The band playing `Nearer my God to Thee' as the ship went down is probably one of the most famous stories relating to the Titanic. The bravery of the band and their leader, Wallace Hartley, is one of the endearing stories to come out of the worst disaster to happen to a British passenger liner. Who comprised the band? Who was Wallace Hartley and where did he come from? Not much has been written about this enigmatic band leader or of his part in the tragedy, beyond a few mentions in the many boo...
Attorney and playwright Longhi recalls his three voyages as a merchant marine during World War II in the company of folk music legends Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston. Despite some occasionally stilted dialog, Longhi's fast-paced memoir reads like a novel as the "seamen three" survive rough storms, crooked gamblers, and two torpedo attacks. Of the vivid cast of characters, the irrepressible Guthrie is the most compelling, though he sometimes drifts to the background as Longhi relates his own oft...
Spitfire Pilot is the exhilarating and moving memoir of D. M. Crook, an airman in the legendary 609 Squadron - one of the most successful RAF units in the Battle of Britain. Beginning with his fond recollections of his halcyon days in training - acrobatics, night flying and languorous days spent playing sport and nights off visiting Piccadilly Circus - Crook goes on to recount in thrilling detail the dogfights, remarkable victories and tragic losses which formed the daily routine of Britain's h...
When she disappeared in 1937 over a shark-infested sea, Amelia Earhart had lived up to her wish - internationally famous, a daring and pioneering aviator, and ambassador extraordinary for the United States. Married to a man with a genius for publicity, her life was crowded, demanding and adventurous. Mary S. Lovell's superb biography examines a legend to reveal the pressures and influences that drove Amelia, and shows how her life, career and manner of death foreshadowed the tragedies and excess...
Martín Espada is a poet who "stirs in us an undeniable social consciousness," says Richard Blanco. Floaters offers exuberant odes and defiant elegies, songs of protest and songs of love from one of the essential voices in American poetry. Floaters takes its title from a term used by certain Border Patrol agents to describe migrants who drown trying to cross over. The title poem responds to the viral photograph of Óscar and Valeria, a Salvadoran father and daughter who drowned in the Río Grande,...
Flying in Defiance of the Reich: A Lancaster Pilot's Rites of Passage
by Peter Russell
This is the vivid memoir of a man who was twenty-one at the outbreak of World War II. Having joined the RAFVR before the war, he was mobilised in August 1939 and after training became operational on 233 Squadron Coastal Command flying Hudsons from Leuchars, Aldergrove and St Eval. After fourteen months he was rested and was tasked with training navigators for the impending enlargement of Bomber Command.In 1944 he joined 625 Squadron flying Lancasters over German targets and eventually took comma...
Recollections of a Sea Life by a Midshipman of the Last Century
by Robert Campbell
Viven! El triunfo del espiritu humano / Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
by Piers Paul Read
En el año 1972 partió de Montevideo, con destino Santiago de Chile, un avión Fairchild F227 de las fuerzas aéreas uruguayas en el que viajaba un equipo de rugby y sus acompañantes. Pero en realidad les aguardaba un destino muy distinto del que ellos habían proyectado. Las infernales condiciones climatológicas determinaron la catástrofe, y el aparato se estrelló en Los Andes. Sólo dieciséis de los cuarenta y cinco pasajeros que viajaban en el avión sobrevivieron al accidente y a los casi tres mes...
Kidnapped and held for ransom for 18 days by Nigerian pirates, Captain Wren Thomas suffered horrors, bringing to life the reality of modern-day pirating. Faith carried him during and after captivity, a beloved PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) service dog named Beaux, eventually saving his life once again. In this first-person survivor account, Captain Thomas brings readers into the ocean, onto his ship as he and his team fight off the pirates, and ultimately within the captivity camp. Devas...
Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis
by Dominick A Pisano and Bob Van Der Linden
First Jet Pilot, The: the Story of German Test Pilot Erich Warsitz
by Lutz Warsitz
On 27 August 1939, Flugkapitan Erich Warsitz became the first man to fly a jet aircraft, the Heinkel He 178 and in June of the same year he flew the first liquid-fuel rocket aircraft, the Heinkel He 176. His legendary flying skills enabled him to assist the pioneering German aircraft and engine design teams that included Wernher von Braun and Ernst Heinkel. He repeatedly risked his life extending the frontiers of aviation in speed, altitude and technology and survived many life-threatening incid...
