Winter 2003

Nick Hunt pays homage to Patrick Leigh Fermor by walking the same route across Europe in this "glorious book."

Annotation Colorado's Thirteeners is a comprehensive hiking and climbing guide to Colorado's 59 major peaks between 13,800 and 13,999 feet in elevation -- some of the most beautiful in the state.

From an award-winning author: A novel of the fierce Norse warrior who would become the lusty and powerful Viking king Harald Hardrede. At seventeen, Harald Sigurdharson—one day to be called Hardrede—tastes the bitter nectar of blood and battle for the first time, and from that day forward he will forever crave the intoxicating brew of war. Though he knows it is his destiny to conquer and to rule, he is still young and the throne he covets is beyond his grasp. In the meantime, the wide world beckons. Setting out from Norway after a great series of mercenary adventures in Sweden and Russia, the now towering seven-foot-tall Harald arrives at Constantinople on the Golden Horn. In the heart of an empire choking on its own intrigues and excesses, as a member of the Varangian Guard—the foreign warriors entrusted with the safety of the Byzantine emperor—and a tireless suitor to an enticing beauty from a powerful clan, Harald carves out his legend in flesh, bone, and blood. But his true path stretches to the other side of the world, for he must ultimately return to Norway, his homeland, to claim his royal birthright. A winner of multiple awards including the Hugo and Nebula, author Poul Anderson begins an epic trilogy of historical fiction with this novel, bringing to life the eleventh-century conqueror who was known as the last Viking.

Alan Llewellyn--teacher, sleuth or spy? If you asked him, he'd probably tell you "It depends." In "Snow on the Golden Horn," a beautiful young artist is kidnapped and a colleague asks Alan to help find her. What starts as a cold trail heats up rapidly as Alan follows clues leading him to the ancient splendor of Istanbul, the ghosts of Gallipoli and the sun-drenched, decadent splendor of Turkey's Turquoise Coast. Alan keeps his day job at Augustine Washington High School but confronts crises that are a ton more violent than kid fights in the cafeteria in the terrifying attempt to rescue the beautiful artist from the global grasp of the Russian Mafia.

Reproduction of the original: From the Lakes of Killarney To the Golden Horn by Henry M. Field

Planning to travel to Istanbul and want to know what adventures will await you? Already been and want to know more? "Inside Out In Istanbul" is a collection of short stories about life in Istanbul by author Lisa Morrow. Lisa first went to Turkey in 1990, where she stayed in the small village of Göreme for three months during the Gulf War. Since that time she has travelled back and forth between Turkey and Australia many times, living and working in Istanbul and Kayseri in central Turkey, before finally settling for good in Istanbul. The stories in this collection take you beyond the world famous sights of Istanbul to the shores of Asia, to an Istanbul that is vibrantly alive with the sounds of street vendors, wedding parties, weekly markets and more. Come behind the tourist façades and venture deep into this sometimes chaotic, often schizophrenic but always charming city.

The war at Troy has raged for ten years. Its final throes will echo through eternity… 1258 BC: Surrounded and outnumbered by the army of Agamemnon, King Priam and his Trojan forces fight desperately to defend their city. In the lulls between battle, all talk inevitably turns to the mighty ally that has not yet arrived to their aid. Agamemnon will weep for mercy, the Trojans say, when the eastern horizons darken with the endless ranks of the Hittite Empire. King Hattu has endured a miserable time since claiming the Hittite throne. Vassals distance themselves while rival empires circle, mocking him as an illegitimate king. Worst of all, the army of the Hittites is but a memory, destroyed in the civil war that won him the throne. Knowing that he must honour his empire’s oath to protect Troy, he sets off for Priam’s city with almost nothing, praying that the dreams he has endured since his youth – of Troy in ruins – can be thwarted. All the way, an ancient mantra rings in his head: Hittites should always heed their dreams.