While on his deathbed my father revealed to me a long held and very closely guarded secret, the topic of which he had never shared with another person, not even his late wife. I am convinced he became an alcoholic and closet madman due to the subject of that deathbed confession. I only wish he had told me years earlier as it would have allowed me to better understand the greatest villain, yet greatest hero, of my life. As it was, my father, a supremely gifted aviator, lived his life transitioning between the heaven in which he flew and the hell he fostered on Earth with-in his family. I suffered much collateral damage in my personal life due to the legacy of his abuse while also becoming his finest protégé; I too became an aviator. This memoir takes you, in fine detail, into the esoteric world of these two aviators. From flying biplanes, to F-16s, to B-777s they weathered the storms of mother nature as they circumvented the globe in whatever aircraft they were flying at the time. In addition to mother nature's maelstroms, they battled the personal storms of each other, and from with-in, as they navigated through life in an attempt to redefine either themselves or the other. The book's supporting characters are the many other pilots, both friends and colleagues, with whom their lives converged and intertwined on awe-inspiring adventures that showcased the best and the worst that the world has to offer. This is a tale that illuminates the vilest of hearts, the most jubilant of hearts, and in the final resolve how a child helped to bring his father to redemption on the last day of his life; in essence it's a story of never giving up.

On Christmas Eve 1971, the packed LANSA flight 508 from Lima to Pucallpa was struck by lightning and went down in dense jungle hundreds of miles from civilization. Of its 93 passengers, only one survived. Juliane Koepcke, the seventeen-year-old child of famous German zoologists. She'd been thrown from the plane two miles above the forest canopy, but had sustained only a broken collarbone and a cut on her leg. With incredible courage, instinct and ingenuity, she survived three weeks in the "green hell" of the Amazon - using the skills she'd learned in assisting her parents on their research trips into the jungle - before coming across a loggers hut, and, with it, safety. Now she tells her fascinating story for the first time, and in doing so tells us about her 'Gerald Durrell' childhood - with a menagerie of wild, exotic and sometimes dangerous pets - about how she learned to survive at her parents ecological station deep in the rainforest and about her present-day commitment to this wildlife as a biologist and dedicated environmentalist.

From acclaimed historian John Wukovits, the untold story of the USS Laffey and her crew, who heroically withstood twenty-two kamikaze attacks at Okinawa which the US Navy describes Òas one of the great sea epics of the warÓ

Imagine getting a glimpse of heaven, a preview of life in God's presence. Could life here ever be the same? Capt. Dale Black has flown as a commercial pilot all over the world, but one flight changed his life forever--an amazing journey to heaven and back. The only survivor of a horrific plane crash, Dale was hovering between life and death when he had a wondrous experience of heaven. What he saw, what he heard, and what he learned there continues to ripple through his life and touch others. Against all odds, Dale miraculously recovered from his injuries and learned to fly again. Now, with his life as a testament, he shares his inspiring story--offering hope and encouragement for those dealing with serious injuries or the loss of a loved one, and those looking for assurance about this life and the next. Experience a Life-Changing Vision of Heaven

A host of unexpected events lead to the revelation of dark secrets between Tyree's and Mia's families. With murder, corruption, and duplicity standing in their way, can Tyree keep his family safe and rekindle a love he once thought was lost forever? After the kidnapping of his son, Tyree Johnston's marriage to Mia, the love of his life, fell apart. Now, two years later, Tyree has their son Kyan for the summer, and he is unprepared for Mia's return to their hometown. Trying to move forward with his life, Tyree finds himself stuck between what his heart wants and what his head says is right. Mia left for Paris the minute her divorce was final, but when her sister-in-law tells her that Kyan needs her, Mia is on the first flight out. Besides, it's about time she faced Tyree so they can try to come together as co-parents for their son's well-being.

Blue Skies, Green Hell, a thriller written by a bush pilot’s wife, is a riveting tale set in the 1950s when pioneers of the sky flew single-engine aircraft over unforgiving wilderness and impenetrable jungle in Venezuela. Marilyn and Frank live in a place called the last frontier on the Orinoco River where he establishes a multi-aircraft service that flies supplies and medicine to remote and inaccessible communities. Together they challenge the odds and take the exhilaration of flying to new heights. Their world is fierce weather with no weather reports, aircraft with limited range radios, and planes with six basic instruments. A search and rescue effort ends when they make a forced landing in no man’s land. A flight to Miami turns sour as their twin-engine C-46 conks out over the Caribbean. Best friends die in fiery crashes. A stone age Indian appears where he shouldn’t be. This is drama from the cockpit of vintage aircraft.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This is history at its most immediate and moving…A marvelous and memorable book.” —Jon Meacham ​“Remarkable…A priceless civic gift…On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle, or make him angry, or heartbroken.” —The Wall Street Journal “Had me turning each page with my heart in my throat…There’s been a lot written about 9/11, but nothing like this. I urge you to read it.” —Katie Couric The first comprehensive oral history of September 11, 2001—a panoramic narrative woven from voices on the front lines of an unprecedented national trauma. Over the past eighteen years, monumental literature has been published about 9/11, from Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower to The 9/11 Commission Report. But one perspective has been missing up to this point—a 360-degree account of the day told through firsthand. Now, in The Only Plane in the Sky, Garrett Graff tells the story of the day as it was lived—in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, he paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11 attacks yet. Beginning in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker under the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard unarmed fighter jets in the air, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary to bring it down. In the skies above Pennsylvania, civilians aboard United 93 make the ultimate sacrifice in their place. Then, as the day moves forward and flights are grounded nationwide, Air Force One circles the country alone, its passengers isolated and afraid. More than simply a collection of eyewitness testimonies, The Only Plane in the Sky is the historic narrative of how ordinary people grappled with extraordinary events in real time: the father and son caught on different ends of the impact zone; the firefighter searching for his wife who works at the World Trade Center; the operator of in-flight telephone calls who promises to share a passenger’s last words with his family; the beloved FDNY chaplain who bravely performs last rites for the dying, losing his own life when the Towers collapse; and the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from trying to rescue their colleagues. At once a powerful tribute to the courage of everyday Americans and an essential addition to the literature of 9/11, The Only Plane in the Sky weaves together the unforgettable personal experiences of the men and women who found themselves caught at the center of an unprecedented human drama. The result is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history, and all of our lives.

Falling into Heaven is the true story of how a young skydivers life was changed when a fiery plane crash melted his face and mutilated his body. Miraculous healing and a spiritual adventure of a new life on earth followed this near death experience. Falling into Heaven is not just about a burned man getting better. It is about a dead man coming to life!

In this provocative, classic metaphysical thriller, a group of suburban amateur actors plagued by personal demons and terrors explore the pathways to heaven and hell Certain inhabitants of Battle Hill, a small community on the outskirts of London, are preparing to mount a new play by the neighborhood’s most illustrious resident, the writer Peter Stanhope. Each actor struggles with self-absorption, doubt, fear, and sin. But “the Hill” is not like other places. Here the past and present intermingle, ghosts walk among the living, and reality is often clouded by dreams and the dark fantastic. For young Pauline Anstruther, who is caring for an aging grandmother and frightened by the specter of a doppelgänger who gets closer with each visitation, the prospect of heaven exists in the renowned playwright’s willingness to bear the burden of her terror. For eminent historian Lawrence Wentworth, the rejection of his desire pulls him deeper inside himself, leaving him vulnerable to the lure of the succubus and opening wide the entrance to hell. A brilliant theological thriller, Descent into Hell is an extraordinary fictional meditation on sin and personal salvation by one of the twentieth century’s most original and provocative literary artists. Charles Williams, a member of the Inklings alongside fellow Oxfordians C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield, has written a powerful work at once profoundly disturbing and gloriously uplifting, an ingenious amalgam of metaphysics, religious thought, and darkest fantasy.