Westbrook Washington is a bright 14-year-old African-American boy from Mississippi. He is not worried when his 19-year-old brother, Corey, is shipped off to Iraq with the local National Guard unit "because the war is pretty much over anyway." But West is surprised when he begins receiving letters from Corey who details his experiences in Iraq and his disillusionment with the war. When Corey is killed by a roadside bomb, West is tasked with writing Corey's obituary for the local newspaper. In the meantime, he teams up with Corey's best friend Ray Ray to find the local Army recruiter who talked Corey into joining the Army so they can beat him up. Along the way, swept up in the anger and confusion over his brother's death, Westbrook steals every American flag in town and burns them at an abandoned train yard. When a WWII veteran who lives near the train yard is critically injured by the fire, both boys realize the potential consequences of their actions and come to understand that childhood is behind them. I'm a librarian and wrote this book because I could not find contemporary, meaningful books for young adult boys. I wanted to write a book that dealt with the experience many boys are facing - an older brother who joins the Army and is then immediately sent to war. One day you are a high school kid, the next day you are being shot at in a foreign country for no reason.
"The Black Star" is a wonderful crime-adventure book by the creator of the famous "The Mark of Zorro." The author worked as a police reporter before becoming a prolific and successful writer for pulp magazines and Hollywood. His real-life experiences often find reflection in his novels. The book, presented here, features a villain, The Black Star, a master to escape from the police. Yet the successful amateur detective who finally captures him, discovers that sending the Black Star to the police would ruin his fiancée's family. Now, he needs to outwit the law and the Black Star to ensure a happy ending.
Winds whistled up the river, and winds whistled down from the hills, and they met to swirl and gather fury and rattle the city’s millions of windowpanes. They carried a mixture of sleet and fine snow, the first herald of the winter to come. In the business district they swung signs madly back and forth, and roared around the corners of high office buildings, and swept madly against struggling trolley cars. They poured through the man-made cañons; they dashed out the broad boulevards—and so they came to the attention of Mr. Roger Verbeck, at about the hour of midnight, as he turned over in his warm bed and debated whether to rise and lower the window or take a chance with the rapidly lowering temperature. “Beastly night!” Verbeck confided to himself, and put his head beneath the covers. He slept—and suddenly he awakened. A moment before he had been in the midst of a pleasant dream; now every sense was alert, and his right hand, creeping softly under the cover, reached the side of the bed and grasped an automatic pistol that hung in a rack there. From the adjoining room—his library—there came no flash of an electric torch, no footfall, no sound foreign to the apartment, nothing to indicate the presence of an intruder. Yet Verbeck sensed that an intruder was there. He slipped quietly from the bed, shivering a bit because of the cold wind, put his feet into slippers, and drew on a dressing gown over his pajamas. Then, his pistol held ready for use in case of emergency, he started across the bedroom, taking short steps and walking on his toes. A reflection entered the room from the arc light on the nearest street corner. This uncertain light was shut off for an instant, and Verbeck whirled quickly, silently, to find another man slipping up beside him. It was Muggs—a little, wiry man of uncertain age, who had been in Verbeck’s employ for several years, valet at times, comrade in arms at times, willing adventurer always. Muggs bent forward until his lips were close to Verbeck’s ear. “I heard it, too, boss,” he said. “Somebody in the library!” Verbeck nodded; they crept nearer the door. Inch by inch, Verbeck pulled aside one of the curtains, until they could peer into the other room. A gleam from the corner arc light penetrated the library, too. It revealed the interior of the room in a sort of semi-gloom, causing elusive shadows that flitted here and there in such fashion that they scarcely could be distinguished from substance. Also, it revealed an open window near the fire escape—and it showed the form of a man standing before Verbeck’s antique desk in a corner. Muggs bent beneath his master’s arm to see better. He felt Verbeck grip his shoulder, and looked up to find him indicating the open window. Like a shadow, Muggs, who also held a weapon in his hand, slipped through the curtains, crept along the wall, and advanced toward that window to cut off the intruder’s retreat.
The Chainbreakers' War freed the norren. Won independence for Narashtovik. And drove a rift between Dante and Blays that may never be mended. After three years of wandering, Blays has returned to Gask. Blaming its king for the loss of his love, Lira, he poses as a merchant and infiltrates the enemy nobility. His goal is to bankrupt the kingdom and force its ruler from the throne. But his scheme is ruined when Dante arrives and outs him to the king. In desperation, Blays flees to the one place Dante can't follow: the forbidden Pocket Cove. There, he intends to learn whatever secrets have kept its people hidden for centuries. Meanwhile, Dante is called back to Narashtovik. Strange lights have been seen in the nearby Wodun Mountains. His investigation reveals the lights herald the return of the Black Star, a long-lost item capable of making wishes real. With it, Dante plans to make himself immortal. To find it, he must cross the Woduns into the mysterious country of Weslee. But there are others vying for the Black Star—and if they find it first, they will use it to scour Narashtovik from the earth. THE BLACK STAR is the final book in an epic fantasy trilogy.
"A queer cast of characters--a half-fae teenager, a temperamental ex-Fury, a fae prince, and his brooding guardian--must track down a serial killer whose disturbing murders are threatening to expose the hidden faerie courts to the human world"--Provided by publisher.
Paris, Moscow, Berlin, and Prague, 1937. In the back alleys of nighttime Europe, war is already under way. André Szara, survivor of the Polish pogroms and the Russian civil wars and a foreign correspondent for Pravda, is co-opted by the NKVD, the Soviet secret intelligence service, and becomes a full-time spymaster in Paris. As deputy director of a Paris network, Szara finds his own star rising when he recruits an agent in Berlin who can supply crucial information. Dark Star captures not only the intrigue and danger of clandestine life but the day-to-day reality of what Soviet operatives call special work.
I want to introduce myself to the world. Hi my name is Ritchie C. Mcphee Sr. Bahamian by birth, but still just a mortal human being, A MAN, a man like any other man. This is not a memoir, just me looking at the world through my eyes. This is just an insight into the way I think, the way I reason, the way I rationalize, and try to make sense of this world that we live in. Some of you might be surprised at my interpretation of what I'm seeing, some might be in denial, while others might have the same interpretations, and simply just don't care. All I want to do is raise the conscious thinking of man, and hopefully learn a little more about myself as I grow through this book.
The upcoming election in the former iron curtain country of Maldisia has become the focus of intense concern throughout the world. The warlike factions in Moscow will use the country to complete the final link in their insidious nuclear “Ring of Fire.” To accomplish this, their socialist puppets, who are masters of political intrigue, must be kept in power. The US and NATO countries have to rely on this small Eastern European nation’s politically-inexperienced democratic parties to unite and win against overwhelming odds. The democrats’ chances are further diminished by the ominous presence of Black Star, a secret organization of former KGB agents and terrorists. Their psychotic leader, Scorpius, will employ bribery, kidnapping, murder…whatever it takes to achieve the Soviets’ objectives. Desperate to influence the election, the US State Department calls on Marc O’Neill to travel to Maldisia, under cover, and surreptitiously mastermind a campaign for the democrats. O’Neill, a successful election campaign strategist, accepts the challenge, not fully recognizing the extent of the danger involved. Once Scorpius recognizes O’Neill’s true roll, he becomes a highly vulnerable target. His safety depends on the courage and skills of Karl Sabo, a battle-hardened CIA agent assigned to protect him.
