Hoping to put her recent car accident behind her, Jill Perry boarded the Neptune Majesty for a week long Caribbean cruise. Brent Coales was aboard the Neptune Majesty with the sole intention of locating the criminal blackmailing Brent’s famous friend. In a near fatal collision, the paths of Jill and Brent’s lives cross. Views: 26
Ivan IV, “the Terrible” (1533–1584), is one of the key figures in Russian history, yet he has remained among the most neglected. Notorious for pioneering a policy of unrestrained terror—and for killing his own son—he has been credited with establishing autocracy in Russia. This is the first attempt to write a biography of Ivan from birth to death, to study his policies, his marriages, his atrocities, and his disordered personality, and to link them as a coherent whole.Isabel de Madariaga situates Ivan within the background of Russian political developments in the sixteenth century. And, with revealing comparisons with English, Spanish, and other European courts, she sets him within the international context of his time. The biography includes a new account of the role of astrology and magic at Ivan’s court and provides fresh insights into his foreign policy. Facing up to problems of authenticity (much of Ivan’s archive was destroyed by fire in 1626) and controversies which have paralyzed western scholarship, de Madariaga seeks to present Russia as viewed from the Kremlin rather than from abroad and to comprehend the full tragedy of Ivan’s reign.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. De Madariaga accomplishes a lot in this significant biography of the 16th-century Russian czar, contextualizing his life without minimizing his brutality. From a compendious knowledge of both primary and secondary sources, de Madariaga shows how Ivan increased his power in an attempt to assert his authority in a vast land still ruled by local princes. He also expanded Russian control to new areas, particularly western Siberia. She doesn't neglect his abuses of power. But the needs of ruling an enormous, divided country don't explain that brutality—both in extracting money from the peasantry to pay for his lengthy wars and in the capricious violence he inflicted on those he suspected of treason. Here de Madariaga admits the role of psychopathology. Nor does the author (Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great), a professor emeritus of Russian studies at the University of London, neglect other aspects of Ivan's reign. She deftly describes the active role that religion, magic and astrology played in Ivan's life and court. In fact, Ivan's belief that violence was necessary to purify himself and his people drove many of his actions, she argues. The book is written for scholars and students, but general readers willing to plow through the dry prose will be amply rewarded with what is likely to become the definitive work on Ivan for some time. Illus., maps not seen by PW. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe authoritative historians of Ivan IV have been Russian scholars, and de Madariaga explains that her biography assesses the persuasiveness of their differing interpretations of his personality and the significance of his reign. Though possessing this academic purpose, de Madariaga embeds it in a narrative of Ivan's life (1530-84) that will be of interest to general readers. Enthroned when a boy, Ivan inherited a complicated set of titles and a government dominated by landowning magnates, the boyars. His decimation of the boyars, often performed personally and with imaginative sadism, endowed Ivan with his fearsome reputation; some historians, notably in the Soviet period, considered Ivan's bloodbaths as a ghastly but modernizing passage to a centralized Russian state. More realistically, de Madariaga describes the victims of Ivan's capricious wrath in the context of his superstitions and paranoia about treason. Regarding Ivan as more rational--though hardly humanitarian in foreign affairs, de Madariaga evenly relates his diplomacy and near-continual warfare. Considering him as basically a historical horror, de Madariaga's expertly presented Ivan the Terrible measures up to the moniker. Gilbert TaylorCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 26
New Zealand’s octogenarian matchmaker is at work, with Holly Parker and Ford Komeke in the cross-hairs. One kiss forces them out of the friendzone, but the ugliness in Ford’s past holds his heart hostage. Playing for fun or playing for keeps? Holly and Ford must decide because the consequences of falling in love means that someone’s heart or someone’s dream will ultimately end up shattered. Views: 26
Griffin is like a drug and Katie can't get enough. There's nothing that can break her habit of him and his rock god body, except murder. Griffin never sleeps with a woman more than once. That's his one unbreakable rule. But when he sees Katie in a restaurant looking mussed and beautiful, all rules go out the window. Views: 26
John Dortmunder doesn't like manual labor. So when he gets the offer of money to dig up a grave, he balks . . . then he wonders why Fitzroy Guilderpost, criminal mastermind, wants to pull a switcheroo of two 70-years-dead Indians. Views: 26
The worst date in Vero’s life ends with the arrival of an injured man from another dimension who hands her a magic axe and tries to recruit her and her friends into a war. Which sounds like the exact opposite of how she wants to spend her senior year. Unfortunately, two soldiers from the other world know what she looks like. She might have to fight, whether she wants to or not. Views: 26
Aaron Fletcher: a wannabe international crime lord who has faked the suicides of two Queensland farmers so he can use their secluded properties to set up an international art forgery ring. Jayson Locklin-Macleod: the suspicious son of one of the murdered farmers... and a nineteen-year-old Australian solider who has just returned from a covert mission in East Timor. Jayson is seeking justice for his father, and he's prepared to use all his military training and combat experience to secure it. Nikki Dumakis: the heir to a fortune that Aaron Fletcher thinks is his... and a young and vulnerable girl who may or may not be on Jayson's side. The crystal coffin: a priceless jewellery box, a gift to Nikki from her dead mother, and the vital clue in proving who is innocent... and who is guilty. Views: 26
WHAT IF? A COLLECTION OF SHORT FICTION BY J. PAUL COOPER includes both previously published and new short stories by the author.Science Fiction"The Equation" is a story about a university professor who is targeted by an alien race because he discovers a working model of the light speed equation. "How Jason and George Saved the Earth" describes how a couple of drunk university students save the Earth from enslavement by an alien fleet, and have no idea what they have accomplished. "The Dinner Guest" tells of how a famous chef finds himself on the menu. "Erlok's Problem" describes how a student on a distant planet transports dangerous mining equipment to a teenager's birthday party. In "The Cold Climate Tourism Assignment," an alien is tasked with trying to determine if Canada is a good place for inter-galactic tourists to visit. "The National Resource Allocation Protocol" considers how dangerous it may be to allow artificial intelligence to make important decsions for humans.Other... Views: 26
Aline was in bed with a handsome stranger! He claimed she'd made love to him. Her mind couldn't remember a thing, but her body was on fire.Jake accused Aline of conveniently faking her amnesia, of deliberately holding something back. However, his passion for her was undeniable, and if he really believed she was keeping a guilty secret, why did he tell her that he would always be there for her? Did his body know a truth his mind denied? Views: 26
Gunther Fahnstiel is an ex-cop with a secret he can't quite remember, which is understandable in an elderly man who's not exactly certain of why he walked away from his Kansas nursing home, either. It has something to do with some missing money, a couple of murders, and a prostitution ring Gunther broke up 10 years ago... or did he? Readers may be confused by the way Phillips handles flashbacks to two different time periods, but they'll like Gunther, who's a complex and mutlidimensional old coot despite his failing memory--or maybe because of it. This darkly funny prequel to The Ice Harvest, Phillips's earlier crime novel, is populated by a cast of interesting and picaresque characters, some of whom make their second appearance here. --Jane Adams Views: 26
