Light History

December, 1966: Platoon leader Lt. Joseph Callaway had just turned 23 when he arrived in Vietnam to lead 42 untested men into battle against some of the toughest, most experienced, and best-trained guerrilla soldiers in the world. Callaway soon learned that most events in this savage jungle war were beyond his control. But there was one thing he could do well: take the best damn care of his troops he knew how.

Cornwall, 1817. Napoleon has crushed the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, and his ex-wife, Josephine, presides over French-occupied England. Cornwall erupts into open rebellion, and young heiress Hester escapes with Crow, Wellington's former intelligence officer. Together, they become embroiled in a web of treachery and espionage as plans are laid to free Wellington from captivity and lead an uprising against the French occupation.

The Wampanoags, who inhabited what it is now southeastern Massachusetts, were strikingly different from the Pilgrims, who did not share the same interests in sharing land. The native people could not foresee Europeans taking the land that the Wampanoags had once respected and treasured.

Norwegian adventurer, philosopher and acclaimed author Erling Kagge ventured to the North Pole in 1990. Blending memoir from that intrepid journey, along with history, philosophy and a stark warning about melting ice, comes a profound meditation about nature and our place within it. The North Pole is for anyone who’s gazed out at the horizon – and wondered what happens if you keep walking.

As a teenager in Palestine, Sami al Jundi had one ambition: overthrowing Israeli occupation. With two friends, he began to build a bomb to use against the police. But when it exploded prematurely, killing one of his friends, al Jundi was caught and sentenced to 10 years in prison. It was in an Israeli jail that his unlikely transformation began. Al Jundi was welcomed into a highly organized, democratic community of political prisoners who required that members of their cell read, engage in political discourse on topics ranging from global revolutions to the precepts of nonviolent protest and revolution.

Paris in the Belle Époque is remembered as a golden age of cultural flourishing and political progress. The period between the revolutionary 1870s and the outbreak of war in 1914 saw the modern French capital take shape: by day Parisians could admire the rising Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Coeur Basilica, while at night they roamed the Bohemian world of the Moulin Rouge. But as Mike Rapport reveals in this authoritative and beautifully written new history, City of Light, City of Shadows, beneath the elegant veneer Paris was at war with itself.

The medieval Catholic Church, widely considered a source of intolerance and inquisitorial fervor, was not anti-science during the Dark Ages - in fact, the pope in the year 1000 was the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day. Called The Scientist Pope, Gerbert of Aurillac rose from peasant beginnings to lead the church. By turns a teacher, traitor, kingmaker, and visionary, Gerbert is the first Christian known to teach math using the nine Arabic numerals and zero.

The Secret of Eliza’s Journal By Taylor Hunter Kimball I never expected to find a murder buried in my own family’s past. Ephraim, Utah, was supposed to be my fresh start—a quiet town where I could teach criminal justice at Snow College, restore forgotten pioneer graves, and leave behind the chaos of big-city crime. But the day I uncovered my ancestor’s hidden journal, everything changed. Eliza Kimball’s words weren’t just faded ink on fragile pages—they were a confession. A warning. A key to a mystery that refused to stay buried. As I pored over her 19th-century entries, I ...

A haunted stadium, a long-buried secret, and a team that’s better at banter than battling the supernatural. Can they crack the case, or will they end up on the sidelines?When Jackie Thompson’s paranormal documentary team is called to investigate eerie disturbances at Smoky Stadium, she’s skeptical but intrigued. Rumors of restless spirits, ghostly pranksters, and a notorious serial killer’s remains are too enticing to pass up. As the crew explores the maze-like underbelly of the iconic structure, they uncover more than just creaky floorboards. A scandalous history, spectral football...

A look at Urban Legends from California, Colorado, and Connecticut. Some of these legends may be well known, but many of them are only known by locals. Inside are eyewitness accounts, directions to some of the locations and legends that are terrifying, shocking and unbelievable.

When Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One’s Own in 1929, she established her reputation as a feminist, and an advocate for unheard voices. But like thousands of other upper-class British women, Woolf relied on live-in domestic servants for the most intimate of daily tasks. That room of Woolf’s own was kept clean by a series of cooks and maids throughout her life. In the much-praised Mrs. Woolf and the Servants, Alison Light probes the unspoken inequality of Bloomsbury homes with insight and grace.

Apollo 15 command module pilot Al Worden was one of the highest-profile personalities among the Apollo astronauts, renowned for his outspokenness and potent views but also recognized as a warm and well-liked person who devoted much of his life after retiring from NASA to sharing his spaceflight experiences.

Emma McKenna is a heroine to remember. While resisting eviction from the Queensland family property at the start of the Great Depression, Emma McKenna's father is shot dead. Emma is left destitute but she is not easily defeated and fights back. In her struggle to survive she must overcome, heartless wealthy relatives, racial bigotry, corrupt financiers and choose between the love of two very different men: one a wealthy Sydney lawyer involved with the New Guard, a paramilitary anti-communist movement, and the other, a persecuted and penniless left-wing activist. The Light Horseman's ...

Paul Morley had stopped being surprised by modern pop music and found himself retreating into the sounds of artists he loved when, as an emerging music journalist in the '70s, he wrote for NME. But not wishing to give in to dreary nostalgia, endlessly circling back to the bands he wrote about in the past, he went searching for something new, rare and wondrous - and found it in classical music.

England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army.

An engaging examination of Black Girl Magic and its significance in American literature.

The long-lost prince finally makes his trek home only to be held captive when he reaches Dermot. Will the king persuade him to marry his daughter and forever change the course of his future? Rian Barnali, Gilvary’s youngest prince, has not spoken to his family since he left the country ten years ago. He has made amends with God, and now it is time to reconnect with his family. He makes it as far as Dermot, where he is held captive by King Farris. The king has a plan for Rian, and he will do whatever it takes to ensure Rian marries his daughter. Princess Adrika is little more than a token ...

Yaakov was the youngest son of the Kotowskis, a well-to-do Jewish family in the small Polish town of Skulsk, who enjoyed the respect and admiration of local Jews and Christians alike. The quiet life of the family was disrupted abruptly when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Soon, its members were deported to a faraway village where they suffered horrific torments at the hands of the Germans and their collaborators.

A queen in need of a husband and a prince who had never been truly loved—will they overcome opposition to find happiness? Brianna Reaner, Queen of Aisling, has never been on a date, been in love, had a suitor, or has even had a crush on a boy before. According to the laws of her country, she must marry by her eighteenth birthday or risk losing the right to rule her kingdom. How is she supposed to find a suitable husband in less than six months? What will the consequences be if she makes the wrong choice? With the help of her advisors, she compiles a surprisingly short list of suitable ...

In all times and in all places, it has been universal to humankind to mark the darkest days of the year with a festival striving for the coming of the light. In our own culture, many of us call our midwinter festival Christmas—that great season that celebrates not merely light, but the coming of the Light of the World. Covering almost a thousand years of history, these scenes take the reader to: Saxon Scotland, Medieval England, Post-Regency England, Pioneer America, Depression Era America, 1970s America, and a contemporary monastery in England. Customs have changed, struggles have varied...