The Unknowns

The award-winning combat historian and author of Washington’s Immortals honors the Unknown Soldier with this “gripping story” of America’s part in WWI (Washington Times). The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is sacred ground at Arlington National Cemetery. Originally constructed in 1921 to hold one of the thousands of unidentified American soldiers lost in World War I, it now receives millions of visitors each year. “With exhaustive research and fluid prose,” historian Patrick O’Donnell illuminates the saga behind the creation of the Tomb itself, and the stories of the soldiers who took part in its consecration (Wall Street Journal). When the first Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in Arlington, General John Pershing selected eight of America’s most decorated veterans to serve as Body Bearers. These men appropriately spanned America’s service branches and specialties. Their ranks include a cowboy who relived the charge of the light brigade, an American Indian who heroically breached mountains of German barbed wire, a salty New Englander who dueled a U-boat for hours in a fierce gunfight, a tough New Yorker who sacrificed his body to save his ship, and an indomitable gunner who, though blinded by gas, nonetheless overcame five machine-gun nests. In telling the stories of these brave men, O’Donnell shines a light on the service of all veterans, including the hero they brought home. Their stories present an intimate narrative of America’s involvement in the Great War, transporting readers into the midst of dramatic battles that ultimately decided the conflict.

When people start vanishing from a godforsaken trailer park next to the Folsom Energy Plant, two eleven-year-olds investigate using mathematical clues that were hastily planted by their friend Mrs. Clarke before she disappeared.

A powerful memoir from the late former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history. Rumsfeld addresses the challenges and controversies of his illustrious career, from the unseating of the entrenched House Republican leader in 1965, to helping the Ford administration steer the country away from Watergate and Vietnam, to the war in Iraq, to confronting abuse at Abu Ghraib. Along the way, he offers his plainspoken, first-hand views and often humorous and surprising anecdotes about some of the world's best-known figures, ranging from Elvis Presley to George W. Bush. Both a fascinating narrative and an unprecedented glimpse into history,Known and Unknown captures the legacy of one of the most influential men in public service.

In a trailer park called Adjacent, next to the Folsom Energy Plant, people have started to vanish, and no one seems to care. At first Lady Di and her best friend, Tom Jones, barely notice the disappearances—until their beloved math tutor, Mrs. Clarke, is abducted, too. Mrs. Clarke has left them clues in the form of math equations that lead them all over the trailer park, through hidden tunnels under “Mount Trashmore,†? and into the Folsom Energy Plant itself, where Lady Di and Tom Jones and a gang of other misfits uncover the sordid truth about what’s really happening there. F&P level: Y

An utterly irresistible first novel: The story of two sisters, the yearning to disappear into another country, and the powerful desire to return to the known world. • “Dazzling and deeply absorbing.... One of the most exciting debut novels since Zadie Smith’s White Teeth.” —San Francisco Chronicle Linno is a gifted artist, despite a childhood accident that has left her badly maimed, and Anju is one of Kerala’s most promising students. Both girls dream of coming to the United States, but it is Anju who wins a scholarship to a prestigious school in New York. She seizes it, even though it means lying and betraying her sister. When her lie is discovered, Anju disappears. Back in Kerala, Linno is undergoing a transformation of her own. But when she learns of Anju’s disappearance, Linno strikes out farther still, with a scheme to procure a visa so that she can come to America to look for her sister and save them both.

Includes the Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery and World War I and II memorials around the world. Also includes facts about Korea and Vietnam wars.

Taken from the only life theyve ever known, to be placed where nothing should exist, Alex and five other teenagers struggle to understand this odd change in their lives after they awaken in a forest and travel together to Ataxia. Things seem to be real, but those things are unheard of by the six who seem to have been chosen for a reason. After Alex is taken to be trained as an Ataxian Traitor and is betrayed by those around her, she still hasnt found the reason why she is so important in the foreshadow of Ataxia and Malums war. No one is trustworthy. No longer can she risk anything more. Alex places her trust in no ones hands and she takes it upon herself to decide right from wrong in this place. When the reason why she and the others were brought to Ataxia is revealed to her, Alex realizes the danger in being who she is, and it is far greater than she had imagined. The months of training and readying for war couldnt have prepared Alex for the things she knows, now. Why she was sent here, why shes needed, and why the Unknowns are such a danger to others, all begins to seem like a game they have all been trying to play for their whole time spent in Ataxia when they discover that the war theyve attempted to prevent has already begun.

In Known Unknowns, Charles Saatchi provides fascinating insights into some of the world’s lesser-known but truly extraordinary historical events and social phenomena. 100 individual essays illustrated with 198 arresting photographs tackle subjects as varied as the tattoo habits of Russian criminals, the Vatican’s favourite Barbie, North Korean traffic jams, American gun legislation and the world’s richest animal. Behind each poignant, startling and often disconcerting image lies a treasure trove of hidden histories. Drawing on a career that has seen him produce and collect some of the most iconic images of modern times, Charles Saatchi presents his own unique perspective on contemporary culture.