Other books that might interest you

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  Curtain Call - A Memoir

  Lyneta Smith

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  I thought I was having a breakdown; turns out, it was a breakthrough. Bombarded by uninvited memories of childhood trauma, I questioned why God would allow so many horrible things to happen to me. When God interrupted my pleas for help with a simple question—“Will you trust Me with your story?”—I agreed to step out of my stage-perfect Christian life and into the journey toward healing and finally seeing Him as a good, loving God.

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  The Raven - (Golden Deer Classics)

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  When a modern film script draws inspiration from a poem written more than a century ago, readers can judge its impact on our collective imagination. Such is the resonance of the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.  
  First published in 1845, "The Raven" is a masterpiece of atmosphere, rhythmic quality and use of language. Constructed in narrative form, it tells the story of a young man who is mourning the loss of his beloved. One December night as he wearily sits up browsing through a classical volume, a mysterious tapping against his window disturbs him. When he opens it to investigate, a strange and mournful raven enters his room and perches on the bust of a Greek goddess inside. The rest of the poem deals with the melancholy and mournful one-sided conversation between the two. The narrator desperately questions the Raven about Lenore, his lost love, but the Raven only gives a single dismal word "Nevermore" in reply. What happens to the narrator in the course of this conversation makes up the rest of the poem.

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  Cutting the Cable Cord

  PBS NewsHour

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  Over the past five years, more than three million American homes have canceled their cable subscriptions while plenty more have signed up for online streaming services to control when, where and how they watch their favorite shows. Now, some of the biggest players in television are looking beyond cable by offering services that bundle and stream programs without a cable or satellite hookup. NewsHour's Jeff Greenfield reports.

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  The Private Lives of the Tudors...

  Tracy Borman

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  A history focused on the monarchs’ intimate daily lives that “furnishes readers with a ‘Hey, did you know…?’ on almost every page” (The New York Times Book Review). England’s Tudor monarchs—Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I—are perhaps the most celebrated of history’s royal families. But for all we know about them, their lives away from the public eye remain largely beyond our grasp. Here, an acclaimed historian delves deep behind the public facade of the monarchs, showing us what their lives were like beyond the stage of the court. Drawing on original material from those closest to them—courtiers like the “groom of the stool,” a much-coveted position, surprisingly—Tracy Borman examines Tudor life in fine detail. What did the monarchs eat? What clothes did they wear, and how were they designed, bought, and cared for? How did they wield power? When sick, how were they treated? What games did they play? How did they practice their faith? And whom did they love, and how did they give birth to the all-important heirs? Exploring their education, upbringing, and sexual lives, and taking us into the kitchens, bathrooms, schoolrooms, and bedrooms at court, The Private Lives of the Tudors charts the course of the entire dynasty, surfacing new and fascinating insights into these celebrated figures. “No royal family is better known…But there’s still much to learn from The Private Lives of the Tudors thanks to the expertise and persistence of Borman…The most captivating moments of Private Lives, and there are plenty of them, bring the reader into other personal Tudor moments of strength, weakness, and heartache.”?Christian Science Monitor “Comprehensively researched and compulsively readable…thoroughly entertaining.”?Minneapolis Star Tribune

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  The Norman Maclean Reader -...

  Norman Maclean

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  Selected works and incidental writings by the celebrated author of A River Runs Through It, plus excerpts from a 1986 interview. 
   
  In his eighty-seven years, Norman Maclean played many parts: fisherman, logger, firefighter, scholar, teacher. But it was a role he took up late in life, that of writer, that won him enduring fame and critical acclaim—as well as the devotion of readers worldwide. Though the 1976 collection A River Runs Through It and Other Stories was the only book Maclean published in his lifetime, it was an unexpected success, and the moving family tragedy of the title novella—based largely on Maclean’s memories of his childhood home in Montana—has proved to be one of the most enduring American stories ever written. 
   
  The Norman Maclean Reader is a wonderful addition to Maclean’s celebrated oeuvre. Bringing together previously unpublished materials with incidental writings and selections from his more famous works, the Reader will serve as the perfect introduction for readers new to Maclean, while offering longtime fans new insight into his life and career. 
   
  In this evocative collection, Maclean as both a writer and a man becomes evident. Perceptive, intimate essays deal with his career as a teacher and a literary scholar, as well as the wealth of family stories for which Maclean is famous. Complete with a generous selection of letters, as well as excerpts from a 1986 interview, The Norman Maclean Reader provides a fully fleshed-out portrait of this much admired author, showing us a writer fully aware of the nuances of his craft, and a man as at home in the academic environment of the University of Chicago as in the quiet mountains of his beloved Montana. 
   
  Various and moving, the works collected in The Norman Maclean Reader serve as both a summation and a celebration, giving readers a chance once again to hear one of American literature’s most distinctive voices. 
   
  Praise for The Norman MacLean Reader 
   
  “A solid, satisfying, well-made body of work by a patient craftsman.” —Chicago Tribune 
   
  “The Norman Maclean Reader fills out and makes more human the impressions of the restless, inquiring storyteller we saw in previously published works. In his writings, at their best, we too feel the thrusts and strains. He is a writer of great beauty, in his own terms.” —Financial Times 
   
  “Weltzien has not only done great service for Norman Maclean’s readers, he has rightly expanded Maclean’s place in American literature . . . . For me, The Norman Maclean reader is discovered treasure.” —Bloomsbury Review

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  Fall of the Red Baron - World...

  Leon Bennett

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  Fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) lacked innate aerobatic ability.  As a tyro, he attempted to solve this problem through denial, going so far as to sneer at stunting as pointless. Great War air combat experience proved quite the reverse, and so we would anticipate a short and sad fighting life for the fellow. Yet the Red Baron became the Great War's single greatest scorer, as measured by total victories.  How did he do it?  This book is concerned with tactics, especially those tactics used by the Red Baron and his opponents. It offers the how and why of Great War aerial combat. The author leans heavily on his expertise in engineering and aerodynamic techniques to explain this, with his reasoning presented in a readable, non-mathematical style.  Absent are both the usual propaganda-laced Air Service reports and psychobabble.  Offered instead is the logic behind Great War aerial combat; i.e., those elements determining success or failure in the Red Baron's air war.  Gunnery experience led to the machine gun as the weapon best suited for aerial combat.  Joined with a suitable aircraft, the extremely successful Fokker diving attack resulted.  In reaction, effective defensive techniques arose, using forms of shrewd tactical cooperation by two-seater crews: pilot and gunner.  These are detailed.  Numbers mattered, establishing the level of assault firepower.  Tactics of machines flying together in formation are given, as well as those of 'formation busters', intent upon reversing the odds and turning large numbers into a disadvantage. A pilot's nature and emotions had much to do with choosing between the options defining tactics.  What were the aces like?  How were tactics tailored to suit personality?  What traits made for the ability to grapple with a jammed machine gun?  A dozen high achievers are examined in terms of tactics and background. In a fascinating study Leon Bennett covers all of these aspects of WWI aerial combat, and more.  Similarly, the author turns his attention to examining the cause of von Richthofen's death, employing the tools of logic, rather than merely accepting one of the many conflicting eyewitness reports as truth.  In doing so, much testimony is exposed as unlikely.  The bullet scatter to be expected from ground anti-aircraft fire matters greatly, and is developed, along with the odds against lone riflemen hoping to hit a fast-moving low altitude target.  The most dangerous altitude for front-line crossing is established.  The author concludes by rating the possibility of a rifleman downing the Red Baron as quite realistic - certainly as likely as any of the more celebrated possibilities.  This is an important book, offering a groundbreaking account of WWI aerial tactics, and a thorough examination of the final combat and death of the Red Baron.

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