Hardcover W.E.B. Griffin #4 The Corps War Military Fiction W.E.B. Griffin is a bestselling phenomenom, an American master of authentic military action and drama. Now, in this electrifying new novel, he reveals the story of one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Pacific, the epic struggle for Guadalcanal...Daredevil pilot Charles Galloway learns the hard way how to command a fighter squadron. Lt. Joe Howard teams up with the Coastwatchers. Jack No Middle Initial Stecker leads his infantry battalion into the thickest of fighting, at a terrible price. And Navy Captain Pickering grabs a helmet and rifle to join the ranks at Guadalcanal... Learn More

Paperback. Good Condition Learn More

Hardcover The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts, Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Editor) The Barnes Noble Review Through a sequence of fortuitous events detailed in the introduction, noted scholar and author Henry Louis Gates Jr. has discovered what he and others believe may be the first novel written by an African-American woman -- a discovery made even more monumental by the fact that it was found in its original manuscript form, completely unedited. Extensive scientific testing has been completed to authenticate the manuscript and ascertain its origins, and experts agree that it was written between 1853 and 1859, by an African-American woman who had previously been enslaved. Gates has painstakingly sought to identify the author, Hannah Crafts, through historical research, and although he has been unsuccessful in determining her true identity, he has found that many of the places, dates, and characters in the novel can be linked reliably to real events and people. A riveting story about a young slave woman on a Southern plantation, The Bondwoman's Narrative follows the title character as she escapes and makes her way to freedom. As a novel, it possesses all the charms and devices of popular mid-19th-century fiction, and the influences of gothic and romantic writers popular in the day are apparent throughout the text. But Crafts accomplishes more than mere mimicry in her book, adding her own voice to established traditions to create a unique style. Throughout the 19th century, many slave narratives -- most notably The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass -- detailed the daily horrors of slavery. In choosing to write a novel rather than an autobiographical narrative, however, Crafts expresses the complete psychological and emotional breadth of the experience, transcending personal, private tortures to illuminate the inhumanity of the peculiar institution. Her characters reflect upon and feel the experience of enslavement -- and because they are wholly rounded and fully developed, they also express the intellect and insight present in the best writings of Dickens, Poe, or Thoreau. Discovered dallying in her master's portrait gallery by a white housekeeper, who comments that she is [l]ooking at the pictures...as if such an ignorant thing as you would know any thing about them, the title character poignantly counters to herself, Ignorance, forsooth. Can ignorance quench the immortal mind or prevent its feeling at times the indications of its heavenly origins? Can it destroy that deep abiding appreciation of the beautiful that seems inherent to the human soul? Can it seal up the fountains of truth and all intuitive perception of life, death, and eternity? I think not. Those to whom man teaches little, nature like a wise and prudent mother teaches much. Regardless of its historical importance -- and the unavoidable questions and controversies about its authenticity -- the literary merits of The Bondwoman's Narrative are clear. A deeply engaging novel told with the clarity of a woman who has endured slavery's sorrows and the creativity of one who, at her core, was a gifted artist, it is a powerful story that leaves the reader simultaneously bereft and exhilarated, one that bears witness to the transcendent power of art. (Ann Kashickey) Learn More

Paperback Spring Moon: A Novel of China by Bette Bao Lord At a time of mystery and cruelty ... in an ancient land of breathtaking beauty and exotic surprise ... a courageous woman triumphs over her world's ultimate tragedy. Behind the garden walls of the House of Chang, pampered daughter Spring Moon is born into luxury and privilege. But the tempests of change sweep her into a new world -- one of hardship, turmoil, and heartbreak, one that threatens to destroy her husband, her family, and her darkest secret love. Through a tumultuous lifetime, Spring Moon must cling to her honor, to the memory of a time gone by, and to a destiny, foretold at her birth, that has yet to be fulfilled. Learn More

Paperback Heart of Lies by M.L. Malcolm (Goodreads Author) “A sweeping saga reminiscent of Jeffrey Archer and Susan Howatch, Heart of Lies is brilliantly researched and beautifully written. I could not put this book down.” —Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on Legare Street A smart, exciting historical suspense novel set in Europe, Shanghai, and New York before World War II, Heart of Lies is a breathtaking introduction to M. L. Malcolm. This extraordinary new writer immediately takes an honored place among Frederick Forsyth (The Day of the Jackal), Ken Follett (Eye of the Needle), Susan Howatch (Glittering Images), and other masters of compelling historical fiction. Inspired by true events in the author’s family’s past, Heart of Lies is an extraordinary reading experience that Library Journal praises as, “A superbly crafted story, creatively capturing a slice of history with eloquence and realism.” Learn More

Paperback The Furies (Kent Family Chronicles #4) by John Jakes The eight-volume epic of the Kent family continues as a new generation struggles to survive within a nation rife with conflict. Amanda Kent was a woman of great courage, but nothing prepared her for the massacre she witnessed at the Alamo. Now she's returned to Boston to rebuild the Kent legacy. Learn More

Paperback Geraldine Brooks The Secret Chord Historical Fiction Religion Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage. The Secret Chord provides new context for some of the best-known episodes of David’s life while also focusing on others, even more remarkable and emotionally intense, that have been neglected. We see David through the eyes of those who love him or fear him—from the prophet Natan, voice of his conscience, to his wives Mikal, Avigail, and Batsheva, and finally to Solomon, the late-born son who redeems his Lear-like old age. Learn More

Paeprback William Harris, Jr. Delirium of the Brave Historical Fiction Mystery Savannah, 1864. Confederate Captain Patrick Driscoll and his dear friend and manservant Shadrack Shad Bryan leave their tearful families to help fight for the Southern cause. They are to set up fort at Raccoon Island off Georgia's coast in a last-ditch effort to save their beloved city from Union attack. But only days into their assignment, the two men die in each other's arms in a Yankee bombardment. Though the men are gone, their legacy will live on-as will the legend of the priceless Driscoll family treasure the two men have buried on Raccoon Island. Four generations after the Civil War, many Confederate families still remain in Savannah, struggling through the twentieth-century in a South rife with hardball politics, personal vendettas and the hangover of war. John-Morgan Hartman, son of a newspaper man and great-great grandson of Captain Patrick Driscoll, goes to serve his country in Vietnam, unaware of the physical and psychological wounds that will befall him... Tony O'Boyle is an ambitious young politician who will stop at nothing and spare no one to get ahead-but his family's dark past will come back to haunt him... Lloyd Bryan, descended from slaves, is determined to succeed where his ancestors didn't. But his celebrity as a professional football player immerses him in a world of temptation that ultimately turns him toward religion... Charlotte Drayton, a successful television reporter, has always used her beauty to get her way-but the one man she can't have is the only one she wants... After many years, four friends will meet on the very island where the two confederate soldiers died in each other's arms. To find where they buried Driscoll's treasure-and to uncover the dangerous secrets of a prominent Savannah family. A gripping novel of history, intrigue, war, and love, Delirium of the Brave follows four generations of families contemplating the pain of the past and the promise of the future. Get swept away by this glorious saga rich with the sights, sounds, flavors, and people of the South's most stunning locale. Learn More

Paperback Homeland (The Crown Family Saga #1) by John Jakes Living in the Chicago mansion of his brewery tycoon uncle, Pauli Kroner clashes with his proud guardian and, forced into life on the city's dark side, becomes Paul Crown, a man driven by power and ambition. Reprint. NYT. PW. Learn More

Hardcover Melinda Haynes Mother of Pearl Historical Fiction Southern Capturing all the rueful irony and racial ambivalence of small-town Mississippi in the late 1950s, Melinda Haynes' celebrated novel is a wholly unforgettable exploration of family, identity, and redemption. Mother of Pearl revolves around twenty-eight-year-old Even Grade, a black man who grew up an orphan, and Valuable Korner, the fifteen-year-old white daughter of the town whore and an unknown father. Both are passionately determined to discover the precious things neither experienced as children: human connection, enduring commitment, and, above all, unconditional love. A startlingly accomplished mixture of beauty, mystery, and tragedy, Mother of Pearl marks the debut of an extraordinary literary talent. Learn More

Paperback People of the Raven (North America's Forgotten Past #12) by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear (Goodreads Author) In People of the Raven, award-winning archaeologists and New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear spin a vivid and captivating tale around one of the most controversial archaeological discoveries in the world, the Kennewick Man---a Caucasoid male mummy dating back more than 9,000 years---found in the Pacific Northwest on the banks of the Columbia River. A white man in North America more than 9,000 years ago? What was he doing there? With the terrifying grandeur of melting glaciers as a backdrop, People of the Raven shows animals and humans struggling for survival amidst massive environmental change. Mammoths, mastodons, and giant lions have become extinct, and Rain Bear, the chief of Sandy Point Village, knows his struggling Raven People may be next. Learn More

Hardcover The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring - and until now, untold - story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work. After risking the hazardous journey across the Atlantic, these Americans embarked on a greater journey in the City of Light. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history. As David McCullough writes, Not all pioneers went west. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, who enrolled at the Sorbonne because of a burning desire to know more about everything. There he saw black students with the same ambition he had, and when he returned home, he would become the most powerful, unyielding voice for abolition in the U.S. Senate, almost at the cost of his life. Two staunch friends, James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse, worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Cooper writing and Morse painting what would be his masterpiece. From something he saw in France, Morse would also bring home his momentous idea for the telegraph. Pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk from New Orleans launched his spectacular career performing in Paris at age 15. George P. A. Healy, who had almost no money and little education, took the gamble of a lifetime and with no prospects whatsoever in Paris became one of the most celebrated portrait painters of the day. His subjects included Abraham Lincoln. Medical student Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote home of his toil and the exhilaration in being at the center of things in what was then the medical capital of the world. From all they learned in Paris, Holmes and his fellow medicals were to exert lasting influence on the profession of medicine in the United States. Writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, and Henry James were all discovering Paris, marveling at the treasures in the Louvre, or out with the Sunday throngs strolling the city's boulevards and gardens. At last I have come into a dreamland, wrote Harriet Beecher Stowe, seeking escape from the notoriety Uncle Tom's Cabin had brought her. Almost forgotten today, the heroic American ambassador Elihu Washburne bravely remained at his post through the Franco-Prussian War, the long Siege of Paris and even more atrocious nightmare of the Commune. His vivid account in his diary of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris (drawn on here for the first time) is one readers will never forget. The genius of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the son of an immigrant shoemaker, and of painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, three of the greatest American artists ever, would flourish in Paris, inspired by the examples of brilliant French masters, and by Paris itself. Nearly all of these Americans, whatever their troubles learning French, their spells of homesickness, and their suffering in the raw cold winters by the Seine, spent many of the happiest days and nights of their lives in Paris. McCullough tells this sweeping, fascinating story with power and intimacy, bringing us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens's phrase, longed to soar into the blue. The Greater Journey is itself a masterpiece. Learn More