An American Haunting: The Bell Witch

• ISBN13: 9780312363536
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

"'By God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome,' crowed President George H. W. Bush when he repelled Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1991. He was wrong. The Vietnam debacle continues to haunt America's political leaders, military men, and population. Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb's account of this phenomenon is studiously researched, vividly narrated, and, above all, highly readable. It will stand as a major contribution to the subject."Ââ€"Stanley Karnow, author of Vietnam: A History, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

The United States had never lost a warÂâ€"that is, until 1975, when it was forced to flee Saigon in humiliation after losing to what Lyndon Johnson called a "raggedy-ass little four! th-rate country." The legacy of this first defeat has haunted every president since, especially on the decision of whether to put "boots on the ground" and commit troops to war.

In Haunting Legacy, the father-daughter journalist team of Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb presents a compelling, accessible, and hugely important history of presidential decisionmaking on one crucial issue: in light of the Vietnam debacle, under what circumstances should the United States go to war?

The sobering lesson of Vietnam is that the United States is not invincibleÂâ€"it can lose a warÂâ€"and thus it must be more discriminating about the use of American power. Every president has faced the ghosts of Vietnam in his own way, though each has been wary of being sucked into another unpopular war. Ford (during the Mayaguez crisis) and both Bushes (Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan) deployed massive force, as if to say, "Vietnam, be damned." On the other hand, Carter, Clinton, ! and Reagan (to the surprise of many) acted with extreme cautio! n, mindf ul of the Vietnam experience. Obama has also wrestled with the Vietnam legacy, using doses of American firepower in Libya while still engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The authors spent five years interviewing hundreds of officials from every postwar administration and conducting extensive research in presidential libraries and archives, and they've produced insight and information never before published. Equal parts taut history, revealing biography, and cautionary tale, Haunting Legacy is must reading for anyone trying to understand the power of the past to influence war-and-peace decisions of the present, and of the future.

Known throughout Tennessee as "Old Kate," the Bell Witch took up residence with John Bell's family in 1818. It was a cruel and noisy spirit, given to rapping and gnawing sounds before it found its voices.

With these voices and its supernatural acts, the Bell Witch tormented the Bell family. This extraordinary book recounts the ! only documented case in U.S. history when a spirit actually caused a man's death.

The local schoolteacher, Richard Powell, witnessed the strange events and recorded them for his daughter. His astonishing manuscript fell into the hands of novelist Brent Monahan, who has prepared the book for publication. Members of the Bell family have previously provided information on this fascinating case, but this book recounts the tale with novelistic vigor and verve. It is truly chilling.

Known throughout Tennessee as "Old Kate," the Bell Witch took up residence with John Bell's family in 1818. It was a cruel and noisy spirit, given to rapping and gnawing sounds before it found its voices.

With these voices and its supernatural acts, the Bell Witch tormented the Bell family. This extraordinary book recounts the only documented case in U.S. history when a spirit actually caused a man's death.

The local schoolteacher, Richard Powell, witnessed the strange! events and recorded them for his daughter. His astonishing m! anuscrip t fell into the hands of novelist Brent Monahan, who has prepared the book for publication. Members of the Bell family have previously provided information on this fascinating case, but this book recounts the tale with novelistic vigor and verve. It is truly chilling.

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Gossip: Ten Pathways to Eliminate It from Your Life and Transform Your Soul

• ISBN13: 9780757300554
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

A dishy, incisive exploration of gossip â€" from celebrity rumors to literary romans à clef, personal sniping to political slander â€" by one our “great essayists” (David Brooks)

To his successful examinations of some of the most powerful forces in modern life â€" envy, ambition, snobbery, friendship â€" the keen observer and critic Joseph Epstein now adds Gossip. No trivial matter, despite its reputation, gossip, he argues, is an eternal and necessary human enterprise. Proving that he himself is a master of the art, Epstein serves up delightful mini-biographies of the Great Gossips of the Western World along with many choice bits from his own experience. He also makes a pow! erful case that gossip has morphed from its old-fashioned best â€" clever, mocking, a great private pleasure â€" to a corrosive new-school version, thanks to the reach of the mass media and the Internet. Gossip has invaded and changed for the worse politics and journalism, causing unsubstantiated information to be presented as fact. Contemporary gossip claims to reveal truth, but as Epstein shows, it’s our belief in truth that gossip today threatens to undermine and destroy.

Written in his trademark erudite and witty style, Gossip captures the complexity of this immensely entertaining subject.

Evil speech can destroy friendships, break up marriages and ruin businesses. Gossip-negative talk, put-downs, rumors, accusations-not only hurts the person being talked about, it also hurts the person speaking and the person listening. In short, gossip has a negative impact on everyone. Yet, despite these negative consequences, gossip has been around since ! the beginning of humankind and continues to be a popular but d! estructi ve pastime.

Throughout this timely and enjoyable book, readers will learn what the Bible and Jewish wisdom have to say regarding speech and how their teachings relate to our world today. Readers will also learn via real-life examples how to break the gossip habit and how to teach others to do the same. Gossip will help people develop skills to improve their lives by getting along better with others; mending old hurts and reclaiming lost relationship; keeping good relationships from going bad through hurtful words; and strengthening relationships they already have by speaking in a more encouraging and productive manner.

The purpose of this book is to extinguish the fire of evil speech and help us live in a gossip-free environment. The result? Positive interactions with the people around us, the healing of relationships and a more complete self.

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The Breach

• ISBN13: 9780061584459
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Inspired by the incredible true story of the greatest security breach in U.S. intelligence history, Breach is a spellbinding thriller starring Academy Award® winner Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Academy Award® nominee Laura Linney and Dennis Haysbert. Eric O'Neill (Phillippe) is assigned to work with renowned operative Robert Hanssen (Cooper), the sole subject of a long-term, top-secret investigation. Determined to draw this suspected double-agent out of deep cover, O'Neill finds himself in a lethal game of spy vs. spy, where nothing is as it seems. Critics are hailing Breach as "electrifying" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) and "suspenseful" (Ty Burr, The Boston Globe). Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan! Phillipe, Laura Linney, Dennis Haysbert, Caroline Dhavernas, Kathleen Quinlan, Gary Cole, Bruce Davison, Ryan Phillippe Directed by: Billy RayIs a mystery really mysterious when the end isn't a secret? Is espionage still thrilling when you know beforehand that the cloak has been pulled back and the dagger revealed? If it's a film as good as Breach, the answer is a resounding yes. Here is a true story that's genuinely stranger than fiction: FBI agent Robert Hanssen spent over 20 years selling government secrets to the Russians, making him the most egregious traitor in U.S. history. He was an Opus Dei Catholic and a devout churchgoer who was also a sexual deviant, a straitlaced company man so trusted by his employers that they once appointed him to lead an investigation designed to reveal who the spy was--when in fact it was Hanssen himself. And in the end, he was brought down in part by 26-year-old Eric O'Neill, an agent-in-training who worked with him for just two m! onths. Chris Cooper, a 2003 supporting actor Oscar winner for ! Adapt ation, is brilliant in the lead role, playing Hanssen as a dour, cold, ultraconservative cipher (women in pantsuits are just one of his peeves) whose conversations more closely resemble interrogations. Ryan Phillippe is also excellent as O'Neill, who's initially kept in the dark by the superior (Laura Linney) who assigned him to help expose Hanssen's treachery; thinking he's been brought in only to gather evidence about his boss' sexual transgressions, O'Neill finds himself caught in a profound moral conundrum, grudgingly admiring Hanssen even as his own marriage is severely tested by the older man's creepy and hypocritical intrusion into their lives, not to mention the FBI's strict rules against discussing the case.

Director Billy Ray (whose previous feature was also a true story: Shattered Glass, about the young writer who fabricated stories for The New Republic) and co-screenwriters Adam Mazer and William Rotko do an extraordinary job of maintaining t! he tension as the story leads to the conclusion that's been revealed in the first few frames (i.e., Hanssen's arrest in February 2001); the exquisite torture of O'Neill's having to keep Hanssen distracted while Bureau technicians search the latter's car is but one example. Moreover, notwithstanding the plot developments, the filmmakers manage to keep their focus on the personal interactions that are the film's key element: the relationships that O'Neill maintains with Hanssen, his father (a cameo by Bruce Davison), his wife (Caroline Dhavernas), and others are entirely credible. At once fascinating and horrifying, Breach is inarguably one of the best films of 2007. --Sam Graham

Thirty years ago, in a facility buried beneath a vast Wyoming emptiness, an experiment gone awry accidentally opened a door.

It is the world's best-kept secretâ€"and its most terrifying.

Trying to regain his life in the Alaskan wilds, ex-con/ex-cop Travis Chase stumbles ! upon an impossible scene: a crashed 747 passenger jet filled w! ith the murdered dead, including the wife of the President of the United States. Though a nightmare of monumental proportions, it pales before the terror to come, as Chase is dragged into a battle for the future that revolves around an amazing artifact.

Allied with a beautiful covert operative whose life he saved, Chase must now play the role he's been destined forâ€"a pawn of incomprehensible forces or humankind's final hopeâ€"as the race toward Apocalypse begins in earnest.

Because something is loose in the world.

And doomsday is not only possible . . . it is inevitable.

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"F" is for Fugitive (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)

• ISBN13: 9780312939045
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

In 2003 a unique group of adult paranormal students find that invoking the spirits can be dangerous; especially when their paths intertwine with a demented spirit who bitterly grieves over the early death of his only son during the Civil War; he still avenges his son's death by murdering Southerners. When one woman in the paranormal group disappears, the instructor seeks help from Private Investigator Russell Williams who discovers that he might have to arrest a spirit. Lack of training in such ghostly matters makes his job nearly impossible until he finds a special option within himself. This strange deadly assignment changes his entire life.
"Don't believe it until I see it", he said. He didn't! believe in ghosts until....


In 2003 a unique group of adult paranormal students find that invoking the spirits can be dangerous; especially when their paths intertwine with a demented spirit who bitterly grieves over the early death of his only son during the Civil War; he still avenges his son's death by murdering Southerners. When one woman in the paranormal group disappears, the instructor seeks help from Private Investigator Russell Williams who discovers that he might have to arrest a spirit. Lack of training in such ghostly matters makes his job nearly impossible until he finds a special option within himself. This strange deadly assignment changes his entire life.
"Don't believe it until I see it", he said. He didn't believe in ghosts until....

Forever altered by his experience in Furnace Penetentiary, Alex has done the impossible and escaped. But the battle for freedom is only just beginning. Charged with his superhum! an abilities, Alex must uncover the last of Furnace’s secret! sâ€"the truth about the man who built the prison, the man known as Alfred Furnace. And to do that he must stop running and finally confront his greatest fears.

When Kinsey Millhone first arrives in Floral Beach, California, it's hard for her to picture the idyllic coastal town as the setting of a brutal murder. Seventeen years ago, the body of Jean Timberlake--a troubled teen who had a reputation with the boys--was found on the beach. Her boyfriend Bailey Fowler was convicted of her murder and imprisoned, but he escaped.

After all this time, Bailey's finally been captured. Believing in his son's innocence, Bailey's father wants Kinsey to find Jean's real killer. But most of the residents in this tight-knit community are convinced Bailey strangled Jean. So why are they so reluctant to answer Kinsey's questions? If there's one thing Kinsey's got plenty of it's persistence. And that's exactly what it's going to take to crack the lid on this case.

As K! insey gets closer to solving Jean's murder, the more dirty little secrets she uncovers in a town where everyone has something to hide--and a killer will kill again to keep the past buried...

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