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  Operation Family Secrets - How a...

  Keith Zimmerman, Paul Pompian,...

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  The Calabrese family of Chicago is a close-knit, middle-class, multi-generational Italian-Irish-American clan. They operate family businesses. They work day and night striving for the American Dream. All three sons forge a bond with their controlling father, Frank Sr., and their soft-spoken favorite uncle, Nick. As a boy, the oldest son, Frank Jr., realizes that his father and uncle are also "made" members of another close-knit family: the oufit. 
   
  In Operation Family Secrets, Frank Calabrese, Jr., tells the turbulent tale of a family dominated by a violent patriarch who breaks a long-standing unwritten outfit code and "brings the street into his home" by enlisting two of his sons into the outfit's 26th Street/Chinatown crew. Calabrese reveals for the first time the outfit's "made" ceremony and describes being put to work alongside his father and uncle in loan sharking, gambling, labor racketeering, and extortion, and plotting the slaying of a fellow gangster, while they commit the bombing murder of a trucking executive, the gangland execution of two mobsters whose burial in an Indiana cornfield was reenacted in Martin Scorsese's blockbuster film Casino, and numerous other hits. 
   
  The Calabrese crew's colossal earnings and extreme ruthlessness made them both a dreaded criminal gang and the object of an intense FBI inquiry. Eventually Frank Jr., his father, and Uncle Nick are convicted on racketeering violations, and "Junior" and "Senior" are sent to the same federal penitentiary in Michigan. Upon arrival, Frank Jr. makes a life-changing decision: to go straight rather than agree to his father's plans to resume crew activities afer serving his sentence. But he needs to keep his father behind bars in order to regain control of his life and save his family. Frank Jr. makes a secret deal with prosecutors, and for six months—unmonitored and unprotected—he wears a wire as his father recounts decades of hideous crimes. Frank Jr.'s cooperation with the FBI for virtually no monetary gain or special privileges helps create the government's "Operation Family Secrets" campaign against the Chicago outfit. The case reopens eighteen unsolved murders and also implicates twelve La Cosa Nostra soldiers and two outfit bosses. It becomes one of the largest organized crime cases in U.S. history. 
   
  Operation Family Secrets intimately portrays how organized crime rots a family from the inside out while detailing Frank Jr.'s deadly prison-yard mission, the FBI's landmark investigation, and the U.S. Attorney's Office's daring prosecution of America's most dangerous criminal organization.

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  Sherman's Ghosts - Soldiers...

  Matthew Carr

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  This “thought-provoking” military history considers the influence of General Sherman’s Civil War tactics on American conflicts through the twentieth century (The New York Times).   “To know what war is, one should follow our tracks,” Gen. William T. Sherman once wrote to his wife, describing the devastation left by his armies in Georgia. Sherman’s Ghosts is an investigation of those tracks, as well as those left across the globe by the American military in the 150 years since Sherman’s infamous “March to the Sea.”  Sherman’s Ghosts opens with an epic retelling of General Sherman’s fateful decision to terrorize the South’s civilian population in order to break the back of the Confederacy. Acclaimed journalist and historian Matthew Carr exposes how this strategy, which Sherman called “indirect warfare,” became the central preoccupation of war planners in the twentieth century and beyond. He offers a lucid assessment of the impact Sherman’s slash-and-burn policies have had on subsequent wars and military conflicts, including World War II and in the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, and even Iraq and Afghanistan.   In riveting accounts of military campaigns and in the words of American soldiers and strategists, Carr finds ample evidence of Sherman’s long shadow. Sherman’s Ghosts is a rare reframing of how we understand our violent history and a call to action for those who hope to change it.

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  Women in Ancient Rome - Roles...

  Rogan Fish

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  In Ancient Rome, women’s roles were predominantly shaped by social class, family status, and cultural expectations. Their daily lives varied significantly based on whether they were elite, freeborn, or enslaved, but a common thread was their primary responsibility within the household. Roman society placed great emphasis on the domestic sphere, where women were expected to manage the home, care for children, and support their husbands. Despite limited political power, women played crucial roles within their families and communities. 
  Elite women, often from patrician families, had access to wealth and social influence, but their activities were still largely confined to the private domain. These women managed large households, supervised slaves, and ensured the proper upbringing of their children. They also engaged in weaving, spinning, and other domestic crafts, which were considered virtuous pursuits even among the wealthy. While they did not hold formal political roles, elite women could indirectly influence public affairs through their relationships with powerful men, including husbands, fathers, and sons. Their ability to host social gatherings allowed them to form networks that could subtly shape political alliances. 
  For women of the lower classes, life was markedly different. These women often worked outside the home as vendors, laborers, or artisans, contributing to their family's income. Unlike elite women, who enjoyed a degree of protection within their households, working-class women faced the challenges of manual labor and financial insecurity. Some even managed small businesses or worked as midwives, nurses, or seamstresses. Despite the hardships, these women exhibited resilience and resourcefulness, balancing work and family responsibilities in a demanding social environment.

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  In the Mountains of Madness -...

  W. Scott Poole

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  In the Mountains of Madness: The Life, Death, and Extraordinary Afterlife of H. P. Lovecraft interweaves the biography of the legendary writer with an exploration of Lovecraft as a phenomenon. It aims to explain this reclusive figure while also challenging some of the general views held by Lovecraft devotees, focusing specifically on the large cross-section of horror and science fiction fans who know Lovecraft through films, role-playing games, and video games directly influenced by his work but know little or nothing about him. 
   
   
   
  More than a traditional biography, In the Mountains of Madness will place Lovecraft and his work in a cultural context, as an artist more in tune with our time than his own. Much of the literary work on Lovecraft tries to place him in relation to Edgar Allan Poe, M. R. James, or Arthur Machen; these ideas have little meaning for most contemporary readers. In his provocative new book, W. Scott Poole reclaims the true essence of Lovecraft in relation to the comics of Joe Lansdale, the novels of Stephen King, and some of the biggest blockbuster films in contemporary America, proving the undying influence of this rare and significant figure.

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  The Beatles Rishikesh White Album

  Geoffrey Giuliano

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  In 1968, the Beatles trekked to a remote, mysterious, and beautiful part of India known as Rishikesh, or the valley of the saints. For literally thousands of years this riverside valley has been a magnet for advanced yogis, mystics, and seekers of truth. In 1968, it was the absolute zenith of all of this and the pop world as well. It was here the Beatles wrote dozens of now iconic songs while meditating at the feet of the lauded spiritual master. Along with many of the world's most celebrated people, the group once again led the way as innovators in not only music, but innate spirituality as well. Fifty years later we remember the group's bold trek and artistic accomplishment in this inspirational audio biography from Beatles author and historian Geoffrey Giuliano. The Maharishi, the Beatles, and friends tell their own story in this one of a kind celebration of a magical time gone by. If you are a fan of the Beatles and love their music you have to have this extended, in-depth look at the birth of The Beatles' White Album.Music by Audionautix

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  The Cloak

  Virginia Routh Lynch

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  The Cloak is a gripping tale of inner and outer transformation of a seemingly happily married mother of four who over ten tumultuous years faces extraordinary experiences that change her life.With compelling honesty, Virginia Routh Lynch describes those years. Using journals written forty years ago, she recounts her life-changing journey of self-discovery. Virginia followed in the footsteps of C.G. Jung and, though she introduces many of his concepts, this does not detract from the story itself. Her account is inspiring and thought provoking and will appeal to anyone on the journey of life, even those not interested in psychology. It is a book that once you start reading, you want to read from beginning to end.The Cloak is a portrayal of one woman’s experience that serves as a guidebook for anyone who has reached a stalemate in their lives or has embarked on a personal journey and is looking for an inspiring example.

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