The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

The Worst Hard Time : The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by Timothy Egan

The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told. Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, going from sod homes to new framed houses to huddling in basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out. He follows their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black blizzards, crop failure, and the deaths of loved ones. Drawing on the voices of those who stayed and survived?those who, now in their eighties and nineties, will soon carry their memories to the grave-Egan tells a story of endurance and heroism against the backdrop of the Great Depression.

As only great history can, Egan's book captures the very voice of the times: its grit, pathos, and abiding courage. Combining the human drama of Isaac's Storm with the sweep of The American People in the Great Depression, The Worst Hard Time is a lasting and important work of American history.

About the Author

Timothy Egan is one of the Northwest's best-known writers and a Seattle-based national correspondent for The New York Times. His writing in books such as "The Good Rain," though restrained by journalistic objectivity, has always been driven by a passion for the environment.

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The Warlord by Richard H. Dickinson

The Warlord : A Jackson Monroe Novel
by Richard H. Dickinson

Meet three-star general, Jackson Monroe, a character very much based on four-star general, Colin Powell. What would happen if a polished middle-aged man like Powell found himself shot down in the mountains of Afghanistan and surrounded by the enemy? Can a "soft" political general who has spent decades inside the corridors of Washington now become a hardened survivor, killer, and commander inside a war zone?

Loosely based on Xenophon's The Persian Expedition, The Warlord tells the story of former sniper Jackson Monroe (The Silent Men) a man who must follow and then lead a ragtag unit against adversary after adversary as they try to make their way across hundreds of miles of hostile territory.

Evading, feinting, fighting, and then avenging, Monroe finally finds the commando he once was and the commander he always wanted to be.

About the Author

Seattle writer Richard H. Dickinson is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. After taking advantage of a unique opportunity to be commissioned in the United States Air Force, he spent twelve years as a hurricane hunter and air traffic controller. His duties included penetrating into the eyes of forty-five hurricanes, flying into radioactive debris clouds from nuclear explosions, and surveilling incoming Russian ICBMs over the North Pacific. Author of The Silent Men, he lives in Seattle with his wife, Amy Solomon.

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Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending Dec. 25, 2005

The Pacific Northwest Independent Bestseller List based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and Book Sense. Most of these books aren?t books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest. Week ending December 25, 2005.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
2. The Lighthouse, P.D. James
3. Amazing Peace, Maya Angelou
4. S Is for Silence, Sue Grafton
5. Saving Fish From Drowning, Amy Tan
6. Christ the Lord, Anne Rice
7. Son of a Witch, Gregory Maguire
8. Memories of My Melancholy Whores, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
9. A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin
10. A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Diana Gabaldon

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Our Endangered Values, Jimmy Carter
2. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
3. Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin
4. 1776, David McCullough
5. Teacher Man, Frank McCourt
6. The Truth (With Jokes), Al Franken
7. Marley & Me, John Grogan
8. Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
9. A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
10. The Elements of Style Illustrated, William Strunk, et al.

MASS MARKET

1. The Broker, John Grisham
2. State of Fear, Michael Crichton
3. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th Edition, Merriam-Webster (Eds.)
4. Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
5. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
6. New Comprehensive A-Z Crossword Dictionary, Edy G. Schaffer (Ed.)
7. Whiteout, Ken Follett
8. Jarhead, Anthony Swofford (Order here)
9. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
10. Red Lily, Nora Roberts

CHILDREN'S (FICTION AND ILLUSTRATED)

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Movie tie-in, children's), C.S. Lewis
2. Eragon, Christopher Paolini (Order here)
3. Eldest, Christopher Paolini (Order here)
4. Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 3), Jonathan Stroud
5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
6. Fairyopolis, Cicely Mary Barker
7. Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
8. The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg
9. Dragonology, Ernest Drake, Helen Ward (Illus.), Douglas Carrel (Illus.)
10. The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events #12), Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist (Illus.)

Northwest Bestsellers - week ending Dec. 4, 2005

Bestsellers in the Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest Independent Bestseller List based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and Book Sense. Most of these books aren?t books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest. Week ending December 4, 2005.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Lighthouse, P.D. James
2. Light From Heaven, Jan Karon
3. Christ the Lord, Anne Rice
4. Saving Fish From Drowning, Amy Tan
5. A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin
6. Memories of My Melancholy Whores, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
7. Knife of Dreams, Robert Jordan
8. The Highest Tide, Jim Lynch (order here)
9. Mary, Mary, James Patterson
10. The Trouble With Poetry, Billy Collins

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Teacher Man, Frank McCourt
2. Our Endangered Values, Jimmy Carter
3. The Year of Magical Thinking,Joan Didion
4. Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin
5. The Elements of Style Illustrated, William Strunk, et al.
6. The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman
7. A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
8. The River of Doubt, Candice Millard
9. The Truth (With Jokes), Al Franken
10. Marley & Me, John Grogan

MASS MARKET

1. The Broker, John Grisham
2. Red Lily, Nora Roberts
3. Jarhead, Anthony Swofford (order here)
4. Whiteout, Ken Follett
5. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th Edition, Merriam-Webster (Eds.)
6. State of Fear, Michael Crichton
7. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
8. Chainfire, Terry Goodkind
9. A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin
10. Worth More Dead (True Cases Vol. 10), Ann Rule

CHILDREN'S (FICTION AND ILLUSTRATED)

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
2. The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events #12), Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist (Illus.)
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
4. Eragon, Christopher Paolini (order here)
5. Fairyopolis, Cicely Mary Barker
6. Inkspell, Cornelia Funke
7. A Family of Poems, Caroline Kennedy, Jon J. Muth (Illus.)
8. Stranger in the Woods, Carl R. Sams II, Jean Stoick
9. Dog Train, Sandra Boynton
10. Winter's Tale, Robert Sabuda