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  We Never Let Go

  Tracy Peppiatt

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  It is said that a picture paints a thousand words but unless those words are revealed the viewer has to make their own interpretation. A family photograph like thousands of others may give a clue to the location and time through clothing and scenery, but what is not apparent are the thoughts, aspirations, and life of those portrayed. This is a story of a working class family, whose voyage through the rapidly changing society of the 60's and 70's, was probably like many others. But the difference with this story is that despite the often genuinely desperate situations that they found themselves, they persevered throughout with love and mutual dependence but primarily because there was little choice. The bond that holds us all together through all of life's twists and turns and ultimately determines how we turn out in later life is the underlying story that is revealed. However, as we are the product of our response to our experiences through life, we ultimately never let go.

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  The Stone Roses - War and Peace:...

  Simon Spence

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  The Stone Roses captures the magic—and chaos—behind the UK band's rise, fall, and recent resurrection.The iconic Brit pop band The Stone Roses became an overnight sensation when their 1989 eponymous album went double platinum. It was a recording that is still often listed as one of the best albums ever made. Its chiming guitar riffs, anthemic melodies, and Smiths-like pop sensibility elevated The Stone Roses to a cult-like status in the UK and put them on the map in the U.S. But theirs is a story of unfulfilled success: their star imploded as their sophomore effort took years to complete and the band broke up acrimoniously in 1996. Sixteen years later, they reunited and have been playing sold out gigs, thrilling fans around the globe, and working on new material. In 2013, they nabbed the coveted headline spot at the Coachella Festival. With one hundred interviews of key figures, forty rare photographs, and exclusive insider material including how they created their music, The Stone Roses charts the band's rise from the backwaters of Manchester to becoming the stars of the "Madchester" scene to their successful comeback years later. Going beyond the myths to depict a band that defined Brit pop, Simon Spence illustrates their incandescent talent and jaw-dropping success while contextualizing them in the 90s music scene. This is the definitive story of The Stone Roses.

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  The Shattered Lens - A War...

  Jonathan Alpeyrie, Bonnie...

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  Capturing history was Jonathan Alpeyrie's job, but he never expected to become a news story himself. For a decade, the French American photojournalist weaved in and out of over a dozen conflict zones. But, during his third assignment to Syria, Alpeyrie was betrayed by his fixer and handed over to a band of Syrian rebels. For eighty one days, he was bound, blindfolded, and beaten. Over the course of his captivity, Alpeyrie kept his spirits up and strived to see, without his camera lenses, the humanity in his captors. The Shattered Lens is his firsthand account: the account of a photojournalist who has always answered the next adrenaline pumping assignment but, during his headline making kidnapping, was left to consider the value and risks of his career, to ponder the violent conflicts he had seen, and to put the historical events over which he had no control into perspective.

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  Antony and Cleopatra

  Adrian Goldsworthy

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  The acclaimed historian reveals the truth behind the myths of antiquity’s legendary lovers in “this thoughtful, deeply satisfying” dual biography (Publishers Weekly, starred review).   In Antony and Cleopatra, preeminent historian Adrian Goldsworthy goes beyond the romantic narratives of Shakespeare and Hollywood to create a nuanced and historically acute portrayal of his subjects. Set against the political backdrop of their time, he presents two lives lived at the center of profound social change. It is a narrative that crosses cultures and boundaries from ancient Greece and ancient Egypt to the Roman Empire. Drawing on his prodigious knowledge of the ancient world, and especially the period’s military and political history, Goldsworthy creates a singular portrait of two iconic lovers who were, in his words, “first and foremost political animals.” With a close analysis of ancient sources and archaeological evidence, Goldsworthy explains why Cleopatra was often portrayed as an Egyptian, even though she was Greek, and argues that Antony had far less military experience than popular legend suggests. At the same time, Goldsworthy makes a persuasive case that Antony was a powerful Roman senator and political force in his own right. A story of love, politics, and ambition, Goldsworthy’s Antony and Cleopatra delivers a compelling reassessment of a major episode in ancient history.

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  I Somehow Survived - Eyewitness...

  Klaus G. Förg

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  “The selection of remembered events from a cross section of Germans provides a very human account of instances in war.” —Firetrench 
   
  The first in a series of books, I Somehow Survived is an extraordinary collection of true stories giving testimony to those who survived World War II. Based on interviews with numerous veterans from across the spectrum of wartime experience, the book documents and reflects upon one of the most gruesome times in history. 
   
  From anti-partisan warfare in the French mountains and atrocities in East Prussia to the experience of a Norwegian concentration camp, the accounts include rarely heard stories from a range of people caught up in the war. With the distance of time, these survivors have been able to offer new perspectives on their experiences and expose truths they would not have dared admit several decades ago. 
   
  German Army officers reveal their role in the Vercors and Kiev massacres. A Luftwaffe officer-applicant who never flew describes service on the ground. And a Norwegian woman writes of marrying a German Kriegsmarine while her mother was in a Norwegian concentration camp for political activity and her father was in hiding from the Gestapo. “I have no objection to your marrying him,” her father told her, “I just want them to give us our country back.” 
   
  “It is always refreshing to hear the German side of the story. The recollections seem pretty open and candid, and the supporting photos help reassure one . . . fascinating stuff.” —A Question of Scale

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  African American Faces of the...

  Ronald S. Coddington

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  Discover the men of color who fought for their freedom during the Civil War through profiles illustrated with original wartime photographs. 
   
  A renowned collector of Civil War photographs and a prodigious researcher, Ronald S. Coddington combines compelling archival images with biographical stories that reveal the human side of the war. This third volume in his series on Civil War soldiers contains previously unpublished photographs of African American Civil War participants?many of whom fought to secure their freedom. 
   
  During the Civil War, 200,000African American men enlisted in the Union army or navy. Some of them were free men and some escaped from slavery; others were released by sympathetic owners to serve the war effort. African American Faces of the Civil War tells the story of the Civil War through the images of men of color who served in roles that ranged from servants and laborers to enlisted men and junior officers. 
   
  Coddington discovers these portraits?cartes de visite, ambrotypes, and tintypes?in museums, archives, and private collections. He has pieced together each individual’s life and fate based upon personal documents, military records, and pension files. These stories tell of ordinary men who became fighters, of the prejudice they faced, and of the challenges they endured. African American Faces of the Civil War makes an important contribution to a comparatively understudied aspect of the war and provides a fascinating look into lives that helped shape America. 
   
  “It does nothing to diminish the depth and precision of Coddington’s research to say that each compelling vignette prompts the reader to hurriedly flip to the next one.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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