A year has passed since the Kimball clan nearly annihilated the polygamous community of Blister Creek in the largest terrorist attack since 9/11. After the death of his father, Dr. Jacob Christianson takes reluctant leadership of the community as enemies gather against their desert sanctuary, threatening another murderous attack.When Jacob’s adopted son Daniel begins suffering disturbing visions, Jacob fears the worst. He knows all too well the mental illness that plagues the Kimballs, (Daniel’s biological family), fueling their thirst for vengeance and power. Desperate for answers, Jacob immerses himself in the history of Blister Creek, plumbing its blood-soaked origins for something — anything — that could save his son from the path of evil.All the while Taylor Kimball Junior roams free, gathering the remnants of his scattered army and preparing to unleash one more assault. This is their final battle…and only God knows who will be delivered.

For years Jacob Christianson struggled to reconcile his faith with his skepticism about the fundamentalist practices of his polygamous community. Nevertheless, whenever his family and neighbors in Blister Creek were threatened, Jacob always stepped up to join the fight against those who would destroy them. Now Jacob is facing his greatest challenge yet. Taylor Kimball Jr. has returned, and he wants to take over as prophet of Blister Creek — and claim Jacob’s sister Eliza as his unwilling bride. To protect his family and neighbors, Jacob forms a tenuous alliance with his father — the reigning prophet — and the FBI. But Taylor, as crafty as he is brutal, anticipates Jacob’s plan and descends on Blister Creek with a horrific new weapon capable of annihilating the town. If Jacob is to win this battle, he must rise above his thirst for personal vengeance and become the leader his people so desperately need.

For years Jacob Christianson struggled to reconcile his faith with his skepticism about the fundamentalist practices of his polygamous community. Nevertheless, whenever his family and neighbors in Blister Creek were threatened, Jacob always stepped up to join the fight against those who would destroy them. Now Jacob is facing his greatest challenge yet. Taylor Kimball Jr. has returned, and he wants to take over as prophet of Blister Creek — and claim Jacob’s sister Eliza as his unwilling bride. To protect his family and neighbors, Jacob forms a tenuous alliance with his father — the reigning prophet — and the FBI. But Taylor, as crafty as he is brutal, anticipates Jacob’s plan and descends on Blister Creek with a horrific new weapon capable of annihilating the town. If Jacob is to win this battle, he must rise above his thirst for personal vengeance and become the leader his people so desperately need.

It’s not every man whose wife criticizes his fidelity, but Jacob Christianson hasn’t exactly led a typical life. Raised in a conservative polygamous sect, Jacob has struggled for years to reconcile his faith with his skepticism about the fundamentalist practices of his community. Not so long ago that conflict helped Jacob to combat a dangerous faction of his own church. Now it has brought the FBI to his door, seeking help to infiltrate a millennialist cult suspected of plotting to kill a US senator.When the FBI ignores Jacob’s warnings, it sparks a dramatic standoff with the cultists, leaving Jacob and his family caught squarely in the middle. Tense and engaging, Mighty and Strong is a gripping foray into the world of religious extremists, culminating in a thrilling battle for supremacy that will leave no one unscathed.

On a cool night in the Utah desert, a young woman flees her home, her sleeping child clutched in her arms. Hours later, she is found dead, her tongue torn out and her daughter mysteriously returned to her own bed.

The residents of Blister Creek are anxious to solve this shockingly brutal crime, but theirs is a unique community—a conservative polygamous sect that cannot afford for news of the murder to reach the outside world. So, they call upon one of their own: Jacob Christianson, son of a respected church official and cousin of the victim. With the help of his teenage sister, Eliza, Jacob digs into the bizarre murder and uncovers a monstrous, blood-soaked secret that could destroy the very foundation of their church.

Chilling and engrossing, The Righteous is a tightly plotted novel, the first in a series about love, loyalty, and dark secrets.

On a cool night in the Utah desert, a young woman flees her home, her sleeping child clutched in her arms. Hours later, she is found dead, her tongue torn out and her daughter mysteriously returned to her own bed.The residents of Blister Creek are anxious to solve this shockingly brutal crime, but theirs is a unique community—a conservative polygamous sect that cannot afford for news of the murder to reach the outside world. So, they call upon one of their own: Jacob Christianson, son of a respected church official and cousin of the victim. With the help of his teenage sister, Eliza, Jacob digs into the bizarre murder and uncovers a monstrous, blood-soaked secret that could destroy the very foundation of their church.Chilling and engrossing, The Righteous is a tightly plotted novel, the first in a series about love, loyalty, and dark secrets.

Thanks to her brother Jacob, Eliza Christianson’s young life has been anything but dull. At seventeen she helped him solve a brutal murder within their conservative polygamous community, and later she supported him when he was recruited by the FBI to infiltrate a dangerous cult. Now it’s Eliza’s turn to make her mark—a woman comes to Eliza after her daughter is recruited by a doomsday cult led by a man called “The Disciple.” In a strange twist of fate, one of the only leads is David, Jacob and Eliza’s brother, who was shunned by their church.Eliza sets out to convince David to help her navigate the cult and stage a rescue. Her daring plan takes her to the Las Vegas desert where The Disciple is waiting…Provocative and engrossing, The Wicked is a view behind the veil of religious fanaticism as seen through the eyes of an extraordinary heroine.

Webber (IT professional, Insight Corporation) and Wallace (information services professional, Result Data) provide numerous practical ways to save money, manage a company more efficiently, and reduce waste. The authors focus on green approaches to IT strategies and address legal issues, the business case for green computing, energy use and savings, advanced configuration and power interface, IT asset disposal, virtualization, and related topics. The book includes a list of useful Web sites and a glossary. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

This slim, pocket-sized volume presents quotes about libraries and library-related subjects compiled from the electronic 'pages' of the Library Juice 'zine and blog. Divided into sections covering topics such as books and reading, censorship, librarians and liberty, those quoted range from Hubert Humphry to Carl Sagan to Michael Moore to Albert Einstein. The volume also includes a section of chapter notes that give some context for each quote and an index of authors for easy reference. Litwin is the founder of Library Juice Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

These twenty-three essays explore the historiographies of the Reformation from the fifteenth century to the present and study the history of religion from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, especially in Germany but also in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and colonial Mexico.

Mozart's remarkable life was well and richly documented in letters: his own and those concerning him written by others. This volume brings together a fascinating selection, giving us a detailed portrait of the composer's life and times.

Here are letters to and from Mozart's domineering father, Leopold, the earliest of which, addressed to a friend, describes the six-year-old Mozart's accomplishments. There is also a letter sent to the Royal Society in London from one of its members describing an astonishing encounter with the eight-year-old prodigy. Here are letters from the adolescent Mozart to his mother and sister; adoring, protective missives to his wife; and, from his later years, letter after letter to friends, family, former patrons, and fellow musicians begging for financial help.

Mozart's correspondence is full of details that illuminate the quotidien aspects of his days, reveal the great joys and burdens of his musical genius, and provide us with a lively account of the musical politics in the courts and opera houses of eighteenth-century Europe. Finally, in a letter written by Mozart's sister-in-law, this splendid epistolary portrait of the great composer is completed with a deeply moving account of his last hours.

Whether you are a long time aficionado of Art Deco and 20th Century design or a novice collector, this book is a must for you. Its purpose is to explain how you can display and group items from your collection to their maximum visual advantage, regardless of whether that collection is large or small.Groupings by manufacturer, material, color, or function are all illustrated with over 120 stunning full color photographs, each with accompanying diagram to explain the techniques used in their composition. Over 1000 individual pieces are shown and fully described, including circa dates and current market values. These include furniture, lighting, pottery, glass, and a wide variety of decorative accessories that bring the Art Deco décor to life.The second half of the book provides a unique opportunity to go behind closed doors at the homes of private collectors and see how these display techniques have been used to incorporate Art Deco and 20th Century items into the interiors of today.

So you've been asked to lead a quality control initiative? Or maybe you've been assigned to a quality team. Perhaps you're a CEO whose main concern is to make your company faster, more efficient, and less expensive. Whatever your role is, quality control is a critical concept in every industry and profession.

Quality Control For Dummies is the straightforward, easy guide to improving your company's quality. It covers all of today's available options and provides expert techniques for introducing quality methods to your company, collecting data, designing quality processes, and more. This hands-on guide gives you all the tools you'll ever need to enhance your company's quality, including:

• Understanding the importance of quality standards
• Putting fundamental quality control methods to use
• Listening to your customer about quality issues
• Whipping quality control into shape with Lean
• Working with value stream mapping
• Focusing on the 5S method
• Supplement a process with Kanban
• Fixing tough problems with Six Sigma
• Using QFD to win customers over
• Improving you company with TOC

This invaluable reference is written from an unbiased viewpoint, giving you all the facts about each theory with no fuzzy coverings. It also includes steps for incorporating quality into a new product and Web sites packed with quality control tips and techniques. With Quality Control For Dummies, you'll be able to speed up production, eliminate waste, and save money!

First published in Paris in 1834, this is a travel narrative that maps Lorenzo de Zavala's journey through the United States during his exile from Mexico in 1830. Embracing U.S., Texas, and Mexican history; early ethnography; geography; and political philosophy, de Zavala outlines the cultural and political institutions of Jacksonian America and post-independence Mexico. His commentary rivals Alex de Tocqueville's classic travel narrative, Democracy in America, which was published in Paris one year after de Zavala's.
This is the first account of U.S. political culture from a Mexican point of view and constructs the first comparative political and historical framework for the relationship between Mexico and the United States.
In passionate prose, de Zavala argues for the incorporation of the true democratic ideals of the enlightenment in the fledgling Republic of Texas. He hoped Texas would meld the best of both Mexican and American cultures. De Zavala believed that Texans could understood the complexities of democracy and the ideals embodied in a liberal, federal government, and that these ideals could lead them to extend equal rights to all: American Indians, Mexicans, Euro-Texans, and freed men. De Zavala saw the continuation of slavery as a serious setback to democracy in the United States, and was leery of setting up any new republic that preserved that heinous institution.
The original text is accompanied by John-Michael Rivera's critical introduction and an English translation based upon Wallace Woolsey's deft translation, expanded and revised for the purposes of this volume.

Nest and his co-authors (a UN official and a political science professor) analyze the economic dimensions of the Congo War during the period 1998-2004. They also address the impact of the war economy on postwar reconstruction and identify strategies for resolving or preventing economically driven civil wars in the future. Nest is an independent consultant who focuses on political and social issues related to the extraction of natural resources. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

A complete course for students who are currently attending a university or college or who hope to begin university or college studies soon.

The Star Wars universe is expanding faster than ever before, and Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters has received an exciting new face-lift–with completely updated text and more than a hundred brand new, full-color illustrations by extraordinary new artist Michael Sutfin.

This all-new Essential Guide features detailed profiles of more than one hundred and thirty characters from across the Star Wars galaxy, including all of your favorites–such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, and Mara Jade–as well as, from Episode II:

• Jango Fett • Count Dooku • Anakin Skywalker • Zam Wesell

And the key players from Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace:

• Queen Amidala • Qui-Gon Jinn • Mace Windu • Darth Maul

Here is complete, updated coverage of the novels from the incredible New Jedi Order and all of the classic movies, books, comics, TV specials, games, and the rest of the Star Wars universe.

This must-have book describes the essential history and personal data for each character–with vital statistics, homeworlds, and political affiliations.

More characters, more information, brilliant artwork–the Essential Guides are hotter than ever!

The experts reveal how to interpret and understand your cat's symptoms
and what steps to take to ensure its health.

This comprehensive and practical book is designed to assist cat owners in understanding their pets' bodies and health based on signs and symptoms of disease, and in determining the most common medical problems that might cause particular symptoms.
     Adopting the 'decision chart' format from popular symptom guides for human ailments, such as the American Medical Association's Guide to Your Family's Symptoms and Take Care of Yourself, five leading veterinarians have designed a user-friendly chart system that will guide a pet owner from noting the symptom and observing the cat's behavior to understanding the associated signs of an illness, the possible conditions, and the best steps to take. Filled with more than 150 charts in an easy-to-follow two-color format and medical drawings, The Veterinarians' Guide to Your Cat's Symptoms is the indispensable reference for cat owners. It not only considers the problems of sick and injured pets, but also addresses the needs of healthy animals. It has all the information a cat owner needs:

¸  What a healthy cat should look like
¸  Flow charts to the 200 most common symptoms
¸  Behavioral issues, such as spraying and clawing
¸  Emergency first aid, including transporting an injured cat
¸  A glossary of veterinary diagnostic tests and medical terms

With this unique combination of medical information and advice, plus an innovative chart system, The Veterinarians' Guide to Your Cat's Symptoms will ensure that your cat really does have nine lives.

This clear and concise study guide provides sample examinations and guidance for counsellors who wish to become certified by either the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education (CACREP) or the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), the major counsellor accreditation institutions in the United States. This Second Edition brings up to date the names of key organizations, and adds new information relevant to changes in the counsellor certification exam.