Thunder from a Clear Sky


Book Description

This isn't an ordinary Civil War tale. It is the all-true but little-known story of Adam "Stovepipe" Johnson-Kentucky legend, Texas hero, and Confederate cavalry officer-who boldly led the first Confederate raid across the Mason-Dixon Line to capture the thriving river-port community of Newburgh, Indiana, during the American Civil War. Not a shot was fired. With the politically divided landscape of Civil War Kentucky and the steamboat economy of the Ohio River as its backdrop, this is the historically accurate account of surprise nocturnal strikes, opportunistic military occupations, and a swashbuckling Rebel icon's daring daylight invasion into the Northern homeland that sealed the fate of western Kentucky for the remainder of the war. Vivid, thorough, and painstakingly researched, Thunder from a Clear Sky documents five critical weeks of 1862 Civil War history and shares the untold tale of one man's immeasurable impact on a nation at war. "A fascinating account of how a skilled former Indian fighter gathered a few Kentucky rebels and 'woke up' the slumbering Indiana Home Guard." -Evansville Courier & Press Book Reviews "An important and, until now, largely neglected story about the American Civil War... Thunder from a Clear Sky stands as a fresh and important contribution in a field long studied."-Professor Randy K. Mills, Ph.D., Oakland City University, author of Jonathan Jennings: Indiana's First Governor




Thunder From the Clear Sky


Book Description

In alternating voices, the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims chronicle their perspectives on King Philip's War. Full color.




Lightning from the Sky, Thunder from the Sea


Book Description

ANGLICO: "Super Grunts" of 1st ANGLICO were deployed to all four tactical zones of Vietnam in small mobile fire control teams, providing support to U.S. Army and allied elements. This organization was the last tactical unit to stand down from the war and gained distinction as the only Marines in-country reporting directly to MACV. Working closely with Korean Marines, recounting several actions involving these legendary warriors from the Land of the Morning Calm, this little known but highly effective unit had an impact on the war far greater than their small numbers. Field radio operators and naval gunfire spotters composed the tactical membership of this unit. Both professions were cross trained in each competence, and each in turn was further qualified as tactical air controllers. An airborne capable platoon was established, mandating many ANGLICOs attend jump school and undertake other specialty training in the event they are called on to enter combat by unconventional means. Not being able to predict who they may be called on to support, training was pushed to the level of the most elite forces in the free world. BLUE DRAGONS: Most men of the Blue Dragon Brigade came of age during a war that raged fierce on their own homeland little more than a decade earlier. During a short lived occupation by North Korea, the people of the south endured extremely harsh treatment by would be conquerors. Events of recent history still burned in their hearts and haunted their dreams. They were mostly all children at the time leaving scarcely a man untouched by personal tragedy that could only be forged in a crucible of terror. Many were orphaned and all shared a thirst to settle a score that only those who drink deep from the same cup of dread can truly understand.




Thunderstorm


Book Description

Thunderstorm follows the course of a storm through midwestern farm country minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, from late morning into late afternoon. As always with Arthur Geisert, it is a meticulously executed and visually stunning piece of work. Other than the timeline that runs along the bottom border of the illustrations, there is no text, and the illustrations are continuous. Through keen observation, Geisert beautifully captures the nuances and details of a midwestern thunderstorm, from the ever-changing color of the sky, to the actions of the human inhabitants, to the reactions of the natural world to the wind and rain. America's heartland is somewhat unfamiliar territory in the realm of picture books, but in Thunderstorm, Geisert has provided readers with valuable, breathtaking insight into one of its most natural occurrences. Arthur Geisert grew up in Los Angeles, California, and claims not to have seen a pig until he was an adult. Trained as a sculptor in college, Geisert learned to etch at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. Geisert has published just about a book a year for the past thirty years. Every one of his books has been illustrated with etchings. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and The Horn Book Magazine. In 2010 his book Ice was selected as a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated book of the year. Geisert currently lives in a converted bank building in Bernard, Iowa.




The Pilgrims of Plimoth


Book Description

Aye, Governor Bradford calls us pilgrims. We are English and England was our home...But our lives were ruled by King James, and for many years it seemed as though our very hearts were in prison in England... September, 1620, our lives changed. We were seventy menfolk and womenfolk, thirty-two good children, a handful of cocks and hens, and two dogs, gathered together on a dock in Plymouth, England, ready to set sail for America in a small ship called the Mayflower... In a text that mirrors their language and thoughts, Marcia Sewall has masterfully recreated the coming of the pilgrims to the New World, and the daily flow of their days during the first years in the colony they called Plimoth. And in stunning, light-filled paintings, she brings to brilliant life that important era in American history.




Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases


Book Description

p.B. J. Whiting savors proverbial expressions and has devoted much of his lifetime to studying and collecting them; no one knows more about British and American proverbs than he. The present volume, based upon writings in British North America from the earliest settlements to approximately 1820, complements his and Archer Taylor's Dictionary of American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, 1820-1880. It differs from that work and from other standard collections, however, in that its sources are primarily not "literary" but instead workaday writings - letters, diaries, histories, travel books, political pamphlets, and the like. The authors represent a wide cross-section of the populace, from scholars and statesmen to farmers, shopkeepers, sailors, and hunters. Mr. Whiting has combed all the obvious sources and hundreds of out-of-the-way publications of local journals and historical societies. This body of material, "because it covers territory that has not been extracted and compiled in a scholarly way before, can justly be said to be the most valuable of all those that Whiting has brought together," according to Albert B. Friedman. "What makes the work important is Whiting's authority: a proverb or proverbial phrase is what BJW thinks is a proverb or proverbial phrase. There is no objective operative definition of any value, no divining rod; his tact, 'feel, ' experience, determine what's the real thing and what is spurious."




He Shall Thunder in the Sky


Book Description

Trouble is brewing in Egypt at the close of 1914 and no one will escape the coming tempest. With the world at war, Amelia Peabody and her husband Radcliffe Emerson have returned to Cairo for another season of archaeological excavation—despite the increasing danger of an attack on the Suez Canal and on Egypt itself. A terrible conflict looms. A long-simmering love affair is resolved. A dastardly plot unfolds. There is no escaping the furious storm that now threatens the Emersons and their world—so Amelia plunges right into it.




Thunderer


Book Description

In this breathtaking debut novel by Felix Gilman, one man embarks on a thrilling and treacherous quest for his people’s lost god—in an elaborate Dickensian city that is either blessed …or haunted. Arjun arrives in Ararat just as a magnificent winged creature swoops and sails over the city. For it is the day of the return of that long-awaited, unpredictable mystical creature: the great Bird. But does it come for good or ill? And in the service of what god? Whatever its purpose, for one inhabitant the Bird sparks a long-dormant idea: to map the mapless city and liberate its masses with the power of knowledge. As the creature soars across the land, shifting topography, changing the course of the river, and redrawing the territories of the city’s avian life, crowds cheer and guns salute in a mix of science and worship. Then comes the time for the Bird’s power to be trapped—within the hull of a floating warship called Thunderer, an astounding and unprecedented weapon. The ship is now a living temple to the Bird, a gift to be used, allegedly, in the interests of all of Ararat. Hurtled into this convulsing world is Arjun, an innocent who will unwittingly unleash a dark power beyond his imagining—and become entangled in a dangerous underground movement that will forever transform Ararat. As havoc overtakes the streets, Arjun dares to test the city’s moving boundaries. In this city of gods, he has come to search among them, not to hide. A tour de force of the imagination, and a brilliant tale of rebellion, Thunderer heralds the arrival of a truly gifted fantasy writer who has created a tale as rich, wondrous, and captivating as the world in which it is set.




Kentuckians in Gray


Book Description

Perhaps more than any other citizens of the nation, Kentuckians held conflicted loyalties during the American Civil War. As a border state, Kentucky was largely pro-slavery but had an economy tied as much to the North as to the South. State government officials tried to keep Kentucky neutral, hoping to play a lead role in compromise efforts between the Union and the Confederacy, but that stance failed to satisfy supporters of both sides, all of whom considered the state's backing crucial to victory. President Abraham Lincoln is reported to have once remarked, "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky." Kentucky did side with Lincoln, officially aligning itself with the Union in 1861. But the conflicted loyalties of Kentucky's citizens continued to impact the state's role in the Civil War. When forced to choose between North and South, Kentuckians made the choice as individuals. Many men opted to fight for the Confederate army, where a great number of them rose to high ranks. With Kentuckians in Gray: Confederate Generals and Field Officers of the Bluegrass State, editors Bruce S. Allardice and Lawrence Lee Hewitt present a volume that examines the lives of these gray-clad warriors. Some of the Kentuckians to serve as Confederate generals are well recognized in state history, such as John Hunt Morgan, John Bell Hood, and Albert Sidney Johnston. However, as the Civil War slips further and further into the past, many other Confederate leaders from the Commonwealth have been forgotten. Kentuckians in Gray contains full biographies of thirty-nine Confederate generals. Its principal subjects are native Kentuckians or commanders of brigades of Kentucky troops, such as Morgan. The first complete reference source of its type on Kentucky Civil War history, the book contains the most definitive biographies of these generals ever assembled, as well as short biographical sketches on every field officer to serve in a Kentucky unit. This comprehensive collection recognizes Kentucky's pivotal role in the War between the States, imparting the histories of men who fought "brother against brother" more than any other set of military leaders. Kentuckians in Gray is an invaluable resource for researchers and enthusiasts of Kentucky history and the American Civil War.




Lightning Strike


Book Description

An instant New York Times bestseller, this prequel to the acclaimed Cork O’Connor series is “a pitch perfect, richly imagined story that is both an edge-of-your-seat thriller and an evocative, emotionally charged coming-of-age tale” (Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author) about fathers and sons, small-town conflicts, and the events that shape our lives forever. Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota’s Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to twelve-year-old Cork O’Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from a tree in an abandoned logging camp, it is the first in a series of events that will cause him to question everything he took for granted about his hometown, his family, and himself. Cork’s father, Liam O’Connor, is Aurora’s sheriff and it is his job to confirm that the man’s death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his father’s official investigation, Cork begins to look for answers on his own. Together, father and son face the ultimate test of choosing between what their heads tell them is true and what their hearts know is right. In this “brilliant achievement, and one every crime reader and writer needs to celebrate” (Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author), beloved novelist William Kent Krueger shows that some mysteries can be solved even as others surpass our understanding.