Holidays with the Hancocks: too many presents, too much booze, a lot of tears. Youngest son Carson, now a filmmaker, explores the history of Christmas by filming holiday visits to his family. Along the way he finds the dying cult of Mithras, Yulegoats in Rio, anarchists and squatters, evangelocalism, a costume solstice party, sleighs of reindeer bones, lapsed monks and their secular monastery.Holidays with the Hancocks of Beverly Hills: too many presents, too much booze, a lot of tears. Youngest son Carson, now a documentary filmmaker, recalls those times with survivor's fascination, curiosity and some obsession: what is it with Christmas? The result: a documentary on the history and the current state of Christmas, by way of visits to his surviving family members. When his film goes nowhere, it's up to a friend to not only describe but retell the film frame by frame. "The Holly King" is truly the book of the movie, and a sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes satirical look not only at the holiday season, but also at the emblems and excesses of our culture today and its place in history.What starts out as a jackass mockumentary, "Why Do You Hate Christmas?" becomes a wildly sprawling exploration of the Christmas holiday itself, how it's celebrated today and how his mother, his sister and his brother are living out theeevents and choices in their lives. After an animated segment on the the early church and its holidays, reminiscent of Terry Gilliam and Michael Moore, Carson visits his mother Dianne, once a successful caterer to the stars, now retired to the gated community Hosanna Hills, a wealthy Southern Californian enclave built and developed according to the next wave in evangelical mega-church luxury, evangelocalism, a cross between DIY craftmaking, Shaker communities and Whole Foods.The next year, it's on to a visit to his sister, Shannon, the one time rrriot girl and soft porn photographic muse once known as Tillie Harm. Having retired from a life of wasted glamor, Shannon now lives on a rural farm, making cheese and holding costumed solstice parties with her Neo-Iron Age earth-sculptor husband Ken. This years party intends to unveil Ken's latest eco-installment, the Solstice Alidade, a North American Stonehenge. Never mind the overcast weather: tractor lights will work.Finally, a trip to see his brother, Humphrey, the oldest. A runaway when Carson was younger, Humphrey lived on the streets in Seattle among anarchists and squatters, angry and revolutionary. When a tragedy strikes in the squatters camp, he goes to Peter, the innovative priest who ministered to the street kids. When Peter dies, however, Humphrey has no place to go with his grief but the neo-monastic order, Mashipan. Founded by the radical Father Archibald Solano as a sanctuary for lapsing priests, Humphrey is invited not as a believer but as the true non-believer, the questioner of faith, the holly king. His affect on the brothers – and sisters – of Mashipan leads to the complete reawakening of the monastery and its mission of engagement with the world. Carson's visit with his brother is a step-by-step retelling of his brother's remarkable journey.The Holly King is not the usual Christmas story. It is a surprisimg, funny, unexpected tale that covers a lot of ground: the dying cult of Mithras, the TV Christmas special of reality show/Jersey Shore-like star Pootie, the hallucinatory Wilde Jagd, Yule goats in Rio, Monty Python-like animated sequences, anarchists and squatters, gated Christian communities, Neo-Iron Age earth-sculptures, sleighs made of reindeer bones, Industrial Revolution couture, theorboes, devotional art lend-lease programs with the Vatican, lapsed monks and their secular monastery. In the satiric vein of Catch 22, David Foster Wallace, Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Leyner, "The Holly King" asks the question, Why is there Christmas?

In his meteoric, thirteen-year rise to fame, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a mass movement for Civil Rights -- with his relentless peaceful, non-violent protests, public demonstrations, and eloquent speeches. But as violent threats cast a dark shadow over Dr. King's life, Swanson hones in on James Earl Ray, a bizarre, racist, prison escapee who tragically ends King's life.As he did in his bestselling Scholastic MG/YA books Chasing LIncoln's Killer and "THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN SHOT!", Swanson transports readers back to one of the most shocking, sad, and terrifying events in American history.With an introduction by Congressman John Lewis, and over 80 photographs, captions, bibliography, various source notes, and index included.

The first in the bestselling Danish series of historical mysteriesThe newly crowned King Cnut of Denmark has conquered England and rules his new empire from Oxford. The year is 1018 and the war is finally over, but the unified kingdom is far from peaceful. Halfdan’s mixed lineage—half Danish, half Saxon—has made him a pauper in the new kingdom. His father, his brother, and the land he should have inherited were all taken by the new king’s men. He lost everything to the war but his sense of humor. Once a proud nobleman, Halfdan now wanders the country aimlessly, powered only by his considerable charm and some petty theft. When he finds an unlikely ally in Winston, a former monk, he sees no reason not to accept his strange invitation to travel together to Oxford. Winston has been commissioned to paint a portrait of the king at the invitation of his new wife, and the protection of a clever man like Halfdan is well worth its price in wine and bread. But when the pair’s arrival in court coincides with news of a murder, the king has a brilliant idea: Why not enlist the newly arrived womanizing half-Dane and the Saxon intellectual to defuse a politically explosive situation? The pair represents both sides of the conflict and seem to have crime-solving skills to boot. In their search for the killer, Halfdan and Winston find seduction, adventure, and scandal in the wild early days of Cnut’s rule.**

A complete account of the battle that inspired Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers.There are few names in the annals of military history that evoke such emotion, and in some cases controversy, as the small Belgian town of Bastogne. The 101st Airborne are the best known defenders of Bastogne, but they only constituted one third of the eventual force that saved the city from total annihilation.This book digs deeper into the defense of Bastogne, revealing more details about those indomitable “Screaming Eagles” and the other units that stood with them during that punishingly bitter cold winter of 1944/45. It also presents the perspective of the German soldiers trying desperately to re-take Bastogne that desperate winter. It is a story of sacrifice, dedication to duty, and honor in the face of terrible adversity, but more importantly it’s a human story, one that encapsulates the finest attributes of humankind in the absolute direst of circumstances.

SUMMARY: From the acclaimed bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder, a taut, intense narrative about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the largest manhunt in American history. On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man—whose real name was James Earl Ray—drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace’s racist presidential campaign. On February 1, 1968, two Memphis garbage men were crushed to death in their hydraulic truck, provoking the exclusively African American workforce to go on strike. Hoping to resuscitate his faltering crusade, King joined the sanitation workers’ cause, but their march down Beale Street, the historic avenue of the blues, turned violent. Humiliated, King fatefully vowed to return to Memphis in April. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel when the drifter catches up with his prey. Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of King’s funeral, Sides gives us a riveting cross-cut narrative of the assassin’s flight and the sixty-five-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England—a massive manhunt ironically led by Hoover’s FBI. Magnificent in scope, drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates one of the darkest hours in American life—an example of how history is so often a matter of the petty bringing down the great.

This eBook is the famous speech by Martin L. King, Jr. made in 1963.

Queen Elizabeth I is dying, and the King of England’s oldest and bitterest enemy, Scotland, is poised to take the throne. Lonely, her power fading, Elizabeth fears she is being poisoned. With all her old allies and advisors dead, she turns to the only man she can trust to tell her the truth, Henry Gresham. A reluctant recruit, Gresham finds himself unwillingly dragged into the vicious political manoeuvring that will decide who is England’s next ruler.Involved in the mad-cap race to be the first to tell James VI of Scotland that Elizabeth has chosen him as her successor, Gresham faces savage attacks on his home and those he loves, imprisonment, attempts to destroy not only him but the College he loves in Cambridge. He is even accused of witchcraft and is faced with the loss of all he holds dear and the prospect of a civil war with terrifying consequences.Gresham finds himself one of the few people who knows about plots emanating from England’s oldest European rivals and enemies – plots that could change England into an unrecognizable country. Fighting harder than he has ever had to before, Gresham must struggle to survive and to defeat his enemies at home, and with no army except his wits, fight for the survival of his country as England enters a time that could see it tear itself apart.’This completely new and previously unpublished third book in the Henry Gresham series is another intricate page-turner of a novel. Once again, Martin Stephen has produced a tale of treachery, intrigue and passion which displays a staggeringly intimate knowledge of history.

Survival is the ultimate defiance. Condemned to Velant Prison for killing the man who dishonored his sister, Blaine McFadden faces imprisonment for life in a brutal arctic penal colony. The harsh climate and sadistic guards are enough to break a man, and most prisoners don’t live long. When a corrupt overseer and a ruffian gang threaten Blaine and a core group of convict friends, they decide to take matters into their own hands—consequences be damned. When Blaine McFadden killed the man who dishonored his sister, King Merrill exiled him to Velant Prison on far-away Edgeland, an arctic penal colony known for its brutality. If the icy cold and the hard labor doesn’t kill them, the prison’s sadistic commandant just might. But Blaine and his convict friends didn’t come this far to die easily, and they have no intention of going down without a fight. The King’s Convicts and the upcoming King’s Exiles fill the six-year gap at the beginning of Ice Forged, the first novel in Gail Z. Martin’s Ascendant Kingdoms epic fantasy series. **

From Library JournalA cautionary tale by Stephen R. Donaldson ("Reeve the Just"), a whimsical ad venture in miniature by Dennis L. McKiernan ("The Halfling House"), and a tribute to the art of storytelling by Charles de Lint ("The Conjure Man") il lustrate the variety of this collection of 19 stories written to celebrate the centennial of Tolkien's birth. Although fans of Middle Earth may be disappointed that none of these tales draw directly from Tolkien's world, discerning readers will find the unmistakable stamp of the master concealed in the heart of each story. All in all, this solid collection of fantasy belongs in most libraries. For a new edition of The Lord of the Rings and more on Tolkien, see Classic Returns, LJ 11/15/91.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsYet another Festschrift anthology by Greenberg, who has recently edited or coedited tributes to Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and H.P. Lovecraft, this time to honor the much-imitated author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The difficulty with these projects is that the writers must retain the essential flavor of their own work while evoking somehow the style or subject or tone of the revered predecessor, and here--as in the Asimov, Bradbury, and Lovecraft volumes--the quality of the stories varies tremendously. The book leads off with an exceptionally good story by Stephen R. Donaldson, Reave the Just,'' in which a legendary hero saves the day in a most unusual fashion. Emma Bull'sSilver or Gold,'' Peter S. Beagle's The Naga,'' Judith Tarr'sDeath and the Lady,'' and Patricia A. McKillip's The Fellowship of the Dragon'' likewise evoke something of the spirit of Tolkien while offering wonderful, original tales in their authors' own strong voices. Meanwhile, John Brunner, Barry N. Malzberg, and Gregory Benford provide solid stories, but their connection to Tolkien is slight. Much that's unfortunately mediocre, and a few stories (such as Dennis L. McKiernan'sThe Halfling House,'' egregious at 29 pages) that would have made Tolkien himself wince--but, still, the strongest tales here are among the best short-length fantasy of the year. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

First-person account of the extraordinary life of America's greatest civil rights leader. It begins with his boyhood as the son of a preacher, his education as a minister, his ascendancy as a leader of civil rights, & his complex relationships with leading political & social figures of the day.

Velant Prison is King Merrill's dumping ground, and the convicts condemned to the harsh arctic conditions are the kingdom's slave labor. Brutal overseers drive their convict workers to the breaking point in the dark, cold mines deep beneath Edgeland. Blaine 'Mick' McFadden lost his title, lands, and freedom when he killed the man who dishonored his sister. When miners disappear and strange creatures are glimpsed in the depths, Blaine and his convict friends must find a way to fight for their lives against men and monsters. When Blaine McFadden killed the man who dishonored his sister, King Merrill exiled him to Velant Prison on far-away Edgeland, an arctic penal colony known for its brutality. If the icy cold and the hard labor doesn’t kill them, the prison’s sadistic commandant just might. But Blaine and his convict friends didn’t come this far to die easily, and they have no intention of going down without a fight. The King’s Convicts and the upcoming King’s Exiles fill the six-year gap at the beginning of Ice Forged, the first novel in Gail Z. Martin’s Ascendant Kingdoms epic fantasy series. **

After three years in brutal Velant Prison on arctic Edgeland, Blaine McFadden nears his chance to earn release and become a colonist. But before Blaine can leave the prison and its vicious guards behind, Velant's sadistic commander has prepared a series of deadly challenges. Blaine has his sights set on freedom, but Prokief seems determined that Blaine will never leave Velant alive. The King's Convicts - When Blaine McFadden killed the man who dishonored his sister, King Merrill exiled him to Velant Prison on far-away Edgeland, an arctic penal colony known for its brutality. If the icy cold and the hard labor doesn’t kill them, the prison’s sadistic commandant just might. But Blaine and his convict friends didn’t come this far to die easily, and they have no intention of going down without a fight. **

Dr. King's best-selling account of the civil rights movement in Birmingham during the spring and summer of 1963 On April 16, 1963, as the violent events of the Birmingham campaign unfolded in the city's streets, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., composed a letter from his prison cell in response to local religious leaders' criticism of the campaign. The resulting piece of extraordinary protest writing, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," was widely circulated and published in numerous periodicals. After the conclusion of the campaign and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, King further developed the ideas introduced in the letter in Why We Can't Wait, which tells the story of African American activism in the spring and summer of 1963. During this time, Birmingham, Alabama, was perhaps the most racially segregated city in the United States, but the campaign launched by King, Fred Shuttlesworth, and others demonstrated to the world the power of...

Since 1922, when Howard Carter discovered Tut's 3,000-year-old tomb, most Egyptologists have presumed that the young king died of disease, or perhaps an accident, such as a chariot fall. But what if his fate was actually much more sinister? Now, in THE MURDER OF TUT, James Patterson and Martin Dugard chronicle their epic quest to find out what happened to the boy-king. They comb through the evidence--X-rays, Carter's files, forensic clues--and scavenge for overlooked data to piece together the details of his life and death. The result is a true crime tale of intrigue, betrayal, and usurpation that presents a compelling case that King Tut's death was anything but natural.

First-person account and rarely heard life story of the man known as "Daddy King," the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr.Born in 1899 to a family of sharecroppers in Stockbridge, Georgia, Martin Luther King, Sr., came of age under the looming threat of violence at the hands of white landowners. Growing up, he watched as his family was crushed by the weight of poverty and racism, and he resolved to escape to Atlanta to answer the calling to become a preacher. Before he engaged in acts of political dissent and stepped to the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he would preach for more than forty years, King Sr. strove to earn high school and college diplomas while working double shifts as a truck driver, and fought to win the heart of his future wife, Alberta "Bunch" Williams.Originally published in 1980, this poignant memoir chronicles the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. Here, King Sr. recalls the joys and struggles of his journey: the pain of leaving his...

"Martin, a kitten, is branded a 'wimp' by his siblings for his friendly interest in mice. He loves caring for them and can't understand their desire for freedom. Only when he becomes the pet of a big city apartment dweller does he realize why his pets deserted him. An engaging animal fantasy with plenty of humorous insight into the human condition, King-Smith's story has humor and a fast pace which will appeal to younger readers."--School Library Journal (starred review)