Heller’s agent sold the unfinished manuscript of Catch-22 to Simon and Schuster. The publisher paid $750 and promised another $750 when the manuscript will be delivered 3 years later. Mr. Heller missed the deadline by 5 years or so.

ABOUT THE BOOK Adam Craig, a forty year-old stock trader in Chicago, finds his marriage teetering on the rocks and his life at a standstill. Desperate and on the edge of personal collapse, Adam takes the advice of a therapist and travels to his childhood family compound on Black Bear Lake with hopes of making peace with his past. Stepping onto the northern Wisconsin property, he relives the painful memories of the summer of 1983, his last summer at the lake. In August 1983, a self-conscious fifteen year-old Adam carries a world of worry on his shoulders as he arrives at Black Bear Lake for a month long family reunion. Between anger and fear of mother’s declining health as she quietly battles a quickly spreading cancer and his cherished cousin’s depression over her parents’ bitter divorce, Adam is swept up in smothering familial love among the multiple generations and heartbreaking misunderstanding and betrayal. The arrival of a sensual but troublesome babysitter throws the delicate balance of his family into a tailspin. Blinded by his attraction to the newcomer, Adam fails to see his cousin’s desperate cries for help and the charged electrical current running through his family’s hierarchy. Crushed in…

I enjoyed William Shakespeare’s Start Wars so I figure why not read William Shakespeare’s the Empire Striketh Back by Ian Doescher. What I found was another entertaining book which was funny and a fast read.

My debut mystery novel Dream of the Dead is the start of a new detective series based in the West End, London’s world-famous entertainment district. Like the Oxford colleges of Colin Dexter, or the racecourses of Dick Francis, the charming theatres of the West End might initially seem an unusual environment for a crime novel. It’s certainly an exuberant, expensive, exhilarating area. But is it dangerous? After all, anyone who knows London tends to think of the West End as a pleasure ground for the masses. The colossal shops of Oxford Street and Regent Street. The glitzy restaurants of Soho and Covent Garden. The tourist magnet of Leicester Square. And, of course, the gorgeous theatres of St Martin’s Lane and Shaftesbury Avenue. Hardly a place teeming with criminals. Or so it would seem… Yet take a guess at which area of London also has the highest crime rate? Guess which part of the capital you are most likely to become a victim of violence? That’s right. The West End. STATISTICALLY SPEAKING… Many famous places typically thought of as being in ‘London’, from touristy sights like Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, or 10 Downing street, to prestigious universities, billion-pound corporate headquarters,…

The lives of the seven paratroopers keep interlacing throughout their lives, whether in war or peace, while they seven maintained different views on what’s good for the state of Israel and society, they mostly managed to keep a friendly and supportive relationship despite their differences.

People write books for a zillion reasons and that is what makes the written word so incredibly interesting and unpredictable. The reasons and the possibilities are infinite making each story unique, not only in origin, but in its direction, too. Kill Daddy was written for an accumulation of reasons and is intended to speak to all who would like to listen. Primarily, Kill Daddy was brought to life in answer to a question I was repeatedly asked at various functions upon my return to Portugal: What was Africa like? Each response I gave was inadequate, or required too much time to explain. Feeling as though I were doing a disservice to all the wonderful people I had just spent 2 years living with, I decided that I had to write down the full answer, which would inevitably be a book. The next surprise was all the memories that came tumbling down when I was only a couple of chapters into writing about my experiences. An epiphany, a realisation that if I was to do the story justice, I would have to go the whole way: Why did I go to Kenya in the first place? Because I was a lost…

As is my habit (and many others), I publish a lame “best of” list every year. Mind you, these are just some of the book I really enjoyed this year, but not all. Usually a waste of cyberspace on Thanksgiving but hey … why not, right? Hope you enjoy my list, maybe get a few recommendations for you and yours and have a Happy Thanksgiving. Outlaw Platoon by Sean Parnell &John Bruning Out­law Pla­toon raises some impor­tant ques­tions which needed to be asked (pre­pared­ness, effec­tive­ness, pro­fes­sion­al­ism) but that are dif­fi­cult to face. The book is a must-read for any­one inter­ested in the cur­rent war, com­bat or mil­i­tary life. Buy this book in paper or elec­tronic format* The Ariadne Objective: The Underground War to Rescue Crete from the Nazis by Wes Davis The Ari­adne Objec­tive reads like a first rate World War II spy novel which could only be the prod­uct of the author’s fevered imag­i­na­tion. The fact the this book is non-fiction, with all the col­or­ful char­ac­ters, humor and fan­tas­tic adven­tures makes it all the better. Buy this book in paper or elec­tronic format* The Color of Light by Helen Maryles Shankman The Color of Light by Helen Maryles Shankman is a novel which explores art, the Holo­caust, human­ity and, of course, vam­pires. The vam­pire in the story runs…

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I have a great appreciation and interest in World War II. Please read and share this post with everyone you know. And think of the media circus, flags at half staff, and all the things that were said of Whitney Houston when she died and Michael Jackson when he died. . This hero died with barely anyone’s notice. “Shifty” By Chuck Yeager Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you’ve seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn’t know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the “Screaming Eagle,” the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat. Making conversation, I asked him if he’d been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He…

The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti is a debut novel by this accomplished woman. The novel looks at the Middle East problems through a pro-Palestinian point of view.

This article was sent to me by my aunt who knows my interest in family genealogy I found it to be an amazing read and translated it into English, I hope you take a few moments, especially today Holocaust Memorial Day to read a sad, yet inspiring story. Orginaly published at: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4364316,00.html Menachem discovered who he was, now stays twin A7734 “Will you be my father?” Asked the boy in Auschwitz the stranger. For decades, did not want to dig into the past. Only persistent researcher recently went out with him on a journey into the soul scarred and original identity. Stray close, but Mengele Twin have one more question that will not go: Dude, where are you? Roi Mandel Identical twins just know. As an internal sense the resulting link – Sensory between two people who shared a womb and genetic traits, nine months developed close together, protected in the amniotic fluid, umbilical cords attached both to the mother’s placenta. When twin feels something about his brother, even if separated by an ocean, chances instincts do not make a mistake it. Twins feel each other. Menachem Bodner feel his brother Julie was still alive. A7734 was a page on Facebook that has become viral and has been viewed by crowds…