Fallen giants, taken too soon. Unexpected deaths are not entirely unexpected-they surround us every day. What shocks us is "the who," the how, and the why of them, especially when it comes to celebrities. Whether they fought for our rights or spoke to us through song, moved us on screen, stage, or provided leadership for our country, they gave us a window into their hearts and minds, and their loss unites friends and strangers in an outpouring of sadness. Deaths That Shocked the World, the new Special Edition from TIME-LIFE, tells the stories of how we lost some of our most beloved icons to accidents, drugs, murder, and political assassination. And regardless of how they died, it is agreed that they all went too soon. Princess Diana and James Dean, John Lennon and Prince, Kurt Cobain and Robin Williams, Martin Luther King and both John F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr., are among the many featured in this Special Edition that profiles the impact their lives and deaths had on our world.

There has never been a show business book quite like The Show Won't Go On, the first comprehensive study of a bizarre phenomenon: performers who died onstage. From the comedy magician who dropped dead on live television to the amateur thespian who expired during a play called The Art of Murder, the book is a celebration of lives both famous and obscure, as well as a dramatic and accurate recounting of events leading to the moments they died "doing what they loved." The Show Won't Go On covers almost every genre of entertainment and is full of unearthed anecdotes, exclusive interviews, colorful characters, and ironic twists. With dozens of heart-stopping stories, it's the perfect book to dip into on any page.

Shell Shock, Memory, and the Novel in the Wake of World War I explores the narrative traces, subaltern faces, and commemorative spaces of shell shock in wartime and postwar novels by Mulk Raj Anand, Ford Madox Ford, Mary A. Ward, George Washington Lee, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Christopher Isherwood. This book argues that World War I novels serve as an untapped source of information about shell shock, and renews our present understanding of the condition by exploring the nexus of shell shock and practices of commemoration. Shell shock novelists testify to the tenaciousness and complexity of the disorder, write survivors into visibility, and articulate the immediacy of wounds that remain to be seen. This book helps readers understand more fully the extent to which shell shock continues to shape and trouble modern memories of the First World War.

The cases that follow are once again eclectic and darkly fascinating. Drug overdoses, murders, suicides, unsolved deaths, autoerotic asphyxiation, car crashes, plane crashes, freak accidents, doomed child stars, and so on. Shocking Celebrity Deaths and Murders Volume 3 includes, among others, Anna Nicole Smith, Dustin Diamond, Patrick Swayze, John Ritter, Sarah Harding, Bobby Driscoll, Samantha Smith, and Mya-Lecia Naylor.

This indispensable reference work provides readers with the tools to reimagine world history through the lens of women's lived experiences. Learning how women changed the world will change the ways the world looks at the past. Women Who Changed the World: Their Lives, Challenges, and Accomplishments through History features 200 biographies of notable women and offers readers an opportunity to explore the global past from a gendered perspective. The women featured in this four-volume set cover the full sweep of history, from our ancestral forbearer "Lucy" to today's tennis phenoms Venus and Serena Williams. Every walk of life is represented in these pages, from powerful monarchs and politicians to talented artists and writers, from inquisitive scientists to outspoken activists. Each biography follows a standardized format, recounting the woman's life and accomplishments, discussing the challenges she faced within her particular time and place in history, and exploring the lasting legacy she left. A chronological listing of biographies makes it easy for readers to zero in on particular time periods, while a further reading list at the end of each essay serves as a gateway to further exploration and study. High-interest sidebars accompany many of the biographies, offering more nuanced glimpses into the lives of these fascinating women.

The bond between parent and child is the strongest natural connection imaginable. But in rare and shocking cases, that bond can be brutally broken. The Philpott family, 'baby P' and jasmine Beckford are just three cases that have made a nation's blood run cold. But what could possibly drive a parent to commit the cruellest crime of all - the killing of their own child.In Parents Who Kill, renowned crime expert Carol Anne Davis explores the motives behind an act which flies in the face of all reason and instinct. This timely study examines some of the most harrowing cases documented in recent legal history, ranging from tragic negligence to more culturally specific instances of religious honour killings for 'sexual deviancy'.Update to include analysis of the most recent case of Mick and Mairead Philpott, who killed six of their children after setting fire to their own home, Davis casts a forensically objective eye over powerful themes encompassing jealousy, insanity, greed and everything in between. But this is more than just a study in the macabre. David shows great compassion and insight to reveal the psychology behind disability, mercy killings and post-natal depression, whilst in a final conclusion she proposes solutions to these issues and potentially life-saving avenues of help.Parents Who Kill is the compendium for anyone seeking to answer the hardest queston: 'What could possibly turn a parent into a killer?.'Carol Anne Davis writes with dangerous authority about the deadly everyday...You've got to read her.' - IAN RANKIN

A second all new volume of celebrity deaths and murders. The cases that follow are eclectic and darkly fascinating. Drug overdoses, murders, television suicides, crazed fans, unsolved deaths, autoerotic asphyxiation, car crashes, freak accidents, doomed child stars, and so on. New additions include James Dean, Peaches Geldof, Paul Walker, Steve Irwin, Whitney Houston, Christine Chubbuck, Lana Clarkson, Caroline Flack, Jayne Mansfield, and many more.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • An "extraordinary ... profoundly moving" history (The New York Times Book Review) of the American Civil War that reveals the ways that death on such a scale changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation. An estiated 750,000 soldiers lost their lives in the American Civil War. An equivalent proportion of today's population would be seven and a half million. In This Republic of Suffering, Drew Gilpin Faust describes how the survivors managed on a practical level and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the unprecedented carnage with its belief in a benevolent God. Throughout, the voices of soldiers and their families, of statesmen, generals, preachers, poets, surgeons, nurses, northerners and southerners come together to give us a vivid understanding of the Civil War's most fundamental and widely shared reality. With a new introduction by the author, and a new foreword by Mike Mullen, 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Death teaches us how to live. When Whitney K. Pipkin’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she wasn’t ready. How could she be? She searched for resources that could help her walk through this heavy yet sacred time in her life. But she struggled to find the guidance she longed for in a season of anticipatory grief. We Shall All Be Changed is a companion for those experiencing the lonely season of suffering and death. In this book, Whitney reaches across the pages to hold the hand of the caregiver. Walking through death with a loved one can be incredibly isolating and unsettling. This book reminds us that we can experience God’s very presence in life’s dark and deep valleys. As Whitney draws from her own experience, she sheds light and hope. She shows that we are not alone. And she reveals the mysterious way that God ministers to and transforms us through death and suffering. Beautifully honest and theologically rich, Whitney invites us to consider death so that we might understand life and how to live it. Rather than wanting to run from discussions of death—as I did for so long—I now want to press into them, to wring from one of the hardest trials life has to offer every drop of sanctification and glory. I see now that having a front seat to my mom’s final days has forever changed the ones I have left to live. —Whitney Pipkin A book for those who are caring for the sick and dying . . . for those who will care for parents, family, or friends in their last days . . . and for those who have already walked this journey. This book is for us.