Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 In the late September of 1929, America was about to plunge from a precipice. In less than a month, the Wall Street Stock Exchange would crash, plunging the country into the Great Depression. The working class of America would struggle and die by the thousands as the intermittently prosperous nation experienced its worst economic collapse. #2 Gert’s father was a alcoholic, and her mother blamed Gert for all of his failings. But as Gert was her father’s favorite, he did not hurt her. She had a happy childhood, even though she was not having a healthy one. #3 Gert’s life was a living hell after her father died. She was treated worse than an animal at home, completely ignored by her mother, and carefully ostracized by her siblings to avoid any taint from associating with her. #4 Gert’s social life was desolate for three more years in school, but when she was 14, she began dating. She was courted by a succession of men between two and eight years her senior, all of them pursuing her because of the sordid reputation she had developed about the town.

In July 1965, teenagers Sylvia and Jenny Likens were left in the temporary care of Gertrude Baniszewski, a middle-aged single mother and her seven children. The Baniszewski household was overrun with children. There were few rules and ample freedom. Sadly, the environment created a dangerous hierarchy of social Darwinism where the strong preyed on the weak. What transpired in the following three months was both riveting and chilling. In October 1965, the body of Sylvia Likens was found in the basement of the Baniszewski home, where she had been imprisoned. She was starved, beaten, burned and had the words "I am a prostitute and proud of it" carved into her stomach. Gertrude Baniszewski oversaw and facilitated the torture and eventual murder of Sylvia Likens. While she played an active role in Sylvia's death, the majority of the abuse was carried out by her children and other neighbourhood youths. The case shocked the entire nation and would later be described as "The single worst crime perpetuated against an individual in Indiana's history". [CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of abuse and violence. If you are especially sensitive to this material, it might be advisable not to read any further]

BEST BOOK AWARD IN FICTION BY THE ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES • A stunning, lyrical novel that tells "the story of how the Tsais, a Taiwanese family, survive the 'February 28 Incident' of 1947 and precariously navigate the decades that follow" (The New York Times). As an uprising rocks Taiwan, a young doctor in Taipei is taken from his newborn daughter by Chinese Nationalists, on charges of speaking out against the government. Although the doctor eventually returns to his family, his arrival is marked by alienation from his loved ones and paranoia among his community. Years later, this troubled past follows his youngest daughter to America, where, as a mother and a wife, she too is forced to decide between what is right and what might save her family—the same choice she witnessed her father make many years before. The story of a family and a nation grappling with the nuances of complicity and survival, Green Island raises the question: how far would you go for the ones you love?

On 29th February 2000, John Price took out a restraining order against his girlfriend, Katherine Knight. Later that day, he told his co-workers that she had stabbed him and if he were ever to go missing, it was because Knight had killed him. The next day, Price didn't show up for work. A co-worker was sent to check on him. They found a bloody handprint by the front door and they immediately contacted the police. The local police force was not prepared for the chilling scene they were about to encounter. Price's body was found in a chair, legs crossed, with a bottle of lemonade under his arm. He'd been decapitated and skinned. The "skin-suit" was hanging from a meat hook in the living room and his head was found in the kitchen, in a pot of vegetables that was still warm. There were two plates on the dining table, each had the name of one of Price's children on it. She was attempting to serve his body parts to his children. Man-Eater is a dramatic and gripping account of the first women in Australia to be given a life sentence without parole and a special addendum 'never to be released'. Ryan Green's riveting narrative draws the reader into the real-live horror experienced by the victim and has all the elements of a classic thriller. *CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of abuse and violence. If you are especially sensitive to this material, it might be advisable not to read any further

"I have no desire whatever to reform myself. My only desire is to reform people who try to reform me. And I believe that the only way to reform people is to kill 'em. My motto is, Rob em all, Rape em all and Kill em all." - Carl Panzram In 1902, at the age of 11, Carl Panzram broke into a neighbour's home and stole some apples, a pie, and a revolver. As a frequent troublemaker, the court decided to make an example of him and placed him into the care of the Minnesota State Reform School. During his two-year detention, Carl was repeatedly beaten, tortured, humiliated and raped by the school staff. At 15-years old, Carl enlisted in the army by lying about his age but his career was short-lived. He was dishonourably discharged for stealing army supplies and was sent to military prison. The brutal prison system sculpted Carl into the man that he would remain for the rest of his life. He hated the whole of mankind and wanted revenge. When Carl left prison in 1910, he set out to rob, burn, rape and kill as many people as he could, for as long as he could. His campaign of terror could finally begin and nothing could stand in his way. Kill 'Em All is a chilling and gripping account of one of the most brutal and gruesome true crime stories in American history. Ryan Green's riveting narrative draws the reader into the real-live horror experienced by the victims and has all the elements of a classic thriller. CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of abuse and violence. If you are especially sensitive to this material, it might be advisable not to read any further

Three people. Three stories. And a desperate race for survival in a country caught up in the hell of war. Nick Scott fought in the SAS -- the elite Special Forces unit of the British Army -- during the first Gulf War. Captured and tortured, he was left a broken man. His daughter Sarah is a beautiful young scientist at Cambridge University who appears to have cracked one of the great scientific secrets of our age: cold fusion. Now, she has vanished. Sarah's longtime on-and-off boyfriend, Jed Bradley, is one of the SAS's toughest young soldiers. Nick and Jed have never gotten along because Nick doesn't want his daughter dating a soldier. Deep down, Jed reckons he joined the SAS just to win Nick's approval. Reluctantly, the two men combine their efforts to rescue Sarah and soon they are caught up in a global power play, a deadly web of intrigue in which Nick and Jed encounter a traitorous scientist willing to sell out his country; a sinister Arab intent on destroying Western civilization; and a beautiful but manipulative intelligence agent whose motives are unclear. Nick and Jed must fight their way through a war-ravaged Iraq as the regime of Saddam Hussein collapses around them. It is a heart-stopping desperate race to find the woman they both love, and to unlock the secret of the Ultimate Weapon.