by Brad Thor, Armand Schultz
(4)Publication Date: June 29, 2010
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Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Foreign Influence: A Thriller
by Brad Thor, Armand Schultz
(4)Publication Date: June 29, 2010
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Tuesday, June 29, 2010
A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: A Memoir
by Bill O'Reilly
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Review & Description
The year was 1957, the month September, and I had just turned eight years old. Dwight Eisenhower was President, but in my life it was the diminutive, intense Sister Mary Lurana who ruled, at least in the third-grade class where I was held captive. For reasons you will soon understand, my parents had remanded me to the penal institution of St. Brigid’s School in Westbury, New York, a cruel and unusual punishment if there ever was one.
Already, I had barely survived my first two years at St. Brigid’s because I was, well, a little nitwit. Not satisfied with memorizing the Baltimore Catechism’s fine prose, which featured passages like “God made me to show his goodness and to make me happy with him in heaven,” I was constantly annoying my classmates and, of course, the no-nonsense Sister Lurana. With sixty overactive students in her class, she was understandably short on patience. For survival, she had also become quick on the draw.
Then it happened. One day I blurted out some dumb remark, and Sister Lurana was on me like a panther. Her black habit blocked out all distractions as she leaned down, looked me in the eye, and uttered words I have never forgotten: “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.”
And she was dead-on.
One day in 1957, in the third-grade classroom of St. Brigid’s parochial school, an exasperated Sister Mary Lurana bent over a restless young William O’Reilly and said, “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.” Little did she know that she was, early in his career as a troublemaker, defining the essence of Bill O’Reilly and providing him with the title of his brash and entertaining issues-based memoir.
And this time it’s personal. In his most intimate book yet, O’Reilly goes back in time to examine the people, places, and experiences that launched him on his journey from working-class kid to immensely influential television personality and bestselling author. Readers will learn how his traditional outlook was formed in the crucible of his family, his neighborhood, his church, and his schools, and how his views on America’s proper role in the world emerged from covering four wars on five continents over three-plus decades as a news correspondent. What will delight his numerous fans and surprise many others is the humor and self-deprecation with which he handles one of his core subjects: himself, and just how O’Reilly became O’Reilly. Read more
Monday, June 28, 2010
Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century
by Thomas E. Woods, Alan Sklar
(6)Publication Date: June 29, 2010
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Thomas E. Woods, Jr., provides an eloquent defense of the politically divisive subject of nullification, a remedy used by states against unconstitutional federal power grabs. Read more
The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity
by William Paul Young, Roger Mueller
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Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. Read more
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The Fearless Heart: The Practice of Living with Courage and Compassion
by Pema Chodron
Release Date: July 6, 2010
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Review & Description
Fear and guilt are two of the greatest challenges we face on the spiritual path—but there is a way to transform these painful feelings into courageous self-acceptance. Here Pema Chödrön presents the five aphorisms for developing fearlessness that were given to Machig Lapdronma, one of Tibetan Buddhism's greatest female teachers. Pema comments on these aphorisms, holds question-and-answer sessions, and leads guided meditations to help us:
• overcome shame and guilt
• remain courageous in the face of pain
• transform our relationships with difficult people
• increase our feelings of generosity and compassion
This program also includes a card with the five aphorisms and study.
5 CDs, 5 hours Read more
Pray for Silence: A Thriller (Kate Burkholder)
by Linda Castillo
(42)Release Date: June 22, 2010
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The New York Times bestselling author of Sworn to Silence delivers an electrifying thriller—Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must confront a dark evil to solve the mysterious murders of an entire Amish family In the quiet town of Painters Mill, an Amish family of seven has been found brutally murdered on their farm. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her small force have few clues, no motive, and no suspect. Formerly Amish herself, Kate is no stranger to secrets, but she can’t get her mind around the senseless brutality of the crime.
State agent John Tomasseti arrives on the scene to assist. He and Kate worked together on a previous case during which they began a tentative relationship, but each is wary of commitment. The disturbing details of this case will push them to their limits and force them to face demons from their own troubled pasts. When Kate discovers a diary, she realizes a haunting personal connection to the case. One of the teenage daughters may have been leading a lurid double life. As the case develops, Kate’s list of suspects grows. Who is the attractive stranger that stole the heart of the innocent young Amish girl? Did her estranged brother—a man with a violent past who was shunned by his family and the Amish community—come back to seek out revenge? Driven by her own scarred past, Kate swears she’ll find the killer and bring him to justice—even if it means putting herself in the line of fire. Topping her own bestselling debut, Linda Castillo once again immerses readers in the world of the Amish with a chilling story that is both a fast-paced thriller and compelling psychological puzzle. Read moreSaturday, June 26, 2010
Family Ties: A Novel
by Danielle Steel, Susan Ericksen
(2)Release Date: June 22, 2010
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Review & Description
Annie Ferguson was a bright young Manhattan architect. Talented, beautiful, just starting out with her first job, new apartment and boyfriend, she had the world in the palm of her hand — until a single phone call altered the course of her life forever. Overnight, she became the mother to her sister’s three orphaned children, keeping a promise she never regretted making, even if it meant putting her own life indefinitely on hold.
Now, at forty-two, as independent as ever, with a satisfying career and a family that means everything to her, Annie is comfortable being single and staying that way. She appears to have no time for anything else. With her nephew and nieces now young adults and confronting major challenges of their own, Annie is navigating a parent’s difficult passage between lending them a hand and letting go, and suddenly facing an empty nest. The eldest, twenty-eight-year-old Liz, an overworked, struggling editor in a high-powered job at Vogue, has never allowed any man to come close enough to hurt her. Ted, at twenty-four a serious and hardworking law student, is captivated by a much older, much more experienced woman with children, who is leading him much further than he wants to go. And the youngest, twenty-one-year-old Katie — impulsive, artistic, rebellious — is an art student about to make a choice that will lead her to an entirely different world she is in no way prepared for but determined to embrace.
Then, just when least expected, a chance encounter changes Annie’s life yet again in the most unexpected direction of all.
From Manhattan to Paris and all the way to Tehran, Family Ties is a novel that reminds us how challenging and unpredictable life can be, and that the powerful bonds of family are the strongest of all.
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The Burning Wire: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel
by Jeffery Deaver, Dennis Boutsikaris
(20)Publication Date: June 1, 2010
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Review & Description
Lincoln Rhyme is back, on the trail of a killer whose weapon of choice cripples New York City with fear.
The weapon is invisible and omnipresent. Without it, modern society grinds to a halt. It is electricity. The killer harnesses and steers huge arc flashes with voltage so high and heat so searing that steel melts and his victims are set afire.
When the first explosion occurs in broad daylight, reducing a city bus to a pile of molten, shrapnel-riddled metal, officials fear terrorism. Rhyme, a world-class forensic criminologist known for his successful apprehension of the most devious criminals, is immediately tapped for the investigation. Long a quadriplegic, he assembles NYPD detective Amelia Sachs and officer Ron Pulaski as his eyes, ears and legs on crime sites, and FBI agent Fred Dellray as his undercover man on the street. As the attacks continue across the city at a sickening pace, and terrifying demand letters begin appearing, the team works desperately against time and with maddeningly little forensic evidence to try to find the killer. Or is it killers . . . ?
Meanwhile, Rhyme is consulting on another high-profile investigation in Mexico with a most coveted quarry in his crosshairs: the hired killer known as the Watchmaker, one of the few criminals to have eluded Rhyme’s net.
Juggling two massive investigations against a cruel ticking clock takes a toll on Rhyme’s health. Soon Rhyme is fighting on yet another front—and his determination to work despite his physical limitations threatens to drive away his closest allies when he needs them most . . . Read more
Friday, June 25, 2010
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
by Tony Hsieh
(129)Publication Date: June 7, 2010
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Review & Description
In his first audiobook, Tony Hsieh - the widely-admired CEO of on-line shoe retailer, Zappos, explains how he created a unique culture and commitment to service that aims to improve the lives of its employees, customers, vendors and backers. Using anecdotes and stories from his own experiences and from other companies, Hsieh provides concrete ways that companies can achieve unprecedented success. Even better, he shows how creating happiness and record results go hand-in-hand. He starts with the 'Why' in a section where he narrates his quest to understand the science of happiness. Then he runs through the ten Zappos 'Core Values' such as 'Deliver WOW through Service,' 'Create Fun and A Little Weirdness' and 'Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit' and explains how you and your colleagues should come up with your own. Hsieh then details many of the unique practices at Zappos that have made it the success it is today, such as the philosphy of allocating marketing money into the customer experience, thereby allowing repeat customers and word-of-mouth be their true form of marketing. He also explains why Zappos's main priority is company culture and his belief that once you get the culture right, everything else - great customer service, long-term branding - will happen on its own. Finally, Hsieh explains how Zappos employees actually apply the Core Values to improving their lives outside of work - and to making a difference in their communities and the world
The visionary CEO of Zappos explains how an emphasis on corporate culture can lead to unprecedented success.
Pay new employees $2000 to quit. Make customer service the entire company, not just a department. Focus on company culture as the #1 priority. Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business. Help employees grow both personally and professionally. Seek to change the world. Oh, and make money too.
Sound crazy? It's all standard operating procedure at Zappos.com, the online retailer that's doing over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales every year.
In 1999, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos as an adviser and investor, and eventually became CEO.
In 2009, Zappos was listed as one of Fortune magazine's top 25 companies to work for, and was acquired by Amazon later that year in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion on the day of closing.
In his first book, Tony shares the different business lessons he learned in life, from a lemonade stand and pizza business through LinkExchange, Zappos, and more. Ultimately, he shows how using happiness as a framework can produce profits, passion, and purpose both in business and in life. (edited by author)
Amazon Exclusive Author Q&A with Tony Hsieh, Author of Delivering Happiness
I think usually by the time you're 12 years old, you either have the entrepreneurial spirit or you don't. I would describe the entrepeneurial spirit as a combination of creativity and optimisim.
2. Could you name one particular experience that inspired you to create a company devoted to customer happiness?For me, it's really been driven by daily examples of bad customer service in my everyday personal life.
3. Was the worm farm really the invaluable catalyst for forming your business and life philosophy?My parents tell me that as a kid I was always trying to come up with different business ideas. The idea of starting a worm farm is my earliest memory of a business idea.
4. You say that you have always been an avid book reader. What are your favorite books? Which non-business book helped you grow professionally?Business books: Good to Great, Peak, Tribal Leadership Made to Stick
Non-business books: The Happiness Hypothesis Comedy Writing Secrets The Game
5. What is the ratio between rebelling against conventional wisdom and sticking to the good old truths in building a successful business?1:10
6. You describe your way to happiness starting with profits, then going through passion and finally getting to purpose. Is that the only path to business happiness?No, that was just the path that I happened to take. Part of the purpose of the book is to help other entrepreneurs and business owners shortcut the process and encourage them to go straight to combining profits, passion, and purpose.
7. You seem to have taken risks with business ideas a lot while growing up. How do you recognize a risk that you shouldn't take?I think it just comes down to really breaking down what the worst case scenario actually is. For most of us, we're lucky to live in a time and in a society where we aren't actually ever in danger of dying from starvation or lack of shelter. Most of us have friends whose couches we can crash on in the worst case scenario, so any "risk" we take in starting a company isn't actually that big a risk.
Read more
Stieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy CD Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
by Stieg Larsson
(14)Release Date: May 25, 2010
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Review & Description
Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy is now available in a complete audio set.
All across America, people are talking about Stieg Larsson’s best-selling novels, set in Sweden and featuring Lisbeth Salander—“one of the most original and memorable heroines to surface in a recent thriller” (The New York Times). The trilogy is an international sensation that will grab you and keep you “reading with eyes wide open” (San Francisco Chronicle). “[It] is intricately plotted, lavishly detailed but written with a breakneck pace and verve” (The Independent, U.K.), but “be warned: the trilogy is seriously addictive.” (The Guardian, U.K.).
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared without a trace more than forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to try to discover what happened to her. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist recently sidelined by a libel conviction, to investigate. Blomkvist is aided by the pierced and tattooed computer prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption on their way to discovering the truth of Harriet Vanger’s fate.
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Mikael Blomkvist, now the crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the murders. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
Lisbeth Salander lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. On her own, she will plot revenge—against the man who tried to kill her, and against the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life. Read more
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell, Author
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Review & Description
THE TIPPING POINT is the biography of an idea, and the idea is quite simple. It is that many of the problems we face - from crime to teenage delinquency to traffic jams - behave like epidemics. They aren't linear phenomena in the sense that they steadily and predictably change according to the level of effort brought to bear against them. They are capable of sudden and dramatic changes in direction. Years of well-intentioned intervention may have no impact at all, yet the right intervention - at just the right time - can start a cascade of change. Many of the social ills that face us today, in other words, are as inherently volatile as the epidemics that periodically sweep through the human population: little things can cause them to 'tip' at any time and if we want to understand how to confront and solve them we have to understand what those 'Tipping Points' are. In this revolutionary new study, Malcolm Gladwell explores the ramifications of this. Not simply for politicians and policy-makers, his method provides a new way of viewing everyday experience and enables us to develop strategies for everything from raising a child to running a company."The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.
For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston," he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.
Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point," like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan Read more
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
by S. C. Gwynne, David Drummond
(5)Publication Date: May 25, 2010
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Review & Description
A stunning historical account of the battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West---in the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Read more
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Spy (Isaac Bell)
by Clive Cussler, Justin Scott
(25)Publication Date: June 1, 2010
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Review & Description
Unabridged CDs, 10 CDs, 12 hours
Read by TBA
Detective Isaac Bell, hero of The Chase and The Wrecker, returns in the remarkable new adventure from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author. Read more
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
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Review & Description
One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.
In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.
From the Hardcover edition.From primordial nothingness to this very moment, A Short History of Nearly Everything reports what happened and how humans figured it out. To accomplish this daunting literary task, Bill Bryson uses hundreds of sources, from popular science books to interviews with luminaries in various fields. His aim is to help people like him, who rejected stale school textbooks and dry explanations, to appreciate how we have used science to understand the smallest particles and the unimaginably vast expanses of space. With his distinctive prose style and wit, Bryson succeeds admirably. Though A Short History clocks in at a daunting 500-plus pages and covers the same material as every science book before it, it reads something like a particularly detailed novel (albeit without a plot). Each longish chapter is devoted to a topic like the age of our planet or how cells work, and these chapters are grouped into larger sections such as "The Size of the Earth" and "Life Itself." Bryson chats with experts like Richard Fortey (author of Life and Trilobite) and these interviews are charming. But it's when Bryson dives into some of science's best and most embarrassing fights--Cope vs. Marsh, Conway Morris vs. Gould--that he finds literary gold. --Therese Littleton Read more
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Whiplash: An FBI Thriller
by Catherine Coulter, Paul Costanzo and Renee Raudman
(5)Release Date: June 15, 2010
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Review & Description
Yale professor Dr. Edward Kender’s father is undergoing chemotherapy when the supply of a critical accompanying drug, Culovort, suddenly runs out. Unwilling to accept the drug manufacturer’s disingenuous excuse of production line problems, Dr. Kender hires private investigator Erin Pulaski to prove that something more sinister is going on at Schiffer Hartwin.
Meanwhile, in Maryland, married FBI agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich are investigating a rather unusual case: Senator David Hoffman is experiencing a ghostly apparition with possible malicious intent. The case is baffling, and Sherlock and Savich are not sure what to believe, even after witnessing the disturbing specter for themselves. They’re no closer to cracking the case when a call comes in from Connecticut: A top foreign Schiffer Hartwin employee has been found murdered behind the drug company’s U.S. headquarters.
Unbeknownst to the FBI, Erin Pulaski had uncovered a bombshell in her investigation: The Culovort shortage is set to bring in a windfall profit in excess of two billion dollars. Upon learning of the murder, Erin is certain it has something to do with her findings, but she risks exposing herself by coming forward. As the feds move in, the case becomes even more complicated for Erin, since the murder of a foreign national on federal land can mean only that the pharmaceutical house has a secret of epic proportions — one it would do anything to keep hidden.
Jayne Ann Krentz and Catherine Coulter: Author One-on-One
In this Amazon exclusive, we brought together blockbuster authors Jayne Ann Krentz and Catherine Coulter and asked them to interview each other.
The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, Jayne Ann Krentz writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.
Read on to see Jayne Ann Krentz's questions for Catherine Coulter, or turn the tables to see what Coulter asked Krentz.
Jayne: You have a fabulously successful career going in two genres, romance and suspense. Why do you write both? What are the elements in each genre that excite and compel you as an author?
Catherine: Do you know, I love to write both genres because they are so very different from each other, and that means, frankly, that I’ll never run out of creative gas or get myself stuck in a burn-out hole. In most of my historical romances (just like yours) there are mysteries because my mind simply works that way (just like yours). To be defined as a romance, the relationship between the man and the woman must be at the center. And as you know, in suspense thrillers, unlike romances, it’s the gnarly situations that are at the center, and the love story?and there usually is one, because relationships are at the center of life?, is at the periphery. In the thrillers, I’m focused on pacing (i.e., making the reader turn that page), and juggling two different gnarly situations. And maybe, if I’m blessed, I can go back and forth, stretching the denouement for both to a good hundred pages.
Jayne:When you wrote the wildly successful book The Cove, those of us in the romance genre cheered wildly. We were thrilled because you opened a door for a lot of us romance authors (like me) who were eager to infuse more suspense into our books. At the time, many of us were meeting with resistance from editors who feared we would lose our audiences. But you proved that the audience would follow. Any deep background you care to share about what inspired you to write that book or how you got it published?
Catherine: Lots of writers had branched out before I got into the FBI series. The Cove came about when I was at home for a family reunion. My sister, who’d never done anything like this before, walked up to me and asked, “Have you ever heard of a little town on the coast of Oregon called the Cove? They make the world’s greatest ice cream, and bad stuff happens.” I went en pointe. The Cove marked the first of the FBI series, but at that time I had no idea that this book was a kick-off for a series. It simply evolved. Because of its success, Putnam wanted me to drop historical romances and stick to suspense thrillers. No way was that going to happen: I love historicals, the humor, the mysteries, the history, the cat races, for heaven’s sake! I struck a deal with my publisher: One historical romance, then one suspense thriller. You said you were a happy camper—move over, I’m right with you.
Jayne:There’s a bit of a psychic vibe in many of your books. Where does that come from, and why do you like to plot with that element?
Catherine: People are fascinated with psychic stuff. Just look at TV shows and movies—Medium, Ghost Whisperer, The X-Files, Lost, and anything with vampires, like Twilight, The Vampire Diaries. And even Harry Potter. We all love stuff we can’t explain, stuff that’s different from what’s real in our daily lives. From one woo-woo lover to another, ain’t it great?!
Jayne:What is the future of the FBI series? Any plans for firing up a new suspense series?
Catherine: I’m now writing the fifteenth (count ’em, fifteen) FBI, titled Split Second. That's a whole lot of Savich and Sherlock. My prayer is that I will realize when enough is enough. So far, things still look good.
Jayne: Did you really grow up on a horse farm in Texas?
Catherine: Yep, quarter horses.
(Photo of Catherine Coulter © Charles Bush)
(Photo of Jayne Ann Krentz © Sigrid Estrada) Read more
In this Amazon exclusive, we brought together blockbuster authors Jayne Ann Krentz and Catherine Coulter and asked them to interview each other.
The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, Jayne Ann Krentz writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.
Read on to see Jayne Ann Krentz's questions for Catherine Coulter, or turn the tables to see what Coulter asked Krentz. Jayne: You have a fabulously successful career going in two genres, romance and suspense. Why do you write both? What are the elements in each genre that excite and compel you as an author?
Catherine: Do you know, I love to write both genres because they are so very different from each other, and that means, frankly, that I’ll never run out of creative gas or get myself stuck in a burn-out hole. In most of my historical romances (just like yours) there are mysteries because my mind simply works that way (just like yours). To be defined as a romance, the relationship between the man and the woman must be at the center. And as you know, in suspense thrillers, unlike romances, it’s the gnarly situations that are at the center, and the love story?and there usually is one, because relationships are at the center of life?, is at the periphery. In the thrillers, I’m focused on pacing (i.e., making the reader turn that page), and juggling two different gnarly situations. And maybe, if I’m blessed, I can go back and forth, stretching the denouement for both to a good hundred pages.
Jayne:When you wrote the wildly successful book The Cove, those of us in the romance genre cheered wildly. We were thrilled because you opened a door for a lot of us romance authors (like me) who were eager to infuse more suspense into our books. At the time, many of us were meeting with resistance from editors who feared we would lose our audiences. But you proved that the audience would follow. Any deep background you care to share about what inspired you to write that book or how you got it published?
Catherine: Lots of writers had branched out before I got into the FBI series. The Cove came about when I was at home for a family reunion. My sister, who’d never done anything like this before, walked up to me and asked, “Have you ever heard of a little town on the coast of Oregon called the Cove? They make the world’s greatest ice cream, and bad stuff happens.” I went en pointe. The Cove marked the first of the FBI series, but at that time I had no idea that this book was a kick-off for a series. It simply evolved. Because of its success, Putnam wanted me to drop historical romances and stick to suspense thrillers. No way was that going to happen: I love historicals, the humor, the mysteries, the history, the cat races, for heaven’s sake! I struck a deal with my publisher: One historical romance, then one suspense thriller. You said you were a happy camper—move over, I’m right with you.
Jayne:There’s a bit of a psychic vibe in many of your books. Where does that come from, and why do you like to plot with that element?
Catherine: People are fascinated with psychic stuff. Just look at TV shows and movies—Medium, Ghost Whisperer, The X-Files, Lost, and anything with vampires, like Twilight, The Vampire Diaries. And even Harry Potter. We all love stuff we can’t explain, stuff that’s different from what’s real in our daily lives. From one woo-woo lover to another, ain’t it great?! Jayne:What is the future of the FBI series? Any plans for firing up a new suspense series?
Catherine: I’m now writing the fifteenth (count ’em, fifteen) FBI, titled Split Second. That's a whole lot of Savich and Sherlock. My prayer is that I will realize when enough is enough. So far, things still look good.
Jayne: Did you really grow up on a horse farm in Texas?
Catherine: Yep, quarter horses.
(Photo of Catherine Coulter © Charles Bush)
(Photo of Jayne Ann Krentz © Sigrid Estrada) Read more
Outliers: The Story of Success
by Malcolm Gladwell
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Review & Description
In this stunning new audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.
Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate. (2009)Amazon Best of the Month, November 2008: Now that he's gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky."
Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how a pilots' culture impacts their crash record, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math. But there's more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples--and in more that delve into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps--Gladwell invites conversations about the complex ways privilege manifests in our culture. He leaves us pondering the gifts of our own history, and how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential. --Mari Malcolm
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Monday, June 21, 2010
Private
by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro, Peter Hermann
(3)Release Date: June 28, 2010
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Former Marine and CIA agent Jack Morgan inherits his father's renowned security and detective business--along with a case load that tests him to the breaking point. Getting to the bottom of an NFL gambling scandal and an unsolved LAPD investigation into 18 school girl slayings would be enough. On top of all that, Morgan takes on solving the horrific murder of his best friend's wife.
As Morgan fights the urge to exact brutal revenge on that killer, he has to navigate a workplace imbroglio that could blow the roof off his elite agency. And it's an especially explosive situation . . . because the love affair is his own. Read more
Atlas Shrugged (New Edition)
by Ayn Rand, Scott Brick
407 days in the top 100 (2083)Buy new:
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Ayn Rand's magnum opus, an electrifying moral defense of capitalism and free enterprise which launched an ideology and a movement is tremendous in scope and breathtaking in its suspense. The publication of this work in 1957 gained Rand an instant following and became a phenomenon. One man sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike. Is he a destroyer or a liberator? And why does he fight his hardest battle not against his enemies but against the woman he loves? Read more
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Wicked Appetite (Diesel)
by Janet Evanovich, Lorelei King
7 days in the top 100 Release Date: September 14, 2010
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Number one bestselling author Janet Evanovich has created a brand-new heroine in Elizabeth Tucker: Marblehead resident, bakery worker, unlucky in love…and descendant of witches. Life has had a pleasant predictability to it for Lizzy. That is until a tall, black-haired, dark eyed man shows up in a black sports car, touches her hand and leaves a burn mark. His name is Gerwulf Grimoire, also known as Wulf. And he wants what Lizzy has: knowledge. Almost simultaneously comes another man, a different man, but this one just as dangerous in his own way. His name is Diesel. And he wants several things Lizzy has, only one of them being knowledge. Unbeknownst to Lizzy, she has the ability to find "empowered objects." Turns out, a collection of stones that represent the seven deadly sins have made their way to Marblehead. Nothing bad can happen if the stones are all separated. But if they are grouped together, they have the power to unleash hell on earth. Wulf wants them. Diesel wants to stop him. And Lizzy is the key to all of it. Can Lizzy stay one step ahead of two men who both want her…both body and soul? Can she juggle her job at Dazzle's bakery and still get the muffins out in time every morning? Can she stop the end of the world from occuring? For Elizabeth Tucker, cupcakes, 4 a.m. alarm clock settings, and Armageddon are all in a day's work….
Read moreGreat American Stories: Ten Unabridged Classics
by Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, Mark Twain, Patrick Fraley
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These ten classic stories from four of America's greatest authors of the 19th and early 20th century were selected for their literary importance as well as their dramatic oral qualities. The stories include Mark Twain’s "The One-Million Pound Bank Note," "A Visit to Niagara," and "A Mysterious Visit;" Stephen Crane’s "The Blue Hotel;" Ambrose Bierce’s "The Eyes of the Panther;" and Jack London’s "The Love of Life" and "To Build a Fire." Read more
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Spies of the Balkans
by Alan Furst, Daniel Gerroll
(35)Publication Date: June 15, 2010
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“Furst's books are like Chopin's nocturnes: timeless, transcendent, universal.
One does not so much read them as fall under their spell.”
—Los Angeles Times, on The Spies of Warsaw
Greece, 1940. Not sunny vacation Greece: northern Greece, Macedonian Greece, Balkan Greece—the city of Salonika. In that ancient port, with its wharves and brothels, dark alleys and Turkish mansions, a tense political drama is being played out. On the northern border, the Greek army has blocked Mussolini's invasion, pushing his divisions back to Albania—the first defeat for an ally of the Nazis, who have conquered most of Europe. But Adolf Hitler will not tolerate such defiance: in the spring he will invade the Balkans, and the people of Salonika can only watch and wait.
At the center of this drama is Constantine “Costa” Zannis, a senior police official, head of an office that handles special “political” cases. As war approaches, the spies begin to circle, from the Turkish legation, from the German secret service, a travel writer sent by the British, and others—from Bulgaria? From Italy? Nobody knows. But Costa Zannis must deal with them all. And he is soon in the game, securing an escape route—from Berlin to Salonika, and then to a tenuous safety in Turkey, a route protected by German lawyers, Balkan detectives, and Hungarian gangsters. And hunted by the Gestapo.
With extraordinary authenticity, a superb cast of characters, and heart-stopping tension as it moves from Salonika to Paris to Berlin and back, Spies of the Balkans is a stunning novel about a man who risks everything to fight back against the world's evil.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Louis L'Amour Collection
by Louis L'Amour, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings
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This collection, presented in a wood gift box, gathers seven popular Louis L'Amour stories, performed by a star-studded cast. Willie Nelson reads six and one is fully dramatized by Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and the late Waylon Jennings, who together were known as The Highwaymen. The collection includes:Riding for the Brand, The Black Rock Coffin Makers, Dutchman’s Flat, The Nester and the Piute, Mistakes Can Kill You, Trail to Pie Town, and Big Medicine.
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Secret of Self Realization, The (CD)
by Eckhart Tolle, Eckhart Teachings Inc., Tora Design
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Eckhart Tolle gives you the key to realization, the awakening of your spiritual essence. His teaching is a doorway into a new state of consciousness that is inseparable from the eternal present. In clear and concise words, Eckhart explains a simple way of anchoring yourself in the present moment. From there, with tender, yet razor-sharp words, he points to those unconscious patterns that keep you from accessing the deeper intelligence within. The Secret of Self Realization also contains questions and answers relating to: o How to communicate the power of now to children. o How to deal with grief and loss. o Traumatic events o And more The Now is not abstract. It can become a felt reality. - Eckhart Tolle Read more
Thursday, June 17, 2010
NPR Driveway Moments Baseball: Radio Stories That Won't Let You Go
by NPR, Neal Conan
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Stories from the National Public Radio archives honor America's national pastime.
Stories so compelling you'll stay in your car to hear them through—even if you're sitting in your own driveway. Peabody-winning Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan presents tales about the big leagues and the little, the fans in the stands, the players, the history, and the lore.
Highlights include commentaries from some of the game's most recognized authorities, a look back at some of baseball's most important figures (Jackie Robinson, Joltin' Joe DiMaggio), and colorful segments about the game's unexpected delights, from the Hidden Ball Trick to the "All You Can Eat" option at Dodger Stadium. Read more
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