"Fighting Windmills" is the story of a modern-day Don Quixote, whose adventures are revealed as you march side by side with the author on his life's journey, one that has truly been to the beat of a different drum. His adventures as a CIA Operations Officer during pivotal times in our country's recent history, an Army 'Green Beret', an International Business Executive, and Entrepreneur, are chock full of life, laughter, love and the lessons learned along the way. This is a story about life as seen through the eyes of a romantic idealist, and the quixotic odyssey which evolves; as Webster defines, "quixotic" implies "extravagantly chivalrous or romantic, impractical, impulsive and often rashly unpredictable," which aptly describes the saga herein. This is a unique story of intrigue and normality, of success and failure, of love and the loss of it, of the perpetual seeking of wisdom and the occasional departure from sound judgment. In essence, it is a fundamental story of the human experience.

Drawn over the course of a century of traumatic political and social upheavals, The Georgian Beekeeper is a tribute to love, perseverance, and the indomitability of the human spirit. Spanning four generations beginning in Tsarist times, through the turbulent 20th century in which the Georgian people survived two world wars, revolution, political purges, and with the culmination of the 2008 Five-Day War with Russia, this is a story of one Georgian family and how they managed to prosper during these historically challenging times. Seen through the eyes of the family Matriarch, Ksenia Kolumbegovi, The Georgian Beekeeper traces her family's life experiences through this tumultuous period in world history. The story will give you full appreciation of the trials and tribulations of living under Soviet dominance, will provide you with an understanding of the strength and resiliency of the Georgian people, and bring you joy with the illumination of the unconquerable strength of love and human perseverance.

What is the source of a book's perceived greatness and why do certain books become part of the accepted canon? This book presents a fresh perspective on these questions: against prevalent approaches, it explains a work's reputation in terms of its aesthetic qualities or as the result of dictates by social hegemonies (the power view).

"Diana de Armas Wilson's introductory study captures the true essence of why Cervantes's novel has become a valuable piece of our shared cultural heritage. Humour, satire, and the religious and political conflicts that plagued the era all form part of Cervantes's great vision, and Wilson's study provides thorough analysis of why we still want to read the adventures of his would-be knight errant and his loyal squire over four centuries later." --AARON KAHN, University of Sussex

A ROLLICKING NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S EMBATTLED TENURE AS POLICE COMMISSIONER OF CORRUPT, PLEASURE-LOVING NEW YORK CITY IN THE 1880s, AND HIS DOOMED MISSION TO WIPE OUT VICE In the 1890s, New York City was America’s financial, manufacturing, and entertainment capital, and also its preferred destination for sin, teeming with 40,000 prostitutes, glittering casinos, and all-night dives packed onto the island’s two dozen square miles. Police captains took hefty bribes to see nothing while reformers writhed in frustration. In Island of Vice, bestselling author Richard Zacks paints a vivid picture of the lewd underbelly of 1890s New York, and of Theodore Roosevelt, the cocksure crusading police commissioner who resolved to clean up the bustling metropolis, where the silk top hats of Wall Street bobbed past teenage prostitutes trawling Broadway. Writing with great wit and zest, Zacks explores how Roosevelt went head-to-head with corrupt Tammany Hall, took midnight rambles with muckraker Jacob Riis, banned barroom drinking on Sundays, and tried to convince 2 million New Yorkers to enjoy wholesome family fun. In doing so, Teddy made a ruthless enemy of police captain “Big Bill” Devery, who grew up in the Irish slums and never tired of fighting “tin soldier” reformers. Roosevelt saw his mission as a battle of good versus evil; Devery saw prudery standing in the way of fun and profit. When righteous Roosevelt’s vice crackdown started to succeed all too well, many of his own supporters began to turn on him. Cynical newspapermen mocked his quixotic quest, his own political party abandoned him, and Roosevelt discovered that New York loves its sin more than its salvation. Zacks’s meticulous research and wonderful sense of narrative verve bring this disparate cast of both pious and bawdy New Yorkers to life. With cameos by Stephen Crane, J. P. Morgan, and Joseph Pulitzer, plus a horde of very angry cops, Island of Vice is an unforgettable portrait of turn-of-the-century New York in all its seedy glory, and a brilliant portrayal of the energetic, confident, and zealous Roosevelt, one of America’s most colorful public figures.

Claude Wheeler is a young man who was born after the American frontier has vanished. The son of a successful farmer and an intensely pious mother, Wheeler is guaranteed a comfortable livelihood. Nevertheless, Wheeler views himself as a victim of his father's success and his own inexplicable malaise.Thus, devoid of parental and spousal love, Wheeler finds a new purpose to his life in France, a faraway country that only existed for him in maps before the First World War. Will Wheeler ever succeed in his new goal? The novel is inspired from real-life events and also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923.

Cervantes’ Don Quixote is the most widely read masterpiece in world literature, as appealing to readers today as four hundred years ago. In Fighting Windmills Manuel Durán and Fay R. Rogg offer a beautifully written excursion into Cervantes’ great novel and trace its impact on writers and thinkers across centuries and continents. How did Cervantes write such a rich tale? Durán and Rogg explore the details of Cervantes’ life, the techniques with which he constructed the novel, and the central themes of the adventures of Don Quixote and his earthy squire Sancho Panza. The authors then provide an insightful, panoramic view of Cervantes’ powerful influence on generations of writers as diverse as Descartes, Voltaire, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Twain, and Borges.