Spizzerinctum, The Life and Legend of Robert “Black Bob” Renfro is an epic saga about a man with an indomitable will to succeed. As a young slave he accompanied his master’s family on a perilous 1000-mile river voyage to the lands along the Cumberland in Tennessee, surviving Indian attacks, smallpox, rapids and starvation. This was only the beginning. Through his own industry and ingenuity, he purchased his freedom and became the owner of Black Bob’s Tavern. More than twenty documents from the official records of North Carolina and Tennessee, as well as many newspaper accounts are used to reconstruct his life. Bob’s life was intertwined with the lives of Andrew and Rachel Jackson. Rachel was among the 170 women and children on the river voyage. Andrew was often the lawyer or judge in precedent setting legal cases involving Bob. One such case made Bob the first slave to be recognized as more than mere property. As a freeman he continued to utilize the legal system, frequently prevailing in cases adjudicated before white male juries and judges. Readers will rediscover an incredible man that history has overlooked. Those who love history and adventure, youth and black Americans will want to meet and know Robert “Black Bob” Renfro.

Hearts have no template: they vary as much as snowflakes. Like snowflakes, some hearts are cold, but others are warm as babies' hands. Some are gray with melancholy; some bright with good cheer. This collection contains poems that reflect moments of the heart's delight and struggle. Some of the poems are indirect, merely suggesting the presence of the heart. Some are happily frivolous, as hearts can be; others are drawn from deep wells. Yet others squeeze into the group, altogether heartless, having slipped in between pulsations.

The author of Black Hawk Down vividly recounts a pivotal Vietnam War battle in this New York Times bestseller: “An extraordinary feat of journalism”. —Karl Marlantes, Wall Street Journal In Hue 1968, Mark Bowden presents a detailed, day-by-day reconstruction of the most critical battle of the Tet Offensive. In the early hours of January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese launched attacks across South Vietnam. The lynchpin of this campaign was the capture of Hue, Vietnam’s intellectual and cultural capital. 10,000 troops descended from hidden camps and surged across the city, taking everything but two small military outposts. American commanders refused to believe the size and scope of the siege, ordering small companies of marines against thousands of entrenched enemy troops. After several futile and deadly days, Lieutenant Colonel Ernie Cheatham would finally come up with a strategy to retake the city block by block, in some of the most intense urban combat since World War II. With unprecedented access to war archives in the United States and Vietnam and interviews with participants from both sides, Bowden narrates each stage of this crucial battle through multiple viewpoints. Played out over 24 days and ultimately costing 10,000 lives, the Battle of Hue was by far the bloodiest of the entire war. When it ended, the American debate was never again about winning, only about how to leave. A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist in History Winner of the 2018 Marine Corps Heritage Foundation Greene Award for a distinguished work of nonfiction

Leonard Sweet shows you how the passion that Starbucks® has for creating an irresistible experience can connect you with God’s stirring introduction to the experience of faith in The Gospel According to Starbucks. You don’t stand in line at Starbucks® just to buy a cup of coffee. You stop for the experience surrounding the cup of coffee. Too many of us line up for God out of duty or guilt. We completely miss the warmth and richness of the experience of living with God. If we’d learn to see what God is doing on earth, we could participate fully in the irresistible life that he offers. You can learn to pay attention like never before, to identify where God is already in business right in your neighborhood. The doors are open and the coffee is brewing. God is serving the refreshing antidote to the unsatisfying, arms-length spiritual life–and he won’t even make you stand in line.

Why is the Smithsonian more than the "Nation's Attic?" Or more than a museum complex? As Wilton S. Dillon shows, the Smithsonian came to be the institution we know today under the twenty-year leadership of "Sun King" S. Dillon Ripley.Ripley aspired to reinvent the Smithsonian as a great university?with museums. Although little understood by the public at large, it began as a basic research center. The Smithsonian remains a key contributor to the world of higher learning and functions diplomatically as the ministry of culture for the United States. Dillon provides backstage insights into Ripley's quest for the wholeness of knowledge. He describes how he inspired its role as a "theater of ideas as well as artifacts." Under his tutelage, the National Mall became a playground for world intelligentsia, an "intellectual free trade zone" in the shadow of the nation's political capital.Dillon reminds us that interdisciplinary, international Smithsonian symposia foreshadowed twenty-first-century issues and trends. His descriptions of the educational rewards of balancing tradition with the avant-garde are inspiring. As Dillon reminds us, Ripley's twenty-year reign may well have helped spark the waning embers of the Enlightenment.

The Class of 1965 entered the Military Academy in July 1961. As cadets, they received a traditional West Point education but also studied new fields such as computers and nuclear physics. Upon graduation, members of the class received numerous national scholarships, including one Rhodes scholarship. During the Vietnam War members of the class received no less than one Medal of Honor, four Distinguished Service Crosses, one Air Force Cross, 94 Silver Stars, 5 Soldiers Medals, 175 Bronze Stars with V device for valor, and 129 Purple Hearts. In later years, members of the class served with distinction in Grenada, Panama, Iraq, and elsewhere. They became leaders in transforming the army after the Cold War into a much leaner, more agile, technologically advanced force. Those who left the service, whether after four years in uniform or more, contributed to the nation in a similarly impressive manner. As civilians they excelled in numerous fields and exhibited as much patriotism and Strength and Drive as those still in uniform. Whether in uniform or not, members of the class of 1965 served their communities and nation and never lost sight of the meaning of West Points motto: Duty, Honor, Country.