The Napoleonic wars are brought to life with grit and gunpowder in this trilogy of hugely popular novels: Strike the Red Flag, The Normandy Privateer and Dead Man's Island. With a clear knowledge of the period, McDine skillfully uses actual events in the Royal Navy’s history as the backdrop to Anson's swashbuckling adventures. For fans of Hornblower, Bolitho, Ramage or Aubrey, Oliver Anson will be your next naval hero. David McDine, OBE, is a former Admiralty information officer, Royal Navy Reserve officer and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and the author of Unconquered: The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy.

    Nobody has ever told Eleanor Oliphant that life should not only be fine but better than fine.  Eleanor Oliphant is an ordinary woman who struggles with the appropriate social skills she needs to have on occasion. She has the tendency to say the exact words that she is thinking. Truth is, nothing is really missing in her carefully timetabled life that can be described as avoidance of social interactions. Her weekends are punctuated by frozen vodka, pizza, and phone chats with her Mummy. But everything will change for Eleanor when she meets Raymond in her office. He is the bumbling IT guy who is deeply unhygienic. When Eleanor and Raymond saw an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, together they saved Sammy. This became the start of the three’s friendship. They would rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they have each been living. And it is none other than the big heart of Raymond that would ultimately help quiet Eleanor to find the best way to repair her own profoundly damaged heart. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine will soon be a major motion picture that will be produced by actress Reese Witherspoon. This novel is a warm, smart and uplifting story of an unlikely heroine whose weirdness and unconscious wit would make an irresistible journey.In this comprehensive look into Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel by Gail Honeyman, you'll gain insight with this essential resource as a guide to aid your discussions. Be prepared to lead with the following: Discussion aid which includes a wealth of prompts and information Overall plot synopsis and author biography Thought-provoking discussion questions for a deeper examination Creative exercises to foster alternate “if this was you” discussions And more!  Disclaimer: This is a companion guide based on the work Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel by Gail Honeyman and is not affiliated to the original work or author in any way. It does not contain any text of the original work. If you haven’t purchased the original work, we encourage you to do so first.

    Following an emotional and traumatic escape from the advancing German forces they arrive in England. As a result of their experiences, and the manner that they combated the Nazi regime, the three sisters, all civilians, are seconded, along with the survivors of their group, into the intelligence section of General De Gaulle’s newly formed Free French Force. After extensive training in England they return to occupied France living in fear of betrayal and capture.

    The name Peiper will always be linked to the Malmédy Massacre, the death of Belgian civilians and more than seventy American soldiers, but there is still a myth around Peiper. Why was a twenty-nine year old Waffen-SS officer chosen to lead the German spearhead unit during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944? Peiper was a special leader within the one of the most elite Waffen-SS divisions, the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler. Peiper was charismatic and extreme loyal to his unit. His men trusted him as a leader, even under the most extreme conditions. In Germany he was a well-known war hero. It was a logical decision that Peiper became the commander of the spearhead unit, but there were other factors leading to this decision: tactical considerations, a we-know-what-to-expect-principle, and Peiper was lucky that he was still alive and serving in the Waffen-SS.

    Written in his own hand from the day he signed up in October 1939 as a trainee pilot to the day he was ‘demobbed’ in October 1945, this poignant and often riveting diary by Squadron Leader Douglas Greaves D.F.C and Bar, records, in typical understated RAF style, the minutiae of everyday life in the services, as well as the horror he and his comrades endured and the heroism they all displayed.

    

    Near the end of the current President's term, China and Russia decide the time will never be better to take down America. They know the current administration has run down and demoralized the military. Half of American navy's mighty aircraft carriers are in out of service for repairs, the Army is the smallest it's been eighty years. The average age of the US Air Force fighters is over 25 years old. The AF is down to less than 100 nuclear bombers from a high of 600. Their war plan, Operation Whirlpool was to launch a surprise nuclear attack to knock out America. War usually plans end up in the trashbin when the enemy is engaged. Operation Whirlpool ran into an unexpected situation. The American’s weren’t as surprised as the Chinese and Russians thought. A US Navy attack submarine stumbled upon the Russian and Chinese SSBN’s sneaking up on the American coast. When the first missiles fly, the world explodes in war as old hatreds flare up. The story is told by a Russian historian who was selected by the Russian President to record the shortest war in history, which will leave Russia ruling the surviving world.

    When three of them are sent to train other soldiers they think that it will be an easy assignment. Their break from war is rudely interrupted when Adolf Hitler launches Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ("Operation Watch on the Rhine"), they are thrown back into the maelstrom of war. They are caught up in the retreat of the cavalry from St. Vith and they, and their American allies have to fight to defend every inch of the snow covered forests of the Ardennes. It will be a test of all their skills as they face the new German tanks, the King Tiger and the Jagdpanther. The fast moving novel reflects the actual events of December 1944.

    Operating from camps in places like Kontum and Dak To, Special Forces recon men risked their lives behind enemy lines on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia, conducting missions whose detection often meant death or something worse. Officially, they did not exist. Their government denied that they were operating in “neutral” countries; Hanoi denied the very existence of the Trail. If killed or captured in Laos or Cambodia, the Green Berets would be reported MIA or KIA—in Vietnam. They fought for each other and for their honor as soldiers. It is 1970. The United States Government is seeking a way out of the war “with honor” via a face-saving program called “Vietnamization.” This is the story of the fate of the recon men and the missions they conducted while highly skilled and motivated NVA hunter-killer teams pursued them on the enemy’s home turf. A recon team discovers a choke point on the enemy’s line of communication. For every day the Trail is blocked, enemy support of forces in the south is set back a month, giving South Vietnam a leg up. The special operators in Kontum are given the mission to do just that. There is a rub; the American president and his government must have “plausible deniability.” Therein lies the legacy of lies. “Very few authors have captured the action, intrigue and backstory of the secret missions as well as Colonel Gole does in ‘Legacy of Lies.’ A must read for those seeking the precursor to today’s military support to sensitive activities.” —Michael S. Repass, Major General, US Army (Retired) Special Forces “Gole’s novel is Fantastic! The best part, the top to bottom approach—from the White House, JCS, CINCPAC, MACV, down through SOG, right to the One-Zero firing tracers to mark his position for Covey.” —Colonel, USAF, (Ret) Tom Yarborough, author and decorated Covey pilot for SOG

    Death by fire - Death by ice.These were the twin threats confronting the seamen on the North Atlantic convoys: fire from the Luftwaffe's bombs, and from the torpedoes of the lurking U-Boats: ice in the deadly cold waters that could kill in three minutes, five minutes at most.Between these two hells lived another threat: the slow paralyzing hand of fear.

    At 18 Greeny enlisted in the Marine Corps. Basic training misses the mark for the reality of combat. After his first kill, the significance of taking a life confuses Greeny at a raw level of guts and glory. Killing soon becomes the norm. Greeny evolves from a naive young man to an aggressive combat veteran. Then, his two best friends die in front of him. Suddenly his fight for his own survival rests on returning to a wife and new baby back in the World.

    At the time, he would have done anything to escape; only upon reflection years later did he realize that the self-confidence instilled in him by his drill instructors had probably saved his life in Vietnam. A few months after boot camp, Private Ball was shipped out to Vietnam, joining F Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, near Khe Sanh. As a grunt, in the vernacular of the Corps, Ball, like the other youths of F Company, did a difficult and deadly job in such places as the A Shau Valley, Leatherneck Square, the DMZ and other obscure but critical I Corps locales. His--their--fear of death mingled with homesickness. Little did they realize that the horrors of the Vietnam War--horrors that while in-country they often claimed did not even exist--would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

    Since publishing his first short story "Seventh Test Tube" in Kalkandu magazine in 1968, he has written over 1,500 short novels and over 2,000 short stories. Many of his detective novels feature the recurring characters Vivek and Rubella. He continues to publish at least five novels every month, in the pocket magazines Best Novel, Everest Novel, Great Novel, Crime Novel, and Dhigil Novel, besides short stories published in weekly magazines like Kumudam and Ananda Vikatan. His writing is widely popular in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in Sri Lanka.

    

    Physics professor Alfred Mendl is separated from his family and sent to the men’s camp, where all of his belongings are tossed on a roaring fire. His books, his papers, his life’s work. The Nazis have no idea what they have just destroyed. And without that physical record, Alfred is one of only two people in the world with his particular knowledge. Knowledge that could start a war, or end it.Nathan Blum works behind a desk at an intelligence office in Washington, DC, but he longs to contribute to the war effort in a more meaningful way, and he has a particular skill set the U.S. suddenly needs. Nathan is fluent in German and Polish, he is Semitic looking, and he proved his scrappiness at a young age when he escaped from the Polish ghetto. Now, the government wants him to take on the most dangerous assignment of his life: Nathan must sneak into Auschwitz, on a mission to find and escape with one man.This historical thriller from New York Times bestseller Andrew Gross is a deeply affecting, unputdownable series of twists and turns through a landscape at times horrifyingly familiar but still completely compelling.