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The House of the Scorpion
Fields of white opium poppies stretch away over the hills, and uniformed workers bend over the rows, harvesting the juice. This is the empire of Matteo Alacran, a feudal drug lord in the country of Opium, which lies between the United States and Aztlan, formerly Mexico. Field work, or any menial tasks, are done by "eejits," humans in whose brains computer chips have been installed to insure docility. Alacran, or El Patron, has lived 140 years with the help of transplants from a series of clones, a common practice among rich men in this world. The intelligence of clones is usually destroyed at birth, but Matt, the latest of Alacran's doubles, has been spared because he belongs to El Patron. He grows up in the family's mansion, alternately caged and despised as an animal and pampered and educated as El Patron's favorite. Gradually he realizes the fate that is in store for him, and with the help of Tam Lin, his bluff and kind Scottish bodyguard, he escapes to Aztlan. There he and other "lost children" are trapped in a more subtle kind of slavery before Matt can return to Opium to take his rightful place and transform his country. Nancy Farmer, a two-time Newbery honoree, surpasses even her marvelous novel, The Ear, The Eye and the Arm in the breathless action and fascinating characters of The House of the Scorpion. Readers will be reminded of Orson Scott Card's Ender in Matt's persistence and courage in the face of a world that intends to use him for its own purposes, and of Louis Sachar's Holes in the camaraderie of imprisoned boys and the layers of meaning embedded in this irresistibly compelling story. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell.
Price: $3.99
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Shadow of the Scorpion: A Novel of the Polity
Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn't remember. Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There he discovers that though the Prador remain as murderous as ever, they are not anywhere near as treacherous or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, Cormac will discover in himself a cold capacity for violence and learn some horrible truths about his own past while trying to stay alive on his course of vengeance..
Price: $10.17
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Scorpions (Newbery Honor Book)
Bad TroubleLately everybody's messing with Jamal. His teachers, the kids at school, even his dad. And now that Jamal's brother Randy's in the slam, Crazy Mack has a crazy idea. He wants Jamal to take control of the Scorpions and run crack. All the gang jive--Jamal has no use for it. Unless, like some say, it's the only way to cop the bread for Randy's appeal... The story of twelve-year-old Jamal, whose life changes drastically when he acquires a gun. Though he survives the experience, it's not without sacrificing his innocence and possibly his relationship with his best friend. 1989 Newbery Honor Book
Notable Children's Books of 1988 (ALA)
1988 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)
1989 Recommended Books for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (ALA)
The USA Through Children's Books 1990 (ALA)
Young Adult Choices for 1990 (IRA)
1989 Judy Lopez Children's Books Award, Honorable Mention
Children's Books of 1988 (Library of Congress)
1989 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library).
Price: $1.95
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The House Of The Scorpion
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All Hands Down: The True Story of the Soviet Attack on the USS Scorpion
Forty years ago, in May 1968, the submarine USS Scorpion sank in mysterious circumstances with a loss of ninety-nine lives. The tragedy occurred during the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and it followed by only weeks the sinking of a Soviet sub near Hawaii. Now in All Hands Down, drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, many with exclusive sources in the naval and intelligence communities, as well as recently declassified United States and Soviet intelligence files, Kenneth Sewell and Jerome Preisler explain what really happened to Scorpion.In January 1968, a U.S. intelligence ship, USS Pueblo, was seized by North Korea. Among other items, the North Koreans confiscated a valuable cryptographic unit that was capable of deciphering the Navy's top-secret codes. Unknown to the Navy, a traitor named John Walker had begun supplying the Navy's codes to the KGB. Once the KGB acquired the crypto unit from the North Koreans, the Russians were able to read highly classified naval communications. In March, a Soviet sub, K-129, mysteriously sank near Hawaii, hundreds of miles from its normal station in the Pacific. Soviet naval leaders mistakenly believed that a U.S. submarine was to blame for the loss, and they planned revenge. A trap was set: several Soviet vessels were gathered in the Atlantic, acting suspiciously. It would be only a matter of time before a U.S. sub was sent to investigate. That sub was Scorpion. Using the top-secret codes and the deciphering machine, the Soviets could intercept and decode communication between the Navy and Scorpion, the final element in carrying out the planned attack. All Hands Down shows how the Soviet plan was executed and explains why the truth of the attack has been officially denied for forty years. Sewell and Preisler debunk various official explanations for the tragedy and bring to life the personal stories of some of the men who were lost when Scorpion went to the bottom. This true story, finally told after exhaustive research, is more exciting than any novel..
Price: $11.70
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Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion
One Navy admiral called it “one of the greatest unsolved sea mysteries of our era.” To this day, the U.S. Navy officially describes it an inexplicable accident. For decades, the real story of the disaster has eluded journalists, historians, and the family members of the lost crew. But a small handful of Navy and government officials knew the truth from the very beginning: The sinking of the U.S.S. Scorpion and its crew of 99 men on May 22, 1968, was an act of war. In this major work of historical reporting, Ed Offley reveals that the sinking of the U.S.S. Scorpion has never been a mystery, but rather a secret buried by the U.S. government in a frantic attempt to keep the Cold War from turning into a hot war. The Soviets had torpedoed the Scorpion in reprisal for the destruction of the Soviet missile sub K-129, which the Americans had sunk in the Pacific just ten weeks earlier. But why does the U.S. Navy continue to hide the real story of what happened on that fateful day in 1968? In Scorpion Down, military reporter Ed Offley tells the true story of the U.S.S. Scorpion for the first time and dramatically recounts a little-known episode that nearly brought about World War III. And he conclusively demonstrates that the Navy’s official account of the Scorpion incident-from the frantic open-ocean hunt for the wreckage to a court of inquiry’s final conclusions-is nothing more than a carefully constructed series of lies. .
Price: $6.09
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Braise: A Journey Through International Cuisine
Daniel Boulud's BRAISE is the superstar chef's guide to braising Featuring braising recipes from around the world, this book will become an instant classic and the definitive cookbook on the technique, bringing one pot meals to a whole new level. BRAISE is Daniel Boulud's definitive cookbook on the time–honored cooking technique of braising. Braising is "moist heat" cooking, where a small amount of liquid is cooked along with the food in a closed container over long periods of time. A successful braise mingles the flavors of the food being cooked with the liquid it is cooked in, and, because the cooking takes place slowly without burning the food, the technique results in rich, aromatic flavors. Daniel Boulud has collected the world's best recipes for BRAISE. Featuring dishes from Thailand, Italy, Mexico, Turkey, Lebanon, France, Russia, China and many other places, BRAISE is a comprehensive guide to braising. With simple recipes for all kinds of braises –– from meat to fish to vegetables –– the book is sure to please cooks of every skill level. Whether you're interested in the ordinary (Pot Roast) or the exotic (Quiabebe from Brazil), Boulud's expert guidance and easy to follow recipes bring the world of braise to your fingertips with welcome simplicity and intense flavour. .
Price: $9.05
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The Raj Quartet: The Jewel in the Crown, The Day of the Scorpion (Everyman's Library)
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) With a New Introduction by Hilary Spurling The Raj Quartet, Paul Scott's epic study of British India in its final years, has no equal. Tolstoyan in scope and Proustian in detail but completely individual in effect, it records the encounter between East and West through the experiences of a dozen people caught up in the upheavals of the Second World War and the growing campaign for Indian independence from Britain. The first novel, The Jewel in the Crown, describes the doomed love between an English girl and an Indian boy, Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar. This affair touches the lives of other characters in three subsequent volumes, most of them unknown to Hari and Daphne but involved in the larger social and political conflicts which destroy the lovers. In The Day of the Scorpion, Ronald Merrick, a sadistic policeman who arrested and prosecuted Hari, insinuates himself into an aristocratic British family as World War II escalates. On occasions unsparing in its study of personal dramas and racial differences, the Raj Quartet is at all times profoundly humane, not least in the author’s capacity to identify with a huge range of characters. It is also illuminated by delicate social comedy and wonderful evocations of the Indian scene, all narrated in luminous prose. The other two novels in the Raj Quartet, The Towers of Silence and A Division of the Spoils, are also available from Everyman’s Library..
Price: $17.49
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Scorpion in the Sea
On a calm night off the Florida coast, a fishing boat vanishes without a trace. Something deadly is hiding in U.S. waters, and the Navy brass would rather bury the truth than face it.
It's Montgomery's war now. Brash and unconventional, Mike Montgomery is hardly regulation Navy. At his side, Diane Martinson, the Chief of Staff's wife-smart, tough...and his lover. Under his command, the USS Goldsborough-a WWII-era destroyer thundering toward a showdown of water and fire.
With the arrival of P.T. Deutermann-retired Navy captain, former arms control negotiator within the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and ex-commander of at destroyer squadron-today's naval thriller just climbed to a whole new level.
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Price: $1.30
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