After prying open a strange nut wiggling on the ground, sisters, Elsie and Theo find a miniature walrus named Benny inside, who accompanies them to school where the girls and their classmates build him a boat to sail home on.
SIX DAYS IN JUNE How Israel Won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War Eric Hammel Distinguished military historian Eric Hammel becomes the first chronicler of the 1967 Six Day War to unite the story of development of Israel’s bold brand of military training and planning with a detailed narrative account of her breathtaking victories in Sinai, Jerusalem, The West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Unlike all earlier accounts of the 1967 war, Hammel’s sweeping narrative describes how, from the early 1950s, the Israel Defense Force—Zahal—undertook a relentless and often visionary campaign to prepare for the inevitable war of national survival that, when it came, radically altered the Middle East and has profoundly influenced international politics ever since. Israel’s brilliant, innovative military thinkers developed extremely flexible strategies, operational plans, and battlefield tactics aimed at overcoming several large Arab forces with Zahal’s much smaller army and air force. Zahal’s innovations proved to be so effective and fundamentally sound that they established the norms of modem military planning and performance that saw the United States and her coalition allies through the lightning Desert Storm campaign of 1991. Hammel decisively disproves the enduring myth that Israel’s stunning 1967 victory was a “miracle” or a “fluke.” He explains how, by necessity and in secret, a tiny Third-World nation developed a First‑World military force that has become the envy of all the nations of the world. Hammel is at his proven best when describing the actions of men at war. Six Days in June seamlessly meshes classic military history with the human drama of Israel’s finest hour. Eric Hammel is the author of more than thirty-five highly acclaimed books on military affairs, including Chosin: Heroic Ordeal of the Korean War; Ace: A Marine Night Fighter Pilot in World War II; The Root: The Marines in Beirut; and Duel for the Golan: The 100-Hour Battle that Saved Israel.
“Summer’s freshest sparkling drink. . . . In Gazoz, Mr. Briga and Ms. Sussman show how to craft syrups, layer flavors, and create a drink that reflects what’s in your own garden or grocery store.” —The Wall Street Journal “A sparkling book of inspiration . . . [The recipes] are at once fragrantly subtle and richly complex.” —The New York Times “This book is sure to delight your palate and quench your thirst!” —David Zilber, coauthor of The Noma Guide to Fermentation ZERO ALCOHOL, 100% DELICIOUSNESS Starting with plain sparkling soda, a gazoz layers in fresh fruits and flowers, aromatic herbs and spices, ferments, syrups, and other artisanal ingredients, all to create a beautiful marriage of flavor and fizz. In Gazoz, discover recipes for stone fruit gazoz, citrus gazoz, even “milkshake” gazoz using nut butters. The possibilities are endless, the results amazing. It’s the best nonalcoholic drink you’ve ever tasted, and by far the most fun to make.
Darkly funny stories by the man David Sedaris calls "the most outlandish and energetic writer I can think of" Paddling down a remote, meandering river, Georgie's friend Otto decides to do something both spectacular and stupid: He scales a sandy cliff that rises from the water and runs down its steep face, preparing for a triumphant running dive. As his friends look on, they watch something awful unfold: Otto lands with an odd smack and knocks himself unconscious, blood spilling from his nose and mouth. Georgie arrives on the scene first and sees a small turtle, its shell cracked, floating just below the water's surface. Otto and the turtle survive the collision, though both need help, and Georgie finds his compassions torn. This title story sets the tone for the rest of Arthur Bradford's Turtleface and Beyond, a strangely funny collection featuring prosthetically limbed lovers, a snakebitten hitchhiker turned wedding crasher, a lawyer at the end of his rope, a ménage à trois at Thailand's Resort Tik Tok, and a whole host of near disasters, narrow escapes, and complicated victories, all narrated by Georgie, who struggles with his poor decisions but finds redemption in the telling of each of his tales. Big-hearted and hilariously high-fueled, Turtleface and Beyond marks the return of a beloved and unforgettable voice in fiction.
Lenny lives on the edge of the forest. He spends his days tending his roses, drinking cocoa and practicing for jumping competitions. He can jump further than anyone in the forest; not even the flea, frog or squirrel can beat him. Until Benny turns up. Lenny and Benny have the best time in the world together but when Lenny realizes that Benny can jump further than he can, he accuses him of cheating and lying and refuses to see him ever again. Time passes and Benny decides to have a party. He invites everybody except Lenny, but the postman accidentally delivers an invitation anyway. Lenny, ready to be friends again, is delighted. However, when he turns up, Benny is enraged, calls him a liar and says he never wants to see him again. But Lenny and Benny did once have the best time in the world together. Is any argument worth losing such a great friendship over? Inspired by the midrash about Kamtza and Bar-Kamtza, in which an inter-communal squabble ultimately leads to the destruction of the Second Temple, this is a story about the importance and joy of friendship, the futility of conflict and how destructive an unresolved argument can be.
For more than sixty years—from the 1890s to the 1950s—boxing was an integral part of American popular culture and a major spectator sport rivaling baseball in popularity. More Jewish athletes have competed as boxers than all other professional sports combined; in the period from 1901 to 1939, 29 Jewish boxers were recognized as world champions and more than 160 Jewish boxers ranked among the top contenders in their respective weight divisions. Stars in the Ring,by renowned boxing historian Mike Silver, presents this vibrant social history in the first illustrated encyclopedic compendium of its kind.
In a nation where the military has played an influential social and political role since its founding, perhaps no unit has wielded more power-and seen more action-than Kopassus, Indonesia's Special Forces. From the jungles of Irian Jaya to the backrooms of Jakarta's most powerful political figures, this elite group of commandos has influenced nearly every major policy decision taken since its inception in 1952. Here, for the first time, this secretive and controversial unit is exposed in KOPASSUS: Inside Indonesia's Special Forces by acclaimed author Ken Conboy. In this new age of terrorism and counter-terrorism, and especially in the wake of the October 2002 Bali bombing, understanding Kopassus is an integral part of understanding the politics of modern Indonesia. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in unconventional warfare, contemporary Indonesian history, and the brushfire wars that have swept the Indonesian archipelago over the past fifty years. KEN CONBOY is country manager for Risk Management Advisory, a private security consultancy in Jakarta. Prior to that, he served as deputy director at the Asian Studies Center, an influential Washington-based think tank, where his duties including writing policy papers for the U.S. Congress and Executive on economic and strategic relations with the nations of South and Southeast Asia. The author of a dozen books about Asian military history and intelligence operations, Conboy's most recent title, Spies in the Himalayas, has earned praise as an intriguing account of high-altitude mountaineering and covert missions. A graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and of Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, Conboy was also a visiting fellow at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and has lived in Indonesia since 1992.
“One of the most amusing and poignant anti-heroes since Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum” lives up to his misfit heritage in this ribald debut (Spike Magazine). Ask Rovar Ákos Pfliegman about himself and he’ll say: “I have no life. I have no known relatives, no known friends. I’m barely human. I’m a hairy little Hungarian pulp. I am a sorry gathering of organs. That is all.” But there is more to Rovar than meets the eye. He has a pet beetle named Mrs. Kipner, he is a butcher plagued by rare ailments, he sells meat out of a broken-down bus next to a river in suburban Virginia, and he is the last of the Pfliegman line, a not-too-bright pagan clan that reaches back to pre-medieval Hungary. He also believes he’ll fulfill the ignoble destiny of inbred self-destruction that has wiped out all Pfliegmans before him. But against all odds, and the cruel laws of nature, this unlikely loner, seller of fresh mutton at unbeatable prices, unloved lover, and historian of the unimportant is still capable of being reborn in the most extraordinary way. “Innocent and wise, grave and hilarious, bleak and hopeful, fast-paced and meditative, heartbreaking and heart healthy, evanescent and concrete” (Heidi Julavits), The Convalescent “nods to all sorts of greats—Kafka, Rushdie, Darwin and Grass, to name a few. But Anthony’s style—funny, immediate and unapologetically cerebral—carves out a space all its own” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).