When Alex falls for the charming new boy at school, Cole -- a handsome, funny, sports star who adores her -- she can't believe she's finally found her soul mate . . . someone who truly loves and understands her. At first, Alex is blissfully happy. Sure, Cole seems a little jealous of her relationship with her close friend Zack, but what guy would want his girlfriend spending all her time with another boy? As the months pass, though, Alex can no longer ignore Cole's small put-downs, pinches, or increasingly violent threats. As Alex struggles to come to terms with the sweet boyfriend she fell in love with and the boyfriend whose "love" she no longer recognizes, she is forced to choose -- between her "true love" and herself.

What an intensely divisive election portends for American politics The year 2020 was a tumultuous time in American politics. It brought a global pandemic, protests for racial justice, and a razor-thin presidential election outcome. It culminated in an attack on the U.S. Capitol that attempted to deny Joe Biden’s victory. The Bitter End explores the long-term trends and short-term shocks that shaped this dramatic year and what these changes could mean for the future. John Sides, Chris Tausanovitch, and Lynn Vavreck demonstrate that Trump’s presidency intensified the partisan politics of the previous decades and the identity politics of the 2016 election. Presidential elections have become calcified, with less chance of big swings in either party’s favor. Republicans remained loyal to Trump and kept the election close, despite Trump’s many scandals, a recession, and the pandemic. But in a narrowly divided electorate even small changes can have big consequences. The pandemic was a case in point: when Trump pushed to reopen the country even as infections mounted, support for Biden increased. The authors explain that, paradoxically, even as Biden’s win came at a time of heightened party loyalty, there remained room for shifts that shaped the election’s outcome. Ultimately, the events of 2020 showed that instead of the country coming together to face national challenges—the pandemic, George Floyd’s murder, and the Capitol riot—these challenges only reinforced divisions. Expertly chronicling the tensions of an election that came to an explosive finish, The Bitter End presents a detailed account of a year of crises and the dangerous direction in which the country is headed.

Jack Engelhard’s The Days of the Bitter End may well be the definitive word on the 1960s. This is a landmark book, masterfully evocative. Engelhard once again proves himself to be a truly great novelist in this beautifully crafted historical novel that recaptures an era that has left an indelible mark on our culture to this day. Read it and laugh, read it and weep, because it’s all here, the way it was back then, the age of innocence soon to be shattered, but then reborn. This is what it was like to be young, every moment an adventure. Brilliant. Praise Received for The Days of the Bitter End “It’s all here…masterfully written by one of the greatest novelists of our Age. Engelhard brings to bear his journalistic talents as well as matchless storytelling ability to put the reader right in the center of the action…of the story…of the times.” - John W. Cassell, author of Crossroads: 1969 “What a great story. If you missed the 60s – if you missed the excitement, the passion, the radicalism, the thrills, the hopes and dreams – this book brings it all alive. I could not put it down.” - Kmgroup review “Another significant accomplishment from this versatile writer, and it resonates with the sort of dialogue and imagery that not only rings with credibility, but instantly evokes a ‘you are there’ feeling for the reader.” - Nancy Sundstrom, Northern Express “Engelhard’s writing is superb, and he offers up a slice of 1960s life that is vibrant and moving. The story is skillfully crafted, quite witty and intriguing.” - Carie Morrison, Rambles.net About the Author Contemporaries have hailed novelist Jack Engelhard as “the last Hemingway” and of being “a writer without peer and the conscience of us all.” The New York Times commended the economy of his prose… “precise, almost clinical language.” His bestselling novel Indecent Proposal made him internationally famous as the foremost chronicler of moral dilemmas and of topics dealing with temptation. Works that followed won him an even greater following, such as Escape From Mount Moriah, his book of memoirs that won awards for writing and for film. His latest novel Compulsive draws us into the mind of a compulsive gambler in a work stunningly brilliant and original, and seductively readable. Engelhard writes a weekly column for The Washington Times.

The War of the Triple Alliance was one of the longest, least remembered, and, for one of its participants, most catastrophic conflicts of the 19th century. The decision of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay to go to war against Paraguay in May 1965 has generally been regarded as a response to the raids by the headstrong and tyrannical dictator, Francisco Solano Lopez. While there is some truth to this view, as Lopez had attacked towns in Argentina and Brazil, the terms of the Triple Alliance signed that same month reveal that the motivation of these two nations, at least, was to redraw the map in their favor, at the expense of Paraguay. That the resulting conflict lasted five years before Lopez was defeated and his country fully at the mercy of its neighbors was a tribute to the heroic resistance of his people, as well as to the inadequacies of the allied command. The military campaigns, which took place on land and on the rivers, often in appalling conditions of both climate and terrain, are examined from a strategic perspective, as well as through the experiences of ordinary soldiers. Leuchars looks in detail at the political causes, the course of the conflict as viewed from both sides, and the tragic aftermath. He brings to light an episode that, for all its subsequent obscurity, marked a turning point in the development of South American international relations.

"This book examines popular responses to the violent dissolution of the Third Reich between 1943 and 1945"--

Owner Paul Colby recalls the club's transformation from a small coffeehouse into the pre-eminent music and comedy venue that is still going strong today.