Book Description: An Amish Bed and Breakfast Mystery with Recipes
– PennDutch Mysteries #7Life has been
tough of late for the proprietress of the PennDutch Inn, Magdalena Yoder. Her
husband turned out to be a bigamist, the guest list for her recently rebuilt
PennDutch Inn is not as robust as she’d like, and her sister plans to marry her
arch nemesis. So Magdalena Yoder is not in a good mood and she’s more than
happy to let everyone in town know exactly
how she feels. Fortunately, a
group of World War II veterans once stationed in Africa have come to town.
Ostensibly at the inn for a reunion with their fellow troop members, in reality
the veterans are looking for “the Butcher of Tunis,” a Nazi rumored to have
escaped to the U.S. hiding out as an Amish man. Also staying at the Inn are a
world-famous pianist and her academic husband, who has a mission of his own… But when a
dead body turns up under suspicious circumstances, Magdalena becomes the
primary suspect. And another disappearance leads Magdalena to think the
murderer is finally moving the pieces of a carefully orchestrated vendetta. If
Magdalena doesn’t find the true murderer soon, she could lose her Inn, her good
name, and so much more… “Bubbling over with mirth and mystery.” –Dorothy Cannell “A delicious treat.” –Carolyn G. Hart “Charming and delightful...Tamar Myers
[keeps] it fresh and original.” -- Midwest Book Review About the Author:Tamar
Myers was born and raised in the Belgian Congo (now just the Congo). Her
parents were missionaries to a tribe, which, at that time, were known as
headhunters and used human skulls for drinking cups. Because of her pale blue
eyes, Tamar’s nickname was Ugly Eyes.Her
boarding school was two days away by truck, and sometimes it was necessary to
wade through crocodile infested-waters to reach it. Other dangers she
encountered as a child were cobras, deadly green mambas, and the voracious
armies of driver ants that ate every animal (and human) that didn’t get out of
their way.At
sixteen, Tamar's family settled in America, and she immediately underwent
culture shock: she didn’t know how to dial a telephone, cross a street at
a stoplight, or use a vending machine. She lucked out, however, by meeting
her husband, Jeffrey, on her first day at an American high school. They
literally bumped heads while he was leaving, and she entering, the Civics
classroom.In
college Tamar began to submit novels for publication, but it took twenty-three
years for her to get published. Persistence paid off, however, because
Tamar is now the author of three ongoing mystery series: One is set in
Amish Pennsylvania and features Magdalena Yoder, an Amish-Mennonite sleuth who
runs a bed and breakfast inn; one, set in the Carolinas, centers around
the adventures of Abigail Timberlake, who runs an antique and collectable store
(the Den of Antiquity); and the third is set in the Africa of her youth, with
its colorful, unique inhabitants.Tamar now
calls North Carolina home. She lives with her husband, a Basenji dog named
Pagan, two rescue kitties: a very large Bengal named Nkashama, and an orange
tabby cat who goes by the name of Dumpster Boy. Tamar enjoys gardening
(she is a Master Gardner), bonsai, travel, painting and, of course, reading.
She's currently working on her next Amish mystery.
tamarmyers.com Views: 41
American readers were introduced to the award-winning Sudanese author Leila Aboulela with Minaret, a delicate tale of a privileged young African Muslim woman adjusting to her new life as a maid in London. Now, for the first time in North America, we step back to her extraordinarily assured debut about a widowed Muslim mother living in Aberdeen who falls in love with a Scottish secular academic. Sammar is a Sudanese widow working as an Arabic translator at a Scottish university. Since the sudden death of her husband, her young son has gone to live with family in Khartoum, leaving Sammar alone in cold, gray Aberdeen, grieving and isolated. But when she begins to translate for Rae, a Scottish Islamic scholar, the two develop a deep friendship that awakens in Sammar all the longing for life she has repressed. As Rae and Sammar fall in love, she knows they will have to address his lack of faith in all that Sammar holds sacred. An exquisitely crafted meditation on love, both... Views: 41
SUMMARY: THE EPIC PREQUEL TO DUNE"DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES is a terrific prequel, but it is also a first-rate adventure on its own. Frank Herbert would surely be delighted and proud of this continuation of his vision."—Dean KoontzFrank Herbert's Dune chronicles became an enduring classic and the most popular science fiction series of all time. Working from recently discovered files left by his father, Brian Herbert and best-selling novelist Kevin J. Anderson bring us Dune: House Atreides, the prequel, which captures all the complexity and grand themes of the original work while weaving a new tapestry of great passion and momentous destiny into a saga that expands the tale written by Frank Herbert more than thirty years ago. Complex, brilliant, and prophetic, Frank Herbert's award-winning Dune chronicles captured the imaginations of millions of readers worldwide—and transformed their perception of what the future could be. By his death in 1986, Frank Herbert had completed six novels in the Dune series. But much of his vision—vast, sprawling, and multilayered—remained unwritten. Now, working from recently discovered files left by his father, Brian Herbert and bestselling novelist Kevin J. Anderson collaborate on a new novel, the first volume in the prequel to Dune—where we step onto planet Arrakis...decades before Dune's hero, Paul Atreides, walks its sands. —Beginning nearly four decades before Dune, House Atreides introduces pivotal characters, alliances, base treacheries, and bright hopes that form the foundation of Dune. On the planet Arrakis, an aging tyrant sits on the Golden Lion Throne and rules all of the known universe, while his son grows dangerously impatient for the crown. A quasi-religious order of black-robed women move their secret breeding program one momentous step closer to creating a god-child they call the Kwisatz Haderach. And a minor family among the nobility, House Atreides, chooses a course of honor that will bring it to destruction at the hands of its mortal enemy, House Harkonnen—or take it to new heights of power.Here is the rich and complex world that Frank Herbert created in his classic series, in the time leading up to the momentous events of Dune. As Emperor Elrood's son Shaddam plots a subtle regicide, young Leto Atreides leaves his lush, water-rich planet for a year's education on the mechanized world of Ix; a planetologist named Pardot Kynes is dispatched by the Emperor to the desert planet Arrakis, or Dune, to discover the secrets of the addictive spice known as melange; and the eight-year-old slave Duncan Idaho is hunted by his cruel masters in a terrifying game from which he vows escape and vengeance. But none can envision the fate in store for them: one that will make them renegades—and shapers of history. Covering the decade when Shaddam wins his throne, the teenager Leo Atreides becomes unexpectedly the rule of House Atreides, and Pardot Kynes uncovers one of the planet Dune's greatest secrets, House Atreides stands next to Dune in its power and scope. While this new novel solves some of Dune's most baffling mysteries, it presents new puzzles springing from the sands where one day Paul Muad'Dib Atreides will walk. But now, in the years before Paul's birth, an unforgettable new epic begins. Fans of the Dune chronicles will relish the opportunity to return to the rich and exotic universe created by Frank Herbert, while new readers will be introduced to an incomparable imagination—a future where the fate of the entire cosmos is at stake. The Story Behind Dune: House Atreidesby Brian HerbertWhen my father first sat down with me to go over one of my manuscripts, he told me that he couldn't teach me how to write; instead, he would teach me what he called "the care and feeding of editors": how to make manuscripts look presentable so that they wouldn't be tossed into a slush pile, unread. He then proceeded to teach me how to write. I remember many instances when we would brainstorm ideas and dissect my own novel manuscripts. He taught me how to develop worlds, to create characters, to invent action...and to describe all of it. We collaborated on the novel Man of Two Worlds, Frank Herbert's last published work, and even talked about working together on a new Dune novel, but we'd set no date, had established no specific details or direction.That novel was not to be. When my father died in 1986, he left several projects unfinished. For years there were rumors that I would write another novel set in my father's Dune universe, a sequel to the sixth book in the series, Chapterhouse: Dune. Prominent writers approached me with offers of collaboration, but in tossing ideas around with them I couldn't visualize the project coming to fruition. They were excellent writers, but in combination with them I didn't feel the necessary synergy for such a monumental task. Along with Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and a handful of other works, Dune stood as one of the greatest creative achievements of all time, and arguably the greatest example of science fiction world-building in the history of literature. For the sake of my father's legacy, I could not select the wrong person.It wasn't until I began conversation with Kevin J. Anderson, a critically acclaimed and internationally best-selling author, that I found someone whose enthusiasm and passion for the Dune universe match my own. Much of Kevin's writing had been influenced heavily by the work of Frank Herbert. I read everything I could get my hands on that Kevin had written, and did more checking on him. It soon became clear that he was a brilliant writer and that his reputation was sterling. We hit it off immediately, both on a personal and professional level; new story ideas fairly exploded from our minds and together, we found the energy to tackle such a massive project.Frank Herbert had left behind literally thousands of pages of notes, ideas, and sketches. Of all the possible Dune stories we could tell, Kevin and I chose to concentrate on an immediate prequel, to go back to the heart of Dune's readership, the core characters and situations that had made this the best-selling science fiction novel of all time: The love story of Duke Leto and Lady Jessica; their first battle with Baron Harkonnen; the quest of the planetologist Kynes, sent to the desert world of Dune to investigate the precious spice and the sandworms and the Fremen...and the power-hungry Crown Prince Shaddam, who would do anything to secure the Imperial throne.The Dune universe is a vast canvas, with ample opportunity for many stories, but we have chosen to start here, featuring the characters with whom all Dune fans are familiar. Dune: House Atreides is a personal story that means a great deal to us; we hope booksellers and readers alike will feel the same way. Signed,Brian Herbert Views: 41
Oct 1999 As coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967, Vince Lombardi turned perennial losers into a juggernaut, winning back-to-back NFL titles in 1961 and 1962, and Superbowls I and II in 1966 and 1967. Stern, severe, sentimental, and paternal, he stood revered, reviled, respected, and mocked--a touchstone for the '60s all in one person. Which adds up to the myth we've been left with. But who was the man? That's the question Pulitzer Prize-winner David Maraniss tackles. It begins with Lombardi's looming father, a man as colorful as his son would be conservative. Still, from his father Vince Lombardi learned a sense of presence and authority that could impress itself with just a look. If a moment can sum up and embrace a man's life--and capture the breadth of Maraniss's thoroughness--it is one that takes place off the field when the Packers organization decides to redecorate their offices in advance of the new head coach's arrival: "During an earlier visit," Maraniss reports, "he had examined the quarters--peeling walls, creaky floor, old leather chairs with holes in them, discarded newspapers and magazines piled on chairs and in the corners--and pronounced the setting unworthy of a National Football League club. 'This is a disgrace!' he had remarked." In one moment, one comment, Lombardi announced his intentions, made his vision and professionalism clear, and began to shake up a stale organization. It reveals far more about the man than wins and losses, and is the kind of moment Maraniss uses again and again in this superb resurrection of a figure who so symbolized a sporting era and sensibility. In the history of American sports, no coach has been mythologized as much as the Green Bay Packers' Vince Lombardi (who has been immortalized with, among other tributes, a rest station on the New Jersey Turnpike). Yet this fine biography from a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post is a blast of cool air among the usually overheated roster of sports biographies. From Lombardi's formative years as a player and coach at Fordham University through assistantships with West Point and the Giants and, finally, to his tenure as head coach of the Packers, Maraniss presents a portrait of a complicated human being who was a great teacher but a mediocre listener, an effective psychologist despite being rife with flaws. Though he often got hurt as a college athlete, Lombardi, as a coach, scorned players who couldn't withstand injury. His relationship with his wife and children was less than ideal. But Maraniss doesn't succumb to any reductive assessments of Lombardi as "tragic" or "heroic." As legend suggests, Lombardi was indeed a great motivator, but his success also derived from a cerebral approach to the game. The book's true punch comes from its myriad subplots: a hero from one small town (early 20th-century Brooklyn) revitalizing another in the Upper Midwest, or professional football and Lombardi coming into their own at roughly the same time. Maraniss spends far too much time on people and events whose influence on Lombardi isn't made apparent, and he relies too much on other sportswriters' descriptions of games. Yet like its subject, the book, for all its flaws, is intricate, ambitious and satisfying. Views: 41
"Robin Light was recently named one of Booklist's Top Five Lesser-Known Female Sleuths. Soon she will have outgrown that category." --Booklist The Only Thing She'd Endangered. . .For Robin Light, running a pet store was a decent way to make a living--but solving the occasional crime was much more interesting. So when neighborhood tough kid Manuel and his cousin Eli wandered into her shop with a wild story about a suitcase full of smuggled Cuban cigars, Robin couldn't resist nosing around.Was Her LifeBut what she found wasn't exactly the harmless--if illegal--scam she expected. Someone was trading in something far rarer than exotic tobacco--something worth much more than easy cash, to somebody who was prepared to kill for it. And when Eli's roommate turned up dead, Robin discovered she might be next in line. . ."This female PI ranks right up there with the tough-guy detectives in taking her lumps and dishing them out as well." --Library Journal"Barbara Block's Robin Light mysteries are some of the best on the market today." --Midwest Book Review Views: 41
When her horse show performance goes horribly wrong, Nina wonders if a Halloween ghost could be involved in this fourth book in a contemporary middle grade series in the tradition of Marguerite Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague.Nina Peralt’s boarding and lesson barn will be putting on a horse show this fall, and she can’t wait to show off how well she and her pony, Breezy, have been doing lately! Bonus: the cute older brother of one of her fellow riders will be helping out as jump crew. Unfortunately, once the show starts, everything goes wrong for Nina in the most embarrassing ways possible. Could something supernatural be to blame? New Orleans is always a little spooky around Halloween, but this year Nina slowly becomes convinced she’s being haunted by the ghost of an angry ancestor. Can her Pony Post pals help her banish her fears and live down her terrible show day? Views: 41
"Cielo Azul" – in Dangerous Women (2005); a Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb story (backstory to A Darkness More than Night) Views: 41
Seeking his father's murderer, the warrior Anok has joined the Cult of Set. Tainted by dark sorcery, he begins a perilous journey across the desert to a city of outlaw sorcerers in order to control his magic before it consumes his soul. Views: 41
Sometimes you have to go back to find the future. Buckey the Space Pirate must travel back in time with his friend Fred, the talking oak tree, to learn why Fred refuses to recite his new limerick, the last limerick in Fred’s first poetry book. Over a hundred years in the past, in a forest of oak trees, Buckey finds more than just the reason for the rhyme. Views: 41
Maggie Fiori uses her powers as a journalist to dig into the world of San Francisco’s elite after a limo driver is convicted of murdering a socialite. Between managing her sons' soccer practices, saving her damaged marriage, and handling her maddening staff, Maggie fights to prove that the Limousine Lothario” was guilty of no more than loving his mother. Views: 40
