Current Events

The gripping account of the decade-long hunt for the world's most wanted man.

It was only a week before 9/11 that Peter Bergen turned in the manuscript of Holy War, Inc., the story of Osama bin Laden--whom Bergen had once interviewed in a mud hut in Afghanistan--and his declaration of war on America. The book became a New York Times bestseller and the essential portrait of the most formidable terrorist enterprise of our time. Now, in Manhunt, Bergen picks up the thread with this taut yet panoramic account of the pursuit and killing of bin Laden.

Here are riveting new details of bin Laden’s flight after the crushing defeat of the Taliban to Tora Bora, where American forces came startlingly close to capturing him, and of the fugitive leader’s attempts to find a secure hiding place. As the only journalist to gain access to bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound before the Pakistani government demolished it, Bergen paints a vivid picture of bin Laden’s grim, Spartan life in hiding and his struggle to maintain control of al-Qaeda even as American drones systematically picked off his key lieutenants.

Half a world away, CIA analysts haunted by the intelligence failures that led to 9/11 and the WMD fiasco pored over the tiniest of clues before homing in on the man they called "the Kuwaiti"--who led them to a peculiar building with twelve-foot-high walls and security cameras less than a mile from a Pakistani military academy. This was the courier who would unwittingly steer them to bin Laden, now a prisoner of his own making but still plotting to devastate the United States.

Bergen takes us inside the Situation Room, where President Obama considers the COAs (courses of action) presented by his war council and receives conflicting advice from his top advisors before deciding to risk the raid that would change history--and then inside the Joint Special Operations Command, whose "secret warriors," the SEALs, would execute Operation Neptune Spear. From the moment two Black Hawks take off from Afghanistan until bin Laden utters his last words, Manhunt reads like a thriller.

Based on exhaustive research and unprecedented access to White House officials, CIA analysts, Pakistani intelligence, and the military, this is the definitive account of ten years in pursuit of bin Laden and of the twilight of al-Qaeda.

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.

A 300 Year Old Spiritual Classic Gives Birth to a Contemporary Masterpiece! Can we experience the presence of peace every day, all day, while washing the dishes, feeding the cat, or riding the bus on the way to work? Can we experience this presence when the kids are fighting, the boss is frustrated and the stock market is in tatters? This book says absolutely yes, and shows us how! In the late 1600's a small book appeared, The Practice of the Presence of God, describing the daily spiritual practices of a humble monk named Brother Lawrence. That book, never out of print, evolved into a beloved classic and textbook for "contemplative spirituality." Now Practicing the Presence of Peace updates that beloved classic and shows how the simple practice of peace inevitably leads to • Better health and physical healing • Happier family relationships • Profitable vocational advancement • The end of the agonizing search for "more." "This is marvelous! So simple. So true. You've done a wonderful service for us all." -Maury Albertson, Ph.D., co-founder, Peace Corps "Just reading this book led me to spontaneous experiences of deep peace." -Father August Mote (Church of England) "...a seamless blend of the most practical spiritual techniques from both East and West, this book shows how we can work toward world peace in our daily lives-by bringing peace to our own neighborhood!" -Rensai Sujata (Buddhist) "Thank you, Bear. This book is a ball of light!" -Rabbi Larry Deschowitz Bear Gebhardt is senior librarian at Heart Mountain Monastery.

Jonathan Safran Foer follows his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated, with an unexpectedly hilarious and affecting story about New York City in the period following September 11

 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close recasts recent history through the eyes of Oskar Schell, an unusually intelligent nine-year-old on an urgent quest to find the lock that matches a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center. This unlikely adventure takes Oskar through every city borough and into contact with survivors of all sorts, and it's his irrepressible voice—one that few writers could conceive as imaginatively as Foer does—that transforms the tragedy of circumstance into an exhilarating tribute to love.

From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the twenty-first century’s great, unequal cities.
 
In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human.
 
Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter—Annawadi’s “most-everything girl”—will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call “the full enjoy.”
 
But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi.
 
With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. This inspirational book, comprised of life stories, exercises, and self tests, is a simple map of the world of codependency, charting the path to freedom and a lifetime of healing and happiness.

Mende Nazer’s shocking story of modern-day slavery – told in the global best-seller ‘Slave’ – touched the world. Later made into a film, it told the harrowing story of a girl from the Sudan taken into captivity, and then sold into slavery. Written by the award-winning journalist Damien Lewis, it exposed the brutality of the modern slave trade, and turned it into a major global issue.

In this, enthralling, moving sequel Mende Nazer tells how in the summer of 2007 she embarked upon a journey back to her homeland in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. She left behind the relative security of London, her new home, to return to the war-ravaged land of her birth.

But she would be risking everything she had fought for in an effort to make contact with the family she’d lost when she was taken into captivity. And over an epic, harrowing journey, Mende discovers what freedom really means.

It is a story that will touch the hearts of millions.

Slave received rave reviews:

‘A powerful memoir...shocking and very moving...her book is an eloquent testament to the ability of a brave soul to survive, and to the need to bring an end to slavery’ - Susan McKay, Sunday Tribune.

’All the cliches of such survival stories - 'life-affirming, heart-warming'- are inadequate to describe the emotional impact of [Mende's] eventual deliverance.’ – The Observer.

’Intensely moving’ - Waterstone’s Books Quarterly.

’An eloquent testament to the ability of a brave soul to survive, and to the need to bring an end to slavery’ - Sunday Tribune.

Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

This volume is the outgrowth of a series of articles, dealing with incidents in my life, which were published consecutively in the Outlook. While they were appearing in that magazine I was constantly surprised at the number of requests which came to me from all parts of the country, asking that the articles be permanently preserved in book form. I am most grateful to the Outlook for permission to gratify these requests...Booker T. Washington