Searching for: "Edward Holland"
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Most history-minded Americans have discussed the Vietnam War, becoming familiar, at the very least, with the names of such pivotal events as the Siege of Khe Sanh, the Tet Offensive, and the Fall of Saigon. But to grasp the full impact of this agonizing conflict, the human costs of an infernal war that raged for ten years and took more than 58,000 American lives, one must hear about it from the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who experienced the fighting and endured. In The Soldiers' Story, veteran journalist Ron Steinman gathers the candid reminiscences of seventy-six men who survived combat in Vietnam. Not a military analysis or political study, this oral history vividly conveys the...read more
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Following his development from moody Oklahoma teenager to the method-trained star to the eccentric recluse of his later years, Patricia Bosworth offers a penetrating look at Marlon Brando’s evolving persona: the volcanic Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, the sensitive rebel in The Wild Ones, the iconic Don Corleone in The Godfather. Bosworth probes Brando’s alcoholic parents’ influence on his acting, his decades of psychoanalysis, and his tumultuous personal relationships. Here, from rebellious unknown to reluctant idol to falling star, is the complex charismatic genius who changed the face of acting. “A vivid reminder of the personal and...read more
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A CNN Book of the Week: “Explains not just why we should read books, but how we should read them. It’s masterfully done.” —Farheed Zakaria Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Audiences will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text. Also included is instruction in the different techniques that work best for...read more
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Way back in the 1940s, they had all been young together. Inseparable pals Mike and Manny, both preparing for the priesthood . . . Mike’s beautiful twin sister, Rose, and her best friend Alice, sharing a dream of becoming nuns . . . shy altar boy Stanley and everybody’s good friend, Bob Koesler, also headed for the priesthood. Six Detroit adolescents moving step by measured step into the bosom of the church. Or so they believed. Now, more than fifty years later, one of the six has died a sudden, violent death, and Father Bob Koesler—these days a retired parish priest—is sadly suspicious that someone in this tiny band of lifelong friends may be responsible. But who...read more
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In the early months of World War I, on Christmas Eve, men on both sides of the trenches laid down their arms and joined in a spontaneous celebration. Despite orders to continue shooting, the unofficial truce spread across the front lines. Even the participants found what they were doing incredible: Germans placed candlelit Christmas trees on trench parapets, warring soldiers sang carols, and men on both sides shared food parcels from home. They climbed from the trenches to meet in 'No Man's Land' where they buried the dead, exchanged gifts, ate and drank together, and even played soccer. Throughout his narrative, Stanley Weintraub uses the stories of the men who were there, as well as...read more
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UNHOLY DEATH For years, a little group of priests and nuns have struggled together to recover from the rule of virtual slavery imposed upon them by tyrannical Father Angelico, now thankfully gone to his reward. But for some of them the group is no longer a godsend. The ties that once bound beloved Father Rick Casserly, beautiful former nun Dora Ricardo, defrocked priest Jerry Anderson, and warm and lovely school principal Lil Niedermier unshakably to their church are becoming dangerously frayed by the human passions their faith denies them. No one foresees the terrible events that will soon leave one of them dead, and only Father Koesler, in the wisdom of his seventy years, grasps the...read more
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Six years ago he owned a baseball team. Now he's the leader of the free world. 'The Big Enchilada' is a comic anthem to the wild and improbable crusade that propelled George W. Bush into the White House and to the close-knit group of Texans who made it happen, written by 'the Bush campaign's Renaissance man' (Time magazine). Writer and political strategist Stuart Stevens has been hailed by Martin Amis as 'the perfect companion: brave, funny, and ever-watchful,' and The New Yorker has praised him for having 'a wonderful eye for the curiosities of human behavior.' Here he tells the surprisingly funny, adrenaline-fueled story of the Bush campaign the public never...read more
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EXPLOSIVE OFFERINGS Precisely when the solemn ceremony receiving renegade Episcopal priest Father George Wheatley into the Roman Catholic priesthood is set to begin, a bomb explodes under the altar. Fortunately Father Wheatley arrives late, but poor old Father Farmer dies in the tragedy. Father Wheatley’s switch to the Roman church has certainly stirred up murderous passions in the parish. His son and daughter–one already an Episcopal priest, the other studying to become one–are seething. Conservative Catholics are enraged by the very idea of a married priest. As blind prejudice, jealousy, and thwarted ambition swirl around St. Joseph’s, that shrewd sleuth...read more
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In this comprehensive history, Stanley Karnow demystifies the tragic ordeal of America’s war in Vietnam. The book’s central theme is that America’s leaders, prompted as much by domestic politics as by global ambitions, carried the United States into Southeast Asia with little regard for the realities of the region. Karnow elucidates the decision-making process in Washington and Asia and recounts the political and military events that occurred after the Americans arrived in Vietnam. Throughout, he focuses on people, those who shaped strategy and those who suffered, died, or survived as a result. Panoramic in scope and filled with fresh revelations drawn from secret...read more
