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On the Ganges: Encounters with Saints and Sinners Along India's Mythic River
by George BlackJourney along one of the world’s greatest rivers and catch a glimpse into the lives and cultures of the people who live along its banksThe Ganges flows through northern India and Bangladesh for more than 1,500 miles before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. It is sacred to Hindus who worship Ganga, the river goddess. But it has also long been a magnet for foreigners, some seeking to unravel its mysteries and others who have come in search of plunder. In On the Ganges, George Black, who chronicled the exploration of the American West and the creation of Yellowstone National Park in Empire of Shadows, takes readers on an extraordinary journey from the glaciers of the Himalayas to the sacred city of Varanasi to the “hundred mouths” of the Ganges Delta.On the Ganges, parts of which originated from a New Yorker article published last year, introduces us to a vivid and often eccentric cast of characters who worship the river, pollute it, and flock to it from all over the world in search of enlightenment and adventure. Black encounters those who run the corrupt cremation business, workers who eke out a living in squalid factories, religious fanatics, and Brits who continue to live as if the Raj had never ended.By the end of his journey, Black has given us a memorable picture of the great river, with all its riddles and contradictions, both sacred and profane, giving the last word to a man scavenging for the gifts left by pilgrims: "There are good days and there are bad days. It all depends. Everything is in the hands of our mother, Ma Ganga."
Dogs Who Smile: The Happiest Hounds Around
by Virginia WoofCan dogs really smile? It's a bone of contention, but yes, they can!Dogs Who Smile is jam-packed with ludicrously funny photos of the happiest hounds around. From beaming Border Collies and delighted Dachshunds, to laughing Labradors and cheerful Chihuahuas, some pooches love their dog's life so much they've got to smile about it. Filled with uproarious captions like:- "Quick! Dude! YouTube this!"- My bite is worse than my bark. Mwah-ha-ha!- Well somebody's gotta use mum's fitness DVD...- Just smile and it'll soon be over...- I call this my 'pug shot'- Who. Are. You. Calling. A. Sausage?!Guaranteed to make you howl with laughter, this is a must for any dog lover.A laugh-out-loud funny collection of photographs of dogs that have the ability to smile
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues
by Martin J. Blaser“In Missing Microbes, Martin Blaser sounds [an] alarm. He patiently and thoroughly builds a compelling case that the threat of antibiotic overuse goes far beyond resistant infections.”—NatureRenowned microbiologist Dr. Martin J. Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human microbiome, where for hundreds of thousands of years bacterial and human cells have existed in a peaceful symbiosis that is responsible for the equilibrium and health of our bodies. Now this invisible Eden is under assault from our overreliance on medical advances including antibiotics and caesarian sections, threatening the extinction of our irreplaceable microbes and leading to severe health consequences. Taking us into the lab to recount his groundbreaking studies, Blaser not only provides elegant support for his theory, he guides us to what we can do to avoid even more catastrophic health problems in the future.“Missing Microbes is science writing at its very best—crisply argued and beautifully written, with stunning insights about the human microbiome and workable solutions to an urgent global crisis.”—David M. Oshinsky, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Polio: An American Story
U.S. Armed Forces Survival Guide: Get the Same Survival Training That the U.S. Military Uses for Its Troops
by John BoswellGet the same survival training that the U.S. military uses for its troops.The U.S. Armed Forces Survival Guide is the only source hikers, campers, explorers or families focused on emergency preparedness will ever need.The U.S. Armed Forces Survial Guide covers everything a modern outdoorsperson needs to know to make it in tough terrain and tense situations, from the psychology of survial and overcoming fear to building a shelter and making it through a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or earthquake. Every kind of environment--from tropical to desert, aquatic to arctic--is covered.Topics include:--how to orienteer with or without a map and a compass--how to cross quicksand, bogs and quagmires--how to signal for help--how to set a fracture and tend a burn--how to forecast weather--how to trap, fish and set snares--how to indentify poisonous plants, insects and animals--how to survive unusual conditions, such as plane crashes and nuclear attacksThe U.S. Armed Forces Survival Guide is the most comprehensive and thoroughly tested survival manual ever published.
Mobile Influence: The New Power of the Consumer
by Chuck MartinThe explosion of mobile access across the globe has shaken the foundations of the traditional sales funnel, and businesses are scrambling to adapt and find new ways to tap into the market. For all their effort, many have failed to realize that the issue is not how to reach the customer where they are, but where they are going and their mindset at the moment. With the staggering growth in the use of mobile technology as both product research and purchase point, businesses have yet to fully understand the important role mobile devices play in the basic structure of the traditional shopping model and the new importance on linking behavior with location. With the death of the traditional sales funnel comes author Chuck Martin's new model, the Mobile Shopping Life Cycle. Based on the author's in-depth research, Martin has identified the six specific moments in the timeline of the sale which marketers must target effectively in order to reach the mobile buyer. From location-based marketing to mobile payment systems, Martin's model gives marketers access to the tools necessary to build a new sales framework that properly addresses the future of the market.
The Gift of Our Wounds: A Sikh and a Former White Supremacist Find Forgiveness After Hate
by Robin Gaby Fisher Arno Michaelis Pardeep Singh KalekaThe powerful story of a friendship between two men—one Sikh and one skinhead—that resulted in an outpouring of love and a mission to fight against hate.One Sikh. One former Skinhead. Together, an unusual friendship emerged out of a desire to make a difference.When white supremacist Wade Michael Page murdered six people and wounded four in a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin in 2012, Pardeep Kaleka was devastated. The temple leader, now dead, was his father. His family, who had immigrated to the U.S. from India when Pardeep was young, had done everything right. Why was this happening to him? Meanwhile, Arno Michaelis, a former skinhead and founder of one of the largest racist skinhead organizations in the world, had spent years of his life committing terrible acts in the name of white power. When he heard about the attack, waves of guilt washing over him, he knew he had to take action and fight against the very crimes he used to commit. After the Oak Creek tragedy, Arno and Pardeep worked together to start an organization called Serve 2 Unite, which works with students to create inclusive, compassionate and nonviolent climates in their schools and communities. Their story is one of triumph of love over hate, and of two men who breached a great divide to find compassion and forgiveness. With New York Times bestseller Robin Gaby Fisher telling Arno and Pardeep's story, The Gift of Our Wounds is a timely reminder of the strength of the human spirit, and the courage and compassion that reside within us all.
Why Homer Matters
by Adam Nicolson"Adam Nicolson writes popular books as popular books used to be, a breeze rather than a scholarly sweat, but humanely erudite, elegantly written, passionately felt…and his excitement is contagious."—James Wood, The New YorkerAdam Nicolson sees the Iliad and the Odyssey as the foundation myths of Greek—and our—consciousness, collapsing the passage of 4,000 years and making the distant past of the Mediterranean world as immediate to us as the events of our own time.Why Homer Matters is a magical journey of discovery across wide stretches of the past, sewn together by the poems themselves and their metaphors of life and trouble. Homer's poems occupy, as Adam Nicolson writes "a third space" in the way we relate to the past: not as memory, which lasts no more than three generations, nor as the objective accounts of history, but as epic, invented after memory but before history, poetry which aims "to bind the wounds that time inflicts."The Homeric poems are among the oldest stories we have, drawing on deep roots in the Eurasian steppes beyond the Black Sea, but emerging at a time around 2000 B.C. when the people who would become the Greeks came south and both clashed and fused with the more sophisticated inhabitants of the Eastern Mediterranean.The poems, which ask the eternal questions about the individual and the community, honor and service, love and war, tell us how we became who we are.
Feeding the Frasers: Family Favorite Recipes Made to Feed the Five-Time CrossFit Games Champion, Mat Fraser
by Sammy MonizBased on Sammy Moniz's popular Instagram page, Feeding the Frasers is a book that any CrossFit aficionado—or just someone curious about how to cook with whole foods without sacrificing the world—will want to get their hands on.Filled with 100 terrific recipes of high quality delicious food that promote balance, togetherness, indulgence, and athletic recovery. Sammy Moniz is well known in the CrossFit community as an activist, and she is also the wife of five time champion Mat Fraser, the winningest athlete in CrossFit history and one of the most beloved. This is her cookbook where she shares the secrets behind feeding the greatest champion of the sport.
Grammar Girl's 101 Misused Words You'll Never Confuse Again (Quick & Dirty Tips)
by Mignon FogartyMillions of people around the world communicate better thanks to Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl, whose top-rated weekly grammar podcast has been downloaded more than 30 million times. After realizing her fans were asking the same questions over and over, Mignon decided to focus her attention on those words that continuously confound the masses. In Grammar Girl's 101 Misused Words You'll Never Confuse Again, you'll learn:- When you should use affect and when effect is right- Whether you should you say purposely or purposefully- The difference between hilarious and hystericalPacked with clear explanations, fun quotations showing the word used in context, and the quick and dirty memory tricks Mignon is known for, this friendly reference guide ends the confusion once and for all and helps you speak and write with confidence.
The Gladiator: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic
by Harry TurtledoveIn Harry Turtledove's The Gladiator, the Soviet Union won the Cold War. The Russians were a little smarter than they were in our own world, and the United States was a little dumber and a lot less resolute. Now, more than a century later, the world's gone Communist, and capitalism is a bad word.For Gianfranco and his friend Annarita, a couple of teenagers growing up in Milan, life in a heavily regimented, surveillance-rich command economy is just plain dreary. The eventual withering-away of the state doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon.Annarita's a hard-working student and a member of the Young Socialists' League. Gianfranco is a lot less motivated--but on the other hand, his father's a Party apparatchik. The biggest excitement in their lives is a wargame shop called The Gladiator, which runs tournaments, and stocks marvelous complex games you can't find anywhere else.Then, abruptly, the shop is shut down. Someone's figured out that The Gladiator's games are teaching counterrevolutionary capitalist principles. The Security Police are searching high and low for the shop's proprietors, who've not only vanished into thin air, but have left behind sets of fingerprints that aren't in the records of any government on earth.Only one staffer is left: Gianfranco and Annarita's friend Eduardo. He's on the run, and he comes to them in secret with an astonishing story: he's a time trader from our own timeline, accidentally left behind when the store was evacuated. The only way Eduardo can get home to his own timeline is if Gianfranco and Annarita can help him reach one of the other time trader sites in this world--and the Security Police will be on their tails all the way there.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Russian Origami: 40 Original Models Designed by the Top Folders in the Former Soviet Union
by Sergei Afonkin Tom HullThe last secret of the Cold War can finally be revealed: behind the Iron Curtain, people were folding! Communities of folders who were isolated from the origami establishment have always developed exciting new origami models. Russian Origami is full of such exciting projects. From a matrioshka doll to a space rocket, these models will delight and inspire both beginning and advanced folders. Each project has step-by-step diagrams, clear instructions, and a photo of the completed model. Included are such traditional favorites as a flapping dove and an inflatable rabbit, as well as some original delights, such as a Tyrolean Hat and a Russian star.
The Philosophical Programmer: Reflections on the Moth in the Machine
by Daniel KohanskiIn one of the most unorthodox yet necessary programming books ever to appear, Daniel Kohanski, a seasoned programmer and systems consultant, delves into the foundational concepts and basic mechanics of computers and computer programming. Rather than writing yet another book that teaches readers how to write code, Kohanski penetrates more deeply into the nature of programming istelf. By exploring what programming is all about, The Philosophical Programmer: Reflections on the Moth in the Machine offers an introduction for the computer neophyte as well as an opportunity for experienced programmers to understand better the fundamental nature of their craft.
World War II: The Diaries, Documents, Speeches, and Newspaper Reports That Defined World War II (The New York Times Living History)
by Douglas BrinkleyIntroducing a new series where history comes alive in riveting documents and images of great events as they occurred.We have long relied on historians to sift through the debris of history and piece together narratives to shape our understanding of events. But it is in the letters, diaries, speeches, song lyrics, newspaper articles, and government papers that history comes alive. The New York Times Living History books reinvigorate history by presenting the actual documents and images of the day. For the volume World War II: The Axis Assault, 1939-1942 eminent historian Douglas Brinkley has carefully chosen fifty critical documents that chart the Axis's grip over Europe and the Pacific--such as Churchill's Blood and Toil speech and the text of the Atlantic Charter. Readers will find FDR's cables to Japan in the hours before Pearl Harbor, Edward R. Murrow's broadcast during the Blitz, an American G.I.'s last message from Corregidor, and a Dutch boy's diary recounting Germany's invasion.Each primary document is accompanied by New York Times reporting or commentary from the period and original text illuminating their historical significance. News photos and other images add a strong visual component to this vivid re-creation of history.
Success Habits: Proven Principles for Greater Wealth, Health, and Happiness
by Napoleon HillNever-before-published wisdom from famed self-help author Napoleon Hill Napoleon Hill, the legendary author of the classic best seller Think and Grow Rich, has been immortalized for his contributions to the self-help genre. In this never-before-published work Hill shares his principles of success, key habits that provide the basis for life-changing success. Success Habits explains the fundamental rules that lead to a prosperous life. From the importance of having Definiteness of Purpose to the inexorable influence of the Cosmic Habit Force, Hill’s principles offer a new way of thinking about intention, self-discipline, and the way we lead our lives. Originally a series of radio talks delivered in Paris, Missouri, Success Habits is filled with personal anecdotes and stories and is written in an approachable, conversational style. Hill’s insights apply to every facet of life, inspiring readers to leverage his principles to achieve their own aspirations and create the successful lives they have always dreamed of.
Deadtime Stories: The Witching Game (Deadtime Stories)
by Gina Cascone Annette CasconeThe Witching Game marks another creepy tale for beside the campfire or beneath the covers from "Twisted Sisters" Annette and Gina Cascone's Deadtime Stories—now a hit show on Nickelodeon! "Bloody Mary." It was just a silly wishing game—one that Lindsey and her friends had played a hundred times before, in front of a dozen different mirrors. The game never worked. It wasn't supposed to. But when they play "Bloody Mary" in front of a strange antique mirror, the game quickly turns into a nightmare! One by one their wishes start coming true, with horrifying results. Something evil is lurking behind the looking glass… and Lindsey learns much too late that wishes don't come free—and that "Bloody Mary" is definitely not just a game!At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Viruses
by Arnold J. LevineViruses encapsulates for the lay reader the enormous scientific and medical contributions that have come from the field of virology. Dr. Arnold Levine presents the story of the scientists behind our current understanding of these infective agents and explains how that knowledge has helped us comprehend life at both the molecular and the human level. Many intriguing facets of viral behavior are explored, as Dr. Levine provides a clear account of their natural history, the mechanisms by which they spread and survive, and the toll they exact on their animal, plant, and bacterial hosts.Dr. Levine celebrates the great successes that have come from viral studies--the development of a wide range of vaccines, the eradication of smallpox, and the insights into the origins of cancer. He also examines the challeges we still face, with a series of interconnected chapters on the specific viruses behind some of our most urgent public health problems, including the viruses that cause AIDS, influenza, herpes, and hepatitis. A concluding chapter on the origin and evolution of viruses touches on some of the most provocative issues in molecular biology today.Viral infections continue to be an immediate health concern of imposing proportions. Viruses is written for the general reader eager to know how we study and confront these diseases and where today's research may lead.
Crossing the Sierra de Gredos: A Novel
by Peter HandkeIn this visionary novel, Nobel Prize winner Peter Handke offers descriptions of objects, relationships, and events that teach readers a renewed way of seeing; he creates a wealth of images to replace those lost to convention and conformity. On the outskirts of a northwestern European river port city lives a powerful woman banker, a public figure admired and hated in equal measure, who has decided to turn from the worlds of high finance and modern life to embark on a quest. Having commissioned a famous writer to undertake her "authentic" biography, she journeys through the Spanish Sierra de Gredos and the region of La Mancha to meet him. As she travels by all-terrain vehicle, bus, and finally on foot, the nameless protagonist encounters five way stations that become the stuff of her biography and the biography of the modern world, a world in which genuine images and unmediated experiences have been exploited and falsified by commercialization and by the voracious mass media.Crossing the Sierra de Gredos is a very human book of yearning and the ancient quest for love, peopled with memorable characters (from multiple historical periods) and imbued with Handke's inimitable ability to portray universal, inner-worldly adventures that blend past, future, present, and dreamtime.
Conan and the Spider God
by L Sprague de CampConan is back, and at the top of his form!SFWA Grand Master L. Sprague de Camp was revered in the genre of fantasy for both his fiction and nonfiction. Booklist praised his novel The Honorable Barbarian, saying: "The action is brisk, and the worlds and characters are described with de Camp's deft, light touch . . . thoroughly agreeable entertainment," while Kirkus Reviews said of The Pixilated Peeress "the unassuming style and verve of the telling keep the pages turning. Pure prose junk-food." But more important, L. Sprague de Camp wrote Dark Valley Destiny, the definitive biography of Conan's creator, Robert E. Howard, leaving little wonder as to why Conan and the Spider God is considered one of the finest novels in the canon of Conan.Son of a blacksmith, a former slave and thief, Conan the Cimmerian has risen to the rank of Captain of the Royal Guard. But as usual, trouble is his bedfellow.Forced to kill while defending himself, Conan must flee the vengeance of the High Priest of Erlik. Foraging through field and forest, meeting friend and foe, Conan cuts a bloody swath through assassins and bounty hunters all the way to the sinister temple of Zath, where he encounters the huge and hideous Spider God. Facing certain death, Conan becomes both the hunter . . . and the hunted.Conan and the Spider God is a thrilling adventure of the mighty barbarian, from one of the genre's most revered authors.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The Glass Magician
by Caroline StevermerReminiscent of The Golem and the Jinni, The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer is a magical and romantic tale set in New York’s Gilded Age.New York 1905—The Vanderbilts. The Astors. The Morgans. They are the cream of society—and they own the nation on the cusp of a new century.Thalia Cutler doesn’t have any of those family connections. What she does know is stage magic and she dazzles audiences with an act that takes your breath away.That is, until one night when a trick goes horribly awry. In surviving she discovers that she can shapeshift, and has the potential to take her place among the rich and powerful.But first, she’ll have to learn to control that power…before the real monsters descend to feast.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Pacific Fire (Daniel Blackland)
by Greg van EekhoutPacific Fire: Another thrilling ride through Greg van Eekhout's wildly imaginative world of California Bones, featuring entertaining new characters and a dangerous magical plot unfolding in Los Angeles.I'm Sam. I'm just this guy. Okay, yeah, I'm a golem created from the substance of his own magic by the late Hierarch of Southern California. With a lot of work, I might be able to wield magic myself. I kind of doubt it, though. Not like Daniel Blackland can. Daniel's the reason the Hierarch's gone and I'm still alive. He's also the reason I've lived my entire life on the run. Ten years of never, ever going back to Los Angeles. Daniel's determined to protect me. To teach me. But it gets old. I've got nobody but Daniel. I'll never do anything normal. Like attend school. Or date a girl.Now it's worse. Because things are happening back in LA. Very bad people are building a Pacific firedrake, a kind of ultimate weapon of mass magical destruction. Daniel seemed to think only he could stop them. Now Daniel's been hurt. I managed to get us to the place run by the Emmas. (Many of them. All named Emma. It's a long story.) They seem to be healing him, but he isn't going anyplace soon.Do I even have a reason for existing, if it isn't to prevent this firedrake from happening? I'm good at escaping from things. Now I've escaped from Daniel and the Emmas, and I'm on my way to LA. This may be the worst idea I ever had.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Red Mandarin Dress (Inspector Chen Cao)
by Qiu XiaolongChief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Department is often put in charge of politically sensitive cases. Having recently ruffled more than a few official feathers, when he is asked to look into a sensitive corruption case he takes immediate action - he goes on leave from work. But while on vacation, the body of a murdered young woman is found in a highly trafficked area and the only notable aspect is that she was redressed in a red mandarin dress. When a second body appears, this time in the People's Park, also in precisely the same kind of red mandarin dress, the newspapers start screaming that Shanghai is being stalked by its first sexual serial killer. With the Party anxious to resolve the murders quickly, Chen finds himself in the midst of his most potentially dangerous and sensitive case to date.
City of Sharks (The Miranda Corbie Mysteries)
by Kelli StanleyThe blonde secretary was scared when she visited Miranda Corbie’s office. A shove into a streetcar track, a box of poisoned chocolates…hateful, violent letters.Someone was trying to kill her. Miranda isn’t sure of anything at first except that Louise Crowley, the blonde who works as an assistant to Niles Alexander, San Francisco publisher, is in trouble. Despite her own preparations for an imminent voyage to a blitzkrieged Britain and a painful farewell to the city she loves, Miranda decides to help Louise and takes on her last case as a private detective in San Francisco…investigating her client, surveying the publishing world of 1940, and stumbling into murder with a trail that leads straight to Alcatraz…an island city of sharks.Along the way, Miranda explores her beloved San Francisco once more, from Playland-at-the-Beach to Chinatown to Nob Hill and Treasure Island. She encounters John Steinbeck and C.S. Forester, and is aided and abetted by the charming and dapper San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. And she also discovers personal truths she’s long denied… With her characteristic luxurious, lyrical prose and insightful eye for character, Kelli Stanley paints a rich, authentic portrait of 1940 San Francisco in this latest installment of her award-winning series.
The Fall of the House of Cabal: A Novel (Johannes Cabal Novels)
by Jonathan L. HowardJohannes Cabal, a necromancer of some little infamy, has come into possession of a vital clue that may lead him to his ultimate goal: a cure for death. The path is vague, however, and certainly treacherous as it takes him into strange territories that, quite literally, no one has ever seen before. The task is too dangerous to venture upon alone, so he must seek assistance, comrades for the coming travails.So assisted—ably and otherwise—by his vampiric brother, Horst, and by the kindly accompaniment of a criminologist and a devil, he will encounter ruins and diableries, mystery and murder, the depths of the lowest pit and a city of horrors. London, to be exact.Yet even though Cabal has risked such peril believing he understands the dangers he faces, he is still underestimating them. He is walking into a trap of such arcane complexity that even the one who drew him there has no idea of its true terrors. As the snare closes slowly and subtly around them, it may be that there will be no survivors at all.The Fall of the House of Cabal is the fifth book in Jonathan L. Howard's acclaimed Johannes Cabal series.
The White Mirror: A Mystery (Li Du Novels)
by Elsa HartIn The White Mirror, the follow-up to Elsa Hart’s critically acclaimed debut, Jade Dragon Mountain, Li Du, an imperial librarian and former exile in 18th century China, is now an independent traveler. He is journeying with a trade caravan bound for Lhasa when a detour brings them to a valley hidden between mountain passes. On the icy planks of a wooden bridge, a monk sits in contemplation. Closer inspection reveals that the monk is dead, apparently of a self-inflicted wound. His robes are rent, revealing a strange symbol painted on his chest.When the rain turns to snow, the caravan is forced to seek hospitality from the local lord while they wait for the storm to pass. The dead monk, Li Du soon learns, was a reclusive painter. According to the family, his bizarre suicide is not surprising, given his obsession with the demon world. But Li Du is convinced that all is not as it seems. Why did the caravan leader detour to this particular valley? Why does the lord’s heir sleep in the barn like a servant? And who is the mysterious woman traveling through the mountain wilds?Trapped in the snow, surrounded by secrets and an unexplained grief that haunts the manor, Li Du cannot distract himself from memories he’s tried to leave behind. As he discovers irrefutable evidence of the painter’s murder and pieces together the dark circumstances of his death, Li Du must face the reason he will not go home and, ultimately, the reason why he must.
Beyond Hell and Back: How America's Special Operations Forces Became the World's Greatest Fighting Unit
by Dwight Jon Zimmerman John D. GreshamAn inside look at seven of the most harrowing and significant Special Operations missions ever.Courage beyond reason. Loyalty beyond faith. Perseverance in the face of overwhelming adversity. These are just some of the qualities of the members of the U.S. Special Operation Forces. BEYOND HELL AND BACK details the seven defining Special Ops missions that have made the Special Operation Forces the best fighting unit in the world, including:*THE RESCUE OF BAT-21: The largest and longest Combat Search and Rescue mission in the Vietnam War lasted 17 days and cost the lives of 13 Americans—all to rescue one man and the invaluable knowledge he alone possessed.* TASK FORCE NORMANDY: Planned in secrecy and executed with flawless efficiency, Task Force Normandy was an Army/Air Force Special Operations joint op that fired the opening shots behind enemy lines in Operation Desert Storm.*OPERATION EAGLE CLAW: The devastating Special Forces operation mounted to retrieve 52 American hostages in Iran resulted in the deaths of eight members of the rescue team. This failure ultimately led to the creation of Special Operations Command.*BASHER 52: Captain Scott O'Grady was shot down over the "no fly" zone above Bosnia, and his daring rescue was one of the Marine Corps' finest operations ever.These are a few of the dramatic true tales that represent the defining moments that helped shape the operational methods, planning, and deployment for all future Special Ops missions. BEYOND HELL AND BACK is the greatest collection of Spec Ops missions ever assembled.