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  The Serpent's Tooth - A Memoir

  Nancy Marston

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  The Serpent's Tooth takes the listener on a hurriedly-paced, true journey through Hollywood, addiction, lottery jackpots, and courtroom drama—that ultimately rips a family apart. 
   
   
   
  The Serpent's Tooth is the memoir of a courageous mother who fights tirelessly for the life of her daughter—a successful young film actress led criminally astray by a controlling older man—and her husband—a highly-decorated fire captain who falls prey to drugs. This riveting tale of betrayal, addiction, and a lottery jackpot which leads to a dramatic courtroom trial. The story unfolds with famous attorneys battling over millions in legal fees, when greed rears its ugly head and becomes the primary motive. Through all the deceit and lies, a hard-edged judge is left to make the final decision as to who the rightful owner of the $5.2 million-dollar lottery prize is. Filled with emotions from anger and hate to grief and loss, the listener is wondering how this all could have ever happened. In the end, who is left standing, who falls, and who was ultimately to blame?

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  Across the Plains in the Donner...

  Virginia Reed Murphy

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  The story of the Donner Party is very much the story of James F. Reed's family, not simply because the Reeds were prominent members, but because they left much documentary evidence: diaries, memoirs, correspondence, and letters written en route and interviews shortly after the disaster. 
   
  The adopted daughter of Reed, Virginia Reed Murphy's memoir is a noteworthy recounting of the Donner party disaster and its gruesome end. Her writing is sprightly, informal, and full of human interest. 
   
  ©2007 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.; (P)2007 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

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  Age of Cage - Four Decades of...

  Keith Phipps

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  Icon. Celebrity. Artist. Madman. Genius. 
   
   
   
  Nicolas Cage is many things, but love him, or laugh at him, there's no denying two things: you've seen one of his many films, and you certainly know his name. But who is he, really, and why has his career endured for over forty years, with more than a hundred films, and birthed a million memes? 
   
   
   
  Age of Cage is a smart, beguiling book about the films of Nicolas Cage and the actor himself, as well as a sharp-eyed examination of the changes that have taken place in Hollywood over the course of his career. Critic and journalist Keith Phipps draws a portrait of the enigmatic icon by looking at—what else?—Cage's expansive filmography. 
   
   
   
  As Phipps delights in charting Cage's films, Age of Cage also chronicles the transformation of film, as Cage's journey takes him through the world of 1980s comedies (Valley Girl, Peggy Sue Got Married, Moonstruck), to the indie films and blockbuster juggernauts of the 1990s (Wild at Heart, Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off, Con Air), through the video-on-demand world of today. 
   
   
   
  Sweeping in scope and intimate in its profile of a fiercely passionate artist, Age of Cage is, like the man himself, surprising, insightful, funny, and one of a kind. So, snap out of it, and enjoy this appreciation of Nicolas Cage, national treasure.

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  John Laurens and the American...

  Gregory D. Massey

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  An “excellent biography” of General Washington’s aide-de-camp, a daring soldier who advocated freeing slaves who served in the Continental Army (Journal of Military History). Winning a reputation for reckless bravery in a succession of major battles and sieges, John Laurens distinguished himself as one of the most zealous, self-sacrificing participants in the American Revolution. A native of South Carolina and son of Henry Laurens, president of the Continental Congress, John devoted his life to securing American independence. In this comprehensive biography, Gregory D. Massey recounts the young Laurens’s wartime record —a riveting tale in its own right —and finds that even more remarkable than his military escapades were his revolutionary ideas concerning the rights of African Americans. Massey relates Laurens’s desperation to fight for his country once revolution had begun. A law student in England, he joined the war effort in 1777, leaving behind his English wife and an unborn child he would never see. Massey tells of the young officer’s devoted service as General George Washington’s aide-de-camp, interaction with prominent military and political figures, and conspicuous military efforts at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Newport, Charleston, Savannah, and Yorktown. Massey also recounts Laurens’s survival of four battle wounds and six months as a prisoner of war, his controversial diplomatic mission to France, and his close friendship with Alexander Hamilton. Laurens’s death in a minor battle in August 1782 was a tragic loss for the new state and nation. Unlike other prominent southerners, Laurens believed blacks shared a similar nature with whites, and he formulated a plan to free slaves in return for their service in the Continental Army. Massey explores the personal, social, and cultural factors that prompted Laurens to diverge so radically from his peers and to raise vital questions about the role African Americans would play in the new republic. “Insightful and balanced . . . an intriguing account, not only of the Laurens family in particular but, equally important, of the extraordinarily complex relationships generated by the colonial breach with the Mother Country.” —North Carolina Historical Review

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  With the Tanks 1916–1918 -...

  W.H.L. Watson

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  William Watson was a young Oxford post-graduate at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Along with several friends from Oxford he enlisted in the army expecting the war to last six weeks. Watson began his service in the Great War as a British Army motorcycle despatch rider. He saw active service during the key battles of 1914 and early 1915. Watson was then commissioned and became a tank commander and saw active service with the tanks most notably at Cambrai in 1917. This well written and evocative memoir was originally published under the tile 'A Company Of Tanks' it constitutes a wonderful primary source and is an invaluable addition to the library of anyone with an interest in the evolution of the tank as a decisive weapon on the battlefield. Highly detailed, but nonetheless accessible this superb new illustrated edition, edited by Emmy AwardTM winning historian Bob Carruthers is greatly recommended for serious enthusiasts and casual readers alike.

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  Warren Spahn - A Biography of...

  Lew Freedman

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  To say Spahn lived a storied life is an understatement. 
   
  In Warren Spahn, author Lew Freedman tells the story of this incredible lefty. Known for his supremely high leg kick, Spahn became one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. However, the road wasn’t as easy as it would seem. 
   
  Struggling in his major-league debut at age twenty, manager Casey Stengel demoted the young left. It would be four years before Spahn would return to the diamond, as he received a calling of a different kind—one from his country. 
   
  Enlisting in the Army, Spahn would serve with distinction, seeing action in the Battle of the Bulge and the Ludendorff Bridge, and was awarded a battlefield commission, along with a Purple Heart. 
   
  Upon his return to the game, he would take the league by storm. Spahn dominated for over two decades, spending twenty years with the Braves (both Boston and Milwaukee), as well as a season with the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants. Pitching into his mid-forties, he would throw two no-hitters at the advanced ages of thirty-nine and forty. 
   
  From his early days in Buffalo and young career, through his time and the military and all the way to the 1948 Braves and “Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain,” author Lew Freedman leaves no stone unturned in sharing the incredible life of this pitching icon, who is still considered the greatest left-handed pitcher to ever play the game.

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