Flight Dreams

In SINGULAR LIVES: THE IOWA SERIES IN NORTH AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, a collection of essays about life in the American Midwest by the author of FIELDS OF VISION.

Setting the stage : technology and the series book -- Birdmen and boys, 1905-1915 -- Aces and combat : World War I and after, 1915-1935 -- Interlude : Charles A. Lindbergh and Atlantic flight, 1927-1929 -- The golden age, I : the Lindbergh progeny, 1927-1939 -- The golden age, II : the air-minded society, 1930-1939 -- World War II and modern aviation, 1939-1945 -- Aftermath : a-bombs, rockets, and space flight, 1945-1950.

From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia, here is a suspenseful, heart-wrenching novel that brings the fateful voyage of the Hindenburg to life. On the evening of May 3rd, 1937, ninety-seven people board the Hindenburg for its final, doomed flight. Among them are a frightened stewardess who is not what she seems; the steadfast navigator determined to win her heart; a naive cabin boy eager to earn a permanent position; an impetuous journalist who has been blacklisted in her native Germany; and an enigmatic American businessman with a score to settle. Over the course of three champagne-soaked days, their lies, fears, agendas, and hopes for the future will be revealed—and one in their party will set a plot in motion that will have devastating consequences for them all.

DIVDIVA masterpiece of mystery and suspense, this is the moving story of a man struggling to come to terms with his sexuality /divDIV Investigative journalist Mark Manning is on the trail of a story that could make his career. Airline heiress Helena Carter, who vanished seven years ago, is about to be declared legally dead. Her fortune, valued at over one hundred million dollars, will go to the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and the Federated Cat Clubs of America./divDIV /divDIVManning is the only one who believes that the missing Chicago socialite is still alive. And he’s just been given an ultimatum by his publisher: Prove it, or he’s history. Determined to keep his job—and hoping to secure the five-hundred-thousand-dollar reward from Carter’s estate, as well as the coveted Partridge Prize for investigative journalism—Manning enters a world of religious fanatics who could turn back the clock on gay rights. At the same time, Manning grapples with his own sexuality as he falls in love for the first time—with the man of his dreams./divDIV /divDIVFlight Dreams is the first book in Michael Craft’s Mark Manning series, which continues with Eye Contact and Body Language./div/div

In Dreams of Flight, Fran Martin explores how young Chinese women negotiate competing pressures on their identity while studying abroad. On one hand, unmarried middle-class women in the single-child generations are encouraged to develop themselves as professional human capital through international education, molding themselves into independent, cosmopolitan, career-oriented individuals. On the other, strong neotraditionalist state, social, and familial pressures of the post-Mao era push them back toward marriage and family by age thirty. Martin examines these women’s motivations for studying in Australia and traces their embodied and emotional experiences of urban life, social media worlds, work in low-skilled and professional jobs, romantic relationships, religion, Chinese patriotism, and changed self-understanding after study abroad. Martin illustrates how emerging forms of gender, class, and mobility fundamentally transform the basis of identity for a whole generation of Chinese women.

DIVDIVReporter Mark Manning searches for a killer and stumbles upon a stunning conspiracy /divDIV Chicago Journal reporter Mark Manning has been called in to replace a colleague on a big story. Famed Swiss astrophysicist Pavo Zarnik has just stunned the science world with his announcement that he’s discovered a tenth planet in our solar system. Manning is skeptical of Zarnik’s claims and believes he’s a fraud. His suspicions grow when his fellow reporter—award-winning journalist Clifford Nolan—turns up dead, his laptop missing./divDIV /divDIVNow, Manning is covering two breaking stories and coping with the not-entirely-unwanted advances of twenty-something reporter David Bosch. In a committed relationship with architect Neil Waite, Manning is determined to resist temptation. But he soon has bigger things to worry about. On the edge of a far-reaching political conspiracy, Manning matches wits with a killer whose agenda is about to become chillingly clear./divDIV /divDIVEye Contact is the second book in Michael Craft’s Mark Manning series, which also includes Flight Dreams and Body Language./div/div

General aviation encompasses all the ways aircraft are used beyond commercial and military flying: private flights, barnstormers, cropdusters, and so on. Authors Janet and Michael Bednarek have taken on the formidable task of discussing the hundred-year history of this broad and diverse field by focusing on the most important figures and organizations in general aviation and the major producers of general aviation aircraft and engines. This history examines the many airplanes used in general aviation, from early Wright and Curtiss aircraft to the Piper Cub and the Lear Jet. The authors trace the careers of birdmen, birdwomen, barnstormers, and others who shaped general aviation—from Clyde Cessna and the Stinson family of San Antonio to Olive Ann Beech and Paul Poberezny of Milwaukee. They explain how the development of engines influenced the development of aircraft, from the E-107 that powered the 1929 Aeronca C-2, the first affordable personal aircraft, to the Continental A-40 that powered the Piper Cub, and the Pratt and Whitney PT-6 turboprop used on many aircraft after World War II. In addition, the authors chart the boom and bust cycle of general aviation manufacturers, the rising costs and increased regulations that have accompanied a decline in pilots, the creation of an influential general aviation lobby in Washington, and the growing popularity of “type” clubs, created to maintain aircraft whose average age is twenty-eight years. This book provides readers with a sense of the scope and richness of the history of general aviation in the United States. An epilogue examining the consequences of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, provides a cautionary note.

Introduction -- Engineering The great escape : from book to film (and in-between) -- Tunneling in : The great escape : style, theme, and structure -- After-lives -- Appendix : "It really happened".