The Virginia Giant, a one-man army! Peter Francisco was believed to have had almost super-human strength. According to legend, George Washington said, "Without him we would have lost two crucial battles, perhaps the war, and with it our freedom." Francisco, a Portuguese immigrant, was raised outside Richmond and after hearing Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech, he joined the Virginia Colonial Militia. He was known for his battle-hardened skills, and his bravery at Brandywine, Stony Point, Camden and Guilford Courthouse led to stories of epic portions. Join authors Bobby and Sherry Norfolk as they separate fact from myth on topics ranging from pirates to redcoats to exciting acts of valor in this remarkable story of a true American hero.

All of the kids at school stay away from “Bluish,” but when Dreenie and Tuli learn to see beyond her differences, they discover a true friend Ten-year-old Natalie is different from the other kids at her New York City magnet school: She is often absent, wears a knit cap, and uses a wheelchair. Her classmates have nicknamed her “Bluish” because her pale skin is tinted blue from chemotherapy. Dreenie is fascinated by and a bit frightened of Bluish—she watches her from afar and writes about her in her journal. As the school year progresses, Dreenie and her friend Tuli learn to see beyond Bluish’s differences and discover a fiercely independent, spirited girl who isn’t so different from them after all. But it’s not easy being friends with someone who’s sick, and Dreenie doesn’t always know how to act. Hamilton delivers a lesson of compassion and demonstrates the power of friendship to overcome even the most trying of situations.

THE DEVIL’S DOUBLE: is the first of 3 autobiographical books chronicling Latif Yahia’s incredible life story. It vividly describes how Latif was forced to become Uday Hussein’s ‘fidai’ (body double) and gives a unique insight into the extreme extravagance and cruelty of the Saddam regime. Latif survived assassination attempts and witnessed Uday’s psychotic temper, rapes, orgy parties, torture atrocities, and sadistic murders. The book has recently been made into a highly acclaimed movie. THE BLACK HOLE: gives a fascinating account of what happened to Latif in Europe after he escaped from Iraq. How he was treated by western governments and the CIA. How Uday sought revenge on Latif and vice-versa. How he was offered a British passport by Saudis to murder a dissident and how they beheaded Latif’s Saudi princess lover. How Latif made and lost a fortune. How he strived in vain for a peaceful life and survived 4 more assassination attempts. Forty Shades of Conspiracy: brings Latif’s story right up to date by detailing his time in Ireland. His run-ins with drug-dealers, Corrupt Irish Garda officers and Irish politicians who continually denied him Irish citizenship. His despair as a beggar on the streets and the happiness he found after he met the love of his life. His reaction to Uday and Saddam’s deaths and his opinion on the current political situation in Iraq all makes fascinating reading. Book Description: In 1987, Latif Yahia was taken to Saddam's headquarters to meet Uday, Saddam's eldest son, and told that a great honour had been bestowed upon him: that because of the great likeness between them, he had been chosen to be Uday's double. For many Iraqis it would have been the highlight of their lives, but for Latif, a peace-loving man who did not agree with Saddam's brutal regime, it was not. He refused. Following a week of torture, and realising he would be killed if he continued to refuse, Latif was forced to accept the role. After a gruesome training programme during which he was made to watch over thirty films of torture, hours of tapes of Uday, and undertake a final remodelling of his appearance, Latif was deemed ready. But it was only after the final test, a meeting with Saddam himself, that Latif made his first public appearance. And so began his life as Uday's double - a life on the perimeter of the inner circle of Saddam's eldest son, a witness to the horror of his insane life of debauchery, excess and brutality, and an experience for which he almost paid with his life on more than one occasion.

The true story of Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Soering, convicted of the double murder of her parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom.

“An outstanding book . . . documents how the VA’s system of integrative care outperforms the models used by private insurers.” —USW Blog (United Steelworkers) NEW EDITION, REVISED AND UPDATED Phillip Longman tells the amazing story of the turnaround of the Department of Veterans Affairs health-care system from a dysfunctional, scandal-prone bureaucracy into the benchmark for high-quality medicine in the United States. Best Care Anywhere shows that vast swaths of what we think we know about health, health care, and medical economics are just plain wrong. And the book demonstrates how this extraordinarily cost-effective model, which has proven to be highly popular with veterans, can be made available to everyone. New to this edition is an analysis of how the shortcomings of both so-called Obamacare and Republican plans to privatize Medicare reinforce the need for applying the lessons of the VA. Also included are completely updated statistics and research, as well as examples of how the private sector is already beginning to learn from the VA’s example. “Among the most important social policy books published in the last decade.” —Ezra Klein, The Washington Post “Read Best Care Anywhere not just to learn about one of our public health agencies that is a global star in terms of cost effective, evidence-based results, but also to learn how your own health care process can be improved by adopting the Veterans Health Administration’s methodology for transparency and patient-centered care.” —New York Journal of Books

“I spy … a brilliant thriller! Double or Nothing is a clever and utterly compelling addition to the Bond canon.” —Jeffery Deaver, author of Carte Blanche, a James Bond novel The start of a brand-new trilogy following MI6’s Double O agents with a license to kill, that blows the world of James Bond wide open! James Bond is missing… 007 has been captured—and perhaps killed—by a sinister private military company. His status unknown. MI6 will do everything in their power to recover their most lethal agent. But in the meantime, the rest of the Double O division has a job to do. Meet the new generation of spies… Johanna Harwood, 003. Joseph Dryden, 004. Sid Bashir, 009. They represent the very best and brightest of MI6. Supremely skilled, ruthless, with a license to kill, they will do anything to protect their country. The fate of the world rests in their hands… Tech billionaire Sir Bertram Paradise claims he has developed new cutting-edge technology capable of reversing climate change and saving the planet. But can his ambitious promises be trusted, and are his motives as noble as they appear? The new spies must uncover the truth because the stakes could not be higher; for humanity… and for James Bond himself. Time is running out.

An unsung classic of nineteenth-century Russian literature, Karolina Pavlova’s A Double Life alternates prose and poetry to offer a wry picture of Russian aristocratic society and vivid dreams of escaping its strictures. Pavlova combines rich narrative prose that details balls, tea parties, and horseback rides with poetic interludes that depict her protagonist’s inner world—and biting irony that pervades a seemingly romantic description of a young woman who has everything. A Double Life tells the story of Cecily, who is being trapped into marriage by her well-meaning mother; her best friend, Olga; and Olga’s mother, who means to clear the way for a wealthier suitor for her own daughter by marrying off Cecily first. Cecily’s privileged upbringing makes her oblivious to the havoc that is being wreaked around her. Only in the seclusion of her bedroom is her imagination freed: each day of deception is followed by a night of dreams described in soaring verse. Pavlova subtly speaks against the limitations placed on women and especially women writers, which translator Barbara Heldt highlights in a critical introduction. Among the greatest works of literature by a Russian woman writer, A Double Life is worthy of a central place in the Russian canon.