David Baldacci was born in 1960 in Virginia where he currently resides. He received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. Mr. Baldacci practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C., as both a trial and corporate lawyer.

David Baldacci has published eight novels: Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth, Saving Faith, Wish You Well, Last Man Standing, and The Christmas Train. He has also published a novella for the Dutch entitled Office Hours, written for Holland's Year 2000 "Month of the Thriller." He was the featured writer for the year's celebration.

Avi 

Sitting down to read a book by Avi is like visiting a wise and trusted friend; you know that whatever he wants to talk about, you'll come away informed, entertained and looking forward to your next meeting. Avi's imagination roams far and wide, and his award-winning books have earned him millions of young fans. His last effort, The Good Dog, dealt with the world of dogs and men in a Colorado town. Crispin: The Cross of Lead, his new book for young readers, has a radically different milieu - that of an orphaned boy in medieval England.

Liz Allison, the widow of the late Davey Allison, knows what it takes to be a driver's wife. Her very personal look into the lives of NASCAR's greatest drivers makes this book a must for every race fan. Liz uses her passion for writing and for NASCAR racing to bring this insiders look into the Sunday drivers and the remarkable women beside them. Ths book is filled with insightful stories and never before published photos from their personal collections.

In the coldest reaches of Minnesota, a group of women endured a shocking degree of sexual harassment – until one of them stepped forward and sued the company that had turned a blind eye to their pleas for help. Jenson vs. The Eveleth Mines, the first sexual harassment class action in America, permanently changed the legal landscape as well as the lives of the women who fought the battle.

Clara Bingham is a former White House correspondent for Newsweek and wrote Women on the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Congress. She has written for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Washington Monthly. She is a graduate of Harvard University.

Like the pivotal clue in a Conan Doyle story, the American porch hides itself in plain sight. In careful, spirited prose, Dolan relates the colorful and surprising history of the porch, starting with the ancient Greeks. Dolan shows how the porch evolved into an icon of Americana, from plantation days to the new urbanism. Dolan's inspirations for his book came from his restoration of his own porch on his 1926 bungalow.

Michael Dolan has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and other publications. His documentary script and productions credits include many television programs aired by National Geographic Explorer and the Discovery Channel. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Plastic surgeon, Jackson Mabrey is a young resident in reconstructive plastic surgery at a California hospital. His life is suddenly shattered when the woman he loves is brutally assaulted, her disfigured body badly burned and left for dead. As he and other doctors try to save her life and restore her physically, the fractures in Jackson's own life begin to break apart dramatically. This harrowing experience will either destroy him, or lead, ultimately, to his salvation.

Josh Gilder is a free-lance writer currently serving as the Senior Director of The White House Writers Group. He was a Senior Speechwriter to Vice President George Bush, then became Senior Speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. He also served as a consultant for President George Bush. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

When Walt Harrington was first invited to Kentucky to hunt with his African-American father-in-law and his country friends, he was a high flying reporter for The Washington Post with a distaste for killing animals. But over the next twelve years of hunting with the good ol' boys, he entered a world of life, death, nature and manhood that came to be beautiful in a way his experience in Washington was not.

This book shares the lessons that led Harrington to leave the city - the joy of small moments and the old fashioned belief that a man's actions mean more than his words. Walt Harrington was a staff writer for The Washington Post for nearly fifteen years. Mr. Harrington is now a professor of journalism at the University of Illinois.

In her rich and nuanced debut novel, Haven Kimmel brings to life two irresistible people at odds with their small-town lives and with each other. Langston Braverman does not come home to Indiana to search for a simple life. She is nursing a bruised heart. It does not escape her that the town is abuzz with the death of her childhood friend, Alice. Just down the street is Amos Townsend, a preacher obsessed with Alice's death and struggling with his role as a spiritual leader, and a profound crisis of faith.

Amos and Langston become adversaries in the attempts to protect Alice's two small girls, failing to recognize that they are on the same side. Haven Kimmel is the author of the memoir A Girl Named Zippy. She studied English and creative writing at Ball State University and North Carolina State University. She also attended the seminary at the Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Married for 20 years to the Reverend Benjamin Lynch, a handsome, ambitious minister of the prestigious Methodist church, Dean Lynch has never quite adjusted her temperament to the demands of the role of a Sunday wife. When her husband is assigned to a larger and more demanding community, Dean becomes fast friends with August, a woman whose good looks and extravagant habits immediately entrance her.

As their friendship evolves, Augusta challenges Dean to break free from her traditional role as the preacher's wife. Just as Dean is questioning everything she has always valued, a tragedy occurs, providing the catalyst for change in ways she never could have imagined. Cassandra King was born in Alabama, where she taught college-level English and writing. She now lives in South Carolina with her husband, author Pat Conroy.

Stock car racing is more popular than ever, with NASCAR races now on network TV and among the country's best-attended sporting events. This fact-filled, full-color book offers the inside scoop on all of the NASCAR Winston Cup tracks as well as detailed maps, history, lore, specifications and behind the scenes looks at each track. It also includes information on the rules and regulations, the changing technology of racing, and the tactics appropriate for driving on every NASCAR track.

Bob Latford served as chief statistician for CBS NASCAR coverage from 1979-2000. He developed the Championship point system currently used in all Winston Cup events. He lives in Concord, North Carolina.

You may be the next Hank Williams, Mozart, and Bob Dylan all rolled into one, but if the right people don't hear the songs you've written, then the best you can hope for is to be an undiscovered genius. Written by one of Country Music's most successful songwriters, this is a guide for aspiring songwriters with the information they need to enter a highly competitive world. It tells what to do, and maybe more importantly, what not to do.

Kelley Lovelace is an award winning songwriter who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the co-author with Brad Paisley of the book and the song He Didn't Have to Be. He is the songwriter of the hits Two People Fell in Love and Wrapped Around.

This is the first book that looks at how the U.S. House of Representatives really works, by drawing on the insights and experiences of former members. Chapters address every aspect of life in the House, from running for Congress to the impact on family life. The reader is taken behind the bare bones outline of how Congress works and how a bill gets passed, to look at how real people, your friends and neighbors, react and act when they are in the toughest political league in the world - the United States Congress.

Romano Mazzoli graduated from Notre Dame University and the University of Louisville. Following 27 years of public service, including 24 years in the U. S. House of Representatives, Congressman Mazzoli joined the Brandeis School of Law as Senior Distinguished Fellow in 1998. His teaching interests include legislation and immigration. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Elise, a young woman with a mysteriously ill son, returns to her childhood home years after running away with a lover. Now destitute, she begins to search for a object hidden in the house, which has been is a state of disrepair since her mother's untimely death. Her father is frail and often dreaming, so it falls to Elise's sister known as "Aunt" to maintain family order. Unraveled by alcohol and her own longing for escape, Aunt is further disturbed by the child's illness and his mother's irresponsibility. Aunt struggles to take care of the child. Meanwhile, Elise continues her search, with consequences that will alter Aunt's life irrevocably.

Dawn Raffel is the executive articles editor of O, The Oprah Magazine and the former fiction editor at Redbook. Her work has been published in a variety of periodicals and has been widely anthologized. Her first book, In the Year of Long Division, was published to critical acclaim. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Jacob Smith, a prominent black lawyer and political and civil rights leader in New York in the segregated 1950s, was assassinated when his son, Jock, was eight years old. This memoir tells of a child's loving remembrance and a desire to follow in his father's footsteps. It reveals the success of Jock Smith who grew up to become a lawyer himself, a college professor, one of the first African-American assistant attorneys general in Alabama, a sports agent and inspirational speaker.

Jock Smith is a national partner to superlawyer, Johnnie Cochran. He lives in Montgomery.

This book recounts Steinman's tenure as head of the NBC Bureau in Saigon from April 1966 until July 1968. During this period, television journalists learned how to report war in a distinctly new way: through the eye of a camera on the front line, in the countryside, and in cities, towns, and villages. The experience of a living-room war was new, and its effects are still being felt today.

This book is a behind-the-scenes look at how the Vietnam conflict influenced young journalists, and how their coverage of the war influenced the American public. Ron Steinman is partner, producer, director, and writer at Douglas/Steinman Productions in New York City.