Our Brother S Keeper

This is the 10th anniversary and third printing of "Our Brother's Keeper" is the story of all wars, past and present. While it is an unvarnished depiction of combat and its somber compilation of battlefield casualties, it is also the story of war's staggering list of collateral damage-the family and friends of the slain. Since 1941, three generations have been seared by five catastrophic wars; for the present generation, it is Iraq and Afghanistan. But for author Jedwin Smith, his parents and his brothers and sisters, it is the haunting specter of Vietnam that will never be forgotten. Seemingly on a whim, Jeffrey Earl Smith, the author's younger brother, put aside his anti-war sentiments and joined the Marines in July 1967. Sent to Vietnam four months later, his death during a Viet Cong ambush in March 1968 was the catalyst that finally ended his parents' turbulent marriage and created a lost generation of Smith siblings. For the author, himself a former Marine, it was the beginning of a 32-year odyssey to track down the individual who killed his brother and extract revenge-a quest that takes the author across the country in search of the Marines who were at Jeff's side on that horrific day three decades earlier, and ends in Vietnam at the village of Mai Xa Thi, where the author confronts Duong Tu Anh, the former VC commander responsible for the attack that killed Jeff. This encounter is chilling, extraordinary, and life-changing. "Our Brother's Keeper" is more than a moving and beautifully written family saga of the Vietnam War and its bitter and ongoing aftermath, it is also an inspiring personal tale of loss and healing, anger and forgiveness, self-discovery-and the transcendent power of love.

The death of a sibling is unlike any other. Gloria Reuben’s little brother died just before his twenty-second birthday. Two decades later, her oldest brother Denis died two weeks short of his sixtieth birthday. Just as Gloria felt like she was finally healing from David’s death, the shock of Denis’ unexpected death was almost too much to take. In My Brothers’ Keeper, Gloria bares her soul as she reveals the intimate details of her life at home as a young girl. How the death of her father when she was twelve shaped her view of love and life. How David’s death was the impetus for her move from Canada to the United States. And how her brother Denis was her heart’s twin in a multitude of ways. Gloria, most well known as an actress, debuts her talent as a writer in My Brothers’ Keeper, an intimate and honest tribute to David and Denis. Their lives. Their deaths. And the hope that awaits. “Gloria has written a truly wonderful and inspirational tribute to her brothers and to life. Helpful to all of us who have suffered losses.”—Pete Earley

In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued--through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country's future. Meanwhile, politics in Washington--Barack Obama's opening to the island, Donald Trump's reversal of that policy, and the election of Joe Biden--have made the relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more. Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an ambitious chronicle written for an era that demands a new reckoning with the island's past. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba: An American History reveals the evolution of the modern nation, with its dramatic record of conquest and colonization, of slavery and freedom, of independence and revolutions made and unmade. Along the way, Ferrer explores the influence of the United States on Cuba and the many ways the island has been a recurring presence in US affairs. This is a story that will give Americans unexpected insights into the history of their own nation and, in so doing, help them imagine a new relationship with Cuba. Filled with rousing stories and characters, and drawing on more than thirty years of research in Cuba, Spain, and the United States--as well as the author's own extensive travel to the island over the same period--this is a stunning and monumental account like no other. --

"... this book is though-provoking, bringing a scientist's reason and a moralist's outrage to bear on a subject that's largely escaped attention." -- Wired "Caplan's choice of topics is broad and his opinions challenging.... This volume will interest the general public. It is a good survey of a broad range of ethical issues, as seen by one prominent bioethicist who has thought much about the subject. Caplan's well-merited reputation as a commentator and interpreter between the scholarly and the public arena is reaffirmed in this book." -- The Washington Post "Arthur Caplan -- with assiduous effort, unflagging energy, encyclopedic knowledge, and imposing talent -- has become America's most visible commentator on bioethics." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer "Arthur Caplan is perhaps the most quoted bioethicist in the US and this new collection of essays illustrates why." -- Nature Medicine "... an important book of essays addressing the most problematic and persistent questions in the realm of contemporary bioethics. He offers a highly readable text balancing irony and incisive analysis with a palpable sense of moral urgency as he confronts a variety of subjects." -- Curtis W. Hart, BCC "Careful consideration of some of the knottier bioethical problems of our times, by the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, who fears that cynicism and mistrust have eroded our ability to see ourselves as our brothers' keepers." -- Kirkus Reviews "Caplan's particular skill is an ability to identify, analyze, and explain the extremely complex moral questions that grow out of changes in health care, science, and medicine." -- The New York Times Magazine "An important critical voice for American medicine." -- The New England Journal of Medicine "... a useful introduction to a variety of bioethical issues." -- Library Journal In this impassioned book, Arthur L. Caplan, America's leading bioethicist, calls for an end to cynicism and mistrust in our approach to resolving health care issues. He brings this vision to discussions of some of the most exciting issues at the frontiers of medical ethics today -- including doctor-assisted suicide, gene therapy, and the headline-grabbing case of Dolly the sheep and the possibility that human beings might one day be cloned.

An astonishing novel about pain, release, and recovery from two-time National Book Award finalist, Patricia McCormick. A tingle arced across my scalp. The floor tipped up at me and my body spiraled away. Then I was on the ceiling looking down, waiting to see what would happen next. Callie cuts herself. Never too deep, never enough to die. But enough to feel the pain. Enough to feel the scream inside. Now she's at Sea Pines, a "residential treatment facility" filled with girls struggling with problems of their own. Callie doesn't want to have anything to do with them. She doesn't want to have anything to do with anyone. She won't even speak. But Callie can only stay silent for so long...

The author describes the Holocaust and explains how he tries to tell the story of that catastrophic slaughter of Jews through his art.

Conversations with Elie Wiesel is a far-ranging dialogue with the Nobel Peace Prize-winner on the major issues of our time and on life’s timeless questions. In open and lively responses to the probing questions and provocative comments of Richard D. Heffner—American historian, noted public television moderator/producer, and Rutgers University professor—Elie Wiesel covers fascinating and often perilous political and spiritual ground, expounding on issues global and local, individual and universal, often drawing anecdotally on his own life experience. We hear from Wiesel on subjects that include the moral responsibility of both individuals and governments; the role of the state in our lives; the anatomy of hate; the threat of technology; religion, politics, and tolerance; nationalism; capital punishment, compassion, and mercy; and the essential role of historical memory. These conversations present a valuable and thought-provoking distillation of the thinking of one of the world’s most important and respected figures—a man who has become a moral beacon for our time.