Showing results by author "J A Andrews" in All Categories

From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country's most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterprise - now more than 30 years old and with no end in sight.

I am a recovering ass. Of course, at times I still am one, but it's less often. I now recognize my “assness” more quickly, recalibrate, and take action to make amends for my poor behavior. It's important to acknowledge the truth of our mistakes without turning toward self-contempt, shame, or beating ourselves up for the harm we have caused to those we love. Yet, we must take full responsibility for our poor behavior and fully own what we have done and learn to live differently, becoming men who bring life rather than further heartache.

Pavo's journey begins when he encounters the Roman soldier Macro, who has been charged with his training. Bonds of friendship develop between the two men, both aware that their fates depend not only on Pavo's skills in the arena but also on the whims of powerful and ruthless senators. Can Pavo survive to fulfil his most cherished goal - revenge for the murder of his father at the hands of a champion gladiator?

When young Telemachus gets the chance to join the crew of the merchant ship Selene, he's delighted to escape the rough streets of Piraeus. He knows little of the dangers of life at sea. And even past hardship has not prepared him for the terror on board when a pirate ship appears on the horizon. The fight is bloody, but the result is never in doubt. Then the victorious pirate chief, Bulla, offers the beaten men a cruel choice: join us, or die.

It’s the summer of 1994 in Claypot, Wisconsin, and the lives of 10-year-old Fischer “Fish” Branson and Dale “Bread” Breadwin are shaped by the two fathers they don’t talk about. One night, tired of seeing his best friend bruised and terrorized by his no-good dad, Fish takes action. A gunshot rings out and the two boys flee the scene, believing themselves murderers. They head for the woods, where they find their way onto a raft, but the natural terrors of Ironsforge gorge threaten to overwhelm them.

Of the millions who go missing every year around the world, there are those who simply vanish and are never seen again. The sheer volume of people who disappear each and every year are, when examined in detail, terrifying. In this audiobook, we will touch upon some of the most terrifying, touching, strange, and worrying stories. In this audiobook, we hope to examine the sheer range of cases which have enthralled the interested, and distressed those involved for many years. Some of these cases became national stories, while others remain private tragedies.

They’re here one second, and then they’re gone. Without rhyme or reason, people going about their mundane day-to-day affairs vanish without a trace. Sure, missing person cases may be a dime a dozen, but some are just a little stranger than others. Because there are disappearances—and then there are mind-bogglingly mysterious disappearances.

The myths surrounding Sparta are as old as the city itself. Even in antiquity, Sparta was a unique society, considered an enigma. The Spartans' often bizarre rules and practices have the capacity to horrify as much they do to fascinate us today. But the truth behind these stories of the exotic other can be hard to discover, lost amongst the legend of Sparta which was even perpetuated by later Spartans, who ran a thriving tourist industry that exaggerated the famed brutality of their ancestors. As Andrew Bayliss explores in this book, there was also much to admire in ancient Sparta.

In this audiobook, we hope to examine the sheer range of cases which have enthralled the interested, and distressed those involved for many years. Some of these cases became national stories while others remain private tragedies. In the cases of missing persons, trying to find an explanation is almost as difficult as trying to find the person themselves. So join us on this journey and discover just how morbidly fascinating and compelling the cases of the missing can become.

Deep below Manhattan, tunnel engineer Josh Reed leads his team as they excavate the East Side Access extending New York's railway service. But sparks fly as the drill hits an unusual crystalline material - one Josh has never seen before. They push on, and Josh discovers something even more unexpected: a vast room, empty and lifeless - or so it seems.

The imperial gladiator school in Capua: once the pride of the Roman Empire, lately driven to the brink of ruin by a greedy lanista. Now the school welcomes its newest recruit: Marcus Valerius Pavo, the high-born gladiator with a string of impressive victories to his name, sworn to seek revenge for the brutal murder of his father. Meanwhile, Lucius Cornelius Macro, the decorated optio of the Second Legion, has been appointed as the school's new lanista. Macro faces a race against time to turn the school around before the start of the games in Rome, held in honour of the new Emperor.

A riveting collection of true stories which are so strange as to be almost unbelievable.

Andrew J. Stewart convincingly shows that emergency software patches and new security products cannot provide the solution to threats such as computer hacking, viruses, software vulnerabilities, and electronic spying. Profound underlying structural problems must first be understood, confronted, and then addressed.

Contrary to what was once believed, ADHD that starts earlier in childhood usually persists into the teen years. Yet even experienced parents are often caught unawares by the fresh challenges that adolescence brings. This book is one of the few to address ADHD in the context of teen friendships, dating, curfews, sports, and extracurricular activities. It also offers practical advice from a leading psychologist on determining readiness to drive and instilling good homework and study habits.

The lives of the sons of Eleanor of Aquitaine are the stuff of legend. Her daughters, however, are less well known, and the fascinating personalities of her daughters-in-law have been almost entirely overlooked, as have those of the daughters she bore Louis VII of France. The Families of Eleanor of Aquitaine redresses this balance and showcases the lives, travels, and careers of these ten very different women, who formed a great international network of political alliances that linked their parents, siblings, husbands, and children all across Europe and the Holy Land.

Are you a Christian man looking to be free from your regular use of pornography? Shame and self-hatred are terrible motivators for transformation. There must be a better way to outgrow our unhealthy dependence on pornography. Religious communities often fall short engaging pornography in a meaningful way, quality resources are scarce. We must strip away the sexuality of our porn use, face the complexity of our own sexual development and stories head-on. We must get beneath to what is driving our hunger to use women as objects of our pleasure, and learn how to honor not objectify.

Rome under the rule of the ruthless new Emperor Claudius is a dangerous place. Condemned to gladiator school, Marcus Valerius Pavo, the son of a treasonous general, is a celebrated hero following a dramatic victory in the arena. Now he finds himself pitted against one of the greatest gladiators who ever lived: Decimus Cominius Denter. Though Denter has fallen on harder times, he is still a formidable opponent, and it is up to newly decorated Macro to whip him into shape.

People disappear every single day, but there are a few cases that simply defy explanation. There are those who have walked into forests and never come out. There are people who have disappeared from secure compounds with no explanation, and even individuals who seem to have vanished into thin air right in front of security cameras.  

Suburban soccer moms and soy latte-sipping men have no clue what these blue-collar men and women have to put up with on a daily basis. From chupacabras chewing the cable lines during the big game to zombie infestations boiling out from beneath that derelict double-wide on the other side of the trailer park, the heroes of It Came From the Trailer Park: Volume Two have their work cut out for them! Hold their beer, Romero and Hitchcock. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

The first in a series of action-packed novellas set in ancient Rome introducing Pavo, a novice gladiator, and featuring Simon Scarrow's ongoing soldier character Optio Macro. It is AD 41. The savage Gaul Britomaris has defeated the best of the Roman gladiators in the arena. Now a young volunteer, Marcus Valerius Pavo, the son of a murdered general, has been given a month to prepare to face Britomaris in a fight which only one man can survive. He is to be trained by veteran soldier Macro, who fears for his young trainee's chances.