A fascinating review of one man’s experiences during the Dust Bowl era, and WWII; includes Heathrow, Normandy, Le Bourget, and Hitler’s Bunker. The men and women who fought in World War II are often referred to as “The Greatest Generation,” and for good reason. Before ever stepping onto the battlefield, most had survived The Great Depression, and if they happened to live in the Midwest, The Dust Bowl. Such was the case with my father. Dad grew up in poverty in rural Kansas with no electricity or plumbing, not even an outhouse. While in college he became a pilot, and then joined the Army Air Force shortly before WWII. For someone who never fired a gun or received enemy gunfire, he had one of the most amazing service records. He managed two of the most famous airfields in the world – Heathrow and Le Bourget -- then became one of the first Americans to visit Hitler’s bunker only a couple of days after his suicide. From Dusty Plains to Wartime Planes is educational, moving and highly entertaining. This first person account includes some of the most famous periods and places in our nation’s history, including the Dust Bowl, The Great Depression, World War II, Heathrow, Normandy, Le Bourget, and Hitler’s Bunker. The storyline is supplemented with historical notes and fascinating photos.

The men and women who fought in World War II are often referred to as "The Greatest Generation," and for good reason. Before ever stepping onto the battlefield, most had survivedThe Great Depression, and if they happened to live in the Midwest, The Dust Bowl. Such was the case with my father. Dad grew up in poverty in rural Kansas with no electricity or plumbing, not even an outhouse. While in college he became a pilot, and then joined the Army Air Force shortly before WWII. For someone who never fired a gun or received enemy gunfire, he had one of the most amazing service records. He managed two of the most famous airfields in the world - Heathrow and Le Bourget -- then became one of the first Americans to visit Hitler's bunker only a couple of days after his suicide. From Dusty Plains to Wartime Planes is educational, moving and highly entertaining. This first person account includes some of the most famous periods and places in our nation's history, including the Dust Bowl, The Great Depression, World War II, Heathrow, Normandy, Le Bourget, and Hitler's Bunker. The storyline is supplemented with historical notes and fascinating photos.

Orphaned Aram has survived alone for five years, his only friend a thieving magpie, who acts as his eyes. For in the Carrionlands, magic comes at a terrible price. It costs you your sight, hearing or voice. When he rescues a voiceless girl, Bina, from being sacrificed to the Vulture King, he is taken in by an underground resistance group. They reveal that Aram’s mother is alive, but the king is using her and other slave magicians to fuel his unnaturally long life. With his mother’s magic being rapidly drained, she doesn’t have long to live. If Aram can find the Radix, a hidden magical power source, there’s a slim chance he might be able to save her. But to get there, he must cross the Barrens where every living creature is out to kill you. That’s if one of his new companions doesn’t betray him first.

For many of us, cancer is an inescapable reality. It is estimated that one in two people will be affected by the disease during their life. ‘Mortal Musings: Waiting for Dawn’ is a moving, thought-provoking and intensely personal account of one man’s journey. In October 2016 my indigestion turned out to be cancer. A few days later, the news got worse when it was discovered my cancer was not only rare and incurable, but it was Stage IV and I likely had only a few months to live. A death sentence like that naturally makes you think about your own mortality and what lies beyond. But I was not about to give in to the inevitable. I refused to believe in a no-win scenario. People say it is always darkest before the dawn, so I set about waiting for the sunrise. Being impatient, I did everything I could to hurry it along. Mortal Musings is about my fight -- physically, mentally and spiritually. It is about hope, faith and denial, how the cancer impacted my life and the lives of those around me, my treatments and the emotional struggle I endured. But it also delves into speculation about what lies ahead, beyond this mortal coil. That I am still here, three years later, is a miracle. That I am now cancer free is even more amazing. As Jimmy Valvano said, “don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” And I didn’t. **** “A must-read for anyone affected by this life-changing disease.” – Bethan White, Fade “A powerful testimony of how all of us must accept our own mortality.” – Richard Denham, Arthur: Shadow of a God

How hundreds of lawyers mobilized to challenge the illegal treatment of prisoners captured in the war on terror and helped force an end to the US government's most odious policies. In The War in Court, sociologist Lisa Hajjar traces the fight against the US torture policy by lawyers who brought the "war on terror" into the courts. Their victories, though few and far between, forced the government to change the way prisoners were treated and focused attention on state crimes perpetrated in the shadows. If not for these lawyers and their allies, US torture would have gone unchallenged because elected officials and the American public, with a few exceptions, did nothing to oppose it. This war in court has been fought to defend the principle that there is no legal right to torture. Told as a suspenseful, high-stakes story, The War in Court clearly outlines why challenges to the torture policy had to be waged on the legal terrain and why hundreds of lawyers joined the fight. Drawing on extensive interviews with key participants, her own experiences reporting from Guantánamo, and her deep knowledge of international law and human rights, Hajjar reveals how the ongoing fight against torture has had transformative effects on the legal landscape in the United States and on a global scale.

After the failure of their first scouting expedition to England in 1900, the Martians regrouped, developed means to deal with the deadly Earthly microorganisms, and landed again in 1908. Not just in one location, but all over the world. Their transport cylinders fell on every continent and in great number. Only England and Europe were spared this time.The first three books in the Great Martian War series dealt with the invasion in America. The Gathering Storm expands the narrative to Australia, Africa, and the Near East. The year is 1912 and the Martians have planned a vast coordinated offensive to link up their scattered conquests and assemble a force so powerful that nothing can resist it.

A college math professor who believes that gambling is a sin takes his secret gambling system to the craps tables in Las Vegas intent on winning enough money to keep his little Mississippi Baptist college from going bankrupt. As soon as he starts winning, all hell breaks loose.

Over several centuries the ambulance has evolved from horse-drawn wagons designed to remove wounded soldiers from the battlefield into high-speed emergency rooms on wheels, staffed by skilled professionals. This thorough history follows the ambulance through every phase, focusing not just on the vehicles but on their role within the developing medical systems they served, as well as the political, social and economic influences that have shaped their advancement. Topics include the critical role of police ambulances in the development of the first emergency medical services, the history of the ambulance intern, breakthroughs in ambulance design and function from the horse-drawn days to the present, notable women in ambulance development, and a fresh look at the first organized paramedic services. More than 275 photographs and other illustrations accompany the text.

Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film is the definitive study of the symbiotic relationship between the film industry and the United States armed services. Since the first edition was published nearly two decades ago, the nation has experienced several wars, both on the battlefield and in movie theatres and living rooms at home. Now, author Lawrence Suid has extensively revised and expanded his classic history of the mutual exploitation of the film industry and the military, exploring how Hollywood has reflected and effected changes in America's image of its armed services. He offers in-depth looks at such classic films as Wings, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, The Longest Day, Patton, Top Gun, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Saving Private Ryan, as well as the controversial war movies The Green Berets, M*A*S*H, the Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Born on the Fourth of July.

“A surgeon internationally recognized for his expertise in heart and lung transplants . . . writes with assurance and aplomb about his achievements.” —Kirkus Reviews Stuart Jamieson has lived two lives. One began in heat and dust. Born to British ex-pats in colonial Africa, Jamieson was sent at the age of eight to a local boarding school, where heartless instructors bullied and tormented their students. In the summers he escaped to fish on crocodile-infested rivers and explore the African bush. As a teenager, an apprenticeship with one of Africa’s most fabled trackers taught Jamieson how to deal with dangerous game and even more dangerous poachers, lessons that would later serve him well in the high-stakes career he chose. Jamieson’s second life unfolded when he went to London to study medicine during the turbulent 1960s, leaving behind the only home he knew as it descended into revolution. Brilliant and self-assured, Jamieson advanced quickly in the still-new field of open-heart surgery. It was a fraught time. For patients with terminal heart disease, heart transplants were the new hope. But poor outcomes had all but ended the procedure. In 1978 Jamieson came to America and to Stanford—the only cardiac center in the world doing heart transplants successfully. Here, Jamieson’s pioneering work on the anti-rejection drug cyclosporin would help to make heart transplantation a routine life-saving operation, that is still in practice today as he continues to train the next generation of heart surgeons. Stuart Jamieson’s story is the story of four decades of advances in heart surgery. “Every reader interested in the history behind one of medicine’s riskiest procedures will find it fascinating.” —Booklist