In The Emerald Horizon, Cornelia Mutel combines lyrical writing with meticulous scientific research to portray the environmental past, present, and future of Iowa. In doing so, she ties all of Iowa's natural features into one comprehensive whole. Since so much of the tallgrass state has been transformed into an agricultural landscape, Mutel focuses on understanding today’s natural environment by understanding yesterday’s changes. After summarizing the geological, archaeological, and ecological features that shaped Iowa’s modern landscape, she recreates the once-wild native communities that existed prior to Euroamerican settlement. Next she examines the dramatic changes that overtook native plant and animal communities as Iowa’s prairies, woodlands, and wetlands were transformed. Finally she presents realistic techniques for restoring native species and ecological processes as well as a broad variety of ways in which Iowans can reconnect with the natural world. Throughout, in addition to the many illustrations commissioned for this book, she offers careful scientific exposition, a strong sense of respect for the land, and encouragement to protect the future by learning from the past. The “emerald prairie” that “gleamed and shone to the horizon’s edge,” as botanist Thomas Macbride described it in 1895, has vanished. Cornelia Mutel’s passionate dedication to restoring this damaged landscape—and by extension the transformed landscape of the entire Corn Belt—invigorates her blend of natural history and human history. Believing that citizens who are knowledgeable about native species, communities, and ecological processes will better care for them, she gives us hope—and sound suggestions—for the future.

Charlie Diamond’s back in the final book of the series. She’s ready for her next adventure even though she feels more lost than ever before. She’s met some incredible people who have changed her life, and feels she’s getting closer than ever to finding guilt-free happiness. Read the book fans are saying they can’t put down. We begin this next adventure on Catalina Island in the city of Avalon. Charlie decides she’s going to move to the island and become a fisherwoman for the rest of all time. She’s not sure how she’s going to accomplish this, but all she knows for sure is she needs to repair her heart after losing her baby and the man she thought she’d love forever. As soon as Charlie steps onto the island she meets Mona who will change her life . . . next comes Jason and his irresistible niece Makayla. Can she resist this island and all of the people who don’t know the meaning of a personal bubble? Or will she leave? Part two of the book begins with Charlie sitting in Ireland, but her restful peace doesn’t last long before she’s pulled to Seattle where she meets a man larger than life, and another who first saves her, then sets her free. Who's the man Charlie gets to live with forever? Each of the journeys Charlie's been on in the past ten years has been essential to who she is now. She finally gets her happy ending. Will it be the same one you’d choose for her? Or will you close the book in tears? There’s only one way to find out.

Berlin, 1944 Ariella Bannon is being hunted. Someone is determined to betray her as a Jew, but she has survived against incredible odds, and the end is in sight. She will be reunited with her precious children, no matter what it takes. Meanwhile, Liesl and Erich have found a home in Ireland away from the chaos of war-ravaged Europe. As the dark news of what has happened to the Jews filters through, they are torn - love for their mother and their home on one hand, and the profound sense of peace and belonging they have in Ballycreggan on the other. Like all of the other children who escaped Nazi territory on the Kindertransport, they must wait to hear the fate of their loved ones. For their foster parents, Elizabeth and Daniel, their dearest wish, that Ariella would survive the war, is also their deepest fear. Would her return mean the loss of the children they have come to think of as their own? As the Third Reich crumbles under relentless Allied bombs, Ariella is careful, but Berlin is a very dangerous place to be, and somebody knows she survived. Can she take one last enormous risk to be reunited with Liesl and Erich or will her betrayer see her finally captured? The Emerald Horizon is the long awaited sequel to the best-seller, The Star and the Shamrock.

Steinbock (a senior advisor for the Institute for Mobile Market Research) provides a global overview of successful strategies, policies, and innovations in the most developed (i.e. "globalized") wireless technologies markets since the 1980s. After identifying globalization drivers and technology innovators, he analyzes recent industry evolution. He discusses the strategies of the leading equipment manufacturers, as well as enablers and service providers. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Something bad happened to Matinicus "Matt" Hawkins in Afghanistan. The ex-SEAL was grievously wounded in an ambush that killed men under his command and almost ended his life. When he pushed for an investigation, he was kicked out of the Navy with a psychiatric discharge. The doctors put his shattered leg back together, but the bitterness destroyed his marriage. Five years later, Hawkins is jerked out of his tranquil life as a designer of undersea robots. A super-secret government group wants him to go back to Afghanistan on a strange and dangerous mission. A Georgetown University historian has unearthed evidence that could lead to the fabulous treasure of Prester John, a legendary Christian ruler of an eastern empire. The historian has disappeared, and the government wants Hawkins to track down the treasure as a matter of national security. The centerpiece of the trove, an emerald-encrusted gold scepter, is the linchpin in the Prophet's Necklace, code-name for a plot that is intended to kill more people than the attack on the Twin Towers and rally others to the terrorist cause. Hawkins sees his mission to foil the plot as an opportunity to search for answers. He pulls together an eclectic team that includes his ex-wife, a former comrade-in-arms and a mentally unstable computer whiz. Backed by his unlikely team, Hawkins will travel thousands of miles and hundreds of years on an amazing time-space odyssey. He'll face off against a cold-blooded killer. Probe the underwater secrets of an ancient tomb. Navigate the treacherous stands of an unimaginable conspiracy. And in the process, will discover that there are treasures even more valuable than gold.

Charlie Diamond was raised by incredible parents in Prairie Town, Oregon where everyone knows their neighbors and a kid can't get away with anything. To top that off, her father is the small town's preacher, making her nearly untouchable. But that doesn't stop one boy from crossing the line in the sand her father has drawn. Bentley Lawrence III has also been born and raised in Prairie Town as well. As a matter of fact, he's from four generations back, and his family owns a huge ranch, and logging land that employees most of the town. Bentley's twin sister, Stephanie Lawrence is best friends with Charlie, and somewhere between kindergarten and high school Bentley has fallen madly in love with Charlie. Sometimes, though, love just isn't enough, not when unbearable tragedy hits when that seems an insufferable possibility. When Charlie's world falls out from beneath her, a deathbed promise, and a loving best friend, sends Charlie on a whirlwind to find herself and live the dreams she promised Bentley she'd live.

Phoenix Reinhard lives in Luminar, one of Osiren's five great cities. These cities are rumored to be protecting religious emeralds used to lift a curse their Protectors' had cast upon them. They had been forgotten long ago until Luminar was destroyed in search of this artifact. Twelve years later, Phoenix assumes responsibility of protecting the remaining cities from those planning to collect all five. He quickly learns there is more to his religion than he ever believed.