Abraham Lincoln stood out in a crowd as much for his wit and rollicking humor as for his height. Here is a warm, appealing biography of our Civil War president, illustrated with dozens of carefully chosen photographs and prints. Russell Freedman begins with a lively account of Abraham Lincoln's boyhood, his career as a country lawyer, and his courtship and marriage to Mary Todd. Then the author focuses on the presidential years (1861 to 1865), skillfully explaining the many complex issues Lincoln grappled with as he led a deeply divided nation through the Civil War. The book's final chapter is a moving account of that tragic evening in Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865. Lincoln: A Photobiography concludes with a sampling of Lincoln writings and a detailed list of Lincoln historical sites. Russell Freedman visited all the major Lincoln historical sites while researching this book. At the Illinois State Historical Library, he was taken into a vault containing many Civil War and Lincoln documents. It was a thrill to see one of Lincoln's handwritten letters to his wife and notes he had scrawled on scraps of paper during courtroom trials. The photographs and prints in Lincoln: A Photobiography were selected by the author from archives in Washington, D.C., and Springfield, Illinois, as well as in Chicago, New York, and other cities Photographs and text trace the life of the Civil War President.

Fresh, witty and exciting, A Masculine Ending marks the début of a sparkling new detective-story writer

The beginning of the legend of Yellowstone Kelly, one of the Old West’s most out-sized personalitiesLuther “Yellowstone” Kelly had one of the longest, strangest, and most breathtaking careers in the Old West. The intrepid scout’s talent for being in the right place at an exciting time would take him all over the world, from the Great Plains to Africa to the Philippines. Throughout his adventures, Kelly maintained a stoic outlook, a fierce wit, and a talent for survival that got him out of more than a few dangerous scrapes.Yellowstone Kelly: Gentleman and Scout, the first novel in Peter Bowen’s fast-paced series, finds Kelly hunting wolves with the Nez Percé while trying actively to avoid contact with just about everyone else. This plan quickly falls apart, and Kelly is hired by a group of Englishmen who need a guide for a buffalo hunt. Kelly soon finds himself swept further from home than he ever has been before, going from the Indian Wars to the Zulu Wars.ReviewPraise for the Yellowstone Kelly series:“Very, very funny.” —Publishers Weekly“The Old West is a wonderfully wild place in Bowen’s hands.” —Kirkus Reviews“[The Yellowstone Kelly series] features an endearing, slightly mysterious protagonist who always has one more unexplored trait, unparalleled dialogue that hints at ethnic or regional inflections, and a very sly sense of humor.” —BooklistAbout the AuthorPeter Bowen (b. 1945) is an author best known for mystery novels set in the modern American West. When he was ten, Bowen’s family moved to Bozeman, Montana, where a paper route introduced him to the grizzled old cowboys who frequented a bar called The Oaks. Listening to their stories, some of which stretched back to the 1870s, Bowen found inspiration for his later fiction.Following time at the University of Michigan and the University of Montana, Bowen published his first novel, Yellowstone Kelly, in 1987. After a few more novels featuring the real-life Western hero, Bowen published Coyote Wind (1994), which introduced Gabriel Du Pré, a mixed-race lawman living in fictional Toussaint, Montana. Bowen has written thirteen novels in the series, in which Du Pré gets tangled up in everything from cold-blooded murder to the hunt for rare fossils. Bowen continues to live and write in Livingston, Montana.

REUNITEDThe town of Bright River held too many sad memories for Jessica Portman. She’d returned for one reason– to oversee the takeover of her ailing father’s mill by a rival company. She intended to finalize the deal and go back to Italy. Then she met the owner of J.C. Enterprises, Jack Chabrol– the boy she’d left behind. Only Jack was no longer a boy; he was a man– a man bent on revenge. He had never forgiven Jessica for leaving him to marry someone else, nor had he forgotten the love they’d once shared. Jack was determined to possess Jessica, and she had only one defense against his anger: her love.

It had been a long hard road for Scott Bernard and his ragtag band of Robotech irregulars; but the Invid stronghold known as Reflex Point was finally close at hand, and preparations were under way for a full-scale assault. But the Invid Regis was not about to surrender so easily the world she had come halfway across the galaxy to claim - especially now that her experiments in racial transmutation were nearing their conclusion. And no one, Human or lnvid, thought to ask whether Protoculture might have something to say in these matters. But indeed it did; and the final encounter of the Robotech Wars would be more mystifying than anyone had imagined.And Earth Was The Prize!**

Battle of the TitansPhilip K. Dick died in February 1982 -- but not the 1982 of most history books. In this 1982 America has won the Vietnam war, colonised the moon -- and re-elected Richard Milhous Nixon FOUR times. Dick is remembered for his early realist novels, whilst his bitingly satirical SF circulates illegally in samizdat form. But if Phil Dick is really dead, who is the bearded amnesiac who wanders into to the Georgia office of an unsuccessful psychotherapist?The ghost of Philip K.Dick?Soon the seditious scribbler is making plans more bizarre than his own wildest inventions: to remake reality -- and fix "King Richard" Nixon once and for all..."A wonderfully inventive novel and a lovingly crafted homage, by oneof the best of the younger SF writers" -- Publishers Weekly"Succeeds remarkably well. . . masterful" -- Locus

An inexplicable message flashed onto the screen of his Apple II computer at 3 a.m. heralds the beginning of a startling quest for frustrated author Herman Orff. Taking up the offer of a cure for writer's block leads him 'to those places in your head that you can't get to on your own' - and plunges him into a semi-dreamland inhabited by a bizarre combination of characters from myth and reality: the talking head of Orpheus; a lost love; the young girl of Vermeer's famous portrait - and a frequency of Medusas.From Publishers WeeklyAgain demonstrating the versatility and creative energy exhibited in Riddley Walker and Pilgermann, in this slim novel Hoban deals with existential questions: the mystery of existence, the nature of reality, the role of art. Combining satire and fantasy, and in poetic, Joycean language mixed with the vernacular, this narrative rewards the discerning reader. Herman Orff, a failed novelist who supports himself by doing cartoons for Classic Comics, is accosted by the blind head of Orpheus, his progenitor, "the first of your line." Through a series of metaphysical communications that lead to an odyssey through London and Amsterdam, Orff is gradually given to understand the connection between the women in his life: his lost love Luise von Himmelbett (symbolizing Eurydice); the nubile and very available Melanie Falsepercy (symbolizing Persephone); the print of Vermeer's Head of a Young Girl that hangs above his desk and haunts his imagination; and the head of Medusa in a painting by the Dutch master Frans Post: all represent "femaleness." Spare and witty, full of metaphorical, mythical and mystical allusions, the narrative sings with insights. At the same time whimsical, farcical (an advertising agency is called Slithe and Tovey) and deadly serious, it brilliantly relates the tragic ancient myths to the commonplace tragedies of modern life in a violent, dislocated age. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalWhen his creative juices dry up, writer Herman Orff abandons serious novels for comic books. In despair, he tries an acquaintance's electronic device for brain galvanizing and is rewarded by several strange visions of the head of Orpheus, with whom Orff and other characters in the novel are obsessed. Orff's conversations with the head give him a clear understanding of his past and of what being human is, demonstrating the true import of the book: how art acts on and makes sense of experience, which can be fully perceived only whenlike Eurydiceit is lost entirely. An interesting but mannered retelling of the Orpheus myth. Laurence Hull, Cannon Memorial Lib., Concord, N.C.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Robotech Defenders Thought The War Was Behind Them! A war without victors, that had brought two races to the brink of extinction. A war without spoils, save for the devastated Earth itself... A new-age ark, the Super Dimensional Fortress had returned to its ravaged homeworld, and those who had lived through Armageddon began the painstaking process of reconstruction. But they had the Zentraedi to help them, former enemies who shared a common goal -- survival! But all was not well in this bravest of worlds....Unaccustomed to a life without warfare, many of the alien giants were reverting to their old ways. Now one had appeared who vowed to lead them back to their former glory -- Khyron! -- an alien culture's hero reborn to pick up where Dolza had left off!**

Diana Beecham’s only use for her neighbor Lord Harrup was to get him to provide a job for her brother Ronald. So she picked up the “documents” Harrup sought, only to have them stolen. Seems Harrup, seeking a high government position, was being blackmailed by his former mistress. Undeterred by a little setback—or a little housebreaking—Diana pursued where her heart led. Regency Romance by Joan Smith; originally published by Fawcett Crest

The Hardy Boys find themselves on their own in France, fighting the largest organized crime ring in the world.

Mirelle Martin was a Company Wife - her husband, her children, her home were all held in thrall to the Corporation that owned their lives. She tried - desperately - to conform, hiding the secret of her illegitimacy, her talented father, and her own gifts which might prove embarrassing in a conventional world.And then came the Year of the Lucy - the year when everything happened, everything big and wonderful and exciting, when Mirelle turned into the woman she had always wanted to be.

Anne Gifford's dowry--or lack thereof--is of no concern to Sir Dylan DeFrayne. Wrapped in each other's arms, what more could they possibly need? Yet the young lovers' passion can never be sanctioned--the DeFraynes and Giffords have been sworn enemies for decades. Lest more blood be shed, the two must keep their affair a secret…and plot their elopement.Clad in threadbare hand-me-downs, Anne never expects the powerful and aged Brennan Forbes to remember her face, let alone propose marriage. Anne's parents hastily accept--the union aligns the Giffords with the Duke of York, while the DeFraynes pledge allegiance to the House of Lancaster, on the eve of the War of Roses.The arranged marriage looming ever closer, Dylan must brave the battlefield and bypass enemy lines to rescue his beloved. With a dynastic war and bitter rivalries standing in their way, Anne and Dylan must embark on a tortuous path that only the strongest of loves can endure.Set in 15th century England, THE EVERLASTING COVENANT is an irresistible mix of danger and passion, guaranteed to ensnare readers.

Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982, and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature. His first Rebus novel, Knots & Crosses, was published in 1987, and the Rebus books are now translated into over thirty languages and are bestsellers worldwide. Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards including the prestigious Diamond Dagger in 2005. In 2004, Ian won America’s celebrated Edgar award for Resurrection Men. He has also been shortlisted for the Anthony Awards in the USA, and won Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the Deutscher Krimipreis. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay St Andrews, Edinburgh, Hull and the Open University A contributor to BBC2’s Newsnight Review, he also presented his own TV series, Ian Rankin’s Evil Thoughts. He has received the OBE for services to literature, opting to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh. He has also recently been appointed to the rank of Deputy Lieutenant of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons. Visit his website at www.ianrankin.net .