She has some help from her psychic sister, Laura, and the other residents of the high desert compound she lives in outside of Palm Springs, California. Native Americans, antique Meissen figurines, and a musical festival are all part of this best selling series. If you like food, dogs, quirky characters, and guessing whodunit, along with mouth-watering recipes, you don't want to miss this boxed set!

    . . [with] new information, photographs and first-hand accounts." --FlypastDuring the 1950s, plans were being drawn at North American Aviation in Southern California for an incredible Mach-3 strategic bomber. The concept was born as a result of General Curtis LeMay's desire for a heavy bomber with the weapon load and range of the subsonic B-52 and a top speed in excess of the supersonic medium bomber, the B-58 Hustler. However, in April 1961, Defense Secretary McNamara stopped the production go-ahead for the B-70 because of rapid cost escalation and the USSR's newfound ability to destroy aircraft at extremely high altitude using either missiles or the new Mig-25 fighter. Nevertheless, in 1963 plans for the production of three high-speed research aircraft were approved and construction proceeded. In September 1964 the first Valkyrie, now re-coded A/V-1, took to the air for the first time and in October went supersonic.This book is the most detailed description of the design, engineering and research that went into this astounding aircraft. It is full of unpublished details, photographs and firsthand accounts from those closely associated with the project. Although never put into full production, this giant six-engined aircraft became famous for its breakthrough technology, and the spectacular images captured on a fatal air-to-air photo shoot when an observing Starfighter collided with Valkyrie A/V-2 which crashed into the Mojave Desert."Well-illustrated with numerous diagrams and black and white photographs, the book provides an interesting insight into one of the so-called 'white elephant' projects of the 1960s." --Jets Monthly

    He normally steers clear of cases involving family affairs, but the old woman is desperate to prevent a femme fatale from taking advantage of her young son and a large fortune. With the help of a fat envelope stuffed with cash, Max agrees to at least give it a cursory examination.But once Max catches the scent of the mystey, his curiosity and need for justice take over. Soon it’s unclear whether he’s the pursuer or the pursued until he realizes that he’s put at risk the people he loves most in the world. As the dead bodies pile up, the twists and turns explode into a stunning climax where a monstrous secret is finally unmasked and innocent lives are forever ruined.The Ties That Bind is a blistering mystery thriller by the author of the highly praised Stray Cat Blues. Look for the next Max Plank Mystery, Devil’s Arcade, coming soon!

    With no money and a missing father, Pati has no choice but to settle down in a small, gold mining town of Blessings, California. Maybe the rough and tumble place could use a skilled seamstress…Pete Jones has spent a lifetime fighting. Wounded in battle during the Mexican War, Pete is left with shaking hands, nightmares, and a sour disposition—but his new job protecting gold claims in Blessings just might be what he needs to kick the anguish of his past.When Pati’s new business is robbed, she seeks help from the ornery yet honorable Pete, who doesn’t seem too keen on sticking his nose into her business. But Pete can’t seem to say no to the vibrant, fiery, oh so beautiful lass, which may spell trouble for his plans to stay lonely and single.As the town begins to grow around them, and as trouble starts to slither in, Pati and Pete are desperate to find a love more valuable than all the gold in the mountain.But can Pete be a man worthy of Pati’s love, and can Pati convince Pete she is destined to be his blessed bride?

    But beneath the vibrant work ethic of its Welch citizens lies an insidious network of superstitions.A missing boy first brings these dark undercurrents to light. Then young Asher Witherow falls under the spell of an unorthodox apprentice minister, stirring a whirlpool of suspicion and outrage. Soon Asher finds himself trapped in a nightmarish crucible, all the more excruciating because he himself could end it if he could only find the strength of will. This is a lesson the missing boy has taught him, and what he understands instinctively from the alluring Anna Flood, new to Nortonville, who with her raw sensuality and independence seems to offer some hope of redemption or even escape.In this powerful debut from a young writer of stunning talent, M. Allen Cunningham takes us into a time and place at once gritty and magical, when the future seems filled with promise but where the day’s labor is bone breaking, numbing and always dangerous.Gorgeously written, historically authentic, The Green Age of Asher Witherow is a novel of tested loyalties, of condemnation and redemption. The characters’ deep emotional lives are complex and vivid, fluctuating from the doomed to the transcendent. As he unpacks his heart, Asher comes to realize that all his early traumas have somehow bonded him to the land surrounding Mount Diablo and infused his life with an inward wealth—a treasure at which we can only wonder.

    Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force.In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale. The quake resulted from a rupture in a part of the San Andreas fault, which lies underneath the earth's surface along the northern coast of California. Lasting little more than a minute, the earthquake wrecked 490 blocks, toppled a total of 25,000 buildings, broke open gas mains, cut off electric power lines throughout the Bay area, and effectively destroyed the gold rush capital that had stood there for a half century.Perhaps more significant than the tremors and rumbling, which affected a swatch of California more than 200 miles long, were the fires that took over the city for three days, leaving chaos and horror in its wake. The human tragedy included the deaths of upwards of 700 people, with more than 250,000 left homeless. It was perhaps the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.Simon Winchester brings his inimitable storytelling abilities -- as well as his unique understanding of geology -- to this extraordinary event, exploring not only what happened in northern California in 1906 but what we have learned since about the geological underpinnings that caused the earthquake in the first place. But his achievement is even greater: he positions the quake's significance along the earth's geological timeline and shows the effect it had on the rest of twentieth-century California and American history.A Crack in the Edge of the World is the definitive account of the San Francisco earthquake. It is also a fascinating exploration of a legendary event that changed the way we look at the planet on which we live.

    The president moves fast to prevent panic across the nation. The government receives an ominous threat from an anonymous Middle Eastern source: similar attacks will be launched upon other American cities unless all aid to Israel is terminated, virtually isolating the Jewish State and allowing its Arab neighbors to overrun it. The FBI, CIA and other federal organizations are called to action. A crack U. S. Israeli team is given the daunting assignment of uncovering the source of the threat and the identity of the next targeted city against a five day deadline. The team: Lara, a young female FBI computer whiz and Uri, a charismatic male Mossad field agent. Theirs is a breakneck chase across the country in a race against time and the unknown Islamist terrorists.

    

    He leaves behind a gold-flecked rock and a vial of toxic mercury. He is a misfit in the modern world, a throwback to the Gold Rush days.A venture capitalist--whose gold country is Silicon Valley--hires forensic geologists Cassie Oldfield and Walter Shaws to track his missing brother.Following one of the 'lost rivers' of California, Cassie and Walter plunge into the dark history of the legendary lands, into the dark past of the brothers, into a poisonous sibling feud that threatens both lives and the land.And they are not the only ones on the hunt.

    Kenner, New York Times Bestselling Author (on A TASTE OF YOU, The Epicurean Book 1) Can beautiful food photographer Catherine Kelly and billionaire gourmand William Lambourne finally find their deliciously ever after? Cat and William have returned to California, this time for a whirlwind wedding weekend. William’s glorious Napa Valley estate is the perfect setting for the monumental event but as the guests start arriving—including ex-rockstar-turned-celebrity-chef Hutch Morrison, William’s cousin Zoe Smith, and a few more surprises—the build-up to the big celebration isn’t quite what the prefect pair was hoping for. Now that the greatest threat to her future is behind bars back in Chicago, Cat should be carefree and blissfully happy. And she is…mostly. But there’s something going on with her handsome lover and he’s not talking…or giving her the kind of attention she craves. For William, there is no question that Catherine is the love of his life and, now that he’s hung up his tailored suits in favor of low-slung jeans and work boots, true contentment is finally within his reach. But there are things—big things—that neither of them are talking about. And if they don’t open up, William and Catherine could lose everything. Delectable and undeniably sexy, The Icing on the Cake is the perfect finish to Cat and William’s sweet love story. ** Contains Adult content **

    Mining there, as everywhere, was not an easy life, but regardless of the risk, there was something about being underground, the lure of hitting a deep vein of silver. The promise of good money and the intense bonds of friendship brought men back year after year. Mining is about being a man and a fighter in a job where tomorrow always brings the hope of a big score. On May 2, 1972, 174 miners entered Sunshine Mine on their daily quest for silver. Aboveground, safety engineer Bob Launhardt sat in his office, filing his usual mountain of federal and state paperwork. From his office window he could see the air shafts that fed fresh air into the mine, more than a mile below the surface. The air shafts usually emitted only tiny coughs of exhaust; unlike dangerously combustible coal mines, Sunshine was a fireproof hardrock mine, nothing but cold, dripping wet stone. There were many safety concerns at Sunshine, but fire wasn’t one of them. The men and the company swore the mine was unburnable, so when thick black smoke began pouring from one of the air shafts, Launhardt was as amazed as he was alarmed. When the alarm sounded, less than half of the dayshift was able to return to the surface. The others were trapped underground, too deep in the mine to escape. Scores of miners died almost immediately, frozen in place as they drilled, ate lunch, napped, or chatted. No one knew what was burning or where the smoke had come from. But in one of the deepest corners of the mine, Ron Flory and Tom Wilkinson were left alone and in total darkness, surviving off a trickle of fresh air from a borehole. The miners’ families waited and prayed, while Launhardt, reeling from the shock of losing so many men on his watch, refused to close up the mine or give up the search until he could be sure that no one was left underground.In The Deep Dark, Gregg Olsen looks beyond the intensely suspenseful story of the fire and rescue to the wounded heart of Kellogg, a quintessential company town that has never recovered from its loss. A vivid and haunting chapter in the history of working-class America, this is one of the great rescue stories of the twentieth century.From the Hardcover edition.

    At present, Lake Powell is less than half full. Bathtub rings ten stories tall encircle its blue water; boat ramps and marinas lie stranded and useless. To refill it would require surplus water—but there is no surplus: burgeoning populations and thirsty crops consume every drop of the Colorado River. Add to this picture the looming effects of global warming and drought, and the scenario becomes bleaker still. Dead Pool, featuring rarely seen historical photographs, explains why America built the dam that made Lake Powell and others like it and then allowed its citizens to become dependent on their benefits, which were always temporary. Writing for a wide audience, Powell shows us exactly why an urgent threat during the first half of the twenty-first century will come not from the rising of the seas but from the falling of the reservoirs.

    These were the people who went up to the hills and came back staggering under the weight of the treasure they carried, and who began transforming San Francisco from a shantytown into one of the most brilliant cities in the world. This novel tells the unforgettable story of how these people walked into one of the most spectacular adventures in the world’s history. They saw the first samples of gold brought to the quartermaster, who said they were flakes of yellow mica. They were there when the first people who saw the gold were laughed at and called “crackbrains.” And they laid the foundation of the golden empire before the first forty-niners got there. Some of them could not meet the demands of this strange new world; others grew stronger and shared the greatness of the country they had helped build. Calico Palace is their story brought to vivid life.

    Writing in the form of a journal, Rick Bass brings a lyric imagination to the oil geologist’s craft, measuring people’s short lives and relationships against the seemingly immutable history of the earth, showing mountains and forests that do not move while we are free to race across them, living our lives in the ultimate freedom of speed. To dig for oil is a way to dig deep into human experience, a kind of subterranean exploration of self. And nothing escapes this writer’s eye or imagination. In lean, considered prose, Bass’s essays and notes offer fascinating insights into the oil industry while skillfully painting the picture of a young man on the verge of adulthood. Oil Notes successfully conveys the excitement of possibility—a stimulating career, the pursuit of a wonderful woman, the beautiful mystery of the earth—that so addresses and captivates us in our own lives. Bass provides a new introduction for this edition reflecting how much—and how little—has changed since his youth in the oil industry.

    Includes these Hannah Montana hits in E-Z Play notation: The Best of Both Worlds * Find Yourself in You * I Got Nerve * Just like You * Life's What You Make It * Nobody's Perfect * One in a Million * The Other Side of Me * We Got the Party.Many other Hannah Montana editions also available