Rain of Steel


Book Description

The last Pacific campaign of World War II was the most violent on record. Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher’s Task Force 58 carriers had conducted air strikes on mainland Japan and supported the Iwo Jima landings, but his aviators were sorely tested once the Okinawa campaign commenced on 1 April 1945. Rain of Steel follows Navy and Marine carrier aviators in the desperate air battles to control the kamikazes directed by Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki. The latter would unleash ten different Kikusui aerial suicide operations, one including a naval force built around the world’s most powerful battleship, the 71,000-ton Yamato. These battles are related largely through the words and experiences of some of the last living U.S. fighter aces of World War II. More than 1,900 kamikaze sorties—and thousands more traditional attack aircraft—would be launched against the U.S. Navy’s warships, radar picket ships, and amphibious vessels during the Okinawa campaign. In this time, Navy, Marine, and Army Air Force pilots would claim some 2,326 aerial victories. The most successful four-man fighter division in U.S. Navy history would be crowned during the fight against Ugaki’s kamikazes. The Japanese named the campaign tetsu no ame (“rain of steel”), often referred to in English as “typhoon of steel.”




Days of Steel Rain


Book Description

This intimate true account of Americans at war follows theepic drama of an unlikely group of men forced to work together in the face of an increasingly desperate enemy during the final year of World War II. Sprawling across the Pacific, this untold story follows the crew of the newly-built "vengeance ship" USS Astoria, named for her sunken predecessor lost earlier in the war. At its center lies U.S. Navy Captain George Dyer, who vowed to return to action after suffering a horrific wound. He accepted the ship's command in 1944, knowing it would be his last chance to avenge his injuries and salvage his career. Yet with the nation's resources and personnel stretched thin by the war, he found that just getting the ship into action would prove to be a battle. Tensions among the crew flared from the start. Astoria's sailors and Marines were a collection of replacements, retreads, and older men. Some were broken by previous traumatic combat, most had no desire to be in the war, yet all found themselves fighting an enemy more afraid of surrender than death. The reluctant ship was called to respond to challenges that its men never could have anticipated. From a typhoon where the ocean was enemy to daring rescue missions, a gallant turn at Iwo Jima, and the ultimate crucible against the Kamikaze at Okinawa, they endured the worst of the final year of the war at sea. Days of Steel Rain brings to life more than a decade of research and firsthand interviews, depicting with unprecedented insight the singular drama of a captain grappling with an untested crew and men who had endured enough amidst some of the most brutal fighting of World War II. Throughout, Brent Jones fills the narrative with secret diaries, memoirs, letters, interpersonal conflicts, and the innermost thoughts of the Astoria men—and more than 80 photographs that have never before been published. Days of Steel Rain weaves an intimate, unforgettable portrait of leadership, heroism, endurance, and redemption.




Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive 1968


Book Description

This book is about the bloodiest year of the Vietnam War, 1968, including the Tet Offensive. Like the original Band of Brothers, we were formed in the States as the 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. As the story shows we specifically formed the make the second large unit combat parachute jump in the Vietnam War. The first had been made by a battalion of the 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate). Our original commanding officer was Lt. Col. John P. Geraci. Geraci had started his military career in the Marines during World War II. He continued it as an Army platoon leader in the Korean War and then went on to serve two tours in Vietnam with the Green Berets prior to heading up our battalion. He was good enough and famous enough to inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame at Fort Benning. While we never made that jump, we were ready.The book starts with me attending Airborne School and ends with a case I had as a lawyer long after the Vietnam War was over defending a former 173rd Airborne trooper from criminal charges related to his use of marijuana while undergoing cancer treatment at Walter Reed Army Hospital. I tell our story episodically with each chapter capable of being read alone. Many of the stories have already appeared in my blog. Among the readers were many of the men that served with me and that literally brought me home. Some of their comments appear at the beginning of each story.It is a story of men at war doing the best they could in a war they did not choose, in a place we never really did understand. We managed to be there on the bloodiest day, the bloodiest week, the bloodiest month and the bloodiest year of a long bloody war. The 1968 Tet Offensive is a big part of what we saw and what we did in our year in country. War never really leaves you, it brings out the best and the worst in men and because of those two facts normally the story of a war is well told. However, the Vietnam War was different. Never have there been more myths reported as facts. Never has the actual story of the war been more ignored. If you read almost any history of the Vietnam War at some point it will say something like: "The enemy attacks during the Tet Offensive were quickly beaten back except in Khe Sanh, Saigon, Hue and Phan Thiet." Then the history will go on to describe the fighting in Khe Sanh, Saigon and Hue, but Phan Thiet will never be mentioned again. This is our story. We fought and won in Phan Thiet.




Rain of the Ghosts


Book Description

Rain of the Ghosts is the first in Greg Weisman's series about an adventurous young girl, Rain Cacique, who discovers she has a mystery to solve, a mission to complete and, oh, yes, the ability to see ghosts. Welcome to the Prospero Keys (or as the locals call them: the Ghost Keys), a beautiful chain of tropical islands on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle. Rain Cacique is water-skiing with her two best friends Charlie and Miranda when Rain sees her father waiting for her at the dock. Sebastian Bohique, her maternal grandfather, has passed away. He was the only person who ever made Rain feel special. The only one who believed she could do something important with her life. The only thing she has left to remember him by is the armband he used to wear: two gold snakes intertwined, clasping each other's tails in their mouths. Only the armband . . . and the gift it brings: Rain can see dead people. Starting with the Dark Man: a ghost determined to reveal the Ghost Keys' hidden world of mystery and mysticism, intrigue and adventure.




SS Steel Rain


Book Description

The well-equipped armored divisions of the Waffen SS were among the most effective German orders of battle in World War II. This book offers accounts of the battles in which they took part, as well as firsthand anecdotes from surviving Waffen soldiers and from Allied troops whom fought against them. Strategies and weaponry are detailed, as are major battles like the effort to hold Caen, Operation Market Garden and the Ardennes Offensive.




A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix


Book Description

Two intrepid girls hunt for a legendary treasure on the deadly high seas in this YA remix of the classic adventure novel Treasure Island. 1826. The sun is setting on the golden age of piracy, and the legendary Dragon Fleet, the scourge of the South China Sea, is no more. Its ruthless leader, a woman known only as the Head of the Dragon, is now only a story, like the ones Xiang has grown up with all her life. She desperately wants to prove her worth, especially to her mother, a shrewd businesswoman who never seems to have enough time for Xiang. Her father is also only a story, dead at sea before Xiang was born. Her single memento of him is a pendant she always wears, a simple but plain piece of gold jewelry. But the pendant's true nature is revealed when a mysterious girl named Anh steals it, only to return it to Xiang in exchange for her help in decoding the tiny map scroll hidden inside. The revelation that Xiang's father sailed with the Dragon Fleet and tucked away this secret changes everything. Rumor has it that the legendary Head of the Dragon had one last treasure—the plunder of a thousand ports—that for decades has only been a myth, a fool's journey. Xiang is convinced this map could lead to the fabled treasure. Captivated with the thrill of adventure, she joins Anh and her motley crew off in pursuit of the island. But the girls soon find that the sea—and especially those who sail it—are far more dangerous than the legends led them to believe. Praise for A Clash of Steel: A Cosmopolitan Best YA Book of 2021 "This deeply immersive adventure features deftly interwoven Chinese and Vietnamese, luscious culinary descriptions, and well-rendered explorations of imperialism, treasure, found family, and love." —Publishers Weekly, starred review "Vividly realized and brimming with romantic adventure. Rooted in the legend of Chinese pirate queen Ching Shih, C.B. Lee’s A Clash of Steel is richly imagined and thrilling to the end." —Malinda Lo, bestselling author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club "Lavishly drawn and studded with jewels from the original, C.B. Lee has written a remix that delves deep into questions of family, love, and treasure. This is a book I wish I'd had as a young, queer teen and it deserves a spot in any collection." —Natalie C. Parker, author of the Seafire trilogy The Remixed Classics Series A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C.B. Lee So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix by Aminah Mae Safi What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix by Tasha Suri Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo & Juliet Remix by Caleb Roehrig Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix by Cherie Dimaline Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa




Super Black


Book Description

Super Black places the appearance of black superheroes alongside broad and sweeping cultural trends in American politics and pop culture, which reveals how black superheroes are not disposable pop products, but rather a fascinating racial phenomenon through which futuristic expressions and fantastic visions of black racial identity and symbolic political meaning are presented. Adilifu Nama sees the value—and finds new avenues for exploring racial identity—in black superheroes who are often dismissed as sidekicks, imitators of established white heroes, or are accused of having no role outside of blaxploitation film contexts. Nama examines seminal black comic book superheroes such as Black Panther, Black Lightning, Storm, Luke Cage, Blade, the Falcon, Nubia, and others, some of whom also appear on the small and large screens, as well as how the imaginary black superhero has come to life in the image of President Barack Obama. Super Black explores how black superheroes are a powerful source of racial meaning, narrative, and imagination in American society that express a myriad of racial assumptions, political perspectives, and fantastic (re)imaginings of black identity. The book also demonstrates how these figures overtly represent or implicitly signify social discourse and accepted wisdom concerning notions of racial reciprocity, equality, forgiveness, and ultimately, racial justice.




Cold Steel Rain


Book Description

Nothing stays dead in New Orleans. Not for long, anyway… No one knows this better than ex-district attorney Danny Chaisson—the dead show up in his bathroom mirror every morning, staring right back at him with hollow eyes. Chaisson is the legman for Jimmy Boudrieux, speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives, for whom dirty dealing is more than just a way of life. So when Danny makes his regular pick-up of a briefcase full of handguns at a downtown Vietnamese restaurant, leaves the room for a moment, and returns to find a bloodbath, he knows the next bullet has his name on it. And nobody—least of all Boudrieux or the crooked cops who control the NOPD—is going to lift a finger to help him. From the bestselling author of Bait: “A scorcher . . . clever, tough and terrific enough to make you comb publishers’ lists for his next.”—Time Out




Shadowrun Legends: Steel Rain


Book Description

SWORD OF THE SERPENT... Machiko is second-in-command of the Green Serpent Guard, an elite corps of Elven samurai who are sworn to defend the Chairman of Nagato Corporation. But she soon gets a promotion—after her superior is ruthlessly cut down in a slew of attacks aimed at the famous Guard itself. Only the wealthiest can afford assassins with enough muscle to take on the Green Serpent Guard, and Machiko turns up evidence that points ot Nagato's biggest rival, Fuchi Corp. It looks like Fuchi has designs on Nagato's sensitive research division, where the incredible future of the communications matrix is taking shape. When magical attacks and sabotage begin taking out more of Nagato's personnel, things between the two megacorporations really heat up. But behind the growing hostilities with Fuchi looms a more sinister threat, requiring far more of Machiko's talents than her flashing sword. And staying alive may require defeating a high-tech foe with virtually unlimited powers—and absolutely no mercy...




Steel Rain


Book Description

It is up to a female member of a megacorporation's elite battalion of Elven samurai to uncover a diabolical blackmail scheme perpetrated by the company's biggest rival, a high-tech foe with unlimited powers. Original.