In more than twenty years, Jon Frost has worked with the mad, the bad, the brave, the stupid, the spectacular and the heroic. In his time as a uniformed officer Jon seized presidential aircraft, a working tank, cars, lorries, boats and coffins; and uncovered wild animals, killer snakes, bush meat, animal porn, poisonous vodka, dodgy medicine, bootleg prescriptions, pirated pills, toxic alcohol, firearms, side-arms, swords, explosives, stolen gold, dirty money, blood diamonds, child pornography and every drug known to man and a few as yet unknown ones. And the dead? He searched them too. When you’ve confiscated everything from a suitcase full human hair to a live monkey hidden in the lining of someone’s overcoat, you know you can never return to a normal line of work. But then Jon went into undercover customs work, and things became really interesting . . .

“Julia Alvarez has suitcases full of history (public and private), trunks full of insights into what it means to be a Latina in the United States, bags full of literary wisdom.” —Los Angeles Times From the internationally acclaimed author of the bestselling novels In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents comes a rich and revealing work of nonfiction capturing the life and mind of an artist as she knits together the dual themes of coming to America and becoming a writer. The twenty-four confessional, evocative essays that make up Something to Declare are divided into two parts. “Customs” includes Alvarez’s memories of her family’s life in the Dominican Republic, fleeing from Trujillo’s dictatorship, and arriving in America when she was ten years old. She examines the effects of exile--surviving the shock of New York City life; yearning to fit in; training her tongue (and her mind) to speak English; and watching the Miss America pageant for clues about American-style beauty. The second half, “Declarations,” celebrates her passion for words and the writing life. She lets us watch as she struggles with her art--searching for a subject for her next novel, confronting her characters, facing her family’s anger when she invades their privacy, reflecting on the writers who influenced her, and continually honing her craft. The winner of the National Medal of Arts for her extraordinary storytelling, Julia Alvarez here offers essays that are an inspiring gift to readers and writers everywhere. “This beautiful collection of essays . . . traces a process of personal reconciliation with insight, humor, and quiet power.” —San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle “Reading Julia Alvarez’s new collection of essays is like curling up with a glass of wine in one hand and the phone in the other, listening to a bighearted, wisecracking friend share the hard-earned wisdom about family, identity, and the art of writing.” —People Julia Alvarez’s new novel, Afterlife, is available now.

A collection of essays on France from Julian Barnes. Written over a 20 year period, the topics Barnes covers range from landscape to literature, food to flaubert, film and song to the Tour de France.

Six young Englishmen contribute their various skills to the realization of a clever smuggling racket. They invite holiday makers to take a yachting cruise up the River Rhine to Switzerland. While the travellers are enjoying a few days ashore, before the return journey, illegal consignments of watches are smuggled aboard. Just as immense profits seem assured, a blackmail letter is received. To the crime of smuggling the young men then add the crime of murder, but even this proves not enough to secure their safety. It is up to Inspector French to unravel the threads with his usual flair.

As a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, in 1963, he will be forced to confront again the nightmarethat has haunted his adult life: a lethal unfinished operation code-named Declare. From the corridors of Whitehall to the Arabian desert, from post-war Berlin to the streets of Cold War Moscow, Hale's desperate quest draws him into international politics and gritty espionage tradecraft -- and inexorably drives Hale, the fiery and beautiful Communist agent Elena Teresa Ceniza-Bendiga, and Kim Philby, mysterious traitor to the British cause, to a deadly confrontation on the high glaciers of Mount Ararat, in the very shadow of the fabulous and perilous Ark.

"I reserve my 'Top Scores' for exceptional work, to give them freely would be to devalue and waste them. finally, a book worth the wait," writes Kate Fox of Heartland Reviews. "Mr. Kraus' tale of smuggler Thomas Breck is a work of literary art. His characters, plot, setting, and dialogue are all top notch." "Cleverly and artistically written. Nothing To Declare is not your ordinary mystery novel. It's a thriller with first-class traits," writes Jennie Bev, The Book Review Club. "The murder, international underworld, unsolved crime and enigmatic ambience create an unforgettable setting. A mystery novel that is a literary piece in itself."

Celebrating 50 years since the passage of the Customs Act of 1962, this book describes the functions of the Indian customs institution. It provides information about the role India's customs plays in facilitating international trade, enforcing prohibitions and restrictions on the import and export of goods, preventing smuggling and drug trafficking, and ensuring public health, economic security, and national safety. It also contains photographs that reveal the past, evolution, and international role of Indian customs.

Embrace God's blessings every morning and experience the glory of His promises with thirty-one powerful Scripture lessons based on a regular, favorite feature of Joel Osteen's sermons at Lakewood Church. Broken into thirty-one segments, this book defines the most powerful blessings in Scripture and encourages readers to declare one each day for a month. The declarations will affirm God's blessings in the area of health, family legacy, decisions, finances, thoughts, outlook, and overcoming obstacles.