Books published by Open Road Media

Hamilton Speke is a successful playwright and composer-an extraordinary creative force. He lives and works on an estate south of San Francisco, secure in a woodland sanctuary where, to his surprise, he receives a visitor from his past, an old friend and former partner. Then everything changed. Speke''s life of celebrity and vision is ruptured by bloodshed and insanity, in a world where it''s revealed that no one, and no career, is far from danger.

San Francisco architect Stratton Fields has just discovered that a contest was rigged against him and that the man who engineered the cheat, Ty DeVere, is determined to keep Stratton from success. But when Stratton''s enemies, including Ty, start dying mysteriously-and Stratton encounters several apparitions-he wonders if he unknowingly made a deal with a supernatural force. Or maybe he murdered these people himself and has no memory of his deeds. Stratton must confront both the humans and the spirits who are causing mayhem to discover the destructive truth.

Red Patterson is a TV psychiatrist, a video force, and a famous healer. His newest patient, Curtis Newns, is an artist with a damaged soul. Red is so intrigued by Curtis that he seeks to separate the artist and his wife and claim Curtis''s creative talent as his own. He decides to hold troubled, talented Curtis in his desert estate, where the macabre secrets of Red''s life are waiting to be unearthed. Set in the San Francisco Bay Area and the California desert, this is a story of love pitted against corruption-the essential battle of our time.

Paul Wright''s family sends him to find his cousin, a photographer whose subjects have become increasingly macabre. Paul investigates Len''s last known address, a cabin in California''s Napa Valley, only to discover the frightening and sinister truth behind his cousin''s obsession with the past.

San Francisco Bay Area archaeologist Davis Lowry has everything-success, a fascinating profession-but he is troubled by a bout of sleepwalking. For a change of scenery, he travels to York, England, where a bog man has been unearthed. A series of macabre accidents plague the site, and Davis finds himself enmeshed in a modern-day horror with roots in the bloody past.

Maddy and Clark never had much-just each other, the kids, and a never-sink spirit. When Maddy enters a jingle contest and wins a trip for two to Venice and half a million dollars, they''re singing for joy. But sudden change can be a mixed blessing . . .

Meg and Don, a.k.a. the Dauntless Duncans, give up their high-powered legal life in Washington, D.C., when they inherit a houseboat in Key West. It''s all renewed romance and conch fritters until Meg saves a little girl from drowning-awakening a maternal longing she never expected to feel.

Eileen Connor hopes that a demanding bilingual job at an ad agency in Geneva will help her forget the man who broke her heart in New York. Instead, she falls in love with architect Matt Edwards-all too likely to be another disastrous choice.

Swinging golf pro meets icy blond Connecticut country-club widow. Fore!

This series of interconnected dramatic monologues illustrates the true stories of frontier women and children who were stranded on and settled along the trails to the West. Spanning the school year 1889-90, we follow the intimate day-to-day lives of a school teacher, her students, and their parents in the mythical town of Cottonwood.

Three months ago, a cosmic storm entered Earth''s atmosphere, mystifying scientists with its unprecedented side effect: those who have died and chosen not to cross over are suddenly palpable, and can interact with the living. The "Impals" are embraced by their loved ones, but persecuted by those who fear them. The government''s solution is to send them "back" using the Tesla Gate-which could destroy the soul. When Major Cecil Garrison tries to rescue Thomas Pendleton and his son, Seth, from this fate, he finds himself imprisoned by his own father, General Ott Garrison. After a daring escape, Cecil joins the Myriad Resistance, a movement to save the Impals from what most consider a government sanctioned holocaust. Tragedy strikes just as the Impals start their dangerous exodus to Europe beneath the murky waters of the Chesapeake Bay. And this is only the beginning, as the eye of the storm envelopes the Earth-bringing darkness and horror beyond imagination . . .

In this collection of eloquent and moving essays, Ana Veciana-Suarez explores many of the topics closest to our hearts. In "Stitchwork," she expresses her mixed feelings about a mother who devotes all of her attention to her family. In the title essay, she examines, with unflinching honesty, the loss of her first husband, then gives us a humorous and compelling account of her remarriage in "Second Time Around." Veciana-Suarez offers wise reflections on everything from the bond between sisters to the anxiety of swimsuit shopping season. By turns witty and big-hearted, poignant and defiant, these essays open a door to the ways one woman and her extended family cope with both the joys and heartbreaks of life.

In this lyrical novel set in a Cuban-American neighborhood in Miami, three generations of women face an unexpected-and ultimately life-changing-trial. When Maribel, an overly cautious and orderly market analyst, gives birth to a severely handicapped baby, her mother, Adela, and her grandmother Cuca must put aside their differences to fill his short life with love. This means more than just a shift in attitude for Cuca, who speaks regularly to her deceased husband, and for Adela, a middle-aged beautician with a penchant for the lottery and her friend's husband. Poetic and poignant, spiritual and deeply human, The Chin Kiss King explores the resiliency of mothers, the power of love, the hopefulness of redemption, and the meaning of faith in an unforgettable story of family and the ties that bind.

The year is 1893, and Pearl Ryan, a young woman with a checkered past, arrives in Ruby City, a silver mining town full of scoundrels-one to which no respectable woman would ever travel. Pearl sets up shop as the town laundress, but is clearly no ordinary charwoman: She is courted by many and the local doctor often solicits her assistance as his nurse. Pearl's dream is to attend medical school-not a small feat for a woman alone in the Wild West-and hopes that the proceeds from her newly inherited mining claim will pay for her education. Meanwhile, laundry is her bread and butter. As laundress, however, Pearl is privy to many secrets she'd rather not know. As a student of the healing arts, she recognizes the symptoms of poisoning when she sees them. And as a woman with a past she'd rather keep hidden, she must solve the murders plaguing Ruby City before US marshals arrive.

This saga chronicles the lives and fortunes of four generations of women in the York family, from the Russian occupation of Alaska to the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Detailing the triumphs and trials of what became a dynasty of fish and timber barons during a crucial century in Alaska's history, the novel opens with teenage Nadia Karimoff, a half-Russian, half-Native American orphan living in Sitka, being kidnapped and sold to a mysterious Yankee named Noah York.

When Washington Territory was created, the narrow, isolated Okanogan River Valley was considered a wasteland and an Indian reservation, the Chief Joseph Reserve, was established there. But when silver was discovered near what became Ruby City, the land was re-appropriated, and the Native Americans were moved to a more confined area. The Okanogan was then opened up to white homesteaders, with the hope of making the area more attractive to miners.   The interconnected dramatic monologues in Oh How Can I Keep On Singing? are the stories of the forgotten women who settled the Okanogan in the late nineteenth century, arriving by horse-drawn cart to a place that purported to have such fine weather that a barn was unnecessary for raising livestock. Not all of the newcomers survived the cattle-killing winter of 1893. Of those who did, some would not have survived if the indigenous people had not helped them.

Spanning the years 1853–1933—beginning with conveyance by oxcart and ending with air travel—this series of dramatic monologues tells the story of Helen Walsh and Thomas Hodgson, whose families trekked the trails of the great migration to the West. Helen and Thomas get married, and together, tame the remote corners of the wilderness by means of their imperishable love and a clear, well-beaten path.

An early collection of Kahlil Gibran's writings, showcasing the many styles of this prolific thinker, all profoundly beautiful Kahlil Gibran reveals his vision of the soul and understanding of the world-past, present, and future-in this rich sampling of more than twenty works. Prose tales, fables, and poems evoke the mystic East and form a world at once powerful, tender, joyous, and melancholy. This collection, penned when Gibran was still a young writer, reveals many of the themes and styles plumbed throughout his life, including his lifelong struggle against injustice in "The Crucified," his heart-wrenching lament for a Lebanon shackled by tradition and politics in "My Countrymen," and his masterful use of symbolism and simile in "The Secrets of the Heart." A writer with infinite abilities, Gibran continually seeks true beauty, no matter the form.

In this semi-autobiographical novel, an American named Roland Lancaster has a doomed affair with a younger woman, Elsa, in Cuba during World War II. The love story, in its happiest moments, parallels the idyllic life that author John Dos Passos had with his first wife, Katy. The Great Days plots a key concern of the author''s in the 1950s-America''s rise to global prominence during World War II, and its loss of power in the years following the peace. In preparing the novel, Dos Passos studied James V. Forrestal, Secretary of Defense from 1947 to 1949. In his notes on the novel, he quotes Forrestal: "to achieve accommodation between the power we now possess, our reluctance to use it positively, the realistic necessity for such use, and our national ideals."

In a novel that closely parallels author John Dos Passos''s own ideological struggles during the Spanish Civil War, protagonist Glenn Spotswood, an American, travels to Spain to fight on the Republican side. There, Spotswood joins the Communist Party to help establish a more just society, but his idealism quickly degrades under the stress of party orthodoxy and hypocrisy.

John Dos Passos''s literary response to Franklin Delano Roosevelt''s New Deal, The Grand Design critiques the gargantuan growth of bureaucracy in Washington during the Great Depression and World War II. The satiric novel conveys the author''s frustration with federal overreach and the hollow rhetoric that sells it to the people. "War is a time of Caesars," writes Dos Passos as he laments the death of idealistic, intelligent enterprises at the desks of elitist administrators. After witnessing the Spanish Civil War claim so many well-intentioned men, he advises caution for America''s New Dealers: "Some things we have learned, but not enough; there is more to learn. Today we must learn to found again in freedom our republic."

Two men are involved in a car crash: Brad dies, and Danny-who can''t stand the thought of living without him-kills himself, convinced that with so little time having elapsed between their deaths, he''ll be able to catch up to Brad on his way to Judgment. The novel becomes a modern Pilgrim''s Progress, detailing the tests inseparable from a journey through purgatory.

A provocative collection of letters to his longtime friend and translator that spans Einstein''s career and reveals the inner thoughts and daily life of a transformative geniusFrom their early days as tutor and scholar discussing philosophy over Spartan dinners to their work together to publish Einstein''s books in Europe, in Maurice Solovine, Einstein found both an engaged mind and a loyal friend. While Einstein frequently shared his observations on science, politics, philosophy, and religion in his correspondence with Solovine, he was just as likely to express his feelings about everyday life-his health and the effects of aging and his experiences in the various places where he settled and visited in his long career. The letters are both funny and frank, and taken together, reflect the changes-large and small-that took place over a half century and in the remarkable life of the world''s foremost scientist.Published in English alongside the German text and accompanied by facsimile copies of the original letters, the collected Letters to Solovine offers scholar and interested reader alike unprecedented access to the personal life of Albert Einstein.This authorized Philosophical Library book features a new introduction by Neil Berger, PhD, and an illustrated biography of Albert Einstein, which includes rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem."Men are even more susceptible to suggestion than horses, and each period is dominated by a mood, with the result that most men fail to see the tyrant who rules over them." -Albert Einstein, Princeton, April 10, 1938Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was born in Germany and became an American citizen in 1934. A world-famous theoretical physicist, he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics and is renowned for his Theory of Relativity. In addition to his scientific work, Einstein was an influential humanist who spoke widely about politics, ethics, and social causes. After leaving Europe, Einstein taught at Princeton University. His theories were instrumental in shaping the atomic age.Neil Berger, an associate professor emeritus of mathematics, taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science department from 1968 until his retirement in 2001. He was the recipient of the first Monroe H. Martin Prize (1975), which is now awarded by the University of Maryland every five years for a singly authored outstanding applied mathematics research paper. He has published numerous papers and reviews in his fields of expertise, which include elasticity, tensor analysis, scattering theory, and fluid mechanics.

A lively collection of Einstein''s groundbreaking scientific correspondence on modern physicsImagine getting four of the greatest minds of modern physics in a room together to explain and debate the theories and innovations of their day. This is the fascinating experience of reading Letters on Wave Mechanics, the correspondence between H. A. Lorentz, Max Planck, Erwin Schr├╢dinger, and Albert Einstein.These remarkable letters illuminate not only the basis of Schr├╢dinger''s work in wave mechanics, but also how great scientific minds debated and challenged the ever-changing theories of the day and ultimately embraced an elegant solution to the riddles of quantum theory. Their collected correspondence offers insight into both the personalities and professional aspirations that played a part in this theoretical breakthrough.This authorized Philosophical Library book features rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem."You are the only contemporary physicist, besides Laue, who sees that one cannot get around the assumption of reality-if only one is honest. Most of them simply do not see what sort of risky game they are playing with reality-reality as something independent of what is experimentally established." -Albert Einstein to Erwin Schr├╢dinger"I am as convinced as ever that the wave representation of matter is an incomplete representation of the state of affairs, no matter how practically useful it has proved itself to be." -Albert Einstein to Erwin Schr├╢dingerAlbert Einstein (1879-1955) was born in Germany and became an American citizen in 1934. A world-famous theoretical physicist, he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics and is renowned for his Theory of Relativity. In addition to his scientific work, Einstein was an influential humanist who spoke widely about politics, ethics, and social causes. After leaving Europe, Einstein taught at Princeton University. His theories were instrumental in shaping the atomic age.

After a chance meeting in 1981, Lily Fialka confronts the defining time of her life: 1943–45 in Los Alamos, when her physicist husband, Peter, worked on the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project—a time of isolation, hard work, temptation, and loneliness, yet exhilaration and triumph; when great breakthroughs were made, but lives felt narrow; when loyalty was paramount, but the need for secrecy created unbearable tension. At the same time, Lily and her friends are haunted by what is happening to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Resistance in Germany, and his story serves as a counterpoint to theirs. In a sweeping historical novel that cuts across continents and reveals a deep knowledge of the science of the making of the bomb, Beginning the World Again offers valuable insights into that fascinating time.

Pregnant with her first child, Diny Branson is haunted by her mother's death years ago in the Hudson River. Was it suicide or accident? Slowly, Diny weaves the many threads of Lise's tragic life-from a fairyland youth to a happy marriage, then through the travails of losing a child. Diny learns how the forces of history, like the coming Holocaust, inflict losses, such as loss of language, that create other more subtle losses-and how the forces of nature, like the majestic Hudson, can be both threat and comfort.

Are there really second chances? It is the 1970s and Mady Glazer is trying to hold herself and her three children together after the shocking death of her charismatic husband, David, in a plane crash. When they finally go on vacation to Racer's Cove at the eastern end of Long Island, they meet Hans Panneman, a bachelor and potter, who was brought up in Africa, whose father was an avid Nazi, and who escaped his earlier life by settling here and leading the quietest of lives. They could not be more different, more representative of "the other," as Mady is reminded by her extended Jewish family when she finds herself drawn to this quiet, puzzling man. Yet, love and ease sometimes come where we least expect them.

When a girl with a cockscomb of pink hair, wearing a red balloon skirt and army boots, drops off a surprise "gift" during Bradley and Janie's wedding, a saga of chaotic hilarity is set in motion. Who is the baby cooing beneath the folds of tissue paper in the Bloomingdale's bag? Will the CEO of an internationally successful pet products corporation take him in? What about Maxine, from the famous advice column "Dear Maxine," who is a dating disaster? Perhaps there had been a mistake at the sperm bank where the receptionist plays her own version of Sex in the City. Maybe the father of the "groom" at a Yorkshire terrier wedding will provide a haven for this bundle in a bag. Or will the hard-hearted social worker take the baby away from them all?

Present day: A major mob bust going down. The FBI pulls back surveillance, a killer flees. There's slaughter in the 'burbs of Chicago; a murderer heads downtown. Why did he do it? Where is he going? Above all, what will he do next? Detective Wallace Greer and his partner, Romar Jones, are hot on the killer's trail. They give chase through the Gold Coast and its tony restaurants, under the El in the East Loop, by Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, following the evidence, but always slightly behind; bodies mark the route. Five days in a cold Chicago winter. Motives collide. Psyches split. There's no rest, no time; it's all angles and action. They have to head off the killer, prevent killings too close to home. But can they catch him? Kill him? There's only one way to find out.

In February of 1973, Nancy Weber put an ad in the Village Voice offering to trade places with another woman, a stranger, for a month. In hopes of better understanding what was fixed and final in each person-and what was invented, and therefore might be reinvented-they would use each other''s names, live in each other''s homes, love each other''s loves, and do each other''s work. After interviewing many of the fascinating women who answered the ad, Weber-single (with a longtime lover) and straight-chose a polyamorous, bisexual, married psychologist and academic, the pseudonymous Micki Wrangler. They spent five months getting ready for their adventure-cajoling their nearest and dearest into participating, exchanging thousands of details, and swapping deep secrets. But, instead of a month, their wild ride lasted only a week. Wrangler was having a rough time (and Weber too good a time, maybe) so they decided to call things off. Wanting The Life Swap to convey more than her own experience, Weber invited Wrangler and ten others to enrich the book with their uncensored reports. Publicity for the book included stints on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and To Tell the Truth. The book achieved a kind of cult status, in part because it''s a relic of 1970s sexual openness (cruelly destroyed by HIV/AIDS) and belief in the right of self-invention. Recent critics have credited the book with inspiring life swap reality TV shows and several popular novels and films.