"When I have a little money, I buy books. And if any is left, I buy food and clothing."--Desiderius ErasmusThose who share Erasmus's love of those curious bundles of paper bound together between hard or soft covers know exactly how he felt. These are the people who can spend hours browsing through a bookstore, completely oblivious not only to the passage of time but to everything else around them, the people for whom buying books is a necessity, not a luxury. A Passion for Books is a celebration of that love, a collection of sixty classic and contemporary essays, stories, lists, poems, quotations, and cartoons on the joys of reading, appreciating, and collecting books.This enriching collection leads off with science-fiction great Ray Bradbury's Foreword, in which he remembers his penniless days pecking out Fahrenheit 451 on a rented typewriter, conjuring up a society so frightened of art that it burns its books. This struggle--financial and...

In the late 7th Century, the High King of Ireland is killed at night in the middle of his compound. Who killed him is not in question - there are unimpeachable witnesses that point directly to the clan chieftain responsible. Dubh Duin is, after all, found by the High King's guards in the High King's bed chamber holding the murder weapon. But with impending civil war in the balance, the motive for the murder becomes of paramount importance. The Chief Brehon of Ireland asks Fidelma of Cashel - sister to the King of Muman and a dailagh - to investigate. What her investigations reveal is an intricate web of conspiracy and deception that threatens to unbalance the five kingdoms and send them spiralling into a violent and bloody civil war and religious conflict. And it's up to Fidelma to not only see to justice but to private the violent fracturing of an increasingly fragile peace.

Open Season is a thrilling, eye-opening insider's view of a little-known facet of the political campaign process: the multi-million dollar opposition research industry, or “oppo” as it's called. For sixteen years authors Alan Huffman and Michael Rejebian have been digging up dirt on political candidates across the country, from presidential appointees to local school board hopefuls. Open Season is a fascinating, riveting, sometimes funny, sometimes shocking look at the unseen side of political campaigning—a remarkable chronicle of a year in the life of two guys on a dedicated hunt to uncover the buried truths that every American voter has a right to know.

'The face of war is changing. The other side doesn't play by the rules much anymore. There's thinking, in some circles, that we need to play by a different set of rules too…' James Bond, in his early thirties and already a veteran of the Afghan War, has been recruited to a new organization. Conceived in the post-9/11 world, it operates independent of MI5, MI6 and the Ministry of Defense, its very existence deniable. Its aim: To protect the Realm, by any means necessary. A Night Action alert calls James Bond away from dinner with a beautiful woman. Headquarters has decrypted an electronic whisper about an attack scheduled for later in the week: Casualties estimated in the thousands, British interests adversely affected. And Agent 007 has been given carte blanche.

(Land of Elyon #4) SUMMARY: Before the walls went up...there were adventures. Follow young Thomas Warvold and his brother Roland, as they journey through Elyon, discovering new mysteries, new challenges, and magical creatures that will change the course of their fate...and the fate of their land. From a humble and unexplained childhood in a very strange orphanage to a series of fearless escapes to a quest full of riddles and exploration, Thomas and Roland find that their identityand the mysterious tattoos on their kneesare linked to a much greater history than they ever would have guessed. One brother, Thomas, is destined for adventure on land, while the other brother, Roland, is destined for adventure on sea. But before this happens, they must journey into the mist... and find the truth about both their past and their future.

Auckland Island is a godforsaken place in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 285 miles south of New Zealand. With year-round freezing rain and howling winds, it is one of the most forbidding places in the world. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death.In 1864 Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of the island. Utterly alone in a dense coastal forest, plagued by stinging blowflies and relentless rain, Captain Musgrave—rather than succumb to this dismal fate—inspires his men to take action. With barely more than their bare hands, they build a cabin and, remarkably, a forge, where they manufacture their tools. Under Musgrave's leadership, they band together and remain civilized through even the darkest and most terrifying days.Incredibly, at the same time on the opposite end of the island—twenty miles of impassable cliffs and chasms away—the Invercauld wrecks...

A novel based on real events and newly declassified documents, Magic City is to Miami what L.A. Confidential and Chinatown were to Los Angeles. It evokes a time in our nation's history when powerful men were willing to do whatever they thought necessary to achieve their goals.A simple black and white photograph taken during the 1964 Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston fight on Miami Beach may hold the key to a horrific, politically-motivated crime forty-two years earlier. After it suddenly appears on display at a trendy Miami gallery opening, the photograph is burned in an act of arson that sets off a modern-day murder spree, reaching from the quiet neighborhoods of Miami to the back corridors of the White House. What the killer didn't know is that there is one remaining copy. When it falls into Thorn's hands, he and everyone he loves become the target of madmen and trained killers, each of whom has his own powerful motive to see the photograph...

David doesn't believe the stories of the Vila, until he meets a woman deep in the woods who tempts him beyond all sanity and fosters an obsession he can't fight.

Who rescues the rescuer when there is no 911 for the soul? Blood is... "Never let rescuer number one become victim number two" is one of the very first lessons Victoria Scotts, "Tori" to her friends and family, learns as an EMT. Blood is... Caught between family legend and her cousin, Nina, ten years her senior, a musician and a legend in her own right. Tori may be the oldest of her siblings, but never first ... not with her family, not with the woman she lives with. Blood is... Despite the censure of the mother she supports emotionally and financially, Tori forges her own path as an EMT in the New York City 911 system. In the process she discovers a true calling for what she does, a deep and abiding love for the city and people she serves, and perhaps for the first time in her life, after a series of dangerously charged erotic encounters, a real connection to someone who cares for her because of who she is, and not only for what she can do. Blood. When a good faith attempt to render aid, comfort, and compassion goes horribly wrong, leaving Tori sick and scarred, she must question the validity of her relationships, the ties of flesh and those that transcend it, her faith in the innate goodness of people. Hardest of all, she must face for herself the natural, inevitable...why.

Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire is the first book in a spellbinding fantasy adventure series by screenwriter John August.Some trails lead to magic. Some lead to danger. As Arlo looked around, the walls of his room began to vanish, revealing a moonlit forest. Only his bed remained, and the frame of his window, through which he saw the girl. The world on her side of the glass was sparkling with silver and gold, like a palace made of autumn leaves. She looked off to her right. Someone was coming. Her words came in an urgent whisper: "If I can see you, they can see you . . . Be careful, Arlo Finch." Arlo Finch is a newcomer to Pine Mountain, Colorado, a tiny town of mystery and magic, but he's already attracted the attention of dark and ancient forces. At first he thinks these increasingly strange and frightening occurrences are just part of being in Rangers, the mountain scouting troop where he learns how to harness the...