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"Facing Down Evil" by Clint Van Zandt

From DavesBookNook.com:

With more than twenty-five years of service in the FBI, Clint Van Zandt, one of the seminal figures in the formation of the FBI's Hostage Negotiation Program, has been party to such unsettling and high-profile conflicts as the Waco siege, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Unabomber case. His expertise-both as a crisis negotiator and as an FBI insider-has, since his retirement from the FBI, made him a fixture in the media; since his retirement from the FBI, he has been called upon more than three thousand times to provide insight and analysis when high-profile hostage situations arise. In Facing Down Evil Van Zandt recounts his most memorable cases-some televised in every living room across the country, and many others that took place beneath the radar of all but those individuals involved whose lives were permanently altered.

From blue-collar beginnings in the Midwest, Clinton Van Zandt fulfilled his childhood dream when he took an entry-level job in the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a clerk in J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, eventually playing a leading roll in the FBI's groundbreaking work in hostage negotiation. In the years that followed, Agent Van Zandt rose through the ranks, helping to form the FBI's Hostage rose through the ranks, helping to form the FBI's Hostage Negotiation and Behavioral Science Program, where he would encounter madmen like Timothy McVeigh, David Koresh, and Ted Kaczynski.

Van Zandt draws the reader into his private world of hostage negotiations, taking us inside the criminal mind, the impossibly high-stress situations, the ticking of the clock before SWAT is brought in, the art of calling a hostage-taker's bluff, and the despair over a botched operation or a nonnegotiable situation. It is both a gripping page-turner and a thoughtful examination of our nation's most powerful law enforcement agency through the eyes of someone on the front line of many of the FBI's most famous and infamous cases.

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"The Gathering Storm" by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

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Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle, looms. And mankind is not ready.The final volume of the Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, was partially written by Robert Jordan before his untimely passing in 2007. Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, was chosen by Jordan’s editor---his wife, Harriet McDougal---to complete the final book. The scope and size of the volume was such that it could not be contained in a single book, and so Tor proudly presents The Gathering Storm as the first of three novels that will make up A Memory of Light. This short sequence will complete the struggle against the Shadow, bringing to a close a journey begun almost twenty years ago and marking the conclusion of the Wheel of Time, the preeminent fantasy epic of our era.

In this epic novel, Robert Jordan’s international bestselling series begins its dramatic conclusion. Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. As he attempts to halt the Seanchan encroachment northward---wishing he could form at least a temporary truce with the invaders---his allies watch in terror the shadow that seems to be growing within the heart of the Dragon Reborn himself.

Egwene al’Vere, the Amyrlin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai, is a captive of the White Tower and subject to the whims of their tyrannical leader. As days tick toward the Seanchan attack she knows is imminent, Egwene works to hold together the disparate factions of Aes Sedai while providing leadership in the face of increasing uncertainty and despair. Her fight will prove the mettle of the Aes Sedai, and her conflict will decide the future of the White Tower---and possibly the world itself.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.