Michener’s magnificent saga of the West is an enthralling celebration of the frontier. Brimming with the glory of America’s past, the story of Colorado—the Centennial State—is manifested through its people: Lame Beaver, the Arapaho chieftain and warrior, and his Comanche and Pawnee enemies; Levi Zendt, fleeing with his child bride from the Amish country; the cowboy, Jim Lloyd, who falls in love with a wealthy and cultured Englishwoman, Charlotte Seccombe. In Centennial, trappers, traders, homesteaders, gold seekers, ranchers, and hunters are brought together in the dramatic conflicts that shape the destiny of the legendary West—and the entire country.

    Her parents more or less collapsed under the strain, father spending hours in search of non-existent work, or in the dole queue, mother on the verge of a breakdown and striving to find and keep part-time jobs. The running of the household, in slum surroundings and with little food, the care of the younger children, all fell on twelve-year-old Helen. Unable to attend school, Helen's fear that she was to be trapped forever as drudge and housekeeper caused her to despair at times. But she was determined to have a chance and struggled, despite her parents, to gain an education.

    And she burns with malice for the handsome Norman savage who would enslave her. . .even as she aches to know the rapture of the conqueror's kiss.The DoveFor the first time ever, mighty Wulfgar has been vanquished — and by a bold and beautiful princess of Saxon blood. He must have the chaste, sensuous enchantress who is sworn to his destruction. And he will risk life itself to nurture with tender passion a glorious union born in the blistering heat of hatred and war.

    Meet Phillipe Charboneau: the illegitimate son and unrecognized heir of the Duke of Kentland. Upon the Duke’s death, Phillipe is denied his birthright and left to build a life of his own. Seeking all that the New World promises, he leaves London for America, shedding his past and preparing for the future by changing his name to Philip Kent. He arrives at the brink of the American Revolution, which tests his allegiances in ways he never imagined. The first volume of John Jakes’s wildly successful and highly addictive Kent Family Chronicles, The Bastard is a triumph of historical fiction.

    Born in the Greek city of Miletus, Aspasia was destined for a life of tragedy. Her wealthy father vowed to abandon any female child, so Aspasia was secreted away, educated independently of her family, and raised as a courtesan. She discovered at an early age how to use her powers of intellect as ingeniously as those of the flesh.   Ensconced in the Persian harems of Al Taliph, she meets the man who will change her fate: Pericles, the formidable political leader, statesman, ruler of Athens, and Aspasia’s most cherished lover. She becomes his trusted confidante, his equal through scandal, war, and revolt.   From the eruption of the Peloponnesian War to violent political and family rivalries to a devastating plague, author Taylor Caldwell plunges the reader into the heart of ancient Athens. In bringing to life the tumultuous love affairs and gripping power struggles of one of history’s most complicated and fascinating women, Glory and the Lightning is thrilling proof that “Caldwell never falters when it comes to storytelling” (Publishers Weekly).  This ebook features an illustrated biography of Taylor Caldwell including rare images from the author’s estate.

    In 1558, while exiled by Queen Mary Tudor to a remote castle known as Perilous Gard, young Kate Sutton becomes involved in a series of mysterious events that lead her to an underground world peopled by Fairy Folk—whose customs are even older than the Druids’ and include human sacrifice.

    So when he meets Marguerite, a bright young American with whom he can talk freely about both, he is able to love again and takes her back to Ireland as his wife. But Marguerite soon discovers that married life is not what she expected, and that she has married into a troubled family bitterly divided by love and hatred. Cashelmara becomes the curse of three generations as they play out their fates in a spellbinding drama, which moves inexorably towards murder and retribution.

    Theirs is a marriage of conflict, yet one that grows over the years into respect and partnership. As they struggle-at times against each other, at times side-by-side-Maria and Richard emerge as full-blooded characters you'll never forget.

    He marries Matilda, the equally intelligent and ambitious daughter of the King of Flanders, and together they have many children.In 1066, he crosses the channel from Normandy to England and seizes the crown from King Harold, Edward the Confessor's popular successor. This is the roller coaster account of his efforts to become sovereign and the events in his life afterwards, including his turbulent relationships with various members of his family.

    This book contains a selection of the most well-known and best loved of Paterson's poems including those favourites, Waltzing Matilda, Saltbush Bill, and A Bush Christening.Pro Hart's paintings reflect the moods of the poems and add to the charm of the book.This is a book which will delight the already countless number of Paterson admirers and will doubtless bring many newcomers to their ranks.

    The reasons behind the Great War and its profound effect on the attitudes and ideals of Australia are intertwined with intimate personal details in this beautifully constructed narrative.

    Hyde's exuberant record of a year on his cattle ranch, where hard work and hardships coexist with a dedication to the principles of conservation and sound ecology.

    

    At its centre is Manos: man of intellect and integrity, lover of life, hero of the Greek war against the Italian Invasion, who deserted the national army to join the leftists in the clandestine struggle against the Greek fascists and royalists. Underground operations lead him from city to city, involving him in a chain of shifting and perilous relationships and Manos is forced to choose between his humanist impulses and the brutal dictates of ideological orthodoxy. Combining an exotic brilliance of detail reminiscent of Durrell's Alexandria novels with the sweep and historical passion of Malraux, Stratis Tsirkas has, with Drifting Cities, established himself as a novelist of international importance.Kedros "Modern Greek Writers Series"

    It has proved to be a classic: 500 pages that read like a political thriller, written by one of the greatest Welshmen of the 20th century!

    For young Ra to make all the tools needed by his Stone Age tribe is a new idea for all of them, and provides Ra with a skill that saves his life when he is abandoned by his tribe for forgetting how to hunt.

    And the bewitching young countess, whom a bizarre twist of fate had placed in the hands of his band of battle-scarred infantrymen, seemed to embody all that was sane and beautiful.Unfortunately, she was now completely at the mercy of these men who hadn't seen a woman in months. Orlov was determined to protect her......but how long could he protect her from his own wild stirrings of desire?

    She had grown up a servant's child on the Grant family's estate, and had savored the memory of its elegance as well as her love for young Lennox Grant for long years after she'd been abandoned by her parents and forced to leave.Now, unexpectedly an heiress, Helen found she could go back to Gallowmerry. She could fulfill her desire to live among the Grants as an equal... .But the Gallowmerry to which she returned was not the fond home of her childhood. It had become a house of dark secrets and unspoken hatreds whose poisons had infected the entire Grant family. It had become a house of horror luring Helen herself to the brink of madness.

    It is a dramatic case study of tenacious reporting and suspenseful twists and turns in the political crime of the century. John Dean, Nixon s White House counsel, said ten years after the break-in, When people ask me which book they should read to understand Watergate, I recommend this one Serious Watergate students report this is the best overview of the subject. I heartily agree. Anyone who wants to understand Watergate, and not make a career of it, should read The Great Coverup." (Reviews and excerpts are here: http: //www.watergate.info/sussman/.)A key Nixon goal was to limit the Watergate investigation to the break-in alone, making it appear to be little more than politics as usual. But by September, 1973, as Sussman, who was the Washington Post s special Watergate editor, spells out, Watergate was clearly the ultimate in political crimes Under Nixon the CIA had been dragged into domestic affairs; the investigation and findings of the FBI had been subverted; the Justice Department had engaged in malicious prosecutions of some people and failed to act in instances where it should have; the Internal Revenue Service had been used to punish the President s alleged enemies while ignoring transgressions by his friends and by the President himself; the purity of the court system had been violated; congressmen had been seduced to prevent an inquiry into campaign activities before the election; extortion on a massive scale had been practiced in the soliciting of illegal contributions from the nation s great corporations; the President had secretly engaged in acts of war against a foreign country and agents of the President were known to have engaged in continued illegal activities for base political ends.Soon afterward Nixon fired the special prosecutor investigating him, the first act in the Saturday Night Massacre, and a few days after that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in an ominous cold war message, announced that American armed forces had been put on alert because of Soviet troop and military equipment movement. It was to some the most serious incident since the Cuban missile crisis, but to others a ruse, a crude attempt to get support for a President in a time of crisis.The Great Coverup was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times when first published. Wrote David Halberstam of Sussman: "From the start, the Post was thus unusually lucky. It had the perfect working editor at exactly the right level." In their book, Woodward and Bernstein noted that Sussman was given prime responsibility for directing the Post's Watergate coverage, and added: Sussman had the ability to seize facts and lock them in his memory, where they remained poised for instant recall. More than any other editor at the Post, or Bernstein and Woodward, Sussman became a walking compendium of Watergate knowledge, a reference source to be summoned when even the library failed. On deadline he would pump these facts into a story in a constant infusion, working up a body of significant facts to support what otherwise seemed like the weakest of revelations. In Sussman s mind, everything fitted. Watergate was a puzzle and he was a collector of the pieces.If there was a politics as usual aspect to Watergate, Sussman writes, it was in the help Nixon got from members of both political parties. Therein lies one of the book s many lessons: Watergate would have been brought to a close much sooner except for the help powerful men on Capitol Hill extended to their President. "

    

    1527-1608), was the fourth daughter of a relatively minor gentry family who rose to the highest levels of English nobility through four advantageous marriages to become one of the richest women in English history. Although this romantic tale emphasizes Bess's life with each of her four husbands and the daily challenges of raising a big growing family ― a task that can be compared to running a small kingdom ― it is told against the background of Elizabethan life, a brutal and turbulent period of English history. Plague regularly wiped out entire families, conspiracies and feuds were rife, allegiances made and dissolved at a whim, and royal intimates dispatched summarily to the Tower. In fact, Bess was sent to the Tower twice by Queen Elizabeth with whom Bess shared an iron will and intelligence that warranted a lifetime of respect between the two women. But through all this Bess Hardwick bore eight children and built an empire of her own. She loved building houses and by the time she was seventy she had become an extraordinary builder, perhaps one of the greatest women builders ever known. Bess became synonymously associated with the great houses she created, first Chatsworth and, later, Hardwick and Oldcotes. The list of adventures goes on. She survived a poisoning attempt by her brother-in-law and charges of embezzlement. She negotiated the tortuous Elizabethan laws of succession and inheritance and she even managed to marry each of her children into noble families, in one case to royalty, no mean feat in a climate where it was a treasonable offense to marry without the queen's explicit consent. She and her fourth husband, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury were appointed guardians of Mary, Queen of Scots and the author provides many interesting insights into this sensitive and sometimes dangerous responsibility that lasted fifteen years. Lastly, Bess was an accomplished needlewoman. She embroidered and collected tapestries throughout her life and she even joined her captive charge, Queen Mary Stuart, for extended periods during which time they worked together on the Oxburgh Hangings. In 1601, Bess ordered an inventory of the household furnishings including textiles at her three properties at Chatsworth, Hardwick and Chelsea. The 400-year-old collection, now known as the Hardwick Hall textiles, is the largest collection of tapestries, embroidery, canvaswork, and other textiles to have been preserved by a single private family Bess and the events and people of her life whirl by. Fortunately, author Jan Westcott brings to life her extraordinary story and allows us to eavesdrop on the world of this intelligent, ambitious, and accomplished woman.

    This sumptuously illustrated history of inventions has been a solid hardcover best-seller since its publication in 1974. Now the identical oversized paperback edition containing five hundred illustrations (more than half in full color) and many hundreds of fascinating, informative entries is available. Here in one place are all the great inventions - those from the distant past as well as those from the day before yesterday - explained by the foremost historians, scientists, and engineers, all leading authorities in their fields.

    (The jacket shows the subtitle as From George Washington to George W. Bush; the title page shows A Compilation of Biographical and Historical Information.) It presents an overview of the US executive office and data concerning the biographical backgrounds and terms of the 42 presidents to date. Also detailed are their elections, inaugurations, congressional sessions, Vice Presidents, Supreme Court and cabinet appointments, and administration highlights. A portrait/photograph and a list of books for further reading are provided for each (so far) man. The previous edition was published in 1993. Kane, an expert in the field of American history was joined by editors Steven Anzovin and Janet Podell for this edition. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

    This beautifully illustrated book present the history of development and expansion of the Impressionism between 1874 and 1886. Impressionists were the first western artists to find inspiration outside the boundaries of Europe, and the first to be influenced by the world of popular imagery which had been despised for centuries. Bernard Denvir, in his splendidly lively and entertaining text, shows how Impressionism, in substituting a perceptual rather than a conceptual way of recording reality, was at once the last significant statement of visual pragmatism which would profoundly alter our attitudes both to nature and to life itself.

    

    

    Book by Rodgers, Pepper

    Along the way, he did ink-on-white-paper sketches of passing scenes and landscapes. Many of them appear in this delightful collection of drawings, along with the artist's nostalgic, autobiographical commentary on the roads traveled and the sights seen.Here are delightful impressions of streams winding through snow-covered landscapes; old stone barns and farmhouses, covered bridges, farming tools and implements, spring houses, and trees—from sturdy sycamores to graceful aspens."The next thing to living one's life over is to make durable recollections of it," Sloane once remarked. Today, the pastoral landscapes, rustic homes, and traditional arts he encountered in his travels live on in these bittersweet glimpses of American life from a bygone era.

    The author reports on the women's tour during the 1973 season, with a focus on Billie Jean King.

    

    TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1.) The Water Level Route: the New York Central Railroad in New York State -- 2.) Union Pacific Railroad: trunk line across Wyoming -- 3.) The North American passenger train -- 4.) Rio Grande narrow gauge: remnant of another era -- 5.) The big show recreated: North American steam in excursion service -- 6.) Mexican Main Line: big engines south of the border -- 7.) Andean spectacular: the Belgrano Railway in northern Argentina -- 8.) Coal for the mills of Volta Redonda: Estrada de Ferro Dona Teresa Christina -- 9.) Le Mans -- 10.) The canyon of the Rio Jalon -- 11.) Crossroads of Britain: Carlisle, Shap and Beattock -- 12.) Up the escarpment: South African Railways climbs to the Highveld -- 13.) Empties uphill, ore down: the Swaziland Railway -- 14.) The Great Karroo -- 15.) The Lootsberg Pass -- 16.) Arthur's Pass: crossing New Zealand's southern alps -- 17.) Steaming to Sydney: modern steam power in New South Wales -- 18.) Java: motive power miscellany -- 19.) Hokkaido: Japanese steam in the snow.

    

    Previously published in a great variety of places, none of them appeared in book form before. They are arranged in four groups (Tudor Politics and Tudor Government in Volume I, Parliament and Political Thought in Volume II) but these groups interlock. Though written in the course of some two decades, all the pieces bear variously on the same body of major issues and often illuminate details only touched upon in Professor Elton's books. Several investigate the received preconceptions of historians and suggest new ways of approaching familiar subjects. They are reprinted unaltered, but some new footnotes have been added to correct errors and draw attention to later developments.

     Recently orphaned and disappointed in love, Sarah Kingsley leaves England and joins the flow of emigrants to Canada in the early years of the nineteenth century to make a new life for herself. But on the ship she became irrevocably committed to caring for the two young children of a dying fellow-passenger, promising to reunite them with their father who was awaiting them in Ontario. She was backed in her decision by a young doctor, Phillip Mannings, but he had no idea of the hazards and hardships she was to face when the man was not to be found … Fair Wind of Love is a moving historical saga that follows a young woman through the ups and downs of youth and the men she falls in love with as she attempts to build a new life in an unknown world. This is the story of the one she stays with and the one that she will always hold dear to her heart.

    One sparkling October day it happens. The inevitable stranger rides in off the plains, and Mary Dove does what she had always promised her father she would—she shoots.Yet compassion overcomes Mary's fear. In remorse, she tends to the wounded stranger, and what follows is their tentative discovery of each other and a love story that weaves universal and timeless themes.The mother who died before Mary Dove could know her was African-American. And so completely has Mary Dove's father sheltered her that she cannot begin to comprehend what society would so cruelly teach her. Archetypal in their blamelessness and in how deeply they must suffer for their love, Mary Dove and her cowboy, "Red" Christopher Columbus Jones, are so thoroughly West Texan that they prove Rushing's mastery of character and place."Get away," she said"Now I ain't gonna hurt you," he said, "and I don't want to know nothing about you that you don't want to tell." He came a step closer."Stop right now," she said, "or I'll shoot.""You wouldn't," he said.He was so nearly right. She believed what he said—or nearly. But she had been afraid so long. And wasn't it a law of God to do what your father said? She trembled, looking into his smiling blue eyes. It would have been easier if he had been preparing to pounce, like the panther, or striking, like the snake. The rifle barrel dropped, a little. "I knew you wouldn't," he said, taking another step towards her."I have to," she said, and with a terrible struggle to hold the gun steady, she fired.

    What is the role of a prophet? How is succession in the presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints determined? Who are the twelve men who have been sustained as presidents of the Church in this last dispensation, and what factors and circumstances prepared them for this most important calling? This new, revised edition has updated research and answers these questions more completely than ever before.

    Their happy life in Queenston was disrupted by the outbreak of the War of 1812. At first the war went well for the British, but after General Brock was killed at Queenston, American forces advanced, and some offices were billeted with the Secords.When Laura overheard American soldiers planning a surprise attack she unhesitatingly set out on a dangerous 32 km trek across enemy lines in order to warn the British general, Fitzgibbon. Her brave action made the battle of Beaver Dams a British victory.Secord's role was not immediately acknowledged. In fact, she and her family suffered a great deal more at the hands of American troops, and they were strained by the economic turmoil war brings for many years after the peace. Recognition did come to her in later years, however. Her biography gives a rich impression of life in Upper Canada in the early nineteenth century.

    

    These events, which both profoundly altered the state of the evidence for the historian, therefore set the limits of this book. For though those 450 years must be studied from a great variety of sources, to the historian they constitute above all the period for which he depends overwhelmingly on official records of all kinds. The core of this book, therefore, is an analysis and description of such materials - their origin, present state and usefulness. However, other materials are not ignored, from the chronicles which provide the main outline of the history that can be known, through the records of the law, private letters (almost non-existent before 1450, suddenly plentiful after 1550) and estate documents, to less familiar historical sources like books, buildings and landscape, and the contribution of the archaeologist.