when i am welli will take you At first Billy's father just seemed distant, as if he had something on his mind. Then he stopped listening to music, saying it hurt his ears. After a while he stopped eating and sleeping. And after that he just stopped. Stopped being Billy's father and his friend and became someone else. Someone who was depressed and withdrawn and wouldn't respond to treatments. Determined to help their father, Billy and his family devise a series of unconventional therapies for him. But the strain of looking after Dad begins to wear on them all. Billy stops writing songs and starts avoiding his friends. His sister wants to suicide-proof the house. And his mother worries about losing her job because she takes so much time off. Taking care of Dad is starting to sap the strength they need to keep him alive. The Opposite of Music is a powerful and realistic debut novel about the lengths a family will go to in order to save one of their own,... Views: 21
### From Publishers Weekly
In veteran Anchorage journalist Doogan's uneven second Nik Kane mystery (after 2006's *Lost Angel*), a wealthy widow hires Kane, a disgraced former Anchorage cop turned PI, to help defend a promising Native Alaskan state legislator, Matthew Hope, against the charge of murdering an aide to conservative senator O.B. Potter. The first half of the book reads like a traditional detective novel, with a tough, troubled protagonist, mysterious client, unjustly accused suspect and reluctant informants, including Kane's estranged son, Dylan. Kane even acquires a sarcastic sidekick, Tlingit cab driver Cocoa Paul. The story eventually falls apart as Kane, working by instinct, suffers threats and beatings en route to an unsatisfying conclusion. Though most books set in Alaska take place in the glorious and forbidding wilderness, almost all the action is in the state capital, Juneau, a city that seems carved out of ice and rocks. Unfortunately, strong writing and evocative descriptions can't save a predictable plot and a hodgepodge of stock characters. *(Aug.)* Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
### From Booklist
Former Anchorage police detective Nik Kane spent seven years in prison after shooting a supposedly unarmed boy. He was exonerated when a witness recanted and said the boy had pointed a gun at Nik before the detective responded. Unable to rejoin the police department, Nik works for a security firm until he decides to go out on his own. His former boss offers him his first job: clear a native Alaskan state senator, Matthew Hope, of the charge of murdering another senator's legislative assistant. Hope proclaims his innocence but seems uninterested in defending himself, even though he was found standing over the body with the murder weapon in his hand. Kane quickly becomes immersed in Alaskan state politics, where corruption seems rife. It soon becomes clear that someone wants Kane off the case.This gritty, hard-boiled mystery, the second in a series, also finds Kane trying to reestablish a relationship with his son after his stint in prison. O'Brien, Sue Views: 21
The present day but a very different one to the world we know... The Roman Empire stretches across the Atlantic and far into Asia, yet it is an unstable time. Strange fires burn out of control; the Emperor falls suddenly ill, and a massacre in the shadow of the Great Wall of Terranova brings the world to the brink of a global war. At this critical time, three years after a conspiracy against his life forced him into hiding, the young heir to the throne Marcus Novius must take command of the greatest power on Earth. But his ambitious cousin Drusus - spurred on by a riddling Sybilline prophecy - threatens this last chance to avoid a world conflict, and Una, a former slave whose love for Marcus seems out of place at the Roman court, is drawn into the political intrigue and a dangerous enmity. Though many of Marcus' friends and supporters are scattered, he can rely on the driven, sharp-witted Una, her idealistic brother Sulien, now working to relieve the suffering of slaves, and Varius, wounded and disillusioned by the past but still committed to the vision of a better Rome. But even these three will find their lives at risk and their loyalties tested, as they encounter unforeseen conflicts and the manoueverings of shadowy forces. Both within the Empire and far beyond its borders, simmering tensions are starting to reach boiling point... Views: 21
From 2001 to 2013, Mike Vecchione was chief of the Rackets Division in the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, which was the largest urban prosecution agency in the country. Vecchione grappled with organized crime and dirty politicians, during which he supervised, investigated, and prosecuted major felony cases.Crooked Brooklyn is a gritty story of corruption, greed and law enforement. Vecchione navigated a political minefield and expertly rose to the judicial challenges of directing investigations into a wide variety of crimes, from bribe-taking judges to cold-blooded killers. He was responsible for taking down:- Three state Supreme Court judges- One of the most powerful political bosses in the country- Two cops who worked as assassins for the Mafia- A State Assemblywoman- An FBI agent- A corrupt oral surgeon who was secretly selling bones from the recently deceased to medical supply companiesUnbelievable and unforgettable,... Views: 21
Gertie Enchanter was a great and powerful beauty in the 1600s and still is today. Gertie escaped certain death at the hands of The Great Evil and now she is in the Village of Enchanted. Gertie meets the love of her life, a soldier named John and she decides life with this mortal is worth everything to her. Her daughter Ophelia, however, has no such plans to give up Enchanted and their way of life. Views: 21
BONUS: This edition contains a The Season of Open Water discussion guide and an excerpt from Dawn Tripp's Game of Secrets. From the critically acclaimed author of Moon Tide comes a mesmerizing novel of love and violence, family and betrayal. The Season of Open Water is the passionate, searing story of a young woman coming of age in a New England seacoast town that is swept up in the dangerous trade of rum-running. It is October 1927. Bridge Weld is nineteen, headstrong and beautiful, working in her grandfather Noel's boatbuilding shop. When Noel is approached by a local bootlegger to refit a boat for smuggling, he feels in his gut that he should not accept the work, yet he takes the job for the money it offers and for the chance it gives him to build a future for his beloved granddaughter, Bridge, and her brother, Luce. What Noel doesn't count on is that Luce will be lured into the rum work himself and will try to... Views: 21
Life is all about sizzle for marketing guru Delaney Phillips. She's always on the prowl for the next big thrill--or so she tells the supper club's members when they ask why she refuses to settle down. Dom Gordon, however, might prove the exception to her rule.... Sixteen years ago a boy with some intriguing rough edges dumped Delaney and left town, maturing into a huge success. Now Dom is back. And her friends predict if he's as talented at bad behavior as he is at everything else, Delaney will enjoy the fling of a lifetime! Views: 21
Yemen, 1935. Jama is a "market boy," a half-feral child scavenging with his friends in the dusty streets of a great seaport. For Jama, life is a thrilling carnival, at least when he can fill his belly. When his mother--alternately raging and loving--dies young, she leaves him only an amulet stuffed with one hundred rupees. Jama decides to spend her life's meager savings on a search for his never-seen father; the rumors that travel along clan lines report that he is a driver for the British somewhere in the north. So begins Jama's extraordinary journey of more than a thousand miles north all the way to Egypt, by camel, by truck, by train, but mostly on foot. He slings himself from one perilous city to another, fiercely enjoying life on the road and relying on his vast clan network to shelter him and point the way to his father, who always seems just a day or two out of reach.In his travels, Jama will witness scenes of great humanity and brutality; he will be caught... Views: 21
Mackinac island is on the Great Lakes in the American Midwest. Just nine miles round, it has golf courses, expensive restaurants, no cars and plenty of rich people. And for the summer of 2000, it has Bell, a student, employed to serve the wealthy. Bell and her fellow waiters and waitresses sample the delights of this earthly paradise: luxurious yachts, alcohol, horse-drawn carriages; and they can't help but come to know each other intimately.But this knowledge comes at a price. For they have each carried with them secrets from the outside world that will not be left behind...A superb debut which offers an exquisitely distilled exploration of North american material and spiritual values - and equally - a riveting story of love, betrayal and survival. Views: 21
The infant Terran Space Navy is having a difficult time, in their attempt to gain the help of America and a few other select countries. They are under threat from an alien transport and their ground operation is threatened by two unfriendly nations. But there are a few bright lights in the darkness. Some senior officials begin to recognize the peril from hostile aliens and work to aid the TSN. Views: 21
The first four books in the Agartha's Castaway Novelette Series are now available in this special omnibus edition. Views: 21
