Books about Descending from Amazon.com

When a nice young woman named Trish Klein blows into Louisiana passing hundred-dollar bills in local casinos, detective Dave Robicheaux senses a storm bearing down on his new life of contentment ...Twenty-five years ago, lost in a drunken haze in Florida, Robicheaux was too far gone to save his friend and fellow 'Nam vet Dallas Klein, murdered in cold blood for gambling debts. Now, the arrival of Dallas's daughter opens a door locked long ago, and extracting her motives points Robicheaux to the suicide of a local "good girl" pulled into a vortex of power, sex, and death. It's Robicheaux's most personally painful case -- a roller coaster of passion, surprise, and regret -- and it may be his deadliest..
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Sometimes the longest journey begins with great patience When Jon Bowermaster proposed an 800-mile kayak expedition along Vietnam’s northern coastline, the country’s government initially responded, "That will be quite impossible." Negotiation saved the day, and Jon Bowermaster and his team of five—including a Vietnamese-American woman who had fled Saigon as a child on the final day of war in 1975—completed an unprecedented voyage, seeing Vietnam and its people in a brand new light.

One-third of Vietnam’s 80 million citizens live on or near the coastline, and Bowermaster met thousands of them—rich and poor, fishermen and entrepreneurs, almost all beach dwellers who live and depend on the sea. For many, he was the first American they had ever encountered. In chapters flowing from north to south, Bowermaster’s highly personal story and Rob Howard’s compelling images bring to life Vietnam’s vibrant edge.

The enigmatic nation is enjoying an upsurge today as a popular destination for both cultural and adventure travel: In the first six months of 2007, arrivals increased more than 14 percent over the same period last year, and the dynamic growth is projected to continue. This fascinating volume, offering a fresh perspective on the land and its people, will captivate real-life explorers and armchair travelers alike with its intriguing take on Vietnam from the sea..
Price: $13.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Being a Christian is a radical commitment for each of us. It requires us to be different from what culture tells us to be, to understand Christ's revolutionary ministry. This book will help people see that Jesus calls us to a revolutionary way of life--a life that's counter cultural to our "me-centered" culture. We are called to put Jesus first, others second, and ourselves last..
Price: $7.51 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Throughout the world, many consider T.S. Eliot to be the most important and influential poet of the 20th century, and Four Quartets to be his finest poem and greatest literary achievement Dove Descending is a journey into the beauties and depths of Eliot's masterpiece written by Thomas Howard, bestselling author, professor and critic. In this line-by-line commentary, Howard unravels the complexities of the sublime poem with such adept adroitness that even its most difficult passages spring to life. During his many years as a professor of English and Literature, Howard taught this poem often, and developed what he calls "a reading" approach to its concepts that render their meaning more lucid for the reader. Dove Descending reunites the brilliant insights of a master teacher whose understanding and love of Eliot's writings are shared here for the great benefit of the reader. "T.S. Eliot's greatest poem deserves the finest exposition. Few critics alive today are equal to the task. Thomas Howard is one of those gifted few. Lovers of Eliot will delight in Howard's understanding of the mysterious descending of the dove."

—Joseph Pearce

Author, Literary Converts.
Price: $8.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Learning to put God's kingdom first by choosing to put self second is the secret to finding true satisfaction This book examines how that is possible by looking at various real-world situations..
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In a custom-built boat, Jeffrey Tayler traveled some 2,400 miles down the Lena River, from near Lake Baikal to high above the Arctic Circle, re-creating a journey first made by Cossack forces more than three hundred years ago. He was searching for primeval beauty and a respite from the corruption, violence, and self-destructive urges that typify modern Russian culture.

His only companion on this hellish journey detests all humanity, including Tayler. Vadim, Tayler's guide, is a burly Soviet army veteran whose superb skills Tayler needs to survive. As the two navigate roiling white water in howling storms, they eschew lifejackets because the frigid water would kill them before they could swim to shore. Though Tayler has trekked by camel through the Sahara and canoed down the Congo during the revolt against Mobutu, he has never felt as threatened as he does on this trip..
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In recent years, Harry Turtledove has specialized in alternate-history novels in which World War II, say, is grimly complicated by the arrival of invading alien reptiloids; the fantasy sequence that started with Into the Darkness and continues with Darkness Descendingis a powerful demonstration that it is human malice, not military technology, that we have to fear. Broadly speaking, the sequence replays World War II with magical fantasy empires in place of the participants we know; there are analogies between the fiercely militarist kingdom of Algarve and the Third Reich, just as the dangerous paranoid who rules the rival empire of Unkerlant has much in common with Joseph Stalin. There is a Manhattan project making military use of the underlying rules of magic, a particularly vicious version of the Holocaust, and a large cast of vividly realized viewpoint characters--Unkerlant's principal general, an Algarvian dragon pilot, various confused civilians--caught in the wheels of history. Turtledove provides some worryingly thoughtful material here about power and its consequences; his bleak use of stock fantasy images in a developed military contex--screaming unicorns caught in firestorms--is coarse-grained but unforgettable. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk.
Price: $2.25 [Notify me when price goes down.]