Team Hot Wheels races on the dangerous double loop track.

The story begins with the success of Rommel's Afrika Korps in the North African desert in 1941/42, having pushed the British army back to Alam El Halfa. Defeat for the British and Allied forces in North Africa looks inevitable. The text will then take the usual alternating chapter approach to take the action right up to the decisive Battle of Alamein in November 1942. We encounter Montgomery's appointment as leader of the now legendary Eighth Army, and Rommel's fight to press home his advantage by advancing at speed towards Cairo and the Nile. Then comes the battle at Alam El Halfa, with Rommel's army encountering unexpected opposition from British artillery and heavy RAF attacks. His forces are forced to withdraw. Rommel, and many of his men, fall ill at this point, and Rommel is sent back to Austria for treatment. Having met Mussolini, Hitler and Goering to discuss the North African situation, he then decides that it is vital to destroy the Allied supply base in Malta to prevent Montgomery and his men from receiving supplies. Montgomery's planned offensive at El Alamein begins and both sides hold their positions. Only at the start of November do Rommel's counter-attacks begin to fail, with heavy losses. A last stand fails and Montgomery launches a final onslaught, driving Rommel's forces west. Many of Rommel's men surrender.

Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world, the only Islamic state to have nuclear weapons, under military dictatorship for 33 of its 50 years in existence. Its 1000-mile border with Afghanistan is the likely hideout of Osama bin Laden--yet it is the linchpin in the United States' war on terror. With increasingly bold attacks by Taliban supporters in the border regions threatening to split the Pakistan army, with the only political alternatives as corrupt as the regime they seek to replace, and with a newly radicalized movement of lawyers testing its strength as champions of the rule of law, the chances of sustained stability in Pakistan look slim. Tariq Ali, long acknowledged as a leading commentator on Pakistan, combines deep understanding of the country with extensive firsthand research and unsparing political judgment to weigh the prospects of those contending for power today.--From publisher description.

"An illustrated guide to the least-known period in Middle-earth's history, the Second Age. The lore and legends of this period are given life through hundreds of illustrations from artists who have studied Tolkien's work, and insightful commentary from David Day makes this a valuable addition to the shelf of anyone with a keen interest in exploring more of Tolkien's world"--

Ben Dunkelman grew up in a wealthy Jewish family in Toronto. Kicked out of several schools for being a hell-raiser, he was sent off to Europe and the Middle East in the 1930s, gaining hard experience that would serve him well in the years to come. On his return he worked for the family business, but when World War Two came he lost no time in enlisting. Dunkelman describes the war from the ordinary soldier's viewpoint, without embellishment or glorification. Yet he was a hero to his men--and to his country. After the war Dunkelman returned to Canada, but in 1948 he went to war again--this time to fight for the young nation of Israel in the struggle to establish a Jewish state. Dual Allegiance is the exciting, fast-paced story a man and the passions he was willing to fight for--and if necessary, die for.

All school children know the story of the fatal duel between Hamilton and Burr - but do they really? In this remarkable retelling, Thomas Fleming takes the reader into the post-revolutionary world of 1804, a chaotic and fragile time in the young country as well as a time of tremendous global instability. The success of the French Revolution and the proclamation of Napoleon as First Consul for Life had enormous impact on men like Hamilton and Burr, feeding their own political fantasies at a time of perceived Federal government weakness and corrosion. Their hunger for fame spawned antagonisms that wreaked havoc on themselves and their families and threatened to destabilize the fragile young American republic. From that poisonous brew came the tangle of regret and anger and ambition that drove the two to their murderous confrontation in Weehawken, New Jersey. Readers will find this is popular narrative history at its most authoritative, and authoritative history at its most readable.