An Orwellian Dystopian Society - Keira Maddock lives in a dark future in which the Elite have everything, and everyone else suffers. She is a survivor. Out of necessity, she has become a skilled seductress, thief and bounty hunter – a Freelancer. When a typical job goes awry, it changes everything. Alliances are formed, long kept secrets are revealed and lives are forever changed.Keira Maddock has never considered herself a lady. In fact, she often acts in ways that would be considered downright un-ladylike. A hired killer and thief whose only goal is to provide the necessities of life for herself and her sister, she has learned to be brutally effective in her trade, with skills as sharp as the weapons she prefers. And when the head of a huge, shadowy corporation hires her to remove a powerful and wealthy opponent, Keira is happy to oblige. Until she meets him...Scott Maddock is a hardened Terenian soldier-for-life. His job, to uphold the motto of the realm: "Reliance on Citizens Makes Us Great!" Soldiers work for the Gov, and the Gov is run by heads of corporations. But where do Scott's loyalties really lie? Only he and his best friend know for sure.April Maddock is trying to make it on her own and has taken a job with a wealthy family. She has chosen not to fight the system like Keira, nor to fight for the Gov like Scott. Unlike her siblings, she recognizes the good in everyone. Even so, outside appearances can be deceiving. April knows that better than most.Infested with greed and divided by power, the realm of Terene bears remarkable resemblance to our own society. But opposite despair, there is always hope. Whereas Keira Maddock brings destruction, Guy Bensen brings promise. Wealthy and powerful, yet thoughtful and caring, he is an anomaly who throws her completely off guard. When she learns of his connections to Scott and April, Keira knows she has made the right decision in not only sparing his life but in joining his cause.In book one of the Reliance on Citizens trilogy, S.L. Wallace introduces a world divided in which not everyone is who he seems to be. In a seamless blend of action, sci-fi, romance and political suspense, we are encouraged to consider the bonds that makes us human.

WHEN the world was in its childhood, men looked upon the works of Nature with a strange kind of awe. They fancied that every thing upon the earth, in the air, or in the water, had a life like their own, and that every sight which they saw, and every sound which they heard, was caused by some intelligent being. All men were poets, so far as their ideas and their modes of expression were concerned, although it is not likely that any of them wrote poetry. This was true in regard to the Saxon in his chilly northern home, as well as to the Greek in the sunny southland. In the north a different story was told, but the meaning was the same. Sometimes men told how Odin (the All-Father) had become angry with Brunhild (the maid of spring), and had wounded her with the thorn of sleep, and how all the castle in which she slept was wrapped in deathlike slumber until Sigurd or Siegfried (the sunbeam) rode through flaming fire, and awakened her with a kiss. Sometimes men told how Loki (heat) had betrayed Balder (the sunlight), and had induced blind old Hoder (the winter months) to slay him, and how all things, living and inanimate, joined in weeping for the bright god, until Hela (death) should permit him to revisit the earth for a time. So, too, when the sun arose, and drove away the darkness and the hidden terrors of the night, our ancestors thought of the story of a noble young hero slaying a hideous dragon, or taking possession of the golden treasures of Mist Land. And when the springtime came, and the earth renewed its youth, and the fields and woods were decked in beauty, and there was music everywhere, they loved to tell of Idun (the spring) and her youth-giving apples, and of her wise husband Bragi (Nature's musician). When storm clouds loomed up from the horizon and darkened the sky, and thunder rolled overhead, and lightning flashed on every hand, they talked about the mighty Thor riding over the clouds in his goat-drawn chariot, and battling with the giants of the air. When the mountain meadows were green with long grass, and the corn was yellow for the sickles of the reapers, they spoke of Sif, the golden-haired wife of Thor, the queen of the pastures and the fields. When the seasons were mild, and the harvests were plentiful, and peace and gladness prevailed, they blessed Frey, the giver of good gifts to men. To them the blue sky-dome which everywhere hung over them like an arched roof was but the protecting mantle which the All-Father had suspended above the earth. The rainbow was the shimmering bridge which stretches from earth to he-aven. The sun and the moon were the children of a giant, whom two wolves chased forever around the earth. The stars were sparks from the fire land of the south, set in the heavens by the gods. Night was a giantess, dark and swarthy, who rode in a car drawn by a steed the foam from whose bits sometimes covered the earth with dew. And Day was the son of Night; and the steed which he rode lighted all the sky and the earth with the beams which glistened from his mane ..

The sequel to the Pulitzer Prize winning bestseller Advise and Consent. From Allen Drury, the 20th Century grand master of political fiction, a novel of the United Nations and the racial friction that could spark a worldwide powderkeg. International tensions rise as ambassadors and politicians scheme, using the independence of a small African nation as the focal point for hidden agendas. A cascade of events begun in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations could lead to the weakening of the United States, the loss of the Panama Canal, and a possible civil war. Allen Drury paints a vivid and laser-accurate portrait of Washington and international politics, from top secret conferences, to elite cocktail parties, club luncheon rooms, and the private offices of the key players in government. A novel as relevant today as when it was first published.

The final speeches of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama. Both speeches were instant and moving landmarks, as well as stirring testaments to the time this inspiring and beloved couple spent in the White House.

They're no more than a few acres across, streets and buildings on every side--yet Patrick Reed is inexplicably drawn to the woods behind his house. What he finds in those trees is an ancient power that is both wonderful and terrifying. He embraces it at first... but when odd things begin to happen in Hillward, he's the only one who can protect the little town from the darkness that lingers there.They're no more than a few acres across, with streets and buildings on every side--yet Patrick Reed is inexplicably drawn to the woods behind his house. What he finds amongst those trees in the scarce light of the moon is an ancient power that is both wonderful and terrifying. He embraces this power at first... but when odd things begin to happen in Hillward, he's the only one who can protect the little town from the darkness that lingers there. Now, while avoiding the attention of his concerned parents and maintaining a budding friendship with a special classmate, Patrick must use his new-found power to uncover the mystery of the beckoning crow before the whole town is engulfed in shadow..."The Color of Night" is a YA paranormal mystery/thriller by author Jack Thomas.

One of Cuba’s—and Latin America’s—greatest historical novels, about imperial conquest carried out under the guise of liberation, in its first new English translation in sixty years and featuring a new foreword by Alejandro ZambraA Penguin ClassicWhen he arrives in Cuba at the close of the eighteenth century, Victor Hugues, a merchant sailor from Marseille, brings with him not only the idealism of the French Revolution but also its ambition and bloodlust. Landing at the Havana doorstep of a trio of wealthy, eccentric Creole orphans, he sweeps them across the Caribbean Sea to Guadeloupe, whose enslaved Africans he frees only then to exploit them in his fight against the British for colonial sovereignty. What ensues in Alejo Carpentier’s swashbuckling, magical realist masterpiece is an explosive clash between the New World and the Old World, and between revolutionary ideals and the corrupting allure of power.For more than...

Howard Browne was a science fiction editor and mystery writer. He also wrote for several television series and films.

Conservative talk radio's fastest-growing superstar is also a New York Times bestselling phenomenon: the author of the groundbreaking critique of the Supreme Court, Men in Black, and the deeply personal dog lover's memoir Rescuing Sprite, Mark R. Levin now delivers the book that characterizes both his devotion to his more than 5 million listeners and his love of our country and the legacy of our Founding Fathers: Liberty and Tyranny is Mark R. Levin's clarion call to conservative America, a new manifesto for the conservative movement for the 21st century. In the face of the modern liberal assault on Constitution-based values, an attack that has steadily snowballed since President Roosevelt's New Deal of the 1930s and resulted in a federal government that is a massive, unaccountable conglomerate, the time for re-enforcing the intellectual and practical case for conservatism is now. Conservative beliefs in individual freedoms do in the end stand for liberty for all Americans, while liberal dictates lead to the breakdown of civilized society -- in short, tyranny. Looking back to look to the future, Levin writes "conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are our founding principles." And in a series of powerful essays, Levin lays out how conservatives can counter the liberal corrosion that has filtered into every timely issue affecting our daily lives, from the economy to health care, global warming, immigration, and more -- and illustrates how change, as seen through the conservative lens, is always prudent, and always an enhancement to individual freedom. As provocative, well-reasoned, robust, and informed as his on-air commentary, Levin's narrative will galvanize readers to begin a new era in conservative thinking and action. Liberty and Tyranny provides a philosophical, historical, and practical framework for revitalizing the conservative vision and ensuring the preservation of American society.

Find inspiration in these messages of hope from the forty-fourth president of the United States.This curated collection of landmark speeches chronicles Barack Obama's presence on the national stage, from his time as a senator from Illinois to his eight-year term as the 44th president of the United States—and also includes notable speeches he made after he left the White House. Obama's eloquent speaking style and ability to connect to a wide range of audiences made him one of the most admired presidents in recent memory, even as he dealt with staunch party-line opposition in Congress. Barack Obama Selected Speeches is a volume that will appeal to those with a keen interest in history, politics, and the role that the United States has played in shaping today's world.

"Just as the necessary qualification for a good liar is a good memory, so the essential equipment of a would-be lie detector is a good timeline, and a decent archive." In NO ONE LEFT TO LIE TO, a New York Times bestseller, Christopher Hitchens casts an unflinching eye on the Clinton political machine and offers a searing indictment of a president who sought to hold power at any cost. With blistering wit and meticulous documentation, Hitchens masterfully deconstructs Clinton's abject propensity for pandering to the Left while delivering to the Right, and he argues that the president's personal transgressions were ultimately inseparable from his political corruption. Hitchens questions the president's refusals to deny accusations of rape by reputable women and lambasts, among numerous impostures, his insistence on playing the race card, the shortsightedness of his welfare bill, his ludicrous war on drugs, and his abandonment of homosexuals in the form of the Defense of Marriage Act. Opportunistic statecraft, crony capitalism, "divide and rule" identity politics, and populist manipulations-these are perhaps Clinton's greatest and most enduring legacies.

These poems twirl their skirts as they explore bi-cultural identity, growing up, a young mother's struggles, and the limits of language. Half Guatemalan and half Anglo, the speaker worries about "black-topped boys with butterscotch skin" who whistle at her, but loves how flowers "explode into curls of crepe." She doesn't understand Spanish or why tragedy jabs into our lives, but still she sings.Along with pieces called "breathtaking" by Naomi Shihab Nye, these poems twirl their skirts as they explore bi-cultural identity, growing up, a young mother's struggles, and the limits of language. Half Guatemalan and half Anglo, the speaker worries about "black-topped boys with butterscotch skin" who whistle at her, but loves how flowers "explode into curls of crepe." She doesn't understand Spanish or why tragedy jabs into our lives, but still she sings.

'An exquisitely-written, generous, funny, thoughtful book about the everyday joys of being alive. I love it.' Dolly Alderton 'J. B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century and it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius.' Dame Judi Dench 'My apology, my little bit of penitence, for having grumbled so much, for having darkened the breakfast table, almost ruined the lunch, nearly silence the dinner party, for all the fretting and chafing, grousing and croaking, for the old glum look and the thrust-out lower lip. So my long-suffering kinsfolk, my patient friends, may a glimmer of that delight which has so often possessed me, but perhaps too frequently in secret, now reach you from these pages.' There are times when there doesn't seem much to smile about. And for those times, there is this book. J. B Priestley's 1949 classic teaches us that joy may be found in even the simplest things, and that we all have the capacity to appreciate them. Delight...

s/t: A Tragi-comedy in Memoriam Messieurs Bouvard et Pecuchet