Eckhard Gerdes      
23 Skidoo! 23 Form-Fitting Poems
Finishing Line Press
ISBN: 978-1622292158
$12.00, 25 pages
Order online:    www.finishinglinepress.com

Eckhard Gerdes gives us 23 poems in fixed forms, each commenting on its form and playfully poking some fun at it.   A sonnet, a rondel, a sestina, a villanelle, and nineteen other formal poems reveal their legs like ladies strolling in front of the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street in New York. Robert Archambeau says, "Why read Eckhard Gerdes' new collection of poems 23 Skidoo, you ask? Because he has a rondel beginning 'The world changed when Zappa played the synclavier.' That's why."

Barbara Gregorich       www.barbaragregorich.com
Crossing the Skyway: Poems
CreateSpace
ISBN: 978-1481209984
$10 softcover   74 pages
Order online:    www.amazon.com

Throughout this collection of accessible new and previously published poems (most in free verse) about nature, family, and the decay of capitalism, there is a unity of vision and a strong sense of justice. Barbara Gregorich writes with humor and playfulness as well, with quirky takes on subjects such as foul balls, driving on twisty roads, and making conversation.

Sandy Dickson   www.sandydickson.com
Return to Home   www.return-to-home.com
Westbow Press
ISBN: 978-1-44976-853-9
Purchase online: westbow Press   amazon.com   barnesandnoble

An experience that won’t soon be forgotten...

Mark straddles two worlds: those of his Christian household and his own agnostic beliefs. Suddenly he's shockingly transitioned to a position that drastically changes his current situation.

Though he loves his new involvement, he is warned that if he tells anyone else of this new situation, something yet unknown, but terrible will happen to him and his beloved family.

Jim McGarrah
Breakfast at Denny's
Ink Brush Press
ISBN: 978-0-9839715-8-0
Poetry, 106 pages, $15.00

In Jim McGarrah’s third poetry collection, the present is often eclipsed by the ghosted past of Vietnam. These vital poems dwell in the inevitable privacy of being human, and it is in these starkly singular spaces--walking the dog, truckstopping for breakfast, closing the bar at 2 am, visiting Vietnamese children suffering the effects of Agent Orange—that McGarrah wrestles truth with music, grit and wry humor. As the poet sways between sobriety and stupor, bearing witness to the horror of being alive and the horror of going on, he too leads us through that slim midnight portal into rugged grace, where a worn ball cap becomes a whiskey-washed Eucharist and the cast of the missing creates the genius of absence. When transcendence comes, it is no lavish exaltation, but something far more real and astonishing.
       —Jennifer K. Sweeney, author of How to Live on Bread and Music, winner of the James Laughlin Prize

Larry Stillman
The Rope Catcher
Publisher:  iUniverse
ISBN: 978-1-4759-5552-1
$21.95 sc/$4.99 electronic; 376 pages
Purchase online: amazon.com    bn.com

April,1942: Jimmie Goodluck leads an aimless existence on the Navajo reservation, experiencing poverty, prejudice, and lack of opportunity. Everything changes when he joins the marines and helps to develop the only code the enemy cannot break. As a code talker, Jimmie experiences equality, respect, and admiration: everything he's dreamed about. Then he returns home to discover the devastating truth about what can happen after your dreams come true.

Richard Bessette
Circle of Service: Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne and the Family Business
RTN Press
ISBN-10: 0-9747970-4-9; ISBN-13: 978-0-9747970-4-5
Paper, $20.00, 403 pages, illustrated, notes, bibliography, and index
Purchase online: amazon.com    rtnpress.com

In 2008, Michael W. Wynne was forced to resign from the Pentagon’s top civilian post in the Air Force. Circle of Service chronicles his life story and that of his family’s dedication to serving the nation. While one brother was shot down in combat in Vietnam and another rose to become a service secretary, both were sons of a career military man who was a pioneer in the U.S. Air Force and the race for space.

Walter J. Roers
Pathos Rising
Publisher -  North Star Press of Saint Cloud
ISBN - 978-0-87839-624-5
Pricing - $14.95 print copy, $7.95 e-book copy
Purchase online: barnesandnoble.com

Pathos Rising is the story of Henry Blaine, a retired teacher struggling with the aging and his own mortality. Henry has begins a flirtation with a beautiful young woman at his health club, tries to deny his health problems and worries endlessly about his widowed daughter and his grandson. When tragedy strikes one of his friends, Henry finally realizes he must face reality and deal with some of the most important decisions of his life.

Ray E. Boomhower
The People’s Choice: Congressman Jim Jontz of Indiana
Indiana Historical Society Press
ISBN: 978-0-87195-298-1
Hardcover, $24.95, 259 pages

Written by award-winning author Ray E. Boomhower, this first-ever biography of Congressman Jim Jontz examines his remarkable long shot political career and lifetime involvement in local, state, and national environmental issues. According to environmental activist Brock Evans, Jontz’s most enduring legacy is his constant reminder that “even seeming hopeless causes can be won. All we need is the right kind of leader, a person of high spirit and sunny optimism, and, above all, a large and courageous heart.”

Michael Raleigh
The Conjurer’s Boy
Harvard Square Editions
ISBN-10: 0983321663; ISBN-13: 978-0983321668
Price: $15.99, 472 pages
Format: trade paperback     eBook (eBook version available Nov.1)
Purchase online: Amazon.com

Part coming-of-age story, part adventure, part-fantasy, The Conjurer’s Boy is the saga of Thomas Faye, who runs into a Chicago junk shop in 1962 and is forever changed by the two mysterious old men he meets inside. Farrell, the proprietor, is a survivor of the Battle of the Somme who can heal with his hands. His colleague Meyer lives on the street, a magnet for violence, seemingly indestructible despite his age. Over the next 20 years, Thomas finds that his fate is inextricably tied to both men.

DONNA LATHAM     www.donnalatham.com
BRIDGES AND TUNNELS
BUILD IT YOURSELF SERIES, JUVENILE NONFICTION, ages 9 TO 12
ISBN: 9781936749522
FORMATS: EPUB, TRADE PAPER, CLOTH, PDF, MOBIPOCKET
CLOTH, $0.00 (US $21.95) (CA $24.95)
Gold Medal Winner, Moonbeam Children's Book Awards: www.independentpublisher.com
Purchase online from publisher

From the Society of Midland Author's Children's Nonfiction 2012 award-winner. Explore innovation and physical science behind bridges and tunnels. Activities and projects encourage children to learn about the design and construction of amazing passageways. This fun and educational reference uses hands-on projects to explain complex concepts, such as Newton's Third Law of Motion, while trivia and fun facts illustrate engineering ingenuity and achievements. Activities engage kids in important engineering skills—designing, building, and modeling—and teach the value of trial and error as they create several bridge models.

"This book is a treasure trove of information, experiments, and building challenges, and is an excellent, exciting, and easy way to incorporate STEM education into your classroom, science fair, or after school engineering club."—National Science Teachers Association

John Knoerle     www.johnknoerle.com
The Proxy Assassin: Book Three of the American Spy Trilogy
Blue Steel Press
ISBN-10: 9780982090398
$15.00, 280 pages

1948. Former OSS agent Hal Schroeder is summoned to the Maryland retreat of Frank Wisner, head of the CIA’s new covert ops division. Would Hal consider parachuting into the mountains of Romania to meet with anti-Communist guerillas? Hal says he’s not interested. At first.

Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, editor
Imago Dei: Poems from Christianity and Literature
Abilene Christian University Press
ISBN-10: 0891123210     ISBN-13: 978-0891123217
224 pages
purchase online: Publisher     Amazon

An anthology of the best poems published in the journal Christianity and Literature over the past sixty years, Imago Dei brings together in one volume poetry which exemplifies the richness and variety of the art. These poems find beauty in the concrete and particular, but they also ask the big questions: Why do we exist? Who is God? Where do we find God? What does the Incarnation mean? When does God speak to us, and why is God silent?

Included in the over one hundred poets represented here are Wendell Berry, Mark Jarmon, Jeanne Murray Walker, Dana Gioa, Martha Serpas, Luci Shaw, and Robert Siegel. All of the poets in this collection grapple with what Imago Dei means for them as readers, writers, artists, teachers, and students.

Arthur Plotnik     www.artplotnik.com
The Elements of Expression: Putting Thoughts into Words, 2nd ed., revised and expanded
Viva Editions, Berkeley, CA; audio, Audio Go, North Kingston, RI
ISBN: 978-1-936740-14-7; audio 978-0-7927-8799-0
Original paperback, 347 p., $16.95; e-book, from $8.77 (Amazon); audio, 6 hrs 58 min, $14.95
purchase online: Amazon     Barnes & Noble

The acclaimed editor and author helps word users light up the page or the face across the table as they seek the radiance of expressiveness—the vivid expression of thoughts, feelings, and observations. This updated and expanded edition offers a joyride from the dull generic to the fissionable---language that blasts thoughts and feelings into expression of the first intensity.

Bill Yarrow     www.billyarrow.com
Pointed Sentences
BlazeVOX
ISBN-10: 1609640829
ISBN-13: 978-1609640828
$16.00, 146 pages
purchase online: Amazon     SPDbooks     BlazeVOX

In Bill Yarrow’s Pointed Sentences, the poems flow from an exceptional command of language and syntax, combined with a wanderer’s willingness to go where the road takes him.... [He] offers up poetry which is fresh, exciting with discovery and the sense that in his hands we’ve not simply revisited that which we already knew.
     —David Ackley, THIS Literary Magazine

Martha Miller     www.marthamiller.net
Retirement Plan: a Crime Story
ISBN 10: 1-60282-224-7
ISBN 13:978-1-60282-224-5
Pages: 319
purchase online: Bold Strokes Books
also available as an eBook

What do you do when you fall through the loopholes, and all you have to rely on are your wits? Lois and Sophie have saved for years for retirement. But now they've lost it all, Lois’s sniper training from Vietnam leads to a desperate choice. A modern morality tale of justice, retribution, an M-16, and women who refuse to be politely invisible.

George Beam    
The Problem with Survey Research
Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 978-1-4128-4603-5
$53.96, 444 pages
purchase online: Transaction Publishers     Amazon

The Problem with survey research is that answers to questions are not reliable. When all you have are answers it's impossible to know if they are, or are not, correct. To find out what's really going on, don't ask. Instead, observe, analyze documents, and use other, as I call them, "proper" methods of data collection and research designs.

Kim Strickland     www.kimstrickland.com
Down at the Golden Coin
Eckhartz Press
ISBN: 9780981979458
172 pages. Available as a trade paperback at www.eckhartzpress.com and as an ebook.

When unemployed airline pilot, Annie Mullard, meets a self-proclaimed Messiah at the laundromat, of course she’s skeptical. And while twenty-something Violet is no one’s idea of a Messiah, she is equipped with the wisdom, love and humor to lead Annie to a more authentic life, one in which money is not the key to happiness she thinks it is.

Barbara Gregorich    www.barbaragregorich.com
Jack and Larry: Jack Graney and Larry, the Cleveland Baseball Dog
CreateSpace
ISBN: 978-1467958011
$12.00 softcover, 102 pages, for ages 10-Adult
Order online: amazon.com

Jack and Larry is the heartwarming story of a man, a dog, and a baseball team. Leadoff batter for the Cleveland American League team from 1910-22, Jack Graney was loved for many reasons, not least among them the fact that he owned Larry, bull terrier mascot of the woebegone, 102-losses, 48-games-out team that struggled to prove itself worthy. Larry, too, was loved, not only by the Cleveland fans, but by porters, bellhops, ship captains and trolly car conductors in all American League cities and in Canada. Loyal, sensitive, intelligent, Larry was more than a mascot — he was part of the team. Jack and Larry is a story about the pursuit of the pennant, a story of devotion, commitment, and persistence, illustrating what it means to be major league.

Robert Follett
How To Keep Score in Business: Accounting and Financial Analysis for the Non-Accountant (second edition)
FT Press, New York
ISBN: 0-13-284925-8
192 pages, paperback, $19.99. (Also available in Kindle edition.)

A book intended for those who need to understand the basics of accounting and finance but have never taken a course on these topics. That’s where Follett was when he began to move up in management. So he educated himself. This led to the first edition of How to Keep Score in Business. The book was a success, used in many colleges in business courses, purchased by companies to give to their up-and-coming employees, used as the “text” for seminars and workshops, and bought by many individuals who needed to gain knowledge and skills they didn’t have.

Barbara Gregorich    www.barbaragregorich.com
Sound Proof
CreateSpace
ISBN: 978-1456533267
$15.00 softcover, $5 ebook, 272 pages
Order online: amazon.com

Publishers Weekly called Frank Dragovic, who first appeared in Dirty Proof, “an enlightened detective” and “a charming, savvy narrator.” Now Chicago private eye Dragovic is back, working undercover at Midwest Music Madness, a folk festival targeted by a thief. The corn is high in Iroquois County, the food deliciously Midwestern, the music old-time tunes and songs. But sour notes abound, and theft of musical instruments soon crescendos to murder. Working undercover as a carpenter, Frank finds himself repairing corn cribs and pigpens in the July heat. At the same time, he must determine the thief and murderer — difficult to do while surrounded by suspects playing fiddles, banjos, guitars, autoharps, hammered dulcimers, bowed psaltries, and rhythm bones.

Julie Hyzy
Affairs of Steak
Penguin's Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN: 0425245837
Mass market paperback $7.99

Affairs of Steak hit #22 on the New York Times' bestsellers list for mass market paperbacks. In this fifth White House Chef mystery, executive chef Olivia Paras and her arch nemesis, White House Sensitivity Director Peter Everett Sargeant, must work together to solve the double murder of one of the First Lady's assistants and the Chief of Staff-before they become the next victims of a merciless assassin with a secret agenda.

Thomas McNulty
Werewolves! A Study of Lycanthropes in Film, Folklore and Literature
BearManor Media
ISBN-10: 1593936753 ; ISBN-13: 978-1593936754
230 pages; bibliography, filmography and index; rare photographs
Order online: amazon.com

Werewolf stories have long captivated film audiences and lovers of pulp fiction. Thomas McNulty's Werewolves! explores the genesis for this cultural phenomenon dating back centuries when stories of shape shifters and wolf-men were predominant in folk tales. The book traces the origins of lycanthropy in mythology through modern times. Included are discussions of wolf mythology and the importance of the wolf symbol around the globe. Included is an examination of key werewolf stories and novels with an emphasis on popular fiction and pulp fiction. This is followed by a survey of the Hollywood films with chapters devoted to the Wolf-Man films starring Lon Chaney Jr. and the groundbreaking Spanish werewolf films of Paul Naschy. The survey of films includes titles from Hollywood's Golden Age to present times with commentary on over 70 werewolf films. The work includes a bibliography, filmography and index. Illustrated with rare photographs.

Keir Graff
The Other Felix
Roaring Brook Press
ISBN: 9781596436558
$16.99, 176 pages
Order online: amazon.com, barnesandnoble or indiebound

"The story has a beautifully crafted innocence reminiscent of The Little Prince. This is a satisfying tale in and of itself, as well as a helpful and sensitive guide for those children who are just learning to confront life’s sticky challenges. The ending is exquisite."
     —School Library Journal

Find The Other Felix on Facebook

Eldon L. Ham
Broadcasting Baseball: A history of the National Pastime on Radio and Television
McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers
ISBN: 978-0-7864-4644-5
Order online: amazon.com

Broadcasting Baseball portrays the symbiotic evolution of baseball and broadcasting from the first 1890s telegraph reports to the advent of radio, HD television, computer graphics, and the Internet. A sentimental journey of innovation, entertainment, and even childhood, baseball broadcasting has become an indelible part of American culture. "I watch a lot of baseball on the radio," said Gerald Ford. Indeed.

For information, please visit www.eldonham.com.

Richard Cahan and Michael Williams
The Lost Panoramas: When Chicago Changed its River and the Land Beyond
ISBN-13: 9780978545079
$45.00, 9x12, Hardcover with 175 doutone images
Order online: cityfilespress.com or amazon.com


For the past century, a massive collection of glass-plate negatives has been carefully stored. Stored so well, they have been largely forgotten.

Taken between 1894 and 1928 to document the reversal of the Chicago River and its effect on the region, the photographs depict Chicago a few decades after the Great Fire, and show the Illinois River before additional water from Lake Michigan doubled its size and transformed the surrounding landscape forever. The reversal inundated downstate farms, eroded shorelines, submerged whole islands, and filled backwater streams, marshes, and lakes. The lost panoramas offer an entirely new view of Chicago and the region—from the river—and spark new questions about the future of Chicago River.

James V. O’Connor
Another Man’s Treasure
ISBN 978-0-61551652-3
$15.00, 279 pages
Order online:  amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com

A mystery/romance novel dealing with ordinary people navigating the complexities of life. Ted McCormick is a home organizer whose demanding client is convinced that his eccentric father died leaving something of great value hidden in his cluttered and mysterious Victorian mansion. What-or who-is in the house to prevent Ted from finding it?

As a devoted husband, Ted is struggling to resist the charm and seductive flirtations of another client, Janet Blake. Will passion overpower his principles? At what cost? Together Janet and ted interpret clues that lead to two surprising discoveries – one that captures the imagination of the city and one that determines their fate.

Brandon Marie Miller
Thomas Jefferson for Kids, His Life and Times
Chicago Review Press
ISBN-13: 978-1-56976-348-3
[144 pages, 21 hands-on activities, 60 illustrations]

"Altogether admirable. Brandon Marie Miller has written a concise, graceful, and accessible biography that carries lightly an astonishing amount of information and insight. This book is illuminating and brimming with respect for its subject and its readers. The activities are well-chosen to give young readers a sense of what Thomas Jefferson's world was like. Highly, and delightedly, recommended." —R. B. Bernstein, Jefferson author and distinguished adjunct professor of law, New York Law School.

Donna Latham
Garbage: Investigate What Happens When You Throw It Out
Nomad Press
ISBN: 9781936313464 soft cover; ISBN: 9781936313471 hard cover
Pricing: $15.95 soft cover, $21.95 hard cover; 128 pages
Order online:  amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com

Become a rubbish warrior. Battle the world's overwhelming waste problem. Discover ways to reduce, reuse, recycle-and rethink actions. Explore garbology, unearth fascinating information archaeologists learn by excavating middens, and use projects to investigate trash. Activities include whipping up a delicious edible landfill, brewing natural dyes for a T-shirt, and comparing effects of commercial and homemade cleaners. Visit www.donnalatham.com.

Edited by: Steven A. Riess
Sports in America from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century: An Encyclopedia
M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-7656-1706-4
Cloth cover, 1224pp (three volumes)
List Price: USD $349.00

A sweeping perspective of sports in the United States from the colonial era to the present day, this work explores the subject from a variety of perspectives--society, business, economics, law, politics, psychology, and others. With 400 A to Z entries, Sports in America explains the process by which sports and its institutions have developed over the centuries, especially in the context of major social developments such as industrialization, urbanization, and immigration.

Thomas McNulty
Showdown at Snakebite Creek
ISBN-10: 0709092024
ISBN-13: 978-0709092025
Robert Hale Publishers
160 pages
Order online

Seven years earlier Cole Tibb's father had been murdered alongside Snakebite Creek and now Cole wants justice. He returns to Raven Flats looking to settle the old grudge. But settling a grudge and surviving are two very different things. Soon he finds himself opposing a greedy landowner named Carleton Usher, his ruthless sons, and a merciless group of killers. The arrival of enigmatic US Marshal Maxfield Knight raises the stakes in a deadly game of survival. As the bodies begin stacking up like firewood Cole realises he has only two things in his favour - his ruthless determination to set things right and his ability with a gun.

Carol Fisher Saller  
Eddie’s War
ISBN: 978-1608981090
Pages: 204
Ages 10 and up

A WWII children's novel set in rural Illinois, told in 76 vignettes.

“Much more an emotionally resonant coming-of-age tale than a war story . . . an easy sell for those seeking a quick, excellent read.” —Kirkus (starred review).

"An authentic window into the past that recalls the narrative power of Karen Hesse’s verse." —Horn Book.

More at www.carolsaller.com

Gunter Nitsch  
Eine lange Flucht aus Ostpreussen
Publisher: Ellert & Richter Verlag (Hamburg, Germany)
ISBN: 978-3831904389
Pages: 379; Price: 19,95 Euros
Available at Europa Books in Chicago and at www.amazon.de

A translation of my book Weeds Like Us, this gripping true adventure story of my bizarre childhood under the Russians in the former German province of East Prussia after WWII is full of unexpected twists and turns, and brings to life what happened over the next six years, as my family tried to make its way safely to the West.

Order in English: www.weedslikeus.com

Fran Baker   www.franbaker.com
Miss Francie's Folly
Publisher: in English - Delphi Books; in Portuguese - Cultural Nova
Order online:  RegencyReads.com or amazon.com

A comedy of manners set in Regency England.

Three years ago Francie Hampton shocked the ton by jilting Sir Thomas Spencer at their bethrothal ball when she discovered that he kept several lightskirts. How dare Sir Thomas now ask to marry her sister! Gentle Mary should not be married to a proud, tyrannical rake. But Francie protested too much against the man who long ago had won her heart...though not her hand.

Fran Baker   www.franbaker.com
Pursuing Miss Pippa
Publisher: in English - Delphi Books; in Portuguese - Cultural Nova
Order online:  RegencyReads.com or amazon.com

A comedy of manners with a hint of mystery set in Regency England.

How has Pippa Walker succeeded in attracting Garrett Steelman, Marquis of Duval—and notorious rake—as an ardent suitor? The ton is all agog. Only Pippa knows the truth: She was compromised by a kiss from the drunken marquis, whose affections clearly lie elsewhere, and he is merely honoring his obligation to ask for her hand. But Pippa has sworn to marry only for love…

Steven A. Riess 
The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime:
Horse Racing, Politics, and Organized Crime in New York, 1865-1913
ISBN: 978-0-8156-0985-8
Cloth $45.00, 432 pp.
available on discount at all internet booksellers or order from publisher:  Syracuse University Press

Riess narrates the history of horse racing, detailing how and why New York became the national capital of the sport from the mid-1860s until the early twentieth century. The sport's survival depended upon the racetrack being the nexus between politicians and organized crime. The powerful alliance between urban machine politics and track owners enabled racing in New York to flourish.

Ellen F. Steinberg and Jack H. Prost 
From the Jewish Heartland: Two Centuries of Midwest Foodways
ISBN: 978-0-252-03620-0
$32.95
Order online:   Amazon   Univeristy of Illinois Press

From the Jewish Heartland: Two Centuries of Midwest Foodways reveals the distinctive flavor of Midwestern Jewish foods and tracks regional culinary changes through time. By exploring Jewish culinary innovations, and examining recipes, including Jewish homemakers' handwritten manuscripts and notebooks, published journals and newspaper columns, and interviews, the book takes readers on a memorable culinary and cultural tour throughout the Heartland.

Tracy Seeley  
My Ruby Slippers: the Road Back to Kansas
ISBN: 978-0803230101
208 pp. $15.95
Order online:   Amazon   IndieBound   University of Nebraska Press

After a diagnosis of cancer and a lover's betrayal awaken the ghosts of an unsettled past, I travel back to Kansas. MY RUBY SLIPPERS follows me to the thirteen houses of my childhood, where I learn what it means to dwell deeply in the place I find myself and in my one and only life.

Hank Ellison  
Chemical Warfare During the Vietnam War: Riot Control Agents in Combat
ISBN: 978-0-415-87645-2
price $32.95, 208 pages
Order from publisher   Also available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.

Documenting the use of antipersonnel chemical weapons throughout the Vietnam War, this book follows the tactical progression of US operations from focusing on the humanitarian aspects of these non-lethal weapons to their use as a means of deliberately augmenting and enhancing the lethality of traditional munitions. It also describes North Vietnamese efforts to develop their own chemical warfare capabilities.

"In his book on America’s use of chemical weapons – principally riot control agents – in the Vietnam War, D. Hank Ellison has provided an authoritative and highly readable examination of this timelessly controversial topic. Those who wish to study the present and future use of such weapons will find this book an indispensable primer."
       —John J. Tierney Jr., Walter Kohler Professor, The Institute of World Politics!

Steven Burgauer    https://sites.google.com/site/stevenburgauer
THE GRANDFATHER PARADOX
ISBN: 978-1450290432
price $20.95, 348 pages
www.amazon.com     more information

Marooned in the present, their only hope for the future lay in the past. But first there was still the small matter of staying alive. The planet they were marooned on was crawling with bird-beasts, immense parrotlike carnivores that stood two meters tall, weighed upwards of fifty klogs, and had a giant scooped beak like a pelican. Then there were the vipers — writhing snake-like creatures armed with dozens of sucker-bearing tentacles.

But it got worse. Much worse . . .

Now, join Andu Nehrengel and his three female clone companions on an intense voyage through time. First stop: the Civil War and the Battle of Shiloh, April 1862, one of the most horrendous land battles of all time. Meet Mark Twain when he is still a riverboat pilot. Journey with him north to Missouri when he joins the Confederacy.

Then it's back to the future and on to Mars!

Barbara Gregorich    www.barbaragregorich.com
Research Notes for Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, Vol. I
ISBN: 978-1453875551
$12.00 softcover, $5.00 ebook, 122 pages
Order online

Containing the primary source materials on which Barbara Gregorich based her award-winning 1993 book, Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, Volume I of Research Notes will be of interest to baseball researchers, to women, and especially to teachers — those who assign research topics and those interested in introducing students to primary source materials.

Werner Krieglstein    www.perspectivism.com
Einstein's Mistake
CreateSpace/Vision Media
ISBN: 978-1451576771
320 pages, $18.50
Order online: www.createspace.com or www.amazon.com

Einstein’s Mistake moves the reader across four continents, beyond the fringes of human consciousness, and through the great mysteries of life. In this Bond-like thriller the age-old struggle between good and evil is played out in the conflict between physics and metaphysics, science and religion, and freedom versus absolute control. It blends mystery, action, science, and mysticism to probe the deepest issues of life with a spiritual and philosophical eye.

John Knoerle    www.bluesteelpress.com
A Despicable Profession: Book Two of the American Spy Trilogy
Blue Steel Press
ISBN: 978-0-9820903-0-5
$15.00, 308 pages

Former spy Hal Schroeder gets an offer to be a trade rep in Berlin. His jaw drops when he meets his new boss, former OSS Chief Bill Donovan. Schroeder insists he is no longer interested in being an agent.

Then Hal meets his immediate superior in Berlin. It’s the case officer who sent him on repeated suicide missions in WWII.

Charlene Ann Baumbich    www.charleneannbaumbich.com
DIVINE APPOINTMENTS, the 2nd in the Snowglobe Connections series
Random House
ISBN: 0307444724
326 pages
Order online: www.amazon.com

A batch of downsized-yet-kindhearted employees, a bleeding heart boss, and a mysterious snowglobe set buttoned-up, career-focused Josie on an unexpected "right-sizing" path to making life changes that really matter. Filled with laugh-out-loud moments and a gentle dash of inspiration, DIVINE APPOINTMENTS helps us see how much we really do need each other.

Keir Graff    www.keirgraff.com
The Price of Liberty
Severn House
ISBN: 9780727868725
Price: $28.95, Pages: 256
Order online: www.amazon.com

"Graff's third novel, another winner, will appeal to those who like their thrillers slightly off-kilter in the tradition of Donald Westlake and Lawrence Block."
       —Library Journal

"Graff's cynical take on government waste and corporate greed plays well. McEnroe is as rugged as the desolate country he lives in, and his gritty do-what-ya-gotta-do actions keep the pages turning easily."
       —Publishers Weekly

Fleda Brown    www.fledabrown.com
Driving With Dvorak
University of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 978-0-8032-2476-6
price: $24.95, pages: 268
Order online: www.nebraskapress.unl.edu

An unconventional memoir: a series of lyric essays about life in a maddeningly complex family during the even more maddeningly complex fifties and sixties: a strange and erratic father, a resigned and helpless mother, a mentally disabled brother, a sister with a brain tumor, the ambivalences of family and marriage, girlhood and adolescence, identity and self-knowledge. Great humor, profound perception, and a lyricism that makes even the most commonplace moment uncommonly good reading.

Cheryl L. Reed     www.nunsunveiled.com
Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns
Berkley, by the Penguin Group
ISBN: 978-0-425-23238-5
price: $14, pages: 331

"Unveiled is fascinating and inspiring not only because of the nuns themselves, but because Cheryl Reed has the wisdom to understand how the passage of time has changed the women and because she has the skill to write about their maturation beautifully. This book should be required reading for the Pope and his posse."
        —Jane Hamilton, award-winning author of The Book of Ruth

Bill Barnhart     www.barnhartbooks.com
JOHN PAUL STEVENS: An Independent Life
Northern Illinois University Press
ISBN-10: 0875804195; ISBN-13: 978-0875804194
Hardcover; 324 pages

"Justice John Paul Stevens combines a towering intellect with courageous independence. Bill Barnhart and Gene Schlickman combine their exhaustive research with insightful analysis to give readers a splendid biography of the Supreme Court's most respected member."
        —Newton N. Minow, former Federal Communications Commission chairman

"Terrific."
        —Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine

Steven Burgauer
THE ROAD TO WAR: Duty & Drill, Courage & Capture
ISBN: 978-1-4502-1880-1 (pp); ISBN: 978-1-4502-1882-5 (hc)
about the book & ordering info

A riveting first-person account of a brave young man caught up in a cataclysmic World War. This is the story of Captain William C. Frodsham, Jr., who — shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor — enlisted in the U.S. Army Infantry, where he excelled in basic training, became a junior officer, and eventually led a combat boat team ashore on Omaha Beach.

Six days later, in French hedgerow country and under withering German fire, Frodsham was wounded and taken prisoner. He spent the next year as a German POW, where he suffered great deprivation before finally being liberated by advancing Russian forces. His training, his courage, his capture. The reader is taken for a first-person tour of the times at home and then tunneled into a vastly different world on the battlefield and in a German prisoner-of-war camp.

A truly remarkable story.

Thomas McNulty
Wind Rider
Robert Hale Publishers
hardcover
amazon.com 
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His name is Hank Benteen, but the Sioux call him Wind Rider. When Benteen rides into a Wyoming valley he saves a homesteader's life and that of his two children, but there's a range war brewing and some of the cowboys are hiding a murderous secret. Suddenly Benteen finds himself involved in a deadly conflict as he resolves to help the homesteaders against impossible odds. It isn't long before Benteen finds himself the target of two greedy men intent on killing him. Their dream of acquiring land by forcing out the homesteaders has turned into a deadly game and Benteen will need all of his skills as a gunman in order to survive.

Margaret McMullan
Sources of Light
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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"It's a high stakes novel that powerfully portrays the bravery and loss of a tumultuous time."
— Publisher's Weekly

"Though this fine volume easily stands by itself, McMullan links it with two previous works-How I Found the Strong (2004) and When I Crossed No-Bob (2007)-and readers who read the first installments will feel that they are in the midst of an excellent historical saga...this offers a superb portrait of a place and time and a memorable character trying to make sense of a world both ugly and beautiful."
— Kirkus Reviews

"McMullan...makes her characters complex, confused, and sympathetic...In the end, readers will see the humanity of those on the wrong side of history, and may even feel compassion for them, too."
— Booklist

Ray E. Boomhower
Fighter Pilot: The World War II Career of Alex Vraciu
Indiana Historical Society Press Youth Biography Series
ISBN: 978-0-87195-282-0
$17.95    

Written by award-winning biographer, Ray E. Boomhower, this is the sixth volume in the Indiana Historical Society Press’s youth biography series. The book examines the daring exploits of the Hoosier flier during his wartime service. Vraciu learned to fly during his college years through a government program and joined the navy before America was thrust into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Possessed with keen eyesight, quick reflexes, excellent shooting instincts, and a knack for finding his opponent’s weak spot, Vraciu became skilled in the deadly game of destroying the enemy in the skies over the Pacific Ocean. For a period of four months in 1944, he was the leading ace in the U.S. Navy, with a tally of nineteen enemy airplanes.

Barbara Gregorich     www.barbaragregorich.com
She’s on First
ISBN: 978-1449573072
Price: $16.00 softcover, $8.50 ebook
Number of Pages: 314
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When Barbara Gregorich published her first novel in 1987, Publishers Weekly wrote: “Unliberated baseball fans may well be won over by this appealing novel of the first woman in the big leagues; all baseball fans will appreciate Gregorich’s sure feel for the game … the baseball scenes are crackerjack, and readers should end up wondering, ‘Why not?’” She's on First is now back in print, both as a softcover and as an ebook.

Katherine McCaughan     www.katherinemccaughan.com
Natasha Lands Down Under
High-Pitched Hum Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-934666-36-4
Price: $12.95     Number of pages: 250
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The communist revolution in China forces Natasha's Russian family to flee their Shanghai home for Australia. Strong-willed Natasha struggles to fit in, butting heads with a snooty aunt and cousins. As she navigates the growing cultural gap between herself and her family's old Russian customs, Natasha realizes her own inner strengths. A multi-cultural novel exploring immigrant issues in a different historical setting.

Brandon Marie Miller     www.brandonmariemiller.com
Benjamin Franklin, American Genius
Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 978-1-55652-757-9
$16.95, 125 pages, illustrations, further reading, glossary, places to visit/web sources
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"This smart and delightful book captures the magic of Benjamin Franklin and shows why his life is so inspiring. Above all, it celebrates his creativity, which was the source of his genius."