Life at the Dakota: New York's Most Unusual Address
Stephen Birmingham - 1979
Despite its remote location, the quirky German Renaissance–style castle, with its intricate façade, peculiar interior design, and gargoyle guardians peering down on Central Park, was an immediate hit, particularly among the city’s well-heeled intellectuals and artists. Over the next century it would become home to an eclectic cast of celebrity residents—including Boris Karloff, Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, singer Roberta Flack (the Dakota’s first African-American resident), and John Lennon and Yoko Ono—who were charmed by its labyrinthine interior and secret passageways, its mysterious past, and its ghosts. Stephen Birmingham, author of the New York society classic “Our Crowd”, has written an engrossing history of the first hundred years of one of the most storied residential addresses in Manhattan and the legendary lives lived within its walls.
Covered with Glory: The 26th North Carolina Infantry at Gettysburg
Rod Gragg - 2000
In July 1863 the regiment's eight-hundred-plus troops--young men from North Carolina's mountains, farmlands, and hamlets--were thrust into the firestorm of Gettysburg, the greatest battle ever fought in North America. By the time the fighting ended, the 26th North Carolina had suffered what some authorities would calculate to be the highest casualties of any regiment in the Civil War.Following a bone-wearying march into Pennsylvania with the rest of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, the soldiers of the 26th found themselves in ferocious, almost face-to-face combat with some of the hardest-fighting troops in the Federal army--the heralded Iron Brigade. The bloody contest on McPherson's Ridge produced some of Gettysburg's fiercest fighting, and the troops involved--men from North Carolina, Michigan, and Indiana--established an enduring legacy of American fortitude and will.On Gettysburg's third day of battle, the 26th North Carolina was placed in the front ranks of Pickett's Charge. Following a massive artillery barrage, the tattered regiment was commanded to go the distance in what would prove to be the most famous assault of the war. At one point, as he watched the men of the 26th in battle, Brigadier General James J. Pettigrew dispatched a message to the regiment's commander: "Tell him his regiment haas covered itself with glory today."The story of the 26th North Carolina at Gettysburg is an American saga of duty performed in the worst of warfare. It unfolds through the lives of key characters--the regiment'stwenty-one year old commander, Colonel Henry K. Burgwyn, Jr.; its second-in-command, twenty-six-year-old farmer-turned-lieutenant colonel John R. Lane; twenty-two-year-old Major John Jones, who had abandoned his college studies to join the army; and common soldiers like Private Jimmie Moore, a North Carolina mountain boy who had gone to war at the age of fifteen."Covered In Glory is an intensely personal narrative based on exhaustive research into the diaries, letters, memoirs, and official records of the men who struggled on the bloody field at Gettysburg. It is a powerful, moving account of American courage and sacrifice.
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras
Jules Verne - 1866
In the novel, First Mate Shandon receives a mysterious letter asking him to construct a reinforced steamship in Liverpool. As he heads out for Melville Bay and the Arctic labyrinth, a crewman finally reveals himself as Captain John Hatteras, and his obsession--to get to the North Pole. After experiencing appalling cold and hunger, the captain treks across the frozen wastes in search of fuel. Abandoned by most of his crew, and accompanied by a rival American explorer, Hatteras continues his journey to the Pole, encountering endless perils and adventures along the way. This new and unabridged translation of the first of Verne's Extraordinary Journeys series brilliantly conveys the novel's hypnotic mood and atmosphere. This edition also includes the original, censored ending, and fascinating details about the Arctic expeditions that captivated Verne's imagination. The introduction provides biographical insights based on recently discovered documents, and contains original proof of Verne's sources and inspiration; the notes analyze for the first time the hundreds of real-life figures cited by Verne.
The Lost Executioner: A Journey to the Heart of the Killing Fields
Nic Dunlop - 2005
Twenty years later, not one member had been held accountable for the genocide. Haunted by an image of one of them, Comrade Duch, photographer Nic Dunlop set out to bring him to life, and thereby to account. "I needed to understand how a movement that laid claim to a vision of a better world could instead produce a revolution of unparalleled ferocity; how a seemingly ordinary man from one of the poorer parts of Cambodia could turn into one of the worst mass murderers of the twentieth century:"Weaving seamlessly between past and present, Dunlop unfolds the history of Cambodia as a lens through which to understand its tragic last forty years. He makes clear how much responsibility the United States must share, through failed political alliances and the illegal bombing of Cambodia, for the bloodshed that followed. Guided by witnesses, Dunlop teases out the details of Duch's transformation from sensitive schoolchild and dedicated teacher to the revolutionary killer who later slipped quietly back into village life. From the temples of Angkor to the prisons of Pol Pot's regime, to his unexpected meeting with Duch himself, Dunlop's special vision as a photographer enlarges our own. The Lost Executioner is a blend of history and testimony-and a reminder that, whether in the killing fields of Cambodia or the deserts of Darfur, if we turn our backs on genocide, we must bear a collective guilt.
Phantom Warrior: The Heroic True Story of Private John McKinney's One-Man Stand Against the Japanese in World War II
Forrest Bryant Johnson - 2007
On May 11, 1945, McKinney returned fire on the Japanese attacking his unit, using every available weapon-even his fists-standing alone against wave after wave of dedicated Japanese soldiers. At the end, John McKinney was alive-with over forty Japanese bodies before him. This is the story of an extraordinary man whose courage and fortitude in battle saved many American lives, and whose legacy has been sadly forgotten by all but a few. Here, the proud legacy of John McKinney lives on.
Highways to a War
Christopher J. Koch - 1995
In a riveting new novel of wartime Cambodia and Vietnam--part thriller, part mystery, part heroic epic--the author of The Year of Living Dangerously offers the story of a likeable, brave, but ultimately mysterious war photographer who has disappeared into the jungles of Cambodia.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
David Grann - 2009
A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the 20th century": What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett & his quest for the Lost City of Z?In 1925, Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world's largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humans. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions inspired Conan Doyle's The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions round the globe, Fawcett embarked with his 21-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilisation--which he dubbed Z--existed. Then his expedition vanished. Fawcett's fate, & the tantalizing clues he left behind about Z, became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness. For decades scientists & adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett's party & the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes or gone mad. As Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett's quest, & the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle's green hell. His quest for the truth & discoveries about Fawcett's fate & Z form the heart of this complexly enthralling narrative.
The Travels
Marco Polo
The Travels recounts Polo's journey to the eastern court of Kublai Khan, the chieftain of the Mongol empire which covered the Asian continent, but which was almost unknown to Polo's contemporaries. Encompassing a twenty-four year period from 1271, Polo's account details his travels in the service of the empire, from Beijing to northern India and ends with the remarkable story of Polo's return voyage from the Chinese port of Amoy to the Persian Gulf. Alternately factual and fantastic, Polo's prose at once reveals the medieval imagination's limits, and captures the wonder of subsequent travel writers when faced with the unfamiliar, the exotic or the unknown.
Who Needs a Road?: The Story of the Longest and Last Motor Journey Around the World
Harold Stephens - 1999
He wanted to do it in a four-wheel drive, taking his own camper-trailer with him, to live at the edge of deserts and at the rim of tropical jungles, to drive the highest roads, and the lowest, to be free to make his own choices. He found a nut who wanted to do it with him, a picture editor of a leading man's magazine in New York, and the Trans World Expedition was born. This is their incredible journey. The did it, and how they did it is their tale told in his exciting book.
French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure
Mireille Guiliano - 2004
The million copy, ultimate #1 bestseller that is changing the way Americans eat and liveDon't DietEat ChocolateDrink WineTake Long WalksEnjoy LifeStay Slim the French way Experience the joie de vivre of French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano.
Paris On Air
Oliver Gee - 2020
Join award-winning podcaster Oliver Gee on this laugh-out-loud journey through the streets of Paris.He tells of how five years in France have taught him how to order cheese, make a Parisian person smile, and convince anyone you can fake French (even if, like Oliver, you speak the language like an Australian cow).A fresh voice on the Paris scene, he shares the soaring highs and crushing lows that come with following your dreams to the French capital.He also befriends the city's too-cool-for-school basketballers, chases runaway crocodiles, and goes on a mammoth honeymoon trip around France on his little red scooter.
Tales of Unexplained Mystery
Steph Young - 2019
Do you love Unexplained, cryptic, and intriguing & mysteries? Why was a man found in the same spot he disappeared, but 4 years later, with a hole in his head that no surgeons could explain, and what did this have to do with a séance, doppelgangers, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln?
Why did a man write the Fibonacci sequence as a clue and tell a stranger he was “Looking for the Beast,” before he disappeared in the barren plains of a desert?
Why did five boys run from their car into the snowy wilderness, to certain death, yet not try to save themselves, at all? They found food but did not eat it. What were they running from? And why?
Who are Hecate? And what did they have to do with people disappearing in the countryside of England?
How did an introverted lady die on the top of an ancient fairy mound, on a remote island: her face locked in an expression of terror?
Why did a man die of fright atop a coal pile after disappearing for days, and why could no scientists identify the strange ointment found on his body? Where had he been? And what had happened to him?
How could a man be found after a plane crash, lying on a moor, with no injuries at all; yet his body had not been there when the plane had crashed and searchers had combed the area multiple times looking for him.
Also featuring an in-depth investigation into the strange death of Elisa Lam, found dead in a water tower on the top of a hotel roof in LA. Who were the two men who came to see her, and what was in the mystery box they gave her?
Steph Young has appeared on national radio shows and podcast including the UK's The Unexplained, and Coast to Coast Am, talking about many of these mysteries of the Unexplained, which are her passion... These stories are some of the most intriguing, enigmatic, and ultimately unfathomable & unexplained true tales I have ever come across and they continue to fascinate and completely puzzle me.
Join me for some true tales of Unexplained mysteries of the most cryptic kind. In this book are strange and baffling true stories of unexplained mysteries, and the cast of characters who star in them. Stories of unexplained mysteries that yearn to be solved. All of these strange and curious stories, I have written about over the last six years, across a number of my previous books. They continue to intrigue me, and while some of my readers may be familiar with some of these cryptic tales, there are many who are not, and I present them once more, in longer and far more extended format, with deeper delving into the strange and mysterious events and the central characters who feature in them, caught in the whirlwind of these strange unexplained mysteries… which still have yet to be solved.
Chasing Understanding in the Jungles of Vietnam: My Year as a Black Scarf
Douglas Beed - 2017
After two years of college he couldn't afford to continue so he was forced to relinquish his student deferment and enter the draft. He tried various strategies to get a non-combat job; nevertheless he ended up in the infantry and was assigned to Vietnam. The stories in this book depict the year Doug spent in Alpha Company where he spent days on patrols finding and killing North Vietnamese soldiers along the hundreds of miles of trails heading for the Saigon. These stories range from funny to tragic, from uplifting to extremely frustrating and from touching to horrifying. This book gives the reader a sense of life in the infantry in 1968 and 1969.
Beaten and Left for Dead: The Story of Teri Jendusa-Nicolai
Dave Alfvin - 2017
The Crime of the Decade in Wisconsin. WITH PHOTOS Teri Jendusa never dreamed she would marry a violent, malignant narcissist like David Larsen. But she did. Why? Simple. Larsen cleverly concealed his true nature until the marriage vows were final. David, an eventual church council president and model citizen, rapidly began to morph into a monster and sociopath, telling Teri on their wedding day, “Now, I own you.” Beaten and Left For Dead is a book about extreme marital violence, dominant control and psychological torment through the mind of the out-of-control David Larsen. It's also about survival, faith and a mother’s will to live for her children’s sake...as she faces death, face to face. This is an ideal book for women’s studies and book clubs as it looks inside a large women’s shelter, giving the reader a glimpse of a support network. The author also interviews a counselor who works with violent men with surprising results. Teri Jendusa-Nicolai continues to crusade for women’s issues to this day and currently works with a Wisconsin commission on domestic violence. EDITORIAL PRAISE "Teri Jendusa-Nicolai's story is a powerful example of the horrific lengths of barbarism a man can go to when he considers a woman his personal property. And it is, equally, an inspiring, riveting story of a woman's courage and clear thinking under the absolute worst of conditions, and of her tenacious hold to life...I am so grateful to Teri Jendusa-Nicolai and to Dave Alfvin for getting this story out to us. Don't miss it." --Lundy Bancroft, best-selling author on domestic violence, trainer, and activist on male violence against women "This book is important because it gets our message out as to what we do to help abusers change their value systems." --Maureen Manning-Rosenfeld, Clinical Professional Counselor
The Magnetic North: Notes From The Arctic Circle
Sara Wheeler - 2009
In the widely acclaimed, bestselling Terra Incognita, she chronicled her quest to find a hidden history buried in Antarctica's extreme surroundings. Now, Wheeler journeys to the opposite pole to create a definitive picture of life on the fringes. In The Magnetic North, she takes full measure of the Arctic: at once the most pristine place on earth and the locus of global warming.Inspired by the spiraling shape of a reindeer-horn bangle, she travels counterclockwise around the North Pole through the territories belonging to Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, marking the transformations of what once seemed an unchangeable landscape. As she witnesses the mounting pollution concentrated at the pole, Wheeler reckons with the illness of the whole organism of the earth.Smashing through the Arctic Ocean with the crew of a Russian icebreaker, shadowing the endless Trans-Alaska Pipeline with a tough Idaho-born outdoorswoman, herding reindeer with the Lapps, and visiting the haunting, deceptively peaceful lands of the Gulag, Wheeler brings the Arctic's many contradictions to life. The Magnetic North is an urgent, beautiful book, rich in dramatic description and vivid reporting. It is a singular, deeply personal portrait of a region growing daily in global importance.