The First Emperor of China

The First Emperor In 1974, Chinese peasants made the discovery of the century... Thousands of terracotta soldiers guarding the tomb of a tyrant. Ying Zheng was born to rule the world, claiming descent from gods, crowned king while still a child.

Blind Descent

Blind Descent by Nevada Barr

Forced to cope with her claustrophobia and to use all the skills she has developed above ground, park ranger Anna Pigeon enters the dangerous Lechuguilla Cavern in New Mexico's Carlsbad Cavern National Park to attempt a rescue and learns who she can trust and who can be saved.

James Baldwin Go Tell It on the Mountain

Semiautobiographical novel by James Baldwin, published in 1953. Based on the author's experiences as a teenaged preacher in a small revivalist church, the novel describes two days and a long night in the life of the Grimes family, particularly the 14-year-old John and his stepfather Gabriel. It is a classic of contemporary African-American literature. Baldwin's description of John's descent into the depths of his young soul was hailed as brilliant, as was his exploration of Gabriel's complex sorrows. The novel teems with biblical references. 

The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky

   Written in 1864, this novel is the first and strangest of Dostoevsky's masterpieces - and the source of those that followed. Violating literary conventions in ways never before attempted, this classic tells of a mid-19th-century Russian official's breakaway from society and descent "underground". The painfully awkward civil servant, Mr. Golyadkin, encounters a man who is his double in every way...