CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA, OCTOBER 1970 - On a chilly autumn night in this chic and cultured Southern university town, two teenaged girls named Mary Jane Mears and Jeannie Arnold are brutally raped and murdered. The killers are never caught or identified, and over the years the case is buried in musty files in police basements. CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA, OCTOBER 1996 - Twenty-six years later, autumn returns to Carolina. So does Matt Redmond, a hardened and embittered veteran DEA agent who has left his career in Washington and come home to solve the killing of the two girls, one of them his high school sweetheart. In an ironic twist, Matt's pursuit of the secret of his first love's death brings him another. A proud and struggling single mother, Heather Lindstrom, comes to share his passion for truth and justice for the victims. But there is danger in disturbing the skeletons in Chapel Hill's academic closet, for behind the horrific 1970 slayings lies one of the dirtiest and most dangerous secrets of the Vietnam protest era. The most powerful men and women in the land want Matt Redmond off this case, and they will do whatever is necessary to stop him, including murder. The price Matt and Heather pay for the truth may be their own lives.

Valle Rosa, a small drought-weary town in Southern California, is under destruction from deadly wildfires. Into the midst of this crisis rolls a handsome stranger calling himself Jeff Cabrio, who claims he can cure the town's troubles by making it rain. But Cabrio's entrance into the community brings more than just potential rain, and it's not long before the residents' interests turn from the weather to their mysterious neighbour. For tragedy-afflicted sculptress Mia Tanner, Cabrio unearths old wounds and new loves. For struggling journalist Carmen Perez, Cabrio brings the possibility of revitalizing her career by uncovering the truth about him. And former major-league player Chris Garrett is offered the chance to come to terms with the demise of his career as a professional baseball pitcher. As three lives become irrevocably entwined, it's not long before each is forced to face the ghosts of their past.

Set against a backdrop of world-changing historical and political events, Fire and Rain tells the extraordinary story of one pivotal year in the lives and music of four legendary artists, and reveals how these artists and their songs both shaped and reflected their times. Drawing on interviews, rare recordings, and newly discovered documents, acclaimed journalist David Browne “allows us to see—and to hear—the elusive moment when the '60s became the '70s in a completely fresh way” (Mark Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution).

This gripping account interweaves Nixon and Kissinger's pursuit of the war in Southeast Asia and their diplomacy with the Soviet Union and China with on-the-ground military events and US domestic reactions to the war conducted in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Fire and Rain is a compelling, meticulous narrative of the way national security decisions formed at the highest levels of government affect the lives of individuals at home and abroad. By drawing these connections, Carolyn Woods Eisenberg brings to life policy decisions about Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, conveying their significance to a new generation of readers. She breaks fresh ground in contextualizing Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger's decisions within a wider institutional and societal framework. While recognizing the distinctive personalities and ideas of these two men, this study more broadly conveys the competing roles and impact of the professional military, the Congress, and a mobilized peace movement. Drawing upon a vast collection of declassified documents, Eisenberg presents an important re-interpretation of the Nixon Administration's relations with the Soviet Union and China vis a vis the war in Southeast Asia. She argues that in their desperate effort to overcome, or at least overshadow, their failure in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger made major concessions to both nations in the field of arms control, their response to the India-Pakistan war, and the diplomacy surrounding Taiwan--much of this secret. Despite policymakers' claims that the Vietnam War was a national security necessity that would demonstrate American strength to the communist superpowers and credibility to friendly governments, the historical record suggests a different reality. A half-century after the Paris Peace Conference marking the withdrawal of US troops and advisors from Vietnam and foreign troops from Laos and Cambodia, Fire and Rain is a dramatic account of geopolitical decision making, civil society, and the human toll of the war on the people of Southeast Asia.

This book shows how California’s weather and climate have drastically changed and what we can expect in the near future. California’s weather and climate are becoming as common a topic in the media as inflation and wars. It comes into our lives during heat waves when we require more cooling and during droughts when we are asked to limit our use of water. We may not be able to visit state and national parks when fires rage nearby. Indeed, California does have weather. LaDochy and Witiw dispel the erroneous myths about the state’s climate in a colorful, entertaining way. California does have seasons. It does rain in Southern California. It is not always sunny and mild throughout the year. And not all El Niños bring abundant rainfall every time throughout the state. These and other myths are discussed and dismissed with the latest science and remarkable vignettes. The authors describe the diversity of the state’s physical environment, both natural and man-made and how climate change is currently altering this diverse environment. Climate change, in the past, present and future, continues to influence this most populous state. Yes, California does have weather.

The world is on fire. During the Great Warming, billions of the Earth’s beings died from the heat, starvation, disease and desperation. This devastation peaked when aliens seeded the scorched soil with magic. As it seeped towards the Earth’s core, it changed everything. Rain Dare is born on an island in the Pacific fifty-eight years later. 99% human and 1% alien Rain is the alien’s parting gift. She is designed to help mankind transition from a technologically based world to a magical one. Unfortunately, her birth came later than anticipated. Now, at seventeen, she must leave her island home to learn all she can about Earth’s changed landscape and inhabitants. Suspicious shapeshifters. Inexperienced mages. Magically created monsters. Danger lurks all around in this hostile world. Rain hopes to teach others how to use their magic, yet with each passing day, she fears she’s already too late. Will she be dismissed and ignored as too young to know anything valuable? Will she be hunted and destroyed as just another threat in the deadly landscape? Or will her alien nature make her the hope the world needs?

Go beyond the scenery of the Pacific temperate rainforest to witness how complex ecosystems survive in a world of upheavals If you live on a rapidly changing planet, you’d be wise to learn how it works. The giant old forests on a skinny stretch of land on the far west coast of North America have a lot to say about living in a twitchy world. In this engaging book science writer M. L. Herring takes readers into the Pacific temperate rainforest at the tumultuous edge of a shifting continent in a precarious moment of time. Readers peek behind the magnificent scenery into a forest of ancient trees, exploding mountains, disappearing owls, tsunamis, megafires, and ten million people to learn what it means to be a forest in a world of upheavals. Through Herring’s words and pictures, readers drift into the canopy through masses of ferns and lichens, burrow into soil through hair-thin threads of fungi, and plunge headlong through a watershed flushed with rain and snowmelt. Readers experience the temperate rainforest through science and art as it faces a shifting climate and the shifting priorities of a constantly changing society. The book journeys beyond the grid of latitude and longitude and into places only one’s imagination can fit, to discover what it means to be human in an ecological world.

This series rises out of my personal journey with the Runes that began during a Mask Dance workshop in Northern Germany, the birthplace of the runes. During the week I spent in a lovely seminar house secluded in among the trees bordering the heather of the Lunebergerheide, I found myself tasked with telling the story of the Runes as one of creation, not destruction. We used shamanic drumming and rattling to drive the visionary state and a specific body posture to guide our experience. My time was spent deep in a philosophical discussion with the energetic field of the Runes. It was impressed on me that the two fundamental distortions in the historical practice of Runes were the suppression of sexual energy in Christianity and the Germanic tribe's practice of ritual killing to gain personal power. I was shown how this combination inherently leads to atrocities. My first step was to seek out any creation stories I could find that were related to the runes. Somewhat to my surprise, I did not find any direct or obvious correlations between the runes names and the stories. In fact, the use of the runes as an alphabet turned out to be driven by the Christian Church. Then I looked into the current practice of Rune Stances and found their origins were both recent and suspect. Along the way, I had to admit that if the creation story of the runes was readily accessible, they would not have had to grab hold of an ignorant mixed-blood New Mexican to tell their tale. What I had to offer was my own idiosyncratic view of the situation. Since I had experience with ecstatic trance postures, I wondered if rune shapes corresponded with ancient ecstatic body postures. Once I turned towards the much older and more mysterious visionary roots of the Runes, my path to a runic story of creation began to open. I ended up with a mosaic of a sacred World Tree made of ancient bits and pieces. I hope they can open creative experiential doors for those drawn to work in the runic realms. Keywords: Ancestry, Creation Myths, Ecstatic Trance Postures, Epigenetics, Rune Stances, Runes, Sacred Speech, World Tree, Shamanism, Sustainable

What if the only person you can trust is the LAST person you should? A well-loved and gripping read from the Sunday Times bestselling author about rumours and old ghosts... ** DON'T MISS THE LAST HOUSE ON THE STREET, THE NEW NOVEL FROM DIANE CHAMBERLAIN ** Struggling TV reporter Carmen Perez is desperate. Her career is crumbling, and everyone around her doubts her ability to cope. Then Jeff Cabrio arrives - a mysterious stranger who claims he can douse the small town's spreading wildfires by making it rain. The town has no choice but to trust him, but it's clear he's running from something much darker. All Carmen has to do is uncover his secret and the story she craves is hers. Exposing the truth might save Carmen's career, but the consequences could be devastating... Unlock the secrets you'll love to discover with Diane Chamberlain, the storyteller beloved of readers everywhere: 'An excellent read that will be loved by her fans and anyone who enjoys reading' Jodi Picoult 'I completely LOVED this book' Jane Green 'Totally amazing...so powerful and beautifully written. I love Diane's writing' Cathy Kelly 'Incredibly moving story, rich in character and atmosphere. I couldn't put it down' Susan Lewis 'With beautifully drawn characters and a string of twists that will keep you guessing right up to the end' Stylist 'Chamberlain puts so much grit, emotion and drama into her books that it's impossible to stop thinking about them' Heat 'Gripping' Woman & Home 'Essential reading for Jodi Picoult fans' Daily Mail