Résultats de recherche de titre
Articles 1 à 20 sur 219
Yo confieso: 45 años de espía
Par Fernando Rueda, Mikel Lejarza. 2019
1974: Mikel Lejarza es captado por el servicio secreto para infiltrarse en ETA con el alias de El Lobo. 2019:…
Con otro nombre, Mikel Lejarza sigue trabajando para el CNI. Esta es su vida. Esta es la historia. Mikel Lejarza ha guardado silencio sobre su vida hasta este momento. Ahora ha decidido desvelar en primera persona en el libro Yo confiesotodo lo que ha hecho y todo por lo que ha pasado. Ha escrito, con la ayuda del periodista Fernando Rueda, unas memorias duras, sinceras, en las que por primera vez cuenta todo lo que ha sido su vida, sin olvidarse de los momentos amargos, de su éxitos e, incluso, de aquellas actuaciones de las que no está especialmente satisfecho. Yo confieso es un libro humano en el que Mikel ha querido que Mamen, su mujer, confidente y compañera en algunas de sus misiones, aporte su visión personal sobre los hechos, recordando los momentos vividos en una relación complicada, como no podía ser otra que la vivida por una mujer que ha compartido 40 años con el agente más antiguo que tienen los servicios secretos españoles. La crítica ha dicho...«405 páginas que te dejan sin aliento. Estas confesiones de El Lobo son imprescindibles para conocer esa parte que ha permanecido oculta de nuestra historia reciente.»Julia Navarro «Un trabajo espléndido.»Nieves Herrero «La genteencontrará muchas informaciones que le gustará, le apasionarán, en este libro.»Bruno Cardeñosa, La rosa de los vientos, Onda Cero «Lejarza y Rueda cuentan todo lo que le ha pasado al agente de los servicios secretos españoles desde aquella primera misión que supuso un enorme golpe para la banda terrorista.»eldiario.es «Un estremecedor relato en el que aparece por primera vez Mamen, la mujer de El Lobo, que narra una historia humana y personal sobre los sufrimientos que entraña estar durante 40 años con alguien que vive en la clandestinidad.»El Español «Duro, inmisericorde, Mikel Lejarza revela en Yo Confieso, a través de la pluma de Fernando Rueda, lo que jamás había contado.»El ojo crítico«Detrás de ese libro, claramente, hay alguien que maneja fenomenalmente la pluma.»Adolfo Arjona, COPE «Yo confieso es, además de unas memorias, el resultado de un excelente trabajo editorial.»Jot Down «Un libro valiente, estremecedor, avalado por un héroe que cuenta de primera manomucho de lo que realmente pasó dentro de la organización terrorista que contribuyó a derrotar.»El Periódico de Aragón «Hay libros que enganchan más que una serie, se convierten en adición deseada y buscada. Puede pasar un tiempo pero volvemos a su llamada. El género del confidente informador es el de los observadores en la vida que vienen a poner luz en el otro lado de la luna.»Pilar Falcón, El Correo GallegoSecretos de confesión: 50 años de la Operación Lobo
Par Fernando Rueda, Mikel Lejarza. 2022
La explosiva continuación de Yo confieso, las memorias de Mikel Lejarza, El Lobo. Secretos de confesión son las narraciones de…
la vida de Mikel Lejarza desde un punto de vista diferente, dando voz a personas que habían permanecido en la sombra, personas con las que ha compartido partes trascendentales de su vida. Jefes, colaboradores o familia que nunca habían hablado sobre su relación con él, personas que han hablado desde una perspectiva íntima y personal de unos hechos y sentimientos distintos a los expresados por Mikel.En 2023 se cumplen cincuenta años del inicio de la operación Lobo, cincuenta años del mayor éxito en la lucha contra ETA, cincuenta años del ingreso de Mikel Lejarza en el servicio de inteligencia. Esta segunda entrega de las trascendentales memorias de El Lobo también incluye historias novedosas y sorprendentes que no había querido desvelar y un capítulo extenso llamado «Charlas de café: vamos a contar verdades», en el que Mikel compartirá sus sentimientos, sus anécdotas, sus errores y aciertos, los temas que menos le gustan... en una conversación con Fernando desde lo más profundo de su corazón. El sonido de las palabras de Mikel, el agente negro más antiguo y de mayor prestigio en la historia de España, arrojará luz sobre esas cuestiones que nadie se había atrevido a preguntarle. El libro está marcado por la leyenda creada por ETA de que cualquiera de sus miembros siempre llevaba una bala reservada para matarlo. Una venganza que 50 años después no han podido ejecutar. La crítica ha dicho...«Si les gustan las historias de espías, traiciones, misterios, etc., este es su libro. La lectura de este libro no dejará indiferente a nadie.»Julia Navarro, escritora y periodista «Cuando Fernando Rueda habla con Mikel Lejarza, en esas conversaciones cruzadas, se acreditan muchas de las cosas que han ocurrido en el país, entre alcantarillas, por las azoteas, pero siempre al margen del primer plano dela actualidad, y que nos son develadas gracias a los varios libros ya que Fernando ha publicado.»Carlos Herrera, Herrera en COPE «Secretos de confesión y Yo confieso son dos obras imprescindibles para conocer los entresijos de uno de los episodios más trascendentales y terribles de la reciente historia de España.»R. Pérez Barredo, Diario de Burgos«Un libro imprescindible. Escrito desde el rigor periodístico, escrito desde el periodismo de investigación, y, sobre todo, con la participación de un testigo excepcional de la lucha antiterrorista, Mikel Lejarza.»David Felipe Arranz, Cautivos del mal, Periodista Digital «Incluye historias novedosas y sorprendentes que no había querido desvelar, dando voz a personas que habían permanecido en la sombra, personas con las que ha compartido partes trascendentales de su vida.»El Confidencial Digital«Unas nuevas narraciones de la vida de Lejarza desde un punto de vista más personal.» «El libro da voz a personas que habían permanecido en la sombra, personas con las que el espía compartió partes trascendentales.»Iñigo Aduriz, eldiarioesThe Explorers Club: A Visual Journey Through the Past, Present, and Future of Exploration
Par The Explorers Club. 2023
Discover the extraordinary history and thrilling frontiers of exploration with this gorgeously illustrated guide from The Explorers Club, the esteemed…
home of the world's most prominent explorers.The discovery of the North and South Poles. The summiting of Everest. The moon landing. The (largely unknown) birth of climate change science. These are just some of the stories from The Explorers Club, the organization that, since its inception in 1904, has pushed the envelope of human curiosity.This guided tour of The Club&’s most riveting journeys includes hundreds of photos and fascinating anecdotes about The Club&’s distinguished members, including Teddy Roosevelt, Neil Armstrong, and Jane Goodall. From the darkest depths of the ocean to the highest points on Earth and to outer space and beyond, this book shares not just the inspirational history of modern exploration, but also reveals how it has evolved and continues to be relevant—even urgent—today.Voices of the Codebreakers: Personal Accounts of the Secret Heroes of World War II
Par Michael Paterson. 2018
Alongside the open conflict of World War II there were other, hidden wars - the wars of communication, in which…
success depended on a flow of concealed and closely guarded information.Smuggled written messages, secretly transmitted wireless signals, or months of eavesdropping on radio traffic meant operatives could discover in advance what the enemy intended to do. This information was passed on to those who commanded the armies, the fleets and the bomber formations, as well as to the other secret agents throughout the world who were desperately trying to infiltrate enemy lines. Vital information that turned the tide of battle in North African desert and on the Pacific Ocean proved to have been obtained by the time-consuming and unglamorous work of cryptanalysts who deciphered the enemy's coded messages, and coded those for the Allies.From the stuffy huts of Bletchley Park to the battles in the Mediterranean, the French and Dutch Resistance movements and the unkempt radio operatives in Burma, the rarely-seen, outstanding stories collected here reveal the true extent of the 'secret war'.The ongoing need for secrecy for decades after the war meant that the outstanding achievements of wartime cryptanalysts could not be properly recognised.With vivid first-hand accounts and illuminating historical research, VOICES OF THE CODEBREAKERS reveals and finally celebrates the extraordinary accomplishments of these ordinary men and women.Routledge Handbook of Disinformation and National Security
Par Rubén Arcos, Irena Chiru, Cristina Ivan. 2023
This interdisciplinary Handbook provides an in-depth analysis of the complex security phenomenon of disinformation and offers a toolkit to counter…
such tactics. Disinformation used to propagate false, inexact or out of context information is today a frequently used tool of political manipulation and information warfare, both online and offline. This Handbook evidences a historical thread of continuing practices and modus operandi in overt state propaganda and covert information operations. Further, it attempts to unveil current methods used by propaganda actors, the inherent vulnerabilities they exploit in the fabric of democratic societies and, last but not least, to highlight current practices in countering disinformation and building resilient audiences. The Handbook is divided into six thematic sections. The first part provides a set of theoretical approaches to hostile influencing, disinformation and covert information operations. The second part looks at disinformation and propaganda in historical perspective offering case study analysis of disinformation, and the third focuses on providing understanding of the contemporary challenges posed by disinformation and hostile influencing. The fourth part examines information and communication practices used for countering disinformation and building resilience. The fifth part analyses specific regional experiences in countering and deterring disinformation, as well as international policy responses from transnational institutions and security practitioners. Finally, the sixth part offers a practical toolkit for practitioners to counter disinformation and hostile influencing. This handbook will be of much interest to students of national security, propaganda studies, media and communications studies, intelligence studies and International Relations in general.Drone Warrior: An Elite Soldier's Inside Account of the Hunt for America's Most Dangerous Enemies
Par Christopher Stewart, Brett Velicovich. 2017
“A must read for anyone who wants to understand the new American way of war.” — General Michael V. Hayden, former Director…
of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency A former special operations member takes us inside America’s covert drone war in this headline-making, never-before-told account for fans of Zero Dark Thirty and Lone Survivor, told by a Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal writer and filled with eye-opening and sure to be controversial details.For nearly a decade Brett Velicovich was at the center of America’s new warfare: using unmanned aerial vehicles—drones—to take down the world’s deadliest terrorists across the globe. One of an elite handful in the entire military with the authority to select targets and issue death orders, he worked in concert with the full human and technological network of American intelligence—assets, analysts, spies, informants—and the military’s elite operatives, to stalk, capture, and eliminate high value targets in al-Qaeda and ISIS.In this remarkable book, co-written with journalist Christopher S. Stewart, Velicovich offers unprecedented perspective on the remarkably complex nature of drone operations and the rigorous and wrenching decisions behind them. In intimate gripping detail, he shares insider, action-packed stories of the most coordinated, advanced, and secret missions that neutralized terrorists, preserved the lives of US and international warriors across the globe, and saved countless innocents in the hottest conflict zones today.Drone Warrior also chronicles the US military’s evolution in the past decade and the technology driving it. Velicovich considers the future it foretells, and speaks candidly on the physical and psychological toll it exacts, including the impact on his own life. He reminds us that while these machines can kill, they can also be used productively to improve and preserve life, including protecting endangered species, work he is engaged in today.Joining warfare classics such as American Sniper, Lone Survivor, and No Easy Day,Drone Warrior is the definitive account of our nation’s capacity and capability for war in the modern age.The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic (Charnwood Large Print Ser.)
Par Edward Maurice. 2006
"This is a great book about life at remote bases in Canada's far north as seen by a young English…
boy who went there by himself to see the world and got more than he could have bargained for. Beautifully written." --Sir Ranulph Fiennes"As spare, gleaming, and exhilarating as the Arctic wastes and the gentle, stoic Eskimos who had mastery of this realm . . . The book evokes the frozen seas, whale hunts, snow plains and storms that intimidated those rash enough to brave this world, and the traditions, myths, and hunting skills that contoured a bygone way of life . . . His translucent prose is a sparkling and moving record." -- Times (London)At sixteen, Edward Beauclerk Maurice impulsively signed up with the Hudson's Bay Company -- the Company of Gentleman Adventurers -- and was sent to an isolated trading post in the Canadian Arctic, where there was no telephone or radio and only one ship arrived each year. But the Inuit people who traded there taught him how to track polar bears, build igloos, and survive expeditions in ferocious winter storms. He learned their language and became so immersed in their culture and way of life that children thought he was Inuit himself. When an epidemic struck, Maurice treated the sick using a simple first aid kit, and after a number of the hunters died, he had to start hunting himself, often with women, who soon began to compete for his affections. The young man who in England had never been alone with a woman other than his mother and sisters had come of age in the Arctic.In The Last Gentleman Adventurer Edward Beauclerk Maurice transports the reader to a time and a way of life now lost forever.After serving in the New Zealand navy during World War II, Edward Beauclerk Maurice became a bookseller in an English village and rarely traveled again. He died in 2003 as this, his only book, was being readied for publication. "If you like reality, The Last Gentleman Adventurer will be your cup of tea: a delicious quaff of it. Savor it!" -- Edward Hoagland"Maurice's memoir supplies a fascinating elegy to a vanishing world." -- Telegraph"One of those rare writers who will be remembered for turning out one great memoir/travel book . . . He relates these events in a beautiful prose that is quaintly elegant in tone but never archly so . . . Not only a gentleman but a wonderful writer who limited his output to one book, and perhaps that is why it reads so beautifully." -- Sunday Tribune (Dublin)"Maybe he was exceptional, but the charm of his book lies in its modesty; he makes no claims for himself. His concern was to make a record of some amazing adventures and a vanishing way of life; these are woven into an eye-opening narrative that is suffused with kindliness and an attitude to growing up more restrained but more humane than that prevailing today. A gentleman adventurer indeed." -- Times Educational Supplement"A deceptively simple account of how he grew to manhood, shaped on one hand by the brutal elements of the Arctic, on the other by the compassionate communities of Inuit who understood them . . . This is a beautifully unadorned, homespun tale with a lack of self-consciousness rare in travel literature . . . I was charmed." -- Benedict Allen, Independent on SundayEyes In The Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All
Par Arthur Michel. 2018
The fascinating history and unnerving future of high-tech aerial surveillance, from its secret military origins to its growing use on…
American citizensEyes in the Sky is the authoritative account of how the Pentagon secretly developed a godlike surveillance system for monitoring America's enemies overseas, and how it is now being used to watch us in our own backyards. Whereas a regular aerial camera can only capture a small patch of ground at any given time, this system—and its most powerful iteration, Gorgon Stare—allow operators to track thousands of moving targets at once, both forwards and backwards in time, across whole city-sized areas. When fused with big-data analysis techniques, this network can be used to watch everything simultaneously, and perhaps even predict attacks before they happen. In battle, Gorgon Stare and other systems like it have saved countless lives, but when this technology is deployed over American cities—as it already has been, extensively and largely in secret—it has the potential to become the most nightmarishly powerful visual surveillance system ever built. While it may well solve serious crimes and even help ease the traffic along your morning commute, it could also enable far more sinister and dangerous intrusions into our lives. This is closed-circuit television on steroids. Facebook in the heavens. Drawing on extensive access within the Pentagon and in the companies and government labs that developed these devices, Eyes in the Sky reveals how a top-secret team of mad scientists brought Gorgon Stare into existence, how it has come to pose an unprecedented threat to our privacy and freedom, and how we might still capitalize on its great promise while avoiding its many perils.The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel
Par Uri Bar-Joseph. 2016
A NETFLIX ORIGINAL MOVIETHE BEST INTELLIGENCE BOOK for 2017 by The American Association of Former Intelligence OfficersA gripping feat of…
reportage that exposes—for the first time in English—the sensational life and mysterious death of Ashraf Marwan, an Egyptian senior official who spied for Israel, offering new insight into the turbulent modern history of the Middle East.As the son-in-law of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and a close advisor to his successor, Anwar Sadat, Ashraf Marwan had access to the deepest secrets of the country’s government. But Marwan himself had a secret: He was a spy for the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. Under the codename “The Angel,” Marwan turned Egypt into an open book for the Israeli intelligence services—and, by alerting the Mossad in advance of the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack on Yom Kippur, saved Israel from a devastating defeat.Drawing on meticulous research and interviews with many key participants, Uri Bar Joseph pieces together Marwan’s story. In the process, he sheds new light on this volatile time in modern Egyptian and Middle Eastern history, culminating in 2011’s Arab Spring. The Angel also chronicles the discord within the Israeli government that brought down Prime Minister Golda Meir.However, this nail-biting narrative doesn’t end with Israel’s victory in the Yom Kippur War. Marwan eluded Egypt’s ruthless secret services for many years, but then somebody talked. Five years later, in 2007, his body was found in the garden of his London apartment building. Police suspected he had been thrown from his fifth-floor balcony, and thanks to explosive new evidence, Bar-Joseph can finally reveal who, how, and why.Around the World in 60 Seconds: The Nas Daily Journey—1,000 Days. 64 Countries. 1 Beautiful Planet.
Par Bruce Kluger, Nuseir Yassin. 2019
Based on the Nas Daily video series with over 13 million dedicated followers comes the surprising, moving 1,000-day journey of a…
lifetime in book formIn 2016, Nuseir Yassin quit his job to travel for 1,000 consecutive days. But instead of the usual tourist traps, Nas set out to meet real people, see the places they call home, and discover what unites all of us living on this beautiful planet—from villages in Africa and slums in India, to the high-rises of Singapore and the deserts of Australia. While he journeyed from country to country, Nas uploaded a single 60-second video per day for his Nas Daily Facebook following to highlight the amazing, terrifying, inspiring and downright surprising sh*t happening all over the world. Thirteen million followers later, Nas Daily has become the most immersive travel experience ever captured, and finally shows us what we’ve all been looking for: each other.AROUND THE WORLD IN 60 SECONDS is Nas’ unpredictable 1,000-day world tour in book form. At times a striking portrait of the most uncharted places in the world, at others a touching exploration of the human heart, this collection of life-affirming stories and breathtaking photographs changes how we think about humanity and community and invites us all on a journey to see the world, and each other, anew.Dark Forces: The Truth About What Happened in Benghazi
Par Kenneth Timmerman. 2014
The New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Warriors investigates the tragedy of Benghazi to answer the questions: what really…
happened—and why?We know the Obama administration’s story, of a demonstration caused by an Internet movie that went out of control. But what actually did happen in Benghazi on the night of September 11, 2012?Dark Forces is the story of clandestine arms deliveries by the United States and its allies to Libya that wound up in the hands of Islamist guerrillas. It’s a story of a romantic diplomat, in love with the Middle East and with a mystical version of Islam. It’s a story of bald-faced lies, heroic acts, and the deepest corruption.But Dark Forces is not only a retelling of events. It puts those events into the larger context of Obama administration policy toward the Middle East. It will examine the administration’s record of systematically supporting Muslim Brotherhood and extremist groups in their efforts to overthrow pro-U.S. autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.It shows how President Obama’s obsessive outreach to the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran led the Iranian regime to dismiss him as a weak, ineffective leader who would not fight back. And it shows why and how this deadly combination cost the lives of four Americans on Sept. 11, 2012.The Puzzle Palace: A Report on NSA, America's Most Secret Agency
Par James Bamford. 1981
The first book ever written on the National Security Agency from the New York Times bestselling author of Body of Secrets and The Shadow Factory.…
In this groundbreaking, award-winning book, James Bamford traces the NSA&’s origins, details its inner workings, and explores its far-flung operations. He describes the city of fifty thousand people and nearly twenty buildings that is the Fort Meade headquarters of the NSA—where there are close to a dozen underground acres of computers, where a significant part of the world&’s communications are monitored, and where reports from a number of super-sophisticated satellite eavesdropping systems are analyzed. He also gives a detailed account of NSA&’s complex network of listening posts—both in the United States and throughout much of the rest of the world. When a Soviet general picks up his car telephone to call headquarters, when a New York businessman wires his branch in London, when a Chinese trade official makes an overseas call, when the British Admiralty urgently wants to know the plans and movements of Argentina&’s fleet in the South Atlantic—all of these messages become NSA targets. James Bamford&’s illuminating book reveals how NSA&’s mission of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) has made the human espionage agent almost a romantic figure of the past. Winner Best Investigative Book of the Year Award from Investigative Reporters & Editors &“The Puzzle Palace has the feel of an artifact, the darkly revealing kind. Though published during the Reagan years, the book is coolly subversive and powerfully prescient.&”—The New Yorker &“Mr. Bamford has emerged with everything except the combination to the director&’s safe.&”—The New York Times Book ReviewAt the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
Par George Tenet, Bill Harlow. 2007
In the whirlwind of accusations and recriminations that emerged in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq war, one man's…
vital testimony has been conspicuously absent. Candid and gripping, At the Center of the Storm recounts George Tenet's time at the Central Intelligence Agency, a revealing look at the inner workings of the most important intelligence organization in the world during the most challenging times in recent history. With unparalleled access to both the highest echelons of government and raw intelligence from the field, Tenet illuminates the CIA's painstaking attempts to prepare the country against new and deadly threats, disentangles the interlocking events that led to 9/11, and offers explosive new information on the deliberations and strategies that culminated in the U.S. invasion of Iraq.Beginning with his appointment as Director of Central Intelligence in 1997, Tenet unfolds the momentous events that led to 9/11 as he saw and experienced them: his declaration of war on al-Qa'ida; the CIA's covert operations inside Afghanistan; the worldwide operational plan to fight terrorists; his warnings of imminent attacks against American interests to White House officials in the summer of 2001; and the plan for a coordinated and devastating counterattack against al-Qa'ida laid down just six days after the attacks. Tenet's compelling narrative then turns to the war in Iraq as he provides dramatic insight and background on the run-up to the invasion, including a firsthand account of the fallout from the inclusion of "sixteen words" in the president's 2003 State of the Union address, which claimed that Saddam Hussein had sought to purchase uranium from Africa; the true context of Tenet's own now-famous "slam dunk" comment regarding Saddam's WMD program; and the CIA's critical role in an administration predisposed to take the country to war. In doing so, he sets the record straight about CIA operations and shows readers that the truth is more complex than suggested in other versions of recent history offered thus far. Through it all, Tenet paints an unflinching self-portrait of a man caught between the warring forces of the administration's decision-making process, the reams of frightening intelligence pouring in from around the world, and his own conscience. In At the Center of the Storm, George Tenet draws on his unmatched experience within the opaque mirrors of intelligence and provides crucial information previously undisclosed to offer a moving, revelatory profile of both a man and a nation in times of crisis.Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day
Par Stephan Talty. 2012
From the author of The Good Assassin and Saving Bravo, the real-life spy story of a Spanish farmer-turned-spy who helped defeat…
the Nazis.Before he remade himself as the master spy known as Garbo, Juan Pujol was nothing more than a Barcelona poultry farmer. But as Garbo, he turned in a masterpiece of deception that changed the course of World War II. Posing as the Nazis&’ only reliable spy inside England, he created an imaginary million-man army, invented armadas out of thin air, and brought a vast network of fictional subagents to life. The scheme culminated on June 6, 1944, when Garbo convinced the Germans that the Allied forces approaching Normandy were just a feint—the real invasion would come at Calais. Because of his brilliant trickery, the Allies were able to land with much less opposition and eventually push on to Berlin.As incredible as it sounds, everything in Agent Garbo is true, based on years of archival research and interviews with Pujol&’s family. This pulse-pounding thriller set in the shadow world of espionage and deception reveals the shocking reality of spycraft that occurs just below the surface of history.&“The book presses ever forward down a path of historical marvels and astonishing facts. The effect is like a master class that&’s accessible to anyone, and Agent Garbo often reads as though it were written in a single, perfect draft.&” —The Atlantic&“Stephan Talty&’s unsurpassed research brings forth one of the war&’s greatest agents in a must-read book for those who think they know all the great World War II stories.&” —Gregory Freeman, author of The Forgotten 500Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary
Par Bertrand Patenaude. 2009
In Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary, Stanford University lecturer Bertrand M. Patenaude tells the dramatic story of Leon Trotsky's final…
years in exile in Mexico. Shedding new light on Trotsky’s tumultuous friendship with painter Diego Rivera, his affair with Rivera’s wife Frida Kahlo, and his torment as his family and comrades become victims of the Great Terror, Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary brilliantly illuminates the fateful and dramatic life of one of history’s most famous yet elusive figures.The raucous and surprisingly poignant story of a young, Russia-obsessed American writer and comedian who embarked on a solo tour…
of the former Soviet Republics, never imagining that it would involve kidnappers, garbage bags of money, and encounters with the weird and wonderful from Mongolia to Tajikistan.Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Siberia are not the typical tourist destinations of a twenty-something, nor the places one usually goes to eat, pray, and/or love. But the mix of imperial Russian opulence and Soviet decay, and the allure of emotionally unavailable Russian men proved strangely irresistible to comedian Audrey Murray.At age twenty-eight, while her friends were settling into corporate jobs and serious relationships, Audrey was on a one-way flight to Kazakhstan, the first leg of a nine-month solo voyage through the former USSR. A blend of memoir and offbeat travel guide, this thoughtful, hilarious catalog of a young comedian’s adventures is also a diary of her emotional discoveries about home, love, patriotism, loneliness, and independence.Sometimes surprising, often disconcerting, and always entertaining, Open Mic Night in Moscow will inspire you to take the leap and embark on your own journey into the unknown. And, if you want to visit Chernobyl by way of an insane-asylum-themed bar in Kiev, Audrey can assure you that there’s no other guidebook out there. (She’s looked.)A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler
Par Jason Roberts. 2007
He was known simply as the Blind Traveler -- a solitary, sightless adventurer who, astonishingly, fought the slave trade in…
Af-rica, survived a frozen captivity in Siberia, hunted rogue elephants in Ceylon, and helped chart the Australian outback. James Holman (1786-1857) became "one of the greatest wonders of the world he so sagaciously explored," triumphing not only over blindness but crippling pain, poverty, and the interference of well-meaning authorities (his greatest feat, a circumnavigation of the globe, had to be launched in secret). Once a celebrity, a bestselling author, and an inspiration to Charles Darwin and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the charismatic, witty Holman outlived his fame, dying in an obscurity that has endured -- until now.A Sense of the World is a spellbinding and moving rediscovery of one of history's most epic lives. Drawing on meticulous research, Jason Roberts ushers us into the Blind Traveler's uniquely vivid sensory realm, then sweeps us away on an extraordinary journey across the known world during the Age of Exploration. Rich with suspense, humor, international intrigue, and unforgettable characters, this is a story to awaken our own senses of awe and wonder.The Lost Book of Moses: The Hunt for the World's Oldest Bible
Par Chanan Tigay. 2016
One man’s quest to find the oldest Bible scrolls in the world and uncover the story of the brilliant, doomed…
antiquarian accused of forging them.In the summer of 1883, Moses Wilhelm Shapira—archaeological treasure hunter and inveterate social climber—showed up unannounced in London claiming to have discovered the oldest copy of the Bible in the world.But before the museum could pony up his £1 million asking price for the scrolls—which discovery called into question the divine authorship of the scriptures—Shapira’s nemesis, the French archaeologist Charles Clermont-Ganneau, denounced the manuscripts, turning the public against him. Distraught over this humiliating public rebuke, Shapira fled to the Netherlands and committed suicide.Then, in 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Noting the similarities between these and Shapira’s scrolls, scholars made efforts to re-examine Shapira’s case, but it was too late: the primary piece of evidence, the parchment scrolls themselves had mysteriously vanished.Tigay, journalist and son of a renowned Biblical scholar, was galvanized by this peculiar story and this indecipherable man, and became determined to find the scrolls. He sets out on a quest that takes him to Australia, England, Holland, Germany where he meets Shapira’s still aggrieved descendants and Jerusalem where Shapira is still referred to in the present tense as a “Naughty boy”. He wades into museum storerooms, musty English attics, and even the Jordanian gorge where the scrolls were said to have been found all in a tireless effort to uncover the truth about the scrolls and about Shapira, himself.At once historical drama and modern-day mystery, The Lost Book of Moses explores the nineteenth-century disappearance of Shapira’s scrolls and Tigay's globetrotting hunt for the ancient manuscript. As it follows Tigay’s trail to the truth, the book brings to light a flamboyant, romantic, devious, and ultimately tragic personality in a story that vibrates with the suspense of a classic detective tale.Flowers, Guns, and Money: Joel Roberts Poinsett and the Paradoxes of American Patriotism (American Beginnings, 1500-1900)
Par Lindsay Schakenbach Regele. 2023
A fascinating historical account of a largely forgotten statesman, who pioneered a form of patriotism that left an indelible mark…
on the early United States. Joel Roberts Poinsett’s (1779–1851) brand of self-interested patriotism illuminates the paradoxes of the antebellum United States. He was a South Carolina investor and enslaver, a confidant of Andrew Jackson, and a secret agent in South America who fought surreptitiously in Chile’s War for Independence. He was an ambitious Congressman and Secretary of War who oversaw the ignominy of the Trail of Tears and orchestrated America’s longest and costliest war against Native Americans, yet also helped found the Smithsonian. In addition, he was a naturalist, after whom the poinsettia—which he appropriated while he was serving as the first US ambassador to Mexico—is now named. As Lindsay Schakenbach Regele shows in Flowers, Guns, and Money, Poinsett personified a type of patriotism that emerged following the American Revolution, one in which statesmen served the nation by serving themselves, securing economic prosperity and military security while often prioritizing their own ambitions and financial interests. Whether waging war, opposing states’ rights yet supporting slavery, or pushing for agricultural and infrastructural improvements in his native South Carolina, Poinsett consistently acted in his own self-interest. By examining the man and his actions, Schakenbach Regele reveals an America defined by opportunity and violence, freedom and slavery, and nationalism and self-interest.Into the Wild
Par Jon Krakauer. 2015
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into…
the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of how Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die."It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order." —Entertainment WeeklyMcCandess had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Not long after, he was dead. Into the Wild is the mesmerizing, heartbreaking tale of an enigmatic young man who goes missing in the wild and whose story captured the world&’s attention. Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the drives and desires that propelled McCandless. When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding—and not an ounce of sentimentality. Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.