Jana is blond and beautiful, and has just turned 18. She's always been careful to avoid temptation though, so she's still a virgin. The other kids in school think that she's a tease. But she knows that she's a good girl.
All that is going to change one day after school in the principal's office . . .
This is Part One in the story of Jana, a good girl who becomes very very bad. Views: 32
In the tradition of Michael Herr’s Dispatches and works by such masters of the memoir as Mary Karr and Tobias Wolff, a powerful account of war and homecoming.Brian Castner served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them as the commander of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in Iraq. Days and nights he and his team—his brothers—would venture forth in heavily armed convoys from their Forward Operating Base to engage in the nerve-racking yet strangely exhilarating work of either disarming the deadly improvised explosive devices that had been discovered, or picking up the pieces when the alert came too late. They relied on an army of remote-controlled cameras and robots, but if that technology failed, a technician would have to don the eighty-pound Kevlar suit, take the Long Walk up to the bomb, and disarm it by hand. This lethal game of cat and mouse was, and continues to be, the real war within America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But The Long Walk is not just about battle itself. It is also an unflinching portrayal of the toll war exacts on the men and women who are fighting it. When Castner returned home to his wife and family, he began a struggle with a no less insidious foe, an unshakable feeling of fear and confusion and survivor’s guilt that he terms The Crazy. His thrilling, heartbreaking, stunningly honest book immerses the reader in two harrowing and simultaneous realities: the terror and excitement and camaraderie of combat, and the lonely battle against the enemy within—the haunting memories that will not fade, the survival instincts that will not switch off. After enduring what he has endured, can there ever again be such a thing as “normal”? The Long Walk will hook you from the very first sentence, and it will stay with you long after its final gripping page has been turned.From the Hardcover edition.Amazon.com ReviewAmazon Best Books of the Month, July 2012: To those trained in Explosive Ordnance Disposal, the last-resort tactic for defusing bombs is known as the Long Walk: a soldier dealing with the device up close, alone, with no margin for error. The Long Walk is Brian Castner's tale of two wars. He fought the first in Iraq, serving two tours dismantling roadside bombs before they exploded, or wading through the grisly carnage of unchecked detonations. The second battle began when he returned home, his life exploding as he stepped from a curb into what he calls the Crazy: a consuming froth of panic and undiagnosed pain that alienated him from his family and compelled him to rig his minivan with ammunition clips for faster reloads while driving through suburbia. With its tense and claustrophobic portraits of the violent streets of Kirkuk, Castner's account is a dead-on description of modern warfare in an unfamiliar land. But it also offers sober insight into the stresses of war on the human body and mind (the effects of blast waves on soft tissues--especially in the brain--are chilling), destruction wrought on those left behind, and the long, lonely walk home. --Jon ForoReviewPraise for *The Long Walk:“The Long Walk is a raw, wrenching, blood-soaked chronicle of the human cost of war. Brian Castner, the leader of a military bomb disposal team, recounts his deployment to Iraq with unflinching candor, and in the process exposes crucial truths not only about this particular conflict, but also about war throughout history. Castner’s memoir brings to mind Erich Maria Remarque’s masterpiece, All Quiet on the Western Front. ”—Jon Krakauer, author of *Where Men Win Glory* *“Castner has written a powerful book about the long cost of combat and the brotherhood of men at arms. Remarkably, he has made the world of the EOD entertaining, occasionally hilarious, and always harrowing. His honesty is refreshing and the book is written with such candor and openness that one can't help but root for him. And did I mention that it is entertaining? There were scenes at work with the bomb disposal unit where I found myself holding my breath.”—Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead“Do you want to know a little something about our war in Iraq? Begin with The Long Walk, Brian Castner’s elegant, superbly written story about the bomb-disposal guys. As you read think of Alan Sillitoe’s The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. Castner gives us that steady rhythm of one foot in front of the other. Think of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Here is the reality of the exhausted mind, and of profound thought wandering all Creation: this is what I saw, this is what I did, this is what I have become. It’s the story of the long walk out, as they say, from the Humvee to the bomb in the street, and the long look back.”—Larry Heinemann, author of the National Book Award-winning Paco’s Story and *Close Quarters “Damn, this is a very human book. If you have come back from Iraq or Afghanistan, or know someone who has, you need to read *The Long Walk.”— Thomas E. Ricks, author of Fiasco and *The Gamble"At times, The Long Walk...is almost unbearable to read. Not because the writing is bad — it’s often excellent. It’s unbearable because of Castner’s brutally vivid descriptions of the war and the way it tore apart his mind and his life.... [T]his is an important book to read for anyone who wants to get some sense of the long-term human toll of the Iraq war. How many soldiers have been damaged as Castner has? How many lives and families have been destroyed — or will be — by the effects of TBI? The Long Walk brings home in a visceral way the hidden, personal burden of war that many veterans continue to carry.”—The Boston Globe"Vivid.... Castner's book intersperses stateside scenes of intense military training, off-hours hijinks and marital strife with vivid, often grisly accounts from Iraq's war-ravaged landscape, where his EOD teams disarmed improvised explosive devices, hunted for the bomb makers or cleaned up after their horrific handiwork while dodging gunfire and angry locals... [He writes] bluntly in describing how he has been changed by the war."—Wall Street Journal"Not the typical testosterone-driven account that plagues the war-memoir genre.... [Castner] gives equal, if not more, weight to the time and effort that goes into readjusting to his family life, and his straightforward, unself-conscious writing paints an absorbing picture of war in the twenty-first century.... [This] memoir forces a reader to empathize with these unrelenting psychic and emotional pressures."—Chloe Fox, www.newyorker.com"Although the stress and terror of war is tough, this memoir shows the return to civilian life presents the biggest, longest challenge.... Castner offers a brutally honest, sharply observed account of life at war.... [His] descriptions are written with a clarity that brings alive not just the stress, terror, and anxiety of disarming improvised explosive devices, but also the difficult stretches of boredom and loneliness, not to mention the glimmers of joy and brotherhood that go along with it. Even more compelling is Castner’s account of just how hard it is to return to civilian life. Back in the U.S. with his wife and children, Castner struggles to keep at bay a host of troublesome emotions and reflexes—together denoted simply as “Crazy” in his telling. The Long Walk is both harrowing and poignant—an intensely personal story of what it takes not just to survive war, but also to fully leave behind the nightmare of combat and readapt to ordinary life."—The Daily Beast"Forthright, unflinching.... What makes Castner’s astonishing memoir so unique is his forthright, unflinching look at postwar life. To read this veteran’s story is to realize that even after returning home, a veteran’s hardest battles may still lie ahead."—David Tarrant, *Dallas Morning News"There are many memoirs of trauma-affected minds, and there are sure to be more coming as vets keep returning. Castner's is an opening salvo in a defensive war.... [He] maps out this new and sorrowful territory with the skill and focus of someone who has had to defuse a bomb inside his own body."—Emily Carter, Minneapolis Star Tribune*"Brian Castner writes like a man on fire in a searing memoir about dismantling bombs in Iraq - and the permanent scars he's brought home.... Then and now, Brian Castner feels like a tightly coiled spring, ready to pop at any time. And his memoir...transmits this sensation with heartbreaking mastery. His book is so viscerally engaging that it's hard to read it without shaking. Castner writes with a keen mind, sharp intellect and literary flair. His powers of observation are extraordinary — just what you would expect of a man accustomed to scanning every little pile of roadway trash for evidence of a concealed bomb. At the same time, Castner writes with the desperate immediacy of a man whose skin has been burned away.”—Brad Buchholz, Austin Statesman“ ‘The first thing you should know about me is that I’m Crazy.’ So begins this affecting tale of a modern war and its home-front consequences.... Scarifying stuff...[that is] absolutely worth reading.”—Kirkus ReviewsFrom the Hardcover edition. Views: 32
At the end of a holiday in Bali, Julian, an unhappy schoolteacher decides to meet a renowned local healer, Samtyang. Through daily sessions at the wise man's house, he begins to identify the source of his unhappiness as a series of simple questions and answers point to his own limiting beliefs and fears. Day after day, their dialogue is punctuated by live examples and challenges Julian is asked to experience on the island's mainland and its surroundings. From international best-selling author Laurent Gounelle, The Man Who Wanted to Be Happy explores the world of new possibilities that are open to us when we discover how to break free of what prevents us from being truly happy. Views: 32
This is the second collection of stories and poems by author Allan Edward Tierney. These feature a a wide variety of themes, many in the science fiction genre, some quite fantastical. But the aim is, as ever, to give rise to wondrous and novel images in the mind of the reader.If you enjoy pushing your mental envelope out to its furthest reaches then you may be sure to find something in these stories and poems to do just that.Warning: You may find the border between your dreams and nightmares beginning to blur. Don't worry. It is all part of the experience of a yet another New Dawn... Views: 32
Who is the man in the woods—and can Helen catch him before it's too late?Helen's first day at New Bedford Regional High School is off to a hectic start. Her locker combination doesn't work, she's late to all her classes, and she doesn't know a single person. But she doesn't need friends to figure out the unofficial rules: Cheerleaders simply don't associate with frizzy-haired new girls who look too young and draw political cartoons. And when Mr. Brzostoski confiscates one her drawings during class, Helen thinks her first day can't get any worse, but her luck changes.Instead, Mr. Bro invites Helen to join the school paper, where she meets Pinky Levy—who helps her get her locker open. But after school, fate throws Helen and Pinky together again when they both witness a car wreck. Someone threw a stone at the car window and caused the crash, and Helen is sure she saw a man in the woods nearby. When the police arrest one of her fellow students, she knows they have... Views: 32
All is fair in love and war...Brought together by a drunken brawl in Oxford in 1937, Anthony Marvell and Frido von Arzfeld found friendship even as the threatening clouds of war were gathering over Europe. Then their families-sisters, cousins- found love against a background of growing hate and strident war cries.From the false idyll of pre-war England and Germany, through the desperate fall of France in 1940, across the ravaged mountains of North Africa, to the savage carnage of Stalingrad, the Marvellls and the von Arzfelds played their parts in the war and saw the bonds that had united their families put the final test. Views: 32
HANK FROST-THE ONE-EYED MERC CAPTAIN Hank Frost, the fast-talking, fast-shooting one-eyed mercenary captain, hires out to body-guard a returning, deep-cover female U.S. agent. He has to drive her from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C, where she'll report directly to the President of the United States. The brain of this unbelievably beautiful redhead carries a list of Communist agents holding positions of trust in the highest echelons of the CIA and FBI-men who have set both organizations on the trail of Frost and the girl with orders to shoot on sight. Add KGB hit squads and a killer blizzard as Frost makes the cross-country run and there's death behind every curve. And alone with the redhead, the one-eyed man learns that there are other kinds of curves that can even be more deadly... Views: 32
Nathan McBride, “the most brutally effective thriller hero to appear in years” (Ridley Pearson, author of *Killer Weekend*), returns in the third installment of one of the best new series in thriller fiction. When Nathan McBride receives a text message from someone who claims she’s been kidnapped, it triggers a deadly chain of events that has the potential to haunt him for the rest of his life. Nathan will soon learn that nothing from his past could ever prepare him for the crisis he’ll soon be facing. The girl’s name is Lauren and she’s just twelve years old. With virtually no experience with children, Nathan’s patience and compassion are about to be tested to their limits In a violent confrontation, Nathan rescues Lauren from her kidnapper, but as he unravels Lauren's story, he realizes his troubles are only beginning. She says she's in the Witness Security Program, and doesn't trust the US Marshals because she thinks they're complicit in her abduction. Not only that, her stepdad was murdered last night. In a desperate and unlikely alliance, Nathan and Lauren must stay one step ahead of her kidnapper and the brutal mercenaries who will kill anyone who gets in their way. Played out over the course of 36 lightning-fast hours, Nathan and Lauren must learn to trust each other or they won’t survive. Views: 32
Willing to do anything to break his ancient curse, Damian Alessandro captured innocent Bianca Bordeaux, forcing her to succumb to his bidding.She was his to seduce...his to command...until she would willingly come to him and cure him of the blackness threatening the peril of his very soul....RATING: Novella. This title was previously released as White as Snow. Contains graphic sexual content, adult language, and multiple excerpts from current releases and an upcoming full length novel, Heart of Darkness. Views: 32
