Bøger af Mark Strauss

It is twenty years into the future, PERCS, J-picts, G-belts, and other prevailing communication devices emit harmful wavicles that threaten to cause a worldwide cataclysm. A group of Americans on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land tries to resist the onslaught of electronic emissions with a bit of help from a heavenly messenger sent from Celestia. But will their human efforts be enough to reverse the dangers of an ever-increasing electronic environment? Readers will enjoy this satirical science fiction novel and the questions it provokes about human behavior and the use of information technology. Although the events in the novel surrounding Google personnel or Google as an institution are fictitious, the novel explores a pertinent question surrounding the actions of the pixel giant of the twenty-first century: Does Google know best?

This is a story of a man, a woman and chickens. Laty is an alluring and seductive woman from Central America who, in the middle of her life, scratches out a living in a rural valley of Virginia. Henry, a former Catholic priest who has maintained his ideal of humanity, is seeking peace toward the end of his life. Chickens bring the two together. Their forged relationship suits their individual needs. Henry lusts for Laty, and Laty wants Henry for his friendship and personal favors. Each struggles to be free of the past. Only one succeeds. As their lives play out, billions of birds are raised and processed in the valley to be consumed throughout the world. Did you have a piece of fried chicken today? Then you might have played a role in this story of a priest, a woman...and chickens.

It was 1941 when Germany struck Poland. I was thirteen, practically fourteen. Donia was fifteen. I was Jewish. Donia was a Polish Catholic. The ensuing three-year German occupation and its aftermath brought torment and murder to us-to me, to Donia, and to the rest of the Jews and even some of the non-Jews who lived with us in our apartment house in the medieval city of Lwow. That period was indescribably sordid and cruel for us, yet love was also our portion. From its opening pages, Mark Strauss pulls us into the drama of World War II Poland as witnessed by the young Jewish boy, Edek Edelman. Decades have passed and Dr. Edward Edelman, now stricken by a terminal illness, spends his final days in a nursing home recalling an epoch of terrifying fear and widespread butchery interwoven with moments of tender compassion and sexual awakening. Four Plus Five is a page-turner that hols us spellbound from beginning to end.

Benito Adolfo de Alvarado is brutally murdered in the old town of Antigua, yet his body disappears. His cousin Luigi vanishes from a luxurious hotel near Maya National Park. During their inquiry, the investigators become aware of more gruesome deaths in the Alvarado Family lineage, some tracing back hundreds of years to the Spanish Conquest of Guatemala. In the brutal times of Mayan subjugation, one fearsome conquistador, Don Pedro de Alvarado, was so barbaric in his inhumanity that his tyranny was reported to the Holy Roman Emperor himself. Now, many years later, there is a trail of blood and death that haunts the Alvarado family. In the old historic sites of Guatemala, the vengeful ghosts of the wronged people seek their revenge on the Alvarados. Solving these killings drives the inquiry from the ruins of Mayan culture to the old Capital of Antigua. Can the Alvarado Family ever find sanctuary from the grim hand of vengeance?