When he was just a fledgling birdwatcher, Jonathan C. Slaght had a chance encounter with one of the most mysterious birds on Earth. Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with decorative feathers. He snapped a quick photo and shared it with experts. Soon he was on a five-year journey, searching for this enormous, enigmatic creature in the lush, remote forests of eastern Russia. That first sighting set his calling as a scientist....

In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients, dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and a convenient handle to hide behind. The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince chosen by her parents, and his computer has just been breached by the State's electronic...

"Noor and Farah, searching for food, find themselves in a crumbling library. But when Noor shouts, the sound is heard by three soldiers who patrol the old building. The soldiers are angry and the two girls are scared. That all changes when Noor opens her mouth"--P. [4] of cover.

"When New York Times foreign correspondent J.B. Collins hears rumors that an al-Qaeda splinter cell--ISIS--has captured a cache of chemical weapons inside Syria, Collins knows this is a story he must pursue at all costs. Does the commander of the jihadist faction really have the weapons? If so, who is the intended target? The U.S.? Israel? Or someone else? With tensions already high, the impending visit of the American president to the region could...

"After Meg Barrett found her fiance still had designs on his ex-wife, she decided it was time to refurbish her life. Leaving her glamorous job at a top home and garden magazine, she fled Manhattan for Montauk, only to find decorating can sometimes lead to detecting...In between scouring estate sales for her new interior design business, Cottages by the Sea, Meg visits the swanky East Hampton home of her old college roommate, Jillian Spenser. But instead...

In the summer of 2009, Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi is plunged into a conspiracy involving Suddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, and the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee when a captured suicide bomber claims that the world in which they live is a mirage.

Obstacles in the path of two cousins wishing to see their reclusive great-aunt in Lebanon make the visit an irresistible challenge as Christy Mansel and her cousin Charles encounter unexpected and dangerous surprises behind the gates of Dar Ibrahim, Lady Harriet's crumbling palace in Lebanon.

Contains a comprehensive history of the multicultural civilizations of the Ancient Near East and the growth of the Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Hittite, Assyrian, and Persian empires through the conquests of Alexander the Great.