The sacrifice and service of a people can be so easily forgotten when the world that they inhabit has riches ripe for the picking. Views: 71
SUMMARY:
On the last Tuesday of November 1095, Pope Urban II delivered an electrifying speech that launched the First Crusade. His words set Christendom afire. Some 100,000 men, from knights to paupers, took up the call--the largest mobilization of manpower since the fall of the Roman Empire. Now, in The First Crusade, Thomas Asbridge offers a gripping account of a titanic three-year adventure filled with miraculous victories, greedy princes and barbarity on a vast scale. Readers follow the crusaders from their mobilization in Europe (where great waves of anti-Semitism resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews), to their arrival in Constantinople, an exotic, opulent city--ten times the size of any city in Europe--that bedazzled the Europeans. Featured in vivid detail are the siege of Nicaea and the pivotal battle for Antioch, the single most important military engagement of the entire expedition, where the crusaders, in desperate straits, routed a larger and better-equipped Muslim army. Through all this, the crusaders were driven on by intense religious devotion, convinced that their struggle would earn them the reward of eternal paradise in Heaven. But when a hardened core finally reached Jerusalem in 1099 they unleashed an unholy wave of brutality, slaughtering thousands of Muslims--men, women, and children--all in the name of Christianity. The First Crusade marked a watershed in relations between Islam and the West, a conflict that set these two world religions on a course toward deep-seated animosity and enduring enmity. The chilling reverberations of this earth-shattering clash still echo in the world today. Views: 71
THE UNDEAD is a stunning collection of 23 stories including classic tales of survival in a world populated by the living dead as well as an array of unique takes on the zombie genre: zombies as reality entertainment, glimpses from inside the life of the undead, intergalactic war with the dead turned against us, and everything in between. Features stories from David Wellington and David Moody! Views: 71
Enoch should have let Caleb join Lucifer. Instead, he'd wrestled Caleb to the ground and held him there until the rebellion was over. He'd saved his friend from the pit, but he couldn't save him from himself. Caleb still denounced everything Enoch held dear, and he was cast to Earth in punishment. Without the Light, Caleb wastes away, until he discovers a new life force—human blood. Worse yet, each mortal he drains is infected with his immortality, creating a race of vampires. Enoch is responsible for Caleb's mess, so Enoch's sent to Earth to clean it up. He walks the night, hunting and destroying vampires, trying to protect mortals. And he'll be stuck among mortals until Caleb repents and returns Home....which doesn't seem likely. But when Caleb's hordes come to town as Enoch is trying to hunt down a vicious serial killer, Enoch finds himself trapped in an eternal battle with his former friend as he tries to protect the people of Three Rivers from threats both human and not. Views: 71
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and hunting season is in full swing on the Vineyard. J. W. Jackson -- retired cop, dedicated fisherman, and passionate cook -- is more or less holed up with his wife, Zee, and their two spunky kids for the winter. At least dear old dad has finally agreed to get a computer to keep them connected to the outside world! Otherwise, their cozy Vineyard home is pretty much cut off from civilization during this time of year.Still, the world has a way of intruding on their idyllic winter setting. When J.W.'s old Vietnam buddy and Vineyard fishing companion, Joe Begay, asks to be met on Cape Cod and virtually smuggled back to the island, J.W. knows something's not right. Joe wouldn't be sneaking around and asking J.W. to do him odd favors if trouble weren't brewing. J.W. also knows that Begay wasn't merely a soldier, but he has also performed highly secretive work for the government ever since Vietnam.Soon, the facts begin to emerge: A few years ago, B... Views: 71
They called him the Mormon Triggerite, and bestowed upon him the honored title of sheriff. He saw himself as a servant of the Lord, called to mete out justice to all those who opposed Him.He was Orrin Porter Rockwell and he committed a hundred murders in the name of God. Although today there stands a stone monument in his honor, as hard and sturdy as the man himself, there are some who'd like to forget he ever lived.Also in this volume, THE BANDIT OF HELL'S BEND by Edgar Rice Burroughs.The Bandit of Hell's Bend was published by "Argosy All-Story Weekly" in September and October 1924. The book version was first published by A. C. McClurg on 1925-06-04. This is one of four Westerns that Burroughs wrote. He had two working titles for it: "The Black Coyote" and "Diana of the Bar Y."The story is a combination western and mystery and is written in a breezy, relaxed style that makes use of a poetry framing device to hold the story together. Of special note it is one of a very few novels... Views: 71
About the AuthorJoe Delaney is an English teacher living in Lancashire. He has three children and six grandchildren and is a wonderful public speaker available for conference, library and bookshop events. His home is in the middle of Boggart territory and his village has a boggart called The Hall Knocker, which was laid to rest under the step of a house near the church. Believe it or not, the haunted house in The Spook's Apprentice is based on fact! As a child, Joseph lived in a similar house in Preston where he had a recurrent nightmare. In the dream he'd be sitting on a carpet in the front room whilst his mother was knitting. Then, everything would become cold and a shadowthing would come up from the coal cellar, pick him up and carry him back towards the dark. What's even more spooky... his brothers had the same nightmare! Views: 71
In one of the finest novels yet in Tapply's long-running series, Nervous Water explores the previously hidden past of his much beloved character, Boston attorney Brady Coyne. Contacted by an aged relative with whom he'd long lost touch, Brady agrees to help his Uncle Moze with a sensitive family matter. Having received a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Moze is looking to mend fences with his only daughter. But the daughter seems to have simply disappeared, leaving no clues or hints as to her whereabouts. As Brady tackles the seemingly impossible task of finding his cousin - a case that looks less and less like a simple missing person case - it becomes clear that whatever is going on now is related to a dark, undiscussed episode in his family's past: the brutal, still unsolved murder of another of Brady's uncles. Views: 71
From the Back CoverToday, the world as you know it will end. No need to turn off the lights. Your car suddenly stalls and won’t restart. You can’t call for help because your cell phone is dead. Everyone around you is having the same problem . . . and it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Your city is in a blackout. Communication is cut off. Hospital equipment won’t operate. And airplanes are falling from the sky. Is it a terrorist attack . . . or something far worse? In the face of a crisis that sweeps an entire high-tech planet back to the age before electricity, your family faces a choice. Will you hoard your possessions to survive—or trust God to provide as you offer your resources and your hearts to others? Yesterday’s world is gone. Now all you’ve got is your family and community. You stand or fall together. Like never before, you must rely on each other. But one of you is a killer. #1 bestselling suspense author Terri Blackstock weaves a masterful what-if novel in which global catastrophe reveals the darkness in human hearts—and lights the way to restoration for a selfcentered world. Last Light is the first book in an exciting new series. Views: 71
In the tradition of Jodi Picoult and Lisa Genova, this gorgeously written, heartbreaking, yet hopeful debut set during a Maine summer traces the lives of a young family in the aftermath of tragedy.In the coastal town of Alden, Maine, Hope and Jack Kelly have settled down to a life of wedded bliss. They have a beautiful family, a growing lobster business, and the Salt House—the dilapidated oceanfront cottage they're renovating into their dream home. But tragedy strikes when their young daughter doesn't wake up from her afternoon nap, taking her last breath without making a sound. A year later, each member of the Kelly family navigates the world on their own private island of grief. Hope spends hours staring at her daughter's ashes, unable to let go. Jack works to the point of exhaustion in an attempt to avoid his crumbling marriage. Their daughters, Jess and Kat, struggle to come to terms with the loss of their younger sister while watching their parents fall... Views: 71
