The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910

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Klaus

Klaus Mann, son of Thomas and bold political activist, strove beyond his father's shadow to become a talented author. Klaus was an exile, forced abroad while the Nazis defiled his homeland; a homosexual in a time of bigotry and intolerance; a heroin addict slithering between recovery and relapse. Above all he was a writer. Allan Massie vividly imagines Klaus's final days – trailing from café to bar in the haze of his various vices, replaying a lifetime of affairs and relationships while he toils over an unfinished manuscript. Encounters with family, old flames and famous literary figures reveal the roots of his fragile state. References to Mephisto, his most famous work and the battle for its German publication expose the bitter fall-out with Gustaf Gründgens, his brother-in-law and ex-lover. Massie uses compassion, affection and subtle prose to lead us into Klaus's mind and reveal the dashed hopes and inner turmoil of a flawed, singular character. Beyond the...
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The Genesis of Justice

Alan Dershowitz is one of America's most famous litigation experts. In the Genesis of Justice he examines the Genesis narratives to bring to the reader an insight into the creation of the ten commandments and much of what is now law.
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Critical Mass

From Publishers WeeklyIn this overheated thriller about nuclear terrorism from bestseller Strieber (_2012: The War for Souls_), Jim Deutsch, a CIA contract employee whose expertise is counterproliferation, has the world's fate in his hands as he races to foil the Islamic master-terrorist known as the Madhi. When Deutsch learns that some plutonium has been smuggled over the U.S. border from Mexico, he begins to suspect that America's elaborate homeland security apparatus has been compromised. His valiant efforts, alas, aren't enough to prevent the destruction of Las Vegas. As U.S. president William Fitzgerald ponders whether to launch devastating counterattacks aimed at much of the Muslim world, the tension rises, but the impact is undercut by some uneven prose (She looked back at him as if from another dimension, her gaze resplendent with the unquenchable hope of youth, her mother's proud lips, determined, supremely confident that her dad was the great man she believed him to be). (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. FromStrieber, known for his science fiction and nonfiction speculation about extraterrestrials, tackles the war on terror in a page-turning thriller. James Deutsch, a government agent and expert on nuclear weapons, fears that a terrorist organization has brought a bomb across the Mexican border. While investigating, he finds himself facing roadblocks at every turn, forcing him not to trust anyone. Does someone in the government have inside knowledge? Then the unthinkable happens, and it appears to be only a matter of time before the U.S. collapses. Strieber knows how to create suspense, and he provides a too-realistic-for-comfort scenario that should land him on the talk-show circuit declaiming on terrorism. For thriller readers, though, the important thing to remember is that this novel is less a Vince Flynn–type action romp than it is a rant about the bureaucratic bunglings of government agencies amid the chaos of a terrorist threat, so steer readers accordingly. --Jeff Ayers
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A Child Called It

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.
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Hunters

Whitley's Strieber's breathtaking thriller is coming to TV: Hunters—an original Syfy series—is executive produced by Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead) and Natalie Chaidez (12 Monkeys) and premieres in April 2016.When police investigator Flynn Carroll's wife disappears, he discovers that someone is abducting people and then framing the abductees as runaways. While Flynn's case files grow, Special Agent Diana Glass, a member of the most secret police unit on the planet, surreptitiously watches him work. Her agents are investigating the same enigmatic abductions and she wants Flynn on her team. Will Flynn's desperate search for his wife come up empty? Or will it expose a conspiracy that reveals the most dangerous terrorists of all may not even be of this world?
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Proud Highway

Here, for the first time, is the private and most intimate correspondence of one of America's most influential and incisive journalists--Hunter S. Thompson. In letters to a Who's Who of luminaries from Norman Mailer to Charles Kuralt, Tom Wolfe to Lyndon Johnson, William Styron to Joan Baez--not to mention his mother, the NRA, and a chain of newspaper editors--Thompson vividly catches the tenor of the times in 1960s America and channels it all through his own razor-sharp perspective. Passionate in their admiration, merciless in their scorn, and never anything less than fascinating, the dispatches of The Proud Highway offer an unprecedented and penetrating gaze into the evolution of the most outrageous raconteur/provocateur ever to assault a typewriter.
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Brief Encounter

First published in 1975, this story tells of how a chance meeting in a café, a piece of grit delicately removed by a gentleman from a lady's eye give birth to an affair... a brief yet unrelenting emotional tug-of-war between two people whose spontaneous desire clashes head-on with the 'facts' of their existence.There is Anna, married to Graham and happily content with her home life and two children. There is Alec, trapped in a loveless marriage to cool, uninvolved Melanie, looking to his work as a doctor for fulfillment. Between them a flame is kindled that splendidly ignites a passion way beyond the well-constructed limits of their imaginations. Then comes the test. Can they transform their dream into a lasting love or must it founder on the hard rocks of reality?Brief Encounter is also a major film starring Sophia Loren and Richard Burton
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Operating Instructions

It seems no mother of a newborn has ever been more hilarious, more honest, or more touching than Ann Lamott is in OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS. A single parent whose baby's father is out of the picture, Lamott struggles not only to support her little family by her wits and her writing, but to stay sober at the same time. Faith in God helps; so does her loyal band of helpers, from her childless best friend Pammy to her mother and "Aunt Dudu" to the folks at the La Leche League hotline. And between colic, wheat-free diets, and the triumph of solid food, Lamott learns that blessings and losses come together, and that as our capacity for joy increases, so does our capacity for grief."An enormous triumph . . . Charming . . . Powerful . . . A gracious book, with dozens of lovingly drawn characters and a deep, infectious religiosity throughout. It is also funny." -- San Francisco Chronicle"Smart, funny and comforting . . . Lamott has a conversational style that perfectly conveys her...
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The Strange Death of Edmund Godfrey

On the evening of 17 October 1678 the body of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, a Westminster Justice of the Peace, was discovered in a ditch near Primrose Hill. He had been pierced with his own sword and apparently strangled. His death led to a widespread popular hysteria about a 'Popish Plot'. Although a magistrate famous for his fierce rectitude, Godfrey was closely involved with the alternative healer and 'stroker', Valentine Greatrakes and also played a part in many plots and intrigues centred on the uninhibited court of Charles II and Restoration London. His death brought to a head a series of rumours about Catholic plots to kill Charles II and install his brother, James, Duke of York, on the throne. Identified as the victim of a Jesuit hit-man, Godfrey became overnight a Protestant martyr and cult figure.
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