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"Warheart" by Terry Goodkind

From BarnesandNoble.com:


All is lost. Evil will soon consume the D'Haran Empire. Richard Rahl lies on his funeral pyre. It is the end of everything.

Except what isn't lost is Kahlan Amnell. Following an inner prompting beyond all reason, the last Confessor will wager everything on a final desperate gambit, and in so doing, she will change the world forever.

Terry Goodkind's Warheart is the direct sequel to, and the conclusion of, the story begun in The Omen Machine, The Third Kingdom, and Severed Souls.

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"Medieval Myths" by Norma Lorre Goodrich

From ThriftBooks.com:


Offering nine brilliant readings of the great myths of the world, from Beowulf to The Cid, this is the first collection to compare national heroes at a time when their cultures were emerging from barbarism into civilization, demonstrating how their reverberations have deeply affected the ideals of the nations from which they came.

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"The Match" by Mark Frost

From BarnesandNoble.com:

The year: 1956. Four decades have passed since Eddie Lowery came to fame as the ten-year-old caddie to U.S. Open Champion Francis Ouimet. Now a wealthy car dealer and avid supporter of amateur golf, Lowery has just made a bet with fellow millionaire George Coleman. Lowery claims that two of his employees, amateur golfers Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi, cannot be beaten in a best-ball match. Lowery challenges Coleman to bring any two golfers of his choice to the course at 10 a.m. the next day to settle the issue. Coleman accepts the challenge and shows up with his own power team: Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, the game's greatest living professionals, with fourteen major championships between them. In Mark Frost's peerless hands, complete with the recollections of all the participants, the story of this immortal foursome and the game they played that day—legendarily known in golf circles as the greatest private match ever played—comes to life with powerful, emotional impact and edge-of-your-seat suspense.

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"Foundation and Empire" by Isaac Asimov

From BarnesandNoble.com:

The Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are one of the great masterworks of science fiction. Unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building, they chronicle the struggle of a courageous group of men and women to preserve humanity’s light against an inexorable tide of darkness and violence.

Led by its founding father, the great psychohistorian Hari Seldon, and taking advantage of its superior science and technology, the Foundation has survived the greed and barbarism of its neighboring warrior-planets. Yet now it must face the Empire—still the mightiest force in the Galaxy even in its death throes. When an ambitious general determined to restore the Empire’s glory turns the vast Imperial fleet toward the Foundation, the only hope for the small planet of scholars and scientists lies in the prophecies of Hari Seldon.

But not even Hari Seldon could have predicted the birth of the extraordinary creature called The Mule—a mutant intelligence with a power greater than a dozen battle fleets…a power that can turn the strongest-willed human into an obedient slave.

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"The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist" by Neil deGrasse Tyson

From BarnesandNoble.com:

This is the absorbing story of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s lifelong fascination with the night sky, a restless wonder that began some thirty years ago on the roof of his Bronx apartment building and eventually led him to become the director of the Hayden Planetarium. A unique chronicle of a young man who at one time was both nerd and jock, Tyson’s memoir could well inspire other similarly curious youngsters to pursue their dreams.

Like many athletic kids he played baseball, won medals in track and swimming, and was captain of his high school wrestling team. But at the same time he was setting up a telescope on winter nights, taking an advanced astronomy course at the Hayden Planetarium, and spending a summer vacation at an astronomy camp in the Mojave Desert.

Eventually, his scientific curiosity prevailed, and he went on to graduate in physics from Harvard and to earn a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Columbia. There followed postdoctoral research at Princeton. In 1996, he became the director of the Hayden Planetarium, where some twenty-five years earlier he had been awed by the spectacular vista in the sky theater.

Tyson pays tribute to the key teachers and mentors who recognized his precocious interests and abilities, and helped him succeed. He intersperses personal reminiscences with thoughts on scientific literacy, careful science vs. media hype, the possibility that a meteor could someday hit the Earth, dealing with society’s racial stereotypes, what science can and cannot say about the existence of God, and many other interesting insights about science, society, and the nature of the universe.

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"The Making of Major League" by Jonathan Knight

From BarnesandNoble.com:

A behind-the-scenes look at one of the greatest baseball movies ever. Based on interviews with all the major actors, plus crew and producers, it tells how writer/director David S. Ward battled the Hollywood system to turn his love of the underdog Cleveland Indians into a classic screwball comedy. Full of little-known facts and personal stories.

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"The Return of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

From Amazon.com:

In "The Final Problem," the tale that preceded this collection, the world's most famous detective had a seemingly fatal encounter with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty. When Sherlock Holmes's devoted fans refused to allow Arthur Conan Doyle to kill their beloved sleuth, the author complied with more stories. This compilation features all thirteen tales, which originally appeared in The Strand Magazine.

Holmes returns in "The Adventure of the Empty House," in which he explains his near-miraculous escape from death and accounts for his lengthy absence to the astonished Dr. Watson. Other mysteries include "The Dancing Men," involving a series of cryptic threats; "The Six Napoleons," concerning stolen jewels and images of the French emperor; "The Norwood Builder," a murderous attempt at revenge; and "The Missing Three Quarter," in which a rugby player disappears on the eve of a crucial match.

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"The Last Chapter" by Ernie Pyle

From Amazon.com:

"No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told," wrote Harry Truman. "He deserves the gratitude of all his countrymen."

THIS is the final book of Ernie Pyle’s war reporting. After Africa, Italy, and D-Day on the European continent, Pyle took it the hard way again. There was still the Pacific war to win, and where the fighting was Ernie had to go, soul-sick though he was with the thousands of scenes of death and destruction he had already witnessed.

He was attached to the Navy early in 1945. In the Marianas first and then living with the boys who flew the B-29s over the Japanese homeland, Pyle was experiencing a side of the war that was new to him. Next he joined an aircraft carrier on the invasion of Okinawa. He made the landing with the Marines and saw Okinawa secured.

Then his luck ran out. A Japanese bullet killed Ernie Pyle on April 17th, 1945 on Ie Shima, and Americans lost their greatest and best-loved correspondent. Millions mourned the going of this modest man who wrote of the war with all honesty and no pretensions, and whose writings will stand as one of the most vital records of the struggle. LAST CHAPTER is a brief, brave little book to complete that record permanently. There is a sixteen-page picture section and an index of names and places.

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"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

From BarnesandNoble.com:

For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Sheldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for a fututre generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.

But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. Mankind's last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and be overrun—or fight them and be destroyed.

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Gonna start reading this one next, before my mom disowns me for not reading it immediately after getting it.

"Here Is Your War" by Ernie Pyle

From BarnesandNoble.com:

A wonderful and enduring tribute to American troops in the Second World War, Here Is Your War is Ernie Pyle’s story of the soldiers’ first campaign against the enemy in North Africa. With unequaled humanity and insight, Pyle tells how people from a cross-section of America—ranches, inner cities, small mountain farms, and college towns—learned to fight a war. The Allied campaign and ultimate victory in North Africa was built on blood, brave deeds, sacrifice and needless loss, exotic vistas, endurance, homesickness, and an unmistakable American sense of humor. It’s all here—the suspenseful landing at Oran; the risks taken daily by fighter and bomber pilots; grim, unrelenting combat in the desert and mountains of Tunisia; a ferocious tank battle that ended in defeat for the inexperienced Americans; and the final victory at Tunis. Pyle’s keen observations relate the full story of ordinary G.I.s caught up in extraordinary times.

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"The Death of Alexander the Great" by Paul Doherty

From ThriftBooks.com:

In May 323 BC Alexander of Macedonia fell ill in Babylon. Within ten days he was dead. A military genius who raged through the Persian empire, Alexander believed he was the son of God, with a desire for everlasting glory and an urge to march and conquer the world. The Death of Alexander the Great critically analyzes this extraordinary conqueror who achieved so much before he died at the early age of 33.

Alexander was a man who wanted to be a God, a Greek who wanted to be a Persian, a defender of liberties who spent most of his life taking away the liberties of others, and a king who could be compassionate to the lowliest yet ruthlessly wipe out an ancient city like Tyre and crucify 3,000 of its defenders. Doherty scrutinizes the circumstances surrounding Alexander’s death as he lay sweating beside a swimming pool in the summer palace of the Persian kings. Did Alexander die of alcoholism, a hideous bout of malaria, or were other factors involved? Alexander had been warned not to enter Babylon, so he surrounded himself with outstanding captains of war. This book is a dramatic reassessment of the leader’s mysterious final days.                       

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"The End of Eternity" by Isaac Asimov

From BarnesandNoble.com:

One of Isaac Asimov's SF masterpieces, this stand-alone novel is a monument of the flowering of SF in the 20th century. It is widely regarded as Asimov's single best SF novel and one every SF fan should read.

Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a member of the elite of the future. One of the few who live in Eternity, a location outside of place and time, Harlan's job is to create carefully controlled and enacted Reality Changes. These Changes are small, exactingly calculated shifts in the course of history made for the benefit of humankind. Though each Change has been made for the greater good, there are always costs.

During one of his assignments, Harlan meets and falls in love with Noÿs Lambent, a woman who lives in real time and space. Then Harlan learns that Noÿs will cease to exist after the next change, and risks everything to sneak her into Eternity.

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"The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury

From Thriftbooks.com:

Leaving behind a world on the brink of destruction, man came to the red planet and found the Martians waiting, dreamlike. Seeking the promise of a new beginning, man brought with him his oldest fears and his deepest desires. Man conquered Mars and in that instant, Mars conquered him. The strange new world with its ancient, dying race and vast, red-gold deserts cast a spell on him, settled into his dreams, and changed him forever. In connected, chronological stories, a true grandmaster enthralls, delights, and challenges us with his vision, starkly and stunningly exposing our strength, our weakness, our folly, and our poignant humanity on a strange and breathtaking world where humanity does not belong.

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"Bossypants" by Tina Fey

From Thriftbooks.com:


Tina Fey’s new book Bossypants is short, messy, and impossibly funny (an apt description of the comedian herself). From her humble roots growing up in Pennsylvania to her days doing amateur improv in Chicago to her early sketches on Saturday Night Live, Fey gives us a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of modern comedy with equal doses of wit, candor, and self-deprecation. Some of the funniest chapters feature the differences between male and female comedy writers ("men urinate in cups"), her cruise ship honeymoon ("it’s very Poseidon Adventure"), and advice about breastfeeding ("I had an obligation to my child to pretend to try").

But the chaos of Fey’s life is best detailed when she’s dividing her efforts equally between rehearsing her Sarah Palin impression, trying to get Oprah to appear on 30 Rock, and planning her daughter’s Peter Pan-themed birthday. Bossypants gets to the heart of why Tina Fey remains universally adored: she embodies the hectic, too-many-things-to-juggle lifestyle we all have, but instead of complaining about it, she can just laugh it off.

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"Alexander the Great" by Norman Cantor

From Thriftbooks.com:

"Alexander's behavior was conditioned along certain lines -- heroism, courage, strength, superstition, bisexuality, intoxication, cruelty. He bestrode Europe and Asia like a supernatural figure." In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor illuminates the personal life and military conquests of this most legendary of men. Cantor draws from the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries combined with the most recent psychological and cultural studies to show Alexander as he was -- a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments. He describes Alexander's ambiguous relationship with his father, Philip II of Macedon; his oedipal involvement with his mother, the Albanian princess Olympias; and his bisexuality. He traces Alexander's attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, using Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, as his model. Finally, Cantor explores Alexander's view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt. More than a biography, Norman Cantor's Alexander the Great is a psychological rendering of a man of his time.

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"Dancing Barefoot" by Wil Wheaton

From Thriftbooks.com:

Wil Wheaton--blogger, geek, and Star Trek: The Next Generation's Wesley Crusher--gives us five short-but-true tales of life in the so-called Space Age in Dancing Barefoot. With a true geek's unflinching honesty, Wil examines life, love, the web, and the absurdities of Hollywood in these compelling autobiographical narratives. Based on pieces first published in Wil's hugely popular blog, www.wilwheaton.net, the stories in Dancing Barefoot chronicle a teen TV star's journey to maturity and self-acceptance.

Far from the usual celebrity tell-all, Dancing Barefoot is a vivid account of one man's version of that universal story, the search for self. If you've ever fallen in love, wondered what goes on behind the scenes at a Star Trek convention, or thought hard about the meaning of life, you'll find a kindred soul in the pages of Dancing Barefoot. In the process of uncovering his true geeky self, Wil Wheaton speaks to the inner geek in all of us.

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"Unearthing Atlantis" by Charles Pellegrino

From Thriftbooks.com:

It is one of humankind's most enduring myths. And now it is a fantasy no longer...

In the year 347 B.C., Plato wrote of a miraculous island with hot and cold flowing waters, terraced multi-storied buildings, and "the fairest of all plains." For thousands, of years, the legend of the mysterious vanished "continent" of Atlantis has captivated writers, poets, artists, philosophers, and dreamers. But now Atlantis has been found -- and the truth about its vibrant life and horrific destruction is even more remarkable than the myth.

Based on artifacts and evidence uncovered in an ancient buried Minoan city, noted scientist and New York Times-bestselling author bestselling author Charles Pellegrino reanimates an astounding lost civilization and re-creates with explosive power the apocalyptic cataclysm that destroyed their remarkable island metropolis. A brilliant synthesis of historical, literary, archaeological, and geological detective work, here is both the story of the astounding discovery that transformed tale into fact -- and a breathtakinq vision of Atlantis reborn.

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"1066: The Year of the Conquest" by David Horwath

From BarnesandNoble.com:

It is one of the most important dates in the history of the Western world: 1066, the year William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings and changed England and the English forever. Yet the events leading to-and following-this turning point in history are shrouded in mystery and distorted by the biased accounts written by a subjugated people, and many believe it was the English who ultimately won, since the Normans became assimilated into the English way of life. Drawing on a wealth of contemporary sources, David Howarth gives us memorable portraits of the leading characters and their motivations. At the same time he enables us to see the events of that year from the viewpoint of common Englishmen, and along the way we learn how they lived, worked, fought, and died-and how they perceived from their isolated shires the overthrow of their world.

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"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

From BarnesandNoble.com:

Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering "the cause of generation and life" and "bestowing animation upon lifeless matter," Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature?s hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises rofound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever.

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"The Pluto Files" by Neil deGrasse Tyson

From ThriftBooks.com:

When the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History reclassified Pluto as an icy comet, the New York Times proclaimed on page one, “Pluto Not a Planet? Only in New York.” Immediately, the public, professionals, and press were choosing sides over Pluto’s planethood. Pluto is entrenched in our cultural and emotional view of the cosmos, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, award-winning author and director of the Rose Center, is on a quest to discover why. He stood at the heart of the controversy over Pluto’s demotion, and consequently Plutophiles have freely shared their opinions with him, including endless hate mail from third-graders. With his inimitable wit, Tyson delivers a minihistory of planets, describes the oversized characters of the people who study them, and recounts how America's favorite planet was ousted from the cosmic hub

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"The Epic of Gilgamesh" by unknown

From BarnesandNoble.com:

The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from Mesopotamia, is amongst the earliest surviving works of literature. The story centers on a friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Enkidu is a wild man created by the gods as Gilgamesh's equal to distract him from oppressing the people of Uruk. Together, they journey to the Cedar Mountain to defeat Humbaba, its monstrous guardian. Later they kill the Bull of Heaven, which the goddess Ishtar sends to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances. As a punishment for these actions, the gods sentence Enkidu to death.