While trolling through the family’s past, Zach and Angela uncover the story of how the first McAlisters came to Australia. It all started in the quite Dorset town of Cerne Abbas during the Napoleonic Wars. Vicar’s daughter, Christina Proud marries smithy, and sometime smuggler, Will Jenkins, who soon falls foul of the law. Will is given a choice — take the King’s shilling or the noose. So, Will joins the army and Christina’s begins her odyssey as a camp follower. The battalion is quickly deployed to Spain to join General Arthur Wellesley’s Peninsula Army, fighting against the French. Threatened by platoon Sergeant Jack Newell and with her husband powerless to help, Christina is befriended by Lieutenant Jonathan McAlister who offers her projection. With the French Army massing at Talavera, the battalion marches into battle. Under the blistering Spanish sun, Christina must now fight for her life and those she loves. Beset on all sides by bandits, partisans, deserters, French cavalry and the squalor of a military campaign gone wrong. Living by her wits and managing to get by with broken Spanish. she tries to make her escape to a safe haven and hopefully a ship back to Blighty. But does she make it? Download and read Christina's account of her ghastly experiences in a foreign land. ================= KEYWORDS/TAGS: McAlister’s Lady, Christina, Jonathan, Will, French, Mary, Newell, Grant, Lady, battalion, Lightfoot, officers, Sergeant, women, Rodney, Major, Toff, Dandy-Jim, Jamieson, Jenkins, ship, wound, Proud, Weymouth, British, French, Annabelle, family, Reverend, declare, orders, musket, wives, river, Bill, Sea-Snake, Chesil Bay, love, Wellesley’s, infantry, Sheriff, Dorset, Ball, East, smuggle, East Indiaman, Portland Bill, General, Spanish, Portuguese, Lisbon, cargo, Lord, ammunition, Lieutenant, Battalion, cargo landers, column of soldiers, lighthouse, barracks, Rosemary, Nazario, Fleming, Monroe, troops, pistol, major, wreck, Cerne Abbas, John, baby, born, birth, contraband, partisans, abandoned, protest, Talavera, Stephen, Jesenia, Colonel, carts, west, casualties, Frenchmen, fusiliers, infection, puss, daughter, Portugal, redcoats, surgeon, Wally, Boyle, enemy, South, Army, treacherous, commission, survivors, ridgeline, Caldecott, musketry, froggies, frogs, pinnaces, sergeant, brigade, weapons, Estela, Grogan, London, Yeovil, bodies, Harold, Spain, Jack, Dorchester, Osmington, Colquhoun, venture, Yeomanry, Marshall, cavalry, England, Australia, powder, Court, trial, Sentence, Cells, Guard, Judge, Wales, Port, camp-follower, camp follower,

For any readers who have visited Union Square in New York, maybe you have seen a bronze statue standing among the trees of the park. It represents a tall young man, in the close-fitting uniform of an American General of the Revolution. He is erect and with his right hand he clasps a sword against his breast. His left hand is stretched out toward the statue of Washington. His name was Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier, better known as Marquis de Lafayette. The story of his whole life is one of the most interesting that has ever been written. This short volume will give only the story of his services to the United States of America, and of his life during the few years in which those services were rendered. The statue was set up in honor of these great services. If you ever embark upon reading the history of the USA, his name will forever be linked with that of General Washington. They were both brave, faithful, just, and generous, and both honored the name of American citizen—a title which Lafayette proudly claimed so long as he lived. =========== KEYWORDS/TAGS: 73, 77, Boy General, action, adventure, admiration, America, André, army, Arnold, attack, Austria, battalion, battle, Boston, brave, British, campaign, Canada, cannon, capture, Carlisle, cause, character, Clinton, command, commander-in-chief, Commissioners, Congress, Cornwallis, Count, countrymen, courage, Deane, Declaration, d'Estaing, Emperor, enemy, England, English, expedition, fight, fleet, France, freedom, French, gallant, garrison, General, government, gratitude, hero, honor, honour, horseback, independence, injustice, Island, Jersey, King, Lafayette, Lee, liberty, Lord, Louis, love, Major-General, march, Marquis de Lafayette, Monmouth, Napoleon, Newport, northward, officers, oppressed, overthrow, Paris, Paul, Philadelphia, Philippe, prison, prisoner, quarters, reconnaissance, reconnoissance, revolution, Revolutionary, River, Rochambeau, services, seventy-seven, seventy-three, soldier, statesman, statue, Sullivan, surrounded, three-cornered, Union, United States, Valley Forge, veteran, victory, Virginia, war, Washington, wound, York, Yorktown, young adult, YA

"A quest story to find the three pieces of a magical engine which can either win the War of 1812 ... or stop it altogether"--

Acclaim for True Women "Janice Woods Windle has performed a family miracle. Her book, True Women, is actually two books; a depiction of her distinguished Texas family, and an engrossing novel built upon her real ancestors. She recalls vivid scenes from her family's past, but also weaves them into a well-constructed novel. I know of no other book like it. Exciting storytelling." -James A. Michener "Janice Woods Windle has looked into her own heritage and pulled out a great windstorm of a novel. True Women presents, a stable of women they breed best in Texas: strong, pound, vivid, unforgettable. This is an American original, deftly told." -Anne Rivers Siddon "True Women represents a part of our country's history ignored and long overdue for recognition. At last, we can read about the pioneers and their husbands for a change!" -Fannie Flagg "I grew up listening to great stories. Janice Windle's novel, True Women is an engaging story of three generations of Texas women whose lived capture your imagination and your heart. Her characters are as sturdy as Texas live oaks, and her novel is a timeless tribute to remarkable women in extraordinary times." -Ann Richards Governor of Texas "As a writer deeply rooted in Texas history, I find Janice Woods Windle' s historical novel, True Women, beautifully written and brilliantly researched. It is a landmark book and validates its title." -Liz Carpenter Executive Assistant to Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson and Press Secretary to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson

Finding Narnia is Caroline McAlister and Jessica Lanan's captivating picture book biography of two brothers, Jack and Warnie Lewis, whose rich imaginations led to the creation of the magical world of Narnia. Before C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, he was a young boy named Jack who spent his days dreaming up stories of other worlds filled with knights, castles, and talking animals. His brother, Warnie, spent his days imagining worlds filled with trains, boats, and technology. One rainy day, they found a wardrobe in a little room next to the attic, and they wondered, What if the wardrobe had no end? Years later, Jack began to think about what could be beyond that wardrobe, and about a girl named Lucy and her siblings. This picture book biography introduces the beloved creator of The Chronicles of Narnia to a new generation of children who see hidden magic in the world around them.

Since 1980, the number of people in U.S. prisons has increased more than 450%. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called "the biggest prison building project in the history of the world." Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces, ranging from global to local, conjoined to produce the prison boom. In an informed and impassioned account, Ruth Wilson Gilmore examines this issue through statewide, rural, and urban perspectives to explain how the expansion developed from surpluses of finance capital, labor, land, and state capacity. Detailing crises that hit California’s economy with particular ferocity, she argues that defeats of radical struggles, weakening of labor, and shifting patterns of capital investment have been key conditions for prison growth. The results—a vast and expensive prison system, a huge number of incarcerated young people of color, and the increase in punitive justice such as the "three strikes" law—pose profound and troubling questions for the future of California, the United States, and the world. Golden Gulag provides a rich context for this complex dilemma, and at the same time challenges many cherished assumptions about who benefits and who suffers from the state’s commitment to prison expansion.

Now that her mother is dead, twenty year old Lily is the last of her kind. A Seeker. Tasked with seeking the lost crystals of Faerie, she must restore her broken and barren world to its former glory. But the crystals that keep Faerie alive have been stolen by the Sons of Darkness and are hidden on Earth. It's up her to get them back by any means necessary. She has everything under control and plans to bring the first crystal back, when she meets Liam, a Son of Darkness. He's the most dangerous kind, with black wings that smoke and eyes that have seen death. She must kill him, kill him and take the crystal, but she can't. He's her soulmate.

Kristen Ciccarelli’s distinct brand of lyrical, haunting fantasy continues in the companion to her bestselling debut, The Last Namsara. Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and Renee Ahdieh. Once there were two sisters born with a bond so strong that it forged them together forever. Roa and Essie called it the hum. It was a magic they cherished—until the day a terrible accident took Essie’s life and trapped her soul in this world. Dax—the heir to Firgaard’s throne—was responsible for the accident. Roa swore to hate him forever. But eight years later he returned, begging for her help. He was determined to dethrone his cruel father, under whose oppressive reign Roa’s people had suffered. Roa made him a deal: she’d give him the army he needed if he made her queen. Only as queen could she save her people from Firgaard’s rule. Then a chance arises to right every wrong—an opportunity for Roa to rid herself of this enemy king and rescue her beloved sister. During the Relinquishing, when the spirits of the dead are said to return, Roa discovers she can reclaim her sister for good. All she has to do is kill the king.

Kristen Ciccarelli’s debut fantasy explores an intricately woven world of deception, inner darkness, and dragons that fantasy fans won’t be able to resist. In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be darkness—and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death-bringer. These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up learning in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari—a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl. Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend—a slave boy from her betrothed’s household—Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.