Seven days in the life of a Police Chief struggling against bureaucratic stupidity, personal conflicts, and his department’s collection of screw-ups, nut cases, and weird happenings. Reflective of his big city experience, the Chief tries desperately to balance competing forces in the professional and political arena of a smaller agency. Full of surprising twists and turns, with enough sex and violence to be reflective of the front page of today’s newspaper, Behind the Gold Star will keep you hanging on every page and in the end, the characters give real meaning to the phrase, “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.”
Seven days in the life of a Police Chief struggling against bureaucratic stupidity, personal conflicts, and his department's collection of screw-ups, nut cases, and weird happenings. Reflective of his big city experience, the Chief tries desperately to balance competing forces in the professional and political arena of a smaller agency. Full of surprising twists and turns, with enough sex and violence to be reflective of the front page of today's newspaper, Behind the Gold Star will keep you hanging on every page and in the end, the characters give real meaning to the phrase, "It's not over until the fat lady sings."
The shocking and affecting memoir from a gold-star widow searching for the truth behind her Green Beret husband's death, this book bears witness to the true sacrifices made by military families. When Green Beret Bryan Black was killed in an ambush in Niger in 2017, his wife Michelle saw her worst nightmare become a reality. She was left alone with her grief and with two young sons to raise. But what followed Bryan's death was an even more difficult journey for the young widow. After receiving very few details about the attack that took her husband's life, it was up to Michelle to find answers. It became her mission to learn the truth about that day in Niger--and Sacrifice is the result of that mission. In this heartbreaking and revelatory memoir, Michelle uses exclusive interviews with the survivors of her husband's unit, research into the military leadership and accountability, and her own unique vantage point as a gold-star widow to tell a previously unknown story. Sacrifice is both an honest, emotional look inside a military marriage and a searing investigation of the people and decisions at the heart of the US military.
Founded in a working-class neighborhood in southeast Houston in 1941, Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios is a major independent studio that has produced a multitude of influential hit records in an astonishingly diverse range of genres. Its roster of recorded musicians includes Lightnin’ Hopkins, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Junior Parker, Clifton Chenier, Sir Douglas Quintet, 13th Floor Elevators, Freddy Fender, Kinky Friedman, Ray Benson, Guy Clark, Lucinda Williams, Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child, and many, many more. In House of Hits, Andy Bradley and Roger Wood chronicle the fascinating history of Gold Star/SugarHill, telling a story that effectively covers the postwar popular music industry. They describe how Houston’s lack of zoning ordinances allowed founder Bill Quinn’s house studio to grow into a large studio complex, just as SugarHill’s willingness to transcend musical boundaries transformed it into of one of the most storied recording enterprises in America. The authors offer behind-the-scenes accounts of numerous hit recordings, spiced with anecdotes from studio insiders and musicians who recorded at SugarHill. Bradley and Wood also place significant emphasis on the role of technology in shaping the music and the evolution of the music business. They include in-depth biographies of regional stars and analysis of the various styles of music they represent, as well as a list of all of Gold Star/SugarHill’s recordings that made the Billboard charts and extensive selected historical discographies of the studio’s recordings.
This full-color book covers every aspect of one of the best-loved classic racing machines, from its beginnings back in Small Heath though the Brooklands days, Trials, the Café Racer scene to the classic scene of today. Lavishly illustrated.
Three Gold Star women, linked forever by unimaginable loss, share their inspiring, unlikely journey that began on the worst day of their lives. What happens when tragedy knocks on your front door? For us, it was a literal knock, with two men standing in crisply pressed uniforms. They had news. News that gutted us to the core -- the death of our loved ones, a brother and two husbands -- in combat zones. The thing about those moments is that it's almost inconceivable that they can happen to you. That is, until they do. This book is for anyone who has ever received a knock at the door. And if you live long enough and have the courage to love others, you will. Maybe it's a cancer diagnosis. Maybe it's the death of your best friend. The betrayal of a spouse. The loss of a child. The implosion of a professional career. Or any tragedy that takes the person we love the most away from us too soon. Life is not without its challenges. The key is how you respond.This is our story. The story of three women, bonded by grief and purpose. Grief because we lost our best friends in war. Purpose because we resolved -- together -- to do something about it. To turn loss into inspiration for others and to channel the love that we had for the men in our lives into love for others through service. It was the only way we could escape the trap of despair and inaction, and we believe it offers a roadmap for anyone else who has ever had to answer a knock at the door.
From the bestselling creators of Room on the Broom, a tale of dragons, princesses, and defying expectations! What do dragons learn at Madam Dragon's school? How to fly. . . How to roar. . . How to breathe fire! Zog is the most eager student in the class, but he's also the most accident-prone. With each test (and each bump, bruise, or scrape), his dream of earning a gold star seems farther away than ever. But a mysterious girl keeps coming to his rescue. And when Zog faces his toughest test yet, she may be just the person to help Zog win classroom glory! The beloved creators of Room on the Broom, The Gruffalo, and The Snail and the Whale are back with this tale of an unexpected hero who's good as gold.
Khan electrified viewers around the world when he took the stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. When he offered to lend Donald Trump his own much-read and dog-eared pocket Constitution, his gesture perfectly encapsulated the feelings of millions. The oldest of ten children born to farmers in Pakistan, Khan was a university student who read the Declaration of Independence and was awestruck by what might be possible in life. He and his wife instilled in their children the ideals that brought to America, and then tragically lost a son, an Army captain killed while protecting his base camp in Iraq. Here Khan tells readers why we must not be afraid to step forward for what we believe in when it matters most.
This is the story of the life and death of Army Sergeant Shawn Dressler as written by Shawn's father. The story of Shawn begins with an overview of the author's life before Shawn's birth. The author has lived an exciting life that has included an eight-year enlistment in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear submarine crewman and nuclear instructor for the U.S. Navy. As a Vietnam era veteran (1968-1976), the author imparts his experiences and insights into emphasizing aspects of Shawn's Army career in a time of war.Shawn's life before enlisting into the Army is told in brief segments in a manner that reveals his relationship with his parents, his personal character, and his interests. The author details Shawn's experiences in the Army both inside and outside of war zones. The thoughts and worries of the author and his wife for the safety of their son are expressed throughout this book. The author included in his story a generous number of unedited e-mails that Shawn had sent home. Those brief messages to his parents are revealing as they express the thoughts and concerns of a young combat soldier from the battlefield. Shawn's love for his mother is evident as he attempts to calm her fears for his safety. Shawn's e-mails also reflect the time pressure in which he experienced when writing home.In an effort to learn more about the people whom Shawn was fighting, his father educated himself on the people and politics of the region. The author began reading the English version of the Al Jazeera web site. On that site he frequently observed anti-American terrorist propaganda. That propaganda included videos of American soldiers being killed and wounded by roadside bombs and suicide bombers. Watching that film footage proved particularly hard to take for the author. Shawn made a telephone call to his dad and mom minutes before his death. The reader is brought into that conversation and the ironies surrounding the content of that telephone conversation.The author describes a paranormal experience that occurred to him at or near the time of Shawn's death. A worried telephone call by Shawn's wife on the evening of Shawn's death confirmed, for the author, that his premonition had been horrifically correct.The author writes of the bureaucratic bumbling by the US Army that began with Shawn's death notification and continued through his burial. Mr. Dressler re-searched Army protocol and procedure for handling death notifications and provided contrast to what should have happened to what actually occurred. Difficulties encountered due to the incompetence of one airline and the insensitivity and political correctness of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) generated many tears for the Dressler family. Over time, Shawn's remains were returned to the author's family. His homecoming service was magnificent. Shawn's brothers of the First Infantry Division, Eighteenth Infantry Regiment, Alpha Company participated in Shawn's Ceremony. Shawn was finally home and among brothers. The author began to write his book to preserve Shawn's memory for future generations of family members. A secondary reason for writing his book was to provide himself a means of introspection into Shawn's life and death. Mr. Dressler had issues to resolve concerning Shawn's death; he needed closure. The author was tormented that perhaps he had missed opportunities to steer his son down a path where he would have outlived his father. Once the author began to write this book, he came to believe that other parents might find relief in his book. Mr. Dressler changed his writing style to include the general population.The singular dark and pointed question for the author was; "Had he raised his son to become cannon fodder?"
