Watch a video Read discussion questions for "The Last Stand."
The bestselling author of "Mayflower" sheds new light on one of the iconic stories of the American West
Little Bighorn and Custer are names synonymous in the American imagination with unmatched bravery and spectacular defeat. Mythologized as Custer's Last Stand, the June 1876 battle has been equated with other famous last stands, from the Spartans' defeat at Thermopylae to Davy Crockett at the Alamo.
In his tightly structured narrative, Nathaniel Philbrick brilliantly sketches the two larger-than-life antagonists: Sitting Bull, whose charisma and political savvy earned him the position of leader of the Plains Indians, and George Armstrong Custer, one of the Union's greatest cavalry officers and a man with a reputation for fearless and often reckless courage. Philbrick reminds readers that the Battle of the Little Bighorn was also, even in victory, the last stand for the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian nations. Increasingly outraged by the government's Indian policies, the Plains tribes allied themselves and held their ground in southern Montana. Within a few years of Little Bighorn, however, all the major tribal leaders would be confined to Indian reservations.
Throughout, Philbrick beautifully evokes the history and geography of the Great Plains with his characteristic grace and sense of drama. "The Last Stand" is a mesmerizing account of the archetypal story of the American West, one that continues to haunt our collective imagination. Views: 416
The Small World of M-75 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Ed M. Clinton is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Ed M. Clinton then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. Views: 416
Flash Fiction Anthology for Charity Views: 416
My Fair Planet By Evelyn E. Smith Views: 416
The books of Anastasia Novykh are phenomenous for the fact that every person sees as if in the mirror something of his or her own, purely personal. This book discloses the inner world of a sixteen-year-old girl, who suddenly encounters death face to face. This pushes her to reconsideration of her own life and search of answers to the everlasting questions: “What is the sense of life?"This is a short story. It is not a full length book or novella. William Hampton, Viscount Worthe, prefers the remote stability and predictability of the stars to the perplexing changeability of people. An astronomer, he’s fashioned for himself a focused, industrious, simple life. He leaves his quiet retreat, however, when his mathematical computations, included in an article on orbital variations, are questioned. Miss Jane Tillney is volunteering at Half Moon House when Lord Worthe finds her. The Viscount is handsome and charming, but unfortunately his entire outlook is miscalculated, not just his astronomical equations. Lord Worthe is intrigued by Jane, her generous spirit and her unusual freckles, but can he find a way to open his heart and let her shine her light on his life? Views: 416
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--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. Views: 416
The death of a journalist from a single bullet to the heart makes for a dramatic story - but the twist in the tale is that this time, it's the man who fired the gun who's asking all the questions...The assassin, Michael Weston, knows he has carried out his assignment successfully. One mistake was enough, a long time ago, when a young girl had accidentally received the fatal bullet. Her father hired a PI named Hoffer to track him down. Every time Weston completed a job, Hoffer was not far behind. But why had the police been on the scene so quickly? Weston has to find out - even if it means coming face to face with Hoffer... Views: 415
Book 5 in the Vic and Matt: V series. Can be read alone. Matt is on a quest to find the perfect ring to symbolize the love he shares with Vic. An ad for a local jewelry store draws him in, but criminals strike before he leaves. When the police arrive, what started as a simple robbery turns into a hostage situation. Officer Jones calls the one man who she knows can help ... Vic. Views: 415
When fugitive Italian monk Giordano Bruno—philosopher, magician, and heretical scientist—arrives in London, he’s only one step ahead of the Inquisition. An undercover mission for Queen Elizabeth I and her spymaster provides added protection. Officially, Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe at Oxford University; unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen. But when his mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly deaths and the charms of a mysterious but beautiful young woman, he realizes that somewhere within Oxford’s private chambers lurks a brutal killer. . .Amazon.com ReviewEdward Rutherfurd Reviews *Heresy* Edward Rutherfurd was born in Salisbury, England, and educated at Cambridge University and Stanford University in California. He is the bestselling author of Sarum, Russka, London, The Forest, and the companion novels, The Princes of Ireland and The Rebels of Ireland. His most recent novel, New York, was published in 2009. Read Rutherfurd's guest review of Heresy: With Heresy, S.J. Parris has constructed a splendid, unputdownable whodunnit.In 1583, England was approaching one of the greatest crises in its history. Queen Elizabeth, excommunicated by the Pope for her refusal to return the Church of England to Rome, was under threat from all the Catholic powers. Her spymaster Francis Walsingham had his own army of informers searching for conspiracies against the English crown. Everyone was on the lookout for trouble.Yet in May of that year, amongst the quiet and dreaming spires of Oxford University, a public debate took place that was nothing short of revolutionary.On one side, John Underhill, an unpopular figure, forced upon Lincoln College as their Rector by his powerful patron the Earl of Leicester. On the other, Giordano Bruno, a wandering Italian scholar-monk, in trouble with the Inquisition, and in the story (and probably in fact) serving Walsingham as an anti-Catholic informer.But what is truly amazing about Bruno is that he believed not like Copernicus and Galileo that the Sun and not the Earth was the center of the universe, but that the cosmos did not have a center at all. The stars in the sky, he claimed, were other suns, seen from vast distances, quite likely with their own planets, in an infinite space. In short, this monk-philosopher was a modern man. Sadly, he lost the Oxford debate.Against this well-researched background of real events Parris has added a few characters, including Underhill's lovely and educated daughter Sophia, whose presence in Lincoln College seems a happy invention. On the eve of the debate there is a murder in the college. Then another. And another. Sophia disappears. A Catholic conspiracy seems to be afoot. Also a romance. As the plot thickens, I was absolutely gripped, nor did I even guess at the ending until it came.The descriptions of Elizabethan Oxford are wonderfully atmospheric and vivid. The characters are believable and sympathetic. The plot is fast-paced. But there is also a subtle message for us about the human condition. Just twice, the author allows her characters to make use of modern words--"paranoid" and "propaganda"--in their reported speech. This isn't a mistake. Parris knows exactly what she is doing. She is gently reminding us, almost subliminally, that Bruno and Sophia--and who knows how many other of our ancestors--were actually modern people like ourselves, with free minds, trapped in a dangerous medieval world. --Edward Rutherfurd(Photo © Jeanne Masoero)"Discovering Giordano Bruno: A Note on My Research" by S.J. Parris I first encountered the character of Giordano Bruno when I was a student at the University of Cambridge writing a thesis about the influence of occult philosophy on Renaissance literature. I was immediately captivated by his multi-faceted career (philosopher, proto-scientist, magician, and poet) and the drama of his life during years of exile on the run from the Inquisition around the courts of Europe. All the accounts I read of him suggested that he was extremely charismatic, the sort of person everyone wanted at their dinner parties, and that he possessed the ability to offend and charm in equal measure--in the course of a few years he went from fugitive heretic to close friend and confidant of kings and courtiers. But he was also a man fiercely committed to his ideas, even when that meant deliberately provoking the received wisdom of the day and courting a death sentence from the Pope.At the time I thought Bruno would make an intriguing character for a novel, but other ideas intervened and for a while I forgot about him. More than ten years later, I was reading about the Wars of Religion in the late 16th century and came across his name again in a book that suggested that Bruno had added the profession of spy to his already crowded resumé, providing intelligence to Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster, from inside the French embassy where Bruno lived during his time in England. At the time, the English court was rife with rumors of plots to assassinate Queen Elizabeth with the blessing of the Pope and the backing of Europe’s two great Catholic powers, France and Spain, in order to replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, thus bringing England back under the influence of Rome.I’d always been fascinated by this complex period of history, where religious and personal allegiance was in a constant state of flux and no one, including the Queen and her Council, quite knew who to trust. When I discovered the theory that Bruno had been a spy, I knew I had the material for my story. I chose to begin the series with Bruno’s real-life visit to Oxford in the spring of 1583; it was on this trip that he came into contact with many of the influential figures of the court, including Philip Sidney. Bruno hated his time in Oxford and wrote very unfavorably of it; I tried to fill in the gaps and imagine what might have befallen him there to make him take against the university so vehemently.Oxford (both the university and the town) provided a perfect setting for my novel. It was a significant hub for clandestine Catholic activity during the 1580s and 1590s, and an Oxford college is a closed community, the perfect setting for the classic murder mystery. I’ve loved detective fiction since I was a teenager and wanted to try my hand at writing one of my own. I spent a bit of time in Oxford, and I was shown around Lincoln College by the present Rector. Fortunately the late sixteenth century left behind a rich trove of documents and records, so there are a number of very thorough biographies and histories of the period available, which made it very easy to research.I hope you enjoy reading Heresy as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it. --S.J. Parris(Photo © Chris Perceval)From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Set in 1583 against a backdrop of religious-political intrigue and barbaric judicial reprisals, Parris's compelling debut centers on real-life Giordano Bruno, a former Italian monk excommunicated by the Roman Catholic church and hunted across Europe by the Inquisition for his belief in a heliocentric infinite universe. Befriended by the charismatic English courtier and soldier Sir Philip Sidney, the ambitious Bruno flees to more tolerant Protestant England, where Elizabeth I's secretary of state, Sir Francis Walsingham, recruits him to spy, under the cover of philosophical disputation, on secretly Catholic Oxford scholars suspected of plotting treason. As one Oxford fellow after another falls to gruesome homicide, Bruno struggles to unravel Oxford's tangled loyalties. Parris (the pseudonym of British journalist Stephanie Merritt) interweaves historical fact with psychological insight as Bruno, a humanist dangerously ahead of his time, begins his quest to light the fire of enlightenment in Europe. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Views: 415
Kimberly has given up hope of having anything more in her life than her grandmother, until crazy old Mr. Jeffries asks, "Have you seen Tarum?"Nikki's painful past and Ahmad's irresponsible behavior has led them down a road that takes many tragic turns. On the outside looking in, they seem to have it all together. Happiness, innocence, love, and a connection many envy. But just beneath the surface are deep rooted secrets that lead to adultery, lies, deception, and murder. Nikki's past is exposed and it takes a toll on her relationship with Ahmad who seems to have fallen into the evil plans of Shannon, Nikki's sister. They fight for their love, but will they win against a game of lies and lust? You won't believe the twists and turns they go through as Nikki fights for what she soon discovers may be indeed Mr. Wrong Views: 415
The warriors Bulays and Ghaavn hunt demons and their master through the dim and dusty streets of Barnes, on Titan, Saturn's moon. Can they stop him before he completes a devastating ritual?A series planetary romance.Bulays and Ghaavn #1In the real world, Adrian Ocampo is a high school junior with a Mohawk, an eyebrow ring, and a crew of nerdy friends. But when he and his buddies get together to play their favorite role-playing game, he is transported to the world of Kazala, a world of elves, wizards, and monsters, a world in which Adrian is a mighty elf warrior fighting for the good of the land.To add to the fun, Adrian recently started dating the handsome Jesse, one of the guys in his gaming circle. In the past, every attempt they’d made to be alone had been thwarted by overly present parents. But one day, after wrapping up the game, Jesse invites Adrian to his house and explains his mother will be away all night. Excited by the possibility of finally having sex with Jesse, Adrian’s mind catapults back and forth between the real world of Jesse’s kisses and the imagined world of Kazala, where he and Jesse must battle a terrible enemy.Conjuring the Shroud is presented as part of Brent Hartinger’s Real Story Safe Sex Project, whose mission is to encourage safe sex among gay and bi teens and twenty-somethings while also providing some entertaining reads. Views: 415
Contents INTRODUCTIONOtto Penzler THE END OF THE STRINGCharles McCarry SECTION 7(A) (OPERATIONAL)Lee Child DESTINY CITYJames GradyNEIGHBORSJoseph Finder EAST OF SUEZ, WEST OF CHARING CROSS ROADJohn Lawton FATHER’S DAYJohn Weisman CASEY AT THE BATStephen Hunter MAX IS CALLINGGayle Lynds THE INTERROGATORDavid Morrell SLEEPING WITH MY ASSASSINAndrew Klavan THE HAMBURG REDEMPTIONRobert Wilson THE COURIERDan Fesperman HEDGED INStella RimingtonYOU KNOW WHAT’S GOING ONOlen Steinhauer Views: 415
