The Definitive Illustrated History

In Gettysburg Battlefield: The Definitive Illustrated History , author David J. Eicher's narrative takes you on a chronological journey of the battle. The story begins as the Rebel army troops advance north, continues through three days of intense fighting, and culminates with the Union army's ultimate triumph as the Confederate army retreats to Potomac.

Throughout the book, fascinating side-by-side photographs show images of the battlefield taken just days after the guns ceased to fire next to images of those same sites today, many surprisingly unchanged.

0-8118-2868-9, Chronicle Books, $40.00, Hardcover
 

Philadelphia lawyer Bennie Rosato has her eye focused fimly on the bottom line, especially since she has three dedicated young associates and a very pregnant secretary on her payroll, and she takles a professional risk, charging into a class action lawsuit tat could make - or break - her career. Never mind that she's never handled anything like this before. Having won nearly every civil and criminal case she's ever tried, the brilliant and unconventional Bennie has the guts, and she'll do what it takes to succeed. Even if that means wearing panythose and putting herself on a curse diet.

Then her wallet goes missing. And Bennie's life goes crazy.

It's not just that one of her associates has dyed he hair pink. Or that another's old-world Italian mother gives Bennie the evil eye. But someone posing as the outspoken, blue-eyed, blond attorney determined to destroy everything Bennie loves. Only one person can pull off this double deception - Bennie's identical twin sister, Alice Connelly. But as far as Bennie knows, Alice left Philly long ago and never looked back.

A limited number of autographed copies are available for purchase.

K-901042, HarperCollins, $25.95, Hardcover
 

The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece

The Spartans of ancient Greece were powerful and unique people, radically different from any civilization before or since: a society of warrior-heroes who were the living exemplars of such core values as self-sacrifice, community endeavor, and achievement against all odds - qualities that today signify the ultimate heroism. So much so, in fact, that scholar acknowledge that Thomas More probably has Sparta centrally in mind when, in 1516, he coined the term "Utopia." The Spartans also epitomized the adjective "laconic" and during the battle of Thermopylae, when the three hundred Spartan warriors were told that there were enough archers on the Persian side to block out the sun with their missiles, Diences, one of the three hundred, is said to have replied, "So much the better - we shall fight in the shade."

In The Spartans, which resounds with the battle cries of the ancient Greeks, he engagingly examines how, despite the high value placed on masculine ideals, the Spartans nevertheless allowed women an unusually dominant and powerful role, and takes a compelling look at the many illustrious Spartan figures who bestride the world of history and legend.

1-58567-402-8, Overlook, $27.95, Hardcover
 

The Locklear Letters is a farcical look at celebrity worship in today's society through the eyes of Sid Straw, an affable, if not boring, software salesman who tries to rekindle an acquaintanceship with his former college classmate turned Hollywood star, Heather Locklear.

On the evening of November 1, 1994, Rabbi Fred Neulander returned home to find his wife, Carol facedown on the living room floor, blood everywhere. He called for help, but it was too late. Two trials and eight years later, the founder of what had become the largest reform synagogue in southern New Jersey was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner Voice and Living a Life of Authenticity: A Self-Acceptance Book

Psychologist Helene G. Brenner has devoted he career to finding out what ails women today - and why. Based on her work with more than a thousand women both in one-one-one therapy and in workshops held across the country, Dr. Brenner has concluded that, aside from all the real-world pressures affecting them, women are responding to an inner legacy, shaped by thousands of years of women's experiences, that tells them to accommodate, adapt, and mold themselves to serve others at their own expense.

Her solution, spelled out in this groundbreaking book, is a bold new approach to women's psychology. Instead of asking them to "improve" themselves and change their thoughts and belief systems, Dr. Brenner shows women how to become grounded in an unshakable source of self-esteem and integrity - their own Inner Voice.

Under a Bangkok bridge, inside a bolted-shut Mercedes: a murder by snake - a charismatic African American Marine sergeant killed by a methamphetamine-stoked python and a swarm of stoned cobras.

Two cops - the only two in the city not on the take - arrive too late. Minutes later, only one is alive: Sonchai Jitpleecheep - a devout Buddhist, equally versed in the sacred and the profane - son of a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. and a Thai bar girl whose subsequent international clientele contributed richly to Sonchai's sophistication.

Now, his partner dead, Sonchai is doubly compelled to find the murderer, to maneuver through the world he knows all too well - illicit drugs, prostitution, infinite corruption - and into a realm he has never before encountered: the moneyed underbelly of the city, where desire rules and the human body is no less custom-designable than a raw hunk of jade. And where Sonchai tracks the killer - and a predator of an even more sinister variety.

0-439-35806-X, Scholastic, $29.99, Hardcover

In Behaving Like Adults, Maxted introduces us to twenty-nine-year-old Holly, the sunny, optimistic owner of Girl Meets Boy, a dating service for those who are "beautiful inside and out." She's ambitious - and successful - with her matchmaking, but she hasn't quite fulfilled her own relationship dreams (her ex-fiancé, Nick, seems unlikely to progress from his job as Mr. Elephant, children's party entertainer). So when her friends dare her to pick a man off the top of the pile, she's game.

The events that occurred at Gettysburg are etched into our collective memory, as they served to change the course of the Civil War and with it the course of history. More than any other place in the United States, Gettysburg is indeed hallowed ground. It's no surprise that it is one of the nation's most visited sites (nearly two million annual visitors), attracting tourists, military buffs, and students of American history.

McPherson, who has led countless tours of Gettysburg over the years, makes stops at Seminary Ridge, the Peach Orchard, Cemetery Hill, and Little Round Top, among other key locations. He reflects on the meaning of the battle, describes the events of those terrible three days in July 1863, and places the struggle in the greater context of American and world history. Along the way, he intersperses stories of his own encounters with the place over several decades, as well as debunking several popular myths about the battle itself.

What do you do when your oldest friend, Steve McQueen, pulls out a Smith & Wesson and blows your defenseless dining-room chair to smithereens? Or when your hottest client, sex goddess Romy Schneider, demands you leave your wife for her? Those are just a couple of the dilemmas faced by AJ Jastrow, the fictional protagonist of Action!, Robert Cort's page-turning saga about a legendary Hollywood family.

Special Agent Grey is working on a kidnapping case - a fifteen-year-old named Juliana has been abducted in Santa Monica. Grey's counterpart in the Santa Monica Police Department is Detective Andrew Berringer. They've worked together before - and they've been more than just working together ever since.

It's Ana's job "to know the victim as if she were my own flesh and blood." But when Juliana turns up - traumatized into a state of total and paralyzing terror - it becomes clear that Ana has gone too far: she is viewing her own life from the perspective of Juliana's blasted emotional terrain. And in a moment of passion (Andrew has betrayed her) and panic (is it possible that he also means to harm her?) Ana points a gun at him and shoots.

Now she is both criminal investigator and criminal as she breaks her bail agreement to continue tracking the abductor, torn between her powerful emotional connection with Juliana and the fraying connection she has to her own common sense and to the truths she knows about Andrew - and about herself.
 

The Quintessence of American Popular Music

Boogaloo - the synonym of choice among the cognoscenti for rhythm and blues - is a stylish and profound meditation on the art, influence, and commerce of black American popular music. At once deeply knowing and keenly observant, Arthur Kempton reveals the tensions between the sacred and the profane at the heart of "soul music," and the complex centrality of "Aframericans" in the evolution of our mass musical culture. What the culture is all about, who owns it, and who gets paid - these are the issues of moment in his epic narrative.

 

McEnroe, the feisty New Yorker whose brilliant serve-and-volley style of play was at times overshadowed by his on-court antics, captured 17 Grand Slam championships during a 15-year "wild ride" on the professional tennis tour. Now, he and journalist Kaplan take a candid look back at this colorful career. Smashing racquets and screaming tirades against linesmen and umpires only cemented McEnroe's role as the explosive bad boy of tennis. Yet the Hall of Famer shows surprising insight here. He explores why matches were constant battles against "the other guy and myself," admitting that the relief of not failing was at least as strong as the joy of winning. McEnroe fully details his most significant triumphs and losses. His three Wimbledon and four U.S. Open singles titles were special, but perhaps his proudest achievement was the five Davis Cups he helped to secure at a time when other top players were more interested in the money to be made in tournaments and exhibitions. McEnroe also writes openly about his turbulent former marriage to actress Tatum O'Neal, and current status as father to six and husband to pop star Patty Smyth. Readers will be happy to learn that his anger-management counseling seems to help him defuse "certain situations" effectively.

Charlie Marshall is not a man who should be getting married. When Charlie, a twenty-five-year-old magazine writer, returns home to London after his New York bachelor party, his arm is broken - the result of being thrown out of a bar after lighting his boss's hair on fire - and he is nursing the effects of a near fatal overdose. He arrives wasted at his own wedding, where the sight of his fiancée, Sarah, in a big white dress, mixed with the expectations of two large families, prove to be the final toxic cocktail for a man who has been wide awake for five days. He crumbles to the floor at the altar.
 

Signs, Prophecies, Warnings, Threats, and Suspicions that the Endtime is Now

In the last few years, the term "Rapture" has become an integral part of our national consciousness, fascinating everyone from businessmen and political leaders to media personalities and cultural icons to true believers. Now a noted writer on prophecy, and the creator of RaptureReady.com (with more than 300,000 visitors a month) share invaluable advice on how to prepare for a future that might strike at any moment.
 

The priceless, rarely displayed Bannister collection is about to be exhibited - and the show's director, Morgan West, can't ignore her growing uneasiness. She's certain she hasn't seen the last of the infamous cat burglar Quinn. But she never expected him to turn up at her apartment one dark night in desperate need of her help - help she can't refuse. The mysterious master thief is playing a dangerous game, and it's a game that just might get him killed.

Tales of the Otori: Book One

The youth Takeo has been brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who have taught him only the ways of peace. But unbeknownst to him, his father was a celebrated assassin and a member of the Tribe, an ancient network of families with extraordinary, preternatural skills. When Takeo's village is pillaged, he is rescued and adopted by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru. Under the tutelage of Shigeru, he learns that he too possesses the skills of the Tribe. And, with this knowledge, he embarks on a journey that will lead him across the famed nightingale floor - and to his own unimaginable destiny.