The first book in the Claire Gulliver Mystery series, Tea is for Terror finds Claire co-sponsoring a tour of England with her friend and travel book author, Lucy Springer. Lucy's latest book, An Armchair Traveler's Adventure, and the tour, are imed at wannabe travelers who haven't yet ventured out of The United States. The "untour," as they call it, follows the book's agenda, testing the itinerary while verifying the data contained in the manuscript for the final edit. The "untour" will be great publicity for the book's launch as well as Claire's bookstore, Gulliver's Travel Book Shop. Before the trip even begins, it becomes apparent that someone has a hidden agenda. A freak accident renders Lucy unable to travel, and Claire reluctantly agrees to lead the "untour." She is relying on the professional tour guide who will meet them in London. The reader joins this "untour" as it wends through the countryside of England and Wales. But they are plagued with strange events, accidents, and a "misadventure" that leaves one member of the group hospitalized, another dead, another mugged and robbed on the picturesque streets of York, and another must return home. Oddly enough, despite all the problems encountered, the remaining members are thrilled with the trip and eager to travel again now that they've completed their virgin journey. But the "untour" isn't over yet. Lucy never said it could be like this!

Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances By James Branch Cabell

A frank and refreshing evaluation of several Chief Executives, their Directors of Central Intelligence, and even some lover in the hierarchy, Executive Secrets shines light on the development and execution of foreign policy through the understanding of the tools available, of which covert action may be least known and understood. This book is a great tool for the press, the public, and many political appointees in the National Security System. A History Book Club Selection with a foreword by Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down.

A moving, final collection of stories by Arthur Miller Throughout his career as one of the foremost playwrights of the twentieth century, Arthur Miller wrote a remarkable series of highly regarded short stories, pieces that reveal the same profound insight, humanism, and empathy that are the hallmarks of his great dramatic works. Presence is a posthumous gathering of Miller’s last published fiction, a group of stories that appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, and elsewhere. “Bulldog” describes a young teenager’s surprising first sexual experience while “Presence” relates a man’s encounter with a woman he has just seen making love on a beach. “Beavers” tells a haunting tale of nature, creation, and destruction. In “The Performance,” a Jewish tap dancer enthralls Hitler. “The Bare Manuscript” reveals a writer’s unusual methods to revive his muse, and, finally, “The Turpentine Still” presents a portrait of a man examining his legacy. Displaying the sureness of an artist in his autumnal prime, Presence is a gift that all fans of Miller’s work, as well as readers of contemporary fiction, will welcome.

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson

A gripping novel of men training to become Navy SEALs who are pushed to their physical and mental limits—-and what happens when those thresholds are crossed... in David Reid's Suffer in SilenceIt's the pivotal test faced by every Navy SEAL: one hundred twenty sleepless hours of relentless physical punishment, interrupted only by hypothermia-inducing surf torture. Ensign Grey thought he knew what to expect, but when Seaman Murray attempts to blackmail an instructor who is determined to see him fail, Hell Week takes on a new meaning. With deteriorating health and a dangerous enemy in hot pursuit, the two unlikely friends struggle to survive. What happens in the darkness at the edge of the Pacific will change their lives forever.

The year is A.D. 793; Jack and his sister have been kidnapped by Vikings and taken to the court of Ivar the Boneless and his terrifying half-troll wife; but things get even worse when Jack finds himself on a dangerous quest to find the magical Mimir's Well in a far-off land, with his sister's life forfeit if he fails. Other threats include a willful mother Dragon, a giant spider, and a troll-boar with a surprising personality -- to say nothing of Ivar the Boneless and his wife, Queen Frith, a shape-shifting half-troll, and several eight foot tall, orange-haired, full-time trolls. But in stories by award-winner Nancy Farmer, appearances do deceive. She has never told a richer, funnier tale, nor offered more timeless encouragement to young seekers than "Just say no to pillaging."

The acclaimed author of Into the Forest mines our fears and explores our capacity to love in this epic tale of modern motherhood. Young and pregnant, Cerise and Anna make very different decisions about how to direct their lives. While teenaged Cerise struggles to support herself and her young daughter, Anna finishes college, marries, and later gives birth to two daughters of her own. After the birth of her second child, a tragic accident tears Cerise's life apart, and she loses her already tenuous position in society. As the story progresses--and Cerise's and Anna's lives interweave and inexorably approach each other--both women are dramatically, forever changed. Unforgettable, awe-inspiring, and grippingly honest, Windfalls is a daring and mesmerizing tale.

In the wake of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's historic Goodridge decision, a reissue of the bible of the same-sex marriage movementWill same-sex couples destroy "traditional" marriage, soon to be followed by the collapse of all civilization? That charge has been leveled throughout history whenever the marriage rules change. But marriage, as E. J. Graff shows in this lively, fascinating tour through the history of marriage in the West, has always been a social battleground, its rules constantly shifting to fit each era and economy. The marriage debates have been especially tumultuous for the past hundred and fifty years-in ways that lead directly to today's debate over whether marriage could mean not just Boy + Girl = Babies, but also Girl + Girl = Love.

Reva Ewing, a former member of the Secret Service and a security specialist for Roarke Enterprises, is a prime suspect in a double homicide. She had every reason to want to kill her husband, the renowned artist Blair Bissel. Not only was he having an affair, he was having it with her best friend. But Lieutenant Eve Dallas, who's on the case, believes Reva is innocent. Eve's instincts tell her that the murder scene looks too perfectly staged, the apparent answers too obvious. And when she digs for more, she discovers that at nearly the exact time a kitchen knife was jammed into the victim's ribs, the passcode to his art studio was changed - and all of the data on his computer deliberately corrupted. To Roarke, it's the computer attack that poses the real threat. Signs show that this is the nightmare his company has secretly been preparing for. He and Reva have been under a code-red government contract to develop a program that would shield against a new breed of hackers, the Doomsday Group. These techno-terrorists with brilliant minds and plenty of financial backing hack into systems, steal data, and corrupt computer units on a large scale - and kill anyone who gets too close. Eve and Roarke must infiltrate an extraordinarily secretive government agency to expose the corruption at its core, before the virus spreads from one office to a corporation to the entire country.

The greatest threat to Wellington's Salamanca Campaign is not Napoleon's Army but France's deadliest assassin.  He's already failed to kill Captain Richard Sharpe once.  Now, he's getting a second chance.

Forty wry, whimsical and witty essays