Military

The INSTANT New York Times bestseller Instant Los Angeles Times bestseller One of NPR's Books We Love One of Newsweek Staffers' Favorite Books of the Year Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize “In Nuclear War: A Scenario , Annie Jacobsen gives us a vivid picture of what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail…Terrifying.”— Wall Street Journal There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war. And one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound toward the United States. Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have. Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.

Publisher's Summary Delta Force—the US Army’s most elite top-secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won’t hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readers inside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action to reveal the never-before-told story of First Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force). He is a master of espionage, trained to take on hijackers, terrorists, and enemy armies. He can deploy by parachute or arrive by commercial aircraft, survive alone in hostile cities, speak foreign languages fluently, strike at enemy targets with stunning swiftness and extraordinary teamwork. He is the ultimate modern warrior: the Delta Force operator. In this dramatic chronicle, Eric Haney, one of the founding members of Delta Force, takes us inside this legendary counterterrorist unit. Here, for the first time, are details of the grueling selection process—designed to break the strongest of men—that singles out the best of the best. With heart-stopping immediacy, Haney tells what it’s really like to enter a hostage-held airplane. From his days in Beirut, he tells a remarkable tale of bodyguards and bombs, of a day-to-day life of madness and beauty, and of how he and a teammate are called on to kill two gunmen targeting US Marines at an airport. As part of the team sent to rescue American hostages in Tehran, Haney offers a first-person description of that failed mission that is a chilling, compelling account of a bold maneuver undone by chance—and a few fatal mistakes. From fighting guerrilla warfare in Honduras to rescuing missionaries in Sudan and leading the way onto the island of Grenada, Haney captures the daring and discipline that distinguish the men of Delta Force. Inside Delta Force brings honor to these singular men while it puts us in the middle of around-the-world action that is sudden, frighten

Publisher's Summary This is the exciting - yet little known - story of the making of England in the ninth and 10th centuries, the years in which King Alfred, his son and grandson defeated the Danish Vikings who had invaded and occupied three of England's four kingdoms. The story is seen through the eyes of Uhtred, a dispossessed nobleman, who is captured as a child by the Danes and then raised by them so that, by the time the Northmen begin their assault on Wessex, Alfred's kingdom and the last territory in English hands, Uhtred almost thinks of himself as a Dane. He certainly has no love for Alfred, whom he considers a pious weakling and no match for Viking savagery, yet when Alfred unexpectedly defeats the Danes and the Danes themselves turn on Uhtred, he has to decide which side he is on. By now he is a young man, in love, trained to fight and ready to take his place in the dreaded shield wall. Above all, though, he wishes to recover his father's land, the magical fort of Bebbanburg by the wild northern sea. This thrilling adventure - based on existing records of Bernard Cornwell's ancestors, depicts a time when law and order were ripped violently apart by a pagan assault on Christian England, an assault that came very close to destroying England altogether. This is the exciting - yet little known - story of the making of England in the ninth and 10th centuries, the years in which King Alfred, his son and grandson defeated the Danish Vikings who had invaded and occupied three of England's four kingdoms. ©2005 Bernard Cornwell (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

Publisher's Summary With The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts , James D. Hornfischer created essential and enduring narratives about America’s World War II Navy, works of unique immediacy distinguished by rich portraits of ordinary men in extremis and exclusive new information. Now he does the same for the deadliest, most pivotal naval campaign of the Pacific war: Guadalcanal. Neptune’s Inferno is at once the most epic and the most intimate account ever written of the contest for control of the seaways of the Solomon Islands, America’s first concerted offensive against the Imperial Japanese juggernaut and the true turning point of the Pacific conflict. This grim, protracted campaign has long been heralded as a Marine victory. Now, with his powerful portrait of the Navy’s sacrifice - three sailors died at sea for every man lost ashore - Hornfischer tells for the first time the full story of the men who fought in destroyers, cruisers, and battleships in the narrow, deadly waters of “Ironbottom Sound.” Here, in brilliant cinematic detail, are the seven major naval actions that began in August of 1942, a time when the war seemed unwinnable and America fought on a shoestring, with the outcome always in doubt. But at Guadalcanal the U.S. proved it had the implacable will to match the Imperial war machine blow for violent blow. Working from new interviews with survivors, unpublished eyewitness accounts, and newly available documents, Hornfischer paints a vivid picture of the officers and enlisted men who took on the Japanese in America’s hour of need. ©2011 James D. Hornfischer (P)2011 Random House Audio

Books 1-13 are on this site and still being seeded. Books 1-7, 13 are in 8 single posts and books 8-12 are shared together in one post. The Exile Fleet has been decimated, but the mission must go on. What other choice do they have? With most of the officers KIA, Sergeant Major Reverent Pelletier has to step up to lead the ground force.

Video game coder Harley Kelso thought a tandem skydive would help her make her latest game more realistic. Instead, it literally put her in the arms of the sexiest man she's ever seen. Geeky to the core, Harley is the polar opposite of big and burly Beckett, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to play more carnal games with the sexy soldier. When Beckett "Coach" Ralston offers to fill-in at a friend's skydiving club, he doesn't suspect he'll meet a woman who will change his life - and he definitely doesn't expect her to save it. But that's exactly what happens when an accident mid-air forces Harley to land them both safely. She's earned Coach's complete gratitude, and even more, sexual interest. Until she disappears without a trace. With Harley missing, a happy ending might not be in the cards for the man who loves her - especially when he becomes the main suspect.

“Are you calling dibs?” “She’s a woman, not the last piece of f--king pie. And yes, I’m calling dibs if it keeps your hands off of her.” Carter Pierce is a man who believes in signs. He just doesn't know what to do with this one. In the small town of Blue Moon Bend, where everybody is a matchmaker and a tie-dye wearing hippie, Carter wants to be left alone to tend the family farm. After returning from Afghanistan with scars, his only goal is recovery. He doesn't need distractions. Definitely not one with silver-blonde hair who just keep getting in his way. Summer Lentz is a big city journalist sent to interview Carter and his family. She's out of place in the small town, with her designer wardrobe and workaholic lifestyle. She asks too many questions and doesn't take no for an answer, threatening to destroy the peace that Carter has been working towards. She thwarts every attempt he makes to retreat back inside himself, somehow bringing him closer to being whole again. Summer has secrets of her own, but she never planned to open up to anyone - especially not the scowling, secretive farmer whose story she's after. But as she gets drawn into the community, she starts to realize that she can't stay closed off forever. And what's more, she doesn't want to. Can Carter and Summer grow closer with a little help from the town? Or will secrets keep them apart?

John Rambo. Vietnam vet. American. First Blood unleased the fury of his rage. Now in prison for his bloody one-man war against a small-town sheriff. Colonel Trautman. Green beret. Rambo’s former commanding officer. With a signed release form - if Rambo will take on what would be a suicide mission for most men.

John Rambo thought he had finally found some measure of peace. No more war. When asked by his former commander, Colonel Trautman , to accompany him on a top-secret mission into Soviet occuppied Afghanistan Rambo refuses. But when he learns that Trautman is captured by the Soviets and is being held prisoner in a hellish medieval prison Rambo once again picks up his guns and goes on a desperate one man rescue mission. This time Rambo won’t be fighting for himself or a government. This time Rambo i