INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Former Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper reveals the shocking details of his tumultuous tenure while serving in the Trump administration. From June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election, Secretary Mark T. Esper led the Department of Defense through an unprecedented time in history—a period marked by growing threats and conflict abroad, a global pandemic unseen in a century, the greatest domestic unrest in two generations, and a White House seemingly bent on breaking accepted norms and conventions for political advantage. A Sacred Oath is Secretary Esper’s unvarnished and candid memoir of those extraordinary and dangerous times, and includes events and moments never before told.
A homicide detective and the victim's sister battle Charlestown's code of silence to keep the case against a crime boss afloat despite his manipulations of the justice system.
When the covenant was made with the Hunter God, all who dwelt in Breodanir swore to abide by it. The Hunter Lords—and the hunting dogs to which their minds were specially attuned—would seek out game in the God’s woods to provide food for their people, and the Hunter God would ensure that the Hunters, the land, and the people prospered. But in payment, once a year the Sacred Hunt must be called, the God’s own Hunt in which the prey became one of the Lords, or his huntbrother. This was the Hunter’s Oath, sworn by each Lord and his huntbrother—the companion chosen from the common folk to remind each Lord of his own ties to humanity. It was the Oath pledged in blood by Gilliam of Elseth and the orphan boy Stepehn—and the fulfillment of that Oath would lead them to the kind of destiny from which legends were made…
As President Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton spent many of his 453 days in the room where it happened, and the facts speak for themselves. The result is a White House memoir that is the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration, and one of the few to date by a top-level official. With almost daily access to the President, John Bolton has produced a precise rendering of his days in and around the Oval Office. What Bolton saw astonished him: a President for whom getting reelected was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation. “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations,” he writes. In fact, he argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping its prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy—and Bolton documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the Administration to raise alarms about them. He shows a President addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government. In Bolton’s telling, all this helped put Trump on the bizarre road to impeachment. “The differences between this presidency and previous ones I had served were stunning,” writes Bolton, who worked for Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43. He discovered a President who thought foreign policy is like closing a real estate deal—about personal relationships, made-for-TV showmanship, and advancing his own interests. As a result, the US lost an opportunity to confront its deepening threats, and in cases like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea ended up in a more vulnerable place. Bolton’s account starts with his long march to the West Wing as Trump and others woo him for the National Security job. The minute he lands, he has to deal with Syria’s chemical attack on the city of Douma, and the crises after that never stop. As he writes in the opening pages, “If you don’t like turmoil, uncertainty, and risk—all the while being constantly overwhelmed with information, decisions to be made, and sheer amount of work—and enlivened by international and domestic personality and ego conflicts beyond description, try something else.” The turmoil, conflicts, and egos are all there—from the upheaval in Venezuela, to the erratic and manipulative moves of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, to the showdowns at the G7 summits, the calculated warmongering by Iran, the crazy plan to bring the Taliban to Camp David, and the placating of an authoritarian China that ultimately exposed the world to its lethal lies. But this seasoned public servant also has a great eye for the Washington inside game, and his story is full of wit and wry humor about how he saw it played.
For fans of Neil Gaiman and How to Train Your Dragon comes a beautifully illustrated, fast-paced adventure about eleven year old Kyro, his best friend Andra, his trusted dog Cypher, and their race to save the stars. When the world first formed, the night was black and filled with dark creatures. The Elders knew their people couldn't survive under such a threat. So they made the ultimate sacrifice: they gave their hearts to the sky in the form of brightly shining stars to keep evil away. Now, eleven year old Kyro is a Star Shepherd like his father. He's spent his life tucked away in the outskirts of the small town of Drenn. There they watch the night sky for falling stars—and rush to rescue them when they do. Then one night, too many stars fall at once, and terrible dark creatures start to appear in the forest by their home. Kyro's father journeys to the Star Shepherd Council to report the threat. But when he doesn't return Kyro must figure out how to save them himself before enough stars fall for the dark creatures to make their return. Kyro, along with his trusty dog, Cypher, and his friend, Andra, must find the cause of the threat before it's too late. Perfect for 5th graders and boys 10-14, young readers will devour this fun, fantasy adventure if they love stories with: Drawings and illustrations Trusty sidekicks (especially the furry kind) Evil, mythical creatures Ancient robots
New York Times Bestselling Author, HP Mallory, brings you The Sacred Oath Series which will appeal to Reverse Harem, Why Choose readers I don't know who I am or where I came from. The only thing I do know is that I'm running from something. And there's a voice inside my head that guides my every move... When I'm taken prisoner to be thrust into a lifetime of prostitution, I learn I'm an angel. Yes, I bear the markings on my back: markings that reveal my wings have been removed. But when my only ally, a foul-mouthed sprite, insists my wings are intact, I realize the danger I'm facing. I need protection. And that protection can only come from three magically powerful men who were destined to protect the balance between shadow and light: Dragan, a gargoyle and the King of Shadow; Cambion, an elf and the King of Nature; and Baron, a vampire and the King of Death. At one time there were four but Variant, the King of Light, grew greedy and usurped control for himself. He banished Cambion to the Fae Realm and Dragan to the Shadow Realm. And he murdered Baron. And now Variant is after me... --Reverse Harem --Why Choose? --Language warning --Sexual content --Humor Check out the video trailer below! Excerpt from Dragan, the King of Shadow: "If the angel has no wings, there's no amount of my shadow magic that could make them appear," I say. It takes the sprite a moment or two to understand what I'm getting at. Once he does, his eyes go wide and he begins shaking his head, holding up his hands in obvious supplication. "Look, Shadow Prince, I dunno why yer magic ain't workin' but I'm tellin' you what I saw. This angel got her wings," the sprite says, but he appears nervous. "You'll see. Besides, it ain't like yer jist gonna leave her here, are ya?" He glances around and seems to become frightened by his surroundings. The Shadow Realm is hardly safe, littered as it is by bloodthirsty creatures and the undead. Were I to leave the sprite and the girl here alone, they would undoubtedly be killed within a half hour, at most. And even I'm not that horrible...
The author offers an insider's sometimes shocking account of how Defense Secretary James Mattis led the U.S. military through global challenges while serving as a crucial check on the Trump Administration.
Missouri native Allen Eskens' "stunning small-town mystery" (New York Times Book Review) is a necessary exploration of family, loyalty, and racial tension in America and "a coming-of-age book to rival some of the best, such as Ordinary Grace" (Library Journal, starred review). In a small Southern town where loyalty to family and to "your people" carries the weight of a sacred oath, defying those unspoken rules can be a deadly proposition. After fifteen years of growing up in the Ozark hills with his widowed mother, high-school freshman Boady Sanden is beyond ready to move on. He dreams of glass towers and cityscapes, driven by his desire to be anywhere other than Jessup, Missouri. The new kid at St. Ignatius High School, if he isn't being pushed around, he is being completely ignored. Even his beloved woods, his playground as a child and his sanctuary as he grew older, seem to be closing in on him, suffocating him. Then Thomas Elgin moves in across the road, and Boady's life begins to twist and turn. Coming to know the Elgins -- a black family settling into a community where notions of "us" and "them" carry the weight of history -- forces Boady to rethink his understanding of the world he's taken for granted. Secrets hidden in plain sight begin to unfold: the mother who wraps herself in the loss of her husband, the neighbor who carries the wounds of a mysterious past that he holds close, the quiet boss who is fighting his own hidden battle. But the biggest secret of all is the disappearance of Lida Poe, the African-American woman who keeps the books at the local plastics factory. Word has it that Ms. Poe left town, along with a hundred thousand dollars of company money. Although Boady has never met the missing woman, he discovers that the threads of her life are woven into the deepest fabric of his world. As the mystery of her fate plays out, Boady begins to see the stark lines of race and class that both bind and divide this small town -- and he will be forced to choose sides. Best Book of the Year: Florida Sun-Sentinel and Library Journal Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award
Christopher Michael Jones shares the parallel wisdom learned from the worlds of hip hop and church: the good news of “Can’t stop, won’t stop” preached by hip hop in the ashes of Reagan-era turbulence, and the good news of God’s faithfulness to teach resilience in the wake of radical disruption. "I was pulled back to a time when black youth and young adults like Biggie and I expressed our creative genius through a cultural movement that arose out of the ashes of poverty: hip hop. To us, hip hop was the church. The MC was the preacher. The DJ was the worship host. The B-Boys, breakdancers, and pop-lockers were the liturgical dancers. The journalists and graffiti artists were the scribes. The concert arena was a sanctuary. The bodies who danced to rhythmic anthems of classics like “La Di Da Di,” “Oh, My God!,” “I Know You Got Soul,” and “Fight the Power” were its members."
