Norman Dietz
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In the Bales-McCord family there are several old people contemplating their final resting places. Two of them--Glenn and Laura Bales--are in bad shape, and everybody is wondering which one will go first. Join them in Summerlin as they attend to the business of passing on--and passing down. A BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB SELECTION. Clyde Edgerton is the author of eight novels, five of which have been New York Times Notables. He is a professor of creative...
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In the bloodiest island combat of World War II, one group of men risked it all to fight from behind Japanese lines The Solomon Islands was where the Allied war machine finally broke the Japanese empire. As pilots, marines, and sailors fought for supremacy in Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and the Slot, a lonely group of radio operators occupied the Solomon Islands' highest points. Sometimes encamped in comfort, sometimes exposed to the elements, these...
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Lord's stunning account of the War of 1812, when a young nation won its independence once and for all At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the great powers of Western Europe treated the United States like a disobedient child. Great Britain blocked American trade, seized its vessels, and impressed its sailors to serve in the Royal Navy. America's complaints were ignored, and the humiliation continued until James Madison, the country's fourth president,...
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"Red Sky at Morning is a minor marvel: it is a novel of paradox, of identity, of an overwhelming YES to life that embraces with wonder what we are pleased to call the human condition. In short, a work of art." - Harper Lee
Hailed by the Washington Post Book World as "a sort of Catcher in the Rye out West," Richard Bradford's Red Sky at Morning is the classic coming-of-age story set during World War II about the enduring spirit of youth...
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Besieged by General Santa Anna's five thousand troops, a handful of Texans fought for liberty in the face of overwhelming odds Looking out over the walls of the whitewashed Alamo, sweltering in the intense sun of a February heat wave, Colonel William Travis knew his small garrison had little chance of holding back the Mexican army. Even after a call for reinforcements brought dozens of Texans determined to fight for their fledgling republic, the cause...
26) The Wanderer
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The Wanderer inspires feelings of pure terror in the hearts of the five billion human beings inhabiting Planet Earth. The presence of an alien planet causes increasingly severe tragedies and chaos. However, one man stands apart from the mass of frightened humanity. For him, the legendary Wanderer is a mere tale of bizarre alien domination and human submission. His conception of the Wanderer bleeds into unrequited love for the mysterious "she" who...
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Paul Theroux's first collection of essays and articles devoted entirely to travel writing, FRESH AIR FIEND touches down on five continents and floats through most seas in between to deliver a literary adventure of the first order, with the incomparable Paul Theroux as a guide. From the crisp quiet of a solitary week spent in the snowbound Maine woods to the expectant chaos of Hong Kong on the eve of the Hand-over, Theroux demonstrates how the traveling...
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Outgunned and outmanned on the Pacific Ocean, a small American fleet defied the odds and turned the tide of World War II On the morning of June 4, 1942, doom sailed on Midway. Hoping to put itself within striking distance of Hawaii and California, the Japanese navy planned an ambush that would obliterate the remnants of the American Pacific fleet. On paper, the Americans had no chance of winning. They had fewer ships, slower fighters, and almost no...
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Heinrich involves us in his quest to get inside the mind of the raven. But as animals can only be spied on by getting quite close, Heinrich adopts ravens, thereby becoming a "raven father," as well as observing them in their natural habitat. He studies their daily routines, and in the process, paints a vivid picture of the ravens' world. At the heart of this book are Heinrich's love and respect for these complex and engaging creatures, and through...
30) The Crossing
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Fast's gripping account of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River and the Battle of Trenton, which changed the course of the American Revolution Immortalized on canvas by Emanuel Leutze, Washington's journey across the Delaware River is one of the most celebrated moments in American history. But the true story of the crossing, and of what came after, is often lost in the legend. In The Crossing, Fast writes with striking historical detail...
31) The Last Noel
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Award-winning author Michael Malone's The Last Noel is a beautiful gift to American fiction. In a deeply touching tale, The Last Noel captures the exuberance and poignancy of a lasting friendship between a man and a woman from very different backgrounds. Noni Tilden and Kaye King grow up and grow close as their lives come dramatically together through four decades of tumultuous change in a small southern town. The story begins in 1963 when Kaye first...
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A riveting new account of Theodore Roosevelt's impassioned crusade for military preparedness as America fitfully stumbles into World War I, spectacularly punctuated by his unique tongue-lashings of the vacillating Woodrow Wilson, his rousing advocacy of a masculine, pro-Allied "Americanism," a death-defying compulsion for personal front-line combat, a gingerly rapprochement with GOP power brokers-and, yes, perhaps, even another presidential campaign.
Roosevelt...
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In this fascinating history, Jeffrey Rothfeder tells how, from a simple idea-the outgrowth of a handful of peppers planted on an isolated island on the Gulf of Mexico-a secretive family business emerged that would produce one of the best-known products in the world. A delectable and satisfying read for both Tabasco fans and business buffs, McIlhenny's Gold is the untold story of the continuing success of an eccentric, private company; a lively history...
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Friedrich Engels is one of the most intriguing and contradictory figures of the nineteenth century. Born to a prosperous mercantile family, he spent his life enjoying the comfortable existence of a Victorian gentleman; yet he was at the same time the co-author of The Communist Manifesto, a ruthless political tactician, and the man who sacrificed his best years so that Karl Marx could have the freedom to write. Although his contributions are frequently...
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"A terrific biography….The dramatic story of how the American army that beat the British was forged has never been better told than in this remarkable book."
-Doris Kearns Goodwin, New York Times bestselling author of Team of Rivals
The true story of the Baron de Steuben and the making of the American Army, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge is the first biography in half a century of the immigrant Prussian soldier who molded George Washington's...
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In 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It was a feat that had never been accomplished and one that would forever change the face of sailing. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death.
In this extraordinary book, Peter Nichols chronicles a contest of...
37) Random Walk
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In Roseburg, Oregon, a bartender walks off his job and heads east with no destination in mind. The Cascades are in his way, but he doesn't let that stop him.
He keeps walking. And other people are moved to join him, and as they walk the group generates a sort of collective energy, and unexpected things happen. Miraculous things, you might say.
Meanwhile, in Kansas, a perfectly respectable real estate professional loses his temper with a prostitute...
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On the one hand, we have traditional science, based on the premises of materialism, reductionism, and randomness, with a belief that reality consists solely of matter and energy, that everything can be measured in the laboratory or observed by a telescope. If it can't, it doesn't exist. On the other hand, we have traditional religious dogma concerning God that fails to take into account evolution, a 4. 6 billion-year-old Earth, and the conflicting...
39) James Madison
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James Madison led one of the most influential and prolific lives in American history, and his story, although all too often overshadowed by his more celebrated contemporaries, is integral to that of the nation. Madison helped to shape our country as perhaps no other Founder: collaborating on the Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights, resisting government overreach by assembling one of the nation's first political parties (the Republicans, who became...