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Twilight of the Great Trains, Expanded Edition by Fred W. Frailey


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Who Goes There?


Susan Evans McCloud - 1995
    But as she and her daughter, Penelope, eagerly pursue their genealogical interests, they are also being pursued - by Callum MacGregor, an English police inspector who thinks he is cornering two art thieves, and by a pair of mysterious characters with more sinister motives. Who are the real thieves? Is anyone who she seems? Set among the ancient ruins, bustling city streets, and wild beauty of 1920s Scotland, Who Goes There? is full of intrigue and surprises. Best-selling author Susan Evans McCloud delivers again in a thriller that will keep readers entranced until the final page.

The Best of Brain Droppings


George Carlin - 2007
    From the random braindropping (When you sneeze, all the numbers in your head go up by one.) to favorite oxymorons (holy war, for one), and from questions to ponder (Why are there no B batteries? for instance) to his classic monologue comparing baseball and football, this little book packs in a lot of laughs.

Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning


Tony Tran - 2016
    As he takes his last breathe his life flashed before his eyes , from an early age he had been like a sponge soaking in all the knowledge around him, science, history, culture, literature, and even military strategy he absorbed it all. But as his life was coming to an end he scorned all his knowledge, what was the point of knowing everything when you weren’t even able to protect yourself or the ones you loved. As the boy closed his eyes for one final time,he laughed at how blinded he had been about the world and people and thought that if there was indeed a next life he would obtain power, power to protect himself and his loved one. And so this marked the end of his life, but for some, the end is only the beginning

Children of Prophecy


Glynn Stewart - 2014
    In the time since, the Kingdom of Vishni has known quiet, and the Swarm beyond the mountains has grown in strength and numbers. Now, with the Time of Prophecy at hand, dark forces move to fulfil ancient visions. Two men, born to poverty but bearing the blood of those ancient Mages, will rise to decide the fate of both Swarm and Kingdom as the fires of this ancient conflict rise anew.

The Sherlock Holmes Box Set


Paul D. Gilbert - 2020
    “Stay out of the affairs of my people,” he warns. “Or face the consequences.” Elsewhere, Cardinal Tosca is slain and robbed of an ancient scroll. What secrets does it hold? And do they run too deep for even the world’s most famous detective to unravel?BOOK 2: SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE FOUR-HANDED GAMEA tormented translator, an assaulted actress, a murder with the hallmarks of Jack the Ripper. Holmes finds himself faced with an unprecedented spate of cases. Yet these crimes are the work of a single deadly adversary. Has London’s most celebrated sleuth finally met his match?BOOK 3: THE ILLUMINATION OF SHERLOCK HOLMESHolmes and Watson journey to Bavaria, through icy mountains and secluded castles, in hot pursuit of their quarry. But their man eludes them. And the duo must return to London, knowing that an old adversary awaits them craving deadly revenge on Holmes. Just how far will they be willing to go to get it?THE LOST FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES SERIESBOOK 4: THE LOST FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMESDr John Watson reopens his tin box of chronicles, offering up seven exhilarating new accounts of Holmes’s extraordinary skills. What is the connection between murderous attacks on a colonel’s wife and the Legend of King Arthur? Why is a disgraced ship captain stalking his neighbour? Who stole the statue of The Dying Gaul? Find the answers in this gripping compendium of adventure stories.BOOK 5: THE CHRONICLES OF SHERLOCK HOLMESDelving into the depths of his memory, Watson reveals a collection of never-before-penned cases brought before the great Sherlock Holmes. Join the beloved British detective, as he is pitted against a selection of seven truly ingenious puzzles.BOOK 6: THE ANNALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMESIn this gratifyingly perplexing anthology, Watson finally discloses the details of mysteries tantalizingly alluded to but never before unravelled. Is a mother really speaking with her drowned daughter from beyond the grave? What connects a politician, a lighthouse and a trained cormorant? Why is the depth to which the parsley has sunk into the butter dish so vital a clue?

The Sacred Wheel


Momma White Cougar - 2012
    Come on a journey through the Wheel of the Year, joining in the celebration of the Gods, Goddesses and festivals that have been a part of mankind since the Dawn of Time.Although aimed at beginning Solitary Practitioners, the original Heartsongs would add depth to the workings of even the most seasoned Pagan.

Tales from the Fast Trains: Around Europe at 186mph


Tom Chesshyre - 2011
    From shiny London St. Pancras, Tom travels to places that wouldn't be featured on a standard holiday wish-list, and discovers the hidden delights of mysterious Luxembourg, super-trendy Rotterdam, and much-maligned Frankfurt. It's 186 mph all the way—well, apart from a power cut in the Channel Tunnel on the way to Antwerp.

Appetite


Sheila Grinell - 2016
    Her father, Paul, is wary of this beggar Jenn has brought home who, he suspects, is conning his much-loved daughter while her mother, Maggie, is frightened that this alien stranger will steal away her only child, her focus in life. In the months leading up to the backyard wedding, Maggie is forced to reevaluate her virtues as she casts about for support, and Paul faces an unexpected threat at work one that Maggie could help him meet, if he would only ask. But even with these distractions, the two parents are focused on one primary question: Can they convince their daughter she is making a terrible mistake before the wedding takes place?

How to Retire on Dividends: Earn a Safe 8%, Leave Your Principal Intact


Brett Owens - 2019
    Your choice."--Richard Fields, Retirement Expert. Wall Street warns you to withdraw only 4% a year when retired. But Main Street retirees have an advantage. You can obtain 6%, 7% and even 8% annual dividend yields--triple or even quadruple the S&P 500's yield--without reducing principal or taking on unnecessary risk. Skip Wall Street's low-yielding, blue-chip, "dividend aristocrat" BS and learn how from Brett and Tom!

Atlantis Storm


Steven Moore - 2019
    A mysterious artifact. A map revealing not all myths are fake. The down on his luck Ryan Bodean and eternal optimist Megan Simons are at it again. This time it’s a death-defying search for the fabled lost city of Atlantis.But when a dangerous cult of Atlantean fanatics stop at nothing to keep their ancient secret, will it only be the legendary city that disappears beneath the sea? This action/adventure and tropical thriller will keep you turning pages deep into the night. If you like edge of the seat, hold-onto-your breath, unputdownable thrill rides, you're gonna love this book. Clive Cussler, James Rollins, and Matthew Reilly fans, clear your schedule and click to grab your copy now - free for Kindle Unlimited readers!

From the River to the Sea: The Untold Story of the Railroad War That Made the West


John Sedgwick - 2021
    Martin A propulsive and panoramic history of one of the most dramatic stories never told—the greatest railroad war of all time, fought by the daring leaders of the Santa Fe and the Rio Grande to seize, control, and create the American West.It is difficult to imagine now, but for all its gorgeous scenery, the American West might have been barren tundra as far as most Americans knew well into the 19th century. While the West was advertised as a paradise on earth to citizens in the East and Midwest, many believed the journey too hazardous to be worthwhile—until 1869, when the first transcontinental railroad changed the face of transportation. Railroad companies soon became the rulers of western expansion, choosing routes, creating brand-new railroad towns, and building up remote settlements like Santa Fe, Albuquerque, San Diego, and El Paso into proper cities. But thinning federal grants left the routes incomplete, an opportunity that two brash new railroad men, armed with private investments and determination to build an empire across the Southwest clear to the Pacific, soon seized, leading to the greatest railroad war in American history. In From the River to the Sea, bestselling author John Sedgwick recounts, in vivid and thrilling detail, the decade-long fight between General William J. Palmer, the Civil War hero leading the “little family” of his Rio Grande, and William Barstow Strong, the hard-nosed manager of the corporate-minded Santa Fe. What begins as an accidental rivalry when the two lines cross in Colorado soon evolves into an all-out battle as each man tries to outdo the other—claiming exclusive routes through mountains, narrow passes, and the richest silver mines in the world; enlisting private armies to protect their land and lawyers to find loopholes; dispatching spies to gain information; and even using the power of the press and incurring the wrath of the God-like Robber Baron Jay Gould—to emerge victorious. By the end of the century, one man will fade into anonymity and disgrace. The other will achieve unparalleled success—and in the process, transform a sleepy backwater of thirty thousand called “Los Angeles” into a booming metropolis that will forever change the United States. Filled with colorful characters and high drama, told at the speed of a locomotive, From the River to the Sea is an unforgettable piece of American history “that seems to demand a big-screen treatment” (The New Yorker).

Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child | Summary & Analysis


Book*Sense - 2014
    Native Englishman and current New Yorker Lee Child returns to his bestselling Jack Reacher series in Personal. Action-packed, the novel follows Reacher back and forth across the Atlantic as he works to investigate the attempted assassination of the French president by a shooter the United States would happily disclaim—only to find that a plot, orchestrated by a master planner, is afoot. Who are the suspects? Through trips between the US and France and the US and England, Reacher tries to unravel the conspiracy that prompted the assassination attempt in the first place—a conspiracy meant to return one man to power who had thought he had seen it slip away from him in his advancing age. This companion/analysis to Personal unravels every plot, symbol, theme... All in all, Lee Child’s Personal is an entertaining read with much to recommend it. If there are places in the text where the author’s attention seems to have lapsed, there are also many where the level of detail provided is excellent and excellently handled, and, as a way to spend a day, reading it is a good one. This Analysis of Personal fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.

The Transcontinental Railroad


John Hoyt Williams - 2019
    The dream of a railroad across America had at last come true. This book tells the story of swaggering men with big plans, of an America emerging from the Civil War and reaching its manifest destiny. The men who imagined the transcontinental railroad were impassioned profiteers, an unlikely, often ruthless band, guilty of both financial double-dealing and ferocious ingenuity. When ice delayed operations in the Sierra Nevadas, the men of the Central Pacific formed the Summit Ice Company and sold their problem to California saloons. When herds of buffalo ripped up the tracks, the men of the Union Pacific brutally slaughtered tens of thousands of them. (Thus the legend of Buffalo Bill was born.) While his partners finagled in Washington and on Wall Street, Jack Casement, a former Union general, dressed in a fur coat, a Cossack hat, and shining cavalry boots and carrying a pistol and a bullwhip, drove the workers of the Union Pacific to new track-laying records. Meanwhile, from the West, thousands of Chinese immigrants blasted, climbed, and inched their way through the perilous California mountains. The railroad transformed the country forever. It decimated the Plains Indian culture by destroying the herds of buffalo that sustained it. It augmented the timber and steel industries; it opened up the West for commerce. Farms grew up along the length of the rails. Thousands of immigrants from Asia and Europe came here to build the iron road. Most important, it united a nation. The story of the railroad is capitalist theater, starring powerful politicians and generals and con artists. Set in opulent parlor cars, well-heeled boardrooms, and rowdy frontier towns, on desolate plains and deadly gorges, it is a story of vision and corruption, of empire building at its most vulgar and glorious. John Williams combines scholarship with personalities, historical analysis with plain old tall tales, to tell a story that will appeal to readers of American history and adventure and to lovers of the American West. The Transcontinental Railroad is an epic of every sense.

The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885


Pierre Berton - 1971
    The Last Spike reconstructs the incredible story of how some 2,000 miles of steel crossed the continent in just five years — exactly half the time stipulated in the contract. Pierre Berton recreates the adventures that were part of this vast undertaking: the railway on the brink of bankruptcy, with one hour between it and ruin; the extraordinary land boom of Winnipeg in 1881–1882; and the epic tale of how William Van Horne rushed 3,000 soldiers over a half-finished railway to quell the Riel Rebellion.Dominating the whole saga are the men who made it all possible — a host of astonishing characters: Van Horne, the powerhouse behind the vision of a transcontinental railroad; Rogers, the eccentric surveyor; Onderdonk, the cool New Yorker; Stephen, the most emotional of businessmen; Father Lacombe, the black-robed voyageur; Sam Steele, of the North West Mounted Police; Gabriel Dumont, the Prince of the Prairies; more than 7,000 Chinese workers, toiling and dying in the canyons of the Fraser Valley; and many more — land sharks, construction geniuses, politicians, and entrepreneurs — all of whom played a role in the founding of the new Canada west of Ontario.

The Pitcher's Mom


Heather Choate Davis - 2012