Did you know...

Sybil Ludington's daring midnight ride in 1777 saved the American colonists, though no epic poem was ever written about her?

George Washington defied his own mother, who deemed him a traitor?

Caesar Rodney determined to cast the deciding vote for independence despite the cancer ravaging his body?

Daring! Defiant! Determined!

Discover the extraordinary contributions of many well-known, little-known, and unknown American patriots who established a new nation unlike any other! Each of these brief biographies will inspire today's citizens to become the extraordinary patriots of the future.

Did you know...

Sybil Ludington's daring midnight ride in 1777 saved the American colonists, though no epic poem was ever written about her?

George Washington defied his own mother, who deemed him a traitor?

Caesar Rodney determined to cast the deciding vote for independence despite the cancer ravaging his body?

Daring! Defiant! Determined!

Discover the extraordinary contributions of many well-known, little-known, and unknown American patriots who established a new nation unlike any other! Each of these brief biographies will inspire today's citizens to become the extraordinary patriots of the future.

It is not too often one can read or listen to a 2600 year-old book and know that it still has relevance and importance today. The Art of War has long been considered not only a military classic, but a classic book in general. Sun Tzus treatise on various aspects and components of wartime strategy is highly recommended for insight into the Eastern mindset and military planning. It also can apply to business, legal and educational situations as well.

The Art of War is the Swiss army knife of military theory--pop out a different tool for any situation. Folded into this small package are compact views on resourcefulness, momentum, cunning, the profit motive, flexibility, integrity, secrecy, speed, positioning, surprise, deception, manipulation, responsibility, and practicality. Thomas Cleary's translation keeps the package tight, with crisp language and short sections. Commentaries from the Chinese tradition trail Sun-tzu's words, elaborating and picking up on puzzling lines. Take the solitary passage: "Do not eat food for their soldiers." Elsewhere, Sun-tzu has told us to plunder the enemy's stores, but now we're not supposed to eat the food? The Tang dynasty commentator Du Mu solves the puzzle nicely, "If the enemy suddenly abandons their food supplies, they should be tested first before eating, lest they be poisoned." Most passages, however, are the pinnacle of succinct clarity: "Lure them in with the prospect of gain, take them by confusion" or "Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability is in the opponent." Sun-tzu's maxims are widely applicable beyond the military because they speak directly to the exigencies of survival. Your new tools will serve you well, but don't flaunt them. Remember Sun-tzu's advice: "Though effective, appear to be ineffective." --Brian Bruya

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit.  Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.


From the Hardcover edition.

Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010: From Laura Hillenbrand, the bestselling author of Seabiscuit, comes Unbroken, the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. In evocative, immediate descriptions, Hillenbrand unfurls the story of Louie Zamperini--a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero. During a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages, eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same time. You’ll cheer for the man who somehow maintained his selfhood and humanity despite the monumental degradations he suffered, and you’ll want to share this book with everyone you know. --Juliet Disparte

The Story of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Eight years ago, an old man told me a story that took my breath away. His name was Louie Zamperini, and from the day I first spoke to him, his almost incomprehensibly dramatic life was my obsession.

It was a horse--the subject of my first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend--who led me to Louie. As I researched the Depression-era racehorse, I kept coming across stories about Louie, a 1930s track star who endured an amazing odyssey in World War II. I knew only a little about him then, but I couldn’t shake him from my mind. After I finished Seabiscuit, I tracked Louie down, called him and asked about his life. For the next hour, he had me transfixed.

Growing up in California in the 1920s, Louie was a hellraiser, stealing everything edible that he could carry, staging elaborate pranks, getting in fistfights, and bedeviling the local police. But as a teenager, he emerged as one of the greatest runners America had ever seen, competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he put on a sensational performance, crossed paths with Hitler, and stole a German flag right off the Reich Chancellery. He was preparing for the 1940 Olympics, and closing in on the fabled four-minute mile, when World War II began. Louie joined the Army Air Corps, becoming a bombardier. Stationed on Oahu, he survived harrowing combat, including an epic air battle that ended when his plane crash-landed, some six hundred holes in its fuselage and half the crew seriously wounded.

On a May afternoon in 1943, Louie took off on a search mission for a lost plane. Somewhere over the Pacific, the engines on his bomber failed. The plane plummeted into the sea, leaving Louie and two other men stranded on a tiny raft. Drifting for weeks and thousands of miles, they endured starvation and desperate thirst, sharks that leapt aboard the raft, trying to drag them off, a machine-gun attack from a Japanese bomber, and a typhoon with waves some forty feet high. At last, they spotted an island. As they rowed toward it, unbeknownst to them, a Japanese military boat was lurking nearby. Louie’s journey had only just begun.

That first conversation with Louie was a pivot point in my life. Fascinated by his experiences, and the mystery of how a man could overcome so much, I began a seven-year journey through his story. I found it in diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs; in the memories of his family and friends, fellow Olympians, former American airmen and Japanese veterans; in forgotten papers in archives as far-flung as Oslo and Canberra. Along the way, there were staggering surprises, and Louie’s unlikely, inspiring story came alive for me. It is a tale of daring, defiance, persistence, ingenuity, and the ferocious will of a man who refused to be broken.

The culmination of my journey is my new book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I hope you are as spellbound by Louie’s life as I am.

Day of War, author Cliff Graham's first novel, has earned him a film option for the entire book series---Lion of War---from director David L. Cunningham (Path to 9/11) and producer Grant Curtis (Spider-Man films). In ancient Israel, at the crossroads of the great trading routes, a man named Benaiah is searching for a fresh start in life. He has joined a band of soldiers led by a warlord named David, seeking to bury the past that refuses to leave him. Their ragged army is disgruntled and full of reckless men. Some are loyal to David, but others are only with him for the promise of captured wealth. While the ruthless and increasingly mad King Saul marches hopelessly against the powerful Philistines, loyal son Jonathan in tow, the land of the Hebrew tribes has never been more despondent---and more in need of rescue. Over the course of ten days, from snowy mountain passes to sword-wracked battlefields, Benaiah and his fellow mercenaries must call upon every skill they have to survive and establish the throne for David---if they don't kill each other first.

H. G. Wells' best-selling classic THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G. Wells in 1898. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells readers that "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's..."

Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just outside of London. At first the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in Earth's comparatively heavy gravity even enough to raise themselves out of the pit created when their spaceship landed. But soon the Martians reveal their true nature as death machines 100-feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying waste to the surrounding land. Wells quickly moves the story from the countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as England's military suffers defeat after defeat. With horror his narrator describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance, and how it's clear that man is not being conquered so much a corralled. --Craig E. Engler

From Publishers Weekly

Readers who are jaded and skeptical about the quality of Christian novels will find Tatlock's fictional exploration of racial discrimination, hatred and the human heart a fine example of the progress being made in the category. It's a memoir-like tale of Augusta Augie Schuler Callahan, an eight-year-old German-Irish girl growing up in California who, as the youngest of six in an abusive and alcoholic family, informally adopts Sunny Yamagata and her Japanese-American family as her own in the late 1930s. War soon separates Augie from her beloved friends, who are deported to an American internment camp for Japanese-Americans. After losing touch for 23 years, they meet again in Mississippi in the racially torn 1960s, where Sunny is working to establish voting rights for blacks. Injustice is a funny thing... live long enough and you're going to get rained on, Sunny tells her friend, and as the story draws to a conclusion, they are challenged to make choices that reflect their own conflicts about race and forgiveness. Tatlock (A Room of My Own; A Place Called Morning) adeptly traces the girls' journey of faith with a light and sometimes humorous touch. She does an excellent job juxtaposing the horrors of Americans in Japanese hands and Japanese-Americans in the hands of their countrymen. Tatlock employs flashbacks efficiently, and her rich descriptions and characterizations are unusually fresh and inventive. Other Christian novelists would do well to emulate this quality contribution.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Against the turbulent backdrop of the Vietnam War, journalist Augie Schuler Callahan reflects on her girlhood in 1938 Los Angeles as she travels to a small Southern town to cover a story. She fondly recalls the Japanese American family who all but adopted her and her friendship with their daughter, Sunny, and agonizes over the end of their relationship when Sunny's family was sent to an internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor. When Augie arrives in Mississippi, she discovers that the woman who convinced her to come is Sunny, who is working to establish voting rights for blacks. As the two get reacquainted, they become involved in the conflict between the Ku Klux Klan and the local African American community. Tatlock (A Place Called Morning) writes well, but her emphasis on drawn-out scenes of injustice at the expense of the small, more human elements make her clever juxtaposition of the social issues-the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and the incarceration of Japanese Americans in the 1940s-less thought-provoking and fascinating than it could have been. (For example, while she goes into excessive detail depicting a sit-in on the lawn of a courthouse, Tatlock spends less time exploring Sunny's complicated decision to have plastic surgery to alter her Japanese appearance.) While there are more overt Christian elements than in her first novel, A Room of My Own, a brief, unflattering scene of a priest in a Catholic church may offend some. However, multicultural characters are still a novelty in Christian fiction, so this is recommended for most collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Readers who are jaded and skeptical about the quality of Christian novels will find Tatlock's fictional exploration of racial discrimination, hatred and the human heart a fine example of the progress being made in the category. It's a memoir-like tale of Augusta Augie Schuler Callahan, an eight-year-old German-Irish girl growing up in California who, as the youngest of six in an abusive and alcoholic family, informally adopts Sunny Yamagata and her Japanese-American family as her own in the late 1930s. War soon separates Augie from her beloved friends, who are deported to an American internment camp for Japanese-Americans. After losing touch for 23 years, they meet again in Mississippi in the racially torn 1960s, where Sunny is working to establish voting rights for blacks. Injustice is a funny thing... live long enough and you're going to get rained on, Sunny tells her friend, and as the story draws to a conclusion, they are challenged to make choices that reflect their own conflicts about race and forgiveness. Tatlock (A Room of My Own; A Place Called Morning) adeptly traces the girls' journey of faith with a light and sometimes humorous touch. She does an excellent job juxtaposing the horrors of Americans in Japanese hands and Japanese-Americans in the hands of their countrymen. Tatlock employs flashbacks efficiently, and her rich descriptions and characterizations are unusually fresh and inventive. Other Christian novelists would do well to emulate this quality contribution.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Against the turbulent backdrop of the Vietnam War, journalist Augie Schuler Callahan reflects on her girlhood in 1938 Los Angeles as she travels to a small Southern town to cover a story. She fondly recalls the Japanese American family who all but adopted her and her friendship with their daughter, Sunny, and agonizes over the end of their relationship when Sunny's family was sent to an internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor. When Augie arrives in Mississippi, she discovers that the woman who convinced her to come is Sunny, who is working to establish voting rights for blacks. As the two get reacquainted, they become involved in the conflict between the Ku Klux Klan and the local African American community. Tatlock (A Place Called Morning) writes well, but her emphasis on drawn-out scenes of injustice at the expense of the small, more human elements make her clever juxtaposition of the social issues-the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and the incarceration of Japanese Americans in the 1940s-less thought-provoking and fascinating than it could have been. (For example, while she goes into excessive detail depicting a sit-in on the lawn of a courthouse, Tatlock spends less time exploring Sunny's complicated decision to have plastic surgery to alter her Japanese appearance.) While there are more overt Christian elements than in her first novel, A Room of My Own, a brief, unflattering scene of a priest in a Catholic church may offend some. However, multicultural characters are still a novelty in Christian fiction, so this is recommended for most collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Don’t miss STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: PRECIPICE a FREE original e-book short story, the first in a series that tell the untold story of the FATE OF THE JEDI's forgotten Sith castaways, their battle to survive, and their quest to re-conquer the galaxy! PRECIPICE includes an exclusive excerpt from STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: OMEN (Del Rey Hardcover, available June 23rd) and offers a unique look into the backstory of events that will begin to unfold in OMEN. SURVIVAL—NOT SURRENDER For the ruthless Sith Order, failure is not an option. It is an offense punishable by death—and a fate to which Commander Yaru Korsin will not succumb. But on a crucial run to deliver troops and precious crystals to a combat hotspot in the Sith’s war against the Republic, Korsin and the crew of the mining ship Omen are ambushed by a Jedi starfighter. And when the Sith craft crash-lands, torn and crippled, on a desolate alien planet, the hard-bitten captain finds himself at odds with desperate survivors on the brink of mutiny—and his own vengeful half brother, who’s bent on seizing command. No matter the cost, Korsin vows that it will not be his blood and bones left behind on this unknown world. For the way of the Sith leaves little room for compromise—and none for mercy.

Don’t miss STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: PRECIPICE a FREE original e-book short story, the first in a series that tell the untold story of the FATE OF THE JEDI's forgotten Sith castaways, their battle to survive, and their quest to re-conquer the galaxy! PRECIPICE includes an exclusive excerpt from STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: OMEN (Del Rey Hardcover, available June 23rd) and offers a unique look into the backstory of events that will begin to unfold in OMEN. SURVIVAL—NOT SURRENDER For the ruthless Sith Order, failure is not an option. It is an offense punishable by death—and a fate to which Commander Yaru Korsin will not succumb. But on a crucial run to deliver troops and precious crystals to a combat hotspot in the Sith’s war against the Republic, Korsin and the crew of the mining ship Omen are ambushed by a Jedi starfighter. And when the Sith craft crash-lands, torn and crippled, on a desolate alien planet, the hard-bitten captain finds himself at odds with desperate survivors on the brink of mutiny—and his own vengeful half brother, who’s bent on seizing command. No matter the cost, Korsin vows that it will not be his blood and bones left behind on this unknown world. For the way of the Sith leaves little room for compromise—and none for mercy.

Published as a series of newspaper articles contains many of the ideas that made the American Revolution a remarkable political experiment. It has been called the third most important document in American history-third only to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself.

"This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren ... should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties." So wrote John Jay, one of the revolutionary authors of The Federalist Papers, arguing that if the United States was truly to be a single nation, its leaders would have to agree on universally binding rules of governance--in short, a constitution. In a brilliant set of essays, Jay and his colleagues Alexander Hamilton and James Madison explored in minute detail the implications of establishing a kind of rule that would engage as many citizens as possible and that would include a system of checks and balances. Their arguments proved successful in the end, and The Federalist Papers stand as key documents in the founding of the United States.

Don't miss Star Wars: Lost Tribe of The Sith: Skyborn a FREE original eBook short story, the second in a series that tell the untold story of the Fate of the Jedi's forgotten Sith castaways, their battle to survive, and their quest to re-conquer the galaxy!               DECEIVE AND CONQUER                   A Jedi ambush leaves the Sith ship Omen marooned on a remote alien world, its survivors at the mercy of their desolate surroundings and facing almost certain death. But Sith will no more bow before the whims of fate than they will yield to the weapons of their enemies. And Omen’s cunning commander Yaru Korsin, will let nothing keep him and his crew from returning to the stars and rejoining the Sith order’s conquest of the galaxy. Murdering his own brother has proven Korsin’ s ruthless resolve—but now an entire race stands in his way.                The primitive, superstitious Keshiri worship unseen gods called the Skyborn, shun science, and punish unbelievers with death. Branded a heretic the widowed young geologist Adari Vaal is running for her life. Among the mysterious Sith castaways she finds powerful sanctuary—and her saviors find the means of survival. With Adari as their willing pawn, the Skyborn as their Trojan horse, and the awesome power of the dark side of the Force at their command, the lost tribe of the Omen set out to subjugate a planet and its people—and lay the foundation for a merciless new Sith nation.                   BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Abyss.

Don't miss Star Wars: Lost Tribe of The Sith: Skyborn a FREE original eBook short story, the second in a series that tell the untold story of the Fate of the Jedi's forgotten Sith castaways, their battle to survive, and their quest to re-conquer the galaxy!               DECEIVE AND CONQUER                   A Jedi ambush leaves the Sith ship Omen marooned on a remote alien world, its survivors at the mercy of their desolate surroundings and facing almost certain death. But Sith will no more bow before the whims of fate than they will yield to the weapons of their enemies. And Omen’s cunning commander Yaru Korsin, will let nothing keep him and his crew from returning to the stars and rejoining the Sith order’s conquest of the galaxy. Murdering his own brother has proven Korsin’ s ruthless resolve—but now an entire race stands in his way.                The primitive, superstitious Keshiri worship unseen gods called the Skyborn, shun science, and punish unbelievers with death. Branded a heretic the widowed young geologist Adari Vaal is running for her life. Among the mysterious Sith castaways she finds powerful sanctuary—and her saviors find the means of survival. With Adari as their willing pawn, the Skyborn as their Trojan horse, and the awesome power of the dark side of the Force at their command, the lost tribe of the Omen set out to subjugate a planet and its people—and lay the foundation for a merciless new Sith nation.                   BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Abyss.