When I was a youngster growing up in Texas my dad worked in a number of fields. From the Oil Patch of West Texas, to farming in the Panhandle or in security in central Texas the family usually enjoyed evening meals together. After supper Dad enjoyed drinking a cup of coffee and telling us stories ranging from his experiences in the army during World War II, where he was wounded during a German artillery barrage, or his dreams for our futures or sometimes stories from his childhood. On one such occasion he told of two young men who were separated during the Civil War. One was raised by a family in the North and the other was raised by a family in the South. Years later when both boys were grown and had families of their own they were reunited. I have taken this event to construct the story of Josh and Jim, two young boys who were separated by the Civil War. The names, characters, locations and events are entirely fictitious and are presented for the readers' enjoyment. I hope that you enjoy this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

As the bombs began to fall, the book club kept their hopes alive...

London, 1938. Bookseller Gertie Bingham is facing difficult times, having just lost her beloved husband, Harry, and with a lingering sadness at never having been able to have a child of her own. Struggling to face running the bookshop she and Harry opened together, Gertie is preparing to sell up and move away when she is asked if she would be willing to take in a young Jewish refugee from Germany. Gertie is unsure and when sullen teenager Hedy Fischer arrives, Gertie fears she has nothing left to give the troubled girl.

But when the German bombers come and the lights go out over London, Gertie and Hedy realise that joining forces will make them stronger, and that books have the power to bring young and old together and unite a community in need in its darkest hour...

Gregg Thompson doesn't plan on going to war, but that quickly changes when he's drafted and sent to Vietnam. The young private finds that he's a fine soldier, but the military values him even more for his strategic thinking and smarts. He's promoted to captain and becomes a lawyer, defending the innocent and prosecuting war criminals. Thompson becomes a critical player in cases that reflect the social issues and problems affecting not only the military but the entire country including desertion, rape, armed robbery, conscientious objectors and much more. Justice is not always easy to interpret. When two soldiers get in a fight and an onlooker kills one of the fighters, it's up to Thompson to get a murder conviction. Other tough cases include a war hero who goes AWOL in Vietnam, a decorated major accused of selling high-ticket items on the black market and a soldier who disobeys an order that doesn't make much sense in the context of jungle warfare. Victories are not always won on the field of battle. Follow a master lawyer as he seeks justice in Boots and the Law, a portrait of American life during Vietnam.

Set during the turbulent era of the Vietnam War, "Counters" is a quirky, thrilling story of air combat and of the young fighter pilots who blend the harsh reality of war with youth's untamed urges.

As the pilot of a sleek F-4C Phantom II, self-doubting Lieutenant Steve Mylder fights for his life in the skies above Vietnam in 1967 but battles for his soul against the Red Baron of his imagination. His cocky friend Avery-womanizer and master of the art of combat seduction-thunders fifty feet over a North Vietnamese beach, looks down, locks eyes with an improbable woman, and falls into hopeless love.

Steve and Avery count their missions, hoping against the odds that they'll make it back home alive instead of in a body bag. But liberating the recklessness in their souls is sometimes the only way to deal with the unknown, and the two friends soon realize that growing up is a lot harder than they thought.

In "Counters," humor and whimsy counteract with authentic details of air combat brought to life by former air force pilot Tony Taylor, illuminating a brooding yet fanciful look at the hormones and "warmones" that impel young men to war and stupidity.

Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba-the catastrophe that led to the displacement and exile of some 700,000 people-and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers murder an encampment of Bedouin in the Negev desert, and among their victims they capture a Palestinian teenager and they rape her, kill her, and bury her in the sand. Many years later, in the near-present day, a young woman in Ramallah tries to uncover some of the details surrounding this particular rape and murder, and becomes fascinated to the point of obsession, not only because of the nature of the crime, but because it was committed exactly twenty-five years to the day before she was born. Adania Shibli masterfully overlays these two translucent narratives of exactly the same length to evoke a present forever haunted by the past.

It's 1968, and Herb Royce, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Military Police, has been married for less than two weeks when he receives his orders to ship out. To his surprise, he's not heading off to fight in the jungles of Vietnam; he is being sent to Korea instead.

Not willing to be left behind, his wife, Joyce, a headstrong Canadian nurse, follows him and gets a job in a Korean hospital next to Herb's camp. But little do the two realize just what they've got themselves into. North Korea's dictator is desperate to start a second Korean War in parallel with the Vietnam conflict. The snatching of a U.S. Navy ship, the "USS Pueblo," is just the beginning of a murderous yearlong struggle.

Unfortunately, Herb has more than a maniacal dictator to deal with. His unstable, alcoholic colonel commands a tactical nuclear rocket outfit and clearly hates Herb's guts. It's soon evident that the colonel wouldn't mind sending Herb back to the United States in a body bag.

In as increasingly hostile environment, Joyce and Herb find their relationship tested in a strange and deadly world filled with spies, black marketeers, thieves, prostitutes and murderous North Korean army commandos. But when Herb rescues an abandoned Korean infant, the couple embarks on a truly extraordinary journey, one that will define them in ways they never thought possible.