Showing all 18 results
A Moose’s History of North America
by Walter S. Griggs and Frances Pitchford Griggs $15.00
by Walter S. Griggs and Frances Pitchford Griggs
When humans wrote the history of North America, they arrogantly and fraudulently gave themselves the credit for its development while completely ignoring the contributions of the North American moose. To correct this unfortunate, if not deliberate, oversight, this groundbreaking book documents the contributions of the magnificent, majestic, monstrous moose to North America's history. From the role of the moose in the creation of North America to its current status as an iconic animal, Frances and Walter Griggs show how the moose influenced the growth and development of North America. After reading A Moose's History of North America, you will have a newfound respect for, and understanding of, the moose; and why North America is a better place because the moose has left its hoof prints on the eternal sands of time.
A Rebellious Woman
by Elspeth Roake-2 $20.95
by Claire J. Griffin
A Rebellious Woman is based on the life story of Belle Boyd (1844-1900), whose coming of age coincided with the opening shots of the Civil War. Debutante, teenaged spy, seductress, actress, divorcee, cross-dresser, and self-promoter, she carried a pistol and wasn’t afraid to use it. In a century when a woman was meant to be nothing more than a well-behaved wife and mother, Belle Boyd stands out as a scandalous woman of history defying all the rules.
Coming Around
by Richard Rose $15.00
by Richard Rose
While researching family history for his semibiographical opera Monte and Pinky, Richmond-based poet and songwriter Richard Rose came face to face with the fact of his ancestors' involvement in the local slave trade. As a social and environmental activist, Rose became determined to explore and come to terms with the many consequences of the injustices in which his family took part.
A story in verse, Coming Around is the companion piece to Monte and Pinky, following the life and descendants of a slave named Simon Abouette and of the Ouillechaud family, who purchase him to work on their sugar plantation in the early 1800s. Interspersed with heartbreaking lyric pieces based on historical anecdotes from across the South, Coming Around is the culmination of one man's effort to heal the hurts of the past through humility, understanding, and acceptance.
Danger on My Doorstep: The Anita Flora Powitzer Story
by Linda Schubert $13.95
by Linda Schubert
Berlin had been safe for Anita Powitzer for as long as she could remember. But when Hitler came to power, everything changed. Now policemen harmed instead of helped, and Anita couldn’t even talk to her best friend. Flung from her secure childhood into a fearful world, she and her family had to find a way to flee Berlin before it was too late. It was risky, and Anita had to be separated from her loved ones, but this was the only way out. Alone in a country with a language she didn’t understand, staying with people she had never met, Anita had to wait and hope her parents could join her. Would she and her family be safe?
A journey fraught with danger from Germany to Great Britain, and finally to America, this is the true story of one Jewish family’s escape from Nazi Berlin.
Eyewitness: My Journey to the Hague
by Isak Gaši and Shaun Koos $29.95
written by Isak Gaši and Shaun Koos
Before April of 1992, Isak Gaši was a world-class athlete and community leader, content to live a quiet life with his wife and infant daughter in the Bosnian city of Brčko. He never could have dreamed that within just a few short years, he would come face to face with Serbian President Slobodan Milošević and others indicted for war crimes, as a lead prosecution witness at the International Criminal Trials for the Former Yugoslavia.
Eyewitness is an accessible history that joins the personal story of a man who was close to the action with the war’s broader historical and political contexts. In a world still challenged by ethnic violence and refugee response, this story of justice, forgiveness, and truth will resonate with readers for many years to come.
Faith Beyond Belief: A Journey to Freedom
by David Eberly $16.00
by David Eberly
Faith Beyond Belief is a captivating testimony of personal faith by the senior Allied prisoner of the Gulf War. This dramatic recollection puts you in his F-15E cockpit when he was shot down in the Iraqi desert, evading the enemy, and held in the cells of Baghdad. Together, you walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and along his journey to freedom. By real example, it profoundly reflects the importance of faith and focus in life. No one has explained more intensely the experience of being hit by an exploding enemy missile, the agony of capture, and the dismal isolation and starvation suffered while in Saddam’s grasp. The uplifting message delivered under these unimaginable conditions holds promise for those who feel perplexed by life's challenges.
This book is for believers and non-believers, for young and old, and for all who may ever doubt their own inner strength or who may be unfamiliar with the inner courage and comfort that illuminate from God’s promise to care for us.
Honor Held Dear
by Alan Eschbach $16.95 – $28.95
by Alan Eschbach
What motivates people to follow the lead of another person—to sometimes suppress their own fears, desires, and needs and to adopt a leader’s vision as their own? It’s a question that anyone in, or who aspires to, a leadership position should ask.
In this uplifting and often humorous account, Captain Alan Eschbach, USN (Ret) reflects on his life experiences and how he used them to create his own code of leadership, behavior, and ethics. Using snapshots of his early life in the tiny village of Rawlinsville, Pennsylvania and recollections from the navy, from SEAL training to captaincy of the guided missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke, Alan shares his insights into what can be gained by working without compensation, the pain and joy of leaving the comfort of home and community, and the value of repeatedly testing one’s physical and mental limits. Most importantly, this book is an account of how an unwavering commitment to personal honor and integrity, and an even greater devotion to serving others can lead to positive change.
Honor Held Dear: My View from the Bridge Wing is a portrait of leadership as a calling. Moreover, it’s a challenge to leaders everywhere to take stock of their leadership styles as a measure of their understanding of sacrifice and duty.
Last, it is Alan’s way of saying thank you—to the community and people who shaped and inspired him, and to everyone who granted him the great privilege and profound honor of leadership.
Neck Tales: Stories from Virginia’s Northern Neck
by Thea Marshall $16.00
by Thea Marshall
Join National Public Radio commentator Thea Marshall for an historic and contemporary journey through Virginia’s Northern Neck. First broadcast by Ms. Marshall on NPR, these stories paint a vivid portrait of this part of Virginia that’s a world apart—from the region’s wine, watermen and Chantey singers, to its poets, patriots, kings, and citizens.
Patton’s Forward Observers: History of the 7th Field Artillery Observation Battalion XX Corps, Third Army
by John Kurt Rieth $23.95
by John Kurt Rieth
More than any other, General George S. Patton Jr. conjures up the image of the ultimate World War II American warrior, and even today, the Patton mystique continues to grow. Despite his renowned egotism, Patton understood that it was the blood of his soldiers that earned the glory attributed to him.
Formed on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the 7th Field Artillery Observation Battalion (7th FAOB) was assigned the hazardous task of determining the source of enemy artillery fire. The exceptional level of training prepared the battalion well for combat in July 1944 when they landed in Normandy. Serving as XX Corps (the Ghost Corps) primary counterbattery unit, the battalion quickly advanced through France. Stopped cold by a ferocious German defense in Metz and Saarland in the bitter winter of 1944-1945, the 7th FAOB participated in some of the bloodiest, yet least well published, fighting of the war. Finally breaking through the German West Wall, XX Corps and the 7th FAOB ultimately crossed the Rhine and ended the war at Hitler’s birthplace in Braunau, Austria.
Patton’s Forward Observers is a story told by a unique collection of highly trained artillery observers who fought every step of the war with Patton's famed Third Army. We remember Patton today only through the service of men like these. This is a soldier's story. Derived from wartime letters and oral histories told by the veterans themselves, we see the classic American Army experience of World War II—the friendships, courage, terror, carnage, humor and ultimate victory that all part of the Patton legend—a legend build by soldiers.
Richmond’s Unhealed History
by Ben Campbell $15.95
written by Ben Campbell
In a detailed look at the history of Richmond, Benjamin Campbell examines the contradictions and crises that have formed the city over more than four centuries. Campbell argues that the community of metropolitan Richmond is engaged in a decisive spiritual battle in the coming decade. He believes the city, more than any in the nation, has the potential for an unprecedented and historic achievement. Its citizens can redeem and fulfill the ideals of their ancestors, proving to the world that race and class can be conquered by the deliberate and prayerful intention of honest and dedicated citizens.
Slow Dying: The Bosnian War Prison Camp at Visoko Diary and Testimonies
by Milenko S. Milanovic $15.95
by Milenko S. Milanovic
Following the Bosnian War and his immigration to the U.S., Serbian refugee Milenko Milanovic would awaken from horrifying dreams—vestiges of his eight-month imprisonment in the Bosnian war camp at Visoko. For years, Milenko’s memories remained suppressed, but his experiences lived on in the loose-leaf diary he had kept hidden in the lining of his jacket. After his release, he compiled these notes into the book that would become Slow Dying, a harrowing volume that details his capture and subsequent internment—the starvation, beatings and death. This fourth edition presents his diary in English for the first time, accompanied by contributions from his fellow prisoners and Milenko’s own reflections on his imprisonment and life as a refugee. It offers a poignant and compelling story of personal survival during one of the most brutal conflicts in recent history.
Soldier Pigs: When Soldiers Are Guinea Pigs
by Gordon Swanson $22.95
by Gordon Swanson
During the 1950s, one special army quartermaster group was assigned the difficult but essential task of testing potential army materials—tests that often required putting soldiers at risk, challenging them at the top of their physical endurance, under the worst possible conditions. Like guinea pigs, these randomly chosen soldiers were forced to participate in dangerous testing programs, so that others could benefit.
This is the true but untold story of one of those soldiers, author Gordon Swanson. Soldier Pigs describes many of Swanson’s tasks—from equipment and machinery tests in the extreme heat of Death Valley, to the frigid cold near the Arctic Circle, and his many other experiences as part of this unique military unit.
The author was subjected to surprising ordeals as a guinea pig, and almost killed several times; still, he believes that the work of these men may have saved the lives of many others in the military. His graphic descriptions give the reader the utmost respect for the valuable work of these soldiers.
The Bastard Year
by Richard Lee Zuras $15.00
by Richard Lee Zuras
“It was exactly one year ago today,” my father said, “that the hostages were taken.”
He looked at me as if he wanted me to say something. I figured he was probably wrong about it being a year to the day, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“A year is a long time,” he said. “A lot can happen in a year.”
In the company of classic coming-of-age works, Richard Zuras’s debut novel tells the story of a boy’s final year of childhood and a family’s near disintegration. When Zain’s father is fired from the CIA in March of 1980, it creates a tremor that threatens to upend the family’s precarious balance. Zain’s awakening to a world riddled with cracks and his adolescent attempts to mend them are the stuff from which young men, and great stories, are made.
The Clothesline Code: The Story of Civil War Spies Lucy Ann and Dabney Walker
by Elspeth Roake-1 $12.95
written by Janet Halfmann and illustrated by Trisha Mason
Lucy Ann and Dabney Walker didn’t have to risk their lives to spy for the Union army. The couple had already risked everything to escape slavery themselves.
But in early 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, the couple was determined to help defeat slavery for everyone—no matter the risk. Together, they created a secret code disguised as laundry on a clothesline. Their plan was incredibly dangerous: it required Lucy Ann to sneak into Confederate territory to steal military secrets, while Dabney took the vital information she gathered to the Union army.
This true story of sacrifice and bravery shows us that when we have courage and compassion for the world around us, even the simplest items can become powerful tools for change.
The Fourth Branch of Government: We the People
by Jack Trammell, PhD and Guy Terrell, MS, PMP $16.95
by Jack Trammell, PhD and Guy Terrell, MS, PMP
With the explosion of social media and the Internet, practically everyone in America has instant access to the news and a greater ability to follow what is happening anywhere. As a result, we are a culture and a nation that is bombarded with information. However, we are coping poorly with that assault and using an outdated framework for our governance. Many people feel disconnected from the very mechanisms and people who are supposed to represent their interests. The Fourth Branch of Government is about updating the framework of our democracy. It is a movement whose time has come, and one that the Founding Fathers envisioned. This book outlines a roadmap for how change can be facilitated, as well as a rationale for why it is absolutely necessary and urgent. The only way to update our democracy and make it relevant to the 21st century is to call for a Constitutional Convention. In that forum, we can consider changes like eliminating the Electoral College, or implementing e-voting—perhaps even changes leading to a broader and more direct participation in our governance, the Fourth Branch of Government.
The Private War of William Styron
by Mary Wakefield Buxton $28.95
by Mary Wakefield Buxton
Returning to his childhood home in Virginia for the funeral of his stepmother, Elizabeth Buxton Styron, acclaimed writer William Styron finds himself plunged into boyhood reminiscence. He is “Billy” again, fourteen and heartbroken, with a mother recently passed from cancer and a grieving father who has fallen in love with the head nurse at the local hospital. The impending marriage terrifies Billy, who finds his new stepmother’s strict worldview stifling to his creativity, his joy, and his hopes for the future.
Driven by Elizabeth’s desire for him to become a doctor, Billy is sent to Christchurch boarding school, where he finds himself drawn more to writing than to sport, or anything else deemed appropriate for a man of good Southern breeding. Desperate to build a life on his own terms, the young Styron turns to fantasy and alcohol. He emerges a painfully burdened man, hounded by “the black dog” of depression from which he would never fully escape, and gifted with a foundation of moral sense that would inspire all of his later writing.
This is the story of the war Billy fought against the cruelty of circumstance, for the prize of his own soul and future—before he became Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Styron, gaining international recognition for his novel Sophie’s Choice.
Married into the family at a young age, Mary Wakefield Buxton, “the Ohio bride,” writes of her mentor and cousin’s coming of age with a sympathetic spirit but an objective eye, deftly revealing the complicated psyche of a man tormented by demons of and outside of his own making, and the beauty of the Tidewater region that birthed him.
Uncle George and Me
by Bill Sizemore $18.95
by Bill Sizemore
In Uncle George and Me, author Bill Sizemore tells the story of his slave-owning Virginia ancestors, their slaves, and those slaves’ descendants—a story that lay buried by a century of denial and historical amnesia. Its threads run through the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the struggle for civil rights, and the crippling legacy of slavery that still plagues the nation today. In microcosm, it is the story of Virginia and the South. In telling it, Sizemore hopes to advance an essential, if painful, national conversation about race.
When Soldiers Cried: A True Story About Vietnam
by David Shea $23.95
by David Shea
By the summer of 1967, the nation’s Selective Service System was fueling the largest military build-up since World War II. Hundreds of thousands of young men, many too young to legally drink and vote, were inducted to wage an ill-fated war in Vietnam. Written as a narrative history, this story is a lasting tribute to those who answered the call and paid the ultimate sacrifice [in the face of improbable odds.]
Based on actual events, this book provides a unique, behind-the-scenes account of [the draft and how the Vietnam War was actually conducted and fought. Although many of the scenes are shockingly vivid and the language is often raw, they have been included to describe] the real conditions the young draftees had to endure. Woven throughout the pages of this book are the tragedies of loss and the instinctive drive to survive and rebuild.
Sadly, many of the men depicted in this book are among the over fifty-eight thousand fallen soldiers whose names are engraved on the hallowed, granite panels of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. Countless more were wounded or suffered from [haunting,] psychological problems, withdrawal, depression and suicide. In many ways, the sacrifices paid by their families were even greater.
To respect the privacy of the surviving families, many of the names in this book have been changed in order to protect their true identities.