Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?

Alyssa Mastromonaco

Biography / Politics

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px; font: 12.0px Arial} If your funny older sister were the former deputy chief of staff to President Barack Obama, her behind-the-scenes political memoir would look something like this... Alyssa Mastromonaco worked for Barack Obama for almost a decade, and long before his run for president. From the then-senator's early days in Congress to his years in the Oval Office, she made Hope and Change happen through blood, sweat, tears, and lots of briefing binders.But for every historic occasion-meeting the queen at Buckingham Palace, bursting in on secret climate talks, or nailing a campaign speech in a hailstorm-there were dozens of less-than-perfect moments when it was up to Alyssa...
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Fox from His Lair

Fox from His Lair

John Harris

Politics / Presidents

A brilliant German agent lies in wait for the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France. While the Allies prepare a vast armed camp, no one is aware of the enemy within, and when a sudden, deadly E-boat attacks, the Fox strikes, stealing secret invasion plans in the ensuing panic. What follows is a deadly pursuit as the Fox tries to get the plans to Germany in time, hotly pursued by two officers with orders to stop him at all costs.
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Earth and ashes

Earth and ashes

Atiq Rahimi

Literature & Fiction / Poetry / Politics

Synopsis:When the Soviet army arrives in Afghanistan, the elderly Dastaguir witnesses the destruction of his village and the death of his clan. His young grandson Yassin, deaf from the sounds of the bombing, is one of the few survivors. The two set out through an unforgiving landscape, searching for the coal mine where Murad, the old man's son and the boy's father, works. They reach their destination only to learn that they must wait and rely for help on all that remains to them: a box of chewing tobacco, some unripe apples, and the kindness of strangers.Haunting in its spareness, Earth and Ashes is a tale of devastating loss, but also of human perseverance in the face of madness and war.Publishers Weekly:The devastation of Afghanistan during the Soviet war is succinctly and piercingly conveyed in Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi (trans. from the Persian by Erdag M. Goknar), a novella-length account of an old man's futile journey. Dastaguir and his grandson Yassin wait beside a guard post on the road to the mine where Dastaguir's son Murad works. The family's village has been bombed, and everyone else in the family is dead; Yassin was deafened by the attack. While he waits for a ride to the mine, Dastaguir is visited by fantastic visions ("You find yourself standing on the branch of a jujube tree, stark naked"). The blasted dreamscape of Rahimi's story and his tightly controlled prose make this a sobering literary testament to the horrors of war.Biography:Born in Kabul in 1962, Atiq Rahimi was seventeen years old when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. He left the country during the war, eventually obtaining political asylum in France. Rahimi now lives in Paris, where he makes documentary films. Earth and Ashes is his first book.
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Flashback

Flashback

Amanda Carpenter

Politics

Is her talent a gift...or a curse?Forced to live with the constant nightmares caused by her psychic abilities, Dana Haslow begins to think that death might be the only respite from her unwanted powers. Isolated and alone, she finds herself unwittingly drawn into contact with her new neighbor, David Raymond.Experiencing his tortured past via dreams and nightmares, Dana knows that David must confront his demons—before they drive her mad! Resistant to her efforts to help him, David wants to go his own way...until Dana draws the attention of a dangerous man and David realizes just how much he needs her healing touch.But when a local brute terrorizes her, he comes to the rescue and they secure their bonds.This Retro Romance reprint was originally published in January 1984 by Mills & Boon.
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Miracles and Massacres: True and Untold Stories of the Making of America

Miracles and Massacres: True and Untold Stories of the Making of America

Glenn Beck

Politics / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

HISTORY AS IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE TOLD: TRUE AND THRILLING. HISTORY AS IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE TOLD: TRUE AND THRILLING. Thomas Edison was a bad guy- and bad guys usually lose in the end. World War II radio host "Tokyo Rose" was branded as a traitor by the U.S. government and served time in prison. In reality, she was a hero to many. Twenty U.S. soldiers received medals of honor at the Battle of Wounded Knee-yet this wasn't a battle at all; it was a massacre. Paul Revere's midnight ride was nothing compared to the ride made by a guy named Jack whom you've probably never heard of. History is about so much more than memorizing facts. It is, as more than half of the word suggests, about the story. And, told in the right way, it is the greatest one ever written: Good and evil, triumph and tragedy, despicable acts of barbarism and courageous acts of heroism. The things you've never learned about our past will shock you. The reason why gun control is so important to government elites can be found in a story about Athens that no one dares teach. Not the city in ancient Greece, but the one in 1946 Tennessee. The power of an individual who trusts his gut can be found in the story of the man who stopped the twentieth hijacker from being part of 9/11. And a lesson on what happens when an all-powerful president is in need of positive headlines is revealed in a story about eight saboteurs who invaded America during World War II. Miracles and Massacres is history as you've never heard it told. It's incredible events that you never knew existed. And it's stories so important and relevant to today that you won't have to ask, Why didn't they teach me this? You will instantly know. If the truth shall set you free, then your freedom begins on page one of this book. By the end, your understanding of the lies and half-truths you've been taught may change, but your perception of who we are as Americans and where our country is headed definitely will.
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Bullshit Jobs

Bullshit Jobs

David Graeber

Social Sciences / History / Politics

From bestselling writer David Graeber, a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs, and their consequences.Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled "On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs." It went viral. After a million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. There are millions of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society's most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies...
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Preserve and Protect

Preserve and Protect

Allen Drury

Literature & Fiction / Politics

The United States is thrown into chaos as the President is killed in a plane crash shortly after securing his party’s nomination in a hotly contested race for re-election. As suspicions are cast upon the circumstances of the place crash, the incumbent party quickly convenes to nominate a candidate in a storm of domestic and international chaos.Against the backdrop of a rich cast of characters, the motivations and drives of each candidate and player help shape the future of the nation and the world. Allen Drury’s Preserve and Protect brings to a climax the epic saga begun with Pulitzer Prize winning Advise and Consent—and ends with one of the greatest cliffhangers in all of political fiction.
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Decision

Decision

Allen Drury

Literature & Fiction / Politics

A gripping novel about the deterioration of the criminal justice system and the mysterious, powerful body at its core—the Supreme Court of the United States. Earle Holgren—murderer, terrorist, lost soul—is the center of a vortex that sweeps up a fascinating cast of characters in their ambitions, politics, honor, and scandal. From the eight Justices of the Supreme Court, to the Attorney General of South Carolina who sees a compelling, controversial trial as an opportunity for demagoguery that might pave his path to the White House, to the idealistic defense lawyer who seeks to save a man she knows to be a psycopathic killer, to a driven Washington journalist in love with one of the Justices whose marriage is crumbling, and other Justices with their own agendas, vendettas, and secrets, Decision is a sweeping tale that begins at a nuclear power plant in South Carolina, works its way through the courts of that state, and finally to the halls of the Supreme Court. From Allen Drury, the master of spellbinding political fiction, author of Advise and ConsentBook DescriptionA gripping novel about the deterioration of the criminal justice system and the mysterious, powerful body at its core—the Supreme Court of the United States.Earle Holgren—murderer, terrorist, lost soul—is the center of a vortex that sweeps up a fascinating cast of characters in their ambitions, politics, honor, and scandal. From the eight Justices of the Supreme Court, to the Attorney General of South Carolina who sees a compelling, controversial trial as an opportunity for demagoguery that might pave his path to the White House, to the idealistic defense lawyer who seeks to save a man she knows to be a psycopathic killer, to a driven Washington journalist in love with one of the Justices whose marriage is crumbling, and other Justices with their own agendas, vendettas, and secrets, Decision is a sweeping tale that begins at a nuclear power plant in South Carolina, works its way through the courts of that state, and finally to the halls of the Supreme Court.From Allen Drury, the master of spellbinding political fiction, author of Advise and Consent.
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First Strike

First Strike

Ben Coes

Mystery & Thrillers / Literature & Fiction / Politics

A violent, radical Islamic group, Muslim Dawn, has launched a major military campaign to take over southern Iraq. But as they commit more and more public atrocities, their sources for ammunition are drying up. However, their charismatic leader, Tristan Isolda, has a major card left to play, which will get a new secret shipment of arms underway.Dewey Andreas is sent into the field to meet Mallory, the Milan CIA station chief who has explosive proof about the source of Muslim Dawn's original funding. While Muslim Dawn operatives take out both Mallory and his source, Dewey escapes with the proof - Muslim Dawn's original munitions were provided by a black-ops program from deep within the Pentagon itself. The program unravels in time for the arms shipment to be stopped before it reaches its destination. But Isolda isn't finished. He launches a bold strike into the heart of America, sending a team to take over a dorm at Columbia University, capturing nearly 500 college...
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