This text gives meaning not just to Christmas, but to the whole winter season. Folklore expert John Matthews traces the history behind many of the sacred traditions of the holiday season and provides refreshing and practical suggestions for celebrating the winter solstice as a joyous, life-affirming, spritual festival.

Ex-SAS operative John Winter has 'retired' to the more peaceful environment of academia as a lecturer in an American University. But when his wife is brutally murdered by drug runners, he knows his cover has been blown. He is determined to take revenge and togther with his previous partner-in-arms Charlie they hatch a scam so outrageous and daring that surely they will never return alive. Flying two stolen F4 Lightning jet fighters they plan to bomb the magnificently palatial home of Columbia's biggest and most powerful drug lord . . .

New York Times bestselling author John Connolly is a master of the supernatural thriller—“a genre of one” (Bookreporter)—whose eerie and electrifying Charlie Parker mystery turns a small town in Maine into an unforgettable character that threatens to destroy the brooding private investigator. The isolated community of Prosperous, Maine, has always thrived. While others suffered, the people there have remained fortunate, wealthy, secure, and insular throughout the centuries. Miles to the south, in Portland, a homeless man dies, and the disturbing manner of his death brings Prosperous to the attention of the private investigator Charlie Parker. He is a dangerous man, driven by compassion, rage, and the desire for vengeance. Prosperous and its townsfolk recognize that he poses a threat to their security that runs deeper than any in their long history. But this community has its own way of protecting itself, and its sheltered residents have marked Charlie for death so that Prosperous may survive. Prosperous, and the secret that is buried beneath it…

It's the dead of winter, and a killer like no other is turning a small Wisconsin town into a death trap-one that's closing in on Lucas Davenport.

PRAISE FOR WINTER'S BLOOM: For over three decades, Rock Graham has carried the physical and emotional scars from a tour in Vietnam. He is a decorated war hero, but guilt from what happened one dark night in a steaming southeast Asia jungle is always lying in ambush, waiting for an unguarded moment to set his demons free. When he tries to find solitude at a cottage on Lake Michigan in the dead of winter, a chance encounter on the desolate, frozen shoreline changes his life forever. John Wemlinger has written a powerful novel about a veteran suffering from PTSD and the unlikely path that leads to his salvation. "Winter's Bloom" is a poignant tale of loss, love and redemption that will keep you turning the pages. - Frank P. Slaughter, author of "The Veteran" and "Brotherhood of Iron"

"Australia's king of young adult fiction" The Australian Winter is sixteen. It's time to come home. For twelve years Winter has been haunted. Her past, her memories, her feelings, will not leave her alone. And now, at sixteen, the time has come for her to act. Every journey begins with a single step. If Winter is going to step into the future, she must first step into the past. Winter is an intense, emotionally rich book that you will want to read not just once, but many times. Fans of Veronica Roth, Suzanne Collins and John Flanagan will love John Marsden.