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The white darkness / by Grann, David,author.;
Henry Worsley was a devoted husband and father and a decorated British special forces officer who believed in honor and sacrifice. He was also a man obsessed. He spent his life idolizing Ernest Shackleton, the nineteenth-century polar explorer, who tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole, and later sought to cross Antarctica on foot. Shackleton never completed his journeys, but he repeatedly rescued his men from certain death, and emerged as one of the greatest leaders in history. Worsley felt an overpowering connection to those expeditions. He was related to one of Shackleton's men, Frank Worsley, and spent a fortune collecting artifacts from their epic treks across the continent. He modeled his military command on Shackleton's legendary skills and was determined to measure his own powers of endurance against them. He would succeed where Shackleton had failed, in the most brutal landscape in the world. In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton's crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape, life-threatening physical exhaustion, and hidden crevasses. Yet when he returned home he felt compelled to go back. On November 13, 2015, at age 55, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone.
Subjects: Biographies.; Worsley, Henry; Explorers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Yank : the true story of a former US Marine in the Irish Republican Army / by Crawley, John,author.;
"1975: A young Irish-American man joins an elite US Marine unit to get the most intensive military training possible - then joins the Irish Republican Army, during the days of some of the bloodiest fighting ever in the Irish-British conflict ... The Irish "Troubles" were at a murderous fever pitch when John Crawley volunteered for the IRA. Bloody Friday, Bloody Sunday, the bombing of the British Houses of Parliament, and other deadly incidents had recently unfolded or were about to ... Civilian casualties were common as British soldiers, Republican militants (who wanted the UK out of Northern Ireland) and Unionist police and militants (who wanted to remain in the UK), engaged in gun battles and car bombing throughout Northern Ireland. The death toll numbered over 1,000. The IRA split over how to react between the old-line IRA, and the new Provisional IRA - the Provos, mostly impassioned young men who were not hesitant to resort to violence. In a powerful, brutally honest, no-holds-barred recounting of his experience, John Crawley details, first, the grueling challenges of his Marine Corps training, then how he put his hard-earned munitions and demolitions skills to use back in Ireland in service of the Provos. It is a story that will see him running guns with notorious American mobster - and secret IRA fundraiser - Whitey Bulger; running, under cover of night, from safe house to safe house in the Irish countryside, one step ahead of British troops; being captured, imprisoned, and being part of a mass escape attempt; fending off a recruitment offer from the CIA; and being one of the masterminds behind a campaign to take out London's electrical system. Along the way, Crawley is blisteringly candid about the memorable people he worked with, including behind-the-scenes portrayals of revered IRA leader Martin McGuinness, and of the psychopathic Whitey Bulger, as well as others in the Boston IRA support network. There are vivid portraits of colleagues and enemies, and Crawley is unflinching in his commentary on IRA leadership and their tactics, both military and political. Through it all comes the steadfast voice of a man on a mission, providing an evocative, detailed, and passionate recounting of where that mission led him and why - as well as why, to this day, he remains ready to serve"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Crawley, John,.; United States. Marine Corps; Irish Republican Army; Illegal arms transfers; Marines; Revolutionaries; Terrorists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Vanished : the sixty-year search for the missing men of World War II / by Hylton, Wil S.;
Includes bibliographical references."From mesmerizing storyteller Wil S. Hylton, the gripping search for a missing World War II military crew, their bomber plane, and their legacy in American history"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Aircraft accidents; Airmen; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The road years : a memoir, continued ... / by Mercer, Rick,1969-author.;
"Rick Mercer is back--again!--with the eagerly awaited sequel to his bestselling memoir. At the end of his memoir, Talking to Canadians, Rick Mercer was poised to make the biggest leap yet in his extraordinary career. Having overcome a serious lack of promise as a schoolboy and risen through the showbiz ranks--as an aspiring actor, star of a surprisingly successful one-man show about the Meech Lake Accord, co-founder of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, creator and star of the dark-comedy sitcom Made in Canada--he was about to tackle his biggest opportunity yet. The Road Years picks up the story at that exciting point, with the greenlighting of what would become Rick Mercer Report. Plans for the show of course included political satire and Rick's patented rants. But Rick and his partner, Gerald Lunz, were also determined to do something that comedy tends to avoid as too challenging: they would emphasize the positive. Rick would travel from coast to coast to coast in search of everything that's best about Canada, especially its people. He found a lot to celebrate, of course, and was rewarded with a huge audience and a run of 15 seasons. The Road Years tells the inside story of that stupendous success. A time when Rick was always heading to another town--or military base, sports centre, national park--to tag moose, hang from a harness (a lot), ride the Train of Death, and countless other joyous and/or reckless assignments. Added to the mix were encounters with the country's great. Every living prime minister. Rock and roll royalty from Rush to Randy Bachman. Olympians and paralympians. A skinny-dipping Bob Rae, a goal-keeping Margaret Atwood, a joint-rolling Pierre Berton. Along the way he even found the time to co-found and champion the charity Spread the Net, which has gone on to save more lives than any malaria medicine. Join the celebration, and revive a wealth of happy memories, with what is Rick Mercer's funniest, most fascinating book yet."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Mercer, Rick, 1969-; Comedians; Television personalities;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The divider : Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 / by Baker, Peter,1967-author.; Glasser, Susan,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The inside story of the four years when Donald Trump went to war with Washington, from the chaotic beginning to the violent finale, told by revered journalists Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker--an ambitious and lasting history of the full Trump presidency that also contains dozens of exclusive scoops and stories from behind the scenes in the White House, from the absurd to the deadly serious. The bestselling authors of The Man Who Ran Washington argue that Trump was not just lurching from one controversy to another; he was learning to be more like the foreign autocrats he admired. The Divider brings us into the Oval Office for countless scenes both tense and comical, revealing how close we got to nuclear war with North Korea, which cabinet members had a resignation pact, whether Trump asked Japan's prime minister to nominate him for a Nobel Prize and much more. The book also explores the moral choices confronting those around Trump--how they justified working for a man they considered unfit for office, and where they drew their lines. The Divider is based on unprecedented access to key players, from President Trump himself to cabinet officers, military generals, close advisers, Trump family members, congressional leaders, foreign officials and others, some of whom have never told their story until now."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Trump, Donald, 1946-; Presidents;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Road to surrender : three men and the countdown to the end of World War II / by Thomas, Evan,1951-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."This suspenseful and propulsive account of the days leading up to the end of World War II, is told through the stories of three men: Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War, who had overall responsibility for decisions about the atomic bomb; Gen. Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in Europe and the Pacific, who was in charge of actually dropping the bombs; and Shigenori Tōgō, the Japanese Foreign Minister, who was the only one in Emperor Hirohito's Court and Supreme War Council who knew and believed that Japan must surrender. 1945 was Stimson's last year of his career as a statesman in the administrations of five presidents. When Truman, a peripheral figure in the momentous decision, accepted Stimson's recommendation to drop the bomb, you are there as Army Air Force commander General Spaatz accepts the order, gets into one of the planes, and the planes take off. Like Stimson, Spaatz agonized over the command even as he recognized it would end the war, and that a prolonged war would cause even greater destruction. But Spaatz and Stimson were on only one side of the story. On the other side of the world was a commander whom they would never meet. From the start of the Pacific war, Foreign Minister Tōgō worked to mediate negotiations between the Japanese Prime Minister, the Emperor, and his Court, all of whom believed surrender was impossible. Finally, Tōgō convinced the Emperor that surrender was the best option for Hirohito, and for Japan"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Spaatz, Carl, 1891-1974.; Stimson, Henry L. (Henry Lewis), 1867-1950.; Tōgō, Shigenori, 1882-1950.; Atomic bomb.; Capitulations, Military; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Marriott cell : an epic journey from Cairo's Scorpion Prison to freedom / by Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel,author.; Shaben, Carol,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The revealing, widely anticipated story by the internationally award-winning journalist is as riveting as a political thriller: it opens an astonishing window onto the closed world of geo-political power brokering as he takes us behind his headline-generating seizure and 438-day imprisonment in Cairo's notorious Scorpion Prison with leading terrorists; through the love story that made front-page news; to the profoundly personal drama of one man's fight for freedom, supported by Canadians across the country and media world-wide. With a foreword by international human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney. On the night of December 29, 2013, the Egyptian government's anti-terror forces led a dramatic raid on the Marriott Hotel, seizing Fahmy, Canadian-Egyptian bureau chief for the independent English Al Jazeera, and two fellow journalists in what quickly became an international cause célèbre condemned as a travesty of justice. Inside the maximum-security Scorpion Prison, Fahmy found himself with some of the most hardened Al Qaeda and ISIS extremists and Muslim Brotherhood leaders: always intrepid, he never stopped being a journalist, courageously taking advantage of his unexpected proximity to "interview" them and gain insight into their goals, into the feuds between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE on the one hand, and Qatar and its allies, including Turkey, on the other, and surfacing shocking details of torture inside military camps. Thrown into the toxic mix is the complex geo-political power brokering of our Western governments also, which left three men, wrongly convicted of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood and "fabricating news," struggling in a terrifying web he describes as "Global McCarthyism" and a war on journalism. Threaded through it all is an inspiring love story, as Fahmy's fiancée, Marwa, used every means at her disposal to fight for his release and his health, even to risking her own freedom smuggling cell phones and messages in and out of prison."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel; Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel.; False arrest; False imprisonment; Journalists; Journalists; Prisons;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Return of a king : the battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 / by Dalrymple, William.;
Includes bibliographical references (p. [483]-497), and index.LSC
Subjects: Shāh Shujāʻ, Amir of Afghanistan, 1780?-1842.; British;
© 2013., Alfred A. Knopf,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The war we won apart : the untold story of two elite agents who became one of the most decorated couples of WWII / by Ayed, Nahlah,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Love, betrayal, and a secret war: the untold story of two elite agents, one Canadian, one British, who became one of the most decorated wartime couples of WWII. On opposite sides of the pond, Sonia Butt, an adventurous young British woman, and Guy d'Artois, a French-Canadian soldier and thunderstorm of a man, are preparing to go to war. From different worlds, they make their way to fight in Winston Churchill's secret army against the German forces and, unlike most involved in the world's deadliest conflict to date, to fight from behind enemy lines. Their lives first intersect during clandestine training to become agents with the Special Operations Executive. Sonia and Guy learn how to parachute into enemy territory, how to kill, blow up rail lines, support the French resistance, and eventually ... how to love each other. But not long after their hasty marriage, their love is tested by separation, by a titanic invasion -- and by indiscretion. Written in vivid, heart stopping prose, we follow their stories of uncommon courage -- as Sonia plunges into Nazi-occupied France and slinks into black market restaurants to throw off German forces who knew she'd arrived, while at the same time participating in sabotage operations against them by night; and as Guy, in another corner of France, trains hundreds into a resistance army, fashioning himself a military leader, weapons instructor, and peacemaker all at once. Reconstructed from hours of unpublished interviews and hundreds of archival and personal documents, Ayed tells a story of sacrifice and youthful folly; a story about the ravaging costs of war paid for disproportionately by the young. But more than anything, The War We Won Apart is a story about love: two secret agents who were supposed to land in enemy territory together, but were fated to fight the war apart."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Butt, Sonia.; Butt, Sonia; D'Artois, Guy.; D'Artois, Guy; Spies; Women spies; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Napoleon : a life / by Zamoyski, Adam,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 671-728) and index."The definitive biography of Napoleon, revealing the true man behind the legend. The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Here, historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment, and what he was himself seeking to achieve. This most famous of men is also the most hidden of men, and Zamoyski dives deeper than any previous biographer to find him. Beautifully written, Napoleon brilliantly sets the man in his European context." --
Subjects: Biographies.; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821.; France. Armée; Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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