The attacks of September 11, 2001, were a calamity on a scale few had imagined possible. In their aftermath, we exaggerated the men who perpetrated the attacks, shaping hasty and often mistaken reporting into caricatures we could comprehend -- monsters and master criminals equal to the enormity of their crime. In reality, the 9/11 hijackers were unexceptional men, not much different from countless others. It is this ordinary enemy, not the caricature, that we must understand if we are to have a legitimate hope of defeating terrorism.Using research undertaken in twenty countries on four continents, Los Angeles Times correspondent Terry McDermott provides gripping, authoritative portraits of the main players in the 9/11 plot. With brilliant reporting and thoughtful analysis, McDermott brings us a clearer, more nuanced, and in some ways more frightening, understanding of the landmark event of our time.

Tales of the Carnivorous Duck is a novella about two planets. One planet is the world of cannibals, and the other is inhabited by a race of vegetarians. Elroy Bean is a vegetarian who wishes to seek peace with the flesh eaters of Humania. This is a story of fantasy horror, romance, and political corruption. The book also contains short stories and poetry. "The Rose Pearl Trilogy" and "The Adventures of Derek the Red" are narrative poems. The author closes the book with a tribute to three men. The tributes are done in a poetic form shadroma.