Neil Sheehan--A Fiery Peace in a Cold War_ Bernard Sch
Title: A Fiery Peace in a Cold War_ Bernard Sch Author: Neil Sheehan File Type: Mobi Subject:History Description: From Neil Sheehan, author of the Pulitzer Prize—winning classic A Bright Shining Lie, comes this long-awaited, magnificent epic. Here is the never-before-told story of the nuclear arms race that changed history–and of the visionary American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever, who led the high-stakes effort. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War is a masterly work about Schriever’s quests to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, to penetrate and exploit space for America, and to build the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust rather than to be fired in anger.Sheehan melds biography and history, politics and science, to create a sweeping narrative that transports the reader back and forth from individual drama to world stage. The narrative takes us from Schriever’s boyhood in Texas as a six-year-old immigrant from Germany in 1917 through his apprenticeship in the open-cockpit biplanes of the Army Air Corps in the 1930s and his participation in battles against the Japanese in the South Pacific during the Second World War. On his return, he finds a new postwar bipolar universe dominated by the antagonism between the United States and the Soviet Union.Inspired by his technological vision, Schriever sets out in 1954 to create the one class of weapons that can enforce peace with the Russians–intercontinental ballistic missiles that are unstoppable and can destroy the Soviet Union in thirty minutes. In the course of his crusade, he encounters allies and enemies among some of the most intriguing figures of the century: John von Neumann, the Hungarian-born mathematician and mathematical physicist, who was second in genius only to Einstein; Colonel Edward Hall, who created the ultimate ICBM in the Minuteman missile, and his brother, Theodore Hall, who spied for the Russians at Los Alamos and hastened their acquisition of the atomic bomb; Curtis LeMay, the bomber general who tried to exile Schriever and who lost his grip on reality, amassing enough nuclear weapons in his Strategic Air Command to destroy the entire Northern Hemisphere; and Hitler’s former rocket maker, Wernher von Braun, who along with a colorful, riding-crop-wielding Army general named John Medaris tried to steal the ICBM program.The most powerful men on earth are also put into astonishing relief: Joseph Stalin, the cruel, paranoid Soviet dictator who spurred his own scientists to build him the atomic bomb with threats of death; Dwight Eisenhower, who backed the ICBM program just in time to save it from the bureaucrats; Nikita Khrushchev, who brought the world to the edge of nuclear catastrophe during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and John Kennedy, who saved it.Schriever and his comrades endured the heartbreak of watching missiles explode on the launching pads at Cape Canaveral and savored the triumph of seeing them soar into space. In the end, they accomplished more than achieving a fiery peace in a cold war. Their missiles became the vehicles that opened space for America.
Title: The Queen's Pawn
Author: Christy English
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fiction:Historical
Description:
A historical novel of the legendary Eleanor of Aquitaine and the one person she loved more than power-her rival for the throne. At only nine, Princess Alais of France is sent to live in England until she is of age to wed Prince Richard, son of King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Alais is an innocent pawn on the chessboard of dynastic marriage, her betrothal intended to broker an uneasy truce between the nations. Estranged from her husband, Eleanor sees a kindred spirit in this determined young girl. She embraces Alais as a daughter, teaching the princess what it takes to be a woman of power in a world of men. But as Alais grows to maturity and develops ambitions of her own, Eleanor begins to see her as a threat-and their love for each other becomes overshadowed by their bitter rivalry, dark betrayals, conflicting passions, and a battle for revenge over the throne of England itself.
Title: The First Person_ And Other Stories
Author: Ali Smith
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fiction
Description:
In these energetic, exhilarating stories, Ali Smith portrays a world of everyday dislocation, where people nevertheless find connection, mystery, and love. In Astute Fiery Luxurious, a misdelivered package throws the life of a couple into disarray. A boys unexplained illness in I Know Something You Dont Know drives his mother to seek guidance from homeopathic healers, with inconclusive results. In The Child, an unnervingly mature young boy voices offensive humor that genteel society would rather not acknowledge. And a confident older woman meets her awkward fourteen-year-old self in Writ but cant figure out how to guide her-or even whether she should. As Smith explores the subtle links between what we know and what we feel, she creates an exuberant, masterly collection that is packed full of ideas, humor, nuance, and compassion. Ali Smith and the short story are made for each other. From the Hardcover edition.
Title: The Cold Spot
Author: Tom Piccirilli
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fiction:Suspense
Description:From Publishers WeeklyOrphaned at 10—his mother murdered, his father a suicide—Chase was raised by his grandfather Jonah, a grifter who has used Chase as a getaway driver. After Jonah shoots one of his crew during a poker game, Chase, at 21, realizing that the icy old man could easily turn on his own grandson, strikes off on his own. He works his way around the country stealing cars and driving for petty thieves until one night in Mississippi he runs up against deputy sheriff Lila Bodeen, who sees something in this brash young outlaw that she likes. Tragedy puts Chase back on the road, where he faces not only the killer but the truth—about himself and his shattered family. Piccirilli (_The Midnight Road_, etc.) tells the gritty, violent and dark tale in an appealingly noirish narrative style, highly economical yet bracingly intimate. (May) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Review“[Tom Piccirilli’s] prose has the visceral punch of the best pulp writers of the past century…. strongThe Cold Spotstrong is both funny and ferocious.”—_San Francisco Chronicle._A powerful, hard-hittng, fiercely original writer of suspense. I highly recommend him. —David Morrell, author of _Creepers_Tom Piccirillis fiction is visceral and unflinching, yet deeply insightful.—F. Paul Wilson, author of The Keep and Bloodline strongThe Cold Spotstrong is truly dazzling. Piccirilli has taken the mystery to a whole other level.—Ken Bruen, award-winning author of _The Guards_Blackest noir, the most minimal kind of minimalism, and at the same time deeply emotional this is not easy to do. I loved strongThe Cold Spotstrong.—Peter Abrahams, bestselling author of _Nerve Damage_Lean, brutal and completely arresting, Tom Piccirillis strongThe Cold Spotstrong is a bulls-eye hardboiled tale.—Megan Abbott, author of _The Song is You_strongThe Cold Spot strongis crime fiction at its very best, an exceptional revenge story so vivid you feel like youre in the back seat of a getaway car with a master storyteller at the wheel.—Jason Starr, author of _The Follower_
Title: Sheltering Hearts
Author: Robyn Carr
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Romance
Description:Marine corporal Rick Sudder is home early from Iraq—his tour ended abruptly on the battlefield. The carefree boy is gone, replaced by a man who believes his future is as bleak as his mirror image. But can the passion and commitment of a young woman who has never given up on him mend his broken body and shattered heart? As the people of Virgin River rally around Rick, another recent arrival tests the tightly knit mountain towns famous welcoming spirit. Dan Brady has a questionable past, and hes looking for a place to start over. Hed like it to be Virgin River…if he can find a way in. But he never expects to find it in the arms of a woman who was as much an outcast as himself. For a favorite son returned from war and an outsider looking for a home, Virgin River offers them a chance to make peace with the men they once were…and to find the dreams they thought theyd lost.
Title: Wolf Hall
Author: Hilary Mantel
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fiction:Historical
Description:
In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power. England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king's freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph? In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.
Title: Chimaera
Author: Ian Irvine
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fantasy
Description:
Fantasy fiction. All resistance has been crushed. In a few minutes of overwhelming violence the Council's air-dreadnought fleet has destroyed Fiz Gorgo's defences. Xervish Flydd, Irisis and their rallies have been condemned to die in a brutal aerial spectacle designed to reinforce Chief Scrutator Ghorr's power and majesty. The only one left uncaptured is Nish, but he is trapped in a burning watchtower, and hunted by both the scrutators and his former lover, Ullii, whose twin brother he accidentally killed. Before Nish can hope to rescue his friends, he must convince Ullii to spare him, then overcome the most powerful cabal of mancers in the world as well as the Council's four hundred crack guards. And even if he succeeds, to win the war the allies still have to defeat the scrutators and overthrow Nennifer, the corrupt Council's dread bastion, before the rampaging lyrinx overwhelm all Santhenar.