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  Disaster - Hurricane Katrina and...

  Christopher Cooper, Robert Block

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  Based on exclusive interviews, the inside story of how America's emergency response system failed and how it remains dangerously brokenWhen Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the morning of August 29, 2005, federal and state officials were not prepared for the devastation it would bring—despite all the drills, exercises, and warnings. In this troubling exposé of what went wrong, Christopher Cooper and Robert Block of The Wall Street Journal show that the flaws go much deeper than out-of-touch federal bureaucrats or overwhelmed local politicians.Drawing on exclusive interviews with federal, state, and local officials, Cooper and Block take readers inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during Hurricane Katrina—the bad decisions that were made, the facts that were ignored, the individuals who saw that the system was broken but were unable to fix it. America's top emergency response officials had long known that a calamitous hurricane was likely to hit New Orleans, but that seems to have had little effect on planning or execution. Disaster demonstrates that the incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina is a wake-up call to all Americans, wherever they live, about how distressingly vulnerable we remain. Washington is ill equipped to handle large-scale emergencies, be they floods or fires, natural events or terrorist attacks, and Cooper and Block make a strong case for overhauling of the nation's emergency response system. This is a book that no American can afford to ignore.

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  Lincoln - The Biography of a Writer

  Fred Kaplan

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  “A fine, invaluable book. . . . Certain to become essential to our understanding of the 16th president. . . . Kaplan meticulously analyzes how Lincoln’s steadily maturing prose style enabled him to come to grips with slavery and, as his own views evolved, to express his deepening opposition to it.” — Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book WorldFor Abraham Lincoln, whether he was composing love letters, speeches, or legal arguments, words mattered. In Lincoln, acclaimed biographer Fred Kaplan explores the life of America's sixteenth president through his use of language both as a vehicle to express complex ideas and feelings and as an instrument of persuasion and empowerment.This unique and engrossing account of Lincoln's life and career highlights the shortcomings of the modern presidency, reminding us, through Lincoln's legacy and appreciation for language, that the careful and honest use of words is a necessity for successful democracy.

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  Classic Short Stories - Volume...

  Edgar Allan Poe, D H Lawrence,...

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  Stories are one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements.  Whether written down or spoken they have an ability to capture our imagination and thoughts, and take us on incredible journeys in the space of a phrase and the turn of a page. 
   
  Within a few words of text or speech, new worlds and characters form, propelling a narrative to a conclusion with intricate ease. Finely crafted, perfectly formed these Miniature Masterpieces, at first thought, seem remarkably easy to conjure up. But ask any writer and they will tell you that distilling the essence of narrative and characters into a short story is one of the hardest acts of their literary craft.  Many attempt, but few achieve.

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  The Wild Remedy - How Nature...

  Emma Mitchell

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  Emma Mitchell has suffered with depression—or as she calls it, "the grey slug"—for twenty-five years. In 2003, she moved from the city to the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens and began to take walks in the countryside around her new home, photographing, collecting, and drawing as she went. Each walk lifted her mood, proving to be as medicinal as any talking therapy or pharmaceutical.In Emma's hand-illustrated diary, she takes us with her as she follows the paths and trails around her cottage and further afield, sharing her nature finds and tracking the lives of local flora and fauna over the course of a year. Reflecting on how these encounters impact her mood, Emma's moving and candid account of her own struggles is a powerful testament to how reconnecting with nature may offer some answers to today's mental health epidemic. While charting her own seasonal highs and lows, she also explains the science behind such changes, calling on new research into such areas as forest bathing and the ways in which our bodies and minds respond to plants and wildlife when we venture outdoors.Written with Emma's characteristic wit and frankness, this is a truly unique book for anyone who has ever felt drawn to nature and wondered about its influence over us.

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  National spike in incarcerations...

  PBS NewsHour

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  What to do about a decades-long growth in the number of Americans behind bars. 
  That was the subject of a gathering of policy-makers, academics and law enforcement officials meeting in Washington today. It’s also the focus of new research released this week that questions how effective government has been at reducing crime. 
  Jeffrey Brown looks deeper with the author of one of the new reports, Jeremy Travis.

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  Alexander the Great

  Jacob Abbott

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  This book is one of the best books ever written on Alexander the Great, his incredible conquests, his eventual downfall, and the aftermath of his death. 
  
  It is filled with fascinating details and deep insights into that period in history. Alexander's military tactics are still taught the world over and his influence lingers even after thousands of years.
  
  Alexander the Great is a towering figure in ancient history because of his legendary conquests throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. He was born in 356 BC to the noble family of Macedon. As such, he was afforded with great luxuries growing up including having Aristotle as his private tutor. After his father was assassinated, he took over the throne and inherited a formidable army which he would put to tremendous use. 
  
  His campaigns reached as far as India and could have gone farther if not for his men's refusal to march on due to homesickness. Despite this premature turnaround back to Macedon, he was able to consolidate most of the known world under his rule -- a feat never before achieved.
  An Author's Republic audio production.

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