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The fifth act : America's end in Afghanistan / by Ackerman, Elliot,author.;
"A powerful and revelatory eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan, its desperate endgame, and the war's echoing legacy. Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and, later, as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August of 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had, for years, worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families. The official US government evacuation process was a bureaucratic failure that led to a humanitarian catastrophe. With his former colleagues, and friends, protecting the airport in Kabul, Ackerman was drawn into an impromptu effort alongside a group of journalists, and other veterans, to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. These were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America's longest war, but the success they achieved afforded a degree of redemption. And, for Ackerman, a chance to reconcile his past with his present. The Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week at its bitter end. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves in a personal history of the war's long progress, beginning with the initial invasion in the months after 9/11. It is a play in five acts, the fifth act being the story's tragic denouement, a prelude to Afghanistan's dark future. Any reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war's trajectory will find a trenchant accounting here. And yet The Fifth Act is not an exercise in finger-pointing: it brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters, American and Afghan, who fought the war with courage and dedication, in good faith and at great personal cost. Understanding combatants' experiences and sacrifices while reckoning with the complex bottom line of the post-9/11 wars is not an easy balance; it demands reservoirs of wisdom and the gifts of an extraordinary storyteller. It asks for an author willing to grapple with certain hard-earned truths. In Elliot Ackerman, this story has found that author. The Fifth Act is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic"--
Subjects: Ackerman, Elliot.; United States. Central Intelligence Agency.; United States. Marine Corps. Marine Regiment, 8th. Battalion, 1st.; Afghan War, 2001-2021; Afghan War, 2001-2021; Afghan War, 2001-2021; Disengagement (Military science); Paramilitary forces;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A hanging at dawn : a Bess Crawford short story / by Todd, Charles,author.;
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Bess Crawford mystery series, a short story that unravels dark secrets from her close friend Simon Brandon's past Years before the Great War summoned Bess Crawford to serve as a battlefield nurse, the indomitable heroine spent her childhood in India under the watchful eye of her friend and confidant, the young soldier Simon Brandon. The two formed an inseparable bond on the dangerous Northwest Frontier where her father's Regiment held the Khyber Pass against all intruders. It was Simon who taught Bess to ride and shoot, escorted her to the bazaars and the Maharani's Palace, and did his best to keep her out of trouble, after the Crawford family took an interest in the tall, angry boy with a mysterious past. But the Crawfords have long guarded secrets for Simon and he owes them a debt that runs deeper than Bess could ever know. Told through the eyes of Melinda, Richard, Clarissa, and Bess, A Hanging at Dawn pieces together a mystery at the center of Bess's family that will irrevocably change the course of her future.
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Historical fiction.; Crawford, Bess (Fictitious character); Family secrets;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Ancestry : a novel / by Mawer, Simon,author.;
The past is another country and we are all its exiles. Banished forever, we look back in fascination and wonder at this mysterious land. Who were the people who populated it? Almost two hundred years ago, Abraham, an illiterate urchin, scavenges on a Suffolk beach and dreams of running away to sea. Naomi, a seventeen-year-old seamstress, sits primly in a second class carriage on the train from Sussex to London and imagines a new life in the big city. George, a private soldier of the 50th Regiment of Foot, marries his Irish bride, Annie, in the cathedral in Manchester and together they face married life under arms. Now these people exist only in the bare bones of registers and census lists but they were once real enough. They lived, loved, felt joy and fear, and ultimately died. But who were they? And what indissoluble thread binds them together? Simon Mawer's compelling and original novel puts flesh on our ancestors' bones to bring them to life and give them voice. He has created stories that are gripping and heart-breaking, from the squalor and vitality of Dickensian London to the excitement of seafaring in the last days of sail and the horror of the trenches of the Crimea. There is birth and death; there is love, both open and legal but also hidden and illicit. Yet the thread that connects these disparate figures is something that they cannot have known, the unbreakable bond of family.
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Mawer, Simon; Census; Families; Genealogy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Suite française [videorecording] / by Charman, Matt,screenwriter.; Dibb, Saul,film director,screenwriter.; Riley, Sam,1980-actor.; Schoenaerts, Matthias,1977-actor.; Scott-Thomas, Kristin,1960-actor.; Williams, Michelle,1980-actor.; Motion picture adaptation of (work):Némirovsky, Irène,1903-1942.Suite française.Videorecording.; BBC Films,presenter.; Entertainment One (Firm : Canada),presenter,publisher,film distributor.; TF1 droits audiovisuels (Firm),presenter.; Weinstein Company,presenter.;
Michelle Williams, Matthias Schoenaerts, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Riley.Based on the best-selling book by Irene Nemirovsky and set during the German occupation of France in the 1940's, Suite Francaise tells the story of Lucille Angellier as she awaits news from her husband, a prisoner of war. As Parisian refugees pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' homes, Lucile's life is turned upside down - further complicated by the arrival of refined German officer, Bruno. A story of the power of love and the tragedy of war.Canadian Home Video Rating: 14A.DVD ; widescreen presentation; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Némirovsky, Irène, 1903-1942.; Feature films.; Romance films.; World War, 1939-1945;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The mosquito bowl : a game of life and death in World War II / by Bissinger, Buzz,1954-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war - the invasion of Okinawa--their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled: Former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly twenty men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL. When the trash-talking between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as "The Mosquito Bowl." Within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players in "The Mosquito Bowl" would be killed at Okinawa, by far the largest number of American athletes ever to die in a single battle. The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave and beautiful young men, those who survived and those who did not. It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them. It is a story of a far more innocent time in both college athletics and the life of the country, and of the loss of that innocence. Writing with the style and rigor that won him a Pulitzer Prize and have made several of his books modern classics, Buzz Bissinger takes us from the playing fields of America's campuses where boys played at being Marines, to the final time they were allowed to still be boys on that field of dirt and coral, to the darkest and deadliest days that followed at Okinawa." --publisher's website.
Subjects: Biographies.; Informational works.; Personal narratives.; United States. Marine Corps; Football players; Football; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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