Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 56 minutes ago
"On rare occasions I read a book that reminds me of why I fell in love with storytelling in the first place. This is such a book." ―Stephen King
Peter Blauner's epic Picture in the Sand is a sweeping intergenerational saga told through a grandfather's passionate letters to his grandson, passing on the story of his political rebellion in 1950s Egypt in order to save his grandson's life in a post-9/11 world.
When Alex Hassan gets accepted to an Ivy League university, his middle-class Egyptian-American family is filled with pride and excitement. But that joy turns to shock when they discover that he’s run off to the Middle East to join a holy war instead. When he refuses to communicate with everyone else, his loving grandfather Ali emails him one last plea. If Alex will stay in touch, his grandfather will share with Alex – and only Alex – a manuscript containing the secret story of his own life that he’s kept hidden from his family, until now.
It's the tale of his romantic and heartbreaking past rooted in Hollywood and the post-revolutionary Egypt of the 1950s, when young Ali was a movie fanatic who attained a dream job working for the legendary director Cecil B. DeMille on the set of his epic film, The Ten Commandments. But Ali’s vision of a golden future as an American movie mogul gets upended when he is unwittingly caught up in a web of politics, espionage, and real-life events that change the course of history.
It's a narrative he’s told no one for more than a half-century. But now he’s forced to unearth the past to save a young man who’s about to make the same tragic mistakes he made so long ago.
"Blauner’s epic is a triumph. Aaffirms, like Scheherazade, that stories can save us."
—David Duchovny
“A richly imagined, propulsive and timely novel... vividly drawn.” —Marisa Silver
"Great storytelling, a coming-of-age tale with a love story at its heart.... an inspired idea skillfully executed." —Kirkus Reviews
Available Wherever Books Are Sold
Order Your Copy Now: bit.ly/PictureintheSandBookTrailer
"On rare occasions I read a book that reminds me of why I fell in love with storytelling in the first place. This is such a book." ―Stephen King
Peter Blauner's epic Picture in the Sand is a sweeping intergenerational saga told through a grandfather's passionate letters to his grandson, passing on the story of his political rebellion in 1950s Egypt in order to save his grandson's life in a post-9/11 world.
When Alex Hassan gets accepted to an Ivy League university, his middle-class Egyptian-American family is filled with pride and excitement. But that joy turns to shock when they discover that he’s run off to the Middle East to join a holy war instead. When he refuses to communicate with everyone else, his loving grandfather Ali emails him one last plea. If Alex will stay in touch, his grandfather will share with Alex – and only Alex – a manuscript containing the secret story of his own life that he’s kept hidden from his family, until now.
It's the tale of his romantic and heartbreaking past rooted in Hollywood and the post-revolutionary Egypt of the 1950s, when young Ali was a movie fanatic who attained a dream job working for the legendary director Cecil B. DeMille on the set of his epic film, The Ten Commandments. But Ali’s vision of a golden future as an American movie mogul gets upended when he is unwittingly caught up in a web of politics, espionage, and real-life events that change the course of history.
It's a narrative he’s told no one for more than a half-century. But now he’s forced to unearth the past to save a young man who’s about to make the same tragic mistakes he made so long ago.
"Blauner’s epic is a triumph. Aaffirms, like Scheherazade, that stories can save us."
—David Duchovny
“A richly imagined, propulsive and timely novel... vividly drawn.” —Marisa Silver
"Great storytelling, a coming-of-age tale with a love story at its heart.... an inspired idea skillfully executed." —Kirkus Reviews
Available Wherever Books Are Sold
Order Your Copy Now: bit.ly/PictureintheSandBookTrailer



![Mind Games by Nora Roberts: Book Trailer
The #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Identity presents a suspenseful new novel of tragedy and trauma, love and family, and the evil that awaits.
As they do each June, the Foxes have driven the winding roads of Appalachia to drop off their children for a two-week stay at their grandmother’s. Here, twelve-year-old Thea can run free and breathe in the smells of pine and fresh bread and Grammie’s handmade candles. But as her parents head back to suburban Virginia, they have no idea they’re about to cross paths with a ticking time bomb.
Back in Kentucky, Thea and her grandmother Lucy both awaken from the same nightmare. And though the two have never discussed the special kind of sight they share, they know as soon as their tearful eyes meet that something terrible has happened.
The kids will be staying with Grammie now in Redbud Hollow, and thanks to Thea’s vision, their parents’ killer will spend his life in supermax. Over time, Thea will make friends, build a career, find love. But that ability to see into minds and souls still lurks within her, and though Grammie calls it a gift, it feels more like a curse―because the inmate who shattered her childhood has the same ability. Thea can hear his twisted thoughts and witness his evil acts from miles away. He knows it, and hungers for vengeance. A long, silent battle will be waged between them―and eventually bring them face to face, and head to head…
Fans of Roberts’ enticing brand of storytelling will find everything they crave in her latest polished thriller, including compelling characters, an evocative, richly realized setting, and a captivating plot enlivened a generous dash of romance and just the right measure of nerve-jangling, nail-biting suspense. You don’t have to be a mind reader to predict Roberts’ latest will soon be on reserve and best-seller lists all around the country. —Booklist
Roberts’ latest may move you to tears, or joy, or dread, or all three . . . A touching story of love and grief ends in an epic battle of good versus evil. —Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Roberts fans will get what they came for: there’s no shortage of romance, [or] cliffhangers. —Publishers Weekly
Available Wherever Books Are Sold
Order Your Copy Now: https://bit.ly/MindGamesBookTrailer Mind Games by Nora Roberts: Book Trailer](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w7d6XP6Enxk/mqdefault.jpg)






