A picaresque series of tales about an ordinary man's successful quest to survive, and a funny but unrelentingly savage assault on the very idea of bureaucratic officialdom as a human enterprise conferring benefits on those who live under its control, and on the various justifications bureaucracies offer for their own existence.
The Good Soldier A Tale of Passion by Ford Madox Ford At the fashionable German spa town Bad Nauheim, two wealthy, fin de siecle couples - one British, the other American - meet for their yearly assignation. As their story moves back and forth in time between 1902 and 1914, the fragile surface propriety of the pre - World War I society in which these four characters live is ruptured - revealing deceit, hatred, infidelity, and betrayal. "The Good Soldier" is Edward Ashburnham, who, as an adherent to the moral code of the English upper class, is nonetheless consumed by a passion for women younger than his wife - a stoic but fallible figure in what his American friend, John Dowell, calls "the saddest story I ever heard."
The Prequel to the Bestselling Thank You for Your Service, Now a Major Motion Picture With The Good Soldiers, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Finkel has produced an eternal story — not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time. It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. It became known as "the surge." Among those called to carry it out were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them. Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home — forever changed. The chronicle of their tour is gripping, devastating, and deeply illuminating for anyone with an interest in human conflict.
One Good Soldier is the third book in the rapid-fire hard science military SF series of One Day on Mars and The Tau Ceti Agenda. In another 24-like narrative set six years after the events in The Tau Ceti Agenda, this exciting action story unfolds in a single critical day in the history of the United States of the Sol System, the extra-solar colonies, the Separatist Revolutionaries of the Tau Ceti system, and all of mankind. As another of Earth's colonies, Ross 128, secedes from the union, the President of the United States, former marine major Alexander Moore, takes swift action to prevent a second American Civil War, this time on an interstellar scale. He sends the flagship of the U.S. Naval fleet through the Quantum Membrane Teleporter based in the Oort Cloud to the seceding colony. But the Tau Ceti Separatists have stationed their own teleporter there and the flagship will be met with heavy resistance from the Separatist Navy. And, unknown to the president and first lady, their eighteen year old military school cadet daughter has been kidnapped and whisked away to the Separatist leader's house on Tau Ceti. Only the heroics and sacrifices of one good soldier after another can save the flagship, the Union, and the first daughter in an all-out winner-take-all showdown that reaches its final climax with frenzied hand-to-hand combat in the Oval Office itself. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). Praise for Travis S. Taylor: "[Warp Speed] reads like Doc Smith writing Robert Ludlum. . . .You won't want to put it down. FLUBELLS AWAY!" ¾John Ringo "In the tradition of Golden Age SF . . . [The Quantum Connection, sequel to Warp Speed] explodes with inventive action . . . dazzling . . . cutting-edge scientific possibilities. . . ." ¾Publishers Weekly
An emotionally riveting memoir, A Good Soldier perfectly captures the isolation and pain that can come from having a loved one with a mental illness. When Ally Golden heads off to college, she breathes a sigh of relief; she is ready to discover herself, independent of her mother. However, this newfound freedom and several failed attempts at intimacy soon leave Golden feeling adrift. But even as she withdraws from the world, Golden feels an all-powerful emotional connection to the woman who raised her. Moving into adulthood, Golden tries to envision a future in which she can begin her own family-as the mental decline of her mother reaches its lowest point. Will Golden be able to heal her relationship with her mother before it's too late? Golden's raw honesty and stunning emotional insights will comfort anyone who has been on the chaotic and unpredictable journey with a mentally ill friend or family member.
Protect, Defend _ and Blow to Smithereens! Humanity's Separatist movement prepares the biggest sucker punch ever against Earth governments. The plan Kill the U.S. President at Disney World and drive a quantum-teleported kamikaze starship into a heavily-populated city. One thing the fanatical Separatists haven't figured on: an America military unleashed by a fighting president -- an ex-Marine determined that terrorists won't have the final word on humanity's future! DOD and NASA consultant and author of the groundbreaking Warp Speed, Travis S. "Doc" Taylor delivers the heart- pounding, idea-driven SF techno-thriller sequel to his dazzling One Day on Mars! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "[E]xplodes with inventive action." ¾Publishers Weekly on Travis S. Taylor's The Quantum Connection.
On a warm September evening in the Millers Kill community center, five veterans sit down in rickety chairs to try to make sense of their experiences in Iraq. What they will find is murder, conspiracy, and the unbreakable ties that bind them to one another and their small Adirondack town. The Rev. Clare Fergusson wants to forget the things she saw as a combat helicopter pilot and concentrate on her relationship with Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne. MP Eric McCrea needs to control the explosive anger threatening his job as a police officer. Will Ellis, high school track star, faces the reality of life as a double amputee. Orthopedist Trip Stillman is denying the extent of his traumatic brain injury. And bookkeeper Tally McNabb wrestles with guilt over the in-country affair that may derail her marriage. But coming home is harder than it looks. One vet will struggle with drugs and alcohol. One will lose his family and friends. One will die. Since their first meeting, Russ and Clare's bond has been tried, torn, and forged by adversity. But when he rules the veteran's death a suicide, she violently rejects his verdict, drawing the surviving vets into an unorthodox investigation that threatens jobs, relationships, and her own future with Russ. As the days cool and the nights grow longer, they will uncover a trail of deceit that runs from their tiny town to the upper ranks of the U.S. Army, and from the waters of the Millers Kill to the unforgiving streets of Baghdad. One Was a Soldier is "a surefire winner" (Booklist) and "Outstanding" (Library Journal)--Julia Spencer-Fleming at her best.
Story of John C.C. Hill who went away to war in Mexico in 1842, accompanied by his father and brother on the Mier Expedition. He became a prisoner, was adopted by a Mexican general, and then adopted Mexico as his home.
The collection of short stories entitled Behind the Lines: Bulguma and Other Stories draws on Hašek’s experience from revolutionary Russia. In a manner similar to that employed in his caricatures of the pre-war monarchy, he satirically captures events of the Bolshevik revolution from the perspective of a Red commissar in a combination of grotesque humor and sarcasm. Historical events serve merely as part of the historical mystification. Hašek presents them as he perceived them as a man and participant in historical events. He depicts them primarily as simple and human, pushing his critical view into the background. On the border of a comic exaggeration and a realistic depiction, an amusing story about a forgotten Tartar town of Bugulma unfolds featuring the Soviet commander of the Tver Revolutionary Regiment, drunk Yerokhimov, and Comrade Gašek, the Commanding Officer of Bugulma. Employing humor and exaggeration, Hašek demonstrates the zealotry of the revolutionary period as well as the stupidity and simple human insecurity of authoritarians. The collection of short stories, Behind the Lines, also includes other sketches by Hašek, written at the same time.
