White House speechwriter Marc Thiessen was locked in a secure room and given access to the most sensitive intelligence when he was tasked to write President George W. Bush’s 2006 speech explaining the CIA’s interrogation program and why Congress should authorize it. Few know more about these CIA operations than Thiessen, and in his new book, Courting Disaster, he documents just how effective the CIA’s interrogations were in foiling attacks on America, penetrating al-Qaeda’s high command, and providing our military with actionable intelligence.

Thiessen also posits that President Obama has been reckless in shutting down the CIA’s program and releasing secret documents that have aided enemies of the USA. Courting Disaster strives to convince readers:

In chilling detail, Thiessen reveals how close the terrorists came to striking again, how intelligence gained from “enhanced interrogation” repeatedly stymied their plots, and how President Obama’s dismantling of this CIA program is courting disaster for Americans.

After an accident left her near death, Sera Littlejohn is struggling to piece together her life. But when a violet-eyed stranger reveals a supernatural battle veiled in the shadows, Sera is tempted to the edge of madness by a dangerous desire.

Ferris Archer takes Sera Littlejohn under his wing now that she is talyan, possessed by a repentant demon with hellish powers. Archer and his league of warriors have long risked their demon-shattered souls to stop darker spirits from wreaking havoc, but they’ve never fought beside a female talya before. And never in all his centuries has Archer found a woman who captivates him like Sera. With the balance shifting between good and evil, passion and possession, Sera and Archer must defy the darkness and dare to embrace a love that will mark them forever.

Seduced by Shadows is a gorgeous story with a fresh, original setting, wonderful characters, and a delightful tale of good, evil, and the gray places in-between.
— Errant Dreams Reviews]]> http://blackstoneaudioapps.com/2010/seduced-by-shadows-slade/feed/ 0 http://blackstoneaudioapps.com/2010/american-prometheus-bird/ http://blackstoneaudioapps.com/2010/american-prometheus-bird/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:07:09 +0000 Kevin http://blackstoneaudioapps.com/2010/american-prometheus-bird/

In this magisterial biography twenty-five years in the making and winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biography, the authors capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.

When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s. They declared that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America’s nuclear secrets.

In this magisterial biography twenty-five years in the making, the authors capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War.

The book’s scope transcends the usual bounds of biography and illuminates a critical time in American history, with important implications for our present and future.
— Bookmarks

Kai Bird is the author of The Chairman: John J. McCloy, The Making of the American Establishment and The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms. He coedited with Lawrence Lifschultz Hiroshima’s Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History and the Smithsonian Controversy. A contributing editor of The Nation, he lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and son.

Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life. Following his dismissal from the Royal Navy on a false accusation, he has earned reinstatement through his daring exploits as a privateer. Now he is to shepherd Stephen Maturin—his friend, ship’s surgeon, and sometimes intelligence agent—on a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes.

The journey of the Diane encompasses a satisfying diversity of adventures. Maturin climbs the Thousand Steps of the sacred crater of the orangutans; a killer typhoon catches Aubrey and his crew trying to work the Diane off a reef; and in the barbaric court of Pulo Prabang, a classic duel of intelligence agents unfolds: the French envoys, well entrenched in the sultan’s good graces, against the savage cunning of Stephen Maturin.

Novels of extraordinary, quirky attractiveness, oblique and complicated charm, a rich and reliable intelligence…A dazzling receptiveness to language, an understanding of period speech so entire that it never needs to preen itself.
— New York Times Book Review

Patrick O’Brian (1914—2000) was born Richard Patrick Russ in England. During the Second World War, he and his wife were involved in British secret-service activities. After the war, he changed his name to Patrick O’Brian and began his career as a novelist, biographer, and translator. He is the author of the acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin tales and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso. In 1995 he was the first recipient of the Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime’s contribution to literature. In the same year he was awarded the CBE. In 1997 he received an honorary doctorate of letters from Trinity College, Dublin.

Anne Shirley, the orphan child who brings happiness and love into the lives of her foster family, is one of the most beloved heroines in all literature. This wildly imaginative, red-headed chatterbox tries to fit into the narrow confines of Victorian expectations, but her exuberant spirit keeps leaping delightfully beyond the bounds.

When Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew find that they are getting too old to work the farm by themselves, they decide to adopt an orphan boy to help out. To their dismay, they are sent a girl by mistake—an impetuous girl with a hopeless lack of manners. Pragmatic Marilla is determined to return her, but warm-hearted Matthew urges that she be given a chance to prove herself. The challenge laid down for this eleven-year-old girl—and the mishaps that befall her before she wins the heart of her foster mother—make for a delightfully charming story.

I have just finished reading this book aloud to my 8 year old (who is well capable of reading it herself) so that we could enjoy the book together. What can I say? It is one of the most delightful books in the world, meant to be shared and cherished, and above all remembered and recommended to others. If you have a little girl in your life, introduce her to this book. She will always thank you.
— Lesley West, Amazon.com customer review

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born on November 30th, 1874, in Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Although she lived during a time when few women received a higher education, Lucy attended Prince Wales College in Charlottestown, P.E.I., and then Dalhousie University in Halifax.

At seventeen she went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to write for a newspaper, the Halifax Chronicle, and for its evening edition, the Echo. But Lucy returned to live with her grandmother in Cavendish, P.E.I., where she taught and contributed stories to magazines. It was this experience, along with the lives of her farmer and fisherfolk neighbors, that came alive when she wrote her Anne books, beginning with Anne of Green Gables (1908).

Anne of Green Gables brought her overnight success and international recognition. It was followed by eight other books about Anne and Avonlea, as well as a number of other delightful novels, including her Emily series, which began in 1923 with Emily of New Moon. But it is her delightful heroine Anne Shirley, praised by Mark Twain as the most moving and delightful child of fiction since the immortal Alice, who remains a popular favorite throughout the world.

She and her husband, the Rev. Ewen MacDonald, eventually moved to Ontario. Lucy Montgomery died in Toronto in 1942.

Learning that her mother, whom she had thought long dead, has only recently passed away, Halcyon sets out to find some answers. But will she be prepared for the ghastly visions and revelations of her family history that await her?

Ghosts don’t exist in our world of today—life is too pragmatic, too busy, too consuming for past lives to linger on longer than their allotted time, or so Halcyon believed before receiving a letter from a lawyer, claiming that Halcyon’s mother, whom she had thought long dead, had actually been living in another part of the country since Halcyon’s early childhood, has only recently passed away, leaving her heir to an unexpected fortune and an estate on an isolated island in the middle of the Great Lakes.

Setting out to find some answers, Hallie travels to her mother’s home. But will she be prepared for the ghastly family history that waits for her there, the visions and revelations that will change and change again everything she thought she knew about the father she lived with, and the mother she thought she’d lost long ago?

With The Tale of Halcyon Crane, Webb weaves the arresting story of one woman’s search for truth in a miasma of secrets. It is a story of family lore, ancient sins, ghostly encounters, and above all, the haunting power of love.

Set on a mysterious time-warped island in Lake Superior, The Tale of Halcyon Crane is a delicious ghost story, by turns chilling and heart-warming. The perfect cozy read.
— Mary Sharratt, author of The Vanishing Point

Wendy Webb is editor in chief of Duluth-Superior, an upscale lifestyle magazine. A journalist with two decades of experience, she lives in Minnesota. The Tale of Halcyon Crane was her first novel.

In the years since Anne Shirley arrived at Green Gables as a freckle-faced orphan, she has grown into a bright capable sixteen-year-old. But when Anne begins her job as the new schoolteacher, her real tests begin.

At sixteen, Anne Shirley is almost grown up. Her gray eyes shine like evening stars, but her red hair is still as peppery as her temper. In the years since she arrived at Green Gables as a freckle-faced orphan, she has earned the love of the people of Avonlea—and a reputation for getting into scrapes. But when Anne begins her job as the new Avonlea schoolteacher, the real test of her character begins.

While teaching the three R’s, Anne is also learning how complicated life can be when she meddles in someone else’s romance, finds two new orphans at Green Gables, and wonders about the strange behavior of the very handsome Gilbert Blythe. As Anne enters womanhood, her adventures touch the heart and the funny bone.

An exceptional audio[book]. Highly recommended.
— Reviewer’s Bookwatch

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born on November 30th, 1874, in Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Although she lived during a time when few women received a higher education, Lucy attended Prince Wales College in Charlottestown, P.E.I., and then Dalhousie University in Halifax.

At seventeen she went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to write for a newspaper, the Halifax Chronicle, and for its evening edition, the Echo. But Lucy returned to live with her grandmother in Cavendish, P.E.I., where she taught and contributed stories to magazines. It was this experience, along with the lives of her farmer and fisherfolk neighbors, that came alive when she wrote her Anne books, beginning with Anne of Green Gables (1908).

Anne of Green Gables brought her overnight success and international recognition. It was followed by eight other books about Anne and Avonlea, as well as a number of other delightful novels, including her Emily series, which began in 1923 with Emily of New Moon. But it is her delightful heroine Anne Shirley, praised by Mark Twain as the most moving and delightful child of fiction since the immortal Alice, who remains a popular favorite throughout the world.

She and her husband, the Rev. Ewen MacDonald, eventually moved to Ontario. Lucy Montgomery died in Toronto in 1942.

Alexander the Great is considered one of the most successful commanders of all time and was known to be undefeated in battle. He is mentioned in the Bible as well as the Qur’an, and is on the shortest of short lists whenever the world’s best military leaders are catalogued. When asked to name other great military leaders, Caesar reportedly said Alexander was the only great one.

Born in 356 B.C., the son of Philip II of Macedonia, Alexander the Great was educated by Aristotle, became a consummate horseman, and commanded a wing of his father’s army in the victory over the Thebans and Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea—all when he was still a teenager. By the time of his death at age 32, he had united Greece and had amassed an empire that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River and included all of Persia and most of Egypt. He ruled as both the shah of Persia and as a pharaoh of Egypt by right of conquest, and he was also crowned king of Asia. The scope of his military prowess remains awe-inspiring to this day.

Yenne’s masterful biography shows Alexander’s influence on the course of cultural and political history and discusses his leadership, strategy, and legacy.

In Alexander the Great, as in all his many books, Bill Yenne displays his talent for succinctly painting the big picture with a series of fascinating details that make ancient history come alive. Only an author of his experience and capability could render the amazing story of Alexander the Great with such accuracy and feeling. Yenne grabs the reader on page one and doesn’t let go until the book is ended with an intriguing chapter on what might have been if Alexander’s life had not been cut short. This book will make us yearn for the return of a leader like Alexander to resolve our current wars in the Middle East.
— Colonel Walter Boyne, USAF (Ret.) and Former Director of the National Air & Space Museum

Bill Yenne is the author of more than two dozen books on military, aviation, and historical topics. He is a member of the American Aviation Historical Society and the American Society of Journalists & Authors and a regular contributor to International Air Power Review. He also worked with the legendary US Air Force commander, General Curtis E. LeMay. He lives in San Francisco, California.

In this continuation of the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne and Gilbert are finally married and move into their house of dreams. But a new life means new problems to solve, and new surprises.

In this continuation of the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne’s true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor. In the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together in their house of dreams, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbour.

But a new life means new problems to solve, and new surprises. Anne and Gilbert make new friends and neighbors: Captain Jim, the lighthouse attendant, with his sad stories of the sea; Miss Cornelia Bryant, a lady who speaks her mind; and the tragic beauty Leslie Moore, into whose dark life Anne shines a brilliant light.

I return to this book in the ‘Anne’ series perhaps more than any of the others. Each re-reading uncovers a new delight.…The book contains an interwoven medley of incidents large and small, joyous and sad, culminating in the revelation of a spectacular truth that has a powerful impact on the major characters.
— Amazon.com customer review

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born on November 30th, 1874, in Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Although she lived during a time when few women received a higher education, Lucy attended Prince Wales College in Charlottestown, P.E.I., and then Dalhousie University in Halifax.

At seventeen she went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to write for a newspaper, the Halifax Chronicle, and for its evening edition, the Echo. But Lucy returned to live with her grandmother in Cavendish, P.E.I., where she taught and contributed stories to magazines. It was this experience, along with the lives of her farmer and fisherfolk neighbors, that came alive when she wrote her Anne books, beginning with Anne of Green Gables (1908).

Anne of Green Gables brought her overnight success and international recognition. It was followed by eight other books about Anne and Avonlea, as well as a number of other delightful novels, including her Emily series, which began in 1923 with Emily of New Moon. But it is her delightful heroine Anne Shirley, praised by Mark Twain as the most moving and delightful child of fiction since the immortal Alice, who remains a popular favorite throughout the world.

She and her husband, the Rev. Ewen MacDonald, eventually moved to Ontario. Lucy Montgomery died in Toronto in 1942.

In this third volume of the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne sets out for college. She soon faces difficult choices involving her secret aspirations to be a writer and her hopes of finding the right person to marry.

Free-spirited and irrepressible, Anne Shirley has a beautiful way of looking at the world. In this third volume of the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne dreams of the woman she hopes to be when she decides to leave her beloved Prince Edward Island for college. She is eager for new adventure, but faces difficult choices involving her secret aspirations to be a writer and her hopes of finding the right person to marry.

Homesickness and a grumpy old math professor cause Anne to doubt she should be a Redmond College coed. And when Anne is the recipient of unexpected marriage proposals from the most unlikely young men, she may shock friends and Islanders alike with her decision. Then, when tragedy strikes, Anne learns a valuable lesson that prepares her to make the most important choice of all.

My sentimental favorite of the Anne series. I always thought college was going to be just like that—my best friends, a cute little house in a great neighborhood, and my childhood friend, madly in love with me. Anne is one of my favorite literary heroines, and I liked her transition between girlhood and adulthood. She’s grown out of classic Anne of Green Gables, but she’s still the same person.
— Chelsea, GoodReads.com review

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born on November 30th, 1874, in Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Although she lived during a time when few women received a higher education, Lucy attended Prince Wales College in Charlottestown, P.E.I., and then Dalhousie University in Halifax.

At seventeen she went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to write for a newspaper, the Halifax Chronicle, and for its evening edition, the Echo. But Lucy returned to live with her grandmother in Cavendish, P.E.I., where she taught and contributed stories to magazines. It was this experience, along with the lives of her farmer and fisherfolk neighbors, that came alive when she wrote her Anne books, beginning with Anne of Green Gables (1908).

Anne of Green Gables brought her overnight success and international recognition. It was followed by eight other books about Anne and Avonlea, as well as a number of other delightful novels, including her Emily series, which began in 1923 with Emily of New Moon. But it is her delightful heroine Anne Shirley, praised by Mark Twain as the most moving and delightful child of fiction since the immortal Alice, who remains a popular favorite throughout the world.

She and her husband, the Rev. Ewen MacDonald, eventually moved to Ontario. Lucy Montgomery died in Toronto in 1942.

A novel of ambition, love, and betrayal, The Red and the Black is the story of Julien Sorel, a clever young opportunist who attempts to use his powers of seduction to rise above his station, only to be betrayed by his own passions.

One of the great novels of the century, The Red and the Black is a powerful character study of Julien Sorel, a clever and idealistic young opportunist who attempts to rise above his station through a combination of talent, deception, and hypocrisy.

He uses his powers of seduction and charm to secure advancement, only to find himself betrayed by his own passions and outwitted by the larger political and social intrigues of post-Napoleonic France. His doomed quest for fortune and love is both heroic and satirical, reflecting the inner tensions and outer pretensions that result from desiring what is not ours.

Stendhal’s complex portrayal of his characters’ thoughts and feelings was far ahead of his time, earning The Red and the Black recognition as the first modern psychological novel, with Julien as his most brilliant creation and one of the greatest characters in all of literature.

One of the greatest nineteenth-century novels.
— Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

Stendhal, the pen name of Marie-Henri Beyle (1783—1842), was a nineteenth-century French writer. Born in Grenoble, Isère, France, he had an unhappy childhood. His mother died when he was young, and he disliked his father.

He left home to study in Paris at age 16, wanting to become a playwright. Instead, he joined the French Army under Napoleon and fought in Italy, Germany, and Russia. When the French empire fell in 1814, Beyle left France and settled in Italy. He moved back to Paris for some time, then served as a consul in Trieste and Civitavecchia.

Known for his acute analysis of his characters’ psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels, Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839).

Young Lincoln Smith would like to be a cowboy in the Old West but finds himself hopelessly out of date in the fast-changing new twentieth century; so he does as any sensible young romantic would do and joins the French Foreign Legion.

Lincoln Smith is a young Texan living at the beginning of the twentieth century. He longs for the days of the Old West and wants to live by the chivalric code he thinks the true cowboys, like his father, a famous Texas Ranger, lived by. But he finds himself hopelessly out of time and place in the fast-changing U.S of the new century.

After numerous misadventures and disappointments, he gets his heart broken by a modern maiden who doesn’t appreciate his anachronistic tendencies. He decides, therefore, to do what any sensible young romantic would do—he joins the French Foreign Legion, the Place That Time Forgot, where fallen princes, jewel thieves, and broken-hearted lovers go to forget and be forgotten.

On his way to an ancient and exotic country on the outskirts of the Sahara Desert, he encounters various adventures and unique individuals, such as a desert hermit, who can slow up time. After various other adventures, he ends up doing battle with an ancient crocodile cult that worships the god of death.

Showing a rather humorous brand of courage, resourcefulness, and perseverance he eventually learns you really can’t run away from your troubles—you need to fight them. A number of startling and satisfying surprises await Lincoln along his way.

John J. Jacobson spent much of his youth on the beaches and riding the waves of Southern California, Hawaii, and Mexico during the classic days of Surf City surf culture, the ethos of which he humorously captures in California Fever. Like many of that generation, he attended a number of schools, cramming (as he says) four years of college into ten. Among other degrees, he has a MA in Literature from Claremont Graduate University. He currently lives in Western Washington, where he occasionally enjoys the gnarly and frosty waves of the Northwest.

The Extra is set in a futuristic California where members of a desperate populace sign contracts to participate in reality death films, knowing that less than twenty percent of them will survive. It’s a view of the future—and Hollywood—as delightfully cynical as Kurt Vonnegut, with sympathetic characters, Hollywood executive sleazeballs, and much more.

Shea offers a combination of gifts unique to him, I think: an innately edgy feel to the writing; a descriptive ability comparable to that of Jack Vance; a wild, blazing imaginative capacity; and a sense of humor permanently set to what rifleman used to call ‘rock and roll.’ The Extra starts out at a dead run and accelerates from there, effortlessly wrapping the reader into its tale of gone-to-hell L.A. and a little bank of gutsy starvelings with blood on their hands.

Michael Shea is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Nifft the Lean and other novels. He has also written many short stories for major fantasy and science fiction magazines. Shea has been nominated for and won several major awards in the genres of Science-Fiction and Fantasy. He has written and published a total of over forty works and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In response to the interest of O’Brian’s many fans, here is the tantalizingly incomplete manuscript of the final Aubrey-Maturin novel that the author was writing when he died, meant to chronicle Aubrey’s mission to South Africa.

In response to the interest of millions of Patrick O’Brian fans, here is the final, partial installment of the Aubrey-Maturin series.

Blue at the Mizzen ended with Jack Aubrey getting the news of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to South Africa. The next novel, never completed, would have been the chronicle of that mission and much else besides. The three chapters left on O’Brian’s desk at the time of his death are presented here. Though tantalizingly incomplete, these pages prove that O’Brian’s humor, powers of observation, and understanding of his characters were undiminished to the end.

For Aubrey/Maturin addicts, there could be no better gift: a new, albeit incomplete, story with freshly piquant details, wry humor and salty nautical action….this fragmentary but worthy addition to the series is truly the end of a literary era….
— Publishers Weekly

Patrick O’Brian (1914—2000) was born Richard Patrick Russ in England. During the Second World War, he and his wife were involved in British secret-service activities. After the war, he changed his name to Patrick O’Brian and began his career as a novelist, biographer, and translator. He is the author of the acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin tales and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso. In 1995 he was the first recipient of the Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime’s contribution to literature. In the same year he was awarded the CBE. In 1997 he received an honorary doctorate of letters from Trinity College, Dublin.

What should a wife believe, the words of her husband or the diary of his mistress?

Monica counts her blessings—she has a husband who is not only devoted to her but committed to being a strong, caring father to their twin sons. When Carlos surprises her with an unforgettably romantic getaway Monica knows her husband is still very much in love with her—and she with him. But an unexpected package threatens to change everything Monica’s ever believed about her husband.

Bitter from her experiences with a cheating husband, Angela has adopted a sex-them-and-leave-them attitude towards the married men she’s bedded over the last five years. Then she met Carlos. Now, she will stop at nothing to get him for herself—even if that means destroying her own life and another woman’s family.

Miasha’s careful composition brags a faster moving plot with twists and turns showing up at just the right moment.
— Rawsistaz.com

Miasha is the author of several best-selling novels including Sistah for Sale, Mommy’s Angel, Secret Society and Diary of a Mistress. After only a short time in the publishing world, she has written six books and a short story, which have been immensely successful. She has been noticed by several large media companies as well as many magazines, and has begun the Ask Miasha Foundation. She also has dedicated much of her success to helping those less fortunate than herself. Miasha lives in Philadelphia with her husband and son.