Leo Tolstoy(1828-1910) was born into one of the grand old families of Imperial Russia. The loss of both of his parents during childhood was the prelude to a series of incidents which made his life as highly coloured as any of his great works of fiction. Whether as a dissolute layabout in the gambling saloons and brothels of Moscow and St Petersburg, as an artillery officer in the Crimean War or as an enlightened landowner educating his peasants and working in the fields, he had abundant energy and was in all areas a giant. Yet he was full of paradoxes, most clearly seen in his tempestuous marriage to Sofya Behrs - one of the most closely documented and perhaps one of the most painful, human relationships in history. Views: 43
This cowboy's in a family way! It was supposed to be a harmless summer fling. Until a night of passion leaves ranching student London Davenport with an unexpected preholiday gift. And although wedlock wasn't in Tyler Brand's immediate plans, the footloose rancher is ready to step up and do the honorable thing by the stunning woman he secretly adores. The only obstacle is the stubborn mother-to-be. London can't let anything stop her from returning to Virginia at the end of the semester...not even the irresistible father of her unborn child. How can she tell Tyler the truth about why she can never live happily-ever-after on his cattle ranch? But London's about to find out how far one determined cowboy will go to fight for her and the future of their family. Views: 43
Retired Delta Force commander Brad Taylor returns with the fifth propulsive thriller in his New York Times bestselling Pike Logan series. Taskforce operators Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are used to putting their lives at risk, but in *The Polaris Protocol* it’s Jennifer’s brother and countless more innocents who face unfathomable violence and bloodshed. Pike and Jennifer are in Turkmenistan with the Taskforce — a top-secret antiterrorist unit that operates outside US law — when Jennifer gets a call from her brother, Jack. Working on an investigative report into the Mexican drug cartels, Jack Cahill has unknowingly gotten caught between two rival groups. His desperate call to his sister is his last before he’s kidnapped. In their efforts to rescue Jack, Pike and Jennifer uncover a plot much more insidious than illegal drug trafficking — the cartel that put a target on Jack’s back has discovered a GPS hack with the power to effectively debilitate the United States. The hack allows a user to send false GPS signals, making it possible to manipulate everything from traffic signals and banking wire transfers to cruise missiles, but only while the system’s loophole remains in place. With the GPS hack about to be exploited and Jack’s life at stake, Jennifer and Pike must find a way to infiltrate the cartel’s inner circle and eliminate the impending threat. The price of failure, for both the Taskforce and the country, is higher than ever. Views: 43
Masterfully blending myth and reality, this is the story of a man's escape from his native Zanzibar to England to build a new life. A dazzling tale of cultural identity and displacementHe thinks, as he escapes from Zanzibar, that he will probably never return, and yet the dream of studying in England matters above that.Things do not happen quite as he imagined – the school where he teaches is cramped and violent, he forgets how it feels to belong. But there is Emma, beautiful, rebellious Emma, who turns away from her white, middle-class roots to offer him love and bear him a child. And in return he spins stories of his home and keeps her a secret from his family. Twenty years later, when the barriers at last come down in Zanzibar, he is able and compelled to go back. What he discovers there, in a story potent with truth, will change the entire vision of his life. Views: 43
The island of Homer's Odyssey has beguiled readers for millennia. Master storyteller Arnold Zable takes us to modern-day Ithaca, to its mountains, its villages and its harbours, and into the houses of its people.Xanthe is drawn to Ithaca, the birthplace of her father Manoli and her maternal grandfather Mentor. She is translating Mentor's manuscript, his story of leaving Ithaca and his life in Australia: fleeing the Kalgoorlie riots, working in Melbourne coffee houses with his compatriots, studying in the State Library, and learning to dream his way back to Ithaca and back to his lost son.Slowly she begins to understand her father's dark moods: the lure of the sea, the promise of fortune. And the ache for the hum of the Ionian winds, the rhythm of the looms and the silence of the rocky Ithacan soil.Sea of Many Returns is a profound meditation on displacement, nostalgia and exile-a story that affirms the enduring resonance of the Odyssey for voyagers of all... Views: 43
Violet DuBay has an opportunity to infiltrate the Christian resistance, but what she learns dents her resolve to turn them in to the Constabulary. Views: 43
The inspiring story of Ben Carson, M.D. takes readers into the life of an inner-city youngster who rose above his circumstances to become director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Views: 43
