An analysis of the dynamics between Ulysses S. Grant and Nathan Bedford Forrest traces a critical twenty-month conflict period while assessing the impact of their underprivileged backgrounds on their military achievements.

From the bestselling author of The White Donkey, a heartbreaking and visceral graphic novel set against the stark beauty of Afghanistan's mountain villages that examines prejudice and the military remnants of colonialism. In this hotly anticipatednew work from Maximilian Uriarte, creator of the popular Terminal Lance comics and The White Donkey, tells a "thrillingly cinematic" (Publishers Weekly) story of the personal cost of war and the power of human connection. Lapis Lazuli is a rich blue semiprecious gemstone found deep in the Sar-i-sang mountains of Afghanistan's Badakhshan province. For thousands of years it has sustained the nearby mining villages, whose inhabitants lived peacefully in the mountainous landscape--until the Taliban, known in the region as the Horsemen, came to seek the riches stored deep beneath the earth. Taliban rule has turned the stone into a conflict mineral, as they steal and sell it for their own gain. At the behest of the fledgling Afghan government, seeking to wrest back control of the province, United States Marines are sent into the mountains. A platoon led by their eager and naive commander, First Lieutenant Roberts, and a stoic, fierce squad leader, Sergeant King, must overcome barriers of language and culture in this remote region to win the locals' trust, and their freedom from Taliban rule. Along the way, they must also wrestle with their demons--and face unimaginably difficult choices. A sweeping yet intimate story about brutality, kindness, and the remnants of colonialism, Battle Born: Lapis Lazuli is an epic saga from the voice of a new generation of military veterans.

Patrick McLanahan is back — and this time he faces his most difficult challenge. He must pull together a team of aggressive, maverick young pilots to face a world on the brink of massive nuclear conflict. It begins with a joint U.S.-Japanese-South Korean mock bombing raid. But the South Korean fighter pilots don't stick to the script. Instead, they race across the border into North Korea to support a massive people's revolt against the Communists. Virtually overnight, the fledgling United Korea is the world's newest nuclear power, igniting a fuse that threatens to blow Asia apart and trigger World War III. Only McLanahan has the top-secret aviation technology and the brash young heroes to stop the coming inferno — if he can get them to stop fighting each other and start fighting as a team before the world is reduced to cinders!

The much-anticipated finale to Amie Kaufman's epic middle-grade trilogy Though Anders and his friends have delayed a war between the ice wolves and scorch dragons, their mission isn't over. With adults on both sides looking for them, they've sought refuge in Cloudhaven, a forbidden stronghold created by the first dragonsmiths. The ancient text covering Cloudhaven's walls could be the key to saving their home -- if only the young elementals could decipher it. To make matters worse, Holbard is in ruins and its citizens are reeling. Many have been forced into bleak camps outside the city, and food is running short. To rebuild Vallen, Anders, Rayna, and their allies must find a way to unite humans, ice wolves, and scorch dragons before they lose their last chance. In the final book of international bestselling author Amie Kaufman's sensational adventure series, Anders and Rayna must put everything on the line -- and the price of peace may hit closer to home than they could've ever imagined. AWARDS Shortlisted - 2021 Sara Douglass Book Series Award PRAISE FOR SCORCH DRAGONS: 'I found a satisfying fantasy world like none I have read before - one in which dragons and wolves take human form and have magical powers. One of the strengths of this book is the exploration of the idea that truth is a matter of perspective - that there are two (or more) sides to every story. There is no clear enemy, the conflict arises from the tension between the dragons and the wolves, and the reader can empathise with both sides, even though many of the adults in the story cannot ... This is a great book for middle-grade readers 8-12.' - Reading Time PRAISE FOR ICE WOLVES: 'An engaging world and cliffhanger ending leave readers wanting more' -- Kirkus, starred review 'Engaging to the end' -- Books+Publishing 'you'll wind up on the edge of your seat, unable to put it down' -- New York Times bestseller Meagan Spooner 'A thrilling, nonstop adventure' -- New York Times bestseller Shannon Messenger

The high-octane sequel to Outbreak! James and Connor face increasing hardships that will leave them with two choices: give up or become battle born! After the events in Nebraska, the Andderson brothers continue their trek northward, joined by Emmett and the girls. The group makes their way through Wyoming to meet up with Tank, the brothers’ best friend from a time before the apocalypse. They’re delayed when they stumble upon a school full of over a hundred survivors—most of them children. While Connor disagrees with James’s choice to help them, he follows his brother’s lead as a series of drastic events makes James the unspoken leader of the large group. Responsibility weighing heavily on James’s shoulders, they resume their journey north to rendezvous with Tank. Zombies become the least of their concerns as the group faces a new enemy hell-bent on their destruction. When the situation goes from bad to worse, the brothers are confronted with the horrible reality that no matter how prepared you are, at the end of the world, death is always right around the corner.

In his first work of nonfiction, bestselling novelist James Webb tells the epic story of the Scots-Irish, a people whose lives and worldview were dictated by resistance, conflict, and struggle, and who, in turn, profoundly influenced the social, political, and cultural landscape of America from its beginnings through the present day. More than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to the Scots, whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the border between England and Scotland, and later in the bitter settlements of England’s Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland. Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scots-Irish migrated to America in the eighteenth century, traveling in groups of families and bringing with them not only long experience as rebels and outcasts but also unparalleled skills as frontiersmen and guerrilla fighters. Their cultural identity reflected acute individualism, dislike of aristocracy and a military tradition, and, over time, the Scots-Irish defined the attitudes and values of the military, of working class America, and even of the peculiarly populist form of American democracy itself. Born Fighting is the first book to chronicle the full journey of this remarkable cultural group, and the profound, but unrecognized, role it has played in the shaping of America. Written with the storytelling verve that has earned his works such acclaim as “captivating . . . unforgettable” (the Wall Street Journal on Lost Soliders), Scots-Irishman James Webb, Vietnam combat veteran and former Naval Secretary, traces the history of his people, beginning nearly two thousand years ago at Hadrian’s Wall, when the nation of Scotland was formed north of the Wall through armed conflict in contrast to England’s formation to the south through commerce and trade. Webb recounts the Scots’ odyssey—their clashes with the English in Scotland and then in Ulster, their retreat from one war-ravaged land to another. Through engrossing chronicles of the challenges the Scots-Irish faced, Webb vividly portrays how they developed the qualities that helped settle the American frontier and define the American character. Born Fighting shows that the Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and they have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy (only 5 percent of whom owned slaves, and who fought against what they viewed as an invading army). It illustrates how the Scots-Irish redefined American politics, creating the populist movement and giving the country a dozen presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. And it explores how the Scots-Irish culture of isolation, hard luck, stubbornness, and mistrust of the nation’s elite formed and still dominates blue-collar America, the military services, the Bible Belt, and country music. Both a distinguished work of cultural history and a human drama that speaks straight to the heart of contemporary America, Born Fighting reintroduces America to its most powerful, patriotic, and individualistic cultural group—one too often ignored or taken for granted.