The Black Cloud
The Black Cloud

Author: Fred Hoyle

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2010-09-02

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 0141967498

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A 1959 classic 'hard' science-fiction novel by renowned Cambridge astronomer and cosmologist Fred Hoyle. Tracks the progress of a giant black cloud that comes towards Earth and sits in front of the sun, causing widespread panic and death. A select group of scientists and astronomers - including the dignified Astronomer Royal, the pipe smoking Dr Marlowe and the maverick, eccentric Professor Kingsly - engage in a mad race to understand and communicate with the cloud, battling against trigger happy politicians. In the pacy, engaging style of John Wyndham and John Christopher, with plenty of hard science thrown in to add to the chillingly credible premise (he manages to foretell Artificial Intelligence, Optical Character Recognition and Text-to-Speech converters), Hoyle carries you breathlessly through to its thrilling end.

Black Cloud Rising
Black Cloud Rising

Author: David Wright Falade

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 2022-02-15

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0802159206

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Already excerpted in the New Yorker, Black Cloud Rising is a compelling and important historical novel that takes us back to an extraordinary moment when enslaved men and women were shedding their bonds and embracing freedom By fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater Virginia, and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina, including along the Outer Banks. Thousands of freed slaves and runaways flooded the Union lines, but Confederate irregulars still roamed the region. In December, the newly formed African Brigade, a unit of these former slaves led by General Edward Augustus Wild—a one-armed, impassioned Abolitionist—set out from Portsmouth to hunt down the rebel guerillas and extinguish the threat. From this little-known historical episode comes Black Cloud Rising, a dramatic, moving account of these soldiers—men who only weeks earlier had been enslaved, but were now Union infantrymen setting out to fight their former owners. At the heart of the narrative is Sergeant Richard Etheridge, the son of a slave and her master, raised with some privileges but constantly reminded of his place. Deeply conflicted about his past, Richard is eager to show himself to be a credit to his race. As the African Brigade conducts raids through the areas occupied by the Confederate Partisan Rangers, he and his comrades recognize that they are fighting for more than territory. Wild’s mission is to prove that his troops can be trusted as soldiers in combat. And because many of the men have fled from the very plantations in their path, each raid is also an opportunity to free loved ones left behind. For Richard, this means the possibility of reuniting with Fanny, the woman he hopes to marry one day. With powerful depictions of the bonds formed between fighting men and heartrending scenes of sacrifice and courage, Black Cloud Rising offers a compelling and nuanced portrait of enslaved men and women crossing the threshold to freedom.

Second Daughter
Second Daughter

Author: Mildred Pitts Walter

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2016-01-19

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 1504027884

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Set during the American Revolution and based on a true story, Elizabeth Freeman, a young slave, sues for her freedom—and wins Sheffield, Massachusetts. Six-year-old Aissa and her older sister, Elizabeth, work as slaves in the home of their owners—Master and Mistress Anna. Raised by Elizabeth after their mother died, and chafing under the yoke of bondage, Aissa is a natural-born rebel. Elizabeth, nicknamed Bett by her owners, is more accepting of her fate in spite of growing anti-slavery sentiment. She marries Josiah Freeman, a freed black man, and they have a child. Then on July 4, 1776, America achieves her dream of independence from England, and in 1780, Massachusetts drafts its own constitution, establishing a bill of rights. When Mistress Anna, angered by Aissa’s defiance, threatens her with a hot coal shovel, Bett takes the blow instead, and is severely burned. She walks out of the house, vowing never to come back—and takes her owners to court. Second Daughter is both riveting historical fiction and rousing courtroom drama about slavery, justice, courage, and the unconquerable love between two sisters.

I Had a Black Dog
I Had a Black Dog

Author: Matthew Johnstone

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2012-03-01

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 1780339038

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'I Had a Black Dog says with wit, insight, economy and complete understanding what other books take 300 pages to say. Brilliant and indispensable.' - Stephen Fry 'Finally, a book about depression that isn't a prescriptive self-help manual. Johnston's deftly expresses how lonely and isolating depression can be for sufferers. Poignant and humorous in equal measure.' Sunday Times There are many different breeds of Black Dog affecting millions of people from all walks of life. The Black Dog is an equal opportunity mongrel. It was Winston Churchill who popularized the phrase Black Dog to describe the bouts of depression he experienced for much of his life. Matthew Johnstone, a sufferer himself, has written and illustrated this moving and uplifting insight into what it is like to have a Black Dog as a companion and how he learned to tame it and bring it to heel.

The Cloud
The Cloud

Author: Hannah Cumming

Publisher: Child's Play Library

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781846433436

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In Art class one girl never draws anything. But one of her classmates is determined to make her smile.

The Eagle's Claw
The Eagle's Claw

Author: Jeff Shaara

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2022-06-07

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0525619461

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In a “riveting” (Booklist) tale that picks up where To Wake the Giant left off, Jeff Shaara transports us to the Battle of Midway in another masterpiece of military historical fiction. Spring 1942. The United States is reeling from the blow the Japanese inflicted at Pearl Harbor. But the Americans are determined to turn the tide. The key comes from Commander Joe Rochefort, a little known “code breaker” who cracks the Japanese military encryption. With Rochefort’s astonishing discovery, Admiral Chester Nimitz will know precisely what the Japanese are planning. But the battle to counter those plans must still be fought. From the American side, the shocking conflict is seen through the eyes of Rochefort and Admiral Nimitz, as well as fighter pilot Lieutenant Percy “Perk” Baker and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Doug Ackroyd. On the Japanese side, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is the mastermind. His key subordinates are Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, aging and infirm, and Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, a firebrand who has no patience for Nagumo’s hesitation. Together, these two men must play out the chess game designed by Yamamoto, without any idea that the Americans are anticipating their every move on the sea and in the air. Jeff Shaara recounts in electrifying detail what happens when these two sides finally meet, in what will be known ever after as one of the most definitive and heroic examples of combat ever seen. In The Eagle’s Claw, he recounts, with his trademark you-are-there immediacy and signature depth of research, one single battle that changed not only the outcome of a war but the course of our entire global history. The story of Midway has been told many times, but never before like this.

Washington Black
Washington Black

Author: Esi Edugyan

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2018-09-18

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 0525521437

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MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “A gripping historical narrative exploring both the bounds of slavery and what it means to be truly free.” —Vanity Fair Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, they must abandon everything and flee together. Over the course of their travels, what brings Wash and Christopher together will tear them apart, propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true self. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco, Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again.

Cloud's Legacy
Cloud's Legacy

Author: Ginger Kathrens

Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing

Published: 2012-11-06

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1620080516

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Ginger Kathrens continues the saga of the wild horses of the Arrowheads in Cloud’s Legacy, a companion volume to PBS’s NATURE program. An award-winning wildlife documentary filmmaker, Kathryns is passionate about the plight of wild horses in North America, and it is with great joy that she watches the cast of Cloud’s Legacy run and interact freely on America’s wide open spaces. Her great story-telling abilities are beautifully enhanced by the exciting color photography that adorns each chapter of this handsome volume. The cast of characters in this saga has expanded beyond the first Cloud documentary to include over thirty different horses (all of which are listed in the appendix of the book). The story is told in 22 engaging chapters that follow Cloud and his growing family through their real-life adventures in the Rocky Mountains. Kathrens’s documentaries about Cloud, his cohorts, and family won the CINE Golden Eagle Awards, Chicago International Television Competition, U.S. International Film and Video Festival, and the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.