About this product: "This book is an episodic log of some of the more memorable of (the author's) nearly 10,000 hours aloft in peace and in war. It is also an attempt to define by example his belief in the phenomenon of luck-- that the pattern of anyone's fate is only partly contrived by the individual."--The New Yorker.
About this product: Suppressed by the KGB, Life and Fate is a rich and vivid account of what the Second World War meant to the Soviet Union.
On its completion in 1960, Life and Fate was suppressed by the KGB. Twenty years later, the novel was smuggled out of the Soviet Union on microfilm. At the centre of this epic novel looms the battle of Stalingrad. Within a world torn apart by ideological tyranny and war, Grossman’s characters must work out their destinies. Chief among these are the members of the Shaposhnikov family – Lyudmila, a mother destroyed by grief for her dead son; Viktor, her scientist-husband who falls victim to anti-semitism; and Yevgenia, forced to choose between her love for the courageous tank-commander Novikov and her duty to her former husband. Life and Fate is one of the great Russian novels of the 20th century, and the richest and most vivid account there is of what the Second World War meant to the Soviet Union.
About this product: The compelling new novel in the national bestselling “superior fantasy series” (Publishers Weekly).
National bestselling author Sharon Shinn’s “lyrical and entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews) Twelve Houses books have captivated readers and critics alike with their irresistible cocktail of fantasy, romance, and adventure. Now Shinn returns with a new novel set in the same world, where a troubled Warrior Rider named Wen faces her greatest challenge in the last place she ever expected: behind the walls of a great family estate known as Fortune, where Wen has been hired to guard the young heiress. Once there, she will find that fate has other plans for her…
Fifty years ago, as Europe's colonial powers withdrew, Africa moved with enormous hope and fervor toward democracy and economic independence. Dozens of new states were launched amid much jubilation and the world's applause. African leaders, popularly elected, stepped forward to tackle the problems of development and nation-building. In the Cold War era, the new states excited the attention of the superpowers. Africa was considered too valuable a prize to lose.
Today, Africa is a continent rife with disease, death, and devastation. Most African countries are effectively bankrupt, prone to civil strife, subject to dictatorial rule, and dependent on Western assistance for survival. The sum of Africa's misfortunes — its wars, its despotisms, its corruption, its droughts — is truly daunting.
What went wrong? What happened to this vast continent, so rich in resources, culture and history, to bring it so close to destitution and despair in the space of two generations?
Focusing on the key personalities, events and themes of the independence era, Martin Meredith's riveting narrative history seeks to explore and explain the myriad problems that Africa has faced in the past half-century, and faces still. From the giddy enthusiasm of the 1960s to the "coming of tyrants" and rapid decline, The Fate of Africa is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how it came to this — and what, if anything, is to be done.
About this product: "Six minutes from now, one of us would be dead. None of us knew it was coming."
So says Wes Holloway, a young presidential aide, about the day he put Ron Boyle, the chief executive's oldest friend, into the president's limousine. By the trip's end, a crazed assassin would permanently disfigure Wes and kill Boyle. Now, eight years later, Boyle has been spotted alive. Trying to figure out what really happened takes Wes back into disturbing secrets buried in Freemason history, a decade-old presidential crossword puzzle, and a two-hundred-year-old code invented by Thomas Jefferson that conceals secrets worth dying for.
About this product: A gripping biological detective story that uncovers the myth, mystery, and endangered fate of the world’s most humble fruit
To most people, a banana is a banana: a simple yellow fruit. Americans eat more bananas than apples and oranges combined. In others parts of the world, bananas are what keep millions of people alive. But for all its ubiquity, the banana is surprisingly mysterious; nobody knows how bananas evolved or exactly where they originated. Rich cultural lore surrounds the fruit: In ancient translations of the Bible, the “apple” consumed by Eve is actually a banana (it makes sense, doesn’t it?). Entire Central American nations have been said to rise and fall over the banana.
But the biggest mystery about the banana today is whether it will survive. A seedless fruit with a unique reproductive system, every banana is a genetic duplicate of the next, and therefore susceptible to the same blights. Today’s yellow banana, the Cavendish, is increasingly threatened by such a blight—and there’s no cure in sight.
Banana combines a pop-science journey around the globe, a fascinating tale of an iconic American business enterprise, and a look into the alternately tragic and hilarious banana subculture (one does exist)—ultimately taking us to the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes, in a race to save the world’s most beloved fruit.
About this product: Amy Tan begins The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings, a collection of essays that spans her literary career, on a humorous note; she is troubled that her life and novels have become the subject of a "Cliff’s Notes" abridgement. Reading the little yellow booklet, she discovers that her work is seen as complex and rich with symbolism. However, Tan assures her readers that she has no lofty, literary intentions in writing her novels--she writes for herself, and insists that the recurring patterns and themes that critics find in them are entirely their own making. This self-deprecating stance, coupled with Tan’s own clarification of her intentions, makes The Opposite of Fate feel like an extended, private conversation with the author.
Tan manages to find grace and frequent comedy in her sometimes painful life, and she takes great pleasure in being a celebrity. "Midlife Confidential" brings readers on tour with Tan and the rest of the leather-clad writers’ rock band, the Rock-Bottom Remainders. And "Angst and the Second Book" is a brutally honest, frequently hysterical reflection on Tan’s self-conscious attempts to follow the success of The Joy Luck Club.
In a collection so diverse and spanning such a long period of time, inevitably some of the pieces feel dated or repetitious. Yet, Tan comes off as a remarkably humble and sane woman, and the book works well both to fill in her biography and to clarify the boundaries between her life and her fiction. In her final, title essay, Tan juxtaposes her personal struggles against a persistent disease with the nation’s struggles against terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11. She declares her transformative, artistic power over tragedy, reflecting: "As a storyteller, I know that if I don’t like the ending, I can write a better one." --Patrick O’Kelley
About this product: Despite the historical consensus that Hitler killed himself at the end of World War II, there still linger many unanswered questions and doubts. In this well-researched book, Baumann, a survivor of World War II himself, paints a vivid picture of the last days of the German dictator Adolf Hitler, and provides answers to such compelling questions as: Was the Russian leader J. Stalin telling the truth when he told U.S. President Harry Truman and others that Hitler had escaped? Why was it that the Russians never found the corpses of Hitler or Eva Braun? If Hitler shot himself in the right temple (as is claimed), why do the Russians exhibit what is claimed to be Hitler's cranium, showing a bullet hole in the back of his head? Why did the Russians refuse to allow the Western Allies to see Hitler's presumed autopsy report? Why did the Russians exhibit the corpse of Hitler's double, believing it to be the real thing? What was the reason for the disagreement between the Russian military intelligence (SMERSH) and the Russian secret state police (NKVD) regarding Hitler? For what reason did Hitler's plane land in Barcelona, Spain, on April 27, 1945, three days before the alleged suicide? Why did three German submarines land at the coast of southern Argentina more than two months after the end of World War II? H. D. Baumann, an established author, exposes the rumors, politically-inspired falsehoods, criminal mischief, false leads, and conspiracies revolving around the last days of the most despised person of the twentieth century. His fascinating and cogent reconstruction of the closing scenes in the drama of the Third Reich gives us all the forensic detail needed to plant sufficient doubt in our minds that Trevor-Roper's and other accounts of Hitler's suicide may not be wholly accurate.
About this product: I'm not surprised that A Fate Worse Than Death by Gregory and Susan Michno has fallen between the cracks in terms of being publicized. We live in such a "PC" world that any book that contradicts the "noble savage" theory, even if based on fact, is largely ignored. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but admiration for native Americans. I have studied Custer and the LBH Battle most of my adult life and have a significant library on the subject. As a culture living in the wilderness under sometimes harsh circumstances and as fighters the American indian is unsurpassed.
A Fate Worse Than Death examines real cases of captivity of whites by indians. It is unvarnished and may even shock. The brutality of frontier life is displayed for anyone who wants to look.
Gregory Michno's The Mystery of E Troop is unsurpassed. I suspect A Fate Worse Than Death will be equally regarded.
About this product: When high school student and amateur mechanic Shiro Emiya discovers that his foster father had been a magi, he decides to follow in his footsteps, despite his father's protestations and Shiro's lack of natural talent. Little does he know that a war is waging among the magi, and that he is about to become its focal point.
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