Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific

Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific Review

Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific Overview

An unvarnished and moving memoir of a Marine veteran who fought his way across the Pacific Theater of World War II-whose story is featured in the upcoming HBO(r) series The Pacific

This is an eyewitness-and eye-opening-account of some of the most savage and brutal fighting in the war against Japan, told from the perspective of a young Texan who volunteered for the Marine Corps to escape a life as a traveling salesman. R.V. Burgin enlisted at the age of twenty, and with his sharp intelligence and earnest work ethic, climbed the ranks from a green private to a seasoned sergeant. Along the way, he shouldered a rifle as a member of a mortar squad. He saw friends die-and enemies killed. He saw scenes he wanted to forget but never did-from enemy snipers who tied themselves to branches in the highest trees, to ambushes along narrow jungle trails, to the abandoned corpses of hara kiri victims, to the final howling banzai attacks as the Japanese embraced their inevitable defeat.

An unforgettable narrative of a young Marine in combat, Islands of the Damned brings to life the hell that was the Pacific War.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 30, 2011 23:25:04

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre Review

Jane Eyre Overview

Jane Eyre is a famous and influential novel by English writer Charlotte Bronte. It was published in London, England in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell". The American edition came out the following year published by Harper & Brothers of New York. Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the title character. The novel goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations; her time as the governess of Thornfield Manor, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End (or Moor House) and Morton, where her cold clergyman-cousin St John Rivers proposes to her; and her reunion with and marriage to her beloved Rochester. Partly autobiographical, the novel abounds with social criticism. It is a novel considered ahead of its time. In spite of the dark, brooding elements, it has a strong sense of right and wrong, of morality at its core.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 23, 2011 18:15:04

Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs

Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs Review

Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs Overview

The moving tribute to the young man Oprah Winfrey called "an inspiration"-told by the woman who raised him.

Mattie Stepanek's Heartsongs books were a phenomenon. Not only did they hit the bestseller lists, but the books-and Mattie himself- were a source of inspiration to many, and brought him major recognition. Jimmy Carter described young Mattie Stepanek as "the most remarkable person I have ever known."

In Messenger, Jeni Stepanek shares the inspiring story of her son's life. Mattie was born with a rare disorder called Dysautonomic Mitochondrial Myopathy, and Jeni was advised to institutionalize him. Instead, she nurtured a child who transformed his hardships into a worldwide message of peace and hope. Though Mattie suffered through his disease, his mother's disabilities, and the loss of his three older siblings, he never abandoned his positive spirit. His Heartsong- the word he used to describe a person's inner self-spread a philosophy that peace begins with an attitude and can spread to the entire world.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 21, 2011 14:55:05

An American Life: The Autobiography

An American Life: The Autobiography Review

An American Life: The Autobiography Overview

Ronald Reagan’s autobiography is a work of major historical importance. Here, in his own words, is the story of his life—public and private—told in a book both frank and compellingly readable.

Few presidents have accomplished more, or been so effective in changing the direction of government in ways that are both fundamental and lasting, than Ronald Reagan. Certainly no president has more dramatically raised the American spirit, or done so much to restore national strength and self-confidence.

Here, then, is a truly American success story—a great and inspiring one. From modest beginnings as the son of a shoe salesman in Tampico, Illinois, Ronald Reagan achieved first a distinguished career in Hollywood and then, as governor of California and as president of the most powerful nation in the world, a career of public service unique in our history.

Ronald Reagan’s account of that rise is told here with all the uncompromising candor, modesty, and wit that made him perhaps the most able communicator ever to occupy the White House, and also with the sense of drama of a gifted natural storyteller.

He tells us, with warmth and pride, of his early years and of the elements that made him, in later life, a leader of such stubborn integrity, courage, and clear-minded optimism. Reading the account of this childhood, we understand how his parents, struggling to make ends meet despite family problems and the rigors of the Depression, shaped his belief in the virtues of American life—the need to help others, the desire to get ahead and to get things done, the deep trust in the basic goodness, values, and sense of justice of the American people—virtues that few presidents have expressed more eloquently than Ronald Reagan.

With absolute authority and a keen eye for the details and the anecdotes that humanize history, Ronald Reagan takes the reader behind the scenes of his extraordinary career, from his first political experiences as president of the Screen Actors Guild (including his first meeting with a beautiful young actress who was later to become Nancy Reagan) to such high points of his presidency as the November 1985 Geneva meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, during which Reagan invited the Soviet leader outside for a breath of fresh air and then took him off for a walk and a man-to-man chat, without aides, that set the course for arms reduction and charted the end of the Cold War.

Here he reveals what went on behind his decision to enter politics and run for the governorship of California, the speech nominating Barry Goldwater that first made Reagan a national political figure, his race for the presidency, his relations with the members of his own cabinet, and his frustrations with Congress.

He gives us the details of the great themes and dramatic crises of his eight years in office, from Lebanon to Grenada, from the struggle to achieve arms control to tax reform, from Iran-Contra to the visits abroad that did so much to reestablish the United States in the eyes of the world as a friendly and peaceful power. His narrative is full of insights, from the unseen dangers of Gorbachev’s first visit to the United States to Reagan’s own personal correspondence with major foreign leaders, as well as his innermost feelings about life in the White House, the assassination attempt, his family—and the enduring love between himself and Mrs. Reagan.

An American Life is a warm, richly detailed, and deeply human book, a brilliant self-portrait, a significant work of history.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 18, 2011 00:20:08

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World Review

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World Overview

The Blue Sweater is the inspiring story of a woman who left a career in international banking to spend her life on a quest to understand global poverty and find powerful new ways of tackling it. It all started back home in Virginia, with the blue sweater, a gift that quickly became her prized possession—until the day she outgrew it and gave it away to Goodwill. Eleven years later in Africa, she spotted a young boy wearing that very sweater, with her name still on the tag inside. That the sweater had made its trek all the way to Rwanda was ample evidence, she thought, of how we are all connected, how our actions—and inaction—touch people every day across the globe, people we may never know or meet.

From her first stumbling efforts as a young idealist venturing forth in Africa to the creation of the trailblazing organization she runs today, Novogratz tells gripping stories with unforgettable characters—women dancing in a Nairobi slum, unwed mothers starting a bakery, courageous survivors of the Rwandan genocide, entrepreneurs building services for the poor against impossible odds.

 

She shows, in ways both hilarious and heartbreaking, how traditional charity often fails, but how a new form of philanthropic investing called "patient capital" can help make people self-sufficient and can change millions of lives. More than just an autobiography or a how-to guide to addressing poverty, The Blue Sweater is a call to action that challenges us to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink our engagement with the world.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 17, 2011 00:45:06

Capitalism and Freedom

Capitalism and Freedom Review

Capitalism and Freedom Overview

In the classic bestseller, Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman presents his view of the proper role of competitive capitalism--the organization of economic activity through private enterprise operating in a free market--as both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom. Beginning with a discussion of principles of a liberal society, Friedman applies them to such constantly pressing problems as monetary policy, discrimination, education, income distribution, welfare, and poverty.

"Milton Friedman is one of the nation's outstanding economists, distinguished for remarkable analytical powers and technical virtuosity. He is unfailingly enlightening, independent, courageous, penetrating, and above all, stimulating."-Henry Hazlitt, Newsweek

"It is a rare professor who greatly alters the thinking of his professional colleagues. It's an even rarer one who helps transform the world. Friedman has done both."-Stephen Chapman, Chicago Tribune

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 15, 2011 11:30:11

The Wordy Shipmates

The Wordy Shipmates Review

The Wordy Shipmates Overview

In this New York Times bestseller, the author of Assassination Vacation "brings the [Puritan] era wickedly to life" (Washington Post).

To this day, America views itself as a Puritan nation, but Sarah Vowell investigates what that means-and what it should mean. What she discovers is something far different from what their uptight shoebuckles- and-corn reputation might suggest-a highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty people, whose story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance.

Vowell takes us from the modern-day reenactment of an Indian massacre to the Mohegan Sun casino, from old-timey Puritan poetry, where "righteousness" is rhymed with "wilderness," to a Mayflower-themed waterslide. Throughout, The Wordy Shipmates is rich in historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of America's most celebrated voices.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 13, 2011 00:05:04

Voluntary Peasants Book One: Enlightenment - What's It Good For

Voluntary Peasants Book One: Enlightenment - What's It Good For Review

Voluntary Peasants Book One: Enlightenment - What's It Good For Overview

The first, comprehensive, inside story of a commune that won the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize,” the Right Livelihood Award, “...for caring, sharing and acting with and on behalf of those in need at home and abroad. This is the story of America’s largest commune—The Farm in Tennessee—a bold experiment in community and lifestyle, told by a UPI wire service reporter who lived the adventure from Day One and for thirteen years.

Voluntary Peasants reveals the inner workings of The Farm, alternative-lifestyle, experimental community—and how its efforts helped to defuse a dangerously explosive crisis in the United States in the early seventies, when the whole situation seemed to be spiraling out of control—here were people who shared a vision to live outside the box, outside the system, learn to be self-reliant friends who work together, share, take care of each other, make a difference and have a good time.

Imagine, as John Lennon sang, living life in peace. Now, imagine living and working with friends, close to nature, growing your family’s food and building your own town. Imagine, too, never thinking or worrying about money. This is the story of a very special place, a community that created a fully-functioning, eco-friendly, people-friendly, collective lifestyle and village in rural Tennessee—called simply—The Farm.

Voluntary Peasants is the first, behind-the-scenes comprehensive, inside report—by a founding member and thirteen-year resident of the community. Melvyn Stiriss is a former United Press International reporter, who shared the adventures—the life and work of thousands of idealistic, dedicated people, and honors their noble efforts. These are true stories about daring, good-hearted people who made and shared history; enjoyed life together, universal health care and virtually zero unemployment.

Voluntary peasants are every day people, from all walks of life, who choose to live together, close to the earth, self-reliant, growing food—for the sake of the planet, their families and their souls. Includes stories of the magical sixties and the search for enlightenment

After living thirteen years in what often seemed like another world, a better world—I feel like the character in the 1937 movie classic, Lost Horizon, based on James Hilton’s intriguing novel. After years of fantastic adventures while lost in a strange and wonderful land, a man returns to civilization and attempts to describe life in Shangri-La—a paradisiacal, telepathic lamasery, hidden high in the mountains of Tibet.

Also fantastic-sounding at times, Voluntary Peasants is all true. Though I am an experienced journalist, I never entered the hippie world with the idea of writing about it, nor was I just a fly-on-the-wall, unattached observer. I was in deep; sometimes over my head, but I was the only journalist there, so it is clearly my karma and duty to tell this story and to keep the spirit and information alive. It give me great pleasure to publish the history of a community of eclectic, nonsectarian, spiritual hippies who explored new possibilities in lifestyle together; shared heartwarming, mind-opening experiences and made remarkable discoveries.

In his book Boom!, Tom Brokaw wrote,
“In the sixties, I was a young, up-and-coming reporter, and I came right up to the edge of what was happening, and I backed away.”
At that same time, I too was “a young, up-and-coming reporter” and came up to the very same edge as Tom, but I went over—Wheeee! So began for me, what poet Robert Frost might call “the road less traveled;” what Joseph Campbell might call “the hero’s journey.” Voluntary Peasants is the story of a grand experiment involving thousands of people, and of my journey, focusing on thirteen years of living collectively with friends in community, working to make a difference in the world. Reporting this journey is clearly my karma.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 07, 2011 14:05:04

Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II

Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II Review

Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II Overview

The "inspirational" and "extraordinary" memoir of one of the most courageous of the greatest generation, Louis Zamperini: Olympian, WWII Japanese POW and survivor.

A juvenile delinquent, a world class NCAA miler, a 1936 Olympian, a WWII bombardier: Louis Zamperini had a fuller than most, when it changed in an instant. On May 27, 1943, his B–24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Louis and two other survivors found a raft amid the flaming wreckage and waited for rescue. Instead, they drifted two thousand miles for forty–seven days. Their only food: two shark livers and three raw albatross. Their only water: sporadic rainfall. Their only companions: hope and faith–and the ever–present sharks. On the forty–seventh day, mere skeletons close to death, Zamperini and pilot Russell Phillips spotted land–and were captured by the Japanese. Thus began more than two years of torture and humiliation as a prisoner of war.

Zamperini was threatened with beheading, subject to medical experiments, routinely beaten, hidden in a secret interrogation facility, starved and forced into slave labour, and was the constant victim of a brutal prison guard nicknamed the Bird–a man so vicious that the other guards feared him and called him a psychopath. Meanwhile, the Army Air Corps declared Zamperini dead and President Roosevelt sends official condolences to his family, who never gave up hope that he was alive.

Somehow, Zamperini survived and he returned home a hero. The celebration was short–lived. He plunged into drinking and brawling and the depths of rage and despair. Nightly, the Bird's face leered at him in his dreams. It would take years, but with the love of his wife and the power of faith, he was able to stop the nightmares and the drinking.

A stirring memoir from one of the greatest of the "Greatest Generation," DEVIL AT MY HEELS is a living document about the brutality of war, the tenacity of the human spirit, and the power of forgiveness.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 05, 2011 22:15:09

Man's Search for Meaning

Man's Search for Meaning Review

Man's Search for Meaning Feature

• ISBN13: 9780807014295
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Man's Search for Meaning Overview

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of those he treated in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory—known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")—holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.

Born in Vienna in 1905 Viktor E. Frankl earned an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna. He published more than thirty books on theoretical and clinical psychology and served as a visiting professor and lecturer at Harvard, Stanford, and elsewhere. In 1977 a fellow survivor, Joseph Fabry, founded the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy. Frankl died in 1997.

Harold S. Kushner is rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts, and the author of several best-selling books, including When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

William J. Winslade is a philosopher, lawyer, and psychoanalyst at the University of Texas Medical School in Galveston.

Man's Search for Meaning Specifications

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere, and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl's imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called "Logotherapy in a Nutshell," describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity's life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Frankl's logotherapy, therefore, is much more compatible with Western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book. At times, Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is," Frankl writes. "After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 04, 2011 04:35:05

Memoirs of General William T. Sherman [Illustrated]

Memoirs of General William T. Sherman [Illustrated] Review

Memoirs of General William T. Sherman [Illustrated] Overview

General William Tecumseh Sherman was known as the first modern general. Commanding Union troops during the American Civil War. He was also heavily criticized for the harshness of the Scorched Earth policies that he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States. He is the commander responsible for the burning of Atlanta as depicted in Gone With the Wind.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 03, 2011 13:35:06

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria Review

Queen Victoria Overview

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Great Britain; Queens; Biography

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 02, 2011 21:15:06

Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea

Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea Review

Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea Feature

• ISBN13: 9781423336440
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea Overview

Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan’s Adrift chronicled one of the most astounding voyages of the century and one of the great sea adventures of all time. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is now an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived for more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized only six days from port. Racked by hunger, buffeted by storms, scorched by the tropical sun, Callahan drifted for 1,800 miles, fighting off sharks with a makeshift spear and watching as nine ships passed him by. “A real human drama that delves deeply into man’s survival instincts” (Library Journal), Adrift is a story of anguish and horror, of undying heroism, hope, and survival, and a must-read for any adventure lover. “An utterly absorbing saga.” - Newsweek “Fascinating…a clearly written ocean yarn in which the stakes are high and a brave man wins through.” - Wall Street Journal

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 01, 2011 13:25:06