The Ship That Wouldn't Die

The Ship That Wouldn't Die
Author: Don Keith
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2016-04-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 045147001X

Acclaimed naval historian Don Keith tells one of the most inspiring sea stories of World War II: the Japanese attack on the American oiler USS Neosho and the crew’s struggle for survival as their slowly sinking ship drifted on the treacherous Coral Sea. May 1942: the United States closed in for the war’s first major clash with the Japanese Navy. The Neosho, a vitally important but minimally armed oil tanker was ordered away from the impending battle. But as the Battle of the Coral Sea raged two hundred miles away, the Neosho was attacked, setting the ship ablaze and leaving it listing badly. Scores of sailors were killed or wounded, while hundreds bobbed in shark-infested waters. Fires on board threatened to spark a fatal explosion, and each passing hour brought the ship closer to sinking. It was the beginning of a hellish four-day ordeal as the crew struggled to stay alive and keep their ship afloat. Only four of them would survive to be rescued after nine days. Working from eyewitness accounts and declassified documents, Keith offers up vivid portraits of Navy heroes in this tale of a ship as tough and resilient as its crew. The Ship That Wouldn’t Die captures the indomitable spirit of the American sailor—and finally brings to the surface one of the great untold sagas of the Pacific War.

So Long for Now

So Long for Now
Author: Jerry L. Rogers
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2017-03-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0806158786

Elden Duane Rogers died on March 19, 1945, one of the eight hundred who perished on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin that day. It was his nineteenth birthday. Write home often, the navy told sailors like Elden, thinking it would keep up morale among sailors and those waiting for them stateside. But they were told not to write anything about where they were, where they had been, where they were going, what they were doing, or even what the weather was like. Spies were presumed everywhere, and loose lips could sink ships. Before a sailor’s letter could be sealed and sent, a censor read it and with a razor blade cut out words that told too much. So Long for Now reconstructs the lost world of a sailor’s daily life in World War II, piecing together letters from Elden’s family in Vega, Texas, and from his girlfriend, the untold stories behind Elden’s own letters, and the context of the war itself. Historian Jerry L. Rogers delves past censored letters limited to small talk and local gossip to conjure the danger, excitement, boredom, and sacrifices that sailors in the Pacific theater endured. He follows Elden from enlistment in the navy through every battle the USS Franklin saw. Flight deck crashes, kamikaze hits, and tensions and alliances aboard ship all built to the unprecedented chaos and casualties of the Japanese air attack on March 19. “So long for now,” Elden signed off—never “Goodbye.” This moving work poignantly confronts the horrors of war, giving voice to a young sailor, the country he served, the family and friends he left behind, and the hope that has sustained them.

Tiny Beautiful Things

Tiny Beautiful Things
Author: Cheryl Strayed
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2012-07-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307949338

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Soon to be a Hulu Original series • The internationally acclaimed author of Wild collects the best of The Rumpus's Dear Sugar advice columns plus never-before-published pieces. Rich with humor and insight—and absolute honesty—this "wise and compassionate" (New York Times Book Review) book is a balm for everything life throws our way. Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice.

The Man Who Wouldn't Die

The Man Who Wouldn't Die
Author: A. B. Jewell
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0062201212

"HBO's Silicon Valley meets The Big Sleep" (Mark Haskell Smith): An anonymous tech insider delivers "a hard-boiled, hilarious detective novel about Silicon Valley" (New York Post) “DOES FOR SILICON VALLEY WHAT CARL HIAASEN DID FOR FLORIDA.” —Tim Dorsey “THE MAN WHO WOULDN’T DIE IS DASHIELL HAMMETT 2.0: THE CLASSIC HARDBOILED DETECTIVE NOVEL, UPDATED FOR 21ST CENTURY SILICON VALLEY AND MADE HILARIOUS.” —Brad Parks Silicon Valley scion Captain Don Donogue is dead under mysterious circumstances. In fact, he might’ve well have been murdered. Just ask Captain Don himself. He’s been sending messages about his suspicious death from beyond the grave. Yep, he’s been tweeting from the afterlife. Or so it seems. Could life-after-death be Silicon Valley’s latest innovation? Our bodies die but our souls and social media accounts are eternal? This is the mystery that confronts the only sane person left in a region gone mad with greed, William Fitzgerald. Fitch. He’s a world-class detective, tough, stoic, carries a big fist and a flip phone. He’s a bad fit for Silicon Valley, where the law firms have drive-thru windows manned by barristeristas (who serve instant coffee and instant patents); attractive women aren’t MILF’s but TELFs (Tech Executives I’d Like To Fund); and couples are so anxious to get into the best free-play kindergartens that they get on the waiting list as soon as they freeze their sperm and eggs for later use. One day, a woman knocks on Fitch’s door. She’s got a handful of cash and a wild story: She says that her father was Captain Don, or is Captain Don. He was killed, or maybe not. He’s tweeting from beyond. Fitch takes the case and goes into the belly of the valley, discovering that life and death, well, sometimes they’re just another transaction…. Original, clever, and hysterical, The Man Who Wouldn’t Die is the Carl Hiaasen of Silicon Valley and neo-noir at its unforgettable best.

The Ship

The Ship
Author: Antonia Honeywell
Publisher: Orbit
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2017-04-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316469890

In this thought-provoking and lyrical debut novel, a young woman's only hope for survival in the dystopian future is a ship, a Noah's Ark, that can rescue 500 people. London burned for three weeks. And then it got worse. . . Young, naive, and frustratingly sheltered, Lalla has grown up in near-isolation in her parents' apartment, sheltered from the chaos of their collapsed civilization. But things are getting more dangerous outside. People are killing each other for husks of bread, and the police are detaining anyone without an identification card. On her sixteenth birthday, Lalla's father decides it's time to use their escape route -- a ship he's built that is only big enough to save five hundred people. But the utopia her father has created isn't everything it appears. There's more food than anyone can eat, but nothing grows; more clothes than anyone can wear, but no way to mend them; and no-one can tell her where they are going.

Saving Big Ben

Saving Big Ben
Author: John Satterfield
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2011-04-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1612514022

Father Joe O’Callahan, S.J. was the unlikeliest war hero. A bespectacled math professor from Holy Cross, he became the U.S. Navy’s first Jesuit chaplain in World War II and served in combat operations in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. Father O’Callahan was on the aircraft carrier Franklin, known as “Big Ben”, in the Okinawa campaign in early 1945 when massive explosions and fire from a kamikaze bomb attack nearly destroyed his ship. Hundreds of sailors died within moments of the attack, and the Franklin, lay dead in the water, drifting toward Japan just 60 miles distant. As flames consumed the carrier, the chaplain organized and led fire-fighting crews and prevented a potentially fatal explosion while ministering to injured, dying and terrified sailors. Father O’Callahan’s deeds were instrumental in saving the Franklin, and he stayed with the ship on its voyage under power to New York Harbor. The carrier’s captain called him “the bravest man I ever saw,” and Father Joe became the first American military chaplain to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor. But the price of glory was high for Father O’Callahan. He suffered a stroke after returning to Holy Cross and spent the rest of his life enduring incapacitating pain. Through it all, the priest displayed the same leadership and strength derived from unwavering faith that enabled him to help save his ship and comrades. The book incorporates primary sources, interviews with Franklin survivors and O’Callahan family members and other materials never before published, including documentation of the Navy’s review of Father O’Callahan’s recommendation of the Medal of Honor and the process leading to the priest’s receipt of the decoration.

Ship of Magic

Ship of Magic
Author: Robin Hobb
Publisher: Spectra
Total Pages: 834
Release: 2003-12-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0553900250

The first book in a seafaring fantasy trilogy that George R. R. Martin has described as “even better than the Farseer Trilogy—I didn’t think that was possible.” Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships—rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. Now the fortunes of one of Bingtown’s oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy. For Althea’s young nephew, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard the Vivacia, the ship is a life sentence. But the fate of the ship—and the Vestrits—may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider: the ruthless buccaneer captain Kennit, who plans to seize power over the Pirate Isles by capturing a liveship and bending it to his will. Don’t miss the magic of the Liveship Traders Trilogy: SHIP OF MAGIC • MAD SHIP • SHIP OF DESTINY

The Ship We Built

The Ship We Built
Author: Lexie Bean
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2021-05-25
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0525554858

The Ship We Built is an expertly told epistolary middle grade novel about a trans boy learning to stand up for himself--especially to those he loves--and the power of finding a friend who treasures him for all that he is. "Incredibly good; by turns raw, sweet, horrifying, tender, and hopeful."--Laurie Halse Anderson, NYT bestselling and award-winning author of Speak and SHOUT Sometimes I have trouble filling out tests when the name part feels like a test too. . . . When I write letters, I love that you have to read all of my thoughts and stories before I say any name at all. You have to make it to the very end to know. Rowan has too many secrets to write down in the pages of a diary. And if he did, he wouldn't want anyone he knows to read them. He understands who he is and what he likes, but it's not safe for others to find out. Now the kids at school say Rowan's too different to spend time with. He's not the "right kind" of girl, and he's not the "right kind" of boy. His mom ignores him. And at night, his dad hurts him in ways he's not ready to talk about yet. Then Rowan discovers another way to share his secrets: letters. Letters he attaches to balloons and releases into the universe, hoping someone new will read them and understand. But when he befriends a classmate who knows what it's like to be lonely and scared, even at home, Rowan realizes there might already be a person he can trust right by his side.

The Three-Legged Stool

The Three-Legged Stool
Author: Dana Couillard
Publisher: FriesenPress
Total Pages: 92
Release:
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1525555227

HOW MUCH IS LOW EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT COSTING YOUR ORGANIZATION TODAY? WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT? Low employee engagement is a corporate epidemic. It lives virtually undiscovered on production floors, in office hallways, and in senior leadership offices. It drives up costs, reduces productivity, and robs companies of their hard-earned profits while hiding in plain sight. The Three-Legged Stool is a simple, how-to-guide to track and improve low employee engagement. Award-winning author and business consultant Dana Couillard uses stories, interviews, and research to reveal new insights into this often ignored problem. • Learn how to identify and manage low employee engagement • Harness the power of your employees’ psychological needs for purpose, control, competence, and connection. • Build an easy-to-use Employee Engagement Plan complete with your own unique purpose statement using the step-by-step guide. The Three-Legged Stool is a powerful new tool that will reverse the negative impacts caused by low employee engagement and the frustration that wreaks havoc on morale and profitability in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. The Three-Legged Stool is a business leader’s roadmap to enhanced employee wellness, improved productivity, and increased profitability.