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A Nightmare's Prayer: A Marine Harrier Pilot's War in Afghanistan
by Michael FranzakWinner of the 2012 Colby Award and the first Afghanistan memoir ever to be written by a Marine Harrier pilot, A Nightmare’s Prayer portrays the realities of war in the twenty-first century, taking a unique and powerful perspective on combat in Afghanistan as told by a former enlisted man turned officer. Lt. Col. Michael “Zak” Franzak was an AV-8B Marine Corps Harrier pilot who served as executive officer of VMA-513, “The Flying Nightmares,” while deployed in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003. The squadron was the first to base Harriers in Bagram in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. But what should have been a standard six-month deployment soon turned to a yearlong ordeal as the Iraq conflict intensified. And in what appeared to be a forgotten war half a world away from home, Franzak and his colleagues struggled to stay motivated and do their job providing air cover to soldiers patrolling the inhospitable terrain. I wasn’t in a foxhole. I was above it. I was safe and comfortable in my sheltered cocoon 20,000 feet over the Hindu Kush. But I prayed. I prayed when I heard the muted cries of men who at last understood their fate.Franzak’s personal narrative captures the day-by-day details of his deployment, from family good-byes on departure day to the squadron’s return home. He explains the role the Harrier played over the Afghanistan battlefields and chronicles the life of an attack pilot—from the challenges of nighttime, weather, and the austere mountain environment to the frustrations of working under higher command whose micromanagement often exacerbated difficulties. In vivid and poignant passages, he delivers the full impact of enemy ambushes, the violence of combat, and the heartbreaking aftermath.And as the Iraq War unfolded, Franzak became embroiled in another battle: one within himself. Plagued with doubts and wrestling with his ego and his belief in God, he discovered in himself a man he loathed. But the hardest test of his lifetime and career was still to come—one that would change him forever.A stunning true account of service and sacrifice that takes the reader from the harrowing dangers of the cockpit to the secret, interior spiritual struggle facing a man trained for combat, A Nightmare’s Prayer brings to life a Marine’s public and personal trials set against “the fine talcum brown soot of Afghanistan that permeated everything—even one’s soul.”
Moon Spells Journal: Guided Rituals, Reflections, and Meditations (Moon Magic, Spells, & Rituals Series)
by Diane AhlquistLive by the power of the moon and fulfill your true potential with this guided journal offering magical prompts for self-reflection and personal growth.The moon has a powerful influence on our well-being. Each phase of the lunar cycle can impact our moods and emotions, bringing with it an energy that all of us can use to better understand ourselves and our desires. It&’s time to embrace the moon&’s energy and use its power for self-reflection and empowerment! Within the pages of The Moon Spells Journal, you will find out how to harness strength from the moon all year round! Every month is devoted to a specific aspiration, and every phase of the moon speaks to that intention. Moon expert and author of Moon Spells Diane Ahlquist, offers prompts, spells, and questions for you to ponder during each phase of the moon&’s cycle. From embracing new beginnings during the New Moon to learning to release negative emotions during the Waning Moon, this guided journal is your next phase in introspection. Learn to live in tandem with the divine energy of the lunar cycle and let the moon guide your journey to self-discovery one phase at a time!
Cold Falling White: A Novel (The Nahx Invasions #2)
by G. S. PrendergastTwo teens fight for their lives after an alien invasion in this heart-stopping follow-up to Zero Repeat Forever.Humans. Clones. Aliens. No one is safe anymore. It&’s the end of the world. Xander Liu survived the alien invasion—just barely. For more than a year, he has outsmarted, hidden from, and otherwise avoided the ruthless intruders, the Nahx, dodging the deadly darts that have claimed so many. When the murder of his friend leaves him in the protective company of August, a rebellious Nahx soldier, Xander is finally able to make his way back to human controlled territory and relative safety. But safety among the humans is not what it seems. When Raven awakes on a wide expanse of snowy sand dunes, she has many questions. What has happened to her and the other reanimated humans gathered around her? What is the meaning of the Nahx ships that hover ominously above them? And most pressing of all, where is August, who promised to keep her safe? In the shadow of an unforgiving Canadian winter, Xander and Raven find themselves on opposite sides of an alien war. Left with little choice about their roles in the looming battle, they search for answers and allies all while being drawn back to the place where their respective fates were determined, and to the one who determined them: August.
Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir (Enchanted Air Ser.)
by Margarita EngleIn this poetic memoir, which won the Pura Belpré Author Award, was a YALSA Nonfiction Finalist, and was named a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree, acclaimed author Margarita Engle tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War.Margarita is a girl from two worlds. Her heart lies in Cuba, her mother’s tropical island country, a place so lush with vibrant life that it seems like a fairy tale kingdom. But most of the time she lives in Los Angeles, lonely in the noisy city and dreaming of the summers when she can take a plane through the enchanted air to her beloved island. Words and images are her constant companions, friendly and comforting when the children at school are not. Then a revolution breaks out in Cuba. Margarita fears for her far-away family. When the hostility between Cuba and the United States erupts at the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Margarita’s worlds collide in the worst way possible. How can the two countries she loves hate each other so much? And will she ever get to visit her beautiful island again?
Fatal Attraction (Nancy Drew Files #22)
by Carolyn KeeneNewspaper publisher Frazier Carlton comes to Nancy with a delicate problem. He wants her to investigate his daughter Brenda’s new boyfriend. The trouble is, Brenda is Nancy’s arch rival, and as soon as Nancy starts investigating Mike McKeever, Brenda suspects Nancy of being interested in him. Could things get worse? Yes! It seems Mike has a very shadowy past and one of his girlfriends never made it home…How can Nancy get Brenda to listen to her, before she ends up as another one of Mike’s statistics?
Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases
by Viet Thanh Nguyen Jacqueline woodson Ann Patchett Brit Bennett Steven Okazaki David Handler Geraldine Brooks Yaa Gyasi Sergio De La Pava Dave Eggers Timothy Egan Li Yiyun Meg Wolitzer Hector Tobar Aleksandar Hemon Elizabeth Strout Rabih Alameddine Moriel Rothman-Zecher Jonathan Lethem Salman Rushdie Lauren Groff Jennifer Egan Scott Turow Morgan Parker Victor Lavalle Michael Cunningham Neil Gaiman Jesmyn Ward Moses Sumney George Saunders Marlon James William Finnegan Anthony Doerr C.J. Anders Brenda J. Childs Andrew Sean Greer Louise Erdrich Adrian Nicole LeBlancThe American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman in this &“forceful, beautifully written&” (Associated Press) collection that brings together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case. On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation&’s premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays &“full of struggle, emotion, fear, resilience, hope, and triumph&” (Los Angeles Review of Books) about landmark cases in the organization&’s one-hundred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in—Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona—need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Familiar or little-known, each case springs to vivid life in the hands of the acclaimed writers who dive into the history, narrate their personal experiences, and debate the questions at the heart of each issue. Hector Tobar introduces us to Ernesto Miranda, the felon whose wrongful conviction inspired the now-iconic Miranda rights—which the police would later read to the man suspected of killing him. Yaa Gyasi confronts the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the ACLU submitted a friend of- the-court brief questioning why a nation that has sent men to the moon still has public schools so unequal that they may as well be on different planets. True to the ACLU&’s spirit of principled dissent, Scott Turow offers a blistering critique of the ACLU&’s stance on campaign finance. These powerful stories, along with essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, and many more, remind us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today, and that we can never take our liberties for granted. Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.
Blair Unbound
by Anthony SeldonThe first volume of Anthony Seldon's riveting and definitive life of Tony Blair was published to great acclaim in 2004. Now, as the Labour Party and the country get used to the idea of a new leader and a new Prime Minister,Seldon delivers the most complete, authoritative and compelling account yet ofthe Blair premiership. Picking up the story in dramatic fashion on 11 September 2001, Seldon recaps very briefly Blair's trajectory to what may now be regarded as the high-point of his leadership, and then brings us right up to date as Blair hands over the reins to hisarch-rival, Gordon Brown. Based on hundreds of original interviews with key insiders, many of whose views have hitherto been kept private, BLAIR UNBOUND serves both as a fascinating 'volume two' of this masterclass in political biography and a highly revealing and compelling book in its own right.
Beautiful People: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints
by Simon DoonanA wickedly funny memoir with echoes of David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs, Beautiful People (originally published in hardcover as Nasty) is now a BBC comedy hit series from the producer of Ab Fab and The Office. Proclaimed "the most brilliant, brash thing in type" by Liz Smith, Simon Doonan's saucy prose has established him as an emerging star among literary humorists. In this break-through memoir, reminiscent of both Sedaris and Burroughs, he revisits the landscape of his youth, and displays the irresistible charm that earned him his dedicated audience. Long before he became a celebrity in his own right--as the author of best-selling books, as the style arbiter of VH1 and America's Top Model, and the marketing genius behind Barney's New York--Simon Doonan was a "scabby knee'd troll" in Reading, England. In Beautiful People, Doonan returns to the working-class neighborhood of his youth, and chronicles the misadventures of the Doonan clan in all their wacky glory. Readers meet his mother Betty, whose gravity-defying, peroxide hairdo signified her natural glamour; his father Terry, an amateur vintner who turned parsnips into the legendary Chateau Doonan; his grandfather D.C., a hard-drinking betting man who plotted to win his fortune by turning Simon into a jockey; and his demented grandma Narg and schizophrenic Uncle Ken, both of whom lived upstairs. Fearing he would fall victim to the insanity that runs in his family, or, worse, the banality of suburban life, Doonan decamps with his flamboyant best-friend Biddie to London, where they hope to find the Beautiful People, that elusive clan who luxuriate on floor pillows and amuse each other with bon mots. Throughout the memoir--in essays about family holidays, the tart who lived next door, his first job--Doonan continues his bumbling pursuit of the fabulous life, only to learn, in the end, that perhaps the Beautiful People were the ones he left behind.
Surimi and Surimi Seafood
by Jae W. ParkOriginating in Japan in the twelfth century, surimi is refined fish myofibrillar proteins produced through various processes. The development of the surimi product crabstick in Japan in the 1970s played a major role in globalizing surimi and expanding surimi seafood consumption to the United States, Europe, and Russia. Commercial surimi production
AI for Games and Animation: A Cognitive Modeling Approach
by John David FungeJohn Funge introduces a new approach to creating autonomous characters. Cognitive modeling provides computer-animated characters with logic, reasoning, and planning skills. Individual chapters in the book provide concrete examples of advanced character animation, automated cinematography, and a real-time computer game. Source code, animations, imag
Living Well with Dementia: The Importance of the Person and the Environment for Wellbeing
by Shibley RahmanThis unique guide provides a much needed overview of dementia care. With a strong focus on the importance of patients and families, it explores the multifaceted meaning behind patient wellbeing and its vital significance in the context of national policy.Adopting a positive, evidence-based approach, the book dispels the bleak outlook on dementia ma
The Impact of AIDS: Psychological and Social Aspects of HIV Infection
by Jose Catalan Barbara HedgeThis volume contains a selection of key contributions to the discussion on the psychological and social implications on HIV infection. It contains up-to-date and authoritative papers by senior practitioners and researchers in the field of the psychological and social aspects of HIV infection. The book will appeal to those involved in providing care
Do I Count?: Stories from Mathematics (AK Peters/CRC Recreational Mathematics Series)
by Gunter M. ZieglerThe subject of mathematics is not something distant, strange, and abstract that you can only learn about-and often dislike-in school. It is in everyday situations, such as housekeeping, communications, traffic, and weather reports. Taking you on a trip into the world of mathematics, Do I Count? Stories from Mathematics describes in a clear and capt
PEM Fuel Cell Failure Mode Analysis
by Haijiang Wang Hui Li Xiao-Zi YuanPEM Fuel Cell Failure Mode Analysis presents a systematic analysis of PEM fuel cell durability and failure modes. It provides readers with a fundamental understanding of insufficient fuel cell durability, identification of failure modes and failure mechanisms of PEM fuel cells, fuel cell component degradation testing, and mitigation strategies agai
A Practical Guide to Selecting Gametes and Embryos
by Markus MontagAmong the many recent advances in assisted reproduction therapies (ART), improved technologies for identifying viable oocytes, sperm, and embryos are of primary importance. Paradoxically, the latest advances presented at conferences and symposia are often slow to become part of the daily routine in IVF laboratories. Detailing established and develo
Disorders of Fat and Cellulite: Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment (Series in Cosmetic and Laser Therapy)
by David J. Goldberg Alexander L. BerlinAlterations in the amount of subcutaneous fat lead to significant changes in appearance, whether from excess (as seen in bodily obesity) or in loss of fat (as seen in facial lipodystrophy associated with the aging process). This book incorporates the current knowledge of the physiology of fat with the numerous treatment modalities available today;
Dynamic Prediction in Clinical Survival Analysis (Chapman & Hall/CRC Monographs on Statistics and Applied Probability)
by Hans van Houwelingen Hein PutterThere is a huge amount of literature on statistical models for the prediction of survival after diagnosis of a wide range of diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease. Current practice is to use prediction models based on the Cox proportional hazards model and to present those as static models for remaining lifetime a
Orthopaedics and Rheumatology on the Move (Medicine on the Move)
by Terence McLoughlin Ian Baxter Nicole AbdulThe Medicine on the Move series provides fully flexible access to subjects across the curriculum in a unique combination of print and mobile formats ideal for the busy medical student and junior doctor. No matter what your learning style, whether you are studying a subject for the first time or revisiting it during exam preparation, Medicine on the
The Wrong Chemistry (Nancy Drew Files #42)
by Carolyn KeeneThe Dean of Emerson College enlists Nancy to investigate the thefts of a valuable substance being used in a top-secret experiment. But when Nancy discovers that the experiment involves biological mutations, she knows she must find the culprit before the lives of everyone on campus are endangered.
The Everything Dog Grooming Book: All you need to help your pet look and feel great! (Everything® Series)
by Sandy BlackburnDo you want to groom your dog at home but worry that you won't get it right? If nail-cutting and dental care for your canine make you nervous, you need The Everything Dog Grooming Book! This do-it-yourself guide offers detailed information and instructional photographs for handling all facets of dog grooming, including:How to choose and where to buy the right equipmentProper animal handling techniques for nervous or antsy dogsGrooming specific areas such as nails, toes, and teethHow to choose the right shampoo and conditionerDealing with all types of coats and hair lengthsBathing a dog properly--without the mess! Grooming your dog at home is a great way to save money and bond with your dog at the same time. With this helpful handbook, you'll be cutting, clipping, shearing, and shaving like a pro before you can say "bath time"!
Among the Enemy: Among The Hidden; Among The Impostors; Among The Betrayed; Among The Barons; Among The Brave; Among The Enemy; Among The Free (Shadow Children #6)
by Margaret Peterson HaddixHIDE OR FIGHT? Matthias, an illegal third child, is caught in the cross fire between rebels and the Population Police. When he unwittingly saves a Population Police officer, Matthias is brought to Population Police headquarters to train as an officer himself. There he meets Nina, another third-born who enlists his help in a plot to undermine the Population Police. But Matthias is under constant scrutiny, and he has no idea whom he can trust. What can one boy do against a wicked bureaucracy?
Dear Leader: My Escape from North Korea
by Jang Jin-sungTHE STORY THEY COULDN'T HACK: In this international bestseller, a high-ranking counterintelligence agent describes his life as a former poet laureate to Kim Jong-il and his breathtaking escape to freedom.As North Korea’s State Poet Laureate, Jang Jin-sung led a charmed life. With food provisions (even as the country suffered through its great famine), a travel pass, access to strictly censored information, and audiences with Kim Jong-il himself, his life in Pyongyang seemed safe and secure. But this privileged existence was about to be shattered. When a strictly forbidden magazine he lent to a friend goes missing, Jang Jin-sung must flee for his life. Never before has a member of the elite described the inner workings of this totalitarian state and its propaganda machine. An astonishing exposé told through the heart-stopping story of Jang Jin-sung’s escape to South Korea, Dear Leader is an “impossibly dramatic story…one of the best depictions yet of North Korea’s nightmare” (Publishers Weekly).
Hygge and Kisses: The first warm, cosy and romantic hygge novel!
by Clara ChristensenFor readers everywhere who are embracing the Danish art of hygge – the first warm, wise and romantic hygge novel! The perfect feel-good novel to curl up with - light some candles, wrap yourself in a blanket and relax ...Bo, 26, has always been careful, cautious. However, she's just been made redundant and her life plan is beginning to unravel. Before she starts immediately applying for other jobs in a panic, her friend Kirsten persuades her to take a holiday, to visit Kirsten's mother's house in Aalborg, North Jutland, a part of Denmark Bo is ashamed to admit she has never heard of. 'What's the weather going to be like?' she asks Kirsten hopefully, scrolling her cursor over the budget airlines webpage. 'Terrible,' Kirsten replies, 'London is positively Mediterranean by comparison, and of course it's November so it'll be dark seventeen hours a day. But no one goes to Denmark to get a tan. You need a change of scene and to blow away the cobwebs, and trust me, Skagen will do that. Besides, the summerhouse is cosy whatever the weather, and you never know who else will be around.' A few clicks later and there is no going back. And Bo's life plan is about to be entirely rewritten.
Report to Greco
by Nikos KazantzakisDisarmingly personal and intensely philosophical, Report to Greco is a fictionalized account of Greek philosopher and writer Nikos Kazantzakis’s own life, a sort of intellectual autobiography that leads readers through his wide-ranging observations on everything from the Hegelian dialectic to the nature of human existence, all framed as a report to the Spanish Renaissance painter El Greco. The assuredness of Kazantzakis’s prose and the nimbleness of his thinking as he grapples with life’s essential questions—who are we, and how should we be in the world?—will inspire awe and more than a little reflection from readers seeking to answer these questions for themselves.
In the Convent of Little Flowers: Stories
by Indu SundaresanNow in paperback, internationally bestselling author Indu Sundaresan presents a poignant collection of contemporary short stories about the challenges and consequences faced by women in Indian life today.Like Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, Indu Sundaresan’s In the Convent of Little Flowers gives readers an eloquent and illuminating collection of stories about contemporary Indian life, exploring the cutting-edge issues that surround the clash between ancient tradition and modernity. In the collection’s title story, a young woman adopted by an American family in Seattle receives a letter from Sister Mary Theresa, a nun at the Convent of Little Flowers in Chennai, where she stayed as a child. Unbeknownst to the Indian woman, the nun is her biological mother’s sister. In another story, the grandmother of an Indian journalist begs her grandson to intervene and stop a young widow from being burned alive. And when a teenaged daughter bears a child out of wedlock, her entire family is thrown into turmoil. With their lush prose, vividly rendered settings, and complex characters, these and the other stories in this elegant collection bring readers into the experience of Indian women at home and abroad, where modernity offers them lives their grandmothers could never dream of, while at the same time taking away parts of their history. With a delicate touch, Indu Sundaresan weaves the pieces of the conflict together, presenting a nuanced and unforgettable tapestry.