In a Louisiana army camp in 1944 Capt. Taylor, the white C.O., has a problem. He commands a Black company whose sergeant has been murdered. He is worried the murderer may be a white officer or the local Klan. A Black captain, Richard Davenport, is assigned to investigate. Taylor tries to discourage him because he feels the assignment of a Black investigator means the case is to be swept under the rug. Capt. Davenport perseveres and, as he probes deeper, he finds the Black soldiers are as corrupted with hatred as the whites. Each one had a motive for the killing. Davenport solves the case and the truth is even more shocking than the murder itself.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 1982 A black sergeant cries out in the night, "They still hate you," then is shot twice and falls dead. Set in 1944 at Fort Neal, a segregated army camp in Louisiana, Charles Fuller's forceful drama--which has been regularly seen in both its original stage and its later screen version starring Denzel Washington--tracks the investigation of this murder. But A Soldier's Play is more than a detective story: it is a tough, incisive exploration of racial tensions and ambiguities among blacks and between blacks and whites that gives no easy answers and assigns no simple blame.
"'Zooman" is black teen in Philadelphia who senselessly terrorizes his community wit hour regard to race. His most recent crime is killing a 12 year-old girl on a street filled with witnesses, all of who are afraid to talk.The dead girl's father posts a sign accusing the entire community of cowardice in the face of the ever escalating violence." -- Cover [p. 4].
"Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue is that rare and rewarding thing: a theatre work that succeeds on every level while creating something new. The playwright combines a lyrical ear with a sophisticated sense of structure to trace the legacy of war through three generations of a Puerto Rican family. Without ever invoking politics, Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue manages to be a deeply poetic, touching and often funny indictment of the war in Iraq."—The New York Times From Quiara Alegría Hudes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Water by the Spoonful, comes this companion play, itself a Pulitzer finalist. In a crumbling urban lot that has been converted into a verdant sanctuary, a young Marine comes to terms with his father's service in Vietnam as he decides whether to leave for a second tour of duty in Iraq. Melding a poetic dreamscape with a stream-of-consciousness narrative, Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue takes us on an unforgettable journey across time and generations, lyrically tracing the legacy of war on a single Puerto Rican family. Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize, is the first installment in a trilogy of plays that follow Elliot's return from Iraq. The second play, Water by the Spoonful, received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize and will be published by Theatre Communications Group concurrently with Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue. The trilogy's final play, The Happiest Song Plays Last, premiered in April 2012 at Chicago's renowned The Goodman Theatre.
SAMMY is a football crazy rescue puppy. MOUSER is a fearless black and white tomcat. Together they make an unlikely pair that won't be parted, not even by the First World War. As the war rages in Europe, Londoners are sending brave animals to help the soldiers - and Mouser and Sammy are soon on their way to the trenches. Boldly criss-crossing no-man's land they make new friends of every nationality - and reunite with old ones. But on the muddy front line, under fire and constantly in danger, will their friendship be enough to save them so they can return home together? 'If you love Michael Morpurgo, you will enjoy this' Express 'A moving tale told with warmth, kindliness and lashings of good sense that lovers of Dick King-Smith will especially appreciate' The Times 'Every now and then a writer comes along with a unique way of storytelling . . . Meet Megan Rix . . . her novels are deeply moving and will strike a chord with animal lovers.' LoveReading About the author: Megan Rix lives in England with her husband, and their adorable dogs, Traffy and Bella. Also available by Megan Rix: The Great Escape, The Victory Dogs and The Bomber Dog www.meganrix.com
Ia is a precog, tormented by visions of the future where her home galaxy has been devastated. To prevent this vision from coming true, Ia enlists in the Terran United Planets military with a plan to become a soldier who will inspire generations for the next three hundred years-a soldier history will call Bloody Mary.
An uplifting story of unlikely friendship and hope during the Iraq War. After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, First Sergeant Daniel Hendrex was dispatched along with his unit, Dragon Company, to Husaybah, a small town bordering Syria in the Sunni-dominated Al Anbar Province in Iraq. Their mission was to plug the bottleneck at the border checkpoint, where foreign fighters and weapons smugglers were filtering through daily to join the increasingly menacing insurgency growing rapidly in the region. It was at this checkpoint, amid relentless attacks, that Daniel and his men found the most effective ally of the war effort in the most unlikely of sources. In December 2003 a skinny Iraqi kid about fourteen years old approached one of the soldiers at the border and said simply, “Arrest me.” Jamil, as he was called, claimed to have valuable information about the insurgency, but First Sergeant Hendrex was skeptical—especially when the boy announced that the man he wanted to turn in was his own father. The story that unfolds is one of heartbreaking tragedy, remarkable courage, and unprecedented resiliency, as this child of the insurgency takes it upon himself to fight back with the help of the US Army...and loses everything in the process—his country, his home, and his family. But through the power of his own conviction and his finely honed survival skills, Jamil (who was quickly nicknamed Steve-O by the soldiers of Dragon Company) sought refuge with the US military in exchange for information. He risked everything he knew for a chance at freedom—a choice few men, let alone children, have to make in their lifetimes. And after Steve-O helped save countless lives, First Sergeant Hendrex made it his personal mission to repay his debt and get the boy to safety. A Soldier’s Promise is an incredible story of sacrifice and courage by an Iraqi boy and the US soldiers who protected him from certain death by bringing him to the United States. It’s an astonishing tale of two countries and two very different kinds of people joining together against terror and tyranny, and of the young man who, against all odds, gave Dragon Company what they desperately needed—hope.
The former commander of coalition forces in Iraq reports back from the front lines of the global war on terror to provide a comprehensive and chilling exploration of America's historic military and foreign-policy blunder. With unflinching candor, Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez describes the chaos on the Iraqi battlefield caused by the Bush administration's misguided command of the military, as well as his own struggle to set the coalition on the path toward victory. Sanchez shows how minor insurgent attacks grew into synchronized operations that finally ignited into a major insurgency and all-out civil war. He provides an insider's account of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, explaining the circumstances that led to the abuses, who perpetrated them, and what the formal investigations revealed. Sanchez also details the cynical use of the Iraq War for political gain in Washington and shows how the pressure of an around-the-clock news cycle drove and distorted critical battle decisions. The first book written by a former on-site commander in Iraq, Wiser in Battle is essential reading for all who wish to understand the Iraqi incursion and the role of America's military in the new century.
"Eloquent, devastating . . . packed with gimlet-eyed analysis - cultural, economic, historical - of how American life came to look the way it does . . . Edstrom's keen observational powers encompass both the physical world and social nuance." -Los Angeles Review of Books A manifesto about America's unchallenged war machine, from an Afghanistan veteran and new kind of military hero. Before engaging in war, Erik Edstrom asks us to imagine three, rarely imagined scenarios: First, imagine your own death. Second, imagine war from “the other side.” Third: Imagine what might have been if the war had never been fought. Pursuing these realities through his own combat experience, Erik reaches the unavoidable conclusion about America at war. But that realization came too late-the damage had been done. Erik Edstrom grew up in suburban Massachusetts with an idealistic desire to make an impact, ultimately leading him to the gates of West Point. Five years later, he was deployed to Afghanistan as an infantry lieutenant. Throughout his military career, he confronted atrocities, buried his friends, wrestled with depression, and struggled with an understanding that the war he fought in, and the youth he traded to prepare for it, was in contribution to a bitter truth: The War on Terror is not just a tragedy, but a crime. The deeper tragedy is that our country lacks the courage and conviction to say so. Un-American is a hybrid of social commentary and memoir that exposes how blind support for war exacerbates the problems it's intended to resolve, devastates the people allegedly being helped, and diverts assets from far larger threats like climate change. Un-American is a revolutionary act, offering a blueprint for redressing America's relationship with patriotism, the military, and military spending.
