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The Last Cherry Blossom
by Kathleen BurkinshawFollowing the seventieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, this is a new, very personal story to join Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.Yuriko was happy growing up in Hiroshima when it was just her and Papa. But her aunt Kimiko and her cousin Genji are living with them now, and the family is only getting bigger with talk of a double marriage! And while things are changing at home, the world beyond their doors is even more unpredictable. World War II is coming to an end, and since the Japanese newspapers don’t report lost battles, the Japanese people are not entirely certain of where Japan stands. Yuriko is used to the sirens and the air-raid drills, but things start to feel more real when the neighbors who have left to fight stop coming home. When the bombs hit Hiroshima, it’s through Yuriko’s twelve-year-old eyes that we witness the devastation and horror.This is a story that offers young readers insight into how children lived during the war, while also introducing them to Japanese culture. Based loosely on author Kathleen Burkinshaw’s mother’s firsthand experience surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, The Last Cherry Blossom hopes to warn readers of the immense damage nuclear war can bring, while reminding them that the "enemy” in any war is often not so different from ourselves.
The Last Citadel: Petersburg, June 1864–April 1865
by Noah Andre TrudeauThe revised and updated groundbreaking study of the most extensive military operation of the Civil War—from the author of Bloody Roads South.The Petersburg campaign began on June 9, 1864, and ended on April 3, 1865, when Federal troops at last entered the city. It was the longest and most costly siege ever to take place on North American soil, yet it has been overshadowed by other actions that occurred at the same time period, most notably Sherman’s famous “March to the Sea,” and Sheridan’s celebrated Shenandoah Valley campaign. The ten-month Petersburg affair witnessed many more combat actions than the other two combined, and involved an average of 170,000 soldiers, not to mention thousands of civilians who were also caught up in the maelstrom. By its bloody end, the Petersburg campaign would add more than 70,000 casualties to the war’s total.With the same dogged determination that had seen him through the terrible Overland Campaign, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant fixed his sights on the capture of Petersburg. Grant’s opponent, General Robert E. Lee, was equally determined that the “Cockade City” would not fall. Trudeau crafts this dramatic and moving story largely through the words of the men and women who were there, including officers, common soldiers, and the residents of Petersburg. What emerges is an epic account rich in human incident and adventure. Based on exhaustive research into official records and unpublished memoirs, letters, and diaries, as well as published recollections and regimental histories, The Last Citadel also includes twenty-three maps and a choice selection of drawings by on-the-spot combat artists.
The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel
by Jeanne MackinAn American woman becomes entangled in the intense rivalry between iconic fashion designers Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli in this captivating novel from the acclaimed author of The Beautiful American.Paris, 1938. Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli are fighting for recognition as the most successful and influential fashion designer in France, and their rivalry is already legendary. They oppose each other at every turn, in both their politics and their designs: Chanel’s are classic, elegant, and practical; Schiaparelli’s bold, experimental, and surreal.When Lily Sutter, a recently widowed young American teacher, visits her brother, Charlie, in Paris, he insists on buying her a couture dress—a Chanel. Lily, however, prefers a Schiaparelli. Charlie’s beautiful and socially prominent girlfriend soon begins wearing Schiaparelli’s designs as well, and much of Paris follows in her footsteps. Schiaparelli offers budding artist Lily a job at her store, and Lily finds herself increasingly involved with Schiaparelli and Chanel’s personal war. Their fierce competition reaches new and dangerous heights as the Nazis and the looming threat of World War II bear down on Paris.
The Last Colony
by John ScalziThird in the series begun with Old Man's war. John Perry, hero of Old Man's War, is back. He has retired to a peaceful farming planet to live out the remainder of his life. But then he and his wife are asked to lead the colony being established on the planet roanoke. Needless to say, all is not what is schemes -- lots of intrigue, hostile aliens, action... what more could one want? According to the author, this is the last book in this particular "universe" for a while.
The Last Cruise of a German Raider: The Destruction of SMS Emden
by Wes OlsonThe story of the German light cruiser SMS _Emden_ has been the subject of over a dozen books since her destruction at the hands of the Australian light cruiser HMAS _Sydney_ on 9 November 1914. Accounts of _Emden_s raiding activities, her loss on the Cocos Islands, and the escape of her landing party have also appeared in official histories and books on the First World War at sea. No English-language book, however, has pieced together a comprehensive account of the action and the events before and after.In this detailed and riveting new book, Wes Olson has made extensive use of a wealth of first-hand accounts from letters, diaries, memoirs and German survivor statements to produce a detailed reconstruction of the battle at Cocos. By breaking the one-and-a-half-hour action down into ten-minute blocks an accurate, chronological and credible picture has been created, and the extensive use of quotations gives the story a unique vividness.But the book is much more than the account of one naval battle. _The Emden_s activities as a raider at the beginning of the war are outlined; the significance of the departure of the first ANZAC troop convoy, and _Sydneys_ involvement explained. The Cocos raid and the landing of von Mckes party and the dispatch of _Sydney_ to investigate are covered, and Captain Glossops controversial decision to open fire on the wreck of the _Emden_ is analysed. And drawing on the reports produced by Sydneys surgeons, the book presents a facet of naval action often overlooked namely the effect of high explosive shells on the human body.Employing the wealth of archival and photographic material, as well as the numerous first-hand accounts of the German, British and Australian participants, the author has written a work that takes the reader right to the centre of the action and brings alive the immediacy and horror of naval warfare for those who took part.
The Last Crusaders: The Hundred-Year Battle for the Center of the World
by Barnaby RogersonThe acclaimed Medieval historian examines how the crusades of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries reshaped the Mediterranean and influenced the globe. In the late Middle Ages, the forces of Christianity engaged in a series of epic battles with the Ottoman Empire. Though these later crusades are often overshadowed by earlier conflicts, they hold profound historical significance. They were the bridge between the medieval and modern periods, between feudalism and colonialism.The Last Crusaders is about this period&’s last great conflict between East and West. From the great naval campaigns and the ferocious struggle to dominate the North African shore, the hostility spread along trade routes, consuming nations and cultures, destroying dynasties, and spawning the first colonial empires in South America and the Indian Ocean.&“Rogerson's narrative colors the conflicts of the sixteenth century with the derring-do of kings, corsair, and crusaders; this book will keep readers up long past bedtime.&” —Foreword Magazine
The Last Dance: 1936: The Year Our Lives Changed
by Denys Blakeway'The year has, indeed, begun in gloom. The King ill, and Kipling dead ...' so wrote the diarist Chips Channon in 1936 as George V lay on his deathbed at Buckingham Palace. The passing of two such pillars of the establishment sent tremors through the nation and heralded the ending of the old order. 1936 was to be an extraordinary year: at home social and constitutional crisis threatened, while in Europe, the dictators were on the march. It was the year of the abdication and civil war in Spain. The tectonic plates of history were shifting - Britain would never be the same again. The Last Dance is told using the accounts of those who lived through this turbulent period. Through extracts from diaries of shopkeepers, socialites, bishops, and volunteers in Spain, and the memoirs of the unemployed, housewives and hostesses, as well as the contemporary accounts of politicians, journalists and poets, Blakeway offers a compelling and vivid account of a turning point in our nation's story.
The Last Dance: 1936: The Year Our Lives Changed
by Denys Blakeway'The year has, indeed, begun in gloom. The King ill, and Kipling dead ...' so wrote the diarist Chips Channon in 1936 as George V lay on his deathbed at Buckingham Palace. The passing of two such pillars of the establishment sent tremors through the nation and heralded the ending of the old order. 1936 was to be an extraordinary year: at home social and constitutional crisis threatened, while in Europe, the dictators were on the march. It was the year of the abdication and civil war in Spain. The tectonic plates of history were shifting - Britain would never be the same again. The Last Dance is told using the accounts of those who lived through this turbulent period. Through extracts from diaries of shopkeepers, socialites, bishops, and volunteers in Spain, and the memoirs of the unemployed, housewives and hostesses, as well as the contemporary accounts of politicians, journalists and poets, Blakeway offers a compelling and vivid account of a turning point in our nation's story.
The Last Day of the War
by Judith Claire MitchellThis exciting debut novel is the love story of a Jewish girl and an Armenian-American soldier who together enter a maze of underground politics at the conclusion of the First World War. Yael Weiss, an eighteen-year-old from St. Louis, reinvents herself as the twenty-five-year-old Methodist Yale White when she travels to Paris with the YMCA to work in a soldiers' canteen. Dub Hagopian--the doughboy she has a carried a torch for all the way across the Atlantic--is at once the patriotic child of immigrants from Rhode Island and, covertly, a member of Erinyes, an organization dedicated to avenging the Armenian massacres of 1915. In her jaunty, engaging style, Mitchell captures the atmosphere of political carnival surrounding the Paris Peace Conference, where Yale, Dub, and their crowd gather, bursting with both the passionate ideals and the devil-may-care energy of youth. When they decamp to a château outside Paris, where Erinyes is hatching a radical plan and Armenian war orphans are billeted, Yale and Dub will face the largest decisions of their young lives. A beautiful love story, The Last Day of the War is also a tragicomic farce about the workings of history and a testament to the moral fortitude of men and women swept up in the tide of their extraordinary times.
The Last Day, The Last Hour
by Robert J. SharpeOn 11 November 1918, the last day of the Great War, the Canadian Corps, led by Sir Arthur Currie, liberated Mons after four years of German occupation. The push to Mons in the last days and weeks of the war had cost many lives. Long after the war, Currie was blamed by many for needlessly wasting those lives. When the Port Hope Evening Guide published an editorial in 1927 repeating this charge, Currie was incensed. Against the advice of his friends, he decided to sue for libel and retained W.N. Tilley, Q.C., the leading lawyer of the day, to plead his case.First published in 1988, The Last Day, the Last Hour reconstructs the events - military and legal - that led to the trial and the trial itself, one of the most sensational courtroom battles in Canadian history, involving many prominent legal, military and political figures of the 1920s. Now back in print with a new preface by the author, judge and legal scholar Robert J. Sharpe, The Last Day, the Last Hour remains the definitive account of a landmark legal case.
The Last Days of Richard III and the fate of his DNA: The Book that Inspired the Dig
by John Ashdown-HillThe Last Days of Richard III contains a new and uniquely detailed exploration of Richard’s last 150 days. By deliberately avoiding the hindsight knowledge that he will lose the Battle of Bosworth Field, we discover a new Richard: no passive victim, awaiting defeat and death, but a king actively pursuing his own agenda.It also re-examines the aftermath of Bosworth: the treatment of Richard’s body; his burial; and the construction of his tomb. And there is the fascinating story of why, and how, Richard III’s family tree was traced until a relative was found, alive and well, in Canada.Now, with the discovery of Richard’s skeleton at the Greyfrairs Priory in Leicester, England, John Ashdown-Hill explains how his book inspired the dig and completes Richard III’s fascinating story, giving details of how Richard died, and how the DNA link to a living relative of the king allowed the royal body to be identified.
The Last Days of Stalin
by Joshua RubensteinA gripping account of the months before and after Joseph Stalin’s death and how his demise reshaped the course of twentieth-century history.Joshua Rubenstein’s riveting account takes us back to the second half of 1952 when no one could foresee an end to Joseph Stalin’s murderous regime. He was poised to challenge the newly elected U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower with armed force, and was also broadening a vicious campaign against Soviet Jews. Stalin’s sudden collapse and death in March 1953 was as dramatic and mysterious as his life. It is no overstatement to say that his passing marked a major turning point in the twentieth century.The Last Days of Stalin is an engaging, briskly told account of the dictator’s final active months, the vigil at his deathbed, and the unfolding of Soviet and international events in the months after his death. Rubenstein throws fresh light onthe devious plotting of Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev, and other “comrades in arms” who well understood the significance of the dictator’s impending death;the witness-documented events of his death as compared to official published versions;Stalin’s rumored plans to forcibly exile Soviet Jews;the responses of Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles to the Kremlin’s conciliatory gestures after Stalin’s death; andthe momentous repercussions when Stalin’s regime of terror was cut short.“A fascinating and often chilling reconstruction of the months surrounding the Soviet dictator’s death.” —Saul David, Evening Standard (UK)“A gripping look at the power struggles after the Red Tsar’s death.” —Victor Sebestyen, The Sunday Times (UK)“Stalin’s death in March 1953 cut short another spasm of blood purges he was planning, but triggered only limited Soviet reforms. To some Westerners it promised an extended period of peace, but others feared it would leave the West even more vulnerable. Joshua Rubenstein’s lively, detailed, carefully crafted book chronicles a key twentieth-century turning point that didn’t entirely turn, revealing what difference Stalin’s death did and didn’t make and why.” —William Taubman, author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson: The Mortal Wounding of the Confederacy's Greatest Icon (Emerging Civil War Series)
by Chris Mackowski Kristopher D. WhiteAn exhaustive look at the final hours of the Confederacy’s most audacious general. May 1863. The Civil War was in its third spring, and Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas Jonathan Jackson stood at the peak of his fame. He had risen from obscurity to become “Old Stonewall,” adored across the South and feared and respected throughout the North. On the night of May 2, however, just hours after Jackson executed the most audacious maneuver of his career and delivered a crushing blow against an unsuspecting Union army at Chancellorsville, disaster struck. The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson recounts the events of that fateful night—considered one of the most pivotal moments of the war—and the tense vigil that ensued as Jackson struggled with a foe even he could not defeat. From Guinea Station, where Jackson crosses the river to rest under the shade of the trees, the story follows Jackson’s funeral and burial, the strange story of his amputated arm, and the creation and restoration of the building where he died (now known as the Stonewall Jackson Shrine). This newly revised and expanded second edition features more than 50 pages of fresh material, including almost 200 illustrations, maps, and eye-catching photos. New appendices allow readers to walk in Jackson’s prewar footsteps through his adopted hometown of Lexington, Virginia; consider the ways Jackson’s memory has been preserved through monuments, memorials, and myths; and explore the misconceptions behind the Civil War’s great What-If: “What if Stonewall had survived his wounds?” With the engaging prose of master storytellers, Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White make The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson a must-read for Civil War novices and buffs alike.
The Last Days of the High Seas Fleet: From Mutiny to Scapa Flow
by Nicholas C. Jellicoe&“Much fresh material . . . an excellent historical narrative of the events leading up to the Great Scuttle, the terrible day itself and its aftermath.&” —Warships: International Fleet Review On June 21, 1919, the ships of the German High Seas Fleet—interned at Scapa Flow since the Armistice—began to founder, taking their British custodians completely by surprise. In breach of agreed terms, the fleet dramatically scuttled itself, in a well-planned operation that consigned nearly half a million tons, and 54 of 72 ships, to the bottom of the sheltered anchorage in a gesture of Wagnerian proportions. This much is well-known, but more than a century after the &“Grand Scuttle&” many questions remain. Was von Reuter, the fleet&’s commander, acting under orders or was it his own initiative? Why was June 21 chosen? Did the British connive in or even encourage the action? Could more have been done to save the ships? Was it legally justified? And what were the international ramifications? This new book analyzes all these issues, beginning with the fleet mutiny in the last months of the war that precipitated a social revolution in Germany and the eventual collapse of the will to fight. The Armistice terms imposed the humiliation of virtual surrender on the High Seas Fleet, and the conditions under which it was interned are described in detail. Meanwhile the victorious Allies wrangled over the fate of the ships, an issue that threatened the whole peace process. Using much new material from German sources and a host of eyewitness testimonies, the circumstances of the scuttling itself are meticulously reconstructed, while the aftermath for all parties is clearly laid out. The story concludes with &“the biggest salvage operation in history&” and a chapter on the significance of the scuttling to the postwar balance of naval power. This is an important reassessment of the last great action of the First World War.
The Last Debutantes: A Novel
by Georgie BlalockA troubled debutante contemplates her future in the glittering world of English society and one of the last debutante seasons on the eve of World War II.Perfect for fans of The Kennedy Debutante and Next Year in Havana.“A perfect Downton Abbey-esque story to get swept away in.” —Stephanie Marie Thornton, USA Today–bestselling author of And They Called It CamelotWhen Valerie de Vere Cole, the niece of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, makes her deep curtsey to the King and Queen of England, she knows she’s part of a world about to end. The daughter of a debt-ridden father and a neglectful mother, Valerie sees firsthand that war is imminent.Nevertheless, Valerie reinvents herself as a carefree and glittering young society woman, befriending other debutantes from England’s aristocracy as well as the vivacious Eunice Kennedy, daughter of the U.S. Ambassador. Despite her social success, the world’s troubles and Valerie’s fear of loss and loneliness prove impossible to ignore.How will she navigate her new life when everything in her past has taught her that happiness and stability are as fragile as peace in our time? For the moment she will forget her cares in too much champagne and waltzes. Because very soon, Valerie knows that she must find the inner strength to stand strong and carry on through the challenges of life and love and war.“An exciting and compelling view inside the glamorous lives of debutantes coming out in the 1930s before WWII . . . Georgie Blalock brings to life not only the glitz of the aristocracy but the sometimes ugly gossip behind the scenes in this fascinating tale of family, friendship, betrayal, and survival.” —Eliza Knight, USA Today–bestselling author of The Mayfair Bookshop“A fascinating portrayal of London high society overshadowed by the threat of World War II. . . . Atmospheric, moving and compelling, The Last Debutantes is a must read!” —Christine Wells, author of Sisters of the Resistance
The Last Decade of the Cold War: From Conflict Escalation to Conflict Transformation (Cold War History)
by Olav NjølstadThe 1980s was a period of almost unprecedented rivalry and tension between the two main actors in the East-West conflict, the United States and the Soviet Union. Why and how that conflict first escalated and thereafter, in an amazingly swift process, was reversed and brought to its peaceful conclusion at the end of the decade is the topic of this volume.With individual contributions by eighteen well-known scholars of international relations and history from various countries, the book addresses the role of the United States, the former Soviet Union, and the countries of western and eastern Europe in that remarkable last decade of the Cold War, and discusses how particular events as well as underlying political, ideological, social, and economic factors may have contributed to the remarkable transformation that took place.
The Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq
by Bronson LemerIn 2003, after serving five and a half years as a carpenter in a North Dakota National Guard engineer unit, Bronson Lemer was ready to leave the military behind. But six months short of completing his commitment to the army, Lemer was deployed on a yearlong tour of duty to Iraq. Leaving college life behind in the Midwest, he yearns for a lost love and quietly dreams of a future as an openly gay man outside the military. He discovers that his father’s lifelong example of silent strength has taught him much about being a man, and these lessons help him survive in a war zone and to conceal his sexuality, as he is required to do by the U.S. military. The Last Deployment is a moving, provocative chronicle of one soldier’s struggle to reconcile military brotherhood with self-acceptance. Lemer captures the absurd nuances of a soldier’s daily life: growing a mustache to disguise his fear, wearing pantyhose to battle sand fleas, and exchanging barbs with Iraqis while driving through Baghdad. But most strikingly, he describes the poignant reality faced by gay servicemen and servicewomen, who must mask their identities while serving a country that disowns them. Often funny, sometimes anguished, The Last Deployment paints a deeply personal portrait of war in the twenty-first century.
The Last Detail: A Novel
by Darryl PonicsánUnlike other branches of the armed services, the Navy draws it police force from the ranks, as temporary duty called Shore Patrol. In this funny, bawdy, moving novel set during the height of the Vietnam War, two career sailors in transit in Norfolk, Virginia—Billy Bad-Ass Buddusky and Mule Mulhall—are assigned to escort eighteen-year-old Larry Meadows from Norfolk to the brig in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he is to serve an eight-year sentence for petty theft. It's good duty, until the two old salts realize the injustice of the sentence and are oddly affected by the naive innocence of their young prisoner. In the five days allotted for the detail, they decide to show Meadows something of the life he doesn't yet know, to help him survive the long ordeal ahead and to purge their own shame. What follows is an unlikely road trip by bus and train up the Eastern seaboard and an indelible journey of initiation and discovery, filled with beer-soaked wisdom, big city lights, revelry, brawls, debauchery, love, and surprising moments of tenderness.
The Last Ditch: Britain's Secret Resistance and the Nazi Invasion Plan
by David LampeIn 1940 Britain faced its biggest threat since the Spanish Armada. Hitler's invasion plans were in full swing and Britain had to quickly assemble a secret resistance force. This compelling study reveals the intentions of both side, from Hitler's strategies for Operation Sea Lion and subsequent occupation, to Britain's secret plans for resistance. German decrees show that the occupation would have been severe, with mass deportation for all able-bodied men as well as widespread arrests, as revealed in the notorious Gestapo Arrest List. In telling this story Lampe relates one of World War II's best kept secrets and offers insight into what would have been a brutal future.
The Last Ditch: Britain's Secret Resistance and the Nazi Invasion Plans
by David LampeNovelists, historians, and theorists have often toyed with the question: what would have happened if the Germans had occupied Britain in 1940? Based on years of persistent detective work, The Last Ditch investigates the German plans and the countermeasures undertaken through the specially formed British Resistance Organization. The very existence of this Resistance movement remained a secret for more than two decades until the silence was finally broken by Lampe. Few would have escaped oppression and inevitable gruesome consequences would have followed. There was to be mass deportation; wholesale appropriations of the country’s agricultural, mineral, and industrial produce; and widespread arrests, as revealed in the notorious Gestapo Arrest List—reprinted here in full.Lampe captures the mood of the post-Dunkirk period, setting the tone and immersing the reader in the challenging physical and psychological environment of those critical weeks and months. Although they never went into action, the Resistance was ready and waiting: the last ditch of Britain’s defense. So successful was their organization that they became the model for the Resistance and underground movements that were to arise all over occupied Europe. Included within are chilling interviews with key players that modern works cannot duplicate. In telling their story, Lampe relates one of the best-kept secrets of World War II and presents insight into what might have been.
The Last Division: Berlin, the Wall, and the Cold War
by Ann Tusa Raymond Seitz“A brilliant paper chase—an excellent book.”—Library JournalJFK, Khrushchev, Reagan, and a city divided. Berlin has played a major role in world politics since the Nazi era and continues to be in the spotlight today as the once-again-great capital of Germany. Ann Tusa presents an engaging chronicle of the Cold War partitions of this historic city, from the political strife and administrative division by the victors against Hitler, through the building and eventual destruction of the Wall. Using newly available documents, she offers by far the fullest account to date of the political, diplomatic, and military affairs of the city, with vivid characterizations of central figures like Konrad Adenauer, Nikita Khrushchev, and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Tusa's account also displays the full drama surrounding the building of the Wall, from its ramifications for world politics (including John F. Kennedy's famous response that “a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war” and Ronald Reagan’s iconic “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”) to the experiences of ordinary Berliners and the personal tragedies they experienced as the Wall severed a living city and sundered families for generations. The result is a startling combination of historical detail and lucid style, a story that The Sunday Times of London has hailed as “not only painstakingly researched but eminently readable.”
The Last Dragon's Voyage (e-short story): A dramatic novella of danger at sea
by M. K. HumeThe legend of King Arthur lives on..M.K. Hume's exclusive short story The Last Dragon's Voyage is an untold adventure from The Ice King (Twilight of the Celts Book III). The perfect read for fans of Ian Ross and Simon Scarrow. 'Hume brings the bloody, violent, conniving world vividly to life...will appeal to those who thrill to Game of Thrones and other tales of intersecting, ever-warring, noble lineages' - Kirkus ReviewWhen Arthur, the illegitimate son of King Arthur, embarks on a dangerous voyage across the uncharted, frozen seas off the coast of Norway, the hazardous ice forces him to shelter in a fjord during the winter. But Arthur and his crew are soon confronted with an even greater danger when an enormous blue whale enters the fjord and starts attacking the natives' vessels. They must risk their lives in a death-defying mission to slay the whale before it destroys them all...What readers are saying about M.K. Hume's novels: 'I love the way [M.K. Hume] breathes life into the characters, giving each individual traits that in the whole make them stronger whilst their own personal foibles allow a vulnerability''Well drawn characters with the right balance of plot and action. A great addition to historical fiction''M.K. Hume brings not only her characters to life but also the sights and sounds of battle'
The Last Dress from Paris: The glamorous, romantic dual-timeline read of summer 2022
by Jade BeerA sweeping dual-narrative love story sweeping from 1950s Paris to the V&A Museum in London, told through eight couture dresses that reunite three generations of women.Each Dior dress tells a story...London, 2017. When her beloved grandmother, Sylvie, sends her to Paris to retrieve a dress she wore decades before, Lucille sees the perfect opportunity to briefly escape the pressures of her own life. But not everything is as it seems, and the long-buried secrets she discovers, hidden in a collection of priceless Dior gowns, could change everything.Paris, 1952. Postwar France is full of glamour and privilege, and Alice Ainsley is in the middle of it all. As the wife to the British ambassador to France, her life is a whirlwind of jewels, banquets and couture dresses, but beneath the glittering facade, Alice is suffocating in a loveless marriage. So when a new face appears in her drawing room, Alice finds herself yearning to follow her heart . . . no matter the consequences.Deliciously evocative and achingly romantic, sweeping from 50s Paris to the V&A museum in London, The Last Dress from Paris is the perfect read for fans of Natasha Lester, Fiona Valpy and Gill Paul'A delightful fashion treasure hunt involving some of my favorite Dior gowns made this book a winner for me! The present day and 1950s narratives weave seamlessly together, the dresses dance from the pages, and Paris is resplendently depicted'-Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Secret(P) 2022 Penguin Audio
The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World
by Edward ShawcrossThe true operatic tragedy of Maximilian and Carlota, the European aristocrats who stumbled into power in Mexico—and faced bloody consequences.In the 1860s, Napoleon III, intent on curbing the rise of American imperialism, persuaded a young Austrian archduke and a Belgian princess to leave Europe and become the emperor and empress of Mexico. They and their entourage arrived in a Mexico ruled by terror, where revolutionary fervor was barely suppressed by French troops. When the United States, now clear of its own Civil War, aided the rebels in pushing back Maximilian&’s imperial soldiers, the French army withdrew, abandoning the young couple. The regime fell apart. Maximilian was executed by a firing squad and Carlota, secluded in a Belgian castle, descended into madness.Assiduously researched and vividly told, The Last Emperor of Mexico is a dramatic story of European hubris, imperialist aspirations clashing with revolutionary fervor, and the Old World breaking from the New.
The Last Emperox (The Interdependency #3)
by John ScalziThe Last Emperox is the thrilling conclusion to the award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling Interdependency series, an epic space opera adventure from Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi.The collapse of The Flow, the interstellar pathway between the planets of the Interdependency, has accelerated. Entire star systems—and billions of people—are becoming cut off from the rest of human civilization. This collapse was foretold through scientific prediction . . . and yet, even as the evidence is obvious and insurmountable, many still try to rationalize, delay and profit from, these final days of one of the greatest empires humanity has ever known. Emperox Grayland II has finally wrested control of her empire from those who oppose her and who deny the reality of this collapse. But “control” is a slippery thing, and even as Grayland strives to save as many of her people form impoverished isolation, the forces opposing her rule will make a final, desperate push to topple her from her throne and power, by any means necessary. Grayland and her thinning list of allies must use every tool at their disposal to save themselves, and all of humanity. And yet it may not be enough. Will Grayland become the savior of her civilization . . . or the last emperox to wear the crown? The Interdependency Series1. The Collapsing Empire2. The Consuming Fire3. The Last EmperoxAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.