor Irene Anderson, a former Morganville native, Claire is able to work on her machine, which is designed to cancel the mental abilities of vampires.  But when she begins testing her machine on live subjects, things quickly spiral out of control, and Claire starts to wonder whether leaving Morganville was the last mistake she'll ever make

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. Following the curves of history in the first half of the twentieth century, Fall On Your Knees takes us from haunted Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, through the battle fields of World War One, to the emerging jazz scene of New York city and into the lives of four unforgettable sisters. The mythically charged Piper family-James, a father of intelligence and immense ambition, Materia, his Lebanese child-bride, and their daughters: Kathleen, a budding opera Diva; Frances, the incorrigible liar and hell-bent bad girl; Mercedes, obsessive Catholic and protector of the flock; and Lily, the adored invalid who takes us on a quest for truth and redemption-is supported by a richly textured cast of characters. Together they weave a tale of inescapable family bonds, of terrible secrets, of miracles, racial strife, attempted murder, birth and death, and forbidden love. Moving and finely written, Fall On Your Knees is by turns dark and hilariously funny, a story-and a world-that resonate long after the last page is turned

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seveneves, Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon returns with a wildly inventive and entertaining science fiction thriller—Paradise Lost by way of Phillip K. Dick—that unfolds in the near future, in parallel worlds. In his youth, Richard “Dodge” Forthrast founded Corporation 9592, a gaming company that made him a multibillionaire. Now in his middle years, Dodge appreciates his comfortable, unencumbered life, managing his myriad business interests, and spending time with his beloved niece Zula and her young daughter, Sophia. One beautiful autumn day, while he undergoes a routine medical procedure, something goes irrevocably wrong. Dodge is pronounced brain dead and put on life support, leaving his stunned family and close friends with difficult decisions. Long ago, when a much younger Dodge drew up his will, he directed that his body be given to a cryonics company now owned by enigmatic tech entrepreneur Elmo Shepherd. Legally bound to follow the directive despite their misgivings, Dodge’s family has his brain scanned and its data structures uploaded and stored in the cloud, until it can eventually be revived. In the coming years, technology allows Dodge’s brain to be turned back on. It is an achievement that is nothing less than the disruption of death itself. An eternal afterlife—the Bitworld—is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls. But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem…

There’s no police training stronger than a cop’s instinct. Faith Mitchell’s mother isn’t answering her phone. Her front door is open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes out the window when she charges into her mother’s house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room. She sees a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn’t see is her mother. . . . “You know what we’re here for. Hand it over, and we’ll let her go.” When the hostage situation turns deadly, Faith is left with too many questions, not enough answers. To find her mother, she’ll need the help of her partner, Will Trent, and they’ll both need the help of trauma doctor Sara Linton. But Faith isn’t just a cop anymore—she’s a witness. She’s also a suspect. The thin blue line hides police corruption, bribery, even murder. Faith will have to go up against the people she respects the most in order to find her mother and bring the truth to light—or bury it forever. Karin Slaughter’s most exhilarating novel yet is a thrilling journey through the heart and soul, where the personal and the criminal collide, and conflicted loyalties threaten to destroy reputations and ruin lives. It is the work of a master of the thriller at the top of her game, and a whirlwind of unrelenting suspense

There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori. Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move. Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce—and goes out of his way to make that very clear—she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret… even if it kills her

From the 2000 anthology Lisa Snellings’ Strange Attraction: Turns of the Midnight Carnival Wheel. A young circus performer fears falling. Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Short Story of the Year, and one of three stories cited as “highlights” from this the anthology by the Denver Rocky Mountain News

A coming-of-age tale for young adults set in the trenches of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, this is the story of Perry, a Harlem teenager who volunteers for the service when his dream of attending college falls through. Sent to the front lines, Perry and his platoon come face-to-face with the Vietcong and the real horror of warfare. But violence and death aren't the only hardships. As Perry struggles to find virtue in himself and his comrades, he questions why black troops are given the most dangerous assignments, and why the U.S. is even there at all

The Horus Heresy is the Black Library's premium SF series, telling the story of the civil war that nearly tore the human Imperium apart, ten thousand years ago. This latest title sees triumphant return of the Dark Angels, by Darkblade co-author Mike Lee

The war continues on both land and sea as China invades Taiwan and North Korea joins to launch a devastating attack. Yet Kirov and the heart of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet has vanished, blown into the past by the massive wrath of the Demon Volcano. There Captain Karpov finds himself at the dying edge of the last great war, yet his own inner demons now wage war with his conscience as he contemplates another decisive intervention. After secretly assisting the Soviet invasion of the Kuriles and engaging a small US scouting force in the region, Karpov has drawn the attention of Admiral Halsey’s powerful 3rd Fleet. Now Halsey sends one of the toughest fighting Admirals of the war north to investigate, the hero of the Battle off Samar, Ziggy Sprague, and fast and furious sea battles are the order of the day. Meanwhile tensions rise in the Black Sea as the Russian mission to rescue Fedorov and Orlov has now been expanded to include a way to try and deliver new control rods to Kirov from the same batch and lot as the mysterious Rod-25. Will they work? Yet Admiral Volsky learns that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has engaged well escorted units of a British oil conveyor, Fairchild Inc., and the fires of war soon endanger his mission. All efforts are now focused on a narrow stretch of coastline on the Caspian Sea, where men of war from the future and past are locked in a desperate struggle to decide the outcome of history itself. Naval combat, both future and past, combine with action and intrigue as Volsky’s mission is launched and the mystery of Rod-25 and Fedorov’s strange experience on the Trans-Siberian Rail deepens. Can they stop the nuclear holocaust of the Third World War in 2021 or will it begin off the coast of Japan in 1945?

After much of humanity is destroyed in a massive collision, fellow survivors manage to band together and fight for survival. How will these survivors react when they discover society has been drug down into the dark ages and is full of chaos and disorder? Will the few that remain return humanity to what was once greatness? Fallen into Darkness is a harrowing tale of survival, struggle, and morality in a post-apocalyptic world

An Olympic swimmer finds herself drowning in conspiracy when accidentally injected with a super secret serum that gives her mysterious psi powers. Suddenly she-s on the run for her life, and the only man who can help her is the assassin hired to kill her

Fallen Sentinel tells the story of Australian tanks in World War II, a dismal tale for both tankman and taxpayer. Against the backdrop of the sweeping conquest of Western Europe by Hitler's Panzers, the Australian Government, cash-strapped and resource poor, attempted to field its own tank force to do battle with the Axis forces. Three armoured divisions were created◦— and all three disbanded before they had seen action. In what became a prodigious waste of time, material, and human endeavour, sixty-six Australian cruiser tanks were produced◦— the Sentinel tank◦— none of which would ever take the field of battle. This is a book that portrays governments under pressure and the bureaucratic bungles that saw opportunities lost and precious resources squandered. Fallen Sentinel presents a careful dissection of government process in the crucible of war, a rare gem in an age when most wartime histories focus on the front-line soldier. Peter Beale presents a damning indictment of the frailty of government under pressure, a bureaucracy in crisis and the extraordinary failure of government process at the highest level. Modern-day governments would do well to heed the lessons of this book

Sometimes it takes someone else to show us what we are truly capable of becoming. Suffering from years of violent abuse, Ryan Campbell has learned how to keep people from getting too close. But when you shut yourself off, people get hurt along the way. Never caring much about others, Ryan creates a world in which he doesn’t have to feel. When Ryan meets Candace Parker, all of his walls slowly begin to crumble. Not sure of the truth of who she is, he feels his mind is playing tricks on him. Unable to force out the thoughts that consume him, Ryan is haunted by visions that torment him every time he looks at her. He finds himself swallowed by guilt and blame, but he’s unwilling to turn his back on the one person that could possibly save him. You’ve heard Candace’s story in Fading, now hear Ryan’s

1901, the year of the Queen's death. The two graves stood next to each other, both beautifully decorated. One had a large urn – some might say ridiculously large – and the other, almost leaning over the first, an angel – some might say overly sentimental. The two families visiting the cemetery to view their respective neighbouring graves were divided even more by social class than by taste. They would certainly never have become acquainted had not their two girls, meeting behind the tombstones, become best friends. And furthermore – and even more unsuitably – become involved in the life of the gravedigger's muddied son. As the girls grow up, as the century wears on, as the new era and the new King change social customs, the lives and fortunes of the Colemans and the Waterhouses become more and more closely intertwined – neighbours in life as well as death

First comes love, then comes marriage… Or that was Gracie's plan, anyway, at the ripe old age of fourteen. She loved eighteen-year-old heartthrob Riley with a desperation that made her a town legend. Even now that she's all grown up, the locals in sleepy Los Lobos won't let her forget her youthful crush. …but it's not as easy as it looks. And how can she, when she's face-to-face with Riley at every turn? The onetime bad boy has come back to town seeking respectability-but the sparks that fly between them are anything but respectable! Gracie's determined to keep her distance, but when someone sets out to ruin both their reputations, the two discover that first love is sometimes better the second time around

Leo Graf was an effective engineer… Safety Regs weren’t just the rule book he swore by; he’d helped write them. All that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Leo was profoundly uneasy with the corporate exploitation of his bright new students—till that exploitation turned to something much worse. He hadn’t anticipated a situation where the right thing to do was neither save, nor in the rules… Leo Graf adopted 1000 quaddies—now all he had to do was teach them to be free

An unsettling novel that traces the faltering orbits of the members of one family from a hidden love triangle to the ten-year-old son whose problem may pull everyone down

October 1913 and the St Vincent is in Portsmouth harbour, where four midshipmen have come to the end of their first two-year cruise. Called to Captain Ironside’s cabin, they learn their fate. Three are made sublieutenant, the fourth is pushed out of the Navy, a failure. There was no tolerance in the Royal Navy for weaklings and incompetents who failed to master the basics. They were beaten for every infraction of the rules of seamanship, encouraging them to conform or to get out. Adams, born to the elite, is made sublieutenant and posted to Iron Duke, flagship of the Grand Fleet, and the latest and largest of superdreadnoughts. McDuff goes to Good Hope cruiser bound for the South Atlantic. An old ship, and he had hoped for better, but there were chances to specialise on an armoured cruiser. Sturton, able and slightly maverick, hoped to be sent to another battleship where he could become a gunnery specialist, but instead goes to Sheldrake, a destroyer joining the Mediterranean Fleet. Destroyers were wet, cold, and uncomfortable, but it could be the making of his career. Baker, the failure, had never fit in. He came from the wrong background and was ostracised aboard ship, left on his own to survive the best he could. Rejected by the Navy, he is forced to join the Territorial Army or be disowned by his rich, vulgar father. Nineteen years of age and dumped on the scrapheap. War comes in August and the four young men meet its challenges in surprising ways

Amazon.com Review The defining moment of turn-of-the-21st-century America is perfectly portrayed in National Book Award winner Don DeLillo's Falling Man. The book takes its title from the electrifying photograph of the man who jumped or fell from the North Tower on 9/11. It also refers to a performance artist who recreates the picture. The artist straps himself into a harness and in high visibility areas jumps from an elevated structure, such as a railway overpass or a balcony, startling passersby as he hangs in the horrifying pose of the falling man. Keith Neudecker, a lawyer and survivor of the attack, arrives on his estranged wife Lianne's doorstep, covered with soot and blood, carrying someone else's briefcase. In the days and weeks that follow, moments of connection alternate with complete withdrawl from his wife and young son, Justin. He begins a desultory affair with the owner of the briefcase based only on their shared experience of surviving: "the timeless drift of the long spiral down." Justin uses his binoculars to scan the skies with his friends, looking for "Bill Lawton" (a misunderstood version of bin Laden) and more killing planes. Lianne suddenly sees Islam everywhere: in a postcard from a friend, in a neighbor's music-and is frightened and angered by its ubiquity. She is riveted by the Falling Man. Her mother Nina's response is to break up with her long-time German lover over his ancient politics. In short, the old ways and days are gone forever; a new reality has taken over everyone's consciousness. This new way is being tried on, and it doesn't fit. Keith and Lianne weave into reconciliation. Keith becomes a professional poker player and, when questioned by Lianne about the future of this enterprise, he thinks: "There was one final thing, too self-evident to need saying. She wanted to be safe in the world and he did not." DeLillo also tells the story of Hammad, one of the young men in flight training on the Gulf Coast, who says: "We are willing to die, they are not. This is our srength, to love death, to feel the claim of armed martyrdom." He also asks: "But does a man have to kill himself in order to accomplish something in the world?" His answer is that he is one of the hijackers on the plane that strikes the North Tower. At the end of the book, De Lillo takes the reader into the Tower as the plane strikes the building. Through all the terror, fire and smoke, De Lillo's voice is steady as a metronome, recounting exactly what happens to Keith as he sees friends and co-workers maimed and dead, navigates the stairs and, ultimately, is saved. Though several post-9/11 novels have been written, not one of them is as compellingly true, faultlessly conceived, and beautifully written as Don De Lillo's Falling Man. -Valerie Ryan From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. When DeLillo's novel Players was published in 1977, one of the main characters, Pammy, worked in the newly built World Trade Center. She felt that "the towers didn't seem permanent. They remained concepts, no less transient for all their bulk than some routine distortion of light." DeLillo's new novel begins 24 years later, with Keith Neudecker standing in a New York City street covered with dust, glass shards and blood, holding somebody else's briefcase, while that intimation of the building's mortality is realized in a sickening roar behind him. On that day, Keith, one half of a classic DeLillo well-educated married couple, returns to Lianne, from whom he'd separated, and to their young son, Justin. Keith and Lianne know it is Keith's Lazarus moment, although DeLillo reserves the bravura sequence that describes Keith's escape from the first tower-as well as the last moments of one of the hijackers, Hammad-until the end of the novel. Reconciliation for Keith and Lianne occurs in a sort of stunned unconsciousness; the two hardly engage in the teasing, ludic interchanges common to couples in other DeLillo novels. Lianne goes through a paranoid period of rage against everything Mideastern; Keith is drawn to another survivor. Lianne's mother, Nina, roils her 20-year affair with Martin, a German leftist; Keith unhooks from his law practice to become a professional poker player. Justin participates in a child's game involving binoculars, plane spotting and waiting for a man named "Bill Lawton." DeLillo's last novel, Cosmopolis, was a disappointment, all attitude (DeLillo is always a brilliant stager of attitude) and no heart. This novel is a return to DeLillo's best work. No other writer could encompass 9/11 quite like DeLillo does here, down to the interludes following Hammad as he listens to a man who "was very genius"-Mohammed Atta. The writing has the intricacy and purpose of a wiring diagram. The mores of the after-the-event are represented with no cuteness-save, perhaps, the falling man performance artist. It is as if Players, The Names, Libra, White Noise, Underworld-with their toxic events, secret histories, moral panics-converge, in that day's narrative of systematic vulnerability, scatter and tentative regrouping

Hugo Short Story winner (2003)

In Falling Out of Time, David Grossman has created a genre-defying drama-part play, part prose, pure poetry-to tell the story of bereaved parents setting out to reach their lost children. It begins in a small village, in a kitchen, where a man announces to his wife that he is leaving, embarking on a journey in search of their dead son.The man-called simply the "Walking Man" — paces in ever-widening circles around the town. One after another, all manner of townsfolk fall into step with him (the Net Mender, the Midwife, the Elderly Maths Teacher, even the Duke), each enduring his or her own loss. The walkers raise questions of grief and bereavement: Can death be overcome by an intensity of speech or memory? Is it possible, even for a fleeting moment, to call to the dead and free them from their death? Grossman's answer to such questions is a hymn to these characters, who ultimately find solace and hope in their communal act of breaching death's hermetic separateness. For the reader, the solace is in their clamorous vitality, and in the gift of Grossman's storytelling — a realm where loss is not merely an absence, but a life force of its own

As command module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission to the moon in 1971, Al Worden flew on what is widely regarded as the greatest exploration mission that humans have ever attempted. He spent six days orbiting the moon, including three days completely alone, the most isolated human in existence. During the return from the moon to earth he also conducted the first spacewalk in deep space, becoming the first human ever to see both the entire earth and moon simply by turning his head. The Apollo 15 flight capped an already-impressive career as an astronaut, including important work on the pioneering Apollo 9 and Apollo 12 missions, as well as the perilous flight of Apollo 13. Nine months after his return from the moon, Worden received a phone call telling him he was fired and ordering him out of his office by the end of the week. He refused to leave. What happened in those nine months, from being honored with parades and meetings with world leaders to being unceremoniously fired, has been a source of much speculation for four decades. Worden has never before told the full story around the dramatic events that shook NASA and ended his spaceflight career. Readers will learn them here for the first time, along with the exhilarating account of what it is like to journey to the moon and back. It's an unprecedentedly candid account of what it was like to be an Apollo astronaut, with all its glory but also its pitfalls

Never venture out of bounds without a buddy preferably two. Dara s past four incredible years have been lived to the fullest. Along with her best friends, Kane and Jack, she s left no local wilderness unexplored, no ski slope unchallenged. Yet lately she wonders why they've never seen her as more than a buddy with breasts. When or if either man will cross that unspoken line. It s a line Kane eyes harder every day. Since high school, he and Jack have shared everything. A condo, vacations and their best girl. Kane s ready to get serious about his wilderness school and outfitter business, and that includes putting down roots. Preferably with Dara. Wary of the men who've recently been sniffing around Dara, Jack has a growing sense that he or Kane better make a move soon, or they re going to lose out on their perfect match. Question is, who does she prefer and who s going to bring their easygoing trio to an end? Overhearing the boys arguing over her, Dara s floored and torn. Choose between them? No way. Drastic measures are called for, a plan for their annual holiday getaway that will clarify her feelings once and for all or lose everything in a sexual storm of whiteout proportions. Warning: Old friends turned lovers can get into the most trouble exhibitionism, bondage, spanking. Anal sex, oral sex, unauthorized use of ski safety harnesses, icicles in the hot tub The author apologizes in advance for any melted monitors

Genetic manipulation has created the first super soldier, the Circ. Able to transform into hulking, inhuman beasts at will, the second generation of Circs, under Project Dawn Endeavor, is much more dangerous than the first. The secret, psychically gifted four-man team who once worked for the U.S. Navy now belongs to the mysterious Mrs. Sharpe who is bent on cleaning up science gone wrong around the globe. She sends the men of Dawn Endeavor out on behalf of the United States government, but there’s more to her agenda than patriotism. If only the team knew what she really had planned. There are few minds Jesse Fallon can’t read. Mrs. Sharpe’s is one of them. Olivia Lynn’s, the team’s new interpreter on their latest mission, is another. The woman is smart, sexy, and hell on Jesse's libido. Her lips say she refuses to become romantically involved with an ex-SEAL, but her body says something else entirely. Jesse’s Circ, and a Circ can never find satisfaction with a human, because only a Circ can ease his carnal needs. Except Olivia satisfies everything inside him and leaves him craving more. When the mission goes wrong, he’ll have to learn Olivia’s secrets in order to save her, and in turn, save himself. Because a Circ in love is a walking time bomb

The second in the multi-author, post-apocalyptic blockbuster series. Detention camps, curfews, food shortages, and a deadly virus… and that’s only the beginning. America is in turmoil. The running of the country has been completely taken over. Thousands of people have been detained, many still suffering the effects of the bombings, and with no release in sight. When local farmer, Joe, finds his town overrun with foreign soldiers, he immediately begins to stockpile his produce, preparing for what might come. Workers arrive to take over the running of his farm, but he eventually discovers something more sinister at play. On the other side of the country, Cal is facing his own problems and must make a difficult decision that could put his life in danger. There are whispers of a resistance in the air, but what will the cost be?

What if the bomb had actually been dropped? What if your family was the only one with a shelter? In the summer of 1962, the possibility of nuclear war is all anyone talks about. But Scott’s dad is the only one in the neighborhood who actually prepares for the worst. As the neighbors scoff, he builds a bomb shelter to hold his family and stocks it with just enough supplies to keep the four of them alive for two critical weeks. In the middle of the night in late October, when the unthinkable happens, those same neighbors force their way into the shelter before Scott’s dad can shut the door. With not enough room, not enough food, and not enough air, life inside the shelter is filthy, physically draining, and emotionally fraught. But even worse is the question of what will—and won’t—remain when the door is opened again. Internationally best-selling author Todd Strasser has written his most impressive and personal novel to date, ruthlessly yet sensitively exploring the terrifying what-ifs of one of the most explosive moments in human history

Sam Shao has found out too much about the haan, by accident. All humans have to get along with them—we owe them our lives—and Sam even counts a haan among her best friends. But the more she learns, the less she trusts them It doesn't help that the building of new haan colonies seems to be coinciding with a rash of missing persons cases. Sam and her hacker friends are determined to reveal the truth about the haan, before it's too late. The aliens are still promising salvation, and they seem set to deliver, but with things already spinning out of control Sam is confronted with a possibility no one wants to admit—that what salvation means to humankind and what it means to the haan may be two horribly different things