What Might Have Been carefully examines nine of the most fateful decisions made in the 19th and 20th centuries, considers alternatives that were not chosen, and asks the provocative question of how the course of history might have been fundamentally altered.
An elusive woman with a hidden past holds the secret that can bring down a hot Hollywood producer along with the owner of a major aircraft plant. A former tong courtesan who fled Los Angeles for China, loses her thriving business and faces death as the Japanese attack Nanjing. A Central Ave. piano player is tasked by Federal Agents to find a woman who may hold the secret to a fifteen year old incident known as the “Point Magu Massacre.” Nothing is what it appears to be in the City of Angeles, a place where deals are made and a best friend could be deadlier than any enemy. “A riveting saga that skillfully exposes, with an insider’s knowledge, the corruption and irresistible power of the California Dream” - Dennis M. Clausen, author of Prairie Son.
The saga of the McGuire family continues. At the dawn of the 20th century disputes are no longer settled with a gun. They are handled in boardrooms with backroom deals. Under the close direction of the city’s oligarchy William Mulholland builds his aqueduct which will allow Los Angeles to expand to unprecedented size. The San Francisco earthquake sends a whorehouse piano player, a newspaper reporter and a thief to Los Angeles. Each attempt to rebuild their life which was forever changed on the morning of April 18, 1906. Renegade filmmakers from New York flee to Hollywood to make their movies. With the promise of stardom, the moguls run their studios with cutthroat efficiency, controlling the lives of all who work for them. Michael McGuire takes over the family enterprise. With the McGuire fortunes on the wane and prohibition looming on the horizon, Michael forges a partnership with Canadian and Mexican mobsters to import alcohol and cocaine to Los Angeles. Any who stand in his way are fair game. California is the place where dreams come true for some and for others a dead end. This is a tale of those who dared to dream.
HUAC returns to Hollywood to take names and make headlines for the committee. Successful producer, Michael McGuire is in their cross-hairs. Declared uncooperative, McGuire’s successful career is now in dire jeopardy. Los Angeles city fathers dream of bringing a professional ballclub to the city and lay plans for one of the greatest real estate bamboozles since the annexation of San Fernando Valley. Mexican neighborhoods are destroyed and families are uprooted, all in the name of progress. Allied Aircraft owner, James Hagen is on the run from a Senate subcommittee investigating financial improprieties during the War. Hoping to stay one step ahead of a government subpoena, Hagen beats all on Allied’s missile program to save him and the company from destruction. Big bands are out and musician, Cosmo Turner can’t get a steady gig to save his life. Turner takes a job managing a Mexican radio station where pay to play is the name of the game as rock-n-roll sweeps the nation by storm. Della Rio is a woman with a dark past who seeks revenge against the men responsible for her brother’s death. Rio puts a plan into play that will ruin the mob’s drug running operation and destroy the men she hates. The Bear: California Dreamin’ weaves a sweeping tapestry that brings these characters and their stories to an action-packed conclusion of the epic series.
From the Spanish missions to the war against Mexico. From the discovery of gold to the rise of cattle ranches, California has always been a land where dreams were made and nothing is what it appears. The Bear shares the stories of the settling of this state. Captain Juan Diego de La Vega, a conquistador, arrives in San Diego to command the Presidio. Running afoul of the mission padres, De La Vega is banished from the army. Hunted like a common criminal, he takes refuge with a Luiseño tribe. Fifteen-year-old Sean McGuire flees famine-ravaged Ireland and arrives in the territory as war commences. Jedediah McCabe, a mountain man and scout, befriends McGuire and together they fight to liberate California from Mexico. After the war, McGuire establishes the Oso Negro, a preeminent ranch in the area. Lee Sing leaves China for “Gum Saan,” only to find death and discrimination until he partners with McGuire as the Oso Negro’s cook. As one of Chinatown’s leading citizens, Lee Sing navigates a perilous course in a Tong war that could cost him his family. Kathleen O’Neil, a strong-willed Irish woman saves McGuire’s life and becomes his wife. She’s the brains behind the McGuire wealth and the family’s rise in society. The tales of these characters are woven as a tapestry against the backdrop of a region that became paradise for some and a dead end for others. California is the land of dreams. This is the story of those who dared to dream.
WE THINK OF HUMAN LIFE AS PRICELESS, BUT THERE ARE MEN AMONG US WHO WILL END A LIFE FOR A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. These men are the hit men, striking a contract with someone who has a target – and the cash. The Hit Men tells the stories of some of Australia's most ruthless contract killers – their plots, accomplices, victims, crimes and punishments – and of the people who saw fit to employ them. John Kerr dissects a parade of hits, from the days of Sydney's razor gangs in the 1930s to modern times. He gives unflinching accounts of a man who killed his granny, wives who shopped for their husband's killers, and cashed-up criminals who called in favours to arrange the deaths of their enemies. A chilling account of how quickly ordinary people can turn to extreme violence to get what they want.
It can take years for love to turn to murderous hate – or it can happen overnight. What drives a man or woman to commit the ultimate betrayal - to take the life of a parent, a child, a sibling, a lover? Bloody Relationsis an unflinching exploration of fourteen well known and not so well known murder-in-the-family cases. Taking readers inside the life and mind of both killer and victim, John Kerr unfolds the gripping stories behind some of Australia's most sensational and shocking crimes. Why did Rory Thompson kill and dismember his wife? Why did Kathleen Folbigg kill her four young children? How can an ordinary son from an ordinary family, like Sef Gonzales or Matthew Wales, suddenly explode with murderous rage and destroy the people closest to him? These are devastating stories of secrets, revenge, rage and heartbreak. They make for compelling reading.
“Has all the elements of a juicy novel . . . riveting. . . . Reudite and elegant.” —Newsday NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, Direcetd by Dabid Cronenbertg and STARRING KEIRA KNIGHTLY, VIGGO MORENSEN, MICHAEL FASSBENDER, and VINCENT CASSEL In 1907, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung began what promised to be both a momentous collaboration and the deepest friendship of each man’s life. Six years later they were bitter antagonists, locked in a savage struggle that was as much personal and emotional as it was theoretical and professional. Between them stood a young woman named Sabina Spielrein, who had been both patient and lover to Jung and colleague and confidante to Freud before going on to become an innovative psychoanalyst herself. With the narrative power and emotional impact of great tragedy, A Dangerous Method is impossible to put down.
Kathleen Folbigg was found guilty of killing her four children by opinions – medical, literary and her estranged husband’s opinion - nearly 20 years ago. There never was hard evidence of homicide in the infants’ deaths. This book traces her life story, the rise and fall of a medical mania that saw so-called ‘smother mothers’ imprisoned and then released as sound science replaced pseudo-scientific nonsense, and how her diaries were mis-read. The way the case against her was pursued will chill the blood of anyone who has ever gone out, fallen in love and considered having children, as that is all this woman did to get sentenced to 40 years. It explains in the language of the lay person why the finest minds in Australian science by the score joined in a petition - just let her out, fix your criminal justice system later – in a move without precedent anywhere. The scientific story is exciting, inspirational and a wake-up call. That Ms Folbigg is still behind bars today is a tale of pig-headedness, scientific illiteracy, poor judgement and perhaps implicit bias. Whatever, a good scrub won’t fix it; some reconstruction is needed. The strong woman at the core of this story has good friends and a legal team whose perseverance will replenish readers’ sense of what can be done. Among the expert witnesses are men and women whose commitment to the truth inspires. Their genetic and medical evidence is here made simple, digestible and compelling. The book lists some ideas for overdue legal reforms.
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