Rebels at the Gate is the dramatic story of the first Union victories of the Civil War and the events that caused Virginians to divide their state. In a defiant act to sustain President Lincoln's war effort, Virginia Unionists created their own state government in 1861-destined to become the new state of West Virginia.From BooklistIn 1861 Union and Confederate troops waged the first campaign of the Civil War in the rugged mountains of Virginia. General George McClellan led the Northern troops to victory over General Robert E. Lee's Southern army. Lesser writes that while the armies clashed, Virginia Unionists waged a political fight, creating a loyal state government to oppose the Confederate one in Richmond, the state of West Virginia. Lesser uncovered manuscripts, diaries, and letters from soldiers and civilians to relate the story of the first Union victories and the events that caused Virginians to divide the state. This detailed account of the Civil War's beginnings re-creates the sights and sounds, the feelings and passions of the battlefield. George CohenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedFrom the Back Cover?The Early Battles That Split a State and Changed a Nation?At the dawn of the Civil War, two men took up the reins of the Confederate and Union armies and led their troops into the war’s first campaign. Those men were Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan, and their victories and failures on the mountaintops of Virginia during those early battles would split a state and set the stage for America’s bloodiest war.Praise for Rebels at the Gate?“Lesser uncovered manuscripts, diaries and letters from soldiers and civilians to relate the story of the first Union victories and the events that caused Virginians to divide the state. This detailed account of the Civil War’s beginnings re-creates the sights and sounds, the feelings and passions of the battlefield.”-Booklist “People tend to forget that the first land campaign of the Civil War was fought in Virginia, but in what is today West Virginia, a region that both sides thought to be of vital importance in 1861, as indeed it was. W. Hunter Lesser’s Rebels at the Gate is the first study of this campaign in generations, and surely the finest to date, thoroughly researched, thoughtfully presented and riddled with the future great lights of the war-Robert E. Lee, George B. McClellan, William Rosecrans and more. Only the Civil War could have produced battles at places with names like Traveller’s Repose, and perhaps only a West Virginian like Hunter Lesser could have produced this fine study.”-William C. Davis, author and two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee “Hunter Lesser has fashioned what will now be the standard work on the military and political struggle for western Virginia in the Civil War.” Views: 19
In the tradition of Carroll & Graf's The Mammoth Book of Erotica, The Mammoth Book of International Erotica, The Mammoth Book of New Erotica, and The Mammoth Book of Historical Erotica - which together have sold more than 400,000 copies - comes this provocative new volume in a hot-selling series, featuring such top writers of erotic fiction as Robert Coover, O'Neil De Noux, Mark Ramsden, Gene Santagarda, and Lucy Taylor along with the editors of this sizzling collection, Michael Hemmingson and Maxim Jakubowski. Written especially for this anthology, these piquant tales do not only titillate. As novellas, they also expatiate, involving the reader in the complications of plot as well as of lust and exploring the emotional interiors of their characters as well as in their sensual intrigues and sexual gymnastics. From Michael Perkins's "Night Moves" to William Vollmann's "De Sade's Last Stand," from Josephine Jarmaine's "The Doll" to M. Christian's "Speaking Parts" - whether... Views: 19
Jane Lawson planned everything to the last detail. When her sister, the maid of honor, flakes out on every task, the best man, David Wells steps up to the job. He sacrifices his time for cake and wine tasting, dress shopping, and other duties as assigned. David is in trouble. Spending time with his childhood friend’s fiancé has turned an attraction into love. Views: 19
Luke Elliott and Claudia Marsden have fallen in love at a perilous time. The Second World War is raging in the Pacific, barbed wire and gun emplacements are strung along the northern beaches in preparation for invasion. As the war moves closer, their 'sextet' of loyal school friends is splintering as individual career dreams are pursued. Luke yearns to be a journalist but a start in newspapers is proving challenging. The war's end unexpectedly provides Luke's big break, but the pursuit of his dream will keep him away from Australia and Claudia, with surprising consequences for them both."Above the Fold is a big-hearted novel that explicitly examines notions of love and loyalty...Anyone who enjoys reading about post-war Australian history and the attitudes that informed much of it, will be delighted." Gabrielle Lord, author of Dishonour"Written with meticulous detail, this is an engaging story spanning a tumultuous period in Australian history." —Nicole... Views: 19
When a reconnaissance plane from Amphibious Force Two is hit by a missile in war-torn West Africa, four men are forced to bail out into the middle of a jungle bloodbath-and the hunt is on for the American prey. Views: 19
Erotica/Romance. 21841 words long. Views: 19
From the imagination of blink-182's award-winning author Tom DeLonge, the Strange Times crew first debuted in the graphic novel Strange Times: The Curse of Superstition Mountain. Now teamed-up with Geoff Herbach, also an award-winning author of the Felton Reinstein Trilogy, DeLonge tells the hilarious and haunting adventure that originally forced five outcast jerks to band together or give up the ghost. Charlie Wilkins has it all. Pitcher on the baseball team, point guard on the basketball team, good jock friends and girls who just love him. Then his U.S. Air Force dad goes M.I.A. during a secret mission and Charlie falls into darkness. He quits basketball, pushes away his old friends who all seem so stupid. He stops talking. Nobody knows what he's going through, because the government has forbidden the family from disclosing Dad's predicament. Charlie turns into a loner, until an Earth Science assignment forces him to join a new, messed-up team. Wiz has a brain for science, a... Views: 19
From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. On July 20, 1969, a quiet, determined man from Wapakoneta, Ohio, stepped out of his fragile spacecraft and into history. Neil Armstrong--engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, astronaut and devoted family man--became the first man to walk on the moon. In this powerful, unrelenting biography of a man of no particularly spectacular talent yet who stands as a living testimony to everyday grit and determination, former NASA historian Hansen has achieved something quite remarkable. Like a rich pointillist painting, he has created a magnificent panorama of the second half of the American 20th century by assembling a multitude of luminescent moments in one man's life. From Armstrong's birth to a middle-class family in Ohio to the mind-boggling fame of the Apollo 11 triumph, and later his service on the commission investigating the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster, Hansen details it all. He writes of the number of rounds of 20-millimeter ammunition loosed by Armstrong's fighter squadron in Korea in October 1951 (49,299), his heart rate on liftoff in Gemini VIII (146 beats per minute) and the price of a signed Armstrong letter at auction ($2,500). Rather than overwhelming, this accumulation of details gives flesh-and-blood reality to a man who is more icon than human. With the recent renewal of interest in manned space travel, this book is a must for astronaut buffs and history readers alike.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistFor the first time, the cool, precise, and c-elebrity-averse Neil Armstrong has authorized a biography. Its readers cannot expect any more access to his emotional interior than the first man to walk on the moon has ever allowed, but they will learn about everything he achieved in aerospace engineering. Deflecting aerospace historian Hansen's inquiries about personal crises, such as the death of an infant daughter or his divorce, Armstrong proves disarmingly more voluble about his involvement with airplanes and spacecraft. Quelling apocrypha circulated at the time of Apollo 11 about the all-American boy who dreamed of going to the moon, Hansen follows the empirical arc of Armstrong's interest in aviation, his engineering studies at Purdue University, and his qualification as an aircraft-carrier pilot. After the Korean War, Armstrong resumed his engineering career, wrote technical papers, flew hotshot planes like the X-15, and stepped irrevocably into history with Apollo 11. Dramatizing the mission in meticulous detail, Hansen capably captures both Armstrong's expertise and his Garbo-like demurral of fame. Gilbert TaylorCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 19
Owen Deathstalker, last of his line, is a quiet man, a historian, remote from the stench of corruption and intrigue surrounding the Iron Throne at the heat of the galaxy-spanning, tyrannical Empire. And then, inexplicably, Deathstalker is outlawed, forced to flee from one end of the Empire to the other. And as he does so, he discovers that resistance is growing, everywhere, to the Iron Bitch on the Iron Throne. Views: 19