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The Gemini Deception (Elite Operatives #6)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouAgent Harper "Shield" Kennedy's specialty within the Elite Operatives Organization is security, although she's long lost any gratification from babysitting most VIPs. However, her new assignment--to safeguard the U. S. president--will prove to be the biggest challenge of her career. Shield's mission to protect the first female chief executive is complicated by threats to her own life when she begins to question the president's orders. Loner Ryden Wagner is content with her life as a florist until she becomes a pawn in a political deception involving the highest office in the land. Trapped in a dangerous game where one false move could cost Ryden her life, she has to rely solely on the president's new bodyguard. As an attraction between the two women grows, so does the urgency for answers, but will the truth bring them together or tear them apart? Sixth in the romantic intrigue series: Elite Operatives
The Shoal of Time (Micky Knight Mystery #8)
by J. M. RedmannMichele "Micky" Knight, a New Orleans PI, meets an out-of-town team of investigators who are working a human trafficking case. They want someone local to show them around. It sounds easy, and a woman with smiling green eyes is asking. But it stays easy only if Micky stops asking questions-and she's never been good at that. What starts out as a tourist tour of the underside of New Orleans turns into a risky game of cat and mouse, and twists even further as Micky is caught between the good guys and the bad guys, each willing to do whatever it takes-including getting rid of an inconvenient PI-to achieve their ends. Who can she trust? And who's trying to kill her?
American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic
by Nancy K. BristowThis readable and compelling account explains the role of race, gender and class, promotion of physical fitness and public education, and America's public health strategy during the influenza epidemics in 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1922. Bristow's work distinguishes itself with her emphasis on influenza epidemics beyond 1918-1919, the roles of physicians and nurses, the importance of public health nursing, and the personal revelation that she lost great-grandparents due to influenza.
Art on Fire
by Hilary SloinArt on Fire is the apparent biography of subversive painter Francesca deSilva, the founding foremother of "pseudorealism," who lived hard and died young. But in the tradition of Vladimir Nabokov's acclaimed novel Pale Fire, it's a fiction from start to finish. It opens with Francesca's early life. We learn about her childhood love, the chess genius Lisa Sinsong, as well as her rivalry with her brilliant sister Isabella, who publishes an acclaimed volume of poetry at the age of twelve. She compensates for the failings of her less than attentive parents by turning to her grandmother who is loyal and adoring until she learns Francesca is a lesbian, when she rejects her. Francesca flees to a ramshackle cabin in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, working weekends at the flea market. She breaks into the gloomy basement of a house, where she begins her life as a painter. Much to her confusion and even dismay, fame comes quickly. Interspersed with Francesca's narrative are thirteen critical "essays" on the paintings of Francesca deSilva by critics, academics, and psychologists-essays that are razor-sharp satires on art, lesbian life, and the academic world, puncturing pretentiousness with every paragraph. Art on Fire is a darkly comic, pitch-perfect, and fearless satire on the very art of biography itself. Art on Fire is the latest winner of the Bywater Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Heekin Foundation Award, the Dana Awards, and the Story Oaks Prize. It was mistakenly awarded the nonfiction prize in the Amherst Book and Plow Competition.
Demons are Forever (Elite Operatives #5)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouBehind closed doors, everyone suffers from some kind of demon. Veteran Elite Operative Landis "Chase" Coolidge's latest mission requires every bit of her considerable tracking skills because she has to locate a colleague kidnapped by a brilliant scientist responsible for the deaths of millions. Former op Phantom is along for the ride, desperate to find her missing lover. By day, Heather Snyder works in the New York fashion industry. But her secret life as a high-class call girl thrusts her into the middle of a global black market organ harvesting ring and draws the interest of the EOO. No stranger to the world of call girls, Chase revels in her latest assignment, until she discovers that Heather is the one woman who can change her roguish ways.
Gone at 3: The Untold Story of the Worst School Disaster in American History
by David M. Brown Michael WereschaginBased on scores of interviews and an intimate understanding of a community torn by tragedy, Gone at 3:17 is the definitive study of the 1937 New London school explosion. This engrossing narrative of sorrow and survival burrows deep inside one of the greatest disasters in American history.
Hide and Snake Murder (Shay O'Hanlon #2)
by Jessie ChandlerBook two in the riotous caper series starring Shay O'Hanlon and her trouble-prone pals. When Shay O'Hanlon's ill-mannered friend Baz steals a stuffed snake from a wealthy businessman, he wasn't expecting it to be filled with money. Nor was he expecting his aunt Agnes to take it with her on vacation to the Big Easy. With trigger-happy thugs in hot pursuit, Shay leads her friends on a rowdy rescue mission from Minneapolis to New Orleans and back. Along the way, a bungled burglary puts the gang in a drug cartel's cross hairs, and a beautiful professor offers the only way out. But can Shay and the gang trust her with their lives?
Ill Will (Micky Knight Mystery #7)
by J. M. RedmannFirst, do no harm. But as New Orleans PI Micky Knight discovers, not every health care provider follows that dictum. She stumbles into a tangle of the true believers to the criminally callous, who use the suffering of others for their twisted ends. In a city slowly rebuilding after Katrina, one of the most devastated areas is health care, and the gaps in service are wide enough for the snake oil salesmen--and the snakes themselves--to crawl through. First, her investigation is driven by anger, but then it becomes personal as someone very close to Micky uses her cancer diagnosis to go where Micky cannot, into the heart of the evil where only the ill are allowed. Micky is her only lifeline out. Can Micky save her in time to get to the medical treatment she desperately needs to survive? This is the seventh Micky Knight mystery.
Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire, America's Deadliest Rock Concert
by John BarylickOn February 20, 2003, the deadliest rock concert in U.S. history took place at a roadhouse called The Station in West Warwick, Rhode Island. That night, in the few minutes it takes to play a hard-rock standard, the fate of many of the unsuspecting nightclub patrons was determined with awful certainty. The blaze was ignited when pyrotechnics set off by Great White, a 1980s heavy-metal band, lit flammable polyurethane “egg crate” foam sound insulation on the club’s walls. In less than 10 minutes, 96 people were dead and 200 more were injured, many catastrophically. The final death toll topped out, three months later, at the eerily unlikely round number of 100. The story of the fire, its causes, and its legal and human aftermath is one of lives put at risk by petty economic decisions―by a band, club owners, promoters, building inspectors, and product manufacturers. Any one of those decisions, made differently, might have averted the tragedy. Together, however, they reached a fatal critical mass. Killer Show is the first comprehensive exploration of the chain of events leading up to the fire, the conflagration itself, and the painstaking search for evidence to hold the guilty to account and obtain justice for the victims. Anyone who has entered an entertainment venue and wondered, “Could I get out of here in a hurry?” will identify with concertgoers at The Station. Fans of disaster nonfiction and forensic thrillers will find ample elements of both genres in Killer Show.
Love by the Numbers
by Karin KallmakerAs a behavioral scientist, Professor Nicole Hathaway's work strips away the foolish mystique that surrounds the human mating dance. When her academic tome is treated as a viral love manual" her ecstatic publisher books her to appear all over the U. S. and Europe. Worse yet, her quiet, managed life has been shattered by a series of incompetent assistants. And she's certain this Lily Smith creature isn't going to be any less a burden than the last assistant they sent her. Or the one before that. Or before that. . . Lillian Linden-Smith needs this job. With a relentless TV lawyer and public mob still out for her blood for crimes committed by her American royalty" parents, getting out of the country is her only hope for anonymity. If that means cleaning up and presenting an antisocial know-it-all Ph. D. for bookstores, clubs and lectures, fine. Dr. Hathaway may have succeeded in driving away all the others, but not this time. From their first meeting the sparks fly, and each is thinking: She has no idea who she's dealing with. It's hate at first sight in this love adventure from the author of Above Temptation, Roller Coaster and dozens of other best-selling, award-winning novels.
My Boys and Girls Are in There: The 1937 New London School Explosion
by Ron RozelleOn March 18, 1937, a spark ignited a vast pool of natural gas that had collected beneath the school building in New London, a tiny community in East Texas. The resulting explosion leveled the four-year-old structure and resulted in a death toll of more than three hundred—most of them children. To this day, it is the worst school disaster in the history of the United States. The tragedy and its aftermath were the first big stories covered by Walter Cronkite, then a young wire service reporter stationed in Dallas. He would later say that no war story he ever covered—during World War II or Vietnam—was as heart-wrenching. In the weeks following the tragedy, a factfinding committee sought to determine who was to blame. What soon became apparent was that the New London school district had, with almost all local businesses and residents, tapped into pipelines carrying unrefined gas from the plentiful oil fields of the area. It was technically illegal, but natural gas was in abundance in the “Oil Patch.” The jerry-rigged conduits leaked the odorless “green” gas that would destroy the school. A long-term effect of the disaster was the shared guilt experienced—for the rest of their lives—by most of the survivors. There is, perhaps, not a better example than Bill Thompson, who was in his fifth grade English class and “in the mood to flirt” with Billie Sue Hall, who was sitting two seats away. Thompson asked another girl to trade seats with him. She agreed—and was killed in the explosion, while Thompson and Hall both survived and lived long lives, never quite coming to terms with their good fortune. My Boys and Girls Are in There: The 1937 New London School Explosion is a meticulous, candid account by veteran educator and experienced author Ron Rozelle. Unfolding with the narrative pace of a novel, the story woven by Rozelle combines the anguished words of eyewitnesses with telling details from the historical and legal record. Released to coincide with the seventy- fifth anniversary of the New London School disaster, My Boys and Girls Are in There paints an intensely human portrait of this horrific event.
Rest for the Wicked (Jane Lawless #20)
by Ellen HartDeAndre Moore came to Minneapolis from St. Louis with a purpose, but things aren't going as he planned. When it becomes clear he's in way over his head, DeAndre can think of only one person to call for help - his Uncle Nolan's business partner, newly licensed private investigator Jane Lawless. However, by the time Jane listens to his voice mail, she's hearing a voice from beyond the grave - DeAndre left the message only minutes before he was knifed to death outside a gentlemen's club. Soon his murder isn't the only one. With Nolan in the hospital, Jane sets out to find out who killed DeAndre, how his death is connected with the others, and what he was doing in Minneapolis in the first place. Rest for the Wicked is another outstanding addition to Ellen Hart's award-winning mystery series.
The Last Nude
by Ellis AveryInspired by real events in Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka's history, "The Last Nude" is a tour de force of historical imagination. Avery gives the reader a tantalizing window into a lost Paris, an age already vanishing as the inexorable forces of history close in on two tangled lives.
1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America
by David PietruszaThe behind-the-headline true story of Harry Truman's stunning upset! Everyone knows the iconic news photo of jubilant underdog Harry Truman brandishing a copy of the Chicago Tribune proclaiming "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. " David Pietrusza goes backstage to explain how it happened, placing the brutal political battle in the context of an erupting Cold War and America's exploding storms over civil rights and domestic communism. Pietrusza achieves for 1948's presidential race what he previously did in his acclaimed 1960--LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: bringing history to life and intrigue readers with tales of high drama while simultaneously presenting the issues, personalities, and controversies of this pivotal era with laser-like clarity.
Bingo Barge Murder (Shay O'Hanlon Caper #1)
by Jessie ChandlerAs co-owner of The Rabbit Hole, a quirky-cool Minneapolis coffee shop, Shay O'Hanlon finds life highly caffeinated but far from dangerous. That is, until her lifelong friend Coop becomes a murder suspect. The victim was Kinky, Coop's former boss and the unsavory owner of The Bingo Barge, a sleazy gambling boat on the Mississippi. The weapon? Kinky's lucky bronzed bingo marker. While unearthing clues to absolve Coop, Shay encounters Mafia goons hunting for some extremely valuable nuts. Looking for the murderer without help from the cops proves risky-especially with distracting sparks flying between Shay and the beautiful yet fierce Detective Bordeaux. When Shay's elderly friend and landlady is held for ransom by the mob, all bets are off. Can Shay find the killer before the stakes get any higher?
Crucible of Fire: Nineteenth-Century Urban Fires and the Making of the Modern Fire Service
by Bruce HenslerUrban conflagrations, such as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the Great Boston Fire the following year, terrorized the citizens of nineteenth century American cities. However, urban rebirth in the aftermath of great fires offered a chance to shape the future. Ultimately residents and planners created sweeping changes in the methods of constructing buildings, planning city streets, engineering water distribution systems, underwriting fire insurance, and fire fighting itself. Crucible of Fire describes how the practical knowledge gained from fighting nineteenth-century fires gave form and function to modern fire protection efforts. Changes in materials and building design resulted directly from tragedies, such as fires in supposedly fireproof hotels. Thousands of buildings burned, millions of dollars were lost, the fire insurance industry faltered, and the nature of volunteerism changed radically before municipal authorities took the necessary actions. The great fires formed a crucible of learning for firefighters, engineers, architects, underwriters, and citizens. Veteran firefighter Bruce Hensler shows how the modern American fire service today is a direct result of the lessons of history and examines the efficacy of volunteerism in fighting fires. Crucible of Fire is an eye-opening look at today’s fire service and a thorough examination of what firefighters, civic leaders, and ordinary citizens can do to protect their homes and communities from the mistakes of the past. BRUCE HENSLER has thirty-four years of firefighting experience and degrees in fire science and public administration. His range of experience includes urban and suburban fire departments, as well as senior positions as a chief fire officer and deputy director of fire service training. A fire service and public policy analyst, he is also a paid-call fire officer for Rockport, Maine.
Dying to Live (Elite Operatives #4)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouBritish socialite Zoe Anderson-Howe's pampered life is abruptly shattered when she's taken hostage by FARC guerrillas while on a business trip to Bogota. While her father struggles to come up with the ransom, she must endure hardships that test her both mentally and physically. Elite Operative Fetch has been living in the Colombian jungle for six months on a mission to infiltrate the FARC and orchestrate the rescue of western hostages. When Zoe is added to her assignment, Fetch's sense of duty must override the disdain she initially feels for the self-indulgent tabloid queen. The task of freeing Zoe gains new urgency when it appears she may be the key to stopping a mysterious new virus that is racing across the globe, killing indiscriminately. The support Fetch counted on is needed elsewhere. Can she get Zoe out of there on her own, and will that be enough to save the millions of lives in peril? Fourth in the romantic intrigue series: Elite Operatives
Fleetwood Mac's Tusk (33 1/3 Ser. #77)
by Rob TrucksAfter Rumours became the best-selling single album of all-time, Fleetwood Mac asked Warner Brothers Records to buy them a studio (the label refused, costing both Warner Brothers and the band significant cash in the long run) and then handed the reins to their guitarist and resident perfectionist Lindsey Buckingham, a fusion of factors that led Tusk to become the first record in history to cross the million dollar threshold in production costs. “You know,” Buckingham told me, “we had this ridiculous success with Rumours. And at some point, at least in my perception, the success of that detached from the music, and it was more about the phenomenon. We were poised to do another album, and I guess because the axiom 'If it works, run it into the ground’ was prevalent then, we were probably poised to do Rumours II. I don’t know how you do that, but somehow my light bulb that went off was, ‘Let’s just not do that. Let’s very pointedly not do that.’” Here, Rob Trucks talks to Lindsey Buckingham, as well as members of Animal Collective, Camper Van Beethoven, the New Pornographers, Wolf Parade, the Fleetwood Mac tribute band. Tusk, and the USC Trojan marching band in order to chart both the story and the impact of an album born of personal obsession and a stubborn unwillingness to compromise.
Let the Faggots Burn: The Upstairs Lounge Fire
by Johnny TownsendOn Gay Pride Day in 1973, someone set the entrance to a French Quarter gay bar on fire. In the terrible inferno that followed, thirty-two people lost their lives, including a third of the local congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church, their pastor burning to death halfway out a second-story window as he tried to claw his way to freedom. A mother who'd gone to the bar with her two gay sons died alongside them. A man who'd helped his friend escape first was found dead near the fire escape. Two children waited outside of a movie theater across town for a father and step-father who would never pick them up. During this era of rampant homophobia, several families refused to claim the bodies, and many churches refused to bury the dead. Author Johnny Townsend pored through old records and tracked down survivors of the fire and relatives and friends of those killed to compile this fascinating account of a forgotten moment in gay history.
Roller Coaster
by Karin KallmakerLaura Izmani is starting over. Wiping her feet of her family, her past and her bad habits, she's determined to create a new life and career in sleepy--and very private--Woodside, California. Wealthy and famous families need home-cooked meals just like everybody else, and with several introductions and certain job in her pocket she's determined to succeed as a private chef. Only two things matter to Helen Baynor--her children and her career, in that order. She divides her time between home and New York and pays handsomely to make sure there are no gaps in watchful care over her kids. It's not ideal, but as an aging stage actress, she can't afford to let any Broadway part slip through her fingers. Two very different reasons bring Laura and Helen to the Beach Boardwalk for a symbolic ride on The Cyclone, the biggest, baddest roller coaster on the west coast. The same day, the same hour, the same first car. . . for the ride of their lives. Karin Kallmaker is a three-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for both novels and short stories, as well as numerous other accolades over her twenty-year devotion to lesbian romance.
Taking My Life
by Jane RuleDiscovered in her papers as a handwritten manuscript in 2008, Jane Rule's autobiography is a rich and culturally significant document that follows the first twenty-one years of her life. In writing about her formative years, she is indeed "taking" the measure of her life, assessing its contours of pleasure and pain, and accounting precisely for how it evolved, with great discretion and consideration for those who might have been affected by being represented in her work. She appreciated the ambiguity of the title she chose, with all its implications of suicide: at the end of her writing life, she was submitting herself as a person, not only to the literary and cultural, but also the moral and ethical critique of her readers. At turns deeply moving and witty,Taking My Lifeprobes in emotional and intellectual terms the larger philosophical questions that were to preoccupy her throughout her literary career, and showcases the origins and contexts that gave shape to Rule's rich intellectual life. Her autobiography will appeal to avid followers of her work, delighted to discover another of her works that has, until now, remained unpublished.
The Lost Women of Lost Lake (Jane Lawless #19)
by Ellen HartRestaurateur and part-time P. I. Jane Lawless is taking some much-needed time off at her family's lodge when her best friend, Cordelia, arrives with news that Tessa, one of their good friends, has taken a nasty fall and needs their help with rehearsals for a play that is set to open in a week. When Tessa isn't on crutches, she helps run the Thunderhook Lodge, the premier resort on Lost Lake. And while she clearly needs Jane and Cordelia's assistance, she isn't exactly acting all that grateful. A man who claims to be a journalist has arrived in Lost Lake with an old photograph and some questions for Tessa that go back decades. His questions have put her on edge, and when he shows up peeking through her kitchen window, everyone else is right there with her. As beloved as Tessa is, there are plenty of people who don't care about any so-called journalist and are happy to protect her, but how far are they willing to take it? And when will they need answers to questions that that only Tessa can provide? In The Lost Women of Lost Lake-the most engrossing mystery yet from Lambda and Minnesota Book Award-winning author Ellen Hart - Jane's only hope of protecting her friends from the secrets that are surfacing all around them is to uncover the whole truth before anyone else can.
The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think Is Normal
by Tom Mcbride Ron NiefSnapshots of the U. S. 's last nine generations--from the creators of the Mindset List media sensation Just as high school graduates in 1957 couldn't imagine life without zippers, those of 2009 can't imagine having to enter phone booths and deposit coins in order to call someone from the street corner. Every August, the Mindset List highlights the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of that year's incoming college class. Now this fascinating book extends the Mindset List approach to dramatize what it was like to grow up for every American generation since 1880, showcasing the remarkable changes in what Americans have considered "normal" about the world around them. Expands Tom McBride and Ron Nief's popular annual Mindset Lists to explore the mindset of nine generations of Americans, from 1880 to the future high school graduates of 2030 Offers a novel and absorbing way to understand the frame of reference of Americans through history, whether it's the high school grads of 1918, who viewed riding an elevator as a thrill second only to roller coasters, or those of 2009, who have always thought of "friend" as an active verb Puts a human face on the evolution of historical changes related to technology, the struggle for rights and equality, the calamities of war and depression, and other areas The annual Mindset List garners extensive media attention, including on Today, The Early Show, the NBC Nightly News, CNN, and Fox as well as in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, and hundreds of international publications Whatever your own generational mindset, this book will give you an entertaining and important new tool for understanding the unique perspective and experience of Americans over more than a hundred and fifty years.
The Pillsburys of Minnesota
by Lori Sturdevant George S. PillsburyThe Pillsburys of Minnesota "Pillsbury" is a household word in many parts of the world, but in Minnesota it has carried a special import ever since the arrival of John S. Pillsbury, his brother George, and nephews Charles and Fred at the Falls of st. Anthony in the mid-nineteenth century. Here Star Tribune columnist Lori Sturdevant chronicles the family's pioneering role in making Minneapolis the milling capitol of the world. she explores the career of Minnesota governor "Honest John "Pillsbury, and also highlights the instrumental part he played in the growth of the University of Minnesota. Alfred Pillsbury's impact on the Minneapolis Institue of Arts, Philip's remarkable success at reviving a moribund milling giant through the introduction of new food products and George's efforts to fashion a more inclusive Republican Party, are only a few of the many strands woven into the Pillsbury story. From mining camps and insurance companies to arts organizations and charitable concerns, the family's imprint on Minnesota runs deep and wide. Book jacket.
The Twelve Chairs (Northwestern World Classics)
by Evgeny Petrov Ilya Ilf Anne O. FisherWinner, 2012 Northern California Book Award for Fiction in Translation More faithful to the original text and its deeply resonant humor, this new translation of The Twelve Chairs brings Ilf and Petrov’s Russian classic fully to life. The novel’s iconic hero, Ostap Bender, an unemployed con artist living by his wits, joins forces with Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman who has returned to his hometown to look for a cache of missing jewels hidden in chairs that have been appropriated by the Soviet authorities. The search for the chairs takes them from the provinces of Moscow to the wilds of the Transcaucasus mountains. On their quest they encounter a variety of characters, from opportunistic Soviet bureaucrats to aging survivors of the old propertied classes, each one more selfish, venal, and bungling than the last. A brilliant satire of the early years of the Soviet Union, as well as the inspiration for a Mel Brooks film, The Twelve Chairs retains its universal appeal.