Brandy Alexander Devereauxs spends her Friday nights at the Crazy Kettle bar, fiddling with her wedding band and staring at the empty seat next to her. She’s fending off drunk men’s advances and waiting for her maybe-dead ex-husband to return. Barring these slight eccentricities, Brandy’s life is pretty ordinary. She wants nothing more than to finish college to become a chef. Oh, and to compete in the National Fire Mountain Redneck Run and succeed in triumphing over the hometown dream team consisting of four mean girls, the upper pecking order at her job at Mister Smiley’s Grocery. And. . .Brandy never expects her life to take a strange veer when her drunk mama brings her a mysterious lock box with clues to Brandy’s ex-husband’s disappearance. A surprise romance. A mystery waiting to unfold. Family secrets. And more.
Rosie Mauer is the high school librarian, lunchroom attendant and after-school detention monitor at Laurel Grove High School. She's got a cat for her best friend and a secret crush on her sister's boyfriend, a local fireman. She sings in the church choir and knows that even though her IQ is off the records, she blends into the world with as much flair as the wilting honeysuckle growing along the wall in her mom’s garden. She figures her life will always be so bland. That is, until she is hired incognito to be the nanny for a rich man’s son who is a suspect in the murder of two girls whose disappearance and deaths may also mirror those of her aunt who vanished forty years earlier. As Rosie Mauer, she’s an awkward young woman who can’t seem to fit in. As her alter ego—beautiful and outgoing Violet Popovich, she finds herself lavished with gifts from admirers . . . and digging deeper into a crime surpassing the imaginations of those around her and puts her on the trail of a serial killer. Between her two worlds, she is running out of time as the bodies start to pile up. And it is getting more difficult to hide her secret life.
Journey Bacon has grown up in a small town. She figures she’s settled into a normal, boring life working at a bank and marrying the same controlling man she’s dated since high school. But when a friend gives her an old dance card with a mysterious past and a promise she must keep, Journey experiences an unexpected twist of fate and a second chance at changing her life. A gift of singing country music. A secret romance with a cowboy. A mystery unfolding. And secrets, so many of them. And that is just the beginning—A small town romance with heart. And a country music romance to boot!
Rosie Mauer is the high school librarian, lunchroom attendant and after-school detention monitor at Laurel Grove High School. She's got a cat for her best friend and a secret crush on her sister's boyfriend, a local fireman. She sings in the church choir and knows that even though her IQ is off the records, she blends into the world with as much flair as the wilting honeysuckle growing along the wall in her mom’s garden. She figures her life will always be so bland. That is, until she is hired incognito to be the nanny for a rich man’s son who is a suspect in the murder of two girls whose disappearance and deaths may also mirror those of her aunt who vanished forty years earlier. As Rosie Mauer, she’s an awkward young woman who can’t seem to fit in. As her alter ego—beautiful and outgoing Violet Popovich, she finds herself lavished with gifts from admirers . . . and digging deeper into a crime surpassing the imaginations of those around her and puts her on the trail of a serial killer. Between her two worlds, she is running out of time as the bodies start to pile up. And it is getting more difficult to hide her secret life.
Journey Bacon has grown up in a small town. She figures she’s settled into a normal, boring life working at a bank and marrying the same controlling man she’s dated since high school. But when a friend gives her an old dance card with a mysterious past and a promise she must keep, Journey experiences an unexpected twist of fate and a second chance at changing her life. A gift of singing country music. A secret romance with a cowboy. A mystery unfolding. And secrets, so many of them. And that is just the beginning—A small town romance with heart. And a country music romance to boot!
Brandy Alexander Devereauxs spends her Friday nights at the Crazy Kettle bar, fiddling with her wedding band and staring at the empty seat next to her. She’s fending off drunk men’s advances and waiting for her maybe-dead ex-husband to return. Barring these slight eccentricities, Brandy’s life is pretty ordinary. She wants nothing more than to finish college to become a chef. Oh, and to compete in the National Fire Mountain Redneck Run and succeed in triumphing over the hometown dream team consisting of four mean girls, the upper pecking order at her job at Mister Smiley’s Grocery. And. . .Brandy never expects her life to take a strange veer when her drunk mama brings her a mysterious lock box with clues to Brandy’s ex-husband’s disappearance. A surprise romance. A mystery waiting to unfold. Family secrets. And more.
In this ambitious follow-up to Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay uses the Odyssey, the story of a soldier's homecoming, to illuminate the pitfalls that trap many veterans on the road back to civilian life. Seamlessly combining important psychological work and brilliant literary interpretation with an impassioned plea to renovate American military institutions, Shay deepens our understanding of both the combat veteran's experience and one of the world's greatest classics. In Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay used the story of the Iliad as a prism through which to examine how ancient and modern wars have battered the psychology of the men who fight. Now he turns his attention to the Odyssey, the story of a soldier's homecoming, to illuminate the real problems faced by combat veterans reentering civilian society. The Odyssey, Shay argues, offers explicit portrayals of behavior common among returning soldiers in our own culture: danger-seeking, womanizing, explosive violence, drug abuse, visitation by the dead, obsession, vagrancy and homelessness. Supporting his reading with examples from his fifteen-year practice treating Vietnam veterans, Shay shows how Odysseus's mistrustfulness, his lies, and his constant need to conceal his thoughts and emotions foreshadow the experiences of many of today's veterans. He also explains how veterans recover and advocates changes to American military practice that will protect future servicemen and servicewomen while increasing their fighting power. Throughout, Homer strengthens our understanding of what a combat veteran must overcome to return to and flourish in civilian life, just as the heartbreaking stories of the veterans Shay treats give us a new understanding of one of the world's greatest classics.
In recent decades, the taking of hostages has proven to be a particularly effective tactic for Islamic terrorist organizations worldwide, including al Qaeda. The global jihad movement regards citizens of foreign (mainly western) countries as prime targets for abduction, although in fact local residents have constituted the majority of kidnapping victims. This book analyzes Islamic terror abductions over the last 30 years in the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia), Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and the Philippines), Africa (the Maghreb, the Sahel regions, and Somalia), and in Russia as a part of the Russian-Chechen conflict. Discussion also focuses on the abduction by Hizballah of Israeli soldiers, the Second Lebanon War of 2006, the Mumbai terror attack (2008), the Chechen hostage crisis in Moscow and Beslan (2002 and 2004), the kidnapping of employees of the Algerian In Amenas gas facility by al Qaeda of the Maghreb' in January 2013 and the Nairobi "Westgate Mall" hostage crisis in September 2013. The role of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, and its patronage of terror organizations that utilize the tactic of abduction to promote Iranian interests in Lebanon and Iraq, is highlighted throughout. Discussion focuses on the challenges faced by countries whose citizens have been abducted by Islamic terror organizations and their reactions to these challenges, and provides theoretical classifications of the phenomenon of terrorism in general and terror abduction in particular.
Early August, 1799. A wilderness clearing along the Mud River...a few miles northeast of Russellville, a small town in the vast, nearly unbroken frontier of western Kentucky. A pioneer family has stopped to rest. Two men. Three women. Three babies. A string of pack horses. It has been an exhausting journey, a dangerous one at times. The men are about thirty, the women some five to ten years younger. Each woman has a baby, her own child. The children, two girls and a boy, range from four to six months in age. The day is hot. The shallow river is cool. Shade trees provide a measure of relief from the sticky humidity, the baking heat. The men stretch out along the banks of the river. The women tend to their children's needs, then place them down and stretch out themselves. Everyone drinks from the stream. They have been traveling forever. Or, at least, it seems that way. They're tired. They just want to rest before they must move out again, always pushing on, always in search of their destination in an unforgivingly harsh wilderness, battling tremendous odds against their very survival. They carry all their worldly possessions with them. True pioneers, they live off the land, taking from it what they need to eke out another day of life in the new American world of democracy and free enterprise. Suddenly, one of the babies cries. It is one of the girls, this one only four months old. One of the men rouses himself from his rest. He makes his way to the crying infant. The man is both a husband and a father, and he is with his family. A touching scene seems about to ensue. A father lovingly tending his irritable child all alone in the wilderness. A loving man doting on his daughter's needs. He picks the child up. But this is no ordinary family. And this is no ordinary man. The man is Micajah Harp, and he is wanted by the law. Even at this moment, there is a price on his head, and posses are after him. They might hear the wail of the infant and swoop down on the family and arrest them. Micajah must do something. He must silence the baby. He picks the child up by her feet and swings her against the side of the tree. Her head smashes against the unrelenting wood. The breath of life leaves her instantly. He then tosses the lifeless body into the woods. He signals the rest of the family to rise to their feet. They do so, and the family moves deeper into the wilderness. They are the Harps. America's first and most brutal serial killers. God help anyone who gets in their way. *********************************************************** They were "the most brutal monsters of the human race" to those who knew them...ruthless and indiscriminate barbarians terrorizing an innocent America...unconscionable brutes inflicting savagery upon anyone they encountered. They sought little in life save the very survival necessary to maintain their bloodlust. It mattered little where or with whom they lived. They cheated and tormented at will and killed for the sake of killing. Their adult lives became a continual exercise in abject, unrepentant evil. During a reign of horror engulfing Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois, they became the scourge of the late 18th-century American frontier. They killed anywhere from two dozen to four dozen men, women, and children before justice caught up with them. They were the historical prototypes of later killers - Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, and Jeffrey Dahmer - but they far exceeded them in brutality and criminal enormity. They were the Harps...Micajah, the older and bigger; Wiley, the younger and smaller...Big Harp and Little Harp, as they were commonly called. And they were America's first serial killers. This is their story. "Blood in the Wilderness: The Story of the Harps, America's First Serial Killers" includes a bibliography of seventy-five sources. It results from years of research and visits to all the sites associated with t
The Red Sea is one of the worlds most important trade routes, a theater of power struggle among local, regional and global powers. Military and political developments continue to impact on the geostrategic landscape of the region in the context of its trade thoroughfare for Europe, China, Japan and India; freedom of navigation is a strategic interest for Egypt, and essential for Israels economic ties with Asia. Superpower confrontation is inevitable. China, the US, France, Japan and Saudi Arabia have military bases in Djibouti. US strategy seeks to curb Chinese economic influence and Russian political interference in the region through diplomacy and investment. And at the centre of US alliances is the war on terror still prevalent in the Middle East and East Africa: Islamic terror groups Al Shabaab in Somalia and Kenya; Al Qaeda of the Arab Peninsula in Yemen; and the Islamic State in Egypt. The civil war in Yemen has become the arena for Iran and Saudi Arabias struggle for regional hegemony. Saudi Arabias Sunni Arab coalition have been fighting Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels to a stalemate (December 2018). In 2016 Egypt ceded Saudi Arabia the Tiran and Sanafir Islands, the narrow sea passages between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas, giving control of the entire length of the Red Sea. This, and other perceived positive geostrategic developments, have to be offset by the nuclearization of the Red Sea basin (directed in part by Russian foreign policy) and the dangers of multiple country military deployments in the hubs of radical Islam and terrorism potential. A stable future for the region cannot be taken for granted. And as alliances shift and change, so will Israels foreign policy and strategic partnerships have to adjust.
This book picks up where its predecessor, Somalia between Jihad and Restoration, left off, examining international efforts to stabilize war-torn Somalia. It analyzes major political events in Somalia in the years since 2006, examining opportunities for restoration of the country based on the United Nations-backed plan known as the "Roadmap for the End of the Transition," improved security conditions, and international economics and financial support. The author notes that the time of transition may be over, according to the timetable of the United Nations, but it is clear that the work of transformation is just beginning. In considering whether political and social chaos in Somalia is ending, Shay sees two possible futures. One possibility is the establishment of a reform government that unifies Somali society; another is continued strife that accelerates Somalia's descent into the endless violence of a failed state. Shay believes the international approach to Somalia requires a thorough reassessment. He argues it has been limited to two Western priorities-terrorism and piracy-while largely ignoring domestic issues of critical concern to Somalis. As a result, many Somalis have come to view those participating in the international effort as a foreign occupation.
America's first great civil war battle took place on a hill in South Carolina...more than a quarter-century before Robert E. Lee was born. A pair of Presidents and their First Ladies repose side by side for all eternity in the undercroft of a Massachusetts church. America's most dramatic case of treason played out along the banks of New York's Hudson River where barges and yachts now pass. One of Florida's fabled keys hosts an annual festival that draws throngs...yet no one lives on the island any other day of the year. These are but four examples of classic Americana tucked away in hidden nooks, secret pockets of historical, cultural, and human interest unknown to most Americans. If you know where to look, you can enter a colorful, extravagant, gaudily lighted Christmas village in Pennsylvania such as you've never seen before. And if you're in the right place in Washington, you can visit a cemetery containing the grave of one of America's most famous Native Americans and choke up at the affecting personal tributes to ordinary everyday Indians that surround it. In the middle of Minnesota you can tour an iron ore mine so real you almost forget it's fake. On the banks of the Ohio River in Illinois you can enter a huge cave whose dark, eerie recesses once enticed travelers, naturalists, and America's first serial killers. In Hawaii you can descend a hidden, unimproved trail to one of the Pacific's most enchanting bays and walk along the shore where the world's greatest explorer was killed. In Alaska you can walk up to a glacier whose enormity will overwhelm you and then hike across it and taste its icy wetness. These are not famous places. They are, rather, obscure, unheralded, little-visited corners of America waiting to tempt you. Welcome to "Arcane America: 101 of the Best Places You Never Heard Of," a compilation of some of the least-known, most-interesting sites in the United States: a Connecticut prison where inmates served their time chained to the bowels of a deserted copper mine; a rural Iowa county that spawned America's greatest western actor and a sextet of covered bridges; a New Jersey miniature kingdom whose beauty and artistry killed its creator; a New York county where you can ride the largest number of free carousels anywhere in the world; a temple of gold to one of the world's most misunderstood religions in the rolling hills of West Virginia; a medical museum in the nation's capital where you'll see pickled fetuses, radical human deformities, and bits of Abraham Lincoln's skull. There are no Statues of Liberty, Disneyworlds, or Grand Canyons in this collection of some of America's most unusual and anonymous delights. Many have never before been written of, except in regional publications of limited scope and circulation. Almost all are virtually unknown outside their immediate vicinities or states. You may find yourself recognizing a particular name, cultural relationship, or historical fact here or there, but you'll probably not know the whole story. Included in the 101 destinations covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia are battlefields, graves, miniature worlds, scenic drives and hikes, natural formations and curiosities, national and state parks, mansions, historic sites, nature and wildlife preserves, deserted islands, Indian reservations, gardens, inexplicable mysteries, religious shrines, museums honoring traditional accomplishments and one-of-a-kind eccentricities, reconstructed villages, manufacturing sites, underground worlds, hidden sites in the middle of nowhere, and corners of forgotten importance within America's largest city. Some are breathtakingly beautiful; others are frighteningly bizarre. All are memorably unique. Legendary figures stand shoulder to shoulder with those whom time has forgotten: Buffalo Bill Cody and his mountaintop resting place; William Gillette and his quirky castle; Franklin D.
Lt. Gen. Hunter Liggett’s forty-year career spanned the period from the Indian Wars in the territories of Montana and Dakota to the trenches of World War I. For someone who experienced many individual triumphs and battlefield victories—including the final push of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive—he often is overshadowed by figures such as John J. Pershing or George C. Marshall. His quiet demeanor sometimes did not serve him well, but it also masked steely determination. Liggett’s tenacity won Pershing’s attention and admiration, and he went on to direct and win what was at the time the largest single battle in American history. In Hunter Liggett, author Michael E. Shay shows that while Pershing may have assembled the pieces of the American Expeditionary Forces, it was Liggett who made it work. This first biography of Liggett follows the full life of a doggedly hard-working soldier whose leadership style contrasted and sometimes conflicted with the military culture of his time. Where Pershing employed a “fear and censure” approach to command, Liggett allowed his subordinates to grow into their jobs, all the while coaching them on the best course of action. Where Pershing was feared, Liggett enjoyed the respect—if not affection—of his men. Liggett was a modest man and a devoted student of military history at a time when many officers of his generation relied upon a combination of connections, political influence, and seniority to advance their careers. Hunter Liggett not only offers readers a much-needed biography of an almost forgotten general but also adds a new and nuanced perspective on the importance of military leadership in the era of the First World War.
Providing an overview of the entertainment industry, this study includes entertainment economics, theories of entertainment, entertainment research, & covers different types of entertainment including media, sports, gaming, theme entertainment, travel & tourism, & live performance.
Steadfast Genesis and defiant Isaiah are content on their famed grandfather's ranch nestled against the Rocky Mountains. When a mysterious new preacher arrives, called Leader by his congregation, the foundation of their legacy is shaken. Their pious mother, wooed by Leader's commanding presence, becomes a devout member of his fold, pulling the sisters into his reach and revealing that the congregation is more than it appears.
Prominent atheists claim the Bible is a racist text. Yet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. read it daily. Then again, so did many ardent segregationists. Some atheists claim religion serves to oppress the masses. Yet the classic text of the French Revolution, What is the Third Estate?, was written by a priest. On the other hand, the revolutionaries ended up banning religion. What do we make of religion’s confusing role in history? And what of religion’s relationship to science? Some scientists claim that we have no free will. Others argue that advances in neurobiology and physics disprove determinism. As for whispering to the universe, an absurd habit say the skeptics. Yet prayer is a transformative practice for millions. This book explores the most common atheist critiques of the Bible and religion, incorporating Jewish, Christian, and Muslim voices. The result is a fresh, modern re-evaluation of religion and of atheism. Scott A. Shay is a Co-Founder and Chairman of Signature Bank and a longstanding Jewish community activist. Shay started a Hebrew school, an adult educational program, and chaired several Jewish educational programs. He is the author of Getting our Groove Back: How to Energize American Jewry and has been thinking about religion, reason, and modernity since wondering why his parents sent him to Hebrew school.
Since 1991 Somalia has been defined as a failing state, one that lacks an effective central government. The vacuum of power in Somalia, in turn, enabled Al Qaida and other radical Islamic organizations to find allies and refuge in there. Shay's account shows how the presence of radical Islamic entities in the area, alongside local problems and conflicts, has turned Somalia into a focal point in the global war against terror. On June 5, 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) declared victory in its struggle against the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter Terrorism (ARPCT), a coalition of U.S. backed warlords. Shortly after their victory announcement, the ICU implemented a Taliban-style radical Islamic rule. The rule of the ICU was brief. In December 2006 they were defeated by a coalition of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and Ethiopian forces. In spite of the ICU's defeat, internal conflict in Somalia between the ICU and the interim government of Somalia (TFG), backed by Ethiopia, is still far from concluded. Shay shows how the internal conflict may spill over into other nations, creating a larger regional theater of Jihad. He also provides some ideas on how to prevent the foundation of a new radical Islamic state that could become a haven of the Islamic terror in the Horn of Africa. This volume is instructive in demonstrating the consequences of destabilisation. It will be of interest to foreign policy analysts, regional specialists, and strategists in the war against terror.
Israel has one of the most extensive and highly developed hiking trail systems of any country in the world. Millions of hikers use the trails every year during holiday breaks, on mandatory school trips, and for recreational hikes. Walking the Land offers the first scholarly exploration of this unique trail system. Featuring more than ten thousand kilometers of trails, marked with hundreds of thousands of colored blazes, the trail system crisscrosses Israeli-controlled territory, from the country's farthest borders to its densest metropolitan areas. The thousand-kilometer Israel National Trail crosses the country from north to south. Hiking, trails, and the ubiquitous three-striped trail blazes appear everywhere in Israeli popular culture; they are the subjects of news articles, radio programs, television shows, best-selling novels, government debates, and even national security speeches. Yet the trail system is almost completely unknown to the millions of foreign tourists who visit every year and has been largely unstudied by scholars of Israel. Walking the Land explores the many ways that Israel's hiking trails are significant to its history, national identity, and conservation efforts.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.