Lunes, Mayo 30, 2011

The Camel Club


When I first picked up a David Baldacci novel I never knew what to expect. When I was just starting to fall inlove with novels, I was into John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Mario Puzo and the likes, in short – the old masters, so you can forgive me if I tell you I was a little doubtful about David Baldacci. I got my first copy of a Baldacci novel mid 2010, a novel called Simple Genius. I read the novel from cover to cover and, to tell you the truth, I was not impressed. I promised myself not to read any Baldacci novel again.

After a few months, while I was on a book hunting expedition in National Bookstore, I saw this book called The Camel Club, I read through the summary and got curious about the story. So right then and there I broke my promise not to read a Baldacci again, and boy was I delighted. The Camel Club is a must read. I got all four Camel Club novels after that.


Publisher's Summary


It exists at the fringes of Washington, D.C., has no power, and consists solely of four eccentric and downtrodden members whom society has forgotten. Their simple goal is to find the “truth” behind their country’s actions.

One man leads this aging, ragtag crew. He has no known past and has taken on the name "Oliver Stone." Day and night, Stone and his friends study wild conspiracy theories, current events, and the machinations of government hoping to discover some truth that will hold America’s leaders accountable to its citizens. But never in Stone’s wildest nightmares could he imagine the conspiracy the Camel Club is about to uncover...

After witnessing a shocking murder, the Club is slammed head first into a plot that threatens the very security of the nation, full of stunning twists, high-stakes intrigue and global gamesmanship rocketing to the Oval Office and beyond. Soon the Club must join forces with veteran Secret Service agent Alex Ford, who becomes an unwilling participant in one of the most chilling spectacles to ever take place on American soil. It’s an event that may well be the catalyst for the long-threatened Armageddon between two different worlds, and all that stands in the way of this apocalypse is five unexpected heroes.

In The Camel Club, bestselling author David Baldacci goes beyond the traditional boundaries of fiction, painting a frighteningly vivid portrait of a world that could be our own very soon, and the few people who have a chance to stop the last war the world may ever fight...

The Camel Club: Hard Cover
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Sabado, Mayo 28, 2011

The Kill Artist



I found this novel in a 2nd hand bookshop in Recto way back 2001. It was Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon novel.  I have never heard of Daniel Silva before that so I was not quite sure if buying the book is worth it, but after a few minutes, I bought the book anyway. And boy was I so happy that I actually bought the book. The story is great and Silva paints the picture in vivid colors. I could say that Daniel Silva is the Rembrandt of Israeli Spy fiction. No one does it better.

At first I though that The Kill Artist is dead end; that Gabriel Allon is a one time only offering, but boy was I wrong. gabriel Allon became such a franchise that the string of #1 New York Times Bestseller followed. 

This is how Gabriel Allon started...

Description 
Once a key operative in secret Israeli-intelligence missions, Gabriel Allon is on the run from his past, assuming a quiet life as a meticulous restorer of priceless works of art. But now he is being called back into the game. The agent with whom he is teamed hides behind her own beautiful mask-as a French fashion model. Their target: a cunning terrorist on one last killing spree, a Palestinian zealot named Tariq who played a dark part in Gabriel's past. What begins as a manhunt turns into a globe-spanning duel fueled by political intrigue and deep personal passions. In a world where secrecy and duplicity are absolute, revenge is a luxury no man can afford-and the greatest masterpiece of all. danielsilvabooks

Get this second hand book for only 120 php + shipping

Huwebes, Mayo 26, 2011

Jeffery Deaver


A former journalist, folksinger and attorney, Jeffery Deaver is an international number-one bestselling author. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including The New York Times, The Times of London, Italy's Corriere della Serra, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Los Angeles Times. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. The author of twenty-seven novels, two collections of short stories and a nonfiction law book, he's received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world. His The Bodies Left Behind was named Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers Association, and his Lincoln Rhyme thriller The Broken Window was also nominated for that prize. He has been awarded the Steel Dagger and Short Story Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association and the Nero Wolfe Award, and he is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year and a winner of the British Thumping Good Read Award. The Cold Moon was recently named the Book of the Year by the Mystery Writers Association of Japan, as well as by Kono Mystery Wa Sugoi magazine. In addition, the Japanese Adventure Fiction Association awarded the book their annual Grand Prix award.

    
Deaver has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony Award and a Gumshoe Award. He was recently shortlisted for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Best International Author.

     His book A Maiden's Grave was made into an HBO movie starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin. His novel The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. His thriller, The Devil's Teardrop, was made into a TV movie by the Lifetime network, starring Natasha Henstridge, Tom Everett Scott, and Rena Sofer.

     His most recent books are Edge, The Burning Wire, Roadside Crosses, The Bodies Left Behind, The Broken Window, The Sleeping Doll and More Twisted: Collected Stories, Volume II. And, yes, the rumors are true, he did appear as a corrupt reporter on his favorite soap opera, As the World Turns.

    Deaver is presently alternating his series featuring Kathryn Dance, who will make her appearances in odd-number years, with that starring Lincoln Rhyme, who will appear in even.

     In addition to that writing schedule, Ian Fleming Publications LTD chose Jeff to write the latest James Bond book, Carte Blanche (2011).

     He was born outside Chicago and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University.

     Learn more about Jeffery Deaver by reading the Q & A with the most frequently asked questions. Jeff's sister, Julie Reece Deaver, is also an author, focusing on young adult novels. Her titles include The Night I Disappeared and Say Goodnight, Gracie.

Brad Thor


Brad Thor  is born 1969 is a #1 New York Times bestselling thriller novelist and author of The Lions of Lucerne, Path of the Assassin, State of the Union, Blowback, Takedown, The First Commandment, The Last Patriot, The Apostle, Foreign Influence, and The Athena Project. His novels have been published in countries around the world. He also contributed a short story entitled "The Athens Solution" to the James Patterson-edited anthology, Thriller.

The Last Patriot was nominated for Best Thriller of the Year by the International Thriller Writers Association.[2] His novel Blowback was voted by National Public Radio listeners as one of the "100 Best Ever" Killer Thrillers.

Thor is a graduate of the Sacred Heart Schools, the Francis W. Parker School (Chicago), and the University of Southern California (cum laude), where he studied creative writing under author T.C. Boyle.

Prior to becoming a novelist, he was the award-winning creator, producer, writer, and host of the national public television series Traveling Lite.

Thor is a member of The Heritage Foundation and has spoken at their national headquarters on the need for robust missile defense.[7] Thor has served as a member of the United States Department of Homeland Security's Analytic Red Cell Unit,  is a Fellow of the Alexandrian Defense Group, and is a frequent television and cable news commentator.

Thor has said in interviews that he shadowed a Black ops team in Afghanistan in 2008 to conduct research for his thriller, The Apostle.

Because of the content of Thor's thriller The Last Patriot, Beck predicted he might be assassinated by Muslim extremists.[18] Thor has been referred to by WorldNetDaily as "the new Salman Rushdie.

Robert D. Crane, a Muslim convert and one-time aide to Richard Nixon, called the novel, "Islamophobia," "a subliminal mimetic," and an "emotional demonization of Islam and Muslims." In response, Robert Spencer criticized Crane's article.

The novel is said to have been banned in Saudi Arabia.

Source: wikipedia

Alex Berenson


Alex Berenson was born in New York in 1973 and grew up in Englewood, N.J.  After graduating from Yale University in 1994 with degrees in history and economics, he joined the Denver Post as a reporter. In 1996, he became one of the first employees at TheStreet.com, the groundbreaking financial news Website.
In 1999, he joined The New York Times.   At the Times, he  covered everything from the drug industry to Hurricane Katrina; in 2003 and 2004, he served two stints as a correspondent in Iraq, an experience that led him to write The Faithful Spy, his debut novel, which won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel.
He has now written five John Wells novels and one work of non-fiction, The Number.  He left the Times in 2010 to devote himself to writing fiction, though he still contributes occasionally to the Times.
Alex lives in New York City with his wife, Dr. Jacqueline Berenson, and their badly behaved dog Maggie.

Vince Flynn


The fifth of seven children, Vince Flynn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1966. He graduated from the St. Thomas Academy in 1984, and the University of St. Thomas with a degree in economics in 1988.


After college he went to work for Kraft General Foods where he was an account and sales marketing specialist.



In 1990 he left Kraft to accept an aviation candidate slot with the United States Marine Corps. One week before leaving for Officers Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program, due to several concussions and convulsive seizures he suffered growing up. While trying to obtain a medical waiver for his condition, he started thinking about writing a book. This was a very unusual choice for Flynn since he had been diagnosed with dyslexia in grade school and had struggled with reading and writing all his life.



Having been stymied by the Marine Corps, Flynn returned to the nine-to-five grind and took a job with United Properties, a commercial real estate company in the Twin Cities. During his spare time he worked on an idea he had for a book. After two years with United Properties he decided to take a big gamble. He quit his job, moved to Colorado, and began working full time on what would eventually become Term Limits.



Like many struggling artists before him, he bartended at night and wrote during the day. Five years and more than sixty rejection letters later he took the unusual step of self-publishing his first novel. The book went to number one in the Twin Cities, and within a week had a new agent and two-book deal with Pocket Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint.



Term Limits hit the New York Times bestseller list in paperback and started a trend for all of Flynn's novels. Since then, his books have become perennial bestsellers in both paperback and hardcover, and he has become known for his research and prescient warnings about the rise of Islamic Radical Fundamentalism and terrorism. Read by current and former presidents, foreign heads of state, and intelligence professionals around the world, Flynn's novels are taken so seriously one high-ranking CIA official told his people, “I want you to read Flynn's books and start thinking about how we can more effectively wage this war on terror.”



October 2007 marked another milestone in Flynn’s career when his ninth political thriller, Protect and Defend, became a #1 New York Times bestseller. A few months later, CBS Films optioned the rights for Flynn’s Mitch Rapp character with the intention of creating a character-based, action-thriller movie franchise. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who previously launched the Harry Potter and Matrix films as head of production at Warner Bros., and Nick Wechsler (We Own the Night, Reservation Road) will produce the films.



Flynn’s 10th hardcover, Extreme Measures, was published in October 2008. It was also a #1 New York Times bestseller. His most recent novel, Pursuit of Honor, was published in October 2009 and reached #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. Works by Flynn include Transfer of Power, The Third Option, Separation of Power, Executive Power, Memorial Day, Consent to Kill, Act of Treason, Extreme Measures, Pursuit of Honor and American Assassin.



Influences: Ernest Hemingway, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Gore Vidal, and John Irving. Flynn lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and three children.

David Baldacci


David Baldacci was born in 1960 in Virginia, where he currently resides. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a law degree from the University of Virginia.  Baldacci practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C., as both a trial and corporate attorney.

David Baldacci has published 21 adult novels: Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth, Saving Faith,Wish You Well, Last Man Standing, The Christmas Train, Split Second, Hour Game, The Camel Club, The Collectors,Simple Genius, Stone Cold, The Whole Truth, Divine Justice, First Family, True Blue, Deliver Us From Evil, Hell's Cornerand The Sixth Man. He has also published two young adult novels: Freddy and the French Fries: Fries Alive! and Freddy and the French Fries: The Adventures of Silas Finklebean. He published a novella for the Dutch entitled Office Hours, which was written for Holland's Year 2000 “Month of the Thriller,” and authored a short story, “The Mighty Johns,” as part of a mystery anthology published in 2002.

Baldacci's works have appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, journals and other publications worldwide. He has authored seven original screenplays. His books have been translated into more than 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries. All of his books have been national and international bestsellers. Over 110 million copies of his books are in print worldwide.

Baldacci writes for numerous magazines and newspapers. He is a contributing editor for Parade magazine, which has a circulation of over 75 million readers.

Castle Rock entertainment made Absolute Power (Warner Books/Grand Central Publishing, 1996) into a major motion picture starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman. The novel Absolute Power won Britain's W. H. Smith's Thumping Good Read award for fiction in 1997 and was nominated for a literary award in Italy. Absolute Power was selected forPeople Magazine’s “Page Turner of the Week” and won the 1996 Gold Medal Award for Best Mystery/Thriller from the Southern Writers Guild.

The paperback version of Total Control (Warner/Grand Central, 1996) was a best-selling favorite of the traveling public for over a year.  The novel won the 1997 Gold Medal Award for Best Mystery/Thriller from the Southern Writers Guild.

The Winner's (Warner/Grand Central, 1997) sales topped those of Baldacci's first two novels, no doubt aided by revealing in the novel how to fix the lottery and win a hundred million dollars! The Winner received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, its highest rating.

The Simple Truth (Warner/Grand Central, 1998) was the first of Baldacci’s novels in which part of the plot was based upon an actual event. President Clinton selected The Simple Truth as his favorite novel of 1999.
Saving Faith (Warner/Grand Central, 1999) is a novel about how Washington really works, and it reached number one on both the New York Times Bestseller List and the Publisher’s Weekly national bestseller list. Saving Faith was selected forPeople Magazine’s “Page Turner of the Week.”

Wish You Well (Warner/Grand Central, 2000) is strongly linked to Baldacci’s maternal family history. In doing research for this book, he spent countless hours talking with his mother, who spent her first seventeen years on the “high rock” and learning its lifelong lessons. Wish You Well received a starred review in Publisher's Weekly and was selected as the inaugural book for All America Reads, a national reading program.

Last Man Standing (Warner/Grand Central, 2001) is an explosive psychological thriller about Web London, a member of theFBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team, who is desperate to find answers for secret terrors and relief from unbearable guilt. Last Man Standing reached the top slot on the New York Times Bestseller List.

The Christmas Train (Warner/Grand Central, 2002), filled with memorable characters who have packed their bags for a holiday adventure,  shows how we do get second chances to fulfill our deepest hopes and dreams during the season of miracles. The Christmas Train has quickly become a holiday classic.

Split Second (Warner/Grand Central, 2003) is a compelling, fast-paced political thriller that gives readers an inside look at the work of the Secret Service as it strives to protect America's leaders. As their worlds close in upon them, former agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell team up to seek answers to events that, at first glance, seem to be unrelated disasters.Split Second became a New York Times bestseller on its first day of publication.

Hour Game (Warner/Grand Central, 2004) teams Sean King and Michelle Maxwell from Split Second in a race to prove a man’s innocence in a domestic burglary. They quickly find themselves caught in a chain of murders that once again rocks the quiet hills of Wrightsburg, Virginia. At every turn, King and Maxwell find themselves trying to put the pieces together as the killer plays the murderous “hour game.”

In The Camel Club (Warner/Grand Central, 2005), Baldacci goes beyond the traditional boundaries of fiction, painting a frighteningly vivid portrait of a world that could be our own very soon and the few people who have a chance to stop the last war the world may ever fight.

In The Collectors (Warner/Grand Central, 2006), Baldacci weaves a brilliant, white-knuckle tale of suspense in which every collector is searching for one missing prize... the one to die for.

Simple Genius (Warner/Grand Central, 2007) brings back the dynamic team of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell from Split Second and Hour Game. While investigating a dead body found at a think-tank and high tech research facility just across the York River from the CIA Training Facility in Camp Peary, Virginia, King and Maxwell find themselves thrown into the midst of a worldwide race to control information at any cost—even murder.

Stone Cold (Warner/Grand Central, 2007) brings back the unusual group of sleuths, the Camel Club, for another mystery involving Jerry Bagger, Annabelle Conroy, Alex Ford and a deadly assassin whose identity, like Oliver Stone's, remains veiled in mystery.

The Whole Truth (Grand Central, 2008) is Baldacci’s first international thriller, one that puts the all-too-real world of perception management at the forefront of global defense contractor activities.

Divine Justice (Grand Central, 2008) is the fourth in the Camel Club series. Oliver Stone finally faces his inner demons and finds himself in rural Virginia where coal mining and small-town relationships clash...with deadly results.

First Family (Grand Central, 2009) brings Sean King and Michelle Maxwell back together as they come to the aid of the First Lady when a family member is kidnapped. Michelle finally faces some of her deepest secrets and inner demons.

In True Blue (Grand Central, 2009) a mysterious high-profile homicide in the nation’s capital collides with the dark side of national security, and Mace Perry, an imposing but fallen-from-grace police officer, plans to make it right at all costs.
Deliver Us From Evil (Grand Central, 2010) brings back Shaw from The Whole Truth in another gripping adventure, but this time with even more deadly results. Shaw joins a new player on the scene, Reggie Campion, in eliminating the evil empire of Evan Waller—although neither is aware of the other’s true intentions.

Hell's Corner (Grand Central, 2010), the fifth novel in the Camel Club series, finds John Carr, aka Oliver Stone, about to undertake a high-risk covert mission.  But before the mission can begin, another tragedy strikes: a bomb is detonated in Lafayette Park, an apparent terrorist attack against both the President and the Prime Minister. In the chaotic aftermath, Stone takes on a new, more urgent assignment: find those responsible for the bombing.

The Sixth Man (Grand Central, 2011) reunites Sean King and Michelle Maxwell in their most shocking case: a high-stakes struggle where the relentless needs of national security run up against the absolute limits of the human mind.

Freddy and the French Fries: Fries Alive! (Little, Brown & Company, 2005) and Freddy and the French Fries: The Adventures of Silas Finklebean (Little, Brown & Company, 2006) are titles in Baldacci's series for young readers. Find out more about Freddy at his Web site, FreddyandtheFrenchFries.com.
David Baldacci's books have been publicly discussed and/or read by everyone from Howard Stern and Don Imus to Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh, from George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton to Charlie Rose and Larry King.

Baldacci has made many television and radio appearances and has been featured in numerous national and international publications.

David Baldacci contributes to, and is involved in, several philanthropic efforts. His greatest efforts are dedicated to his family's own Wish You Well Foundation. Established by David and his wife, Michelle, the Wish You Well Foundation supports family literacy in the United States by fostering and promoting the development and expansion of new and existing literacy and educational programs. Recently, the Foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch "Feeding Body & Mind." Through Feeding Body & Mind, hundreds of thousands of new and used books have been collected and distributed through area food banks, helping feed both body and mind. For more information, visitWishYouWellFoundation.org and FeedingBodyandMind.com or call 703-476-6032.

David Baldacci serves as a national ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and participates in numerous charities, including the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, the American Cancer Society and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Source:  www.davidbaldacci.com

Daniel Silva


He has been called his generation’s finest writer of international intrigue and one of the greatest American spy novelists ever. Compelling, passionate, haunting, brilliant: these are the words that have been used to describe the work of award-winning #1 New York Times-bestselling author Daniel Silva.

Silva burst onto the scene in 1997 with his electrifying bestselling debut, The Unlikely Spy, a novel of love and deception set around the Allied invasion of France in World War II. His second and third novels, The Mark of the Assassin and The Marching Season, were also instant New York Timesbestsellers and starred two of Silva’s most memorable characters: CIA officer Michael Osbourne and international hit man Jean-Paul Delaroche. But it was Silva’s fourth novel, The Kill Artist, which would alter the course of his career. The novel featured a character described as one of the most memorable and compelling in contemporary fiction, the art restorer and sometime Israeli secret agent Gabriel Allon, and though Silva did not realize it at the time, Gabriel’s adventures had only just begun. Gabriel Allon appears in Silva’s next nine novels, each one more successful than the last: The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, and Prince of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant, Moscow Rules, The Defector, and The Rembrandt Affair (July 20, 2010).

Silva knew from a very early age that he wanted to become a writer, but his first profession would be journalism. Born in Michigan, raised and educated in California, he was pursuing a master’s degree in international relations when he received a temporary job offer from United Press International to help cover the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. Later that year Silva abandoned his studies and joined UPI fulltime, working first in San Francisco, then on the foreign desk in Washington, and finally as Middle East correspondent in Cairo and the Persian Gulf. In 1987, while covering the Iran-Iraq war, he met NBC Today National Correspondent Jamie Gangel and they were married later that year. Silva returned to Washington and went to work for CNN and became Executive Producer of its talk show unit including shows like Crossfire, Capital Gang and Reliable Sources.

In 1995 he confessed to Jamie that his true ambition was to be a novelist. With her support and encouragement he secretly began work on the manuscript that would eventually become the instant bestseller The Unlikely Spy. He left CNN in 1997 after the book’s successful publication and began writing full time. Since then all of Silva's books have been New York Timesand international bestsellers. His books have been translated in to more than 30 languages and are published around the world. He is currently at work on a new novel and warmly thanks all those friends and loyal readers who have helped to make his books such an amazing success.


Source: http://www.danielsilvabooks.com