Lyle Hall, the most resented man in town, was also Bridgehampton's most successful real estate lawyer. But his catastrophic car accident last year changed all that and forced his retirement. And it allowed him to see and hear things no one else could. That's how Lyle met Jewel, the beautiful Victorian girl who appeared to him outside the long-ago brothel the Town of Southampton is about to tear down. The Victorian girl who's been dead 100 years. And who told Lyle exactly when his own daughter, a local police detective, will die. She's shown him Georgie's headstone. Georgie has four days to live. Unless this is some kind of hoax. But the hordes of paranormal enthusiasts descending on Bridgehampton believe Lyle. And so does his new nemesis -- a scheming TV reporter in high heels.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “The greatest World War II story never told” (Esquire)—an enthralling account of the heroic mission to rescue the last survivors of the Bataan Death March—from the author of Blood and Thunder. On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp, among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. A recent prison massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in the Philippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time to plan the complex operation. In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive, defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring, Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkable mission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account of enormous bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most trying conditions.
Sue Alston tells of life at Hampton Plantation, of shopping on King Street, of wild boar hunts in the river delta, of Charleston horse races, and of John Henry Rutledge who took his own life and was buried by the back steps but whose spirit never left the house.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers, a chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War. "Superb ... A masterpiece of thorough research, deft pacing and arresting detail...This war story—the fight to break out of a frozen hell near the Chosin Reservoir—has been told many times before. But Sides tells it exceedingly well, with fresh research, gritty scenes and cinematic sweep." —The Washington Post On October 15, 1950, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of UN troops in Korea, convinced President Harry Truman that the Communist forces of Kim Il-sung would be utterly defeated by Thanksgiving. The Chinese, he said with near certainty, would not intervene in the war. As he was speaking, 300,000 Red Chinese soldiers began secretly crossing the Manchurian border. Led by some 20,000 men of the First Marine Division, the Americans moved deep into the snowy mountains of North Korea, toward the trap Mao had set for the vainglorious MacArthur along the frozen shores of the Chosin Reservoir. What followed was one of the most heroic--and harrowing--operations in American military history, and one of the classic battles of all time. Faced with probable annihilation, and temperatures plunging to 20 degrees below zero, the surrounded, and hugely outnumbered, Marines fought through the enemy forces with ferocity, ingenuity, and nearly unimaginable courage as they marched their way to the sea. Hampton Sides' superb account of this epic clash relies on years of archival research, unpublished letters, declassified documents, and interviews with scores of Marines and Koreans who survived the siege. While expertly detailing the follies of the American leaders, On Desperate Ground is an immediate, grunt's-eye view of history, enthralling in its narrative pace and powerful in its portrayal of what ordinary men are capable of in the most extreme circumstances. Hampton Sides has been hailed by critics as one of the best nonfiction writers of his generation. As the Miami Herald wrote, "Sides has a novelist's eye for the propulsive elements that lend momentum and dramatic pace to the best nonfiction narratives."
The Great and Holy War offers the first look at how religion created and prolonged the First World War, and the lasting impact it had on Christianity and world religions more extensively in the century that followed. The war was fought by the world's leading Christian nations, who presented the conflict as a holy war. A steady stream of patriotic and militaristic rhetoric was served to an unprecedented audience, using language that spoke of holy war and crusade, of apocalypse and Armageddon. But this rhetoric was not mere state propaganda. Philip Jenkins reveals how the widespread belief in angels, apparitions, and the supernatural, was a driving force throughout the war and shaped all three of the Abrahamic religions - Christianity, Judaism, and Islam - paving the way for modern views of religion and violence. The disappointed hopes and moral compromises that followed the war also shaped the political climate of the rest of the century, giving rise to such phenomena as Nazism, totalitarianism, and communism. Connecting remarkable incidents and characters - from Karl Barth to Carl Jung, the Christmas Truce to the Armenian Genocide - Jenkins creates a powerful and persuasive narrative that brings together global politics, history, and spiritual crisis. We cannot understand our present religious, political, and cultural climate without understanding the dramatic changes initiated by the First World War. The war created the world's religious map as we know it today.
The captivating debut children's novel from popular television historian Lucy Worsley is an exciting and charming glimpse behind the scenes of the Tudor court. I would often wonder about my future husband. A knight? A duke? A stable boy? Of course the last was just a wicked fancy. Eliza Rose Camperdowne is young and headstrong, but she knows her duty well. As the only daughter of a noble family, she must one day marry a man who is very grand and very rich. But Fate has other plans. When Eliza becomes a maid of honour, she's drawn into the thrilling, treacherous court of Henry VIII ... Is her glamorous cousin Katherine Howard a friend or a rival? And can a girl choose her own destiny in a world ruled by men?
Barroom brawler ghosts, a ghost prayer group, Peeping Tom ghosts, a ghost who hates children, and even a ghost who didn't know he was dead are just a few of the wild assortment of characters in Echo Bodine's delightful new collection of true ghost stories. A psychic who has been hunting ghosts for 40 years, Bodine shares her story of how she became a ghost buster along with the stories of ghosts, hauntings, and possessions she encountered along the way. Wondering if those flickering lights, jangling door knobs, and mumbling sounds in the middle of the night mean you have a ghost? Bodine offers step-by-step instructions for getting rid of them along with clearing and protection prayers to keep them away. These funny, sometimes unnerving, and always entertaining stories will provide reassurance to anyone who has ever encountered things that go bump in the night.
The “First Lady of American Folklore” explores the supernatural side of the Civil War with chilling tales of spectral soldiers and haunted battlefields. Few events have sparked more legends and stories of the supernatural than America’s Civil War. The accounts of gallantry and heroism have spread far and wide. Nancy Roberts grew up listening to her father’s stories of the War Between the States and she trekked over many battle sites with him during her childhood. After reading about General Joshua Chamberlain’s supernatural experience at the Battle of Gettysburg, Roberts began to collect tales of the blue and gray and write them down. In her latest collection, readers visit such famous Civil War sites as Fredericksburg, Antietam, Johnson’s Island, Andersonville, Fort Davis, Gaines Mill, Gettysburg, Fort Monroe, Harpers Ferry, Vicksburg, Richmond, Charleston, New Bern, and Petersburg. Through these stories, the readers will hear the voices of those brave individuals who lived through that dramatic era; visit with Brigadier General J. E. B. Stuart on the banks of the Chickahominy River, learn the real story about John Brown’s activities at Harpers Ferry, and watch the passing of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train. Praise for Nancy Roberts “Just about everybody likes a good ghost story. And ghost hunter/author Nancy Roberts has put together as shivery a selection of other worldly tales as you’re likely to find anywhere . . . And whether you believe in ghosts or not, these tales are guaranteed to give you a chill, especially before you go into a dark room alone.” —Southern Living
In the early 1970s, two young filmmaking brothers unloaded their camera and recording equipment on the collapsing front porch of a dilapidated manor in East Hampton. The seemingly abandoned, decaying shell of a once-glorious home belonged to Edith Bouvier Beale. She and her daughter Edie Beale were the aunt and first cousin of former First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.Lois Erdmann Wright was one of only a handful of outsiders allowed into Grey Gardens. During the decades before the documentary, Lois and her mother had formed a close, family-like bond with the Bouvier-Beale women, and Lois learned to overlook the destruction and disarray of the home.For many years, the Beales lived alone in the crumbling estate, physically and financially unable to keep the house up to the codes demanded by the local Board of Health.Lois understood the Beale family. The two Edies were outsiders, trying to eke out a reclusive existence among their haughty, East Hampton neighbors. Surrounded by dozens of cats, raccoons, and piles of trash, Lois found acceptance, security, and unconditional love in the company of Grey Gardens' unlikely inhabitants.She never questioned her dear friends' lives, and they never questioned Lois. Much like the Beale ladies, and the mysterious mansion disintegrating around them, Lois held onto her own secrets, including one impossible rumor that connected her to the Bouvier-Beales in a way she never expected, and would never forget.Nearly a half-century later, the worldwide appeal and fascination with Grey Gardens hasn't dampened. The story has been recreated as a Tony Award winning Broadway musical, as well as a feature length film, and a second documentary.Now, Lois Wright, the "Ghost of Grey Gardens," tells the truth embedded in the cult-classic fable. For the first time ever, Lois recounts her ninety years of life, including the perfectly-imperfect years she spend with the Beales. Featuring never before seen personal photos, documents, and letters, and revealing jaw-dropping facts, this book is a must read for any Grey Gardens fan.
