Dispatches

Dispatches
Author: Michael Herr
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2011-11-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307814165

"The best book to have been written about the Vietnam War" (The New York Times Book Review); an instant classic straight from the front lines. From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches makes us see, in unforgettable and unflinching detail, the chaos and fervor of the war and the surreal insanity of life in that singular combat zone. Michael Herr’s unsparing, unorthodox retellings of the day-to-day events in Vietnam take on the force of poetry, rendering clarity from one of the most incomprehensible and nightmarish events of our time. Dispatches is among the most blistering and compassionate accounts of war in our literature.

Dispatches from the Dark Side

Dispatches from the Dark Side
Author: Gareth Peirce
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-04-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1844677591

In this set of devastating essays, Gareth Peirce analyzes the corruption of legal principles and practices in both the US and the UK that has accompanied the ‘War on Terror’. Exploring the few cases of torture that have come to light, such as those of Guantánamo detainees Shafiq Rasul and Binyam Mohamed, Peirce argues that they are evidence of a deeply entrenched culture of impunity among those investigating presumed radicals among British Muslim nationals and residents, who constitute the new suspect community in the UK. Peirce shows that the British government has colluded in a whole range of extrajudicial activities – rendition, internment without trial, torture – and has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal its actions. Its devices for maintaining secrecy are probably more deep-rooted than those of any other comparable democracy. If the government continues along this path, Peirce argues, it will destroy the moral and legal fabric it claims to be protecting.

C'mon Papa

C'mon Papa
Author: Ryan Knighton
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2010-05-04
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0307373916

Ryan Knighton's humorous and perceptive tales of fatherhood take us inside an unusual new family, one bound by its father's particular darkness and light. C'mon Papa is Ryan Knighton's heartbreaking and hilarious voyage through the first year of fatherhood. Becoming a father is a stressful, daunting rite of passage to be sure, but for a blind father, the fears are unimaginably heightened. Ryan will have to find novel ways to adapt to nearly every aspect of parenting: the most basic skills are nearly impossible to contemplate, let alone master. And how will Ryan get to know this pre-verbal bundle of coos and burps when he can't see her smile, or look into her eyes for hints of the person to come? But this is no pity party, and Ryan has no time for sentimentality. Tackling these hurdles with grace and humour, Ryan is determined to do his part - and this is where the fun starts. From holding his daughter as she wails into the night to their first nerve-wracking walk to the cafe, no activity between father and daughter is without its pitfalls. In his struggle to "see" Tess, Ryan reimagines the relationship between father and child during that first chaotic year.

Dark Back of Time

Dark Back of Time
Author: Javier Marías
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2001
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780811215701

A book by Spain's greatest living writer weaves fiction and fact into a completely original and unforgettable hybrid. Called by its author a "false novel," Dark Back of Time begins with the tale of the odd effects of publishing All Souls, his witty and sardonic 1989 Oxford novel. All Souls is a book Marías swears to be fiction, but which its "characters"--the real-life dons and professors and bookshop owners who have "recognized themselves"--fiercely maintain to be a roman à clef. With the sleepy world of Oxford set into fretful motion by a world that never "existed," Dark Back of Time begins an odyssey into the nature of identity and of time. Marías weaves together autobiography, a legendary kingdom, strange ghostly literary figures, halls of mirrors, a one-eyed pilot, a curse in Havana, and a bullet lost in Mexico.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side!

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side!
Author: Tom Angleberger
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2015-09-22
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 148471220X

Acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author Tom Angleberger delivers a captivating retelling of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi like you've never experienced before, infusing the iconic, classic tale of good versus evil with a unique perspective and narrative style that will speak directly to today's young readers while enhancing the Star Wars experience for core fans of the saga.

The Dark Side

The Dark Side
Author: Jane Mayer
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2009-05-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307456501

The Dark Side is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made self-destructive decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world—decisions that not only violated the Constitution, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In spellbinding detail, Jane Mayer relates the impact of these decisions by which key players, namely Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, exploited September 11 to further a long held agenda to enhance presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment. With a new afterward. One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year National Bestseller National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A Best Book of the Year: Salon, Slate, The Economist, The Washington Post, Cleveland Plain-Dealer

A Secret History of Torture

A Secret History of Torture
Author: Ian Cobain
Publisher: Catapult
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1619021471

The official line is clear: the United Kingdom does not "participate in, solicit, encourage or condone" torture. And yet, the evidence is irrefutable: when faced with potential threats to their national security, the gloves always come off. Drawing on previously unseen official documents and the accounts of witnesses, victims and experts, prize–winning investigative journalist Ian Cobain looks beyond the cover–ups, the equivocations, and the attempts to dismiss brutality as the work of a few rogue interrogators, to get to the truth. From the Second World War to the War on Terror, via Kenya and Northern Ireland, A Secret History of Torture shows how the West have repeatedly and systematically resorted to torture, turning a blind eye where necessary, bending the law where they can, and issuing categorical denials all the while. What emerges is a picture of Britain that challenges our complacency on human rights and exposes the lie behind their reputation for fair play.

The Dark Side Of Man

The Dark Side Of Man
Author: Michael P. Ghiglieri
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
Total Pages: 344
Release: 1999-04
Genre: Science
ISBN:

Ghiglieri (anthropology, U. of Northern Arizona) provides a wide- ranging description of what makes men and women fundamentally different, in both body and behavior, arguing that male violence is largely innate and that only policies based on the biological underpinnings of human behavior can limit social violence. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Dark Side

The Dark Side
Author: Anthony O'Neill
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2016-06-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1501119567

In this dark and gripping sci-fi noir, an exiled police detective arrives at a lunar penal colony just as a psychotic android begins a murderous odyssey across the far side of the moon. Purgatory is the lawless moon colony of eccentric billionaire, Fletcher Brass: a mecca for war criminals, murderers, sex fiends, and adventurous tourists. You can’t find better drugs, cheaper plastic surgery, or a more ominous travel advisory anywhere in the universe. But trouble is brewing in Brass’s black-market heaven. When an exiled cop arrives in this wild new frontier, he immediately finds himself investigating a string of ruthless assassinations in which Brass himself—and his equally ambitious daughter—are the chief suspects. Meanwhile, two-thousand kilometers away, an amnesiac android, Leonardo Black, rampages across the lunar surface. Programmed with only the notorious “Brass Code”—a compendium of corporate laws that would make Ayn Rand blush—Black has only one goal in mind: to find Purgatory and conquer it. Visual, visceral, and tons of fun, The Dark Side fuses hard science with brutal crime and lunar adventure. It’s an intense, stylish, and action-packed thriller with a body count to match.

Maplecroft

Maplecroft
Author: Cherie Priest
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2014-09-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0698138384

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks; and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.... The people of Fall River, Massachusetts, fear me. Perhaps rightfully so. I remain a suspect in the brutal deaths of my father and his second wife despite the verdict of innocence at my trial. With our inheritance, my sister, Emma, and I have taken up residence in Maplecroft, a mansion near the sea and far from gossip and scrutiny. But it is not far enough from the affliction that possessed my parents. Their characters, their very souls, were consumed from within by something that left malevolent entities in their place. It originates from the ocean’s depths, plaguing the populace with tides of nightmares and madness. This evil cannot hide from me. No matter what guise it assumes, I will be waiting for it. With an axe.