Since the night Inspector Haritos had the brilliant idea to offer his chest as a shield in order to save Elena Kousta from a bullet fired by her stepson, his life has changed radically. Haritos' long convalescence has given his wife the opportunity to take control and, now, subdued and tamed, he witnesses a shocking suicide captured live on TV. The victim, Iason Favieros, a former revolutionary activist who had been jailed during the dictatorship of the Colonels, had built up a sprawling business empire in a surprisingly short period of time, including Olympic contracts. This tragedy is quickly followed by the suicides of a well-known Greek MP and a national journalist – at his own party. With the police and the press left groping in the dark, Inspector Haritos is under pressure to solve the mystery that is lurking behind this series of public suicides, unveiling the secrets buried in the victims' past

Сборник Хемингуэя "Мужчины без женщин" — один из самых ярких опытов великого американского писателя в «малых» формах прозы. Увлекательные сюжетные коллизии и идеальное владение словом в рассказах соседствуют с дерзкими для 1920-х годов модернестическими приемами. Лучшие из произведений, вошедших в книгу, продолжают биографию Ника Адамса, своебразного альтер эго самого писателя и главного героя не менее знаменитого сборника "В наше время"

Las Vegas socialite and otherwordly avenger Joanna Archer gave up everything when she embraced mortality – abandoning her powers and altering her destiny to save a child… and a city. Now her former allies are her enemies – and her enemies have nothing to fear. Yet still she is bound to a prophecy that condemns her to roam a nightmare landscape that ordinary humans cannot see and dare not enter. And a beast is on her trail – an insane killer blinded by bloodlust, who's determined to rip much more from Joanna than merely her now-fragile life. Survival is no longer an option in this dark realm where good and evil have blurred into confusing shades of gray – unless she can gather together an army of onetime foes and destroy everything she once believed in

Straight-A-student Karl Petrofsky finds himself in over his head after an underground cheating ring, known as The Confederacy, recruits him. Initially lured by the popularity of The Confederacy’s members, Karl dumps his nerdy friends and rationalizes that his cheating contributions are really a strike against a tyrannical assistant principal, Mr. Klimchock, who secretly uses security cameras to catch deceitful students. Then Klimchock nails Karl on tape and threatens to blacken his transcripts unless he coughs up the names of his coconspirators. Caught between The Confederacy and Klimchock, Karl tries to hatch a plan that will save his SAT scores and win back his best friend, Lizette. Laser’s breezy prose and humorous dialogue balance his serious message about the perils of cheating and will hold the attention of reluctant readers. A well-developed cast of secondary characters, some intriguing high-tech cheating tools, and a late-breaking plot twist round out this entertaining debut that will go over well with fans of David Lubar and Gordon Korman. Grades 7-10

Chechnya Diary is a story about “the story” of the war in Chechnya, the “rogue republic” that attempted to secede from the Russian Federation at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Specifically, it is the story of the Samashki Massacre, a symbol of the Russian brutality that was employed to crush Chechen resistance. Thomas Goltz is a member of the exclusive journalistic cadre of compulsive, danger-addicted voyeurs who court death to get the story. But in addition to providing a tour through the convoluted Soviet and then post-Soviet nationalities policy that led to the bloodbath in Chechnya, Chechnya Diary is part of a larger exploration of the role (and impact) of the media in conflict areas. And at its heart, Chechnya Diary is the story of Hussein, the leader of the local resistance in the small town that bears the brunt of the massacre as it is drawn into war. This is a deeply personal book, a first person narrative that reads like an adventure but addresses larger theoretical issues ranging from the history of ethnic/nationalities in the USSR and the Russian Federation to journalistic responsibility in crisis zones. Chechnya Diary is a crossover work that offers both the historical context and a ground-level view of a complex and brutal war

They’re back. PEEPs Lite — More story, less filling. Some stories just need to be told; anyway, that’s what the voices in my head keep telling me. As I prepare for the next full length “Haunted Series” novel (available in the Spring of 2014), I can’t help wanting to tell you a couple stories in between. These novellas fall after “Something Old” the ninth novel in the “Haunted Series.” I hope you enjoy them. PEEPs Lite 9.1 Checking Out: Are all rules made to be broken? And if so, what are the consequences? Burt has just broken his number one rule in paranormal investigating, never hunt alone, and he’s regretting it. The ghost hotel, the Dew Drop Inn, has been serving the lost travelers of southern Wisconsin for decades. It provides a bed and breakfast to the lost and weary traveler then disappears the next day never to be seen by the guests again. Burt has been interested in this urban legend for quite some time. He caught the scent of the fabled ghost inn and took off without out informing his fellow Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners, and now he’s missing. Fortunately, his obsessive method of tracking the B&B has left a trail of muffin crumbs for Mia, Murphy and the PEEPs team to follow. Will they find him in time or will Burt become a permanent guest of the hotel and not be checking out? Join the team as they investigate the Dew Drop Inn in the PEEPS Lite novella 9.1 “Checking Out.”

There’s nothing worse than living next door to your childhood nemesis, except maybe being forced to share your dream project with him, being blackmailed into going along with something that was just wrong on so many levels, and having your hot cocoa stolen by the person that drove you to drink it in the first place. As long as she has plenty of hot cocoa, a pair of pliers on hand and is able to resist Connor O’Neil’s bad boy charm then Rory James should be able to make it through this project with her sanity intact. If not….. She’d probably face a few more nights in jail, have a few more restraining orders slapped against her and lose her heart to the man that ruined her life

From the award-winning Serbian author David Albahari comes a devastating and Kafkaesque war fable about an army unit sent to guard a military checkpoint with no idea where they are or who the enemy might be. Atop a hill, deep in the forest, an army unit is dropped off to guard a checkpoint. The commander doesn’t know where they are, what border they’re protecting, or why. Their map is useless. The radio crackles with a language no one can recognize. A soldier is found dead in a latrine and the unit vows vengeance—but the killer, like the enemy, is unknown. Amid orgies and massacres, the commander struggles to maintain order and keep his soldiers alive, but he can’t be sure whether they’re fighting a war or caught in some bizarre military experiment. Equal parts Waiting for Godot and Catch-22, David Albahari’s Checkpoint is a haunting and hysterical confrontation with the absurdity of war

Two men — Jay and Ben — sit in a Washington hotel room. Jay has called his old friend Ben there — to tell him why and how he wants to kill the President. Jay is a bit of a loser (he's lost his girlfriend, his job, and his car), generally easy-going, but now he's on edge and he's angry — and he's acquired some radio-controlled flying saws, and is working on a boulder with a depleted uranium centre — but he also has a gun and bullets. Ben is the voice of liberal reason, with a job and a family. Jay switches on a tape machine, and the two men argue. Well, Ben tries feebly to reason or cajole, while Jay rants and rages about everything from the horror of what happened at that southern Iraq checkpoint where US forces opened fire on a Shiite family in a Land Rover, killing most of them, and decapitating two young girls; to the iniquities of the present administration, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al., and abortion (if they're against abortion, how come they can kill women and children?), not to mention the napalm-like substance ('improved fire jelly') used in bombs in Iraq. Their dialogue veers from chilling and serious to wacky and crazed (Bush, says Jay, is 'one dead armadillo'). "Checkpoint" is a novel about a man pushed to the extremes, by a writer who is clearly angry. Like Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11", it takes the temperature of America just below the surface and finds it at boiling point

He’s fat. He’s old. He’s conceited. He’s rumpled. He inhabits a violent world — the CIA — yet he is non-violent. He loves two things, and only two, in all the world: eating and practicing his trade. He is an international troubleshooter, and he’s the best there is. He is Charlie Dark. The gang from Hopscotch is back, with Charlie Dark replacing Miles Kendig as the loner, the misfit who doesn’t fit the buttoned-down image of the Agency. His superior, Myerson, is here, and he hates Charlie as much as he hated Kendig. Cutter and Ross return, and so does Yaskov, the Soviet super-spy. Checkpoint Charlie is Brian Garfield’s brilliant sequel to Hopscotch, the novel which won an Edgar Allan Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1976 and was filmed with Walter Matthau in 1980

Шведы оказались любителями копаться в нездоровых семейных отношениях, мрачно шутить (героиня «Cheek to cheek» Юнаса Гарделя работает в похоронном бюро и встречается по объявлению со звездой шоу-бизнеса «для серьезных отношений») и культивировать смерть (два из шести представленных произведений называются «Отцеубийство» и «Воля к убийству»). Кроме того, они действительно умеют писать пьесы — то есть хорошо прорабатывать структуру, вырисовывать характеры и закручивать интригу. Правда, без фирменной тоскливой флегматичности не обошлось, а потому монолог героя «Европы утром и вечером» Розы Лагеркранц, который едет в поезде и рассказывает, какая сука его жена, занимает семь страниц. Но и дает шанс на лучшее — пассажир влюбляется в соседку напротив

Kirpal Singh is travelling on the slow train to Kashmir. As India passes by the window in a stream of tiny lights, glistening fields and huddled, noisy towns, he reflects on his destination, which is also his past: a military camp to which he has not returned for fourteen years. Kirpal, Kip to his friends, is timorous and barely twenty when he arrives for the first time at General Kumar's camp, nestled in the shadow of the mighty Siachen Glacier that claimed his father's life. He is placed under the supervision of Chef Kishen, a fiery, anarchic mentor with long earlobes and a caustic tongue who guides Kip towards the heady spheres of food and women. 'The smell of a woman is thousand times better than cooking the most sumptuous dinner, kid,' he muses over an evening beer. Kip is embarrassed – he has never slept with a woman, though a loose-limbed nurse in the local hospital has caught his eye. In Srinagar, Kashmir, a contradictory place of erratic violence, extremes of temperature and high-altitude privilege, Kip learns to prepare indulgent Kashmiri dishes such as Mughlai mutton and slow-cooked Nahari, as well as delicacies from Florence, Madrid, Athens and Tokyo. Months pass and, though he is Sikh, Kip feels secure in his allegiance to India, the right side of this interminable conflict. Then, one muggy day, a Pakistani 'terrorist' with long, flowing hair is swept up on the banks of the river, and changes everything. Mesmeric, mournful and intensely lyrical, "Chef" is a brave and compassionate debut about hope, love and memory, set against the devastatingly beautiful, war-scarred backdrop of occupied Kashmir

ORBIT HOSPITAL ist ein Klinikum im All, das allen raumfahrenden Lebensformen der Galaxis medizinische Hilfe leistet. Es nimmt alle Geschöpfe auf, ob sie ein Dutzend Gliedmaßen haben oder gar keine, ob sie sich von Radioaktivität ernähren oder Wasser atmen — von anderen exotischen Gewohnheiten und Bedürfnissen ganz zu schweigen. Es ist ein ökologisches Tollhaus und ein organisatorischer Irrwitz, aber es ist für alle da und es funktioniert. Es ist im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes — lebensnotwendig

Oh Chelsea, how do I love thee… Seriously, I cannot get enough of Chelsea Handler. She first made it onto my radar when she would make guest appearances on VHI shows such as Best of the and Best Week Ever. Then she got her own show, Chelsea Lately, on E! and it was over for me. I became a devoted fan. Handler’s written three books, this one being the newest (released this month) and I have read all three. Her first, My Horizontal Life: A History of One Night Stands, killed me. In a good way. The crap she gets herself into is laughable, especially given the fact that she has absolutely NO censor and will tell a good story whether it sheds her in a good light or not. Handler’s second book was just as funny, although, like this book, it didn’t have the same connecting factor. Both Chelsea Chelsea, Bang Bang and Are You There Vodka, It’s Me, Chelsea involve stories from Handler’s life, both growing up and as an adult. Undoubtedly, the best “character” in the books, especially in CCBB is Handler’s father, Melvin. Melvin is an over-the-top eccentric and trying to talk sense into him is an impossible effort. Melvin’s stubborness is especially apparent in the chapter “Dear Asshole”, in which Melvin rents out his dilapidated vacation home to unsuspecting vacationers. After spending a week in what can only be described a hell hole, the renters send Melvin a multiple page letter describing the most awful living conditions one could imagine in a vacation home, such as a broken refrigerator with liquified squid dripping from the freezer. The letter from the renters makes its way between Handler and her siblings, who are all mortified. However, their father sees nothing wrong with the living conditions and believes the renters are just making a stink over nothing. His obstinancy was unbelievable and quite humerous. If you’ve enjoyed Handler’s previous books, this is one that can’t be missed. Now, if you are new to Handler, I would suggest any of her three books to read. They are all ridiculously funny and entertaining. In closing, here is a picture of me and two of my sisters at a book signing for Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea. I am the one in the middle. I think my enthusiasm is obvious!

Вбоквел Второго пришествия. Закончена

From the pre-eminent chronicler of this forgotten territory, stories that range over one hundred years in the troubled, violent emergence of the New South. In Ron Rash's stories, spanning the entire twentieth century in Appalachia, rural communities struggle with the arrival of a new era. Three old men stalk the shadow of a giant fish no one else believes is there. A man takes up scuba diving in the town reservoir to fight off a killing depression. A grieving mother leads a surveyor into the woods to name once and for all the county where her son was murdered by thieves. In the Appalachia of Ron Rash's stories, the collision of the old and new south, of antique and modern, resonate with the depth and power of ancient myths

A sequel to “Rusalka”, set in the magical world of pre-Christian Russia. Petyr and Eveshka, now married and living in domestic bliss in Uulemet’s cottage, begin to realize that the past is not truly buried. Premonitions lead to a sense of unease that is terrifyingly realized

This novel starts April 25, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station which supplies the eastern Ukraine with one quarter of its electrical energy. While the characters are fiction, actual Soviet persons are referred to in the book. Dedicated to the people who kept a terrible accident from becoming far more terrible

From a preeminent historian of Eastern Europe, the definitive history of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster On the morning of April 26, 1986, Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine. Dozens died of radiation poisoning, fallout contaminated half the continent, and thousands fell ill. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy draws on new sources to tell the dramatic stories of the firefighters, scientists, and soldiers who heroically extinguished the nuclear inferno. He lays bare the flaws of the Soviet nuclear industry, tracing the disaster to the authoritarian character of Communist party rule, the regime's control of scientific information, and its emphasis on economic development over all else. Today, the risk of another Chernobyl looms in the mismanagement of nuclear power in the developing world. A moving and definitive account, Chernobyl is also an urgent call to action

Jack Daniels thought she could rest easy once she locked up the nefarious Alex Kork in prison for life. However, she hadn't counted on Kork's incredible ability to get out of any situation. Now the insane serial killer is again on the loose – and once more, Jack has to make Chicago safe from this deviant woman's evil ways. Her longtime partner, the Krispy Kreme-loving Herb, is on the case with Jack, as is her former partner and nemesis, Harry. They band together to try to stop Kork's chilling rampage, resulting in the most gripping and suspenseful Jack Daniels mystery yet

The Blackstone Affair - 3.5 Blackstone Affair spin-off, yet can be a standalone Elaina Morrison has loved Neil McManus her whole life. She doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t love him. Through heartbreaking tragedy and years of separation, her love holds true…until life stomps all over her heart, shattering her perfect dream, teaching her how hard it is to let go. Real life doesn’t have anything on romantic dreams though, as these two have learned repeatedly. It sucks big time, leaving painful scars in its wake. But Neil isn’t giving up. He’s endured years of longing and sacrifice to wait for her. Always a soldier, he knows his way around a battlefield, and winning Elaina is no different. So that’s precisely what Neil is going to do. He'll go in fighting, and make Elaina see what he already knows. That she will forever be his Cherry Girl…

Неожиданно завершилась встреча с одноклассниками в далёком 1992 году. Виной тому красивая этикетка на бутылке спирта и непонятное содержимое, оказавшееся в ней, которое чуть не отправила на тот свет молодого парня. Перед Максом промелькнула вся его жизнь, но, что необычно и странно, не в порядке убывания. Он увидел те события, которым только суждено произойти, узнал частичку будущего, хотя и не овладел полной информацией. Приобрёл определённые навыки, когда находился между жизнью и смертью. Но главное даже не это, Макс получил возможность изменить своё будущее и прожить совершенно другую жизнь, а не ту, которую видел, находясь на пороге смерти. Созрел у него и план, как дальше строить свое будущее, осталось дело за малым — реализация. Но получится ли это в лихие девяностые? Сумеет ли сам справиться и не подведут ли его друзья?

Неожиданно завершилась встреча с одноклассниками в далёком 1992 году. Виной тому красивая этикетка на бутылке спирта и непонятное содержимое, оказавшееся в ней, которое чуть не отправила на тот свет молодого парня. Перед Максом промелькнула вся его жизнь, но, что необычно и странно, не в порядке убывания. Он увидел те события, которым только суждено произойти, узнал частичку будущего, хотя и не овладел полной информацией. Приобрёл определённые навыки, когда находился между жизнью и смертью. Но главное даже не это, Макс получил возможность изменить своё будущее и прожить совершенно другую жизнь, а не ту, которую видел, находясь на пороге смерти. Созрел у него и план, как дальше строить свое будущее, осталось дело за малым — реализация. Но получится ли это в лихие девяностые? Сумеет ли сам справиться и не подведут ли его друзья?

Неожиданно завершилась встреча с одноклассниками в далёком 1992 году. Виной тому красивая этикетка на бутылке спирта и непонятное содержимое, оказавшееся в ней, которое чуть не отправила на тот свет молодого парня. Перед Максом промелькнула вся его жизнь, но, что необычно и странно, не в порядке убывания. Он увидел те события, которым только суждено произойти, узнал частичку будущего, хотя и не овладел полной информацией. Приобрёл определённые навыки, когда находился между жизнью и смертью. Но главное даже не это, Макс получил возможность изменить своё будущее и прожить совершенно другую жизнь, а не ту, которую видел, находясь на пороге смерти. Созрел у него и план, как дальше строить свое будущее, осталось дело за малым — реализация. Но получится ли это в лихие девяностые? Сумеет ли сам справиться и не подведут ли его друзья?

An anthology of stories edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman and Marcia Talley The latest installment in the Chesapeake Crimes mystery series focuses on working stiffs – literally! Included in this collection are new tales by: Shari Randall, C. Ellett Logan, Karen Cantwell, E. B. Davis, Jill Breslau, David Autry, Harriette Sackler, Barb Goffman, Ellen Herbert, Smita Harish Jain, Leone Ciporin, Cathy Wiley, Donna Andrews, Art Taylor. Foreword by Elaine Viets