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  The Alistair Cooke Collection...

  Alistair Cooke

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  Three volumes of BBC broadcasts about the US from the New York Times–bestselling author, host of Masterpiece Theater, and “international treasure” (Booklist).   In addition to his most visible presence as the host of PBS’s Masterpiece Theater for over two decades, British-born Alistair Cooke entertained and informed millions of listeners around the globe with his weekly BBC radio program, Letters from America, for over half a century. An outstanding observer of the American scene, he became one of the world’s best-loved broadcasters. The three works in this collection gather together his most memorable insights into American history and culture. “Reading [Cooke] is like spending an evening with him: you may have heard it all before, but never told with such grace and sparkle” (The New York Times Book Review).  Letters from America: Beginning with his first letter in 1946, a powerful description of American GIs returning home, and ending with his last broadcast in February 2004, reflecting on the presidential campaign, this comprehensive collection displays Cooke’s “virtuosity approaching genius in talking about America in human terms” (Lord Hill of Luton, chairman of the BBC). Highlights include an eyewitness account of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, a moving evocation of 9/11, personal reflections on presidents, and warm remembrances of celebrity friends and cultural icons.   “In this tightly edited collection . . . Cooke captures the expanding soul of a nation and people.” —Publishers Weekly  Talk About America: Personally selected by Cooke, these dispatches cover a tumultuous time in American history, including the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. Along with cogent commentary, Cooke offers characteristically incisive portraits of political and cultural figures such as John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert Frost, H. L. Mencken, Charles Lindbergh, and John Glenn.   “There is great political penetration here, and there are flashes on every page of wit, humanity, and wisdom.” —The New York Times  The Americans: Always entertaining, provocative, and enlightening, the “best storyteller in America” reports on an extraordinarily diverse range of topics, from Vietnam, Watergate, and the constitutional definition of free speech to the jogging craze and the pleasures of a family Christmas in Vermont (James Reston). In this New York Times bestseller, Cooke eulogizes Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, pays an affectionate and moving tribute to Duke Ellington, and treats readers to a night at the opera with Jimmy Carter.   “One of the most gifted and urbane essayists of the century.” —The Spectator

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  Blackhorse Riders - A Desperate...

  Philip Keith

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  The true story of a US Army unit’s effort to rescue an outnumbered troop under heavy fire in Vietnam—and the thirty-nine-year odyssey to recognize their bravery. 
   
  Winner of the 2013 Silver Medal in History from the Military Writer’s Society of America 
   
  Finalist, 2013 Colby Award 
   
  Winner of the 2012 USA Best Book Award for Military History 
   
  Deep in the jungles of Vietnam, Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry, the famed Blackhorse Regiment, was a specialized cavalry outfit equipped with tanks and armored assault vehicles. On the morning of March 26, 1970, they began hearing radio calls from an infantry unit four kilometers away that had stumbled into a hidden North Vietnamese Army stronghold. Outnumbered at least six to one, the eighty-seven-man American company was quickly surrounded, pinned down, and fighting for its existence. 
   
  Captain John Poindexter, Alpha Troop’s twenty-five-year-old commander, realized that his outfit was the only hope for the trapped company. With the courage and determination that makes legends out of ordinary men, they effected a daring rescue and fought a pitched battle—at considerable cost. Many brave deeds were done that day, and Captain Poindexter tried to make sure his men were recognized for their actions. 
   
  Thirty years later, Poindexter was made aware that his award recommendations and even the records of the battle had somehow gone missing. Thus began the second phase of this remarkable story: a “battle” to ensure that his brave men’s accomplishments would never be forgotten again. 
   
  Praise for Blackhorse Riders 
   
  “Keith’s compelling storytelling breathes life into the personalities involved, so that minute by minute, following both rescuers and rescued, you keep turning pages to find out who lives and who dies.” —Karl Marlantes, New York Times–bestselling author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War 
   
  “One of the finest and best-told combat stories to come out of Vietnam. . . . For those of us who were there, this is the kind of book we would be proud to pass on to our children.” —Nelson DeMille 
   
  “A definite must-read.” —Booklist

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  Hazardous Duty - America's Most...

  Colonel David H. Hackworth

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  Colonel David H. Hackworth—             one of America's most decorated soldiers—             served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. After retiring from the military in 1971, he completed a second tour of battlefield duty as a war correspondent. Accompanying our nation's fighting men and women to the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, Somalia, Korea, and Haiti, what he learned was shocking: high-level military incompetence, futility, and corruption. Hazardous Duty is a necessary wake-up call for military reform—             a no-holds-barred, no-punches-pulled exposé               that calls America's top political and military leaders to account for selling out duty, honor, and country. A riveting, real-life adventure, this works also tells of courageous warriors on the world's new battlefields—             and offers solutions to problems that must be addressed if our nation is to remain the foremost military power in a volatile and ever-changing world.

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  The Immortalists - Charles...

  David M. Friedman

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  The Immortalists is the fascinating story of the friendship and extraordinary scientific collaboration of two prodigious men: Charles Lindbergh, once the most famous person in the world, and Dr. Alexis Carrel, the Nobel Prize winner regarded by many as the most brilliant surgeon who ever lived. 
   
  Lindbergh and Carrel met not long after Lindbergh's "victory lap" around the world, which followed his historic solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927. Fueled by their shared goal to find a scientific path to life without death, they spent five years in Carrel's laboratory at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York, where they secretly built a machine that could keep organs alive outside the bodies that created them. This device was the forerunner of today's artificial heart and heart-lung machine. 
   
  Although they obviously failed in their ultimate quest, Lindbergh and Carrel's experiments established them as two of the most ambitious thinkers in modern history, as well as unacknowledged pioneers of biotechnology.

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  The Revelation

  Coventry Patmore

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  Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore was an English poet and critic best known for The Angel in the House, his narrative poem about an ideal happy marriage. (Summary from Wikipedia)

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  The Muslim Problem - Why We're...

  Tawseef Khan

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  A provocative exploration of what it means to be a Muslim today. 
   
  Why are Muslim men portrayed as inherently violent? Does the veil violate women's rights? Is Islam stopping Muslims from integrating? Across western societies, Muslims are more misunderstood than any other minority. But what does it mean to believe in Islam today, to have forged your beliefs and identity in the shadow of 9/11 and the War on Terror? Exploding stereotypes from both inside and outside the faith, The Muslim Problem shows that while we may think we know all about Islam we are often wrong about even the most basic facts. 
   
  Bold and provocative, The Muslim Problem is both a wake-up call for non-believers and a passionate new framework for Muslims to navigate a world that is often set against them.

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