Grandfather John Vogelin's land is his life -- a barren stretch of New Mexican wilderness, mercifully bypassed by civilization. Then the government moves in. And suddenly the elderly, mule-stubborn rancher is confronting the combined land-grabbing greed of the County Sheriff, the Department of the Interior, the Atomic Energy Commission and the U.S. Air Force. But a tough old man is like a mountain lion: if you back hom into a conner, he'll come out fighting.

From the New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award longlist title The Poet X comes a dazzling novel in prose about a girl with talent, pride, and a drive to feed the soul that keeps her fire burning bright.Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago's life has been about making the tough decisions—doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Even though she dreams of working as a chef after she graduates, Emoni knows that it's not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Yet despite the rules she thinks she has to play by, once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free.

Fantasies are spawned by the volcanic Greek island of Santorini in this collection "On the Island of Fire" - four fantasies for children - from the dream of Alizides, a donkey who thinks he is Pegasus fighting the Chimaera, to harpies swooping through as they move home - unlikely happenings emerging from the island's black sand and simmering core.The volcanic Greek island of Santorini evokes an eerie potential for fantasy. Chunks of solidified lava turn into a strange bestiary, the deep caldera might mask a multitude of monsters. "On the Island of Fire" comprises four improbable tales for children set on the island, and opens with "The White Wings" - in which Alizides, a donkey, dreams he is Pegasus, helping to defeat the Chimaera. Eruptions and earth tremors are endemic and In "The Earthquake" a bored boy tangles with Typhon, the monster trapped within the volcano. Mysterious waters lap the black sand and in "Falling Stars", two children meet Atlas, taking a break under the waves from holding up the world, while weird mythology is recalled in "The Harpies Move Home" with disgruntled harpies causing chaos on Santorini, on their way to a zoo.

From the master storyteller and writer of bestselling thrillers, Ravi Subramanian, comes a delightful new series of detective fiction for young children.A charming hill town. A close-knit community. A school cradled in the lap of nature. And three young children in search of mystery...Meet the Super Mystery Solvers or the SMS gang of Aditya and Akriti, the nine-year-old twins, and their close friend Kabir. Together, they solve the mysteries that have baffled the police and authorities of Solan.In this first mystery in the newly-launched SMS Detective Agency series - the SMS gang solves the perplexing case of how and why their school catches fire, not once but twice!

Why readers love Rachel Dove: 'Humour, honesty and authenticity''Genuinely, laugh-out-loud''Friendship, love and all sorts of drama in between''Rachel Dove's wonderful community of Westfield is just my sort of place!'******************************** Lucy is looking for a fresh start. Sam is in search of his past. But what they both need most might turn out to be each other. The picturesque village of Westfield is about to welcome some new residents. Sam has transferred from London to the local Fire Brigade, but his move has more to it than a desire to escape city life. There are answers Sam needs to find and the village is the place to look. Lucy is at the end of her tether. Between her marriage falling apart and single handedly dealing with her son's special needs, Lucy knows something needs to change. Westfield might just be the new beginning she needs. ******************************** Rachel Dove is back with another laugh out loud and heart-warming romantic comedy, perfect for...

A FAMILIAR FOE. A BATTLE FOR THE HEART OF A COUNTRY AT WAR WITH ITSELF.South Africa, 1899 - the smouldering hostility between the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State and the British colonies of the Cape and Natal is about to burst into flame. War is coming and no one can prevent it. Colonel Penrod Ballantyne, hero of Abu Klea and Omdurman, is sent to Mafeking, 'the place of stones', to recruit and train men for the fighting ahead. Amber, his wife, the successful novelist, accompanies him - eager to see more of the country her husband is about to risk his life for. But when war is declared, Amber must flee with their baby son and pray for her husband's survival against impossible odds.Eight hundred miles to the south, in Cape Town, Ryder Courtney - adventurer, maverick, industrialist - is using his wealth and connections to bankroll the British war effort. His artist wife Saffron, frustrated by stuffy Cairo society, has joined him with their three children....

In this magisterial study of the relationship between illness and art, the best-selling author of An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison, brings an entirely fresh understanding to the work and life of Robert Lowell (1917-1977), whose intense, complex, and personal verse left a lasting mark on the English language and changed the public discourse about private matters. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry, Robert Lowell put his manic-depressive illness (now known as bipolar disorder) into the public domain, creating a language for madness that was new and arresting. As Dr. Jamison brings her expertise in mood disorders to bear on Lowell's story, she illuminates not only the relationships among mania, depression, and creativity but also the details of Lowell's treatment and how illness and treatment influenced the great work that he produced (and often became its subject). Lowell's New England roots, early breakdowns, marriages to three eminent writers, friendships with other poets such as Elizabeth Bishop, his many hospitalizations, his vivid presence as both a teacher and a maker of poems--Jamison gives us the poet's life through a lens that focuses our understanding of his intense discipline, courage, and commitment to his art. Jamison had unprecedented access to Lowell's medical records, as well as to previously unpublished drafts and fragments of poems, and she is the first biographer to have spoken with his daughter, Harriet Lowell. With this new material and a psychologist's deep insight, Jamison delivers a bold, sympathetic account of a poet who was--both despite and because of mental illness--a passionate, original observer of the human condition.

For lovers of crime fiction and the allure of the Greek islands, Fire on the Island is the perfect summer read. ** "Smith offers the perfect blend of intrigue, romance, and travelogue."—Publishers Weekly ** FIRE ON THE ISLAND is a playful, romantic thriller set in contemporary Greece, with a gay Greek-American FBI agent, who is undercover on the island to investigate a series of mysterious fires. Set against the very real refugee crisis on the beautiful, sun-drenched Greek islands, this novel paints a loving portrait of a community in crisis. As the island residents grapple with declining tourism, poverty, refugees, family feuds, and a perilously damaged church, an arsonist invades their midst. Nick Damigos, the FBI agent, arrives on the island just in time to witness the latest fire and save a beloved truffle-sniffing dog. Hailed as a hero and embraced by the community, Nick finds himself drawn to Takis, a young bartender who...

“Oh! Jack, Ellen, come here this instant!” cried Jane Pellew in so excited a manner that the mail rider almost fell out of his jumper in his effort to see what it was that made Miss Jane “take on so.” She was dancing around the broad old veranda waving one of the letters he had just handed her. “Too hot, Sis, and we are too comfortable,” came Jack’s lazy voice from under the big ash tree that shaded one side of the porch.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling historical romance novelist Olivia Drake brings us a tale of adventure, intrigue, and true love... A wave of chaos sweeps over British-ruled India, where headstrong Sarah Faulkner is bound both by her gender and the confines of her uncle's military compound. Unwilling to sit on the sidelines, the free-spirited beauty breaks free only to discover that her sheltered life hasn't prepared her for the real world.Fleeing the impeding chaos, Sarah meets mysterious and alluring Damien Coleridge, the disgraced son of an English duke—banished from England to atone for a crime he didn't commit. Seeking his own sanctuary, Damien is drawn to Sarah, and the walls he's built up over the years of solitude crumble at her touch...Threatened by both war and their own wild nature, the two must find a way to keep each other, and their passion, safe..."An exhilarating, exotic, and adventurous love story. Again and again, Olivia...

The author of Florence Adler Swims Forever returns with a masterful work of historical fiction about an incendiary tragedy that shocked a young nation and tore apart a community in a single night—told from the perspectives of four people whose actions during the inferno changed the course of history.Richmond, Virginia 1811. It's the height of the winter social season, the General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia's gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city's only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that's done looking for enlightenment at the front of a church. On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly-widowed Sally Henry...

For many, the moon landing was the defining event of the twentieth century. So it seems only fitting that Norman Mailer—the literary provocateur who altered the landscape of American nonfiction—wrote the most wide-ranging, far-seeing chronicle of the Apollo 11 mission. A classic chronicle of America’s reach for greatness in the midst of the Cold War, Of a Fire on the Moon compiles the reportage Mailer published between 1969 and 1970 in Life magazine: gripping firsthand dispatches from inside NASA’s clandestine operations in Houston and Cape Kennedy; technical insights into the magnitude of their awe-inspiring feat; and prescient meditations that place the event in human context as only Mailer could. Praise for Of a Fire on the Moon   “The gift of a genius . . . a twentieth-century American epic—a Moby Dick *of space.”—New York  * “Mailer’s account of Apollo 11 stands as a stunning image of human energy and purposefulness. . . . It is an act of revelation—the only verbal deed to be worthy of the dream and the reality it celebrates.”—Saturday Review “A wild and dazzling book.”—The New York Times Book Review   “Still the most challenging and stimulating account of [the] mission to appear in print.”—The Washington Post  * Praise for Norman Mailer   “[Norman Mailer] loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of his generation.”—The New York Times “A writer of the greatest and most reckless talent.”—The New Yorker “Mailer is indispensable, an American treasure.”—The Washington Post “A devastatingly alive and original creative mind.”—Life “Mailer is fierce, courageous, and reckless and nearly everything he writes has sections of headlong brilliance.”—The New York Review of Books “The largest mind and imagination [in modern] American literature . . . Unlike just about every American writer since Henry James, Mailer has managed to grow and become richer in wisdom with each new book.”—Chicago Tribune “Mailer is a master of his craft. His language carries you through the story like a leaf on a stream.”—The Cincinnati Post***

Never make a deal you can't finagle. As the unstoppable Adamant war machine stomps across the galaxy, Jon and the teens must part ways again. This time it may be for good. They must learn the ways of their lost race. Jon must find a way to stop the loss of more civilizations and more innocent lives. He must perform an impossible task. But to enlist the help of a malevolent sprit who can do the impossible, Jon must pay the ultimate price. He agrees to his eternal torment in exchange for the chance to deal the Adamant a death-blow.Join the ongoing Galaxy On Fire Series as Jon Ryan must dig into a very dark side of his personality he wishes wasn't there. He knows he must call upon it. But he's acutely aware that if he dances too close to the cliff he may fall into the pit of hopeless despair. Jon is on the razor's edge trying to justify his rash act in order to speed the downfall of the brutal Adamant advance. But what price is just too much to pay?

Lightning sparks a forest fire deep in the mountains near the town of Waterton. Days later, the sky is blue and the air is clear, so it doesn't seem like an emergency, until crews of firefighters begin to arrive and townspeople start to prepare. Cricket and her friends watch deer and birds flee the forest and run right through town. But what about the slower animals? What about the porcupines and squirrels, the salamanders and snakes? Cricket searches for a way to help until the fire surprises everyone by quickly switching directions and racing towards the town. She hopes that the preparations and the firefighters' experience will be enough to save her home. But what about all the animals she loves? This is the fifth title in the Cricket McKay series, following Cougar Frenzy, Bats in Trouble, Ospreys in Danger and Salamander Rescue.

Moonshine is a way of life for Rose Bloom and nothing is going to change that—not even handcuffs.When a fire is reported on the west side of Rich Mountain, Rose is thrown into a heated battle to save her still.Johnny Gayheart, her lover and local fireman, races to her side to insure her safety but in his haste to get to her, Sheriff Bobby Shepherd nabs him for speeding. When the Sheriff hears why Johnny is in such a rush, he follows Johnny to Rose’s secluded cabin on the mountain.Rose has always been a little wild and hard to control but when the Sheriff slaps the handcuffs on her, finding her with a few pints of ‘shine, the feel of the cold metal around her wrists incites a new sort of need inside her. As the fire is controlled on the other side of the mountain, a new flaming desire begins in Rose’s cabin. Handcuffed and under their control, Bobby and Johnny do their best to extinguish Rose’s fire that burns deep inside.The three explore the heated passion consuming them until an explosion rocks them all.The still has blown up, the firemen are on their way, and Rose watches as her livelihood is destroyed. When Sheriff Bobby Shepherd give her one last look and leaves after the remains of her burning moonshine still is put out, Rose has another worry.Will the Sheriff return to arrest her? Will Johnny continue to love her after what has transpired? Or will the three of them come together again in a flaming fire of passion on the mountain?

Acclaimed historian Amanda Foreman follows the phenomenal success of her New York Times bestseller Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire with her long-awaited second work of nonfiction: the fascinating story of the American Civil War and the major role played by Britain and its citizens in that epic struggle.Even before the first rumblings of secession shook the halls of Congress, British involvement in the coming schism was inevitable. Britain was dependent on the South for cotton, and in turn the Confederacy relied almost exclusively on Britain for guns, bullets, and ships. The Union sought to block any diplomacy between the two and consistently teetered on the brink of war with Britain. For four years the complex web of relationships between the countries led to defeats and victories both minute and history-making. In A World on Fire, Amanda Foreman examines the fraught relations from multiple angles while she introduces characters both humble and grand, bringing them to vivid life over the course of her sweeping and brilliant narrative.Between 1861 and 1865, thousands of British citizens volunteered for service on both sides of the Civil War. From the first cannon blasts on Fort Sumter to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, they served as officers and infantrymen, sailors and nurses, blockade runners and spies. Through personal letters, diaries, and journals, Foreman has woven together their experiences to form a panoramic yet intimate view of the war on the front lines, in the prison camps, and in the great cities of both the Union and the Confederacy. Through the eyes of these brave volunteers we see the details of the struggle for life and the great and powerful forces that threatened to demolish a nation.In the drawing rooms of London and the offices of Washington, on muddy fields and aboard packed ships, Foreman reveals the decisions made, the beliefs held and contested, and the personal triumphs and sacrifices that ultimately led to the reunification of America. A World on Fire is a complex and groundbreaking work that will surely cement Amanda Foreman’s position as one of the most influential historians of our time.

The first volume in the new Helion Library of the Great War, a series designed to bring into print rare books long out-of-print, as well as producing translations of important and overlooked material that will contribute to our knowledge of this conflict.

THE PATH is Book One in the Series Fire on the Mountain by Rick Joyner. The lion that is inside of you is greater than any lion. Written in the genre of The Final Quest trilogy, this is a prophetic allegory that goes deeper, further, and higher, illuminating some of the most important truths of our time.

As Torontonians move to the beat of the Jazz Age, war is the furthest thing from their minds. Then a fatal grenade explosion outside a west end hotel room breaks the rhythm. The room's registered occupant, a mysterious European woman calling herself Lucy, disappears before she can shed any light on the incident. Police detective Paul Shenstone believes someone is trying to assassinate Lucy. Once he has found her, he will learn the reason: she has uncovered dangerous secrets that threaten world peace. Shenstone must protect Lucy and pursue her attackers. At the same time, his own experience as an infantry officer in Flanders compels him to go beyond his police function. He feels he must help Lucy get her message to the corridors of power, so that a new war may be prevented.

Hate can start a war, but a shattered heart can fuel it for centuries.Everything Ada does is wrong. She's the daughter of a Duke but she isn't proper or formal. She prefers the company of her servants—particularly Christian, the boy she's loved since she was six years old, and his sister, Charity, Ada's very best friend in the entire world. Ada isn't just the daughter of a Duke. No, she's the daughter of one of the most powerful Edren sorcerers alive, and no matter how strong she is, it isn't strong enough. Ada will give up almost everything to earn her father's pride.Christian has loved Ada since the day his mother became her governess. But two societies are determined to keep them apart—the aristocracy who say a groom will never be good enough for a Duke's beautiful daughter, and the sorcerers who say a Carules and an Edren can never be together. Christian will do anything to make Ada his—even drive himself to madness.When Ada suspects her father of...

At twenty-three and with a notorious case under his belt, Emory Rome has already garnered fame as a talented special agent for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. His career is leapfrogging over his colleagues, but the jumping stops when he’s assigned a case he fought to avoid – an eerie murder in the Smoky Mountain hometown he had abandoned. The mysterious death of a teen ice-skater once destined for the pros is soon followed by an apparent case of spontaneous human combustion. In a small town bursting with friends and foes, Rome’s own secrets lie just beneath the surface. The rush to find the murderer before he strikes again pits him against artful private investigator Jeff Woodard. The PI is handsome, smart and seductive, and he just might be the killer Rome is seeking.

Blaze Bellamy is the bad girl of the short track speed skating world. Looking like a roller derby bruiser when she's not in her Team USA uniform, she's an unlikely American heroine. She's got a punk attitude to match her provocative dress and her dyed hair, and she's determined to get onto the front pages of the papers regardless of how she has to do it.Maisy Harper is the workhorse of the Canadian women's figure skating team. Serious, modest, and above all, polite, Maisy would prefer to win her victory on the ice rather than in the press, and is exasperated by Blaze's antics. When she's not lusting after her anyway. After they both failed to make the medal podium at the last Snow and Ice Games, they drowned themselves in gin—and each other. Despite their hookup being drunken, they both harbor fond memories of their night together and are keen for a repeat. But they've got different ways of going about getting what they want, and Blaze's willingness to go to...

When the first fissures became visible to the naked eye in August 2007, suddenly the most powerful men in the world were three men who were never elected to public office. They were the leaders of the world’s three most important central banks: Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Mervyn King of the Bank of England, and Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank. Over the next five years, they and their fellow central bankers deployed trillions of dollars, pounds and euros to contain the waves of panic that threatened to bring down the global financial system, moving on a scale and with a speed that had no precedent.Neil Irwin’s The Alchemists is a gripping account of the most intense exercise in economic crisis management we’ve ever seen, a poker game in which the stakes have run into the trillions of dollars. The book begins in, of all places, Stockholm, Sweden, in the seventeenth century, where central banking had its rocky birth, and then progresses through a brisk but dazzling tutorial on how the central banker came to exert such vast influence over our world, from its troubled beginnings to the Age of Greenspan, bringing the reader into the present with a marvelous handle on how these figures and institutions became what they are – the possessors of extraordinary power over our collective fate.  What they chose to do with those powers is the heart of the story Irwin tells.Irwin covered the Fed and other central banks from the earliest days of the crisis for the Washington Post, enjoying privileged access to leading central bankers and people close to them. His account, based on reporting that took place in 27 cities in 11 countries, is the holistic, truly global story of the central bankers’ role in the world economy we have been missing.  It is a landmark reckoning with central bankers and their power, with the great financial crisis of our time, and with the history of the relationship between capitalism and the state. Definitive, revelatory, and riveting, The Alchemists shows us where money comes from—and where it may well be going.About the AuthorNeil Irwin is a Washington Post columnist and economics editor of the Post’s Wonkblog web site. From 2007 to 2012, he led coverage of the global financial crisis, recession, and aftermath as the Post’s beat reporter covering the Federal Reserve and other central banks. He has an MBA from Columbia University, where he was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism. Irwin appears regularly on television analyzing economic topics, including on MSNBC, CNBC, and the PBS Newshour. He lives in Washington.Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.Introduction:Opening the SpigotOn August 9, 2007, Jean-Claude Trichet awoke at his childhood home of Saint-Malo, on the coast of Brittany, ready for a day puttering about in his motorboat and enjoying the company of his grandchildren. It was time for his summer respite after a busy year as president of the European Central Bank. Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, had also planned a leisurely Thursday: He would make his way from his ?at in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood to the Kennington Oval, on the city’s south side, to watch the British national cricket team play India. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, was alone among the three men who would guide the world through the convulsions of the half decade to come in having scheduled a regular workday. His security detail was to drive him from his Capitol Hill row house to the Treasury Department, where he had an early breakfast with Secretary Henry Paulson. Bernanke would eat oatmeal. For the three men, the day would not go quite as planned.At about 7:30 a.m., Trichet’s phone rang. Francesco Papadia, the head of the ECB’s markets desk, was on the line from the central bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt. “We have a problem,” Papadia said.Gigantic French bank BNP Paribas had announced that it was suspending withdrawals from three investment funds it managed. The funds were invested heavily in U.S. home-mortgage-backed securities that had become nearly impossible to value. Customers’ money would be locked up until the bank could ?gure out exactly how much the investments were worth. In itself, it was a tiny development: The three relatively obscure funds held only €1.6 billion in assets.But the announcement con?rmed the worst fears of bankers across Europe. They’d been worried for weeks about the losses they were facing on U.S. home loans. Supposedly ultrasecure mortgage bonds that had traded freely earlier in 2007 had by late July hardly been trading at all. As more and more people who’d taken out risky loans to buy a house in Tampa or Cleveland or Phoenix found themselves unable to pay them back, all the assumptions on which those loans had been made started to be called into question. Maybe all those AAA-rated securities weren’t really AAA after all. Had the banks poured vast sums into bonds that weren’t worth what they’d seemed to be? And if BNP Paribas couldn’t ?gure out how much its own funds were worth, how could any other bank know its real exposure to mortgage-backed securities?It’s not for nothing that the word “credit” derives from the Latin creditus, “trusted.” Banks use highly rated securities as almost the equivalent of cash— whenever they need more dollars or euros, they hand the bonds over to another bank as collateral. It’s one of the basic ways they ensure they have exactly the amount of money they need to meet their obligations on any given day. But when it came to those mortgage-backed securities in early August 2007, that simple exchange suddenly became complicated. The problem wasn’t just that the securities were worth less than they’d been before—after all, banks can deal with losses. It’s that no one knew just how much less—and whether, if one bank had lent money to another down the street in exchange for mortgage-backed securities, it would ever get paid back.Papadia and his staff spoke regularly with treasurers at twenty major European banks known as the money market contact group, and its members had been warning for days that, as one ECB official put it, an “infarction” was imminent. That Thursday morning, it hit: After the BNP Paribas announcement, with each bank out only for itself, the usual supply of cash was fast evaporating. “Trust was shaken today,” Deutsche Bank chief european economist Thomas Mayer told the New York Times. As one executive of a major global bank said later, “It was something none of us had experienced. It was as if your entire life you had turned the spigot and water came out. And now there was no water.”It’s a more precise metaphor than it may seem, for liquidity is exactly what was disappearing in the banking system that day. No longer were euros, dollars, and pounds as easy to come by as water. History has taught again and again that when banks shut down and hoard their money, so too do the economies they serve. A banker who’s unwilling to lend to other bankers is likely also to be unwilling to lend to the businesses and households that need money to build a factory or buy a house. If unchecked, the banking crisis in Europe could in? ict untold damage on the world economy. Suddenly, the European habit of taking a lengthy late summer vacation had become very inconvenient.Gather the Executive Board, Trichet instructed Papadia. He needed to talk to the six officials from across Europe who share the collective authority to deploy the resources of the central bank—including the ability to create euros from thin air. ECB staff in Frankfurt began calling around to various villas and retreats in Spain, Italy, and Greece to arrange an emergency conference call. Trichet normally used the walled medieval port town of Saint-Malo as a retreat from the world, a place where he could enjoy the water and read poetry and philosophy. But now it would become the nerve center from which he would manage the ?rst phase of the ?rst great ?nancial crisis of the twenty-? rst century.By 10 a.m., the full Executive Board was on the line. Trichet was emphatic: “There is only one thing we can do, which is to give liquidity.” The ECB, he insisted, must ?ood the banking system with euros. He was proposing that the central bank ful?ll its traditional role as “lender of last resort,” stepping in when private banks were pulling back, and using a novel means to do so. The ECB would abandon its usual practice of pumping some ?xed amount of money into the banking system and instead make an unlimited number of euros available to the banks that needed them. The technical term for what Trichet and the Executive Board did at 12:30 p.m. central European time is to offer a “? xed-rate tender with full allotment.”Translation: Come and get it, guys. We’ll give you as many euros as you need at 4 percent. Some forty-nine banks took €95 billion.The Federal Reserve Bank of New York maintains a markets desk to monitor what’s going on across the world of ?nance, but during the early hours of the morning on the East Coast that Thursday, only a handful of young staffers were on duty to monitor overnight activity. It would take hours for the news to make its way to New York Fed president Timothy Geithner, who was on vacation on Cape Cod, and Bernanke, who was getting ready for his breakfast with Secretary Paulson.At 6:49 a.m., Bernanke received an e-mail from Brian Madigan, head of the Fed’s monetary affairs division, explaining that “as you’ve probably seen, markets have sold off again overnight” and updating him on activity in the European bond and stock markets. But Madigan hadn’t yet received word of the ECB’s action. It was nearly half an hour later, as Bernanke’s black Cadillac sped along Independence Avenue, driven by an officer of the Federal Reserve’s own police force, before the chairman received the ?rst word that the ECB had done something unusual. A 7:16, an e-mail arrived from David Skidmore, an offi cial in the Fed’s press office: “Apparently Deutsche Bank had two money market funds fail and the ECB is making tender off ers for dollar-denominated assets. Glenn Somerville of Reuters, who I’ve been talking to, is heading to the Treasury press room early.”The details were wrong: It was BNP Paribas, not Deutsche Bank, three funds, not two, and the tender offers were denominated in euros, not dollars. But the gist was right: The ECB had intervened in markets in a way it never had before. And the most powerful man at the Fed was ?nding out about it through garbled rumors from a Reuters reporter. By the time he sat down for oatmeal with Paulson at 7:30, it was clear that something big had happened, even if no one seemed to be sure exactly what it was.It wasn’t until 8:52 a.m. that Bernanke got a more accurate update, in the form of an e-mail from Kevin Warsh, a Fed governor who often acted as the chairman’s emissary to people in ?nancial markets and at other central banks. “This action by the ECB sends two signals,” wrote Warsh, who had been working the phones all morning. “First, they are ready to provide liquidity to ensure the smooth operation of European money markets. Second, they are providing liquidity at their policy rate, and thus far not viewing a liquidity squeeze as a more fundamental reason to adjust its policy stance.” The Americans quickly understood that Trichet was trying to draw a bright line between what the ECB was doing for the ?nancial system and what it was doing to address any underlying weakness in the European economy as a whole.After breakfast, Bernanke went to his office at the white marble Eccles Building in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood. At 11 a.m., he met with a man named Lewis Ranieri, looking to pick his brain. In the 1980s, as a bond trader at investment bank Salomon Brothers, Ranieri had played a crucial role in developing the very concept of mortgage-backed securities. In other words, he’d more or less invented the markets that were now imploding. At 2 p.m., Bernanke met with Raymond Dalio and others from the world of ? nance. Dalio managed the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, with $120 billion under its control. He’d developed a sophisticated model for understanding what was happening with credit extension in the econ...

Can you find love in one hot and sexy night? Three luscious curvy girls and three 5-alarm firefighters find out in these scorching hot novellas.Sweet and saucy Chloe is out for an evening with her BFF's Nikki and Izzy at a HOT firefighter charity auction. The girls are big and curvy and love each other like sisters. Taking in an evening of hot studs shaking their booties is right up their alley. Rafe spots Chloe from across the bar and knows that any woman with assets like hers will be up for some fun and hopefully a little spanking. Chase sees a curvy tiny waisted Nikki strut her stuff like she owns the place. What he wants to see is how cinched he can get her waist if she agrees to play dress up. Eli sees a real life angel named Izzy whom he just wants to worship and feed. Now to convince her she is just what he wants. Three hot firefighters doing their part for charity had no idea they were about to meet the women of their dreams. They each have a dream girl and they all want this night to be their dream come true. Can you find love in one hot and sexy night? Three luscious curvy girls and three 5-alarm firefighters find out in these scorching hot novellas. Adult material with explicit sexual situations and language. Prepare to read about BBW’s that meet the men of their dreams, who love to spank, cinch, and feed their way to true love. BBW on Fire: The Complete Series available for $4.99!**BBW on Fire: Chloe & Rafe available in Kindle Unlimited or $2.99BBW on Fire: Nikki & Chase available in Kindle Unlimited or $2.99 BBW on Fire: Izzy & Eli available in Kindle Unlimited or $2.99****

In 1932, Mittie Maude Lena Gordon spoke to a crowd of black Chicagoans at the old Jack Johnson boxing ring, rallying their support for emigration to West Africa. In 1937, Celia Jane Allen traveled to Jim Crow Mississippi to organize rural black workers around black nationalist causes. In the late 1940s, from her home in Kingston, Jamaica, Amy Jacques Garvey launched an extensive letter-writing campaign to defend the Greater Liberia Bill, which would relocate 13 million black Americans to West Africa.Gordon, Allen, and Jacques Garvey—as well as Maymie De Mena, Ethel Collins, Amy Ashwood, and Ethel Waddell—are part of an overlooked and understudied group of black women who take center stage in Set the World on Fire, the first book to examine how black nationalist women engaged in national and global politics from the early twentieth century to the 1960s. Historians of the era generally portray the period between the Garvey movement of the 1920s and the...

Kidnapped by Celtic Druids in 433, Patrick and Beth are headed to certain death when followers of a former Irish Slave (Saint Patrick, called Patritius in this book) save them. The cousins find themselves in the midst of a power struggle between Ireland's King Logaire, Patritius, and the leader of the Druids, Lochru. A spiritual showdown begins on the Hill of Slane when Patritius builds a fire, challenging the King's authority. Will Patritius prove to the king that the God of the Bible is the true God? Or will the king take sides with the Druids? The Emerald Isle holds many tales and legends, but this story of truth and standing strong for God is not one to be missed.

Acclaimed historian Amanda Foreman follows the phenomenal success of her New York Times bestseller Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire with her long-awaited second work of nonfiction: the fascinating story of the American Civil War and the major role played by Britain and its citizens in that epic struggle.Even before the first rumblings of secession shook the halls of Congress, British involvement in the coming schism was inevitable. Britain was dependent on the South for cotton, and in turn the Confederacy relied almost exclusively on Britain for guns, bullets, and ships. The Union sought to block any diplomacy between the two and consistently teetered on the brink of war with Britain. For four years the complex web of relationships between the countries led to defeats and victories both minute and history-making. In A World on Fire, Amanda Foreman examines the fraught relations from multiple angles while she introduces characters both humble and grand, bringing them to vivid life over the course of her sweeping and brilliant narrative.Between 1861 and 1865, thousands of British citizens volunteered for service on both sides of the Civil War. From the first cannon blasts on Fort Sumter to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, they served as officers and infantrymen, sailors and nurses, blockade runners and spies. Through personal letters, diaries, and journals, Foreman has woven together their experiences to form a panoramic yet intimate view of the war on the front lines, in the prison camps, and in the great cities of both the Union and the Confederacy. Through the eyes of these brave volunteers we see the details of the struggle for life and the great and powerful forces that threatened to demolish a nation.In the drawing rooms of London and the offices of Washington, on muddy fields and aboard packed ships, Foreman reveals the decisions made, the beliefs held and contested, and the personal triumphs and sacrifices that ultimately led to the reunification of America. A World on Fire is a complex and groundbreaking work that will surely cement Amanda Foreman’s position as one of the most influential historians of our time.

The Lake on Fire is an epic narrative that begins among 19th century Jewish immigrants on a failing Wisconsin farm. Dazzled by lore of the American dream, Chaya and her strange, brilliant, young brother Asher stowaway to Chicago; what they discover there, however, is a Gilded Age as empty a façade as the beautiful Columbian Exposition luring thousands to Lake Michigan's shore. The pair scrapes together a meager living—Chaya in a cigar factory; Asher, roaming the city and stealing books and jewelry to share with the poor, until they find different paths of escape. An examination of family, love, and revolution, this profound tale resonates eerily with today's current events and tumultuous social landscape. The Lake on Fire is robust, gleaming, and grimy all at once, proving that celebrated author Rosellen Brown is back with a story as luminous as ever.

Nanda Kaul is old. She has chosen to spend her last years high up in the mountains where she can arrange her thoughts into tranquility. But her solitude is broken when her fragile and secretive great-grand-daughter, Raka, comes to stay. It is an intrusion Nanda Kaul deeply resents, but this child has a capacity to change things. Through the long hot summer months hidden dependencies and old wounds are uncovered, until tragedy seems as inevitable as a forest fire on the hillsides surrounding the villa.

The sermons of Joni Tevis' youth filled her with dread, a sense “that an even worse story—one you hadn't read yet—could likewise come true." In this revelatory collection, she reckons with her childhood fears by exploring the uniquely American fascination with apocalypse. From a haunted widow's wildly expanding mansion, to atomic test sites in the Nevada desert, her settings are often places of destruction and loss.And yet Tevis transforms these eerie destinations into sites of creation as well, uncovering powerful points of connection. Whether she's relating her experience of motherhood or describing the timbre of Freddy Mercury's voice in “Somebody to Love," she relies on the same reverence for detail, the same sense of awe. And by anchoring her attention to the raw materials of our world—nails and beams, dirt and stone, bones and blood—she discovers grandeur in the seemingly mundane.Possessed throughout with eclectic intelligence and...

Presenting an alternative version of African American history, this novel explores what might have happened if John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harper’s Ferry had been successful. Chronicling life in a thriving black nation founded by Brown in the former southeastern United States, this dramatic story opens 100 years later, just as Nova Africa is poised to celebrate its first landing of a spacecraft on Mars. The prosperous black state will soon be tested when the granddaughter of John Brown returns from Africa to reunite with her daughter and share with her a secret that will alter their lives forever.

The Honourable Richard Rollison, (aka 'The Toff') once more faces death, but this time by the most horrible of causes: fire. He is on the trail of the kidnapper of a young child and up against the most chilling of opponents. Threatened shooting, murder, and the unexpected disappearance of Rollison are only some of the events in this gripping tale, with a suitably unexpected twist before justice prevails.

The inspiring and irresistible true story of the women who broke barriers and finish-line ribbons in pursuit of Olympic GoldWhen Betty Robinson assumed the starting position at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, she was participating in what was only her fourth-ever organized track meet. She crossed the finish line as a gold medalist and the fastest woman in the world. This improbable athletic phenom was an ordinary high school student, discovered running for a train in rural Illinois mere months before her Olympic debut. Amsterdam made her a star.But at the top of her game, her career (and life) almost came to a tragic end when a plane she and her cousin were piloting crashed. So dire was Betty's condition that she was taken to the local morgue; only upon the undertaker's inspection was it determined she was still breathing. Betty, once a natural runner who always coasted to victory, soon found herself fighting to walk. While Betty was recovering, the other...

A riveting, blistering novel about the shady side of the law and the business side of the Boston underworld by the one and only George V. Higgins.Jerry Fein is a small-time lawyer, occasional booking agent, and full-time slumlord. But he's nobody's fool. So when the tenants of his dilapidated buildings refuse to pay rent because of rats, Jerry knows just the man to help him--Leo Proctor, a professional arsonist, who can make a fire marshal look the other way for a little cash. But the heat is on over at the police station as well, and a couple of cops are suddenly feeling pressure from their superiors to produce tangible results, and something has got to give. Full of showboating politicians, hardnosed cops, and lawyers a little too familiar with both sides of the law, The Rat on Fire is another Higgins masterpiece and an unflinching portrait of the Boston crime world.

Airship Captain Adena Nightingale takes on a smuggling run - and gets more than she bargained for. Out on the frigid desert of BloodDark World's night side, she rescues Earthman Greg Cole, an escaped slave from a Pure Blood mine.Greg wants to rescue his friend, kidnapped with him and held somewhere in the City of Night.Adena's okay with that, but she doesn't know something strange lurks in the Oculus Nightingale's cargo bay.When they reach the City of Night all hell breaks loose. Adena, Greg, and the sentient brass parrot Mr. Phibuli find themselves caught up in the aftershocks of an ancient war - and they have their work cut out for them in order to survive.

The Leader Who Rules Chaos, Rules the Realms… Two years ago Loki, God of Mischief and Chaos, destroyed a large chunk of Chicago’s financial district and then vanished into thin air. He still has not been found. Odin, ruler of the Nine Realms, is desperate. To find Loki, he sends his son Thor on a dangerous quest to consult the all-seeing Norns. But Thor needs humanity’s help... Loki’s former lover, veterinarian Amy Lewis, is carrying all of Loki’s memories—but missing some of her own. Hoping to keep Loki from Odin’s machinations, she agrees to help Thor on his journey. Bohdi Patel’s memory was wiped by Loki’s mischief. He thinks Amy and Thor are both crazy to want anything to do with Loki. But he needs to find his parents, and he’s been told the Norns will answer any question—for a price. When Chaos is the goal, only one thing is certain: Amy and Bohdi are about to get into worlds of mischief. THE I BRING THE FIRE SERIES:I Bring the Fire Part I (Free eBook!)Monsters: I Bring the Fire Part IIChaos: I Bring the Fire Part IIIIn the Balance: I Bring the Fire 3.5Fates: I Bring the Fire Part IVThe Slip: a Short StoryWarriors: I Bring the Fire Part V

A real-life thriller in the tradition of The Perfect StormIn the spring of 2010 the world watched for weeks as more than 200 million gallons of crude oil billowed from a hole three miles deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Warnings of various and imminent environmental consequences dominated the news. Deepwater drilling—largely ignored or misunderstood to that point—exploded in the American consciousness in the worst way possible.Fire on the Horizon, written by veteran oil rig captain John Konrad and longtime Washington Post journalist Tom Shroder, recounts in vivid detail the life of the rig itself, from its construction in South Korea in the year 2000 to its improbable journey around the world to its disastrous end, and reveals the day-to-day lives, struggles, and ambitions of those who called it home.From the little-known maritime colleges to Transocean's training schools and Houston headquarters to the small...

From award winning author Laura Trentham comes Set the Night on Fire, a novel about starting over, finding your way back home—and falling head over heels. . . Ella Boudreaux has a lot to prove to her family, friends, and foes—and to herself. So when her marriage ends she decides to invest her energy and money into a place that brings back some of Ella's happiest memories: the Abbott brothers' garage. Maybe, if she puts her mind to it, she can teach skeptical, stubborn Mack Abbott how to make the business a true success. Which would be a lot easier if the hunky mechanic didn't make her motor run quite so fast...and hot.Mack was furious when his brother, Ford, sold his share of the business. He's in no rush to team up with a wealthy divorcée who shows up to the garage in stilettos—and the longest, sexiest legs he's seen in forever. But Ella's grit and determination won't quit...and soon Mack can see that she's been down a...

The mercury's soaring—and so are the body temperatures of three lucky couples:The Guy Diet by Thea DevineDisillusioned food columnist Lo Cavallero only wants her men "lite." But what will happen when dishy newsman Jed Costigan tries to convince her that he's more than just a scrumptious morsel?Light My Fire by Debbi RawlinsJordan Samms has a mountain to climb-led by supersexy wilderness guide Zach Wilde. Before long, they're lighting each other's fire every night. But will the flames stay smokin' hot or blaze out of control!No Reservations by Samantha HunterEdie Stevens is shocked when überhottie property owner Joel Roberts appears at her vacation cottage because of a mix-up with the dates. Seems they'll steer clear of one another…yeah, but how will they handle the sizzling chemistry?

Someone is trying to kill Lila Hilliard. During the Christmas holidays she returns from running errands to find her family home in flames, her father and brother trapped inside. Later, she is attacked by a mysterious man on a motorcycle. . . and the threats don't end there. As Lila desperately tries to piece together who is after her and why, she uncovers information about her father's past in Chicago during the volatile days of the late 1960s . . . information he never shared with her, but now threatens to destroy her. Part thriller, part historical novel, and part love story, Set the Night on Fire paints an unforgettable portrait of Chicago during a turbulent time: the riots at the Democratic Convention . . . the struggle for power between the Black Panthers and SDS . . . and a group of young idealists who tried to change the world.                                                                                                                     NEW: Set The Night On Fire is available for a Kindlegraph!                    Also NEW is the Libby Hellmann App! Download it free at bit.ly/PuQH7H.From BooklistDecades-old student protests come back to haunt young people who shared an apartment in Chicago in the late 1960s. Dar Gantner has just been released from prison after 40 years for participating in the 1970 bombing of a Chicago department store in which three people died—among them his lover, Alix Kerr, daughter of the store owner. Now it seems his four remaining former housemates are in peril. When two of them, including Casey Hilliard, die in staged accidents within weeks, Dar suspects Ted Markham, who took part in the bombing but wasn’t charged and is now a U.S. senator running for the presidency. When atttempts are made on the life of Casey’s daughter and remaining heir, Lila, Dar has a compelling reason to protect her. Long-held secrets are revealed, as characters scramble for their lives. But what seems all too obvious to readers about the source of danger doesn’t occur to the characters until the eleventh hour. Hellmann, author of the Ellie Foreman and Georgia Davis mystery series, provides a colorful view of youthful antiestablishment activity in the 1960s, but her first stand-alone comes up short on suspense. --Michele Leber Review"A tremendous book - sweeping but intimate, elegiac but urgent, subtle but intense.  This story really does set the night on fire." --Lee Child"A brilliantly-paced thriller, transitioning seamlessly from modern-day Chicago to the late '60s. First-rate characterization...Best to start early in the day, as it is easy to stay up all night reading it." --Foreword MagazineRT Top Pick for December: "Electric... a marvelous novel." --RT Book Reviews"A top-rate thriller that taps into the antiwar protests of the 1960s... A jazzy fusion of past and present, Hellman's insightful, politically charged whodunit explores a fascinating period in American history."--Publishers Weekly"Set the Night on Fire is a compelling story of love, truth and redemption. This will be a break-out novel for this talented writer. Highly recommended." --Sheldon Siegel, New York Times best-selling author of Perfect Alibi

In a southern California town ablaze with sordid secrets, a free-spirited biologist and a straitlaced sheriff join forces to investigate a suspicious killing -- and find themselves getting a little too close to the flames... Shay Phillips knows her way around Dark Canyon. She's handy with a gun and can track a wild animal with the best of them. It's humans who usually give her the most trouble. And with a hormonally charged teenage brother to raise -- and an admitted weakness for the wrong kind of man -- they're giving her plenty of trouble these days. Then there's the matter of murder. As an expert on mountain lions, Shay is skeptical when a local prostitute turns up mauled without a drop of blood near the body. Now, together with the town's newly arrived sheriff, Luke Meza -- a Las Vegas city boy with his own dark secrets -- Shay must navigate a dangerous valley filled with angry ex-lovers, unfaithful spouses, and poisonous snakes in a desperate search for the killer. But when suspicion falls on her own brother, and her attraction to Luke rages into a full-on erotic affair, can Shay quell the fires inside her long enough to uncover the truth?