Hour of the Assassins: A Novel


Andrew Kaplan - 1987
    His atrocities were unspeakable, and among his victims were the wife and child of a man named Wasserman, who was forced to watch them die. Mengele survived the war, disappearing into hiding in South America, and Wasserman ran too—fleeing to America to make a fortune in pornography. Now he is dying of cancer, but before he goes, he wants to see Mengele dead.   To hunt the evil doctor, he recruits John Caine, an ex-CIA agent whose time in Vietnam gave him his own close-up view of evil. Seeking the Angel of Death in the jungles of South America, Caine discovers a sinister conspiracy code-named Starfish and realizes that Mengele is only the beginning.

Career Advice for Uniquely Ambitious People: A decision-making guide for uncommon success


Eric Jorgenson - 2018
    It's not likely to be advice you'll hear from anyone else. It is only about an hour to read, but the concepts will ring in your ears for years. [From the Book's Introduction] Many people have been incredibly generous to me throughout the first decade of my career. To return that good karma, I try to pay it forward… to be open and available for people who ask me for insight or advice or just have questions about where to go next. I find myself having many conversations about career decisions. Recently, many of these conversations have repeating many of the same pieces of advice. Over the years I’ve gotten enough positive feedback that publishing these thoughts seems worthwhile. After our conversations I’m often told that this advice was unique, counterintuitive, and valuable. That is a high compliment. And if more people would think the same, then I should put these thought somewhere more scalable and accessible. So, I’ve written them down here.

Poetry 101: From Shakespeare and Rupi Kaur to Iambic Pentameter and Blank Verse, Everything You Need to Know about Poetry


Susan Dalzell - 2018
    Poetry never goes out of style. An ancient writing form found in civilizations across the world, poetry continues to inform the way we write now, whether we realize it or not—especially in social media—with its focus on brevity and creating the greatest possible impact with the fewest words. Poetry 101 is your companion to the wonderful world of meter and rhyme, and walks you through the basics of poetry. From Shakespeare and Chaucer, to Maya Angelou and Rupi Kaur, you’ll explore the different styles and methods of writing, famous poets, and poetry movements and concepts—and even find inspiration for creating poems of your own. Whether you are looking to better understand the poems you read, or you want to tap into your creative side to write your own, Poetry 101 gives you everything you need!

The Black Dress


Deborah Moggach - 2021
    But then, so are plenty of other people. And while the loneliness can be overwhelming, surely she'll find a party somewhere?Pru's husband has walked out, leaving her alone to contemplate her future. She's missing not so much him, but the life they once had - picnicking on the beach with small children, laughing together, nestling up like spoons in the cutlery drawer as they sleep. Now there's just a dip on one side of the bed and no-one to fill it.In a daze, Pru goes off to a friend's funeral. Usual old hymns, words of praise and a eulogy but...it doesn't sound like the friend Pru knew. And it isn't. She's gone to the wrong service. Everyone was very welcoming, it was - oddly - a laugh, and more excitement than she's had for ages. So she buys a little black dress in a charity shop and thinks, now I'm all set, why not go to another? I mean, people don't want to make a scene at a funeral, do they? No-one will challenge her - and what harm can it do?

Sins of Our Fathers


Shawn Lawrence Otto - 2014
    A fierce, elegant exploration of race, money, and the American Dream. Finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and winner of the NE MN Book Award.Sins of Our Fathers tells the story of an arson inside an embezzlement inside an assault inside a banking scheme, all the way down to the core of the book, which is an unflinching look at America’s original sin: five hundred years of physical and spiritual violence against Native peoples. Crimes that made our country.Small-town banker J.W. has been caught embezzling funds to support his gambling addiction. He is on the verge of losing everything when his boss offers him a scoundrel’s path to redemption: sabotage a competing, Native businessman named Johnny Eagle.A single father, Eagle recently returned to the Northern Minnesota reservation, leaving a high-powered banking job in hopes of simultaneously empowering his community and saving his troubled son Jacob—but his actions threaten the local town business owners.When J.W. moves onto the reservation and begins to work his way close to Eagle, hundreds of years of racial animosities rise to the surface, inexorably driving the characters toward a Shakespearean and shattering conclusion."Masterfully written. It flows so beautifully that you don't realize you're in the middle of reading's version of rocky river rapids until it's too late to escape."—PopcornReads“Screenwriter-turned-novelist Shawn Lawrence Otto pushes his perfectly crafted characters to their limits. The result is a literary tour de force and a psychological thriller that hooked me from the first page and carried me through to its stunning conclusion.”—Joel Surnow, creator of 24"A classic on par with To Kill A Mockingbird."—J.D. Colbert, past president and CEO of Native American Bank

Lost, Stolen or Shredded: Stories of Missing Works of Art and Literature


Rick Gekoski - 2013
    Rick Gekoski tells the very human stories that lie behind some of the greatest losses to artistic culture - and addresses the questions such disappearances raise. Some of the items are stolen (the Mona Lisa), some destroyed (like Philip Larkin's diaries, shredded, then burnt, on his dying request) and some were lost before they even existed, like the career of the brilliant art deco architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which foundered amid a lack of cash - but behind all of them lies an often surprising story which reveals a lot about what art means to us. Gekoski explores in depth the greater questions these tremendous losses raise - such as the rights artists and authors have over their own work, the importance of the search for perfection in creativity, and what motivated people to queue to see the empty space where the Mona Lisa once hung in the Louvre.

Comeback Love


Peter Golden - 2012
    Now, decades later, Gordon is a former globe-trotting consultant with a grown son, an ex-wife, and an overwhelming desire to see Glenna again. Though she’s stunned when Gordon walks into her Manhattan office, Glenna agrees to accompany him for a drink. As the two head out into the snow-swept city, they rediscover the passion that once drew them together—before it tore them apart. And as the evening unfolds, Gordon will finally reveal the true reason for his return. . . . Comeback Love is an evocative journey into the hearts of two lovers who came of age in the 1960s, and who never truly let each other go. Plumbing the depths of youth, regret, and desire, Peter Golden deftly illuminates the bonds that mysteriously endure in the face of momentous change.

The Prince and the Pauper, Part 1.


Mark Twain - 2009
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Israel, My Beloved


Kay Arthur - 1996
    Kay Arthur's dramatic, epic-style novel is now available in softcover with a beautiful new cover and a historical timeline that corresponds with the fascinating retelling of Israel's story. History comes alive as Kay begins with the tragic mistakes that led to Israel's captivity by Babylon and takes readers all the way to the modern-day miracles of triumph against all odds. A heartwarming novel filled with adventure and suspense, Israel, My Beloved is an incredible testimony of God's great love and faithfulness even in Israel's darkest hour.

Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse


Faith Sullivan - 2015
    A complicated marriage to a boorish husband; an early widowhood spent longing for her congressman lover; the loss of her child, a shell shocked WWI hero — her road has not been easy. But somehow she manages to find moments of grace, more often than not through the genial voice of P.G. Wodehouse, the beloved British novelist. Spanning the first half of the twentieth century, Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse celebrates the power of great novels — from Austen to Chekhov — to transform, console, and teach us the value of friendship and love.We first traveled to Harvester, Minnesota, twenty-five years ago in the bookclub favorite and New York Times best-selling novel, The Cape Ann. This new book, which brings us home to that small town on the prairie along with all of the wonderful characters who live there, is sure to be a classic.

Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart


Krista Halverson - 2016
    It interweaves essays and poetry from dozens of writers associated with the shop--Allen Ginsberg, Anaïs Nin, Ethan Hawke, Robert Stone and Jeanette Winterson, among others--with hundreds of never-before-seen archival pieces. It includes photographs of James Baldwin, William Burroughs and Langston Hughes, plus a foreword by the celebrated British novelist Jeanette Winterson and an epilogue by Sylvia Whitman, the daughter of the store’s founder, George Whitman. The book has been edited by Krista Halverson, director of the newly founded Shakespeare and Company publishing house.

C. S. Lewis' Little Book of Wisdom: Meditations on Faith, Life, Love, and Literature


C.S. Lewis - 2018
    S. Lewis’ works have become timeless classics for adults and children around the world. Here in one concise volume is the essence of his thought on subjects ranging from love and faith to ethics and morality and myth and literature that will throw open the windows of the soul and provide readers with bite-sized nuggets of wisdom and inspiration from one of the best-loved writers of the 20th century. This lovely little gift book will provide sustenance, wisdom, and hope for both believers and seekers. And, most importantly, it will provide an entry point for those unfamiliar with Lewis that will make them want to explore his fiction and nonfiction works. Selections from C.S. Lewis’ Little Book of Wisdom:“If God had granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where should I be now?” “Surely arrested development consists not in refusing to lose old things, but in failing to add new things…” “Do not dare not to dare.” “We are mirrors whose brightness is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us.” “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

One Day Closer: A Mother's Quest to Bring Her Kidnapped Daughter Home


Lorinda Stewart - 2017
    This is the story of how, for 460 days, I fought to save her and bring her home. “This book is impossible to put down. As inspiring as it is bone-chilling, this is an incredible story of hope and joy, grit and gumption by a determined mother who will stop at nothing to save her daughter.” —Jann Arden, singer-songwriter and bestselling author of Falling Backwards “A gripping, mother’s-eye view of Amanda Lindhout’s kidnapping ordeal...For any parent who has ever worried about, advocated for, and deeply loved a child, Lorinda Stewart’s honest, lion-hearted account will leave you both stunned and uplifted.” —Sara Corbett, coauthor of A House in the SkyOn August 23, 2008, Amanda Lindhout was kidnapped outside Mogadishu in Somalia. The kidnappers’ demand was simple: pay millions or Amanda would be killed. For the next 460 days, Amanda’s mother, Lorinda Stewart, did everything in her power to get her daughter back alive. A brave, small-town mother with no experience in hostage negotiations, Lorinda was called upon by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to be the lead communicator with “Adam”—the Somali man who identified himself as the English-speaking negotiator for Amanda’s kidnappers. In a secret “war room” in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, Lorinda joined forces with federal officers and began answering calls from Adam, establishing a fragile rapport of trust with the man who held her daughter’s fate in his hands. She learned how to demand POLs (proofs of life) from Amanda’s hostage takers and even how to react to “bad calls”—getting through them despite having to listen to her daughter’s desperate cries for help and fearing Amanda was being abused and tortured. What was supposed to be a short negotiation stretched on, and weeks became months. As negotiations broke down, Lorinda found herself increasingly on her own. But she never gave up hope, even when the phone calls became more traumatic. Faced with the terrible possibility of her daughter’s death, Lorinda decided to bring in a private security company and raise money from donors to support the cause of bringing Amanda home. But would it be enough? One Day Closer is the true story of one mother’s heroic perseverance in the face of despair, and of the hope and healing to be found beyond trauma. It is also, above all, a tribute to the extraordinary power of a mother’s love.

What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most


Elizabeth BenedictMargo Jefferson - 2013
    The contributors of these thirty-one original pieces all written specifically for this book include Pulitzer Prize winners, perennial bestselling novelists, and well-known NPR commentators. Joyce Carol Oates writes about quilts her mother sewed that were a comfort when her husband died; Rita Dove remembers a box of nail polish that taught her to paint her nails in stripes and polka dots; Lisa See, daughter of writer Carolyn See, writes about the gift of writing; Cecilia Munoz remembers the wok her mother gave her and a lifetime of home-cooked family meals; Judith Hillman Paterson revisits the year of sobriety her mother bequeathed to her when Judith was nine years old, the year before her mother died of alcoholism. Collectively, the pieces have a force that feels as elemental as the tides: outpourings of lightness and darkness; simple joy and devastating grief; mother love and daughter love; mother love and daughter rage. In these stirring words we find that every gift, no matter how modest, tells the story of a powerful bond.

Reading in Bed: Personal Essays on the Glories of Reading


Steven Gilbar - 1995
    Twenty-two essays spanning five centuries, along with author notes and full bibliographies, provide an insight into one of humanity's greatest solitary diversions - reading.