Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Devil at My Heels: A WW II Hero's Epic Saga of Torment, Survival, and Forgiveness

Devil at My Heels: A WW II Hero's Epic Saga of Torment, Survival, and Forgiveness

A juvenile delinquent, a world-class NCAA miler, a 1936 Olympian, a World War II bombardier: Louis Zamperini had a life fuller than most when it changed in an instant. On May 27, 1943, his B-24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Louis and two other survivors found a raft amid the flaming wreckage and waited for rescue. Instead, they drifted two thousand miles for forty-seven days. Their only food: two shark livers and three raw albatross. Their only water: sporadic rainfall. Their only companions: hope and faith -- and the ever-present sharks.


On the forty-seventh day, mere skeletons close to death, Zamperini and pilot Russell Phillips finally spotted land -- and were captured by the Japanese. Thus began more than two years of torture and humiliation as prisoners of war.


Zamperini was threatened with beheading, subjected to medical experiments, routinely beaten, hidden in a secret interrogation facility, starved and forced into slave labor, and was the constant victim of a brutal prison guard nicknamed the Bird -- a man so vicious that the other guards feared him and called him a psychopath. Meanwhile, the Army Air Corps declared Zamperini dead and President Roosevelt sent official condolences to his family, who never gave up hope that he was alive.


Somehow Zamperini survived and he returned home a hero. The celebration was short-lived. He plunged into drinking and brawling and the depths of rage and despair. Nightly, the Bird's face leered at him in his dreams. It would take years, but with the love of his wife and the power of faith, he was able to stop the nightmares and the drinking.


A stirring memoir from one of the greatest of the "Greatest Generation," Devil at My Heels is a living document about the brutality of war, the tenacity of the human spirit, and the power of forgiveness.


Price: $24.95


Click here to buy from Amazon

Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Seabiscuit: An American LegendSeabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:

Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon.

Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.


From the Hardcover edition.

Price: $16.00


Click here to buy from Amazon

Devil at My Heels: A WW II Hero's Epic Saga of Torment, Survival, and Forgiveness

Devil at My Heels: A WW II Hero's Epic Saga of Torment, Survival, and Forgiveness

A juvenile delinquent, a world-class NCAA miler, a 1936 Olympian, a World War II bombardier: Louis Zamperini had a life fuller than most when it changed in an instant. On May 27, 1943, his B-24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Louis and two other survivors found a raft amid the flaming wreckage and waited for rescue. Instead, they drifted two thousand miles for forty-seven days. Their only food: two shark livers and three raw albatross. Their only water: sporadic rainfall. Their only companions: hope and faith -- and the ever-present sharks.


On the forty-seventh day, mere skeletons close to death, Zamperini and pilot Russell Phillips finally spotted land -- and were captured by the Japanese. Thus began more than two years of torture and humiliation as prisoners of war.


Zamperini was threatened with beheading, subjected to medical experiments, routinely beaten, hidden in a secret interrogation facility, starved and forced into slave labor, and was the constant victim of a brutal prison guard nicknamed the Bird -- a man so vicious that the other guards feared him and called him a psychopath. Meanwhile, the Army Air Corps declared Zamperini dead and President Roosevelt sent official condolences to his family, who never gave up hope that he was alive.


Somehow Zamperini survived and he returned home a hero. The celebration was short-lived. He plunged into drinking and brawling and the depths of rage and despair. Nightly, the Bird's face leered at him in his dreams. It would take years, but with the love of his wife and the power of faith, he was able to stop the nightmares and the drinking.


A stirring memoir from one of the greatest of the "Greatest Generation," Devil at My Heels is a living document about the brutality of war, the tenacity of the human spirit, and the power of forgiveness.


Price: $24.95


Click here to buy from Amazon

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Newsweek November 22 2010 President Barak Obama on Cover (God of All Things), Laura Hillenbrand/Unbroken, National Museum of American Jewish History, The King's Speech, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Newsweek November 22 2010 President Barak Obama on Cover (God of All Things), Laura Hillenbrand/Unbroken, National Museum of American Jewish History, The King's Speech, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption Contributor(s): Hillenbrand, Laura (Author), Herrmann, Edward (Read by) Biography & Autobiography | Military Publisher: Random House Audio - History | Military | World War II - History | Military | United States - History | Military | Aviation Themes: - Chronological Period | 1940's Dewey: B Features: Price on Product, Price on Product - Canadian, Unabridged Physical Info: 1.17" H x 5.98" L x 5.14" W (0.64 lbs)

Price:


Click here to buy from Amazon

Unbroken Publisher: Random House Large Print

Unbroken Publisher: Random House Large PrintUnbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption Contributor(s): Hillenbrand, Laura (Author), Herrmann, Edward (Read by) Biography & Autobiography | Military Publisher: Random House Audio - History | Military | World War II - History | Military | United States - History | Military | Aviation Themes: - Chronological Period | 1940's Dewey: B Features: Price on Product, Price on Product - Canadian, Unabridged Physical Info: 1.17" H x 5.98" L x 5.14" W (0.64 lbs)

Price:


Click here to buy from Amazon

[UNBROKEN]Unbroken By Hillenbrand, Laura(Author)Compact disc(Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption) on 15 Nov-2010

[UNBROKEN]Unbroken By Hillenbrand, Laura(Author)Compact disc(Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption) on 15 Nov-2010Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Contributor(s): Hillenbrand, Laura (Author), Herrmann, Edward (Read by)
Biography & Autobiography | Military
Publisher: Random House Audio
- History | Military | World War II
- History | Military | United States
- History | Military | Aviation
Themes:
- Chronological Period | 1940's
Dewey: B
Features: Price on Product, Price on Product - Canadian, Unabridged
Physical Info: 1.17" H x 5.98" L x 5.14" W (0.64 lbs)

Price:


Click here to buy from Amazon

Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Seabiscuit: An American LegendSeabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:

Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon.

Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.


From the Hardcover edition.

Price: $16.00


Click here to buy from Amazon

Unbroken 1st (first) edition Text Only

Unbroken 1st (first) edition Text OnlyUnbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption Contributor(s): Hillenbrand, Laura (Author), Herrmann, Edward (Read by) Biography & Autobiography | Military Publisher: Random House Audio - History | Military | World War II - History | Military | United States - History | Military | Aviation Themes: - Chronological Period | 1940's Dewey: B Features: Price on Product, Price on Product - Canadian, Unabridged Physical Info: 1.17" H x 5.98" L x 5.14" W (0.64 lbs)

Price:


Click here to buy from Amazon