Leap Into Darkness

A harrowing, action-packed account of the author's series of audacious escapes from the Nazis' Final Solution--"riveting...a fascinating and moving piece of history" (Library Journal). Young Leo Bretholz survived the Holocaust by escaping from the Nazis (and others) not once, but seven times during his almost seven-year ordeal crisscrossing war-torn Europe. He leaped from trains, outran police, and hid in attics, cellars, anywhere that offered a few more seconds of safety. First he swam the River Sauer at the German-Belgian border. Later he climbed the Alps on feet so battered they froze to his socks--only to be turned back at the Swiss border. He crawled out from under the barbed wire of a French holding camp, and hid in a village in the Pyrenees while gendarmes searched it. And in the dark hours of one November morning, he escaped from a train bound for Auschwitz. Leap into Darkness is the sweeping memoir of one Jewish boy's survival, and of the family and the world he left behind.

This is the exceptional story of the survival of Leo Bretholz, a Jew caught up in Nazi-occupied Europe.

It was an age of fascinating leaders and difficult choices, of grand ideas eloquently expressed and of epic conflicts bitterly fought. Now comes a brilliant portrait of the American Revolution, one that is compelling in its prose, fascinating in its details, and provocative in its fresh interpretations. In A Leap in the Dark, John Ferling offers a magisterial new history that surges from the first rumblings of colonial protest to the volcanic election of 1800. Ferling's swift-moving narrative teems with fascinating details. We see Benjamin Franklin trying to decide if his loyalty was to Great Britain or to America, and we meet George Washington when he was a shrewd planter-businessman who discovered personal economic advantages to American independence. We encounter those who supported the war against Great Britain in 1776, but opposed independence because it was a "leap in the dark." Following the war, we hear talk in the North of secession from the United States. The author offers a gripping account of the most dramatic events of our history, showing just how closely fought were the struggle for independence, the adoption of the Constitution, and the later battle between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Yet, without slowing the flow of events, he has also produced a landmark study of leadership and ideas. Here is all the erratic brilliance of Hamilton and Jefferson battling to shape the new nation, and here too is the passion and political shrewdness of revolutionaries, such as Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry, and their Loyalist counterparts, Joseph Galloway and Thomas Hutchinson. Here as well are activists who are not so well known today, men like Abraham Yates, who battled for democratic change, and Theodore Sedgwick, who fought to preserve the political and social system of the colonial past. Ferling shows that throughout this period the epic political battles often resembled today's politics and the politicians--the founders--played a political hardball attendant with enmities, selfish motivations, and bitterness. The political stakes, this book demonstrates, were extraordinary: first to secure independence, then to determine the meaning of the American Revolution. John Ferling has shown himself to be an insightful historian of our Revolution, and an unusually skillful writer. A Leap in the Dark is his masterpiece, work that provokes, enlightens, and entertains in full measure.

Back cover Many suicides left a mystery behind them in this world. Were they crazy? Were they evil? Or were they ill? I used to think they were simply stupid until the day when I became one of “them”. My name is Nancy Xia. At age eighteen, I made a desperate attempt to end my life. Miraculously, I survived, but I sustained a severe injury and will live with a physical disability for the rest of my life. . . Thirteen years later, however, I am a happy and productive person. I love life and I love to live. I feel like I have an obligation to speak for others who were lost forever to suicide. After reading this book, it is my hope that you will come away with a better understanding of mental illness and a fresh and insightful perspective on some of the most troublesome social issues of our time around mental health. For these reasons, I feel profoundly compelled to share my story with you.

Set in Zimbabwe, Rutendo Tavengerwei’s unforgettable novel offers a beautiful and honest look at adolescence, friendship, and the capacity for courage. For fifteen-year-old Shamiso, hope is nothing but a leap into darkness. Grief-stricken and confused after her father’s mysterious death in a car crash, Shamiso moves with her mother from England to Zimbabwe in order to pick up the pieces—returning to an extended family and a world she hardly remembers. For Tanyaradzwa, a classmate whose life has been turned upside down by a cancer diagnosis, hope is the only reason to keep fighting. As an unexpected friendship blossoms between them and the two girls navigate the increasingly uncertain political situation in Zimbabwe, Tanyaradzwa helps Shamiso confront her fear of loss.

The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Beautiful Lies" delivers a thriller about broken trust that explores our faith in those we rely on--and how that faith can sustain or shatter us.

“Destined to be the classic account of what may be the oldest . . . hardest form of war.”—John Nagl, Wall Street Journal Invisible Armies presents an entirely original narrative of warfare, which demonstrates that, far from the exception, loosely organized partisan or guerrilla warfare has been the dominant form of military conflict throughout history. New York Times best-selling author and military historian Max Boot traces guerrilla warfare and terrorism from antiquity to the present, narrating nearly thirty centuries of unconventional military conflicts. Filled with dramatic analysis of strategy and tactics, as well as many memorable characters—from Italian nationalist Guiseppe Garibaldi to the “Quiet American,” Edward Lansdale—Invisible Armies is “as readable as a novel” (Michael Korda, Daily Beast) and “a timely reminder to politicians and generals of the hard-earned lessons of history” (Economist).

A comprehensive guide to adapting to the holistic modern world's expanding paradigm of perception builds on the author's teachings in The Intuitive Way and Frequency to outline an effective life practice for resolving conflicts, expanding creativity, overcoming anxiety and focusing attention.