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  The Imprisoned Princess - The...

  Catherine Curzon

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  This royal biography of the 17th century princess and mother of King George II recounts an epic tale of privilege, passion, scandal, and disgrace. 
   
  When Sophia Dorothea of Celle married her first cousin, the future King George I, she was an unhappy bride. Filled with dreams of romance and privilege, she hated the groom she called “pig snout” and wept at news of her engagement. When she arrived in the austere court of Hanover, the vibrant young princess found herself ignored and unwanted—while her husband openly gallivanted with his mistress. 
   
  Then Sophia Dorothea plunged into a dangerous affair with the dashing soldier Count Phillip Christoph von Königsmarck, a man as celebrated for his looks as his bravery. When he and Sophia Dorothea fell in love, they were dicing with death.  
   
  Watched by a scheming countess who had ambitions of her own, it was only a matter of time before scandal gripped the House of Hanover. In the end, Sophia Dorothea was divorced, disgraced, and locked away in a gilded cage for 30 years—whilst her lover faced an even darker fate.

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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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  Mbappé

  Luca Caioli, Cyril Collot

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  The youngest player to score in the World Cup final since Pelé, for the tournament-winning team, in his brief career to date Kylian Mbappé is breaking records at a rate matched by only the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and is fast becoming one of the biggest names in football.
  
  But did you know that even at three years old, he would sit listening to the manager's talk before an AS Bondy match?
  
  Or where his signature crossed-arm goal celebration came from and where he first performed it?
  
  Or how he got his dressing room nickname 'Thirty-seven'?
  Find out about all this and more in Luca Caioli and Cyril Collot's tirelessly researched biography of the game's latest superstar, featruing exclusive interviews with those who know him best.
  Includes 2018 World Cup success.

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  A Diamond in the Desert - Behind...

  Jo Tatchell

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  Get a closer look at this glittering, oil-rich city in a “revealing travelogue through the capital of the United Arab Emirates” (Publishers Weekly).   Jo Tatchell first arrived in the city of Abu Dhabi as a child in 1974, when the discovery of oil was quickly turning a small fishing town into a growing international community. Decades later, this Middle Eastern capital is a dizzying metropolis of ten-lane highways and overlapping languages, and its riches and emphasis on cultural development have thrust it into the international spotlight.   Here, Tatchell returns to Abu Dhabi and explores the city and its contradictions: It is a tolerant melting-pot of cultures and faiths, but only a tiny percentage of its native residents are deemed eligible to vote by the ruling class, and the nation’s president holds absolute veto power over his advisory boards and councils. The Emirates boast one of the world’s highest GDP per capita, but the wealth inequality in its cities is staggering. Abu Dhabi’s royal family, worth an estimated $500 billion, lives off the sweat of the city’s migrant workers, who subject themselves to danger and poverty under barely observed labor laws. But now, the city is making an international splash with a showy investment in tourism, arts, and culture—perhaps signaling a change to a more open, tolerant state.   As this sparkling city surges into the future, it devotes just as much energy to concealing its past. Tatchell looks not only at history and social issues—the ancient system of tribal organization, the condition of the city’s million foreign workers, the emergence of women in Emirati society, but also her own experiences as both a child and adult in this fascinating city that has radically changed—and in other ways, stayed the same.

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  Bob Dylan: Icon for the Ages -...

  Geoffrey Giuliano

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  Bob Dylan, the poet laureate of now several generations is revealed in this stunning new audiobook from master storyteller author actor Geoffrey Giuliano. Here you will find the real Dylan behind the carefully crafted public image. As well, here is the man behind the music and the inspirational music behind the man.This is, without doubt, the perfect pop compendium for all dedicated fans, music historians, poetic philosophers and all inspired school and university systems. Ladies and gentleman at last — the real Bob Dylan!

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  The Collected Essays Volume Two...

  Mary McCarthy

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  Candid, sharp, and entertaining essays from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Memories of a Catholic Girlhood and a “delightfully polished writer” (The Atlantic Monthly).   Whether penning criticism, memoir, or fiction, the New York Times–bestselling author of The Group invariably wrote with “an icily honest eye and a glacial wit” (The New York Times). Gathered here are two memorable collections: theatrical critiques and opinion pieces.  Mary McCarthy’s Theatre Chronicles, 1937–1962: McCarthy weighs in on Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Henrik Ibsen, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller with candor, penetrating insight, and wit.  On the Contrary: Articles of Belief, 1946–1961: McCarthy expresses her frank, unflinching, often contrarian point of view in these provocative essays addressing everything from fashion to fiction, the human condition, religion, sex, Arthur Miller’s testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt, Charles Dickens, and Gandhi.  

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