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Forty Hours (affiliate link)
Somewhere in Berlin, a man is being crucified.
One detective has 40 hours to find him, or thousands will die…
Faris Iskander, an Egyptian-born German national, is a detective on enforced leave when he receives a video of a man being crucified. The first in a series of religiously fuelled attacks, Faris must act quickly to save the man and stop his aggressors. If he fails, thousands of people in Berlin will die in pre-coordinated explosions.
But this case is especially complicated for Faris, who was placed on suspension after avenging a racial attack. Forced to face his own demons, can Faris uncover the truth in time to save lives and prevent catastrophe? Or will his personal involvement compromise his mission?
Sinking City (The Skilled Book 1) (affiliate link)
Enter a Venice filled with bright magic, dark secrets, and a romance for the ages.
On the streets of Venice, magic burns and wars wage, while powerful illusions and mind-bending magic keep the world of The Skilled hidden from ordinary people—or typics. The powerful Mardova Family rules Venice with an iron fist, keeping their powers secret and their eyes on their enemies.
Zan Mardova would rather use his magical Skills to do tricks on his motorcycle or fly over buildings than involve himself in Family politics, but when he discovers a rival Family has brainwashed a beautiful typic girl named Ellie, he begins to unravel a web of dangerous secrets with Ellie at the center. Zan’s loyalty has always been to the Mardovas and the fate of Venice, but as Zan’s feelings for Ellie grow, he can no longer ignore his suspicions about members of his own Family.
Fat Girl (Romance in Rehoboth) (affiliate link)
All Claire wants is a thin body and her dream man. Is that too much to ask?
With her divorce pending and a new job on the horizon, Claire Sterling is tired of being the Fat Girl. With the help of her gay best friend, a body image coach, a new fitness regime, and lots of wine and snark, she sets out to find her Happily Ever After just in time for her fortieth birthday.
Will she get the body and the man of her dreams, or is she forever destined to be the Fat Girl?
The Omega Sanction (Ben Drummond Book 1) (affiliate link)
A bank vault beneath London stores a secret more precious than gold.
When ex-soldier and security specialist Ben Drummond receives a late-night phone call from Britain’s National Crime Agency requesting his aid, he finds himself pitched into a deadly investigation: six tonnes of gold is missing from one of London’s biggest bullion banks and a guard brutally murdered. How the gold was stolen from one of London’s most secure vaults, deep beneath the River Thames, is a baffling mystery.
As Drummond and a high-ranking NCA agent, Alex Fern, begin to sort through the bizarre series of clues left behind, they soon discover that the bank vault beneath London stores a secret more precious than gold: a conspiracy bigger and more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. A secret that people will kill to protect.
Alibi Aficionado (Edwin Burrows Book 1) (affiliate link)
How far will a man go to keep a secret?
Edwin Burrows, CPA, is about to find out how far he will go to cover up an alibi for his firms biggest client. The problem is that Edwin Burrows, can’t do anything right.
So when he’s tasked with constructing an alibi for the firm’s biggest client, everyone has low expectations.
In Alibi Aficionado, Edwin Burrows is an accidental investigator, an accountant without tact or a filter, or any kind of interest for investigations. A cross between Myron Bolitar and Archy McNally, Edwin says, does and behaves in the strangest manner.
˃˃˃ Cursed with an investigation that’s doomed from the start, Edwin knows that everyone expects him to fail.
But when the police arrest the all-important client, tensions rise at the firm and the stakes get as big as they’ll ever be. Edwin must decide whether he will use his knowledge to be the hero that helps a guilty man avoid prosecution, or be a zero by telling the truth and burying the firm.
1928, Los Angeles: The newly-built Hotel Somerville is the hotspot for the city’s glittering African-American elite. It embodies prosperity and dreams of equality for all—especially Daisy Washington. An up-and-coming journalist, Daisy anonymously chronicles fierce activism and behind-the-scenes Hollywood scandals in order to save her family from poverty. But power in the City of Angels is also fueled by racism, greed, and betrayal. And even the most determined young woman can play too many secrets too far . . .
1968, Chicago: For Frankie Saunders, fleeing across America is her only escape from an abusive husband. But her rescuer is her reckless, profane Aunt Daisy, still reeling from her own shattered past. Frankie doesn’t want to know what her aunt is up to so long as Daisy can get her to LA—and safety. But Frankie finds there’s no hiding from long-held secrets—or her own surprising strength.
British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History (affiliate link)
A masterful and witty account of Britain’s culinary heritage.
This a revised and updated edition of an award-winning book, recognized as the authoritative work on the subject of British food. It is a breathtaking attempt to trace the changes to and influences on food in Britain from the Black Death, through the Enclosures, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of Capitalism to the present day.
There has been a recent wave of interest in food culture and history and Colin Spencer’s masterful, readable account of Britain’s culinary history is a celebrated contribution to the genre. There has never been such an exciting, broad-scoped history of the food of these islands. It should remind us all of our rich past and the gastronomic importance of British cuisine.
Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World’s Most Famous Heroine (affiliate link)
Red Alert: The Novel that Inspired Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (affiliate link)
Air Force Brigadier General Quinten is a dying man suffering from the paranoid delusion that he can make the world a better place by ordering a full-scale nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. Receiving word of the attack already underway, the president of the United States and his advisors now must work frantically to stop it. The US bombers are to be shot down—but a lone bomber called the “Alabama Angel” escapes and flies on to complete its lunatic mission, ignoring the president’s orders.
A ghastly and chilling vision of what might happen when profound and deadly power is put into the wrong hands, this classic thriller continues to serve as a warning in today’s tumultuous political climate.
A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length: More Movies That Suck (affiliate link)
A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length collects more than 200 of his reviews from 2006 to 2012 in which he gave movies two stars or fewer. Known for his fair-minded and well-written film reviews, Roger is at his razor-sharp humorous best when skewering bad movies. Consider this opener for the one-star Your Highness:
“Your Highness is a juvenile excrescence that feels like the work of 11-year-old boys in love with dungeons, dragons, warrior women, pot, boobs, and four-letter words. That this is the work of David Gordon Green beggars the imagination. One of its heroes wears the penis of a minotaur on a string around his neck. I hate it when that happens.”
The Forcing (affiliate link)
Lured by rumors of tropical sanctuary, a disparate group of men and women escape their inhospitable exile to seek freedom, in a near future where civilization has collapsed. A cataclysmic, clarion-call climate-change thriller from one of the world’s leading environmental scientists…
Civilization is collapsing. Frustrated and angry after years of denial and inaction, a ‘government of youth’ has taken power in North America, and deemed all those older than a prescribed age responsible for the current state of the world, and decreed they should be ‘relocated’, their property and assets confiscated.
David Ashworth, known by his friends and students as Teacher, and his wife May, find themselves among the thousands being moved to ‘new accommodation’ in the abandoned southern deserts – thrown together with a wealthy industrialist and his wife, a high court lawyer, two recent immigrants to America, and a hospital worker. Together, they must come to terms with their new lives in a land rendered unrecognizable.
The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940 (affiliate link)
This book documents the German invasion of Norway, focusing on the events at sea. More than most other campaigns of WWII, Operation Weserübung has been shrouded in mystery, legend and flawed knowledge. Strategic, political and legal issues were at best unclear, while military issues were dominated by risk; the German success was the result of improvisation and the application of available forces far beyond the comprehension of British and Norwegian military and civilian authorities.
Weserübung was the first combined operation ever where air force, army and navy operated closely together. Troops were transported directly into battle simultaneously by warship and aircraft, and success required cooperation between normally fiercely competing services. It was also the first time that paratroopers were used. The following days were to witness the first dive bomber attack to sink a major warship and the first carrier task-force operations.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2