For the colonies of Mennonites living in the fertile, prosperous part of Russia known as the Ukraine in the early twentieth century, life was idyllic. Paradise, some called it. The moderate climate, lush fields of grain, abundant orchards and steppes of waving grass, afforded them a comfortable, and for some even wealthy life-style. Their belief in non-resistance was never challenged, and no distant sign of turmoil intruded itself into their awareness; the future looked endlessly bright and sunny. It all changed with the beginning of WW1, the Russian Revolution and Civil War. The fictional Schroeder, Boldt and Lentz families are caught in the middle of warring factions which range back and forth over their peaceful villages, bringing destruction, famine, disease and death to their door. Also caught in the strangling net of revolution is Ivan, a young Russian orphan whose future rests in the hands of someone he has never known. One question faces them all: should they stay... or venture into an unknown future in a foreign land?

Jake Cannon and Slade Swanson are former Delta Force soldiers working as Intel operatives for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In charge of transporting nuclear cargo found in Iraq, they are about to encounter Somalia pirates off Cape Gwardafuy in the Indian Ocean. They are out numbered, but Jake knows they are in good company with a detachment of Delta Force black ops aboard the Elizabeth Anne. No one could have imagined the imminent horror the pirates represented, or that they were merely a harbinger of the unthinkable: A world super power struck down without detonating a single bomb. Along with their dauntless and determined boss, Deputy Secretary David Peterson, Cannon and Swanson unravel the secret strategies and decipher the blueprints for the most hideous of intentions. They face monumental tasks: The dawn of cyber terrorism on the country's financial and taxing authorities, phantom companies trading on the world's stock exchanges and the horrific events in Portland, Oregon. They fear the threat of class warfare. Is the United States marching lockstep down the road to civil war? Find out in Path to Peril.

Spreading democracy abroad or protecting business at home: this book offers a new look at the history of the contest between isolationalism and internationalism that is as current as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and as old as America itself, with profiles of the people, policies, and events that shaped the debate.

When deformed frogs-many with missing legs or eyes, footless stumps, or misshapen jaws-began to emerge from Minnesota wetlands, alarm bells went off. What caused such deformities? Pollution? Ultraviolet rays? Biological agents? And could the mysterious cause also pose a threat to humans? Former government biologist Judy Helgen provides an inside view of a highly charged environmental issue that continues to spark controversy among scientists, politicians, and government agencies. Book jacket.

Two brothers decide to hike the twenty-six-hundred-mile Pacific Crest Trail. Along the way, they are plunged into a nightmare of intrigue when they stumble on the body of a murdered backpacker. The murder victim was on the run from a Mexican cartel boss, who would do anything to retrieve a valuable item the man carried. The item is missing from the body, and the cartel boss mistakenly believes the brothers stole it, and pursues them to get it back. The brothers have to evade their pursuers while trying to get help from law enforcement they can trust. When that plan fails, they are forced into finding the missing item and trading it to the cartel for their safety.

The Katy Trail is a 225-mile long biking trail from Clinton to St. Charles, Missouri. It is just the place for Samuel to get away from it all, to heal, and to quell some of the demons from his past. Into his life, however, drops Misty, a mysterious woman with amnesia, who is being chased by a shotgun-toting man intent on killing her. Thus begins one of the wildest bicycle rides in history.