a college professor named nicolson found an old book and a map. so he is taking a break from his teaching life and going for an adventure journey to the mercury island.

    A sinister scientist. A secret history. If you think you know the truth behind Eleven’s mother, prepare to have your mind turned Upside Down in this thrilling prequel to the hit show Stranger Things.It’s the summer of 1969, and the shock of conflict reverberates through the youth of America, both at home and abroad. As a student at a quiet college campus in the heartland of Indiana, Terry Ives couldn’t be further from the front lines of Vietnam or the incendiary protests in Washington.But the world is changing, and Terry isn’t content to watch from the sidelines. When word gets around about an important government experiment in the small town of Hawkins, she signs on as a test subject for the project, codenamed MKUltra. Unmarked vans, a remote lab deep in the woods, mind-altering substances administered by tightlipped researchers . . . and a mystery the young and restless Terry is determined to uncover.But behind the walls of Hawkins National Laboratory—and the piercing gaze of its director, Dr. Martin Brenner—lurks a conspiracy greater than she could have ever imagined. To face it, she’ll need the help of her fellow test subjects, including one so mysterious the world doesn’t know she exists—a young girl with unexplainable, superhuman powers and a number instead of a name: 008.Amid the rising tensions of the new decade, Terry Ives and Martin Brenner have begun a different kind of war—one where the human mind is the battlefield.

    He's looking forward to learning the craft, renewing last year's friendships, and above all, to seeing Jaime, and finally asking her to be his girlfriend.But before he even gets to see her, one of their own is violently attacked. JB goes on the hunt, and the students learn about his troubled past, which changes their views of him forever. As their project, they create Rabbit in Red's most terrifying and disturbing challenge yet, Hellfire, and use it to recruit a new class of horror students.Then the bodies start piling up, and the mysteries become more and more dangerous. Is this another one of JB's dark games-within-a-game, or will Rabbit in Red--and everyone in it--burn in the end

    Eloise Shepherd, one of MI6’s brightest rising stars, is working undercover in Soviet Russia as Magdalina Novikova. Her mission is to persuade nuclear physicist Stanislav Kalashnik to defect and bring his knowledge of Russian weapons back to the UK. On the verge of success, the operation fails suddenly and spectacularly.17 years later, Kalashnik is Chief Engineer at the power plant near Pripyat known as Chernobyl. His concerns for the safety of the plant are growing. When his views lead to accusations that question his patriotism, he finds himself in a very risky position.Meanwhile, back in London, Eloise Shepherd’s life and career are spinning out of control when she’s approached with a one-time offer to redeem herself. The mission: to get Kalashnik over Soviet borders once more. It’s an opportunity that could change everything and Eloise knows there’s no reward without risk. But she’s heading straight towards a danger far greater than she could ever have anticipated.

     Naomi—whose husband left her for a man, crushing her small amount of self-confidence—is stuck with a dead-end job and a big house in a neighborhood filled with couples. She hates the loneliness of weekends and the empty side of the king-size bed. Miriam, an only child of parents who were also only children, struggles with the fact that she has no blood relatives besides her children. She recognizes that it’s siblings who connect the past, the present, and the future, and the closest thing she has to sisters are Becky and Naomi. Then a dusty discovery delivers a potentially lethal blow to their friendship. While two of the women fight to save the relationship, one desires nothing more than its demise.

    She grows up, living a sheltered life, thanks to her mother, being naïve to the ways of the world. Due to that, her eyes are closed to the fact that going to church doesn't make a person holy. She learns that from her own parents, then from members at the church she goes to. Raquel's life is nothing short of a roller coaster ride, filled with sadness, depression, but most of all, her desire to be loved. Things happen that could be detrimental to Raquel's future, but she refuses to give up. There is one particular person that needs her to keep her sanity. So, Raquel is determined to succeed, despite the circumstances. Will she be able to overcome adversity or will the people that's supposed to mean her the most good, contribute to her downfall?

    Even the more languid moments move with a searing undertone. Uncertainty among the characters, coupled with relentless gunfire and explosions, make for an extraordinary novel, each page as eruptive as the city providing the setting.” KIRKUS REVIEWS “Dynamite Fishermen is an absolute stunner of a novel. It’s clear Fleming has done his research and it shows in the seamless dialogue and the ease at which he tackles the task of conveying the wartime ambiance. This is a must-read for history buffs - although I feel strongly everyone will enjoy the rapid pace and captivating suspense. Fleming is a writer deserving of many accolades.” SAN FRANCISCO BOOK REVIEW “In Dynamite Fishermen, Preston Fleming depicts heedless violence as a way of life from the perspective of an American intelligence officer. The story falls during a lull in the long running Lebanese civil war, a period plagued by daily car bombings, civilian shootings, artillery attacks and other mayhem. As many details of this conflict continue to reverberate today, this intelligently written novel provides a compelling page-turner and a memorable story.” PACIFIC BOOK REVIEW “More than memorable…Captures Beirut's harsh terrain in a vibrant, fast-paced story.” BOOKPLEASURES.COM PRODUCT DESCRIPTION Beirut, 1982. Conrad Prosser is a skilled Arabist, expert agent handler, prolific intelligence reporter, and a connoisseur of Beirut's underground nightlife. But, as his two-year tour at the U.S. Embassy nears its end, Prosser's intelligence career is in jeopardy because he has not recruited an agent while in Lebanon, a sine qua non requirement for promotion. Surveying his many contacts, Prosser selects an attractive Lebanese doctoral student and her idealistic brother as candidates for development. At the same time, he holds clandestine meetings by day and night with his string of Lebanese and Palestinian agents, pressing them to discover who is behind the latest wave of car bombings that has terrorized Muslim West Beirut. But when one of his agents supplies information used to capture a Syrian-backed bombing team, Prosser sets off a cycle of retaliation that threatens more than his career and cherished way of life. At first denying, then later concealing, apparent attempts on his life, Prosser sets out to save both his job and his skin, exploiting his agents, his best friend, a former lover, his new girlfriend and her enigmatic brother. In doing so, he puts their lives at risk and discovers too late the effect of his heedless actions. DYNAMITE FISHERMEN offers complex characters, fast-paced action, a vivid portrayal of human intelligence operations and the flavor of Beirut during its dark days of ci

     A modern-day, Clancy-like thriller -- the US president, Nantucket, a terrorist plot and the US Navy. An adrenaline ride with great authenticity. Andrew Russell, the 46th president of the United States, along with his wife and two young children have brought back a Kennedy-era feeling of Camelot to the White House. President Russell and his family are spending another vacation on the beautiful island of Nantucket. After three years of planning, the Islamic Front has embedded terrorist cells on the island in preparation for the arrival of President Russell and his family. With the resources of the US Navy at the ready -- the President, an ex-naval aviator, responds to the attack on his family with the focus, determination and aggressiveness that made him one of the best fighter pilots in the Fleet. The people of Nantucket, descendants of hardy New England stock, along with the combined military and intelligence assets of the US Government are about to be challenged by the events unleashed on the tiny picturesque island. Nantucket serves as the backdrop for this larger-than-life techno-thriller.

    Quinn and his new bride Felice are aboard the steamboat Sultana going up the spring-flooded Mississippi River toward Illinois to meet the Funeral Train, when their honeymoon vessel stops at Vicksburg and takes on a pathetic human cargo of 2,000 sick and ragged survivors of the hellish Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp, kept alive only by their desire to get home. Quinn's lot is not thrown in with some of the unluckiest veterans of that awful war. While he is interviewing them about life in the notorious prison, the Sultana, carrying five times its lawful number of passengers, explodes after midnight. Quinn is blown overboard with the emaciated veteran Robb Macombie, and in the worst night of his life proves himself a better man than he had ever imagined he could be."--Dust jacket.

    More focused on avoiding punishment than the well-being of her three daughters, she ignored the terror inflicted on them by their father during their childhood. She kept his secrets. Now, in her sixties, Genny has had enough. She needs her daughters to help her escape. Can she count on them? Lilly has tried for decades since leaving that little Texas farmhouse to erase the unspeakable things that were done to her. After snagging a wealthy man, she reinvents herself into a polished member of San Antonio’s old-money society. Can she keep up this facade, or will the secrets she hides cause her to lose everything? Always Daddy’s favorite, thirty-five-year-old Randi tries to bury her shame in a mountain of sex and drugs. Estranged from her parents for nearly a decade, the news of Mother’s leaving forces her to face old wounds. Will she survive? Much younger than her sisters, Raine was left to deal with Daddy’s horrific abuse after the others left. Shanti, free of a conscience, was conjured to help protect little Raine by whatever means necessary. Raine’s mother and father are back in the picture, and Shanti is on a rampage. Every family has secrets. Some are worth dying for.

    17, 1972, during some of the darkest days of the Vietnam War, an American soldier walked out of the jungle and onto an isolated US Army firebase in the Central Highlands. The stranger had no identification, was in good health and otherwise seemed normal. But there was a problem. While the stranger said his name was Daniel Carson, he could remember almost nothing else. Quiet and reserved, he could not explain where he came from or why he had mysteriously shown up on Firebase Martha. Attempts by the base commander to confirm Daniel’s identity turned up even more odd details. Battalion reported that a soldier named Daniel Carson and fitting the description provided by the commander had been Killed In Action the week before. Who was Daniel? Was he a deserter? A faker? A lunatic? Or was he something altogether different? Was he a lucky charm or a savior sent to rescue the unfortunate soldiers on Firebase Martha? The answers to these questions are not revealed until 1976 when three survivors from the firebase meet after the war in a bar in Washington, D.C. and agree spontaneously to visit Daniel’s parents in nearby suburban Virginia. What they find shakes them to the core.

    They were the men who came to your father in his hour of need. They were the men who fought with him. They were men, and that is the highest that can be written of them…”Ittai of Gath, a Philistine, has been the enemy of the Hebrews for many years and among their most capable opponents. But now he has been defeated by the fearsome warriors of the Hebrew king David’s army. While a storm rolls in to settle over the central hill country, Ittai escapes his capture and wrestles with his fate until he finds himself at the city of the Jebusites…which David intends to capture.A companion piece to the Lion of War series about the battles of King David, “Ittai” is a short story in the collection known as The Hall of the Mighty Men, set between the events of “Covenant of War” and the upcoming “Song of War.”Narrated by Jehoshaphat, the historian of King Solomon, this collection of origin tales expands the Lion of War literary universe and contains character origins, epic battles, and feats of bravery unable to be included in the novels and upcoming movies.Thrilling and passionate, The Hall of the Mighty Men is another chapter in the epic Lion of War series that fans will enjoy for years to come.

    The wind from behind had kept the dust moving forward at a pace just equal to the gallop of his horse. Not until he had brought his mount to a halt in front of the hotel and swung down to the ground did either he or his horse become distinctly visible. Then it was seen that the animal was in the last stages of exhaustion, with dull eyes and hanging head and forelegs braced widely apart, while the sweat dripped steadily from his flanks into the white dust on the street. Plainly he had been pushed to the last limit of his strength. The rider was almost as far spent as his mount, for he went up the steps of the hotel with his shoulders sagging with weariness, a wide-shouldered, gaunt-ribbed man. Thick layers of dust had turned his red kerchief and his blue shirt to a common gray. Dust, too, made a mask of his face, and through that mask the eyes peered out, surrounded by pink skin. Even at its best the long, solemn face could never have been called handsome. But, on this particular day, he seemed a haunted man, or one fleeing from an inescapable danger. . . .

    The miracle in the mundane.One day, while browsing an antique store in Helena, Montana, photographer Tyler Knott Gregson stumbled upon a vintage Remington typewriter for sale. Standing up and using a page from a broken book he was buying for $2, he typed a poem without thinking, without planning, and without the ability to revise anything.He fell in love.Three years and almost one thousand poems later, Tyler is now known as the creator of the Typewriter Series: a striking collection of poems typed onto found scraps of paper or created via blackout method. Chasers of the Light features some of his most insightful and beautifully worded pieces of work—poems that illuminate grand gestures and small glimpses, poems that celebrate the beauty of a life spent chasing the light.

    Mad Dog Stone was a drifter looking for a few days' work. He walked into her life, threatening Mariah's peace of mind and stirring emotions she tried to hide. Their love was born against all odds, difficult to count on, impossible to hold. Together they would learn the bittersweet truth--that love exists only if you believe. . . .