This is an account of three months of flight in a vintage 1942 Stearman bi-plane. Travelling across 48 continental United States, Coonts flies like the legendary barnstormers, painting a picture of the astonishing panorama of landscapes beneath him, from the Painted Desert to the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore. He swoops under storms and over mountains, across swamps, deserts, forests and the monumental expanse of the Great Plains; he relates with relish the sights, sounds and stories of small-town America; he shares the individual tales of the people he meets along the way. His experiences fill him with nostalgia for the past and above all an overriding hope for the future.

The New York Times–bestselling icon of the techno-aviation thriller takes to the skies in this memoir of a great American adventure in an open-cockpit biplane. It was a bird’s-eye view of America—and the trip of a lifetime for author Stephen Coonts and his fourteen-year-old son. But even for Coonts, who had clocked 1,600 hours as a naval aviator and was the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross commendation, this was a first. He’d be flying closer to the earth than he ever had before. His big yellow wood-and-canvas bird was the Cannibal Queen, a Stearman open-cockpit biplane built in 1942. Destined for the scrap yard, it was rescued and restored for what Coonts would call his “Stearman summer.” On a clear June afternoon in 1991, Coonts and his son took off to see the country the same way the barnstormers flew their Jennys: with a map and a compass. Coonts followed highways, railroad lines, back roads, mountains, rivers, and landmarks. For the next three months, seeing old friends and meeting new ones, he touched down on the diverse landscapes of each of the forty-eight contiguous states to record the stories of the American countryside, its spirited people, and its rich history. Soaring from big cities to the heartland, experiencing everything from Bourbon Street jazz and small-town barbershop quartets to greasy spoons and backyard barbeques, the author of Flight of the Intruder and The Art of War captures not only the singular thrill of biplane aviation, but a nostalgia for the simple pleasures of an America thought lost and forgotten. Stephen Coonts found it, and in The Cannibal Queen he shares every exultant moment. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Stephen Coonts, including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires charts in vivid detail the largely forgotten history of European corpse medicine, when kings, ladies, gentlemen, priests and scientists prescribed, swallowed or wore human blood, flesh, bone, fat, brains and skin against epilepsy, bruising, wounds, sores, plague, cancer, gout and depression. One thing we are rarely taught at school is this: James I refused corpse medicine; Charles II made his own corpse medicine; and Charles I was made into corpse medicine. Ranging from the execution scaffolds of Germany and Scandinavia, through the courts and laboratories of Italy, France and Britain, to the battlefields of Holland and Ireland, and on to the tribal man-eating of the Americas, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires argues that the real cannibals were in fact the Europeans. Medicinal cannibalism utilised the formidable weight of European science, publishing, trade networks and educated theory. For many, it was also an emphatically Christian phenomenon. And, whilst corpse medicine has sometimes been presented as a medieval therapy, it was at its height during the social and scientific revolutions of early-modern Britain. It survived well into the eighteenth century, and amongst the poor it lingered stubbornly on into the time of Queen Victoria. This innovative book brings to life a little known and often disturbing part of human history.

"Translations of the earliest accounts, from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of the native peoples of the Americas, including Columbus's descriptions of his first voyage. Documents the emergence of a primal anthropology and how Spanish ethnological classifications were integral to colonial discovery, occupation, and conquest"--Provided by publisher.

One dark night in Cape Town, Roselie's husband goes out for a pack of cigarettes and never comes back. Not only is she left with unanswered questions about his violent death but she is also left without any means of support. At the urging of her housekeeper and best friend, the new widow decides to take advantage of the strange gifts she has always possessed and embarks on a career as a clairvoyant. As Roselie builds a new life for herself and seeks the truth about her husband's murder, acclaimed Caribbean author Maryse Conde crafts a deft exploration of post-apartheid South Africa and a smart, gripping thriller.The Story of the Cannibal Womanis both contemporary and international, following the lives of an interracial, intercultural couple in New York City, Tokyo, and Capetown. Maryse Conde is known for vibrantly lyrical language and fearless, inventive storytelling -- she uses both to stunning effect in this magnificently original novel.

Presents twenty-six real-life accounts of aerial warfare, including "The Hero's Life" by Captain Eddie V. Rickenbacker and "The Flight of Enola Gay" by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts.

A smash bestseller that spent over six months on the New York Times bestseller list, Flight of the Intruder became an instant classic. No one before or since ever captured the world of Navy carrier pilots with the gripping realism of Vietnam veteran Stephen Coonts, who lived the life he wrote about. More than a flying story, Flight of the Intruder is also one of the best novels ever written about the Vietnam experience. It's all here—the flying, the dying, the blood and bombs and bullets, and the sheer joy—and terror—of life at full throttle. "Gripping...Smashing. —The Wall Street Journal Grazing the Vietnam treetops at night at just under the speed of sound, A-6 Intruder pilot Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton knows exactly how precarious life is. Landing on a heaving aircraft carrier, dodging missiles locked on his fighter, flying through clouds of flak—he knows each flight could be his last. Yet he straps himself into a cockpit every day. "Extraordinary!"—Tom Clancy Then a bullet kills his bombardier while they're hitting another ‘suspected' truck depot. Jake wonders what his friend died for—and why? Hitting pointless targets selected by men piloting desks just doesn't make sense. Maybe it's time to do something worthwhile. Something that will make a difference... "Superbly written." — Washington Times Jake and his new bombardier, ice-cold Tiger Cole, are going to pick their own target and hit the enemy where it hurts. But to get there and back in one piece is going to take a lot of nerve, even more skill, and an incredible amount of raw courage. Before it's over, they're going to fly into hell.