Showing titles in History & Culture

With a scarlet fever epidemic raging throughout London, a rogue baron on the loose, a new baby keeping him up at night, and a kingdom to run, the last thing David has time for is a trip to the twenty-first century. But as he should know by now, time waits for no man, not even the King of England ...

Imagine being a 13-year-old girl in love with boys, school, family - life itself. Then suddenly, in a matter of hours, your life is shattered by the arrival of a foreign army. This is the memoir of Elli Friedmann, who was 13 years old in March 1944, when the Nazis invaded Hungary. It describes her descent into the hell of Auschwitz, a concentration camp where, because of her golden braids, she was selected for work instead of extermination. In intimate, excruciating details she recounts what it was like.

Elizabeth Farr never wanted to return to America. During her family’s vacation abroad, she has fallen in love with England, and is despondent when her father refuses to let her stay. Returning to New York means having her debut into society, and that means a swiftly arranged marriage. Elizabeth will never go to college, never learn to be a reporter - as she sees it, her life is over as soon as the Titanic reaches port. Of course, if she’s unlucky, her life will be over far sooner than that.

In September 1941, Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history - almost three years of bombardment and starvation that culminated in the harsh winter of 1943 - 1944. Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who would write a symphony that roused, rallied, eulogized, and commemorated his fellow citizens - the Leningrad Symphony.

IRENE GUT WAS just 17 in 1939, when the Germans and Russians devoured her native Poland. Just a girl, really. But a girl who saw evil and chose to defy it. “No matter how many Holocaust stories one has read, this one is a must, for its impact is so powerful.”—School Library Journal...

Have you ever wondered what lies in the history of Ireland's past? What they believed and the epic legends they created. In this guide, I introduce you to the four cycles of gods from Ireland's past and the mischief they got up to. I look at the legendary Cuchulainn, Morrigan, Dagda, and many more.

June 1293. David, King of England. Philip, King of France. A holy war neither man wants to fight. A militant pope. A treacherous baron. A jealous brother.

Join multi-award-winning author Philippa Gregory as she tells the story of English women over 900 years. There are plenty of books profiling exceptional women – this book is DIFFERENT. It’s about ordinary, everyday women – erased from history for centuries. Meet highway women and blacksmiths, pirates and ‘female husbands’. Meet women who went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, rode in jousts, issued their own currency, built ships, invented things and rioted – a LOT! Their story is one of ingenuity, diversity, rebellion, survival – and sisterhood.

In this “superb history” (The Wall Street Journal), award-winning author Candace Fleming tells the extraordinary true story of Russia’s last royal family—and transports readers back to a time when both a bloodline and an empire came tumbling down. “Has all the elements of a fictional...

Elsa, Leo and Max have always been best friends, a special team of three. Then the Nazis come. As a growing darkness descends around them, Leo and Elsa run for their lives, taking two very different paths across Europe. And Max, once their closest friend, now becomes the enemy as he is drawn into the Hitler Youth. Will the friends ever find their way back to each other? Will they want to?

The deep and enduring friendship between Vincent and Theo Van Gogh defined both brothers' lives. As a confidant, champion, sympathizer, and friend, Theo financially and emotionally supported his older brother as the artistic but troubled Vincent struggled to find his path in life as both a painter and a man. Throughout that struggle, the brothers shared everything - swapping stories of lovers and friends, successes and disappointments, dreams and ambitions.

Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her partner-in-crime-investigation, Thomas Cresswell, are en route to New York to help solve another blood-soaked mystery. Embarking on a week-long voyage across the Atlantic on the opulent RMS Etruria, they're delighted to discover a traveling troupe of circus performers, fortune tellers, and a certain charismatic young escape artist entertaining the first-class passengers nightly. But then, privileged young women begin to go missing without explanation, and a series of brutal slayings shocks the entire ship.

Midshipman Martin Stockley is 15 years old and back in the Falcon for another tour at sea. Returning from a trip to the Nordics as part of a prize crew, he is unexpectedly summoned to the Admiralty. The following meeting with Admiral Lord Hood and William Wickham twists his career in the Navy in a direction he never expected and his talent for trouble is suddenly in demand. Add to the mix a beautiful widow and you have a story full of adventure, derring do, and romance.

The World's Best Short Stories is a compendium of crazy and oddly funny stories from different periods across human history. You’ll learn about pompous politicians, admirable animals, and some very strange oddballs! The book provides the listener with an easily accessible entrance into some of the most important aspects of human history. The stories are packed with humor and jokes to offer up even the grumpiest of listeners a wry smile.

E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.

This is the incredible story of the world's greatest conqueror, a man who single handedly changed the course of history...and who was worshipped as a god. There have been many attempts in the 2,300 years since Alexander's death to tell the epic story of this enigmatic soldier. His deeds read like the stuff of legends. Of all the chroniclers of Alexander, and there have been many famous ones, including Plutarch and Ptolemy, none have given us a clearer and truer account than the one by Arrian.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the award-winning author of Salt to the Sea comes a “superb” (The Wall Street Journal), “eye-opening” (Los Angeles Times) novel of survival and hope in the darkest of places—the inspiration for the major motion picture Ashes in the Snow "Few books are...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Perfect for fans of Divine Rivals, a critically acclaimed, multi-layered romance set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II, where gods hold the fates--and the hearts--of four mortals in their hands. "Pick an adjective—sweeping, sprawling, epic...

"Unraveling Enigmas" beckons you to unlock the secrets that have mystified humanity for ages. Prepare to be captivated, intrigued, and utterly fascinated as you delve into this extraordinary compendium of the unexplained. With 101 unsolved mysteries at your disposal, prepare to spend countless hours engrossed in the enigmatic and the unknown. Embark on an adventure through time and across continents as you uncover ancient secrets, decode cryptic clues, and unravel the intricate webs of history’s most perplexing enigmas.

Ten concentration camps. Ten different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis, who have taken over. Everything he has and everyone he loves have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner - his arm tattooed with the words Prisoner B-3087.