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The last honest man : the CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys--and one senator's fight to save democracy / by Risen, James,author.; Risen, Tom,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In this "gripping ... spectacular piece of reporting" (Ken Burns), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines Senator Frank Church, the man at the center of numerous investigations into the abuses of power within the American government. For decades now, America's national security state has grown ever bigger, ever more secretive and powerful, and ever more abusive. Only once did someone manage to put a stop to any of it. Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community. The dark truths that Church exposed--from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI--would shake the nation to its core, and forever change the way that Americans thought about not only their government but also their ability to hold it accountable. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams of unpublished letters, notes, and memoirs, some of which remain sensitive today, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Risen tells the gripping, untold story of truth and integrity standing against unchecked power--and winning--in The Last Honest Man."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Church, Frank, 1924-1984.; Intelligence service; Political corruption;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Black ops : the life of a CIA shadow warrior / by Prado, Ric,author.;
"A memoir by the highest-ranking covert warrior to lift the veil of secrecy and offer a glimpse into the shadow wars that America has fought since the Vietnam Era. Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled their war-torn home for the hope of a better life in America. Fifty years later, the Cuban refugee retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as the CIA equivalent of a two-star general. Black Ops is the story of Ric's legendary career that spanned two eras, the Cold War and the Age of Terrorism. Operating in the shadows, Ric and his fellow CIA officers fought a little-seen and virtually unknown war to keep USA safe from those who would do it harm. After duty stations in Central, South America, and the Philippines, Black Ops follows Ric into the highest echelons of the CIA's headquarters at Langley, Virginia. In late 1995, he became Deputy Chief of Station and co-founding member of the Bin Laden Task Force. Three years later, after serving as head of Korean Operations, Ric took on one of the most dangerous missions of his career: re-establish a once-abandoned CIA station inside a hostile nation long since considered a front line of the fight against Islamic terrorism. He and his team carried out covert operations and developed assets that proved pivotal in the coming War on Terror. A harrowing memoir of life in the shadowy world of assassins, terrorists, spies and revolutionaries, Black Ops is a testament to the courage, creativity and dedication of the Agency's Special Activities Group and its elite shadow warriors"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Prado, Ric.; United States. Central Intelligence Agency; Cold War; Refugees; Special operations (Military science); War on Terrorism, 2001-2009;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A girl's guide to missiles : growing up in America's secret desert / by Piper, Karen Lynnea,1965-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."A poignant, surreal, and fearlessly honest look at growing up on one of the most secretive weapons installations on earth, by a young woman who came of age with missiles. The China Lake missile range is located in a huge stretch of the Mojave Desert, about the size of the state of Delaware. It was created during the Second World War, and has always been shrouded in secrecy. But people who make missiles and other weapons are regular working people, with domestic routines and everyday dilemmas, and four of them were Karen Piper's parents, her sister, and--when she needed summer jobs--herself. Her dad designed the Sidewinder, which was ultimately used catastrophically in Vietnam. When her mom got tired of being a stay-at-home mom, she went to work on the Tomahawk. Once, when a missile nose needed to be taken offsite for final testing, her mother loaded it into the trunk of the family car, and set off down a Los Angeles freeway. Traffic was heavy, and so she stopped off at the mall, leaving the missile in the parking lot. Piper sketches in the belief systems--from Amway's get-rich schemes to propaganda in The Rocketeer to evangelism, along with fears of a Lemurian takeover and Charles Manson--that governed their lives. Her memoir is also a search for the truth of the past and what really brought her parents to China Lake with two young daughters, a story that reaches back to her father's World War II flights with contraband across Europe. Finally, it recounts the crossroads moment in a young woman's life when she finally found a way out of a culture of secrets and fear, and out of the desert."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Piper, Karen Lynnea, 1965-; Piper, Earl Marwin, 1922-2005.; Piper, Mary Dahlstrom.; Naval Ordnance Test Station (China Lake, Calif.); United States. Office of Strategic Services; Guided missiles; Electronic technicians; Young women; Cold War.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Back to the garden : a novel / by King, Laurie R.,author.;
"A fifty-year-old cold case involving California royalty comes back to life-with potentially fatal consequences--in this gripping standalone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. The Gardener Estate is one of the most storied and beloved places on the West Coast: a magnificent house in vast formal grounds, home to a family that shaped California-and fought hard to conceal the turmoil and eccentricities within their walls. And now, just as the turmoil seems buried and the Estate prepares to move into a new future, construction work unearths a grim relic of the estate's history: a skull, hidden away some fifty years ago. Inspector Raquel Laing of the SFPD Cold Case Unit has her work cut out for her. Back in the '70s, the Estate was a commune, when its young heir, Rob Gardener, turned the palatial setting into a counterculture Eden of peace, love, and equality. But the '70s were also a time when serial killers preyed on such innocents-monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just assumed a whole new urgency. Could these bones belong to one of his victims? For Raquel Laing-a woman who knows all about hidden turmoil and eccentricities-the Gardener bones seem clearly linked to The Highwayman. But as she dives into the Estate's archives for evidence of his presence, what she finds there begins to take on a dark reality of its own. Everything brings her back to Rob Gardener himself-now a gray-haired recluse, then a troubled young Vietnam vet whose girlfriend vanished after a midsummer festival at the Estate, fifty years ago. But a lot of people seem to have disappeared from the Gardener Estate that summer, when the commune fell apart and its residents scattered: a young woman, her child, Rob's brother Fort. The pressure is on, and Raquel needs to solve this case--before The Highwayman slips away, or another Gardener vanishes"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Novels.; Cold cases (Criminal investigation); Communal living; Counterculture; Missing persons; Murder; Policewomen; Serial murder investigation;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Off the record / by Mansbridge, Peter,author.;
Peter Mansbridge invites us to walk the beat with him in this entertaining and revealing look into his life and career, from his early broadcasting days in the remote northern Manitoba community of Churchill to the fast-paced news desk of CBCs flagship show, The National, where he reported on stories from around the world. Today, Peter Mansbridge is often recognized for his distinctive deep voice, which calmly delivered the news for over fifty years. But ironically, he never considered becoming a broadcaster. In some ways, though, Peter was prepared for a life as a newscaster from an early age. Every night around the dinner table, his family would debate the news of the day, from Cold War scandals and Vietnam to Elvis Presley and the Beatles. So in 1968, when by chance a CBC radio manager in Churchill, Manitoba, offered him a spot hosting the local late night music program, Peter embraced the opportunity. Without a teacher, he tuned into broadcasts from across Canada, the US, and the UK to learn the basic skills of a journalist and he eventually parlayed his position into his first news job. Less than twenty years later, he became the chief correspondent and anchor of The National. With humour and heart, Peter shares never-before-told stories from his distinguished career, including reporting on the fall of the Berlin Wall and the horror of 9/11, walking the beaches of Normandy with Tom Brokaw, and talking with Canadian prime ministers from John Diefenbaker to Justin Trudeau. But its far from all serious. Peter also writes about finding the cure for baldness in China and landing the role of Peter Moosebridge in Disneys Zootopia. From the first (and only) time he was late to broadcast to his poignant interview with the late Gord Downie, these are the moments that have stuck with him. After years of interviewing others, Peter turns the lens on himself and takes us behind the scenes of his life on the frontlines of journalism as he reflects on the toll of being in the spotlight, the importance of diversity
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Mansbridge, Peter.; Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; Television news anchors; Television news anchors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Restaurant kid : a memoir of family and belonging / by Phan, Rachel,author.;
"A warm and poignant narrative about finding one's self amidst the grind of restaurant life, the cross-generational immigrant experience, and a daughter's attempts to connect with parents who have always been just out of reach. When she was three years old, Rachel Phan met her replacement. Instead of a new sibling, her mother and father's time and attention were suddenly devoted entirely to their new family restaurant. For her parents--whose own families fled China during Japanese occupation and then survived bombs and starvation during the war in Vietnam--it was a dream come true. For Phan, it was something quite different. Overnight, she became a restaurant kid, living on the periphery of her own family and trying her best to stay out of the way. As Phan grew up, the restaurant was the most stalwart and suffocating member of her family. For decades, it's been both their crowning achievement and the origin of so much of their pain and suffering: screaming matches complete with smashed dishes; bodies worn down by long hours and repetitive strain; and tenuous relationships where the family loved one another deeply without ever really knowing each other. In Restaurant Kid, Phan seeks to examine the way her life has been shaped by the rigid boxes placed around her. She had to be a "good daughter," never asking questions, always being grateful. She had to be a "real Canadian," watching hockey and speaking English so flawlessly that her tongue has since forgotten how to contort around Cantonese tones. As the only Chinese girl at school, she had to alternate between being the sidekick, geek, or Asian fetish, depending on whose gaze was on her. Now, three decades after their restaurant first opened, Phan's parents are cautiously talking about retirement. As an adult, Phan's "good daughter" role demands something new of her--and a chance to get to know her parents away from the restaurant. In Restaurant Kid, Phan deftly combines candour, wit and insight to craft a vibrant and important narrative on the strength and foibles of family, and how we come to understand ourselves."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Phan, Rachel.; Phan, Rachel; Children of immigrants; Restaurateurs; Restaurateurs; Chinese Canadian women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Mellencamp / by Rees, Paul(Music journalist),author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."John Mellencamp is not your typical rock star. Not only has he absorbed into his own work the influence of Faulkner, Williams, Steinbeck and other such literary giants, but he himself could have stepped straight from the pages of any of their great American novels. A complex, colorful and larger than life character, Mellencamp, like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash before him, walks to the beat of his own drum. Or, as he told author and veteran music journalist, Paul Rees: "I just refuse to take shit off anyone." Little Bastard will definitively chart the life of one of the most fascinating characters in all of American music. It will bring into full relief the complex, iconoclastic character of the man Billy Joel, when inducting Mellencamp into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, urged to "Stay ornery, stay mean. We need you to be pissed off," Joel continued. "People need to hear a voice like yours to echo the discontent in the heartland. Someone's got to tell 'em, 'Don't take any shit,' and John, you do that very well." Along with Mellencamp's full blessing, Rees will include new interviews from his friends, family and colleagues, including Bob Seger, Stephen King, Willie Nelson, Larry McMurtry, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow and Chuck D, among others. Rees will also include interviews from artists he has had a pronounced influence on such as John Mayer, Keith Urban, and Jason Isbell. Telling Mellencamp's story is telling the story of the American heartland, along with such pivotal moments in social history as the dawning of the Civil Rights movement, the hippy era, the anti-Vietnam War protests, Watergate, and the terms of such divisive US Presidents as Richard Nixon, Reagan, George W. Bush and now Donald Trump. In terms of music, Mellencamp's account runs parallel to the advent of rock-and-roll, the Summer of Love, the singer-songwriter superstars and the nihilistic punks of the nineteen-seventies, the founding of MTV and the have-it-all eighties, the creation of Farm Aid, and the radical re-shaping of the music industry that has gone on through this century"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Mellencamp, John, 1951-; Rock musicians; Singers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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So help me golf : why we love the game / by Reilly, Rick,author.;
"Beloved bestselling author and golf aficionado Rick Reilly channels his insatiable curiosity, trademark sense of humor, and vast knowledge of the game in a treasure trove of original pieces about what the game has meant to him and to others. This is the book Rick Reilly has been writing in the back of his head since he fell in love with the game of golf at eleven years old. He unpacks and explores all of the wonderful, maddening, heart-melting, heart-breaking, cool, and captivating things about golf that make the game so utterly addictive. We meet the PGA Tour player who robbed banks by night to pay his motel bills, the golf club maker who takes weekly psychedelic trips, and the caddy who kept his loop even after an 11-year prison stint. We learn how a man on his third heart nearly won the U.S. Open, how a Vietnam POW saved his life playing 18 holes a day in his tiny cell, and about the course that's absolutely free. Reilly mines all of the game's quirky traditions-from the shot of bourbon you take before you tee off at Peyton Manning's course, to the way the starter at St. Andrews announces to your group (and the hundreds of tourists watching), "You're on the first tee, gentlemen." He means that quite literally: St. Andrews has the first tee ever invented. We'll visit the eighteen most unforgettable holes around the world (Reilly has played them all), including the hole in Indonesia where the biggest hazard is monkeys, the one in the Caribbean that's underwater, and the one in South Africa that requires a shot over a pit of alligators; not to mention Reilly's attempt to play the most mini-golf holes in one day. Reilly expounds on all the great figures in the game, from Phil Mickelson to Bobby Jones to the simple reason Jack Nicklaus is better than Tiger Woods. He explains why we should stop hating Bryson DeChambeau unless we hate genius, the greatest upset in women's golf history, and why Ernie Els throws away every ball that makes a birdie. Plus all the Greg Norman stories Reilly has never been able to tell before, and the great fun of being Jim Nantz. Connecting it all will be the story of Reilly's own personal journey through the game, especially as it connects to his tumultuous relationship with his father, and how the two eventually reconciled through golf. This is Reilly's valentine to golf, a cornucopia of stories that no golfer will want to be without"--
Subjects: Anecdotes.; Golf;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The fishermen and the dragon : fear, greed, and a fight for justice on the gulf coast / by Johnson, Kirk W.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A gripping, twisting account of a small town set on fire by hatred, xenophobia, and ecological disaster--a story that weaves together corporate malfeasance, a battle over shrinking natural resources, a turning point in the modern white supremacist movement, and one woman's relentless battle for environmental justice. By the late 1970s, the fishermen of the Texas Gulf Coast were struggling. The bays that had sustained generations of shrimpers and crabbers before them were being poisoned by nearby petrochemical plants, oil spills, pesticides, and concrete. But as their nets came up light, the white shrimpers could only see one culprit: the small but growing number of newly resettled Vietnamese refugees who had recently started fishing. Turf was claimed. Guns were flashed. Threats were made. After a white crabber was killed by a young Vietnamese refugee in self-defense, the situation became a tinderbox primed to explode, and the Grand Dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan saw an opportunity to stoke the fishermen's rage and prejudices. At a massive Klan rally near Galveston Bay one night in 1981, he strode over to an old boat graffitied with the words U.S.S. VIET CONG, torch in hand, and issued a ninety-day deadline for the refugees to leave or else "it's going to be a helluva lot more violent than Vietnam!" The white fishermen roared as the boat burned, convinced that if they could drive these newcomers from the coast, everything would return to normal. A shocking campaign of violence ensued, marked by burning crosses, conspiracy theories, death threats, torched boats, and heavily armed Klansmen patrolling Galveston Bay. The Vietnamese were on the brink of fleeing, until a charismatic leader in their community, a highly decorated colonel, convinced them to stand their ground by entrusting their fate with the Constitution. Drawing upon a trove of never-before-published material, including FBI and ATF records, unprecedented access to case files, and scores of firsthand interviews with Klansmen, shrimpers, law enforcement, environmental activists, lawyers, perpetrators and victims, Johnson uncovers secrets and secures confessions to crimes that went unsolved for more than forty years. This explosive investigation of a forgotten story, years in the making, ultimately leads Johnson to the doorstep of the one woman who could see clearly enough to recognize the true threat to the bays--and who now represents the fishermen's last hope"--
Subjects: Ku Klux Klan (1915- ); Fisheries; Refugees; Vietnamese;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Wayward Girls A Novel [electronic resource] : by Wiggs, Susan.aut; CloudLibrary;
"After decades of bestsellers, Wayward Girls might be Susan Wiggs' opus. A gut-wrenching story of survival, friendship, and justice. Masterful."--Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell "The magnificent Susan Wiggs takes a leap into the history of women..a page-turner, replete with mystery and suspense."—Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone From New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs, a wrenching but life-affirming novel based on a true story of survival, friendship, and redemption. Set in the turbulent Vietnam era in the All-American city of Buffalo, New York, six girls are condemned to forced labor in the laundry of a Catholic reform school. In 1968 we meet six teens confined at the Good Shepherd—a dark and secretive institution controlled by Sisters of Charity nuns—locked away merely for being gay, pregnant, or simply unruly. Mairin— free-spirited daughter of Irish immigrants, committed to keep her safe from her stepfather. Angela—denounced for her attraction to girls, sent to the nuns for reform, but instead found herself the victim of a predator. Helen—the daughter of intellectuals detained in Communist China, she saw her “temporary” stay at the Good Shepherd stretch into years. Odessa—caught up in a police dragnet over a racial incident, she found the physical and mental toughness to endure her sentence. Denise—sentenced for brawling in a foster home, she dared to dream of a better life. Janice—deeply insecure, she couldn’t decide where her loyalty lay—except when it came to her friend Kay, who would never outgrow her childlike dependency. Sister Bernadette—rescued from a dreadful childhood, she owed her loyalty to the Sisters of Charity even as her conscience weighed on her. Wayward Girls is a haunting but thrilling tale of hope, solidarity, and the enduring strength of young women who find the courage to break free and find redemption...and justice. "Compelling...This powerful and unforgettable novel is a poignant and enlightening look into a sad chapter of recent history."--Library Journal (starred review) "Heart-wrenching...sweeping. This one lingers long after the last page."--Publishers Weekly "Wayward girls is all about the power of female bonds...this isn't just a moment in time—it's a cautionary tale."—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name “Susan Wiggs is at the top of her game. Through the skillful weaving of an endearing cast, Wayward Girls displays the power of sisterhood to survive, conquer, and ultimately heal from the most harrowing of times. An evocative tale packed with resilience and secrets that kept me reading late into the night. I loved it.”  —Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of Sold on a Monday and The Girls of Good Fortune
Subjects: Electronic books.; Lesbian; Literary; Family Life; Contemporary Women; Psychological;
© 2025., HarperCollins,
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