Ten-year-old Persimmony Smudge leads (much to her chagrin) a very dull life on the Island at the Center of Everything . . . until the night she overhears a life-changing secret. It seems that Mount Majestic, the rising and falling mountain in the center of the island, is not a mountain at all—it's the belly of a sleeping giant, moving as the giant breathes. Now Persimmony and her new friend Worvil the Worrier have to convince all the island's other quarreling inhabitants—including the silly Rumblebumps, the impeccably mannered Leafeaters, and the stubborn young king—that a giant is sleeping in their midst, and must not be woken.Enhanced with Brett Helquist's dazzling illustrations, Jennifer Trafton's rollicking debut tells the story of one brave girl's efforts to make an entire island believe the impossible. Views: 71
A tantalizing tale of erotic suspense in which a mask slips-and everything is revealed... Blaze Kelly, one of the Secret Homeland Defense Organization's top spies, is a powerful D/S master, and all raw male. Yet underneath his mask hides a wounded soul that aches for love. Emma Foster wears disguises too as part of her job for SHADO. But she's not excited about her next mission-with the man who broke her heart. Together they must infiltrate a group that plans to transfer a weapon of mass destruction into enemy hands-a mission that involves them in an illicit sexual game. As they are forced to explore their most dangerous desires, they face a challenge that could break even the steeliest of spies... Views: 71
Peador always harbored the suspicion that coming to Japan was a mistake. But, desperation rising from a dearth of viable options, coupled with morbid curiosity, silenced the doubts long enough for him to jump on board without considering where the train would take him. Once in Japan, despite the frustrations and the conviction that his life was off track, inertia alone kept him barreling ahead on a collision course with Mie, the woman who would completely derail him.This is the story how, one woman at a time, Peador put Mie to rest and got his life back on track.Editor: this most recent edition has addressed the formatting errors present in earlier editions and corrected many of its mistakes. Views: 71
In that special half-hour of twilight--the dark-thirty--there are stories to be told. Mesmerizing, suspenseful, and breathtakingly original, these tales make up a heart-stopping collection of lasting value, a book not quickly forgotten.From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 71
From Publishers WeeklySmith, a UCLA geography professor, explores megatrends through computer model projections to describe "with reasonable scientific credibility, what our world might look like in forty years' time, should things continue as they are now." Laying out "ground rules" for himself--including an assumption of incremental advances rather than big technology breakthroughs and no accounting for "hidden genies" such as a decades-long depression or meteorite impact--he identifies four global forces likely to determine our future: human population growth and migration; growing demand for control over such natural resource "services" as photosynthesis and bee pollination; globalization; and climate change. He sees the "New North" as "something like America in 1803, just after the Louisiana Purchase... harsh, dangerous, and ecologically fragile." Aside from his observations of "a profound return of autonomy and dignity to many aboriginal people" through increasing political power and integration into the global economy, Smith's predictions, limited by his conservative rules, are far from earthshaking, and suspending his rules for a chapter, he admits that "the physics of sliding glaciers and ice sheet collapses" as well as melting permafrost methane release are beyond current models, and that even globalization could reverse, with "political genies even harder to anticipate than permafrost ones." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. FromHow will civilization change over the next 40 years if humanity balloons to nine billion, sea level rises by a foot and atmospheric temperature by several degrees, and globalization continues apace? From those assumptions, Smith, a university-employed geophysicist, posits answers with a focus on the Arctic Ocean and its coastline. Familiar with the Far North through scientific field trips, Smith embeds personal observations into his predictions about the effects of boreal warming. Becoming more accessible to ships, Arctic regions in Russia, Alaska, and Canada will experience a raw-materials bonanza, with oil, natural gas, minerals, and water resources likely to be exploited as permafrost melts and summer sea ice recedes. Festooned with data, his discussions of such prospects valuably avoid either environmental or industrial advocacy and lay a factual foundation for his readers to learn how demographic and economic trends in the world’s southerly population belts might influence development of the Arctic. Concluding with a half-dozen events that could upset his forecast, Smith exhibits trend-spotting skill in this readable account of the Arctic frontier. --Gilbert Taylor
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A thrilling mystery set against the backdrop of the Blitz in WWII England, by an Edgar Award–winning author. England, 1941. Terror from the Germans' constant bombing is spreading through the nation, as homes, cities, and morale are reduced to little more than rubble. Worn down and defeated, British spirit teeters on a delicate seesaw. When an insidious enemy strikes from within, the government is blindsided. Vital food supplies are destroyed and mysterious leaflets threaten imminent starvation. Department Z are called in to investigate—but soon find themselves locked in mortal combat with a ruthless, anonymous adversary who treats treason and murder like child's play. How do you fight an unknown enemy? As deceit and betrayal mounts, the agents of Department Z find themselves in a race against time to uncover the conspiracy before there are deadly consequences. Views: 71
