When Sidney Vanoven is sent to occupied Japan, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, it is his dream posting. By day, he works in the censor's office watching Japanese films; at night he immerses himself in the sensual pleasures of Tokyo.His job leads him into the circle of the beautiful film star Shirley Yamaguchi, a passionate and indomitable woman, whose wartime secrets hint at deception and betrayal. As he learns more of her story it seems to echo Japan's own dark secret.In The China Lover, Ian Buruma has created an exhilarating saga of war-torn Japan that is epic in scale, richly imagined and vividly populated. It is quite simply unforgettable.

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End of Faith , Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.

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Spanning the years of 1940-1965, THE LAST LION picks up shortly after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister-when his tiny island nation stood alone against the overwhelming might of Nazi Germany. The Churchill conjured up by William Manchester and Paul Reid is a man of indomitable courage, lightning fast intellect, and an irresistible will to action. THE LAST LION brilliantly recounts how Churchill organized his nation's military response and defense; compelled FDR into supporting America's beleaguered cousins, and personified the "never surrender" ethos that helped the Allies win the war, while at the same time adapting himself and his country to the inevitable shift of world power from the British Empire to the United States. More than twenty years in the making, THE LAST LION presents a revelatory and unparalleled portrait of this brilliant, flawed, and dynamic leader. This is popular history at its most stirring.From BooklistStarred Review The second volume of the late Manchester’s Churchill biography (The Last Lion: Alone, 1988) left its audience in suspense with Churchill’s appointment as British prime minister in May 1940 and in anticipation of how Manchester would present Churchill’s and Britain’s finest hour in WWII. Foiled by illness, Manchester tapped Paul Reid, who has magnificently completed Manchester’s work. Opening with a character sketch of Churchill in his multifaceted guises of sentimentality, egotistical insensitivity, and brilliance, Reid dives into Churchill’s war leadership in 1940 that is the cynosure of his place in history. Reid’s got the research right, down to the day, down to the minute. He shows Churchill defying Hitler and appeasers––the French leadership and figures in the British government––who even in 1940 thought peace could be arranged with the triumphant Nazis. As Reid chronicles Churchill’s public speeches, communications, and strategy sessions, he affords regular glimpses at Churchill’s private aspects—his wittiness, sybaritic consumption of scotch and cigars, and moods bordering on depression. If reading Churchill’s life after 1945 entails an unavoidably anticlimactic quality, Reid nevertheless ably chronicles its main events of writing his WWII memoirs and assuming his second premiership of 1951–55. Manchester was one of the best Churchill biographers, and this capstone to his magnum opus ought not be missed. --Gilbert Taylor Review“Majestic . . . This book is superb. It has tremendous pace, rich detail and immense drama.”—The Washington Post “Masterful . . . The collaboration completes the Churchill portrait in a seamless manner, combining the detailed research, sharp analysis and sparkling prose that readers of the first two volumes have come to expect.”—Associated Press“Matches the outstanding quality of biographers such as Robert Caro and Edmund Morris, joining this elite bank of writers who devote their lives to one subject.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Breathtaking . . . brilliant and beautiful, evocative.”—The Boston Globe“A must-read finale for those who loved Manchester’s first two books.”—USA Today“The final volume is . . . majestic and inspiring.”—*People*“One of the most thorough treatments of Churchill so far produced.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Like all of us, though few so visibly, Alan Greenspan was forced by the financial crisis of 2008 to question some fundamental assumptions about risk management and economic forecasting. No one with any meaningful role in economic decision making in the world saw beforehand the storm for what it was. How had our models so utterly failed us? To answer this question, Alan Greenspan embarked on a rigorous and far-reaching multiyear examination of how Homo economicus predicts the economic future, and how it can predict it better. Economic risk is a fact of life in every realm, from home to business to government at all levels. Whether we're conscious of it or not, we make wagers on the future virtually every day, one way or another. Very often, however, we're steering by out-of-date maps, when we're not driven by factors entirely beyond our conscious control. The Map and the Territory is nothing less than an effort to update our forecasting conceptual grid...

Winner of the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.Ian Buruma is fascinated, he writes, "by what makes the human species behave atrociously." In Theater of Cruelty the acclaimed author of The Wages of Guilt and Year Zero: A History of 1945 once again turns to World War II to explore that question--to the Nazi occupation of Paris, the Allied bombing of German cities, the international controversies over Anne Frank's diaries, Japan's militarist intellectuals and its kamikaze pilots. One way that people respond to power and cruelty, Buruma argues, is through art, and the art that most interests him reveals the dark impulses beneath the veneer of civilized behavior. This is what draws him to German and Japanese artists such as Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Mishima Yukio, and Yokoo Tadanori, as well as to filmmakers such as Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Kurosawa Kiyoshi, and ...

The new book from #1 New York Times bestselling author and syndicated radio host Mark R. Levin.

She'll risk her safety to save lives, but can she risk her heart to find love? As a foreign correspondent working in dangerous, far-flung locales, Leslie considers herself a tough, capable woman. And that is put to the test, when her plane is hijacked. Placing her life at risk, she manages to sacrifice her safety to allow the other hostages to escape. Left alone in captivity, Leslie begins to despair, but when a fellow journalist with whom she's had a brief fling appears, Leslie realizes their relationship was more than skin deep. And together, they can face both her captors as well as their feelings for each other. This Retro Romance reprint was originally published in March 1986 by Mills & Boon.

With Europe on the brink of the First World War, Pierce Slattery, a renegade cavalry officer with the British Army, brings an astonishing insight and masterful fighting abilities to the aid of a revolution, led by Pancho Villa. Their army of ill-trained, poorly prepared peasants are fighting for their lives and their freedom – but British Intelligence has an interest in the Mexican Revolution and in the striking Slattery.

This is John Harris' classic war novel of espionage in the most extreme of situations. An essential flight from France leaves the crew of RAF Hudson missing, and somewhere in the North Sea four men cling to a dinghy, praying for rescue before exposure kills them or the enemy finds them. One man is critically injured; another (a rocket expert) is carrying a briefcase stuffed with vital secrets. As time begins to run out each man yearns to evade capture. This story charts the daring and courage of these men, their rescuers and a breathtaking mission with the most awesome of consequences.

A girl on the run from her past meets the man determined to foil her great escape...Fleeing her isolated, lonely existence, Dee has been on the run for close to a year. And everywhere she goes, Mike Carradine follows. A private investigator hired by her aunt and uncle to track her down, he is impossible to shake in their high-stakes game of cat and mouse.And when the day comes that he finally catches her, Dee knows she can't run again. This time, she'll have to follow Mike as he leads her back to the life she tried so desperately to escape, and to the relatives who would do anything to gain control of her fortune.This Retro Romance reprint was originally published in August, 1984 by Harlequin Mills & Boon.

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano examines the concept the government hates and fears the most: Freedom.The United States of America was born out of a bloody revolt against tyranny. Yet almost from its inception, the government here has suppressed liberty. In his sixth book on the Constitution and human freedom, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano asks: Where does freedom come from? How can government in America exercise power that the people have not given to it? What forces have collaborated to destroy personal freedom?In this back-to-basics on freedom, Judge Napolitano addresses hard questions:Do we still have a Constitution?What are the limits to government power in a free society?Why does the government attack, rather than defend, our rights?If our rights are inalienable, how can the government take them away?Do we really own any private property?The Judge gives a sweeping treatment of natural rights and all the philosophical, religious,...