Books at Bookhabit.com http://www.bookhabit.com 2008-10-06 19:04:19 The background to the story is the Image of Edessa, an icon from Byzantium. The story takes us from the court intrigues of 10th century Constantinople with wars, illicit passion and murder, to the spiritual haven of Mount Athos in Greece, where manuscripts and icons are sold to a Russian mafia (a monk is murdered in a church in the opening scene), the Fourth Crusade and the sacking of Constantinople to a present day scholar's search for manuscripts and the icon. While in Greece he meets and falls in love with a Norwegian businesswoman, Petra, who accompanies him in the search. They seem destined to end up together but he can't face the dream turning into routine and leaves her. Petra throws herself into work with a vengeance but realizes she cannot overcome her loss. The scholar visits Rome and meets an Australian in search of another icon in the Catacombs - they spend a night underground and find what he is looking for. Clues in a manuscript lead our scholar to Turin where he finds the Image of Edessa, now known as the Shroud of Turin. Struck by a sudden need for Petra, he leaves everything and flies to Norway and eventually comes to the town where she lives. She is with another man. Epilogue - two years later his findings are published and when presenting the book in Oslo, Petra walks in. After the presentation he stands up to go and talk to her, and the story ends on this completely open note. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=440 Maggie, a young interpreter, believes perfect justice can't be achieved without perfect rulers, so she fights the corrupt despots of an 1830s British Colony. And tries not to fall in love with Jeremy, her hot-headed foolish ally. Magistrates commit murder, the natives mistake a missionary as an incarnation of the sacred Rainbow Serpent come to end white settlement, and Maggie could lose her head - literally. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=730 Family in disgrace, a penurious young sea captain dreams of creating a British colony to replace the lost America. Against him stand Admiralty, Government and the influential British East India Trading Company. Nevertheless, if only he can marry into wealth . . . Based on true events, this fictional autobiography is Book Two of ‘Strive’, dreamers of The Great Southland. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=992 When the German blitzkrieg routed the French army, smashed through France and occupied their country, every French citizen had but two options: to resist the occupation or to collaborate with the Nazis. In an isolated, rural community in Gascony, three teenagers - two boys and a girl - are involved in a romantic triangle. They too must decide. Two take the path of co-operation with the enemy: Jacquie Dupont falls out with her parents - and becomes the mistress of a Nazi officer. Paul René enlists in the Milice Francaise or French Gestapo. But Philippe Leran - whose father had fought for 'King and Country' in the 'Great War' - joins the Maquis. The two boyhood friends are now on opposite sides and on a collision course in one of the bloodiest periods in European history. Hiding in the forest with a motley band of French patriots is not the romantic life Philippe had imagined. But his boredom and frustration are eventually alleviated by the arrival of a young newcomer, Roger Delmas. The two boys quickly strike up a friendship while they wait for orders to attack the Germans. In this climate of fear and apprehension, all kinds of prejudices are exposed, and an undercurrent of latent anti-Semitism flows through the group. But unbeknown to anyone, one of the partisans is a Jew. Philippe and Roger soon discover that violence and depravity are not the exclusive domain of one side in the war. They witness some appalling atrocities carried out by the Germans, but are also caught up in incidents where cruel and brutal treatment is meted out by French patriots. This is a coming of age novel set between the two World Wars. As the narrative unfolds, the characters explore various ideas concerning sex, love and physical attraction, as well as concepts of death and the fear of dying. It is also about bigotry and the universality of prejudice. Coup de Grâce exposes the cruelty and barbarism of war. In occupied France good did not necessarily triumph over evil, and, after the Liberation, not everyone who collaborated with the Nazis pays the price for treason. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=84 Tale of loves won and lost and won again,survival against the odds, betrayal, kidnapping, and murder, that also unravels the mystery behind a letter that turned up in 1904 describing buried treasure brought out of Russia in 1812 http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=176 Being a survivor of the Roswell UFO incident of 1947, seventeen year old Grace Gregory and her two brothers are use to keeping secrets and looking over their shoulders. But after a crash her brothers caused, her life and those around her begin to spiral out of control as their secrets are revealed and other alien survivors reappear in their lives - including their mother who is supposed to be dead. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=804 Hollow Dominion: Completed Novel. Historical Military Drama-Inspired by actual events Is one man's struggle to unite and keep alive a small band of POW captives being held in a North Korean death camp after they have been beaten, tortured and interrogated in the most inhumane ways imaginable by the North Korean head guard. One prisoner, a CIA operative agent, shares classified information and intelligence with Daniel. The most important: his knowledge that nuclear weapon plans have fallen into enemy hands. Daniel rallies the others to carry out an escape plan so they can take their information to the allied forces © http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=114 A sensitive view of racism in 1960s California, with a look at slavery in 1800s Virginia, through the eyes of people who lived it. A novel that Oprah might recommend, this tale follows the lives of children who suffer from the family secret, as well as the life of the black African slave who was erased from the family tree. The author used some of her own experience, plus her own family history, to make the characters come alive. Please rate my first chapter (or the full book if you buy it), and leave a comment. Thank you so much! ~~~ http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=710 Before history, humanity begins when a strange fork-legged mammal challenges beastial tradition. In a moral stance, Java and his mate risk all. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=955 Miranda Child affected everyone she came into contact with, bringing an uplifting light that shone from within. Her unusual upbringing, her beliefs and ideas brought her into conflict with many of the traditions and culture of the times. Miranda finds herself, at 17, in Bobertsville, Alabama, after spending a year with the native Americans. The treatment of slaves and others drives Miranda to create a sanctuary for them at the plantation, left to her by her Mother. Her efforts during the Civil War in America were daunting and the treatment of her by the Unionist soldiers was terrifying Her abilities to heal, far beyond the skills of the medical profession in the mid 1800's, led many to believe that witchcraft was involved. The changes she made would eventually be used as an example to all, to Reform http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=581 Skilled swordsman Jeremy Hanwell vows to avenge his father's murder. Then he falls in love - with a woman who'll reject him if he performs this sacred duty. Romance rides a thorny trail in an 1830s British Colony. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=658 NOAH is a fictional, first-person narrative of a Black, Socialist, labor organizer starting in the South in the 1890s and ending in San Francisco in 1916. The work is based on actual historical events and will feature an African-American's personal saga which will include the Alaska Gold Rush, the rise of the waterfront labor unions on the West Coast, the San Francisco Earthquake and ending with the Preparedness Day Bombing in 1916. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=276 It is 1938. A young Irish American history graduate takes himself off to Europe to get a feel for what's going on and is fascinated by the vitality of the young people he encounters in Hitler's Germany. Motoring in the Mosel valley on a hot summer afternoon he interrupts an armed robbery and rescues a beautiful girl. When her father enlists his help in dealing with the consequences of the robbery he is drawn ever more deeply into the Dictator's web, with violent and unpredictable results. Listen here for author interview http://bookhabit.com/newsdetail.php?nid=22 http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=12 For the past 160 years, giant birds have been reported in the skies above the Black Forest region of northern Pennsylvania. Now, it's up to one man and one woman, to find out where they came from, and where they've gone. Failed Ph.D. candidate and erstwhile assistant museum curator Ian McQuade is rescued by cartographer Alma Del Nephites, after an ill-fated expedition into the Amazon Basin. They travel to meet the enigmatic CEO of a secretive organization, where the two are given the opportunity to seek out proof of the existence of thunderbirds. A madman's journal will lead them into the heart of a 700 year-old mystery, where cutting edge technology designed to locate and identify such creatures will collide with an ancient power that has hidden and protected them for centuries. Ian must face his past, in order to believe in a future that couldn't possibly exist. With lightning in their eyes and thunder in their wings, who will control the fate and destiny of the thunderbirds? http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=1035 "Song of the Heartland" is a collection of poems in the Gaelic tongue and Scottish brogue, and also includes a Gaelic/Scottish dictionary. These poems are a joy to experience and a pleasure to read. The author recommends reading the poems out loud for the full adventure. Enjoy reading of the everyday subjects such as life and death, joy and loneliness; all set in the gorgeous mystery of the Emerald Isle and read in the beautiful tongue of the Scots. Includes a Scottish/Gaelic dictionary of the words used in the book. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=879 The original latin version of Peter Rabbit c777B.C. faithfully translated by Bic-Calamus http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=17 A fictional novel base on the true story of the secret society that evolved at Eastern Illinois University at Charleston, Illinois in the middle 1950's. And what that society was all about and why it actually came about. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=624 Book 6 of the CHILDREN OF THE DRAGON series by T. M. Moore, a chronicle of the Xosan, living vampires from the ancient planet Antellus who were once human but were transformed by a dragon's blood. They are stories of science fiction, fact and fantasy, myth and history, tragedy and triumph; set in a universe as real as the reader's own and intermixed with real historical events. Charity Rakham is a young English girl who learns about womanhood the hard way when her father and fiance' are killed by the dread pirate Blackbeard. Sold into slavery, she becomes a maid to a woman of means who is murdered, and she is framed for it. Now a fugitive, she rescues a hostage of the king of thieves who offers her love and the dragon's blood. Charity gains justice when she becomes the captain of the most fearsome pirate ship on the Caribbean Sea. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=707 "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned." "Would you care to confess your sins, my child?" "Yes, Your Eminence," the 90-year-old woman said in a gentle, nearly resigned voice. "When did you last attend confession?" She hesitated then whispered, "Sunday 17 July 1937 after the 10 o'clock mass with Father Bendetto. In this very confessional." So begins Carmella Pinon's confession in rural Spain, a tale of love and war, and the terrible choices they can create. NOTE TO READERS - This is a short story so the "First Chapter" is identical to the "Full Book" - Nick http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=217 THE ICE BARN: A novel, set in the Yukon at the turn of the last century, where the expectations of the approaching new century are set against the dawning reality that the euphoria and promise of the gold-rush are coming to an end. During the winter months the ground in the Yukon was frozen so hard it was not always possible to bury the dead. The bodies were often kept in ice-houses until they could be buried in the spring. A young English-born reporter, Thomas Speake, comes from Chicago to the remote mining town of Hope, to record the lives of the people who have been brought there by the possibility of finding gold. He discovers that their reasons for coming to such a wilderness town are not always only to do with the search for material wealth. He is himself trying to escape the memories of the death of his father which still haunt him. He finds the bodies that have been stored in the town’s ice barn, waiting for the thaw of spring. He is curious about their deaths, and the relationships between the victims. The ensuing episodes (told as their individual stories) each relate the circumstances that lead to the demise of one of the bodies Speake has seen in the ice barn: the young bride-to-be gambled away in a game of cards; the prospective, drunkard husband who lost her; the Swedish boy found battered and drowned under the ice; the preacher’s son who bears the marks of his father’s uncompromising love for him; the three German prospectors killed in an accident at their mine; the store-owner’s wife who kills herself through boredom and unrequited love; the saloon owner’s perverse rituals of lost passion and in search of the past. The episodes are linked by the ongoing investigations by Speake into one particular death - that of the Swedish boy found under the ice. A picture gradually emerges of a wilderness town where the lives of its inhabitants are deeply entwined with each other, and where the normally accepted rules and constraints of human society do not apply. Behind all the individual stories lurks the solitary figure of Josh Allenby, the town undertaker and owner of the ice-barn, and the long history of his jealous rivalry with Brogan Sullivan, the proprietor of the saloon. At the end of the novel, Thomas Dortmund, the son of one of the German prospectors killed in their mine, and who as a boy has played a role in all of the stories, offers a redemptive vision of the knowledge he has acquired from the natural environment in which he has grown up to be a man. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=929 In 1939, the winds of war herald dramatic changes in the lives of Welsh school girl Elizabeth Davies and young Australian David Rogers. Elizabeth enjoys an idyllic life and all the privileges that wealth can offer, but with the outbreak of war, her safe and secure world disintegrates. Meanwhile, David's family has always struggled to make a meagre living and he sees the declaration of war as a chance to join the forces and experience a life of adventure. Instead, he discovers only death and destruction. Amid the hell of the London Blitz, David and Elizabeth meet and after narrowly escaping death they decide to marry. Following the declaration of peace, Elizabeth begins her new life in Australia, but instead of the exotic love nest she had envisaged, she encounters isolation, poverty and depression and she struggles to come to terms with the undemonstrative, often violent Aussie culture. Just when the future looks bright, tragedy strikes and it is not until an old school friend makes an unexpected visit, that doors open to a world Elizabeth could never have imagined. The Last Rose is inspired by true events. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=216 A small inconspicuous Baltic Trader gets wrecked on a remote part of the English south coast, but how did she drift so far from her course? This is the first of a number of mysteries peppering the pages of this book, which are in time unravelled. From this lacklustre beginning emerges a fascinating tale of love intrigue espionage and of course smuggling. When we talk of smugglers, its hardy fishermen, with rough salt hardened hands, and knurled weather-beaten faces marred by constant exposure to the elements, that we think of, and most of them were cast in that mould, but all those rugged souls were mere pawns in a clever chess game, directed by a sweet, dumpling of a girl, beautiful, feminine, soft spoken, but an amazingly competent sailor, whose skills at the helm of her beautiful always immaculate, yacht, quickly secured the admiration of all who encountered her. The main thread of this story traces the all to short life and exploits of this bright, quick witted girl, who lived only to sail, an unheard of exploit for a young girl in the late 1800's. Perhaps it was her charm as much as her obvious proficiency as a sailor, that endeared her to all who encountered her, from the rough fishermen/smugglers to their dashing arch rivals - the revenue men, who could never have begun to imagine her true motives for befriending them. This fascinating tale covers the lead up to, the foundation of, and the resurrection of, the clandestine "Association of Traders." Tracing the all too short life and brutal seemingly pointless murder of its instigator, then proceeds to unravel another perplexing, mystery. Alongside this amazing biography, is the tale of the early efforts to introduce science into what at the time was the art of boat design. In short this fascinating historical document, is also a love story, incorporating a mystery or two, which despite its technicalities should find a wide audience, not just among the sailing fraternity, but, thanks to its included glossary, amongst the romantics and those looking for a tale with a difference. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=52 In the U.S. Geological Survey, there are over 100 tribal and 2300 location names, in the United States alone, for a creature that walks in myth and legend throughout the 25,000 square miles of the Pacific Northwest. As a young boy on a family camping trip, 9 year old Ian McQuade encountered one of the giant, apelike beings. The experience changed his life forever, limiting his academic prospects and ruining his professional career. Now, twenty years later, an anthroplogist and a Ph.D. in his own right, Dr. McQuade sets out on an urgent mission for Cyril Pritchard and the Chimaera Foundation in pursuit of Bigfoot, without partner Alma Del Nephites. In the process, two of the greatest mysteries about Bigfoot will be uncovered, in a desperate race against time. One must remain a secret at all costs. The other must be revealed, before it is too late... http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=1036 What would life in New Zealand have been like if it had been occupied by Nazi Germany? Would New Zealanders have resisted or collaborated? As soon as the Occupation begins Hamish Beavis joins the Nazi New Order and shows all the brutality of a collaborator towards his fellow countrymen. The beautifu Carol Peterson, carrying a dark secret, is pressured into an engagement with Hamish but is increasingly drawn towards Stuart Johnson who has joined the expanding resistance network. Carol's crucial decision and its repercussions are set against a background of violence and betrayl in post-war New Zealand under Nazi rule. Uncommon Enemy moves along at a fast pace and the reader will find it hard to put down. The novel paints a chilling picture of what so easily might have been - and what could occur in the future. For more information, including location photographs, biographical details and excerpts from Uncommon Enemy please go to me website: drjohnreynolds.com. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=733 Along the coastal waterways of Georgia's tidal marshes, there lives a monster that makes the Altamaha River its home. Over 20 feet in length, with a snakelike head atop its long neck, the Altamaha-ha has been sighted dozens of times by those who live along its namesake. A pregnant female struggles to return upriver and give birth. She is bound by those who captured her before, and pursued by others who already killed her mate for where she can lead them. A place marked as the abode of dragons by the Tama Indians, it is also the location of a treasure buried in the final days of the Confederacy. Drawn to the river and caught up in events centuries in the making, Ian becomes the unwitting pawn in a quest for world domination. He soon learns of his link to the Altamaha-ha, and that he must save it, if he is to save himself. Aided only by a few colorful locals, McQuade must defeat the enemies of the Foundation, before its technology is turned into a doomsday device. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=1037 'The battle that never ends is the battle of belief against unbelief.' - Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). August, 1808. As Napoleon's conscript armies smash their way across Europe, a small British expeditionary force commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley lands on the coast of Portugal. Its mission: to support Portuguese efforts to eject the French from their country. Joshua Lock and the Honourable John Killen, two young cavalrymen, disembark with the 20th Light Dragoons. Their three-year friendship, forged in the aftermath of a fateful accident uncaring of birth or status, seems to end tragically when Lock is lost from an ambushed patrol. But Lock is not dead. Rescued by peasants hiding in the hills, their leaders, a vengeful Portuguese landowner and his precocious granddaughter, persuade him to train their band of refugees in modern cavalry tactics, to beat the invaders at their own game. And when the British move south to bring the French army to battle at Vimeiro, Lock and Killen must confront their demons as they fight to save the 20th from annihilation in the first great cavalry charge of the Peninsular War. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=304 Somewhere, on planet open spaces, there live our schoolmates. They remember you. And everyone, it is deep in a shower, hopes, as it remember. Read this surprising book. Search and find each other. Everyone, can learn himself, in heroes of this novel. And if - have learnt. Necessarily inform on it to us. And, certainly, to the schoolmates. They wait. As searches and the author waits. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=524 Orphaned at a young age, Sam Nelson had strived his whole life to attain that which he wanted most; a family. And now husband to a loving wife and father to four young children, Sam was happy and content. It was the perfect life of a good man. Then one night Sam had a dream that exposed him to some of the great mysteries of heaven and though he couldn't remember the dream after waking the next day, his rich full life would soon be over. While on vacation with his family in San Antonio a few weeks later, the city is attacked by middle-eastern terrorists during the height of the annual week-long fiesta celebration. The terrorists explode four powerful bombs that kill tens of thousands attending the parades. As a result of the attack, Sam's family is killed; he himself is gravely injured after selflessly trying to fight four heavily-armed men. Succumbing to his wounds, Sam lay in a coma for three long years. Upon awakening, the harsh reality of his loss pushes him to the brink of insanity and suicide. With the help of a kindly old man, Sam begins to heal only to find himself a pawn to the forces of good and evil. Learning that one of his children may have survived the attack, Sam with his new friend Ben, begin a search that reveals the wrathful nature of mankind as well as the humble penance that can also be ours. In an epic struggle between heaven and hell, the Creator calls upon Sam to fulfill a destiny he could never have imagined while Lucifer sees Sam as a tool that can finally provide him with the single victory over Heavenly Father he has always sought, and in the end, Sam may have no choice but to give Lucifer his prize. http://www.bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=493