Showing results by author "A. Brun" in All Categories

Harrison Kohl, newly appointed Director of the CIA’s Special Activities Center, faces an impossible assignment: acquire the plans for China’s new long-range, superfast torpedo. As Commander Janet Everett, commanding officer of the USS Illinois, tracks the Chinese Navy from under the waves of the South China Sea, Kohl’s team makes a risky move to recruit an asset from the Chinese development team. They find only more bad news: the new weapon is far more advanced than they realized. The Chinese are preparing to test-fire the torpedo, proving its power to the world.

When China launches a blitz attack on the island of Taiwan, the world order hangs in the balance, and the CIA must mobilize all forces to prevent the start of World War III. But in order to win, the US is forced to throw out the old playbook. What is required here is speed, audacity, and the application of the most advanced technology in the US arsenal. As the head of the CIA’s Emerging Threats Group, Don Riley has seen his share of crises, but nothing has prepared him for the choices ahead.

When mercenaries attack in Eastern Ukraine, the world is thrust into turmoil. Russian President Luchnik is quick to respond, launching a full-scale military invasion to quell this “national emergency” in the former Soviet country. The United States, reluctant to put boots on the ground in yet another regional conflict, takes a different path. President Serrano hires Sentinel Holdings, a private military contractor, to hold back the Russian threat. Don Riley, head of the CIA’s Emerging Threats Group, sees trouble ahead.

Read award-winning journalist Frank Bruni's New York Times bestseller: an inspiring manifesto about everything wrong with today's frenzied college admissions process and how to make the most of your college years. Over the last few decades, Americans have turned college admissions into a...

Don Riley, head of the CIA’s Emerging Threats Group, has never seen anything like this. Riley and his team are tasked with identifying national security threats before they become tomorrow’s bad news. But shortly after an Iranian vessel delivers a surprise attack to a US Navy Warship in the Arabian Gulf, a series of seemingly unrelated attacks crop up around the globe.

Large-scale organizational transformations usually don't work. What originally starts as a way of improving an organization becomes an all-consuming distraction, a value-destroying set of activities that, even as it becomes clear they will fail, must be completed at any cost. But there is a better way: becoming an Octopus Organization.

In the wake of a global crisis, a covert action team goes to work on behalf of an enemy of the United States. When a failed assassination attempt on the Russian President rocks the global stage, U.S. President Eleanor Cashman, a hardline Russia hawk, faces a brutal decision: watch a nuclear-armed Russia destabilize, or prop up a weakened Russian leader to prevent the collapse.

From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can - visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous.

Ian Thomas is supposed to be dead. An international terrorist responsible for the bombing of the US Naval War College, he's been deceased for three years. But Don Riley, head of the CIA’s Emerging Threats Group, is staring at a social media post showing him to be very much alive and on the run in South America. The video of Thomas sparks a global hunt: The Americans want to bring him to justice. The Chinese want him to disappear. And the Russians want to kill him very, very slowly. But the world's most powerful nations aren't the only ones pursuing the most wanted man on the planet.

On the eve of the invasion, five nuclear devices are smuggled out of Iraq and hidden in the most unlikely of places—neighboring Iran. Now, as the threat of WMDs fades into a late-night punch line, a hardline splinter group waits for the perfect moment to unleash nuclear terror. When Navy SEAL Brendan McHugh captures a mysterious Iranian diplomat on a raid, it feels all wrong. While the official rules of engagement say he must release the diplomat, that doesn't stop McHugh from investigating further.

Cruise ship crew have it hard. Cruise ship rock stars have it harder! Bruns is back to expose the high seas art world. In this hilarious sequel he vividly describes his ship life highs and lows, misadventures, mis-flirtations and, through it all, his astute insights into human nature.

"In Rules of Engagement, David Bruns and J. R. Olson deliver a captivating and utterly authentic portrayal of modern day combat that compares with the best of the timeless classics by Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, and Stephen Coonts. This one must not be missed!" —Mark Greaney, #1 New York Times...

With war looming dangerously close, Ilse’s school days soon turn to lessons of survival. In the harshness of winter, her family must join the largest exodus in human history to survive. As battle lines are drawn and East Prussia’s borders vanish beneath them, they leave their farm and all they know behind for an uncertain future. But Ilse also has Janusz, her family’s young Polish laborer, by her side. As they flee from the Soviet army, his enchanting folktales keep her mind off the cold, the hunger, and the horrors unfolding around them.

In Cruise Confidential, Brian David Bruns spills the dirt - or, in this case, the dirty water - on those romantic, fun-filled vacations at sea. His hilarious chronicle of the year he spent working for Carnival Cruise Lines takes listeners down into the areas where the crew works and lives, leaving listeners gasping with laughter as they're assaulted nonstop with events that range from the absurd to the utterly bizarre. Stewards fighting over food. Cutlery allowances and other nonsensical rules.

From New York Times columnist and bestselling author Frank Bruni comes “a book about vision loss that becomes testimony to human courage, a moving memoir that offers perspective, comfort, and hope” (Booklist, starred review). One morning in late 2017, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni...

Following their military defeat in the Battle of Taiwan, China opens a new front in the struggle for geopolitical supremacy. As China's Belt and Road Initiative brings together the final pieces of a 1000-mile rail and road connection between China and Tehran, a series of terrorist attacks rock the fractious states of Central Asia. A declining Russia, an isolated India, and a rising Iran all have a stake in the region. But who is behind the mysterious attacks?

When FBI Special Agent Liz Soroush leads a raid on a local Minneapolis night club to capture a suspected terrorist recruiter, she ends up with a dead suspect and a community up in arms. But instead of a reprimand, she gets promoted to run a brand-new Joint Terrorism Task Force. The new threat is “jihadist mobilization”, young people in Minneapolis being radicalized to fight for terrorist groups like Al-Shabab and ISIS. As Liz digs deeper into the shadowy world of homegrown radicalism, she realizes the real threat has been in plain sight all along.

Metallica, who are unparalleled in the hard rock market, have sold well over 30 million albums. They are a band that refused to compromise. They have stuck to what they know, and they have abided by their own rules.

To effectively combat the rise of global terrorism, the US military must now rely on more than traditional weapons and tactics. Don Riley of the US Cyber Command is given charge of a brand new effort: A new team in the CIA Operations Directorate called Emerging Threats. To establish this team he recruits three talented recent commissioned naval officers - Janet Everett, Michael Goodwin, and Andrea Ramirez - and together they uncover a new terrorist group.

Rose and Elmer have created an idyllic sanctuary for themselves and their five daughters in Mexico's Baja California desert. Out there in the middle of nowhere, blissfully cut off from the burdens of modern society, they're free to raise their beautiful family...and preserve its secret.