From the author of the acclaimed The Curiosity comes a compelling and moving story of compassion, courage, and redemption. Deborah Birch is a seasoned hospice nurse whose daily work requires courage and compassion. But her skills and experience are tested in new and dramatic ways when her easygoing husband, Michael, returns from his third deployment to Iraq haunted by nightmares, anxiety, and rage. She is determined to help him heal, and to restore the tender, loving marriage they once had. At the same time, Deborah's primary patient is Barclay Reed, a retired history professor and expert in the Pacific Theater of World War II whose career ended in academic scandal. Alone in the world, the embittered professor is dying. As Barclay begrudgingly comes to trust Deborah, he tells her stories from that long-ago war, which help her find a way to help her husband battle his demons. Told with piercing empathy and heartbreaking realism, The Hummingbird is a masterful story of loving commitment, service to country, and absolution through wisdom and forgiveness.

What if the love of your life died decades before you were born?

When Dr. Kate Philo and her scientific exploration team discover the body of a man buried deep in the Arctic ice, her egocentric and paranoid boss, Erastus Carthage, orders the frozen man to be brought to his lab in Boston and reanimated. The endeavor is named The Lazarus Project, and as the man, Jeremiah Rice, begins to regain his memories, the last thing he recalls is falling overboard into the Arctic Ocean in 1906. When news of the project breaks, it ignites a media firestorm and protests by religious fundamentalists.

Thrown together by fate, Kate and Jeremiah grow closer. But the clock is ticking and Jeremiah's new life is slipping away. With Carthage planning to exploit Jeremiah while he can, Kate must decide how far she is willing to go to protect the man she has come to love. A gripping, poignant, and thoroughly original thriller, The Curiosity raises disturbing questions about the very nature of life and humanity.

"A provocative, inspiring account of our neglected American ideals and the people who are living them today--and restoring our nation's dream

"Patriotism has become a loaded word: one that is wielded against people with whom we might disagree, or whose cultural origins don't match our own.

But our founding fathers--Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and others--saw patriotism as a dynamic force: an act of service, in an evolving nation that defined its purpose by offering all people a better way of life.

In "Authentic Patriotism, "author and award-winning journalist Stephen P. Kiernan explores the original ideals that have been lost in our current climate, where war and economic turmoil have eroded our sense of civic obligation. Kiernan describes "a nation adrift," out of touch with its origins--and then introduces a range of inspiring people who have revived our national purpose by taking action:

* The out-of-work college graduate who led an economic and environmental renewal of her blighted home community.

* The retired executive who pioneered a revolutionary concept in health care for people without insurance.

* The minister who created a legendary choir, with the goal of uniting children of different races, genders, and classes in one voice.

* The family who donated their daughter's heart, so that another might live.

These and other "New Americans" are profiled in a book that offers hope, ideas, examples, and practical resources for readers who want to renew the American spirit.