Can a hardcore gamer survive a real-world crisis? Seventeen-year-old Alex Brooks is obsessed with becoming an e-athlete. What teen wouldn’t want to make a million dollars playing video games professionally? Especially if you’ve got a real shot at it like Alex. His mom, a television producer in Hollywood, casts her son in a reality show about young gaming hopefuls seeking fame and fortune. This gives him great exposure in the industry. On top of that, His dad owns an up-and-coming tech business that is about to launch a revolutionary product. Life couldn’t be better--or could it? Truth be told, Alex doesn’t need to go pro as bad as he needs to grow up, and what teen really wants to do that? He’s popular with other gamers but his over-inflated ego makes him obnoxious to almost everyone else. He hides a deep secret--the cavernous void in his life that nothing seems to fill. He thrives on a false sense of accomplishment but is haunted by an inescapable sense of loneliness. He has lived in the shadow of his dad’s relentless pursuit of building a tech empire while watching him fail to keep his family from falling apart. What will it take for Alex to gain a new perspective on what it means to become a man and what it takes to be a hero? Everything changes when Alex goes missing. He must face a life or death struggle in a foreign culture that doesn’t have a power grid. Man or computer mouse? His digital world didn’t prepare him for the challenges that are about to confront him. Alex is not ready to rescue anyone, he needs to be rescued. For those who really know Alexander, why would anyone want to save him? This coming-of-age story follows Alex as he is forced to grow up the hard way through extraordinary circumstances, which cause him to re-evaluate what’s important in life, his need for God, and the positive influence of older mentors. Adventure, danger, romance, survival, despair and Providence are the ingredients that help remake his life.

The careers of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great (III) were interlocked in innumerable ways: Philip II centralized ancient Macedonia, created an army of unprecedented skill and flexibility, came to dominate the Greek peninsula, and planned the invasion of the Persian Empire with a combined Graeco-Macedonian force, but it was Alexander who actually led the invading forces, defeated the great Persian Empire, took his army to the borders of modern India, and created a monarchy and empire that, despite its fragmentation, shaped the political, cultural, and religious world of the Hellenistic era. Alexander drove the engine his father had built, but had he not done so, Philip's achievements might have proved as ephemeral as had those of so many earlier Macedonian rulers. On the other hand, some scholars believe that Alexander played a role, direct or indirect, in the murder of his father, so that he could lead the expedition to Asia that his father had organized. In short, it is difficult to understand or assess one without considering the other. This collection of previously unpublished articles looks at the careers and impact of father and son together. Some of the articles consider only one of the Macedonian rulers although most deal with both, and with the relationship, actual or imagined, between the two. The volume will contain articles on military and political history but also articles that look at the self-generated public images of Philip and Alexander, the counter images created by their enemies, and a number that look at how later periods understood them, concluding with the Hollywood depiction of the relationship. Despite the plethora of collected works that deal with Philip and Alexander, this volume promises to make a genuine contribution to the field by focusing specifically on their relationship to one another.

The thrilling and definitive account of the Abdication Crisis of 1936 On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII brought a great international drama to a close when he abdicated, renouncing the throne of the United Kingdom for himself and his heirs. The reason he gave when addressing his subjects was that he could not fulfill his duties without the woman he loved—the notorious American divorcee Wallis Simpson—by his side. His actions scandalized the establishment, who were desperate to avoid an international embarrassment at a time when war seemed imminent. That the King was rumored to have Nazi sympathies only strengthened their determination that he should be forced off the throne, by any means necessary. Alexander Larman’s The Crown in Crisis will treat readers to a new, thrilling view of this legendary story. Informed by revelatory archival material never-before-seen, as well as by interviews with many of Edward’s and Wallis’s close friends, Larman creates an hour-by-hour, day-by-day suspenseful narrative that brings readers up to the point where the microphone is turned on and the king speaks to his subjects. As well as focusing on King Edward and Mrs. Simpson, Larman looks closely at the roles played by those that stood against him: Prime minister Stanley Baldwin, his private secretary Alec Hardinge, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang. Larman also takes the full measure of those who supported him: the great politician Winston Churchill, Machiavellian newspaper owner Lord Beaverbrook, and the brilliant lawyer Walter Monckton. For the first time in a book about the abdication, readers will read an in-depth account of the assassination attempt on Edward’s life and its consequences, a first-person chronicle of Wallis Simpson’s scandalous divorce proceedings, information from the Royal Archives about the government’s worries about Edward’s relationship with Nazi high-command Ribbentrop and a boots-on-the-ground view of how the British people saw Edward as they watched the drama unfold. You won’t be able to put down The Crown in Crisis, a full panorama of the people and the times surrounding Edward and the woman he loved.

When a scientist, the revered uncle of thirteen-year-old Alexander Tennyson, mysteriously disappears, Alexander follows clues that Uncle Chad has left behind in his journal. The clues hint at treachery and abandonment—in an ancient past among two million newly freed Israelite slaves. A chance meeting with a brilliant quadriplegic girl lets Alexander reach across the millennia to attempt a rescue. But finding Uncle Chad is not the end. Instead, it leads to an unexpected second rescue that is harder and demands forgiveness. Can Alexander forgive?

Recounts the "History of Alexander's Conquests" of Ptolemy Lagides, a Macedonian officer who accompanied Alexander the Great during his conquests and who was later to lead the city of Alexandria in its triumph after Alexander's death.

First published in 1951, this is both a personal narrative and forensic analysis of the methods employed by Stalin and the G.P.U. during the Great Purge from the middle of 1936 to the end of 1938. It is the exploration of the systematic imprisonment, interrogation and extraction of false confessions from millions of people that is extraordinary. Weissberg explains how victims of the state police were forced to make confessions incriminating not only themselves but also co-conspirators. This practice was aimed at destroying the relations of trust between those who were responsible for the Russian revolution. Those who were not killed in camps in the Soviet Arctic were divided and conquered. Hence, the central thesis in the book is that the Russian revolution and communism in the Soviet Union were irrevocably destroyed and ended in the 1930s during the terror of the Stalinist purges. A remarkable and little known contribution to our understanding of the events in the Soviet Union.

Recounts the events of a day when everything goes wrong for Alexander. Suggested level: junior, primary.

MURDER IN BABYLON is a real-life historical detective story: a true tale of murder and mystery that has remained untold for over two thousand years. Recreating the scene of the crime to reveal eight suspects, each with the motive and opportunity to have assassinated the king. Graham Phillips uncovers a maze of intrigue, power-play and romantic tragedy that led inevitably towards Alexander's death. Ultimately, in a dramatic twist in the tale, the murderer is finally unveiled.

From the pages of history and the personal accounts of those who endured the Battle of Franklin, Tamera Alexander weaves real-life love letters into a story of unlikely romance first kindled amid the shadows of the Civil War. “Beautifully-drawn characters and rich history in With This Pledge work seamlessly to demonstrate that Christ’s love and romantic love can triumph even in our darkest moments.” —Lynn Austin, bestselling author Elizabeth “Lizzie” Clouston’s quietly held principles oppose those of the Southern Cause—but when forty thousand soldiers converge on the fields of Franklin, Tennessee, the war demands an answer. The Carnton home where she is governess is converted into a Confederate field hospital, and Lizzie is called upon to assist the military doctor with surgeries that determine life or death. Faced with the unimaginable, she must summon fortitude, even as she fears for the life of Towny, her fiancé and lifelong friend. As a young soldier lies dying in Lizzie’s arms, she vows to relay his final words to his mother, but knows little more than the boy’s first name. That same night, decorated Mississippi sharpshooter Captain Roland Ward Jones extracts a different promise from Lizzie: that she intervene should the surgeon decide to amputate his leg. Lizzie is nothing if not a woman of her word, earning the soldiers’ respect as she tends to the wounded within Carnton’s walls. None is more admiring than Captain Jones, who doesn’t realize she is pledged to another. But as Lizzie’s heart softens toward the Confederate captain, she discovers that his moral ground is at odds with her own. Now torn between love, principles, and promises made, she struggles to be true to her heart while standing for what she knows is right—no matter the cost. From the pages of history and the personal accounts of those who endured the Battle of Franklin, Tamera Alexander weaves the real-life love letters between Captain Roland Ward Jones and Miss Elizabeth Clouston into a story of unlikely romance first kindled amid the shadows of war. “Alexander’s With This Pledge dusts off the archives and breathes life into the Battle of Franklin: believed to be the most brutal battle in the Civil War. Through Tamera Alexander’s indomitable heroine, Lizzie Clouston, who transforms from governess to nurse out of necessity, we find ourselves contemplating our own inner strength should we also be faced with the unthinkable. Tamera Alexander’s With This Pledge is not only historical fiction at its finest, but its most compelling.” —Jolina Petersheim, bestselling author of How the Light Gets In “Tamera Alexander has once again given readers a beautifully written story full of strong characters and tender romance—all while staying true to the actual history of the people and events she describes. From the horrors of war to the hope of blossoming love, Lizzie and Roland’s story will live in my heart for a very long time.” —Anne Mateer, author of Playing by Heart