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  Angelic Music - The Story of...

  Corey Mead

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  Benjamin Franklin is renowned for his landmark inventions, including bifocals, the Franklin stove, and the lightning rod. Yet his own favorite invention is unknown to the general public. The glass armonica, the first musical instrument invented by an American, was constructed of stacked glass bowls and played by rubbing one's fingers on the rims. It was so popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, and Strauss composed for it.In Angelic Music, Corey Mead describes how Franklin's instrument fell out of popular favor, partly due to claims that its haunting sounds could drive musicians out of their minds. Some players fell ill, complaining of nervousness, muscle spasms, and cramps. Audiences were susceptible; a child died during a performance in Germany. Some thought its ethereal tones summoned spirits or had magical powers. It was banned in some places. Yet in recent years, the armonica has enjoyed a revival. Composers are writing pieces for it in genres ranging from chamber music and opera to electronic and pop music. Now Mead brings this instrument back to the public eye, telling the compelling, fascinating story of its origins.

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  J Edgar Hoover and Allen Dulles:...

  Charles River Editors

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  No single figure in 20th century American history inspires such opposing opinions as J. Edgar Hoover, the iconic first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In his time, he was arguably the most powerful non-elected figure in the U.S. government. Serving under 8 presidents (and outliving 2 of them), he remains the longest-serving head of a major government office. In essence, Hoover died as he began - a civil servant, having been appointed by the Attorney General and serving at the pleasure of the president.  
  By the 1960s and 1970s Hoover the hero had become Hoover the villain.  Various exposes and investigations revealed a darker side to the legend, one that included serious violations of the civil liberties of individuals. Hoover’s G-Men, it was discovered, engaged in illegal break-ins and wiretaps of suspected subversives; they wrote fake letters that undermined the reputations of public individuals; they paid informants for information and push the groups they belonged to into committing illegal acts. It was alleged that Hoover led a personal vendetta against Martin Luther King, Jr., and the entire civil rights movement. Hoover, it was said, had stayed in office so long by gathering secret files of damaging information about politicians (including presidents). 
  To this day, Allen Dulles’ eight-year tenure in that office is the longest, and as one of the country’s leading experts in international law, intelligence, and spycraft, he became renowned for his unwavering anti-communist ideology and readiness to take decisive measures to counter what he perceived as a menace to American safety. As such, it would be Dulles who sanctioned many of the CIA’s most notorious operations, including the ousting of Iran's democratically elected government in 1953, spying and experimentation on American citizens, and the disastrous Bay of Pigs.

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  My Secret Life Vol 3 Chapter 17

  Dominic Crawford Collins

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  My Secret Life, the gargantuan erotic autobiography of a wealthy Victorian English gentleman has been described as 'the strangest book ever written'. Comprising one-hundred-and-eighty-four chapters and over one million words, the epic confessional describes in eloquent and explicit detail the exploits of a man (who refers to himself simply as 'Walter'), whose life was devoted to the pursuit of erotic adventure and carnal pleasure.Now for the first time in the history of this infamous erotic masterpiece, film composer Dominic Crawford Collins is producing a fully scored narration of the complete unabridged text. More 'audiofilm' than audiobook, each chapter and scene has its own unique musical accompaniment, reflecting the author's changing emotional landscape and offering the listener a truly immersive erotic audio experience.

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  Hal Moore - A Soldier Once…and...

  Mike Guardia

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  Hal Moore, one of the most admired American combat leaders of the last fifty years, has until now been best known to the public for being portrayed by Mel Gibson in the movie We Were Soldiers. In this biography, we finally learn the full story of one of America's true military heroes.A 1945 graduate of West Point, Moore's first combats occurred during the Korean War, where he fought in the battles of Old Baldy, T-Bone, and Pork Chop Hill. At the beginning of the Vietnam War, Moore commanded the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry in the first full-fledged battle between U.S. and North Vietnamese regulars. Drastically outnumbered and nearly overrun, Moore led from the front, and though losing seventy-nine soldiers, accounted for 1,200 of the enemy before the Communists withdrew. This Battle of Ia Drang pioneered the use of "air mobile infantry"-delivering troops into battle via helicopter-which became the staple of U.S. operations for the remainder of the war. He later wrote of his experiences in the bestselling book We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young.

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  The Eden Express - A Memoir of...

  Mark Vonnegut

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  Mark Vonnegut set out in search of Eden with his VW bug, his girlfriend, his dog, and his ideals, but genetic predisposition and a whole lot of **** going down made him crazy in a culture that told him mental illness is a myth and schizophrenia is a sane response to an insane society. Describing his experiences during the late '60s and early '70s, Eden Express reveals how Mark went from being a recent college grad who was in love and living communally on a farm-with a famous, doting father, a cherished dog, and a prized jalopy-to having nervous breakdowns and then, eventually, emerging from them to write this book and to find the meaningful life that had-for a while-seemed out of reach. But the real story here is that, throughout his harrowing experience, Mark's sense of humor let him see the humanity in what he was going through and that his gift for language let him describe it in such a way that others could begin to imagine its utter ordinariness as well as the madness that we all share.

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  Richest People On Earth

  Introbooks Team

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  How important is money? It is the source required to lead a decent life. Earning and investing it back to get more returns also enables one to lead a better life. For those blessed with the intellect to use their skills and intelligence to multiply it have access to a luxurious life. Many of these billionaires have gone through rough times before growing into the position that they are now in. There are many who have already been born with a silver spoon, and have upheld their ancestral worthiness and struggled in all ways to multiply what they have inherited. Such people smell where money can be rolled in. They pursue their dream and never quit. It is easy to earn but difficult to sustain what is earned. The billionaires on seem to have a never let go attitude and they never quit. 

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