The Last Sketch


Gosia Nealon - 2021
    When they cross paths in war-torn Europe, will their destinies lead to ruin… or victory over evil? Poland, 1944. Wanda Odwaga will never stop resisting. As the Nazis occupy her beloved homeland, the twenty-three-year-old artist vows to do whatever it takes to help the underground movement mobilize against Hitler’s forces. But she’s devastated when the Gestapo storms her house in search of rebel leaders, killing her heroic father and leaving the face of his murderer forever etched in her mind. New York. Finn Keller longs to balance the scales. Having escaped Germany with his mother as a teen, he’s disgusted his estranged twin brother has become a ruthless Nazi henchman with a vicious reputation. So when a covert government agency approaches him with a dangerous undercover mission, Finn willingly risks his life to play his part in turning the tide of war. Still grieving her unforgivable loss, Wanda’s thirst for revenge takes an unexpected leap forward when she once again encounters her father’s killer. And as Finn dives deeply into the role of impersonating his cold-hearted sibling, he’s captivated by the beautiful Polish woman frozen in front of him… her eyes blazing with the promise of murder. Can these two players in a deadly game survive the ravages of a sadistic conflict?

If You Give a Mouse an iPhone: A Cautionary Tail


Ann Droyd - 2014
    And if he’s that far gone, he won’t have any idea what’s going on around him, and he might end up missing out on all the real fun.From the New York Times-bestselling author of Goodnight iPad comes a delightful new commentary on the perils of our tech-obsessed lives and a fully charged romp for readers of all ages.

Palm Sunday/Welcome to the Monkeyhouse


Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 1981
    A diabolical government asserts control by eliminating orgasms from sex in the title story of Welcome to the Monkey House - setting the tone for a collection shot through with Vonnegut's acrid wit, and his bewilderment at the corruption of humanity.From riffs on country music, George Bush, and his mother's midnight mania, to a bittersweet tribute to a dead friend, Palm Sunday demonstrates why Kurt Vonnegut is equally well known as an essayist and commentator as he is a novelist.This caustic, funny and poignant collection resonates with Vonnegut's singular voice.

Always You


Lizzie Morton
    Unfortunately fate has other ideas, entangling our lives and making it virtually impossible.My wild friends and crazy family agree I should steer clear of him, but everything becomes irrelevant when we’re together. It’s heart-stopping, gut-wrenching, and my mind is plagued with 'what if'.I’m left questioning if what I thought was the end of our journey was only the beginning.The heart wants it wants, and mine wants Jake, always.But sometimes in life happily ever afters don’t come easily, and ours might prove impossible.**Always You is Book 1 in the Always Series. This book is part one of a trilogy and is not a standalone.**

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius


Jorge Luis Borges - 1940
    It's an important story in the Borges' canon, incorporating most of the author's philosophical and esthetic preoccupations in a typically brief compass. With great solemnity and a convincing array of scholarly detail (including annotated references to imaginary books and articles), Borges contocts a fable of an alternate world and its infiltration of our own. The reality of Tlon is idealist: material objects have no existence; language has no nouns; its principal discipline is psychology, since its inhabitants see the universe as nothing but a series of mental processes. A series of 24 illustrations accompanies the text. Their disturbing resemblances to our reality make them appropriate reflections of Borges's imaginative constructs.' -- The Kingston "Whig-Standard"

Jeeves and the Impending Doom


P.G. Wodehouse - 2005
    Penguin first published Wodehouse in 1936, a year after Penguin was founded, and this volume offers two of the comic master's most-loved stories. In these two stories Bertie Wooster finds himself on a losing streak and lands himself at the mercy of his aunts, Dahlia and Agatha, and only Jeeves is capable of extricating him from disaster.- Jeeves and the Impending Doom- Jeeves and the Song of Songs

Spock vs. Q


Cecilia Fannon - 1999
    Q AN ALIEN VOICES® PRODUCTION STARRING LEONARD NIMOY AND JOHN de LANCIE Written by Cecelia Fannon As the end of the twentieth century nears, an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. When it hits, the impact will result in the end of all life on the planet.Ambassador Spock travels back in time to subtly warn Earth's inhabitants of impending doom while calling into question humanity's priorities. However, before the truth is told, the all powerful being Q appears and reminds Spock that he is prohibited from interfering in Earth's history. Besides, Q doesn't see mankind as something worth saving.This initial encounter between the two legendary characters explodes into a battle of wits as Spock cleverly befuddles Q with his own words. As barbs are exchanged, and humanity's flaws and wonders are laid bare, Spock's logic just may convince Q that Humans are indeed a species worthy of salvation, but will he be too late?In SPOCK VS. Q, Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie again bring their characters to glorious life in the most lively and entertaining debate since Nixon vs. Kennedy. Recorded in front of a live audience, SPOCK VS. Q is a stirring audio program that could only come from Alien Voices.

Milton: A Poem (The Illuminated Books of William Blake, Vol 5)


William Blake - 1810
    Made possible by recent advances in printing and reproduction technology, the publication of new editions of Jerusalem and Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1991 was a major publishing event. Now these two volumes are followed by The Early Illuminated Books and Milton, A Poem. The books in both volumes are reproduced from the best available copies of Blake's originals and in faithfulness and accuracy match the acclaimed standards set by Jerusalem and Songs. These two volumes are uniform in format and binding with the first two volumes.The Early Illuminated Books comprises All Religions Are One and There Is No Natural Religion; Thel; Marriage of Heaven and Hell; and Visions of the Daughters of Albion. Milton, A Poem, second only to Jerusalem in extent and ambition, is accompanied by Laocon, The Ghost of Abel, and On Homer's Poetry.

The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War


Benjamin Carter Hett - 2020
    Adolf Hitler meets with his military commanders to impress upon them the urgent necessity for a war of aggression in eastern Europe. Some generals are unnerved by the Führer’s grandiose plan, but these dissenters are silenced one by one, setting in motion events that will culminate in the most calamitous war in history.Benjamin Carter Hett takes us behind the scenes in Berlin, London, Moscow, and Washington, revealing the unsettled politics within each country in the wake of the German dictator’s growing provocations. He reveals the fitful path by which anti-Nazi forces inside and outside Germany came to understand Hitler’s true menace to European civilization and learned to oppose him, painting a sweeping portrait of governments under siege, as larger-than-life figures struggled to turn events to their advantage. As in The Death of Democracy, his acclaimed history of the fall of the Weimar Republic, Hett draws on original sources and newly released documents to show how these long-ago conflicts have unexpected resonances in our own time. To read The Nazi Menace is to see past and present in a new and unnerving light.

Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet


Jess Stearn - 1971
    The Edgar Cayce story is one of the most compelling in inspirational literature. For more than forty years, the Sleeping Prophet closed his eyes, entered into an altered state of consciousness, and spoke to the very heart and spirit of humankind on subjects such as health, healing, dreams, prophecy, meditation, and reincarnation. His more than 14,000 readings are preserved at the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc., in Virginia Beach, Virginia.A native of Kentucky with a ninth-grade education, Edgar Cayce accurately predicted two world wars, including the years they began and ended, racial strife in America, the death of John F. Kennedy, and hundreds of other recorded events. He could apparently travel in time and space to treat the ill, and dispensed information that led to innumerable cures where traditional medicine was helpless. The first to introduce many Americans to the concept of reincarnation, Cayce drew on a subconscious Universal Mind for startling information about past and future. In The Sleeping Prophet, Jess Stearn presents the extraordinary story of his life, his healing, his prophecies, and his powerful legacy.

Plant Science: An Introduction to Botany


Catherine Kleier - 2018
    Catherine Kleier invites us to open our eyes to the phenomenal world of plant life and to the process she calls “Natura Revelata”, the joy of celebrating and learning from the secrets of nature.As Dr. Kleier shares her knowledge with contagious excitement for her subject, she emphasizes the middle ground: Instead of focusing on cell microbiology or the study of ecosystems and habitats, she stresses the basic biology, function, and the amazing adaptations of the plants we see all around us. Dr. Kleier proposes and establishes that there is pleasure to be found in being able to identify and understand the workings of that tree outside the window.With almost 400,000 known species and thousands more identified every year, the variety of plant life is almost overwhelming - from the microscopic to the largest organism on Earth. In this course, you will learn about the fascinating adaptations that have allowed plants to thrive in almost every corner of the world and the unique plants that have evolved as a result.You’ll learn about the latest discoveries regarding plant communication, the myriad ways they manage and shape their own environments, and why botanists are still debating what it really means to be a unique species.

Novels 1955–1962: Lolita / Pnin / Pale Fire / Lolita: A Screenplay


Vladimir Nabokov - 1996
    Funny, satiric, poignant, filled with allusions to earlier American writers, it is the “confession” of a middle-aged, sophisticated European émigré’s passionate obsession with a 12-year-old American “nymphet,” and the story of their wanderings across a late 1940s America of highways and motels. Of its deeper meanings, Nabokov characteristically wrote: “I am neither a reader nor a writer of didactic fiction, and… Lolita has no moral in tow. For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.” (Nabokov’s film adaptation of Lolita, as originally written for director Stanley Kubrick, is also included.)Pnin (1957) is a comic masterpiece about a gentle, bald Russian émigré professor in an American college town who is never quite able to master its language, its politics, or its train schedule. Nabokov’s years as a teacher provided rich background for this satirical picture of academic life, with an unforgettable figure at its center: “It was the world that was absent-minded and it was Pnin whose business it was to set it straight. His life was a constant war with insensate objects that fell apart, or attacked him, or refused to function, or viciously got themselves lost as soon as they entered the sphere of his existence.”Pale Fire (1962) is a tour de force in the form of an ostensibly autobiographical poem by a recently deceased American poet and a critical commentary by an academic who is something other than what he seems. Its unique structure, pitting artist against seemingly worshipful critic, sets the stage for some of Nabokov’s most intricate games of deception and concealment. “Pretending to be a curio,” wrote Mary McCarthy, “it cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the great works of art of this century.”The texts of this volume incorporate Nabokov’s penciled corrections in his own copies of his works which correct long-standing errors, and have been prepared with the assistance of Dmitri Nabokov, the novelist’s son.

Tiger's Claw


Dale Brown - 2012
    Tiger's Claw proves once again that every rave has been well deserved. Set in the near future, Tiger's Claw imagines a scenario in which tensions escalate between an economically powerful China and a United States weakened by a massive economic downfall, bringing the two superpowers to the brink of total destruction. Brown's popular protagonist, retired Air Force lieutenant-general Patrick McLanahan (of A Time for Patriots, Rogue Forces, and other Brown bestsellers), is back and preparing for the impending apocalyptic clash of men and military technology. The incomparable Dale Brown scores again with a frighteningly possible story of war and global politics that's ideal for fans of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor.When China launches the first successful test of its anti-ship ballistic missile, the future looks bleak for America. Fearing the U.S. will lose its naval supremacy in the Pacific, President Kenneth Phoenix finds himself in a compromised position. New technology requires money, but the country is recovering from a massive recession. Without the funds to compete with China's advancing technology, are the country's days of naval preeminence in the Pacific running out?Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Patrick McLanahan refuses to accept this fate. McLanahan reasons that the United States can afford to refurbish old but potent long-range B-1B Lancer bombers to promote the AirSea Battle strategy that will push back against Chinese aggression. Soon America stands ready to deploy an AirSea Battle task force in the South China Sea.The People's Liberation Army aggressively deploys advanced fighters, land-based antimissiles, three aircraft carriers, and exotic, top secret directed energy weapons against their neighbors. But Patrick McLanahan is finally given the green light to lead his force westward to challenge the Chinese threat head-on.

Wisdom for Each Day


Billy Graham - 2008
    Life principles and Scripture selections from the America's most well known Evangelist. Life comes at us fast and is filled with challenges and questions for each day.  Relationships.  Finances.  Temptations.  Setbacks.  Where do we turn for answers and wisdom?  God's Word and the gentle-yet firm-insights of one of the most beloved ministers the world has ever known, are a great place to start each day.  Billy Graham, is known and loved for his simple speaking style.  Wisdom For Each Day is a beautiful expression of his heart and voice.

One Autumn Night


Maxim Gorky - 1895
    Gorky's reputation grew as a unique literary voice from the bottom strata of society and as a fervent advocate of Russia's social, political, and cultural transformation. By 1899, he was openly associating with the emerging Marxist social-democratic movement, which helped make him a celebrity among both the intelligentsia and the growing numbers of "conscious" workers. At the heart of all his work was a belief in the inherent worth and potential of the human person. In his writing, he counterposed individuals, aware of their natural dignity, and inspired by energy and will, with people who succumb to the degrading conditions of life around them. Both his writings and his letters reveal a "restless man" (a frequent self-description) struggling to resolve contradictory feelings of faith and skepticism, love of life and disgust at the vulgarity and pettiness of the human world. He publicly opposed the Tsarist regime and was arrested many times. Gorky befriended many revolutionaries and became a personal friend of Vladimir Lenin after they met in 1902. He exposed governmental control of the press (see Matvei Golovinski affair). In 1902, Gorky was elected an honorary Academician of Literature, but Tsar Nicholas II ordered this annulled. In protest, Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Korolenko left the Academy. Leo Tolstoy with Gorky in Yasnaya Polyana, 1900. From 1900 to 1905, Gorky's writings became more optimistic. He became more involved in the opposition movement, for which he was again briefly imprisoned in 1901. In 1904, having severed his relationship with the Moscow Art Theatre in the wake of conflict with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Gorky returned to Nizhny Novgorod to establish a theatre of his own. Both Constantin Stanislavski and Savva Morozov provided financial support for the venture. Stanislavski believed that Gorky's theatre was an opportunity to develop the network of provincial theatres which he hoped would reform the art of the stage in Russia, a dream of his since the 1890s. He sent some pupils from the Art Theatre School-as well as Ioasaf Tikhomirov, who ran the school-to work there. By the autumn, however, after the censor had banned every play that the theatre proposed to stage, Gorky abandoned the project.