At her friend Ivy's behest, Emily reluctantly agrees to attend a party at the sprawling English country estate of Lord Fortescue, a man she finds as odious as he is powerful. But if Emily is expecting Lord Fortescue to be the greatest of her problems, she is wrong. Her host has also invited Kristiana von Lange, an Austrian countess who was once linked romantically with Emily's fiancé, the debonair Colin Hargreaves. What Emily believes will be a tedious evening turns deadly when Fortescue is found murdered, and his protégé, Robert Brandon—Ivy's husband—is arrested for the crime. Determined to right this terrible wrong and clear Robert's name, Emily begins to dig for answers, a quest that will lead her from London's glittering ballrooms to Vienna's sordid backstreets. Not until she engages a notorious anarchist in a game of wits does the shocking truth begin to emerge: the price of exonerating Robert can be paid only by placing Colin in deadly peril. To save her fiancé, Emily must do the unthinkable: bargain with her nemesis, the Countess von Lange.

Smoke has as many different scents as skin. Part of the pleasure is not knowing what it will be -- sulfurous or closer to incense or airier and sweeter as I imagine the smell of clouds.Ella is a connoisseur of fire, a woman enthralled by it as other women are by love. She savors the seductive promise of a spark, the caress of a curling wisp of smoke, the all-consuming hunger of a spreading blaze. Ella's heart seethes with a rage that can be spoken only with tongues of flame.In her remarkable first novel, Rene Steinke has created a narrator so lyrical and lucid in her madness as to raise the book to the level of romance. Trapped in a sleepy Indiana town, torn by inner demons that drive her to pyromania and promiscuity, Ella is at once entirely original and unforgettably real.As she struggles to come to terms with her family's tormented past and her own uncertain future, she draws the mesmerized reader ever deeper into her scorched soul, revealing a sensuality that will spiral into final, fiery destruction -- unless it can be quenched by love.

Mado has been adrift for too long. After ten years in Paris, she returns to the small island of Le Devin, the home that has haunted her since she left.Le Devin is shaped somewhat like a sleeping woman. At her head is the village of Les Salants, while its more prosperous rival, La Houssinière, lies at her feet. Yet even though you can walk from one to the other in an hour, they are worlds apart. And now Mado is back in Les Salants hoping to reconcile with her estranged father. But what she doesn't realize is that it is not only her father whose trust she must regain.

Ala?s, the spirited and indomitable princess of France, returns for another thrilling adventure in this historically rich, mesmerizing sequel to The Canterbury PapersWhen I settled back among the velvet cushions, the scenes from the cathedral replayed themselves before my unwilling eyes: the odd chalice, the way Constance looked at it, the interruption of Mass by the armed knights, the strange response of Chastellain to the king's inquiry.A whisper within me matched the clap-clap of the horses' hooves on the stones of the Paris road: There is more here; there is more here.Paris, October 1207. There is nothing that Princess Ala?s of France wants more than to settle down with her lover, William of Caen, and to reveal to his ward, Francis, that she is his mother. But intrigue is afoot in the palace: two monks have arrived from Rome on a mission to compel her brother, Philippe, the king, to help them battle a dangerous breakaway Christian sect in the south known as the Cathars. At the same time, Ala?s's aunt, the dowager countess Constance of Toulouse, is causing trouble in court, and Etienne Chastellain, the king's chief official, appears to be up to something more sinister than usual.Tensions are pushed to the brink when the St. John Cup, a relic much prized by the Cathars, is stolen, and then young Francis goes missing. Frantic for his safety, Ala?s will risk life and limb to find the boy. Donning a disguise, the royal princess must outwit cunning enemies and make her way into unfamiliar territory to save her son, and perhaps even prevent her beloved France from a bloody holy war.From the opulent halls of Paris to austere monasteries in the south of France, The Rebel Princess combines history and suspense in an unforgettabletale involving one of the most enigmatic and intriguing female figures in medieval history.

The lives of brothers Charlie and Owen Bender are changed forever on the night their father walks into the Vermont woods with a death wish and a shotgun. The second shock comes when his suicide note bequeaths the family's restaurant to Charlie alone, while leaving Owen with instructions to follow his own path, wherever it may take him.Years later, the restaurant is a success. The void in Charlie's life, created by his beloved brother's absence, is finally filled when a passionate affair becomes a deeply satisfying marriage. And now prodigal son Owen is returning home, to be welcomed back into the family fold. But the cruel legacy that tore a brotherhood apart created wounds not easily healed . . . and there must be reckoning.

If you're one of the millions of Americans suffering from back pain, Robert B. Winter, MD, and Marilyn L. Bach, PhD, have the answers and knowledge you need to effectively manage your condition. In Living Well with Back Pain, Winter and Bach draw on an extensive network of experts to bring you the latest information on:Diagnosing—and even eliminating—the problemExercise programs and over-the-counter drug treatmentsChoosing the right medical practitionerWhen surgery and other invasive procedures are not neededThe authors are affiliated with an internationally renowned back treatment center, the Twin Cities Spine Center, which has treated tens of thousands of back pain sufferers. Their expertise and up-to-the-minute knowledge make this the most comprehensive, current, and accessible back pain book available.

Spencer almost drowns in a surfing accident when a sparkling, golden girl saves him with a kiss of life before she suddenly disappears. Where did this dream girl come from, and will she return?Lilly rescues a boy from nearly drowning and dangerously steps out of her own watery world. Curious to explore this forbidden land, she's gotta find her handsome Earthdude.A silver heart locket is their only clue.Ellen Schreiber revamps a classic favorite with a funky magical romance that shows what transpires when boy meets girl, but discovers girl is really a . . .

My dream from last night haunts me. I am still running, still trying to hide from something I cannot see. I know that it sees me with eyes that can pierce the darkness. I know that it hungers to take my life. Paul has always believed in the power of dreams. He knows that they are often warnings. Warnings that should be taken very seriously.Now his nightmare visions of a predatory winged creature are becoming all too real. And though Paul has always depended on the wisdom of his Abenaki ancestors' stories to guide his footsteps, no monster tale could have prepared him for what he is about to encounter, alone, at the top of one of the most dangerous mountains in the world.

Ivan Dolinar is born in Tito's Yugoslavia on April Fool's Day, 1948 -- the auspicious beginning of a life that will be derailed by backfiring good intentions in a world of propaganda and paranoia. At age nineteen, an innocent prank cuts the young Croatian's budding medical career short and lands him in a notorious labor camp. Released on the eve of civil war, Ivan is drafted into the wrong army, becoming a pawn in an absurd conflict in which the rules and loyalties shift abruptly and without warning. But even in a world gone mad, one course of action remains eminently sane: survival.Told with bitingly dark humor and a deep tenderness, April Fool's Day is both a devastating political satire and a razor-sharp parody of war.

A Comprehensive, Holistic Guide to the Conventional Medical and Self-Care Treatments for Anxiety DisordersIn a world that values excess, the pressure to succeed never ends. As a result of our fast-paced and high-stakes society, anxiety can take over our lives.For approximately 20 million American adults a year, anxiety symptoms such as dizziness, stammering, heart palpitations, trembling, and shaking can be extremely debilitating. Unlike other books on anxiety, this book offers a holistic program that includes not only conventional psychiatric and psychological treatments, but also provides nutrition, fitness, environmental, herbal, stress reduction/healing, and relationship self-care approaches.Living Well with Anxiety contains helpful advice for a wide range of anxiety disorders: social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and various phobias. With a comprehensive resource section that contains relevant websites and e-mail addresses, audiocassettes and CDs for relaxation, and de*ions of related books, this book provides vital help for anyone experiencing anxiety.

Jonathan Santlofer once again combines his extraordinary talents as both a writer and an artist in this second chilling thriller featuring NYPD forensic sketch artist Nate Rodriguez. Though plagued by the death of his father years ago, Rodriguez has little time to dwell on the past. A rash of seemingly unrelated murders holds New York City in a gridlock of terror, and with his reputation for having a sixth sense—an uncanny ability to draw things he hasn't even seen—Rodriguez lands a spot on the task force investigating the crimes. But with his mind's eye clouded, he's forced to search for an answer the old-fashioned way: by hitting the streets.Rodriguez begins to suspect a common thread between the victims, confirmed when more bodies turn up—those of the killers themselves. As the slayings continue, the link between the crimes comes into focus and Rodriguez must convince the NYPD that they are up against something bigger—and more heinous—than anyone ever suspected.The Murder Notebook is a smart, innovative suspense novel with a terrifying, ripped-from-the-headlines urgency. Where is the line between advancement and criminality in matters of manipulating the human psycheWhat would happen if someone were no longer able to feel fearWith his unique blend of gripping prose and original sketches, Jonathan Santlofer has crafted a tale of morality and duty, love and justice, that is as shocking as it is timely.

Hailed as the "Israeli Kite Runner" (The Bookseller), this international bestseller and publishing phenomenon is the bittersweet story of one family, one home, and the surprising arc of one woman's life, from the poverty of her youth to the glowing love and painful losses of her adult years.Braiding together past and present, Every House Needs a Balcony tells the story of a young Jewish girl—a child of Romanian immigrants—who lives with her family in the poverty-stricken heart of 1950s Haifa, Israel. Eight-year-old Rina, her older sister, and their parents inhabit a cramped apartment with a narrow balcony that becomes an intimate shared stage on which the joys and dramas of the building's daily life are played out. It is also a vantage point from which Rina witnesses the emergence of a strange new country, born from the ashes of World War II. Later, after years of living abroad with her wealthy Spanish husband in Barcelona, Rina, longing for the simple life she has missed, returns to the Haifa of her boisterous youth, a move that soothes her soul but ultimately endangers her marriage.Beautifully told, rich with questions of identity, love, and survival, Every House Needs a Balcony is an unforgettable social and historical portrait of a neighborhood and a nation. Steeped in the colors and smells, laughter and tears, of Rina Frank's own childhood memories, it is a heartbreaking tale about the deepest meanings of home.

Cameisha Douglass has it all -- a sprawling home in a posh neighborhood, a fancy car, three healthy children, and a husband, Fashad, who is devoted to her. Her biggest worry is catching her daytime soap operas before the kids come home from school and her husband returns from work, "businesses" that everyone knows are mere fronts through which he launders his drug-dealing money. But as the emotional and sexual secrets of her family come to the surface, she can no longer deny that her life is not all that it seems. While family members point fingers at one another, the real threat may come from the outside, specifically from Smokey, a mixed-race twenty-year-old high school dropout and would-be rapper whose issues with sexual and racial identity fuel his inner rage.Written by a daring young author with a compelling voice, 5 Minutes and 42 Seconds is a fast-paced and edgy thriller that explores the questions of identity and sexuality with refreshing vigor.

From the fictitious diary of the equally fictitious Kennedy nanny comes an inside look into the early years of the dynasty—with all the juicy bits intact. Newly arrived from Ireland, Nora Brennan finds a position as nursery maid to the Kennedys of Brookline, Massachusetts—and lands at the heart of American history. In charge of nine children practically from the minute they're born—including Joe Jr., Jack, Bobby, Teddy, vivacious "Kick," and tragic Rosemary—she sees the boys coached at their father's knee to believe everything they'll ever want in life can be bought. She sees the girls trained by mother Rose to be good Catholic wives. With her sharp eye and her quiet common sense, Nora is the perfect candidate to report on an empire in the making. Then World War II changes everything.

The minute she had opened the trunk, she knew there wasn't anything like hope in it. Just awful musty things, but each one with a kind of terrible dark halo around it. She picked up that piece of old lace. She saw that stain -- pale, brownish in color. She knew it was blood. Somebody's blood. There was violence in that trunk, and dark secrets, and she did not want to know them.Curious about the old homestead where she now lives, Jerry finds an ancient trunk in the basement that contains, among other things, an old piece of bloodstained lace, some letters, and a battered doll. The objects in the trunk have stories to tell -- stories about the Spanish Inquisition spanning nearly five hundred years and stories of secrets locked deep in the bloodlines of Jerry's ancestors.Kathryn Lasky's powerhouse novel is a dramatic historical saga that brings the reader face-to-face with some of the worst atrocities ever committed against humankind in the name of God. But above all, it is an unforgettable coming-of-age story about a girl who, in connecting with her own past and faith, is at last able to face her own demons and liberate not only herself but also future generations of her family from the long chain of suffering and silence.

Throughout history, waves of invaders have coveted the northeast corner of France: Attila the Hun in the fifth century, the English in the Hundred Years War, the Prussians in the nineteenth century. Yet this region – which historians say has suffered more battles and wars than any other place on earth – is also the birthplace of one thing the entire world equates with good times, friendship and celebration: champagne. Champagne is the story of the world's favourite wine. It tells how a sparkling beverage that became the toast of society during the Belle Epoque emerged after World War I as a global icon of fine taste and good living. The book celebrates the gutsy, larger–than–life characters whose proud determination nurtured and preserved the land and its grapes throughout centuries of conflict.

What happened to Eden?The New York Times bestselling author of Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, and Abundance returns with an audacious and provocative novel that envisions a world where science and faith contend for the allegiance of a new Adam & EveHer books have been hailed as "exceptional" (People); "enchanting" (Entertainment Weekly); "of great cultural and historical importance" (New York Times Book Review); and "original and affecting" (Los Angeles Times). One of the most imaginative and inspired writers of our time, Sena Jeter Naslund masterfully uses her craft to lay bare the poignant complexity of humanity—the passion and despair, the ignorance and frailty, the genius and resilience that define us. From Victorian London to civil-rights-era Alabama, from nineteenth-century New England to revolutionary Paris, her novels offer profound insight and startling truths about human experience. Now, with Adam & Eve, she delivers her most ambitious and encompassing tale to date.Hours before his untimely—and highly suspicious—death, world-renowned astrophysicist Thom Bergmann shares his discovery of extraterrestrial life with his wife, Lucy. Feeling that the warring world is not ready to learn of—or accept—proof of life elsewhere in the universe, Thom entrusts Lucy with his computer flash drive, which holds the keys to his secret work.Devastated by Thom's death, Lucy keeps the secret, but Thom's friend, anthropologist Pierre Saad, contacts Lucy with an unusual and dangerous request about another sensitive matter. Pierre needs Lucy to help him smuggle a newly discovered artifact out of Egypt: an ancient codex concerning the human authorship of the Book of Genesis. Offering a reinterpretation of the creation story, the document is sure to threaten the foundation of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions . . . and there are those who will stop at nothing to suppress it. Midway through the daring journey, Lucy's small plane goes down on a slip of verdant land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Burned in the crash landing, she is rescued by Adam, a delusional American soldier whose search for both spiritual and carnal knowledge has led to madness. Blessed with youth, beauty, and an unsettling innocence, Adam gently tends to Lucy's wounds, and in this quiet, solitary paradise, a bond between the unlikely pair grows. Ultimately, Lucy and Adam forsake their half-mythical Eden and make their way back toward civilization, where members of an ultraconservative religious cult are determined to deprive the world of the knowledge Lucy carries.Set against the searing debate between evolutionists and creationists, Adam & Eve expands the definition of a "sacred book," and suggests that true madness lies in wars and violence fueled by all religious literalism and intolerance. A thriller, a romance, an adventure, and an idyll, Adam & Eve is a tour de force by a master contemporary storyteller.

No matter what your age or your family and medicalhistory, you can take steps to prevent debilitatingstrokes. And you can start today.No one plans to have a stroke, but too many people think that avoiding them is impossible. Written by the director of the Stroke Research Center at Mayo Clinic, this book helps you determine your risk for stroke and offers you a personalized prevention program based on your own risk profile.This book is the first of its kind to offer such thorough information about our nation's #1 disabler and #3 killer. Based on decades of research, Dr. Wiebers shares crucial information you need to know, including: The six different types of stroke Simple dietary changes that can help prevent stroke Common heart conditions that are little-known stroke risk factors Where to get the best treatment during a strokeYou and your loved ones don't have to live in fear of suffering strokes. This book gives you specific, positive steps to reduce the risk of stroke and to help you lead a more healthy, balanced, and enjoyable life.

In The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks tells a story that begins with a school bus accident. Using four different narrators, Banks creates a small-town morality play that addresses one of life's most agonizing questions: when the worst thing happens, who do you blame?

Daphna Whispers is insanely gifted.At age two and a half, she composed her first sonata.At age eight, she completed an opera.And now, at eleven and three-quarters, she is orchestrating a piano rhapsody.With a résumé like that, it's no wonder she is a student at the prestigious Blatt School for the Insanely Gifted. But as sixth grade draws to a close, Daphna's mind is far from the upcoming "Insanity Cup" competition. She's preoccupied by her mother's disappearance two months ago. When a mysterious man breaks into Daphna's small New York apartment, Daphna discovers that her mother's disappearance wasn't a random accident. Her mother knew something—and now somebody is after Daphna. What starts out as a simple fact-finding trip to the basement with her friends spirals into an international expedition. And while Daphna hopes to uncover the secret of her mother's disappearance on her global trek, the last thing she expects to uncover is an outrageous secret about the Blatt School.And one insanely shocking secret about herself.

Politically incorrect, provocative, and steeped in wit and irony, a fast-paced tragicomedy about the perfectly ordinary madness in today's Middle EastA thirtysomething Tel Aviv businessman, Eitan "Croc" Einoch's life is turned upside down when he narrowly escapes a suicide bombing on the minibus he rides to work. When he lives through a second attack, and then a third, he becomes, reluctantly, a national media celebrity. Naturally, the Palestinian terrorists responsible for the attacks are less than happy. This embarrassing symbol of their failure—this "CrocAttack"—must be neutralized. Meanwhile, Fahmi Sabih lies in a coma, quarrelling with his conscience. The young Palestinian suicide bomber has learned everything he knows about bombs, targets, and revenge from his brother. So why has Einoch survivedAs Fahmi's story unfolds, it becomes clear that their paths are destined to cross again—for there is another bombing still to come—and then luck will change drastically for one or both of them. But who, if anyone, has right on his side?