Phillip Margulies Boeken

In the home where Arabella Godwin was raised it is forbidden to speak her name, and her picture is turned to the wall. But in the turbulent America of the 1850s, everyone knows her as "Belle Cora," madam of San Francisco's finest bordello. Judges and senators do her bidding; a vicious newspaper editor plots her downfall; a preacher looks at her from across his pulpit and tries to forget that once she was his wife. Merchant's daughter, farm girl, prostitute, mother, madam, murderess, avenger, protector—she has worn all these masks: the only thing that never changes is her tireless pursuit of the one man who can see her for who she really is.

A negligent captain, a reckless decision, frozen waters, a treacherous reef--all created the largest oil spill and perhaps the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. The grounding of the Exxon Valdez upon Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and the resulting spill and mismanaged cleanup of 240,000 barrels of oil were not, however, simply due to a series of mistakes and bad decisions on board the tanker. The disaster was made possible by the greed of oil industry executives, politicians, government bureaucrats, and Alaskan taxpayers who became blinded to environmental and safety concerns.

Looks at the disease known as West Nile fever caused by West Nile virus, tracing its history to the present and predicting its future.