Barrett Whitener
"A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue."—The New York Times Book Review
A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly
...When a prominent conservative politician is killed inside his lakeside cabin, authorities have no suspect in sight. And two more deaths—seemingly isolated incidents, achieved by very different means—might be...
In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies, over the mountains,...
6) Grass roots
With these words, Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland addressed the crew of the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts on the morning of October 25, 1944, off the Philippine Island of Samar. On the horizon loomed the mightiest ships of the Japanese navy, a massive fleet that represented the last...
13) Topper
The Jazz Age comedy of manners about a straitlaced banker and two bon vivant ghosts that inspired the classic film starring Cary Grant.
Bank manager Cosmo Topper has settled into a stable, respectable, and thoroughly boring life. In need of a little adventure, he decides to buy a secondhand car—a detail he neglects to tell his staid wife, Mary. But Topper’s little secret turns into an unexpectedly wild ride when he discovers
...The Civil War battle waged on September 17, 1862, at Antietam Creek, Maryland, was one of the bloodiest in the nation's history: in this single day, the war claimed nearly 23,000 casualties. In Landscape Turned Red, the renowned...
17) Callahan's Key
Nobody blends good science with bad puns as brilliantly as Spider Robinson, as his legion of devoted fans will attest. Now he's back with the latest chapter of the Callahan saga—an improbable tale of impending doom, a road trip, space, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.
The universe in is desperate peril. Due to a cluster of freakish phenomena, the United States' own defense system has become a doomsday machine, threatening the entire universe.
...18) Zeke and Ned
The Empress of the Eight Worlds has been assassinated. Prince Harivarman, exiled on the Templar Radiant, suspects that he will be the next victim. Help is scarce: Anne Blenheim, the fortress' clear-eyed, fair Commander, is favorably disposed toward the Prince, but her first responsibility is to the Templar High Command. And Chen Shizuoka, a Templar recruit sympathetic to Harivarman's cause, is being stalked by planetary security forces. When Prince
...While technology may make it easier to track down criminals, cyberspace has spawned a skyrocketing number of ways to commit crime, much of it untraceable. In fact, punishment for fraud, much less recovery of stolen funds, is a rare occurrence. Prevention is the best form of protection.
Frank Abagnale, former con artist and best-selling author of Catch Me If You Can, reveals the mind-boggling tricks of the scam trade with advice that has
...