A child is missing. The words chill Detective Mike Ryan and bring to mind memories of his own tragedy.He'll dedicate every resource he has until the girl Sicily is found, safe...and alive. His investigation hits a snag with Sicily's aunt and guardian, Beth Greenway. Beth's cool demeanor is at odds with the situation, making him suspicious. She's definitely hiding something. But the more time he spends with her, the less he believes that something is about the missing niece. And with all that contact, Mike sees Beth's vulnerabilities. Suddenly, he wants to protect her, even while he wants to know her secrets.As the search hits one roadblock after another, Mike's dedication intensifies. He needs to bring Sicily home for Beth...but also for the future he wants with them. Views: 28
In the tradition of Speak, this extraordinary debut novel shares the unforgettable story of a young woman as she struggles to find strength in the aftermath of an assault.Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn't change who she was. But the night her brother's best friend rapes her, Eden's world capsizes. What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she's supposed to tell someone what happened but she can't. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be. Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year—this provocative debut reveals the deep cuts of trauma. But it also demonstrates one young woman's strength as she navigates the disappointment and unbearable pains of adolescence, of first love and first heartbreak, of friendships broken... Views: 28
Life is what you make of it. If you've made yours out of vodka, chocolate and vibrators...so be it. Views: 28
Pirates and crooked rulers make seventeenth-century Ireland a dangerous place. When Tom feels rejected by his father, he finds a secret second family among the group of smugglers who trade in and around Roaringwater Bay. Though Tom doesn’t know it, his family in the Big House is under huge pressure. His father has had savage losses in business; his mother is always sad and worried, and his sisters have no hopes for a good future. This is seventeenth-century Ireland when cut-throat interests control everybody and everything, and land-grabbing is the order of the day. Friend turns into foe, and loyalty counts for nothing. From his new family, Tom learns all about boats and smuggling and secret treasure. And then Tom discovers the best-kept secret of all ... Views: 28
Amazon.com ReviewGuest Reviewer: Charles C. Mann on *Why Nations Fail Charles C. Mann, a correspondent for The Atlantic, Science, and Wired, has written for Fortune, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post, as well as for the TV network HBO and the series Law & Order. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he is the recipient of writing awards from the American Bar Association, the American Institute of Physics, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. His 1491 won the National Academies Communication Award for the best book of the year. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.*A few years ago, while I was researching a book on the history of globalization, I suddenly realized that I was seeing the same two names on a lot of the smartest stuff I was reading. The names belonged to two economists, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. Much of their work focused on a single question: Why are poor places poor, and is there something we can do about it?This is one of the most important questions imaginable in economics—indeed, in the world today. It is also one of the most politically fraught. In working on my book, I read numerous attempts by economists, historians and other researchers to explain why most of North America and Europe is wealthy and why most of Asia, Africa and Latin America is not. But these usually boiled down to claims that rich nations had won the game by cheating poor places or that poor places had inherently inferior cultures (or locations) which prevented them from rising. Conservative economists used the discussion as a chance to extol the wide-open markets they already believed in; liberal economists used it to make the attacks on unrestrained capitalism they were already making. And all too often both seemed wildly ignorant of history. I can’t recall encountering another subject on which so many people expended so much energy to generate so little light.Acemoglu and Robinson were in another category entirely. They assembled what is, in effect, a gigantic, super-complete database of every country’s history, and used it to ask questions—wicked smart questions. They found unexpected answers—ones that may not satisfy partisans of either side, but have the ring of truth.Why Nations Fail is full of astounding stories. I ended up carrying the book around, asking friends, “Did you know this?” The stories make it a pleasure to read. More important, though, Acemoglu and Robinson changed my perspective on how the world works. My suspicion is that I won’t be the only person to say this after reading Why Nations Fail.Review"...bracing, garrulous, wildly ambitious and ultimately hopeful. It may, in fact, be a bit of a masterpiece."—*Washington Post*“For economics and political-science students, surely, but also for the general reader who will appreciate how gracefully the authors wear their erudition.”—Kirkus Reviews“Provocative stuff; backed by lots of brain power.”—Library Journal“This is an intellectually rich book that develops an important thesis with verve. It should be widely read.” —Financial Times“A probing . . . look at the roots of political and economic success . . . large and ambitious new book.” —*The Daily“Why Nations Fail is a splendid piece of scholarship and a showcase of economic rigor.” *—The Wall Street Journal“The main strength of this book is beyond the power of summary: it is packed, from beginning to end, with historical vignettes that are both erudite and fascinating. As Jared Diamond says on the cover: 'It will make you a spellbinder at parties.' But it will also make you think.” —The Observer (UK)"A brilliant book.” —Bloomberg (Jonathan Alter)“Why Nations Fail is a wildly ambitious work that hopscotches through history and around the world to answer the very big question of why some countries get rich and others don’t.” —The New York Times (Chrystia Freeland)"Why Nations Failis a truly awesome book. Acemoglu and Robinson tackle one of the most important problems in the social sciences—a question that has bedeviled leading thinkers for centuries—and offer an answer that is brilliant in its simplicity and power. A wonderfully readable mix of history, political science, and economics, this book will change the way we think about economic development. Why Nations Fail is a must-read book." —Steven Levitt, coauthor of *Freakonomics "You will have three reasons to love this book. It’s about national income differences within the modern world, perhaps the biggest problem facing the world today. It’s peppered with fascinating stories that will make you a spellbinder at cocktail parties—such as why Botswana is prospering and Sierra Leone isn’t. And it’s a great read. Like me, you may succumb to reading it in one go, and then you may come back to it again and again." —Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the bestsellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse "A compelling and highly readable book. And [the] conclusion is a cheering one: the authoritarian ‘extractive’ institutions like the ones that drive growth in China today are bound to run out of steam. Without the inclusive institutions that first evolved in the West, sustainable growth is impossible, because only a truly free society can foster genuine innovation and the creative destruction that is its corollary." —Niall Ferguson, author of *The Ascent of Money* "Some time ago a little-known Scottish philosopher wrote a book on what makes nations succeed and what makes them fail. The Wealth of Nations is still being read today. With the same perspicacity and with the same broad historical perspective, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson have retackled this same question for our own times. Two centuries from now our great-great- . . . -great grandchildren will be, similarly, reading Why Nations Fail." —George Akerlof, Nobel laureate in economics, 2001 "Why Nations Fail is so good in so many ways that I despair of listing them all. It explains huge swathes of human history. It is equally at home in Asia, Africa and the Americas. It is fair to left and right and every flavor in between. It doesn’t pull punches but doesn’t insult just to gain attention. It illuminates the past as it gives us a new way to think about the present. It is that rare book in economics that convinces the reader that the authors want the best for ordinary people. It will provide scholars with years of argument and ordinary readers with years of did-you-know-that dinner conversation. It has some jokes, which are always welcome. It is an excellent book and should be purchased forthwith, so to encourage the authors to keep working." —Charles C. Mann, author of 1491 and 1493* *“Imagine sitting around a table listening to Jared Diamond, Joseph Schumpeter, and James Madison reflect on over two thousand years of political and economic history. Imagine that they weave their ideas into a coherent theoretical framework based on limiting extraction, promoting creative destruction, and creating strong political institutions that share power and you begin to see the contribution of this brilliant and engagingly written book.” —Scott E. Page, University of Michigan and Santa Fre Institute“This fascinating and readable book centers on the complex joint evolution of political and economic institutions, in good directions and bad. It strikes a delicate balance between the logic of political and economic behavior and the shifts in direction created by contingent historical events, large and small at ‘critical junctures.' Acemoglu and Robinson provide an enormous range of historical examples to show how such shifts can tilt toward favorable institutions, progressive innovation and economic success or toward repressive institutions and eventual decay or stagnation. Somehow they can generate both excitement and reflection.” —Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1987“It’s the politics, stupid! That is Acemoglu and Robinson’s simple yet compelling explanation for why so many countries fail to develop. From the absolutism of the Stuarts to the antebellum South, from Sierra Leone to Colombia, this magisterial work shows how powerful elites rig the rules to benefit themselves at the expense of the many. Charting a careful course between the pessimists and optimists, the authors demonstrate history and geography need not be destiny. But they also document how sensible economic ideas and policies often achieve little in the absence of fundamental political change.”—Dani Rodrik, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University“Two of the world’s best and most erudite economists turn to the hardest issue of all: why are some nations poor and others rich? Written with a deep knowledge of economics and political history, this is perhaps the most powerful statement made to date that ‘institutions matter.’ A provocative, instructive, yet thoroughly enthralling book.” —Joel Mokyr, Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History, Northwestern University“A brilliant and uplifting book—yet also a deeply disturbing wake-up call. Acemoglu and Robinson lay out a convincing theory of almost everything to do with economic development. Countries rise when they put in place the right pro-growth political institutions and they fail—often spectacularly—when those institutions ossify or fail to adapt. Powerful people always and everywhere seek to grab complete control over government, undermining broader social progress for their own greed. Keep those people in check with effective democracy or watch your nation fail.” —Simon Johnson, co-author of 13 Bankers and professor at MIT Sloan“This important and insightful book, packed with historical examples, makes the case that inclusive political institutions in support of inclusive economic institutions is key to sustained prosperity. The book reviews how some good regimes got launched and then had a virtuous spiral, while bad regimes remain in a vicious spiral. This is important analysis not to be missed.” —Peter Diamond, Nobel Laureate in Economics“Acemoglu and Robinson have made an important contribution to the debate as to why similar-looking nations differ so greatly in their economic and political development. Through a broad multiplicity of historical examples, they show how institutional developments, sometimes based on very accidental circumstances, have had enormous consequences. The openness of a society, its willingness to permit creative destruction, and the rule of appear to be decisive for economic development.” —Kenneth Arrow, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1972“Acemoglu and Robinson—two of the world's leading experts on development—reveal why it is not geography, disease, or culture which explains why some nations are rich and some poor, but rather a matter of institutions and politics. This highly accessible book provides welcome insight to specialists and general readers alike.” —Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man and *The Origins of Political Order“Some time ago a little known Scottish philosopher wrote a book on what makes nations succeed and what makes them fail. The Wealth of Nations is still being read today. With the same perspicacity and with the same broad historical perspective, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson have re-tackled this same question for our own times. Two centuries from now our great-great-...-great grandchildren will be, similarly, reading Why Nations Fail.”* —George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001“In this stunningly wide ranging book Acemoglu and Robinson ask a simple but vital question, why do some nations become rich and others re... Views: 28
Suddenly a MotherWhen a baby is dropped into her life without warning, Emily Shaw is overjoyed. It's a bit odd that her distant cousin named single Emily as guardian, but she's thrilled all the same. She never thought she'd get to be a mom. Another unexpected blessing is that baby Cora arrives in the arms of police chief Greg Taylor. Despite all three of them instantly bonding, Greg has promised himself he'll never be a father. And now Emily's smooth-talking relative is challenging her right to raise Cora. Will Emily have to make an impossible decision between the child she already loves and the man who loves her?About the AuthorPatricia Johns has been writing novels ever since she graduated from her honors degree in English Literature. After some agonizing, she quit her responsible full-time job in favor of something more flexible and poured herself into her writing. She's never looked back. After having several historical novels and children's books published, she turned to romance writing.Patricia lives with her husband and son in Alberta, Canada.Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.Emily was expecting a baby. In fact, she was expecting the little one to arrive that very afternoon, and every car that passed by on the road outside made her look up. She attempted to keep herself occupied by sorting through the boxes of decorations she'd taken from her kindergarten classroom the week before, but the distraction wasn't working terribly well.Emily looked down at the laminated cards with big, colorful letters printed across them. As she absently arranged them and tucked them into an envelope to be used in September, her eyes flickered back toward the window. Her plan had been to get as much work out of the way as she could before little Cora arrived, but perhaps that had been overly ambitious. Pulling her dark waves away from her face with one hand, she dropped the envelope on top of a box of art supplies.The crunch of tires on her gravel drive made her look up again, her eyes trained out the window. A police cruiser eased behind her SUV, and before the driver's-side door even opened, Emily pushed herself out of her seat and went to open the front door.The police officer faced away from her as he leaned into the backseat. Broad shoulders tapered down to a strong back, and she half expected him to lift some heavy weight from the car. But then he straightened and turned toward her, a baby car seat in one hand, his steel-blue eyes moving over her matter-of-factly."Miss Shaw?" he said."Hi," Emily said. "Yes, that's me.""Sorry I'm late." He walked across the last of the drive to the shade of her front door. His biceps flexed under the weight of the car seat, and he gave her a professional smile. "It's nice to meet you in person. I'm Chief Greg Taylor. We spoke on the phone.""Yes, yes, absolutely." She stepped back to let him inside, and as he passed her, his arm brushing hers, she could just detect the musk of his cologne.He was better-looking than she'd given him credit for during their telephone conversation. With close-cropped blond hair, going just a tiny bit gray at the temples, he had a calm and collected look about him. His blue eyes seemed to take in every detail as his gaze swung around the room. He placed the car seat on the couch, and Emily moved closer to the little bundle, bending down to peek at the tiny face.The baby was sleeping, a baby girl so tiny that Emily was almost afraid to touch her. She had a downy frosting of red hair on top of her head, and her skin was so pale that Emily thought she was nearly translucent. The little thing lay there in the car seat, her small pink tongue sticking out in her sleep, and Emily let out a soft sigh."There she is." Emily touched one little hand, feeling the baby-soft skin. When she looked up, she saw Chief Taylor watching her thoughtfully."I'm sorry about your cousin." He pressed his lips together. "Were you close?""Not really." Emily felt slight embarrassment flush her cheeks. "I didn't know she trusted me this much…you know, leaving me as guardian in her will.""How long since you saw her last?" he asked."Years…maybe five or six?" Emily tried to recall the last time she and her cousin had been in the same room. It had been some sort of family reunion, and she was pretty sure it was the time that one of her uncles broke his leg falling off the porch."She obviously thought a lot of you."Emily nodded. "She was quite private. I mean, we were Facebook friends, but she didn't really post anything. I didn't know much about what was going on with her.""It's understandable." He gave her a sympathetic smile and made a couple of notes on a pad of paper."I didn't know she was pregnant," Emily added. "She didn't tell anyone." She looked back down at the tiny baby and shook her head sadly. "But looking at Baby Cora, there is no denying who her mother was."Emily bent down and unbuckled the harness. Cora wriggled as Emily slid a hand under her little rump and lifted her out of the car seat. The infant nestled into Emily's arms, snuggling close, and she felt a wave of tenderness for the tiny thing."Are you going to be all right?" he asked. "Do you need social services to come give you a hand with anything?""Social services?" Emily laughed softly. "Do we even have social services in Haggerston?""Well, social services consists mostly of Madge Mid-dleton. She's a foster mom who gives some pretty sound advice." He shot her a wry grin."My mother would be insulted. Don't you worry about me. I have a big family with lots of women just waiting to tell me exactly how to do things.""Good." He seemed to relax. "You'll be fine, then. I probably know some of your family.""In a place this size, it's hard not to." She laughed. "You graduated high school a few years before me.""Really?" He eyed her with an amused look. "Are you related to Steve Shaw, by any chance?""My cousin.""Well, now I'm going to have to root out my old yearbook." He chuckled softly, the sound oddly comforting."Oh, don't. Ninth grade wasn't graceful." Emily rolled her eyes. "Trust me. I was entirely forgettable."He gave a slow smile and tapped his notebook with a nub of a pencil. "Can I see your ID?""My ID?""Policy. I've got to make sure you are who I think you are before I leave a baby with you.""Oh, of course…" She blushed and headed to the kitchen to grab her wallet. While she rummaged through her bag, she mentally chastised herself. He was here on business, not here to flirt with her. Finding her wallet with one hand and holding the baby in the other, she came back to the living room, determined to be nothing but professional herself."How are you doing for baby things?" he asked while he looked over her ID."I think I'm all right.""The officers at the station brought in a few things from home, if you're interested," he said, raising his eyes from her driver's license and meeting hers with a steady gaze that made her cheeks feel warm. "The officers who have kids, that is.""Oh, that's really nice," she said. "Thanks.""Should I drop them by tomorrow, then?""Yes, thanks. I really appreciate this, Chief. Thank them for me."Chief Taylor handed her back her license and gave her a formal smile. "Take care. I'll see you tomorrow.""Tomorrow."With that, Greg Taylor, the handsome chief of police of Haggerston, Montana, trotted down her front steps and got back into the squad car. Emily looked down at the sleeping baby in her arms. Cora's little hands lay limply across her chest, and she let out a deep sigh in her sleep. She was a beautiful little thing, and looking down at her, she felt an involuntary wave of love.Oh, Lord, she prayed silently. Is this real? Is she really going to be mine?As she watched Greg's car pull out of her drive and disappear, she smelled something, and she laughed softly to herself. Well, one thing was very real tonight, and it was this diaper. It looked as though things were just beginning!As Chief Greg Taylor walked back into the Hagger-ston Police Station, he stifled a yawn. It had been a long day, to say the least, and as he strode through the town's small station, the officers he passed glanced up and gave him polite nods. The station always looked busy, with telephones ringing, officers coming and going and the general hubbub that came with twenty-odd people focused on their own work. It might not be considered much compared to a city station, but for a place the size of Haggerston, it was something. It might look like chaos to an untrained eye, but to Chief Taylor, who had spent his entire adult career as a cop, it was a smoothly oiled machine…or at least as oiled as discipline, training and several gallons of coffee could make it."Hey, Chief!" A sergeant waved a file at him. "Some paperwork from that 11-80 the other day. You want it on your desk?""I'll take it." Chief Taylor grabbed the file on his way by and headed around the desks toward his office at the far side of the station. He tossed the file on his desk and swung the door shut behind him. He stood in the relative quiet and glanced at his watch. Picking up the phone, he dialed the number to the Shady Pines Nursing Home."Shady Pines," the nurse's voice sang."Hi, this is Chief Taylor. I'm just wondering how my mother is doing.""Hi, Chief, this is Fran. Your mom had quite a good day. She had her favorite dinner tonight—Salisbury steak.""Oh, good." He felt the smile come to his lips. "And how is she…otherwise?""She's been confused." Sympathy entered the nurse's tone. "She wouldn't let us bathe her today, but we're hoping that by later this evening, she'll be calmer. Sometimes evening routines have a more relaxing effect on her."Greg ran a hand through his hair. "Do you need me to come by?""You're always welcome, Chief, but she's been very wary around men again today. I'm not sure it would do much good."He nodded, more to himself than to the nurse on the other end of the call. "Well, keep me posted. I'll call back later.""Absolutely, Chief. You have a good evening."He hung up the phone and picked up the file on his desk. His shift had been over for two hours already, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to go home. His mind was still on that 11-80.11-80. It was easier to refer to it numerically than to voice the reality of the situation. It had been a terrible car accident with crumpled metal, leaking fuel and a gravely injured driver. The semitruck that hit the ... Views: 28
Until the whispers began, Joshua was like all the other village boys, helping out at the market, making a little money from the tourists, getting up to mischief. So what if his father was the only butcher in a village of fishermen, a loner who preferred to spend his evenings carving wood? Is it true what everyone is saying that Joshua's father is a 'mountain man', one of the people feared and mistrusted by the villagers? When Joshua's life takes an unexpected turn, he discovers that being different does matter. Maybe it's not enough to be just Joshua? Views: 28
After discovering a letter written by her mother shortly before her death, Anna Crawford, a London-based nurse, decides to travel to the Italian island of Capri in search of her father. What she doesn’t expect to find is that she’s heir to a vast family fortune. She’s even more surprised when the suspicious trust attorney questions her very identity.Rafael Vialli has a suspicious nature – it’s the reason he became a lawyer. He blames his rough childhood. It may also have something to do with the fact that in the months since Giovanni Albertosi’s death, he’s been inundated with opportunistic women claiming to be his client’s missing heir.Can Anna prove to Rafael that she really is the legitimate heir? And can Rafael trust enough to award her the inheritance… as well as his heart? Views: 28
