Thunder Run


Book Description

“A Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter provides a brilliant account of the harrowing drive into Baghdad by an American armor brigade.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer Based on reporting that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Thunder Run chronicles one of the boldest gambles in modern military history: the surprise assault on Baghdad by the Spartan Brigade, the Second Brigade of the Third Infantry Division (Mechanized). Three battalions and fewer than a thousand men launched a violent thrust of tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles into the heart of a city of five million people—and in three days of bloody combat ended the Iraqi war. More than just a rendering of a single battle, Thunder Run candidly recounts how soldiers respond under fire and stress and how human frailties are magnified in a war zone. The product of over a hundred interviews with commanders and men from the Second Brigade, it is a riveting firsthand account of how a single armored brigade was able to capture an Arab capital defended by one of the world’s largest armies. “The best account of combat since Black Hawk Down.” —Men’s Journal




Thunder Rolling in the Mountains


Book Description

Through the eyes of a brave and independent young woman, Scott O'Dell tells of the tragic defeat of the Nez Perce, a classic tale of cruelty, betrayal, and heroism. This powerful account of the tragic defeat of the Nez Perce Indians in 1877 by the United States Army is narrated by Chief Joseph's strong and brave daughter. When Sound of Running Feet first sees white settlers on Nez Perce land, she vows to fight them. She'll fight all the people trying to steal her people's land and to force them onto a reservation, including the soldiers with their guns. But if to fight means only to die, never win, is the fight worth it? When will the killing stop? Like the author's Newbery Medal-winning classic Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell's Thunder Rolling in the Mountains is a gripping tale of survival, strength, and courage.




Downriver


Book Description

Fifteen-year-old Jessie and the other rebellious teenage members of a wilderness survival school team abandon their adult leader, hijack his boats, and try to run the dangerous white water at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.




Thunder Run


Book Description

Now that she has found her brother Montez, Magdalys and her squad have embarked on a secret mission for General Grant, taking them deep into the Louisiana swamplands, to New Orleans, and eventually to the Mexican border where Imperial troops are forming an alliance with the Confederates in pursuit of spreading slavery--and once more Magdalys will have to use her telepathic link to the dinosaurs to save herself, her squad, and the Union she believes in.




Dactyl Hill Squad


Book Description

“An unforgettable historical, high-octane adventure,” about a diverse group of kids flying on dinosaurs to rescue friends from Civil War slave traders (Dav Pilkey, author-illustrator of the Dog Man series). It’s 1863 and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker. Magdalys flees with her friends to Brooklyn, settling in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have found a safe haven. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback and plot to take down Riker. Can Magdalys and the squad rescue their friends before it’s too late? A New York Times Notable Book An NPR, School Library Journal, New York Public Library, Washington Post and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year “Mind-bendingly original.” —The New York Times Book Review “Delightful historical fantasy.” —Publishers Weekly “Sends readers on a dino thrill ride.” —Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times–bestselling author of Brown Girl Dreaming “Full of heart and imagination.” —Tomi Adeyemi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Children of Blood and Bone “Grips, stomps, and soars from start to finish.” —Rita Williams-Garcia, three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of One Crazy Summer “ An engaging, lively adventure.” —Jesmyn Ward, two-time National Book Award-winning author of Sing, Unburied, Sing “Brings history to life with power, honesty, and fun.” —Laurie Halse Anderson,New York Times–bestselling author of Chains




Thunder-Boomer!


Book Description

A farm family scurries for shelter from a violent thunderstorm that brings welcome relief from the heat and also an unexpected surprise.




Thunder Moon


Book Description

Practical, skeptical Grace McDaniel was not looking for romance. The Sheriff of Lake Bluff, Georgia, and the granddaughter of a Cherokee doctor, Grace’s hands are full with the daily trouble of small-town life. Arriving in the wake of a freak storm is Ian Walker, a mysterious stranger who blends modern medicine and traditional Native American cures. Even though she is wary of his ideas, Grace cannot resist what his touch awakens in her. But Ian is hiding a terrifying secret. And only he knows the truth about a creature stalking the citizens of Lake Bluff. A creature who preys on the dying…and then on the young, the living, the vibrant…Now, to save her people, Grace must put her faith in Ian’s haunting power and succumb to her wildest passions—before the rumble of thunder fills the air, and a relentless evil strikes again…




Boom Town


Book Description

A brilliant, kaleidoscopic narrative of Oklahoma City—a great American story of civics, basketball, and destiny, from award-winning journalist Sam Anderson NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Chicago Tribune • San Francisco Chronicle • The Economist • Deadspin Oklahoma City was born from chaos. It was founded in a bizarre but momentous “Land Run” in 1889, when thousands of people lined up along the borders of Oklahoma Territory and rushed in at noon to stake their claims. Since then, it has been a city torn between the wild energy that drives its outsized ambitions, and the forces of order that seek sustainable progress. Nowhere was this dynamic better realized than in the drama of the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team’s 2012-13 season, when the Thunder’s brilliant general manager, Sam Presti, ignited a firestorm by trading future superstar James Harden just days before the first game. Presti’s all-in gamble on “the Process”—the patient, methodical management style that dictated the trade as the team’s best hope for long-term greatness—kicked off a pivotal year in the city’s history, one that would include pitched battles over urban planning, a series of cataclysmic tornadoes, and the frenzied hope that an NBA championship might finally deliver the glory of which the city had always dreamed. Boom Town announces the arrival of an exciting literary voice. Sam Anderson, former book critic for New York magazine and now a staff writer at the New York Times magazine, unfolds an idiosyncratic mix of American history, sports reporting, urban studies, gonzo memoir, and much more to tell the strange but compelling story of an American city whose unique mix of geography and history make it a fascinating microcosm of the democratic experiment. Filled with characters ranging from NBA superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook; to Flaming Lips oddball frontman Wayne Coyne; to legendary Great Plains meteorologist Gary England; to Stanley Draper, Oklahoma City's would-be Robert Moses; to civil rights activist Clara Luper; to the citizens and public servants who survived the notorious 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, Boom Town offers a remarkable look at the urban tapestry woven from control and chaos, sports and civics.




Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Puffin Modern Classics)


Book Description

Winner of the Newbery Medal, this remarkably moving novel has impressed the hearts and minds of millions of readers. Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story—Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect. * "[A] vivid story.... Entirely through its own internal development, the novel shows the rich inner rewards of black pride, love, and independence."—Booklist, starred review




Born to Run


Book Description

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl's half-time show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That's how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humour, and originality found in his songs. He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as "The Big Bang": seeing Elvis Presley's debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candour, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song "Born to Run" reveals more than we previously realized.