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  Carrying the Fire - An...

  Michael Collins

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  In Carrying the Fire, Michael Collins conveys, in a very personal way, the drama, beauty, and humor of the adventure of reaching the moon. He also traces his development from his first flight experiences in the air force, through his days as a test pilot, to his Apollo 11 spacewalk, presenting an evocative picture of the joys of flight as well as a new perspective on time, light, and movement from someone who has seen the fragile Earth from the other side of the moon.

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  Unfinished Lives - What If Our...

  Les Whitten

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  John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States, and the youngest man elected to the office. He was assassinated at the age of 46 in 1963. Arthur Ashe was an African American professional tennis player who won more than forty singles titles, including the Australian Open, the U.S. Open, and Wimbledon. He died in 1993 at the age of 49 of AIDS-related pneumonia contracted during heart bypass surgery years earlier. But imagine if the lives of JFK and Ashe had not been cut short? In this pair of speculative biographies, two writers suppose what might have been if JFK had lived long enough to serve out his presidency and what Arthur Ashe may have done to enhance his already notable legacy. These vividly imaginative "biographies" are thoughtful, honest, heartfelt—             and entirely within the realm of possibility, as the authors engage in these an intriguing exercise, asking “             What if...             ?”

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  Life is Greater Than Limb - My...

  John LeMieux

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  Just before Christmas in 2012, at age fifty-three, John LeMieux lost his left leg to a recurrence of sarcoma. The unique twenty-hour rotationplasty surgery—never done on a man his age—was followed by six months of bed rest. It was only the beginning of years of physical, spiritual, and emotional growth. In this memoir, John recounts the lows and highs of a life forever altered. 
  As an aging, ex-college athlete, John was forced to confront a life where every expectation was changed. With the help of his family and friends, he discovered that he was stronger than he knew, as he grappled with the physical loss of his leg, the crippling anxiety that attacked him, his relationships with others, and his place in the world.

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  Jack Kerouac - A Few Nights on...

  Deaver Brown

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  Before McDonald's and Holiday Inn, Jack was on the road with his friends, when interstate highways were a novelty and going coast to coast was just fun doing so. Jack was pre-Vietnam, more 1950s edgy than 1960s politically correct. He loved Keats and Eliot as he sang the praises of the Odes and The Wasteland, bars and saloons, writers and barkeeps. All about equally according to the author who narrated about his short time with Jack on the road. Jack was open to all subjects, more a fan than critic, who didn't see the point in being critical. "If you don't like it, why bother?" Said Jack. These few nights related to a Harvard College event honoring Jack. He went to high table at Lowell House, at Harvard, but clearly felt more comfortable in a South Boston style old hangout like Cronin's across the tracks...the MBTA tracks from Harvard. A 100 yards and a thousand miles. Jack takes a trip with his young rider, and author, up to New York to see some of Dreiser's landmarks from An American Tragedy. They get to the Adirondack area where the actual crime happened and Jack talked about the little glove factory still abandoned on Lake Cayuga. True, the author doesn't know; but he did know there was a glove factory and years later he went to visit it. The author comments that many people doubted what Jack said. But, upon closer inspection, found him to be truthful. Jack just had a way of saying things that made the conventional nervous. Good listening. For readers and listeners, not academics. Keywords: T. S. Eliot, John Keats, Dreiser, Cayuga Lake, Harvard, Lowell House, Cronin's, Adirondacks, On the Road, Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac, McDonald's, Holiday Inn.

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  The Road

  Jack London

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  Experience thetrials andhardships of a beloved writer’s lifein this InAudio production of Jack London’s memoir, The Road. Jack London isprimarilyknown for his novels and short stories that center the natural world. The Roadis a more personal storyand takes readers through London’s experiences in povertyin the late 1800s, which was the time of the largest economic depression in the United States to that day. Londonwrites about his experiences begging, sneaking onto trains, taking on many odd jobs, and evading the police who are out to arrest any vagrants. He also details his experience of eventually being arrested and subject to the horrors of a penitentiary, a sobering 30 days that would serve as the turning point forhis life and lead to him seeking education and becoming a writer.The Roadis an impactful and intriguing memoir that gives readers an appreciation for humanity of the poor, and a new understanding for the difficulties of those who suffer the most during times of national economic crisis

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  Master of War - The Life of...

  Benson Bobrick

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  In this revelatory, dynamic biography, one of our finest historians, Benson Bobrick, profiles George H. Thomas, arguing that he was the greatest and most successful general of the Civil War. Because Thomas didn't live to write his memoirs, his reputation has been largely shaped by others, most notably Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, two generals with whom Thomas served and who, Bobrick says, diminished his successes in their favor in their own memoirs.  Born in Virginia, Thomas survived Nat Turner's rebellion as a boy, then studied at West Point, where Sherman was a classmate. Thomas distinguished himself in the Mexican War and then returned to West Point as an instructor. When the Civil War broke out, Thomas remained loyal to the Union, unlike fellow Virginia-born officer Robert E. Lee (among others). He compiled an outstanding record as an officer in battles at Mill Springs, Perryville, and Stones River. At the Battle of Chickamauga, Thomas, at the time a corps commander, held the center of the Union line under a ferocious assault, then rallied the troops on Horseshoe Ridge to prevent a Confederate rout of the Union army. His extraordinary performance there earned him the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga."  Promoted to command of the Army of the Cumberland, he led his army in a stunning Union victory at the Battle of Chattanooga. Thomas supported Sherman on his march through Georgia in the spring of 1864, winning an important victory at the Battle of Peachtree Creek. As Sherman continued on his March to the Sea, Thomas returned to Tennessee and in the battle of Nashville destroyed the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood. It was one of the most decisive victories of the war, and Thomas won it even as Grant was on his way to remove Thomas from his command. (When Grant discovered the magnitude of Thomas's victory, he quickly changed his mind.) Thomas died of a stroke in 1870 while still on active duty. In the entire Civil War, he never lost a battle or a movement.  Throughout his career, Thomas was methodical and careful, and always prepared. Unlike Grant at Shiloh, he was never surprised by an enemy. Unlike Sherman, he never panicked in battle but always remained calm and focused. He was derided by both men as "Slow Trot Thomas," but as Bobrick shows in this brilliant biography, he was quick to analyze every situation and always knew what to do and when to do it. He was not colorful like Grant and Sherman, but he was widely admired by his peers, and some, such as Grant's favorite cavalry commander, General James H. Wilson, thought Thomas the peer of any general in either army. He was the only Union commander to destroy two Confederate armies in the field.  Although historians of the Civil War have always regarded Thomas highly, he has never captured the public imagination, perhaps because he has lacked an outstanding biographer -- until now. This informed, judicious, and lucid biography at last gives Thomas his due.

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