Title: Evan and Elle Author: Rhys Bowen File Type: Mobi Subject:Mystery Description: When an unused chapel reopens as a French restaurant, the villagers of Llanfair are excited, but also a bit suspicious.For one thing, it doesnt seem quite right to put a restaurant in what used to be the Lords house; for another, the owner, Madame Yvette, is a stranger, and a glamorous one at that.But Madame Yvettes cooking classes begin to soften the hearts of the townswomen, although their husbands are less enthusiastic about the unfamiliar food on their tables.Their attention is soon diverted by more serious problems: A string of fires has begun to plague the town.Constable Evan Evans suspects that Welsh nationalists may be targeting foreign-owned property, especially after Madame Yvette receives a threatening note.When she asks for Evans help, he finds himself in the middle of a complicated case of murder, arson, and international intrigue (not to mention the displeasure of his longtime admirers, Bronwen and Betsy, at his frequent encounters with the exotic Yvette).Constable Evans follows a trail of clues that leads to the South of England and then to France-a trail that leads to unexpected conclusions: Nothing is what it seems and a dangerous killer may be loose in Llanfair.With her fourth book in this acclaimed series, Rhys Bowen offers another ingenious tale of mystery and murder in an otherwise tranquil town.AUTHORBIO: RHYS BOWEN is the author of Evans Above, Evan Help Us, and Evanly Choirs, the first three novels in this series, as well as more than one hundred books for children and young adults.She lives near San Francisco.

Title: Rocket Boys Author: Homer Hickam File Type: Mobi Subject:Autobiography Description:Amazon.com ReviewInspired by Werner von Braun and his Cape Canaveral team, 14-year-old Homer Hickam decided in 1957 to build his own rockets. They were his ticket out of Coalwood, West Virginia, a mining town that everyone knew was dying--everyone except Sonny's father, the mine superintendent and a company man so dedicated that his family rarely saw him. Hickam's smart, iconoclastic mother wanted her son to become something more than a miner and, along with a female science teacher, encouraged the efforts of his grandiosely named Big Creek Missile Agency. He grew up to be a NASA engineer and his memoir of the bumpy ride toward a gold medal at the National Science Fair in 1960--an unprecedented honor for a miner's kid--is rich in humor as well as warm sentiment. Hickam vividly evokes a world of close communal ties in which a storekeeper who sold him saltpeter warned, Listen, rocket boy. This stuff can blow you to kingdom come. Hickam is candid about the deep disagreements and tensions in his parents' marriage, even as he movingly depicts their quiet loyalty to each other. The portrait of his ultimately successful campaign to win his aloof father's respect is equally affecting. --Wendy SmithFrom Publishers WeeklyGreat memoirs must balance the universal and the particular. Too much of the former makes it overly familiar; too much of the latter makes readers ask what the story has to do with them. In his debut, Hickam, a retired NASA engineer, walks that line beautifully. On one level, it's the story of a teenage boy who learns about dedication, responsibility, thermodynamics and girls. On the other hand, it's about a dying way of life in a coal town where the days are determined by the rhythms of the mine and the company that controls everything and everybody. Hickam's father is Coalwood, W.Va.'s mine superintendent, whose devotion to the mine is matched only by his wife's loathing for it. When Sputnik inspires Sonny with an interest in rockets, she sees it not as a hobby but as a way to escape the mines. After an initial, destructive try involving 12 cherry bombs, Sonny and his cronies set up the Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA). From Auk I (top altitude, six feet), through Auk XXXI (top altitude, 31,000 feet), the boys experiment with nozzles, fins and, most of all, fuel, graduating from a basic black powder to rocket candy (melted potassium chlorate and sugar) to Zincoshine (zinc, sulfur, moonshine). But Coalwood is the real star, here. Teachers, clergy, machinists, town gossips, union, management, everyone become co-conspirators in the BCMA's explosive three-year project. Hickam admits to taking poetic license in combining characters and with the sequence of events, and if there is any flaw, it's that the people and the narrative seem a little too perfect. But no matter how jaded readers have become by the onslaught of memoirs, none will want to miss the fantastic voyage of BCMA, Auk and Coalwood. First serial to Life. 10-city author tour. (Sept.) FYI: Rocket Boys is currently in production at Universal, which plans to release it later this year. 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.