Many Americans, argues Michael C. C. Adams, think of the Civil War as more glorious, less awful, than the reality. Tourists flock to battlefields, their perceptions of the war often shaped by reenactors who work hard for verisimilitude but who cannot ultimately simulate the horrors of war. In Living Hell, Adams uses the voices of actual participants on the firing line or in the hospital ward to create a virtual historical reenactment. Perhaps because...

Determined to restore the Christmas spirit to their home, shrouded in grief since the death of their son, George Boyajian and his family encounter a stranger who forever changes all of their lives with a special message of love and hope.

Bay Area-based reporters for The Guardian, Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano, relate the story of the worst American wildfire in a century, weaving together a portrait of the remarkable California community of 27,000 souls, destroyed wholesale in a fire that left 86 dead, while offering a bigger-picture exploration of the science of wildfires in a time of dramatic climate change. Alastair Gee is a seasoned science/nature writer based in San Francisco...

The remarkable true story of one soldier's death in battle, another soldier's journey of discovery and a nation's reverence and gratitude toward its war dead. After hearing of the heroic death of a young Marine in Iraq, veteran officer Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl volunteers to escort the remains of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps back to his hometown in Wyoming. As Strobl crosses America's heartland, he will find himself on an unexpectedly emotional journey...

Traces the controversial story of NFL player and soldier Pat Tillman, describing the military's efforts to hide the truth about his death by friendly fire, in an account that draws on Tillman's journals and letters as well as interviews with family members and fellow soldiers.