Montee’s Reading Room

As an avid reader, Montee is frequently asked about his read list, recommendations, and books to avoid.

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
– Charlie “Tremendous” Jones.

Recently Read…

The White Tiger

Aravind Adiga / Epistolary Novel

This book is the story of Balram Halwai’s life as a self-declared “self-made entrepreneur”: a rickshaw driver’s son who climbed India’s social ladder to become a chauffer and later a successful businessman. Balram recounts his life in a letter to visiting Chinese official Premier Wen Jiabo, with the goal of educating the premier about entrepreneurship in India.

Bad Blood

John Carreyrou / Biography / True Crime

This book is the story of the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, a Steve Jobs wannabe. It follows the schemes that occurred at a $10 billion unicorn Theranos, a high-flying blood test start-up. Founded in 2003 by 19 year old Stanford drop-out, Elizabeth Holmes. Theranos raised over $700 million in investment at a $9 billion valuation. The problem? It was all fake.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway / Novel / Fiction / War 

A gripping story set during the Spanish Civil War. This book follows Robert Jordan, an American dynamiter, as he fights alongside a guerilla group and deals with love, duty, and death.

Social Justice Fallacies

Thomas Sowell / Non-Fiction / Business & Economics

This is a thought-provoking book that challenges the popular narratives surrounding social justice. It offers a critical analysis of the misconceptions and fallacies that regularly drive the discourse on this topic.

The Gift of Fear

Gavin de Becker / Self-Help / Non-Fiction

This is a self-help book that demonstrates how people should learn to trust the inherent “gift” of their gut instinct. It shows that by learning to recognize various warning signs and precursors to violence, it becomes possible to avoid potential trauma and harm.

The Execution Channel                                             

Ken MacLeod / History Science Fiction

This book is an alternate history science fiction novel by British writer Ken MacLeod, which focuses on the early decades of the 21st century.

Mirror Mirror
Gregory Maguire / Fantasy / Historical Fiction

The world was called Montefiore, as far as she knew, and from her aerie on every side all the world descended. The year is 1502, and seven-year-old Bianca de Nevada lives perched high above the rolling hills and valleys of Tuscany and Umbria at Montefiore, the farm of her beloved father, Don Vicente. There she spends her days cosseted by Primavera Vecchia, the earthy cook, and Fra Ludovico, a priest who tends to their souls between bites of ham and sips of wine. But one day a noble entourage makes its way up the winding slopes to the farm – and the world come to Montefiore. When Borgia sends Don Vicente on a years-long quest to reclaim a relic of the original Tree of Knowledge, he leaves Bianca under the care of Lucrecia. She plots a dire fate for the young girl in the woods below the farm, but in the dark forest there can be found salvation as well….

Vile Bohea: The Boston Tea: A Doctor Joseph Warren Novel
James Padian / Historical

Aboard the tea ships, Warren’s Wicked-Freemasons and other vounteers- pause in the crisp night airl while the doctor ponders their discovery. Who ships worthless tea to Boston? Destroy or not? Warren signals the Wicked to toss the tea. Hours later, they broom the decks clean and slip away to historical obscurity. Rumors suggest Warren masterminded the destruction, but no one gives him up. With the threat of arrest, Warren focuses on his rebellion. Will other colonies support his vision to expand the plan beyond Massachusetts? If not, he wastes his dream to forge a new nation where millions yet unborn will live free.

Dune
Frank Herbert / Sci-Fi / Fiction

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the sotoy of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to the a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for…

How the States Got Their Shapes Too

Mark Stein                                                                 

Here are the stories behind the stories, right down to the tiny northward jog at the eastern end of Tennessee and the teeny-tiny (and little known) parts of Delaware that are not attached to Delaware but to New Jersey.

Packed with fun oddities and trivia, this entertaining guide also reveals the major fault lines of American history, from ideological intrigues and religious intolerance to major territorial acquisitions. Adding the fresh lens of local geographic disputes, military skirmishes, and land grabs, Mark Stein shows how the seemingly haphazard puzzle pieces of our nation fit together perfectly.

The Immortal Nicholas

Glenn Beck                                                               

The Immortal Nicholas follows the story of Agios, a tired, broken man who encounters the Christ child by chance, and studies him throughout his life from a distance. The novel is described by author Glenn Beck as an origin story for Santa Claus.

The Confidence Men 

Margalit Fox                                                               

A gripping nonfiction thriller, The Confidence Men is the story of the only known con games played for a good cause – and of a profound but unlikely friendship. Had it not been for “the Great War”, Jones, the Oxford-educated son of a British lord, and Hill, a mechanic on an Australian sheep ranch, would never have met. Bu in pain, loneliness, hunger, and isolation, they formed a powerful emotional and intellectual alliance that saved both of their lives.

The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe 

W. Briggs, D. Axe, J. Richards                             

WHAT JUST HAPPENED? The human cost of the emergency response to COVID-19 has far outweighed the benefits. That’s the sobering verdict of a trio of scholars—a biologist, a statistician, and a philosopher— in this comprehensive assessment of the worst panic-induced disaster in history. …

Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide

Miranda Devine                                                         

As seen on Tucker Carlson Tonight! The inside story of the laptop that exposed the president’s dirtiest secret.

True Believer (Terminal List #2)               

Jack Carr                                                                         

When a string of horrific terrorist attacks plagues the Western world during the holiday season, the broader markets fall into a tailspin. The attacks are being coordinated by a shadowy former Iraqi commando who has disappeared into Europe’s underground. The United States government has an asset who can turn the Iraqi against his masters: James Reece, the most-wanted domestic terrorist alive.

After avenging the deaths of his family and team members, Reece emerges deep in the wilds of Mozambique, protected by the family of his estranged best friend and former SEAL Team member. When a series of events uncovers his whereabouts, the CIA recruits him, using a Presidential pardon for Reece and immunity for the friends who helped him in his mission of vengeance.

Now a reluctant tool of the United States government, Reece travels the globe, targeting terrorist leaders and unraveling a geopolitical conspiracy that exposes a traitorous CIA officer and uncovers a sinister assassination plot with worldwide repercussions.

The Terminal List (Terminal List #1)          

Jack Carr                                                                         

A Navy SEAL has nothing left to live for and everything to kill for after he discovers that the American government is behind the deaths of his team in this ripped-from-the-headlines political thriller.

On his last combat deployment, Lieutenant Commander James Reece’s entire team was killed in a catastrophic ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government.

Now, with no family and free from the military’s command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he’s learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward avenging the deaths of his family and teammates. With breathless pacing and relentless suspense, Reece ruthlessly targets his enemies in the upper echelons of power without regard for the laws of combat or the rule of law.

Do What You Said You Would Do: Fighting for Freedom in the Swamp                

Congressman Jim Jordan                                         

Get an inside look at the detailed investigations of the United States Congress, the groundwork for Donald Trump’s win in 2016, and the events that occurred during his successful four years as president.

The Fault in Our Stars               

John Green                                                                     

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

The Brides of Maracoor               

Gregory Maguire                                                           

Ten years ago this season, Gregory Maguire wrapped up the series he began with Wicked by giving us the fourth and final volume of the Wicked Years, his elegiac Out of Oz.

But “out of Oz” isn’t “gone for good.” Maguire’s new series, Another Day, is here, twenty-five years after Wicked first flew into our lives.

Volume one, The Brides of Maracoor, finds Elphaba’s granddaughter, Rain, washing ashore on a foreign island. Comatose from crashing into the sea, Rain is taken in by a community of single women committed to obscure devotional practices.

As the mainland of Maracoor sustains an assault by a foreign navy, the island’s civil-servant overseer struggles to understand how an alien arriving on the shores of Maracoor could threaten the stability and wellbeing of an entire nation. Is it myth or magic at work, for good or for ill?

The trilogy Another Day will follow this green-skinned girl from the island outpost into the unmapped badlands of Maracoor before she learns how, and becomes ready, to turn her broom homeward, back to her family and her lover, back to Oz, which—in its beauty, suffering, mystery, injustice, and possibility—reminds us all too clearly of the troubled yet sacred terrain of our own lives.

The Safety Trap: A Security Expert’s Secrets for Staying Safe in a Dangerous World               

Spencer Coursen                                                           

Coursen provides real world lessons on how to avoid danger, how to manage it, if necessary, and how to triumph over it, when all else fails. The Safety Trap is the best book on personal safety that I’ve read in the last decade.” ―Vincent O’Neill, Chief, Headquarters Security for the International Monetary Fund, retired Secret Service agent and founding member of the elite Counter Assault Team.

Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dessidents               

Rod Dreher                                                                     

For years, émigrés from the former Soviet bloc have been telling Rod Dreher they see telltale signs of “soft” totalitarianism cropping up in America–something more Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty-Four. Identity politics are beginning to encroach on every aspect of life. Civil liberties are increasingly seen as a threat to “safety”. Progressives marginalize conservative, traditional Christians, and other dissenters. Technology and consumerism hasten the possibility of a corporate surveillance state. And the pandemic, having put millions out of work, leaves our country especially vulnerable to demagogic manipulation.

In Live Not By Lies, Dreher amplifies the alarm sounded by the brave men and women who fought totalitarianism. He explains how the totalitarianism facing us today is based less on overt violence and more on psychological manipulation. He tells the stories of modern-day dissidents–clergy, laity, martyrs, and confessors from the Soviet Union and the captive nations of Europe–who offer practical advice for how to identify and resist totalitarianism in our time. Following the model offered by a prophetic World War II-era pastor who prepared believers in his Eastern European to endure the coming of communism, Live Not By Lies teaches American Christians a method for resistance:
– SEE: Acknowledge the reality of the situation.
– JUDGE: Assess reality in the light of what we as Christians know to be true.
– ACT: Take action to protect truth.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming totalitarianism can’t happen in their country. Many American Christians are making that mistake today, sleepwalking through the erosion of our freedoms. Live Not By Lies will wake them and equip them for the long resistance..

American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road

Nick Bolton                                                                       

In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine Web site hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything—drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons—free of the government’s watchful eye.

It wasn’t long before the media got wind of the new Web site where anyone—not just teenagers and weed dealers but terrorists and black hat hackers—could buy and sell contraband detection-free. Spurred by a public outcry, the federal government launched an epic two-year manhunt for the site’s elusive proprietor, with no leads, no witnesses, and no clear jurisdiction. All the investigators knew was that whoever was running the site called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts.

The Silk Road quickly ballooned into $1.2 billion enterprise, and Ross embraced his new role as kingpin. He enlisted a loyal crew of allies in high and low places, all as addicted to the danger and thrill of running an illegal marketplace as their customers were to the heroin they sold. Through his network he got wind of the target on his back and took drastic steps to protect himself—including ordering a hit on a former employee. As Ross made plans to disappear forever, the Feds raced against the clock to catch a man they weren’t sure even existed, searching for a needle in the haystack of the global Internet.

Drawing on exclusive access to key players and two billion digital words and images Ross left behind, Vanity Fair correspondent and New York Times bestselling author Nick Bilton offers a tale filled with twists and turns, lucky breaks and unbelievable close calls. It’s a story of the boy next door’s ambition gone criminal, spurred on by the clash between the new world of libertarian-leaning, anonymous, decentralized Web advocates and the old world of government control, order, and the rule of law. Filled with unforgettable characters and capped by an astonishing climax, American Kingpin might be dismissed as too outrageous for fiction. But it’s all too real.

The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood                                                       

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now . . .

Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid’s Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.

The Art of War for Small Business
Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Sun Tzu’s ancient The Art of War has inspired military, political, and business leaders across the world with its brilliant strategies for prevailing against opponents. At the core of this classic treatise is the message that sledgehammer approaches can backfire, and size alone does not guarantee wins. Strategy, positioning, planning, leadership–all play equally significant roles, making Sun Tzu’s teachings perfect for small business owners and entrepreneurs entrenched in fierce competition for customers, market share, talent . . . for their very survival.

The Art of War for Small Business is the first book to apply Sun Tzu’s wisdom to the small business arena. Featuring inspiring examples of entrepreneurial success, the book’s 12 timeless lessons reveal how to:

● Choose the right ground for your battles
● Prepare without falling prey to paralysis
● Leverage strengths while overcoming limitations
● Strike competitors’ weakest points and seize every opportunity
● Focus priorities and resources on conquering key challenges
● Go where the enemy is not
● Build and leverage strategic alliances

Big companies may deploy overwhelming forces, but small companies can outsmart, outmaneuver, and outstrategize larger adversaries to capture crucial sectors, serve unmet needs, and emerge victorious!

Sandstorm: A Sigma Force Novel
James Rollins

The Explosive first adventure in James Rollins’ bestselling Sigma Force series! A freak explosion in the British Museum in London ignites a perilous race for an earth-shaking power source buried deep beneath the sands of history. Painter Crowe is an agent for Sigma Force, a covert arm of the Defense Department tasked with keeping dangerous scientific discoveries out of enemy hands. When an ancient artifact points the way toward the legendary “Atlantis of the Sands,” Painter must travel across the world in search of the lost city–and a destructive power beyond imagining.

But Painter has competition. A band of ruthless mercenaries, led by a former friend and ally, are also intent on claiming the prize, and they will destroy anyone who gets in their way. Ancient history collides with cutting-edge science–with the safety of the world at stake!

The Escape Room: A Novel
Megan Goldin

In the lucrative world of finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are at the top of their game. They’ve mastered the art of the deal and celebrate their success in style―but a life of extreme luxury always comes at a cost.

Invited to participate in an escape room challenge as a team-building exercise, the ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high-rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival.

Trapped in the dark, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues to break free. But as the game begins to reveal the team’s darkest secrets, they realize there’s a price to be paid for the terrible deeds they committed in their ruthless climb up the corporate ladder. As tempers fray, and the clues turn deadly, they must solve one final chilling puzzle: which one of them will kill in order to survive?

The Witness
Nora Roberts / Fiction

Daughter of a controlling mother, Elizabeth finally let loose one night, drinking at a nightclub and allowing a strange man’s seductive Russian accent lure her to a house on Lake Shore Drive. The events that followed changed her life forever.

Twelve years later, the woman known as Abigail Lowery lives on the outskirts of a small town in the Ozarks. A freelance programmer, she designs sophisticated security systems — and supplements her own security with a fierce dog and an assortment of firearms. She keeps to herself, saying little, revealing nothing. But Abigail’s reserve only intrigues police chief Brooks Gleason. Her logical mind, her secretive nature, and her unromantic viewpoints leave him fascinated but frustrated. He suspects that Abigail needs protection from something — and that her elaborate defenses hide a story that must be revealed.

American Gods
Neil Gaiman / Fantasy

Days before his release from prison, Shadow’s wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr. Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.

Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You’ll be surprised by what – and who – it finds there…

Arguing With Socialist
Glenn Beck/Political

In Arguing With Socialists, New York Times bestselling author Glenn Beck arms readers to the teeth with information necessary to debunk the socialist arguments that have once again become popular, and proves that the free market is the only way to go.

Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens/Fiction

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

The Book of Five Rings
Miyamoto Musashi / Strategy

When the undefeated samurai Miyamoto Musashi retreated to a cave in 1643 and wrote The Book of Five Rings, a manifesto on swordsmanship, strategy, and winning for his students and generations of samurai to come, he created one of the most perceptive and incisive texts on strategic thinking ever to come from Asia.

Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
Yamamoto Tsunetomo / Cultural

Hagakure (“In the Shadow of Leaves”) is a manual for the samurai classes consisting of a series of short anecdotes and reflections that give both insight and instruction-in the philosophy and code of behavior that foster the true spirit of Bushido-the Way of the Warrior. It is not a book of philosophy as most would understand the word: it is a collection of thoughts and sayings recorded over a period of seven years, and as such covers a wide variety of subjects, often in no particular sequence.

The Pumpkin Plan
Mike Michalowicz / Business

Each year Americans start one million new businesses, nearly 80 percent of which fail within the first five years. Under such pressure to stay alive—let alone grow—it’s easy for entrepreneurs to get caught up in a never-ending cycle of “sell it—do it, sell it—do it” that leaves them exhausted, frustrated, and unable to get ahead no matter how hard they try.

This is the exact situation Mike Michalowicz found himself in when he was trying to grow his first company. Although it was making steady money, there was never very much left over and he was chasing customers left and right, putting in twenty-eight-hour days, eight days a week. The punishing grind never let up. His company was alive but stunted, and he was barely breathing. That’s when he discovered an unlikely source of inspiration—pumpkin farmers.

Unfreedom of the Press
Mark R. Levin / Political

From six-time #1 New York Times bestselling author, FOX News star, and radio host Mark R. Levin comes a groundbreaking and enlightening book that shows how the great tradition of the American free press has degenerated into a standard less profession that has squandered the faith and trust of the American public, not through actions of government officials, but through its own abandonment of reportorial integrity and objective journalism.

Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
J.D. Vance/ Memoir

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

What It Takes, Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence
Stephen A. Schwarzman / Autobiography 

“From Blackstone chairman, CEO, and co-founder Stephen A. Schwarzman, a long-awaited book that uses impactful episodes from Schwarzman’s life to show readers how to build, transform, and lead thriving organizations. Whether you are a student, entrepreneur, philanthropist, executive, or simply someone looking for ways to maximize your potential, the same lessons apply. Schwarzman’s story is an empowering, entertaining, and informative guide for anyone striving for greater personal impact. From deal making to investing, leadership to entrepreneurship, philanthropy to diplomacy, Schwarzman has lessons for how to think about ambition and scale, risk and opportunities, and how to achieve success through the relentless pursuit of excellence. Schwarzman not only offers readers a thoughtful reflection on all his own experiences, but in doing so provides a practical blueprint for success.

The Pioneers
David McCullough/History

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important and dramatic chapter in the American story—the settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would come to define our country.

As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River.

McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in American science. They and their families created a town in a primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as floods, fires, wolves and bears, no roads or bridges, no guarantees of any sort, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile relationship with the native people. Like so many of McCullough’s subjects, they let no obstacle deter or defeat them.

Drawn in great part from a rare and all-but-unknown collection of diaries and letters by the key figures, The Pioneers is a uniquely American story of people whose ambition and courage led them to remarkable accomplishments. This is a revelatory and quintessentially American story, written with David McCullough’s signature narrative energy.

A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick/Science Fiction

Substance D is not known as Death for nothing. It is the most toxic drug ever to find its way on to the streets of LA. It destroys the links between the brain’s two hemispheres, causing, first, disorientation and then complete and irreversible brain damage.The undercover narcotics agent who calls himself Bob Arctor is desperate to discover the ultimate source of supply. But to find any kind of lead he has to pose as a user and, inevitably, without realizing what is happening, Arctor is soon as addicted as the junkies he works among.

101 Skills You Need to Survive in the Woods
Kevin Estela / Reference

“Feeder” mind-set means being in control of a situation, proactive rather than reactive. It is an optimistic outlook that reframes any situation as a learning experience. Kevin Estela teaches survival skills from this feeder-based perspective, which is what separates his teaching style from other wilderness instructors. Kevin has written the quintessential guide for an outdoor enthusiast’s “bucket list” of skills—how to make a fire, build a shelter, gather food, find water, use a knife correctly and make cordage. These skills will keep you safe and better prepare you to deal with emergencies in the field, when you’ll need the additional skills of signaling and communication, navigation and crisis first aid taught in this book. Each chapter concludes with more advanced techniques to build your skills in various challenging situations, with tips that even seasoned survival enthusiasts haven’t thought of. 101 Skills You Need to Survive in the Woods is not a onetime read but a lifetime reference you will turn to over and over again. It will become the first thing you pack for any adventure and just might save your— or someone else’s—life. kevin estela, a bushcraft and survival expert, is an avid world traveler and martial arts instructor.

Dutch Girl
Robert Matzen / Biography

Twenty-five years after her passing, Audrey Hepburn remains the most beloved of all Hollywood stars, known as much for her role as UNICEF ambassador as for films like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Several biographies have chronicled her stardom, but none has covered her intense experiences through five years of Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. According to her son, Luca Dotti, “The war made my mother who she was.” Audrey Hepburn’s war included participation in the Dutch Resistance, working as a doctor’s assistant during the “Bridge Too Far” battle of Arnhem, the brutal execution of her uncle, and the ordeal of the Hunger Winter of 1944. She also had to contend with the fact that her father was a Nazi agent and her mother was pro-Nazi for the first two years of the occupation. But the war years also brought triumphs as Audrey became Arnhem’s most famous young ballerina. Audrey’s own reminiscences, new interviews with people who knew her in the war, wartime diaries, and research in classified Dutch archives shed light on the riveting, untold story of Audrey Hepburn under fire in World War II. Also included is a section of color and black-and-white photos. Many of these images are from Audrey’s personal collection and are published here for the first time.

The Case for Trump
Victor Davis Hanson  /  Political

In The Case for Trump, award-winning historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson explains how a celebrity businessman with no political or military experience triumphed over sixteen well-qualified Republican rivals, a Democrat with a quarter-billion-dollar war chest, and a hostile media and Washington establishment to become president of the United States — and an extremely successful president. Trump alone saw a political opportunity in defending the working people of America’s interior whom the coastal elite of both parties had come to scorn, Hanson argues. And Trump alone had the instincts and energy to pursue this opening to victory, dismantle a corrupt old order, and bring long-overdue policy changes at home and abroad. We could not survive a series of presidencies as volatile as Trump’s. But after decades of drift, America needs the outsider Trump to do what normal politicians would not and could not do.

The Variable Man
Philip K. Dick / Science Fiction

Predictability has come a long way. The computers of the future can tell you if you’re going to win a war before you fire a shot. Unfortunately they’re predicting perpetual standoff between the Terran and Centaurian Empires. What they need is something unpredictable, what they get is Thomas Cole, a man from the past accidentally dragged forward in time. Will he fit their calculations, or is he the random variable that can break the stalemate? – The Variable Man first appeared in the September, 1953 issue of Space Science Fiction magazine.

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
Philip K. Dick  /  Science Fiction

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said is a 1974 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The story follows a genetically enhanced pop singer and television star who wakes up in a world where he has never existed. The novel is set in a futuristic dystopia, where the United States has become a police state in the aftermath of a Second Civil War. It was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1974 and a Hugo Award in 1975,  and was awarded the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1975.

Les Miserables
Victor Hugo  /  Classic

Introducing one of the most famous characters in literature, Jean Valjean—the noble peasant imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread—Les Misérables ranks among the greatest novels of all time. In it, Victor Hugo takes readers deep into the Parisian underworld, immerses them in a battle between good and evil, and carries them to the barricades during the uprising of 1832 with a breathtaking realism that is unsurpassed in modern prose.

Deception Point
Dan Brown / Science & Political Fiction  

When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory — a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election. To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic scholar Michael Tolland, Rachel travels to the Arctic and uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery — a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy. But before she can warn the President, Rachel and Michael are ambushed by a deadly team of assassins. Fleeing for their lives across a desolate and lethal landscape, their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this masterful plot. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all.

The Gutfeild Monologues
Greg Gutfeild  /  Political 

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A dynamic and annotated collection of Fox News star and New York Times bestselling author Greg Gutfeld’s sharp, hilarious monologues on everything from politics to pop culture–updated with new commentary for the current day. In the past few years, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld has covered everything from crazed academics, to unhinged celebrities, to the wildest election in recent history on his shows The Five and The Greg Gutfeld Show. In The Gutfeld Monologues, he brings together his best and favorite monologues in this funny, unconventional collection for new and longtime fans alike. Scored through with marginal edits, scratch-outs, 20/20 hindsight, and up-to-the-minute commentary on what he got wrong, this book isn’t your grandmother’s anthology collection. With his signature humor, wit, and insight, Greg explains it all in this memorable collection about some of our country’s most crucial–and not so crucial–modern moments.

Educated
Tara Westover / a memoir   

#1 International Bestseller Tara Westover was seventeen when she first set foot in a classroom. Instead of traditional lessons, she grew up learning how to stew herbs into medicine, scavenging in the family scrap yard and helping her family prepare for the apocalypse. She had no birth certificate and no medical records and had never been enrolled in school. Westover’s mother proved a marvel at concocting folk remedies for many ailments. As Tara developed her own coping mechanisms, little by little, she started to realize that what her family was offering didn’t have to be her only education. Her first day of university was her first day in school—ever—and she would eventually win an esteemed fellowship from Cambridge and graduate with a PhD in intellectual history and political thought.

Conquer Anything: A Green Beret’s Guide to Building your A-Team
Greg Stube  /  Personal Growth   

War has a way of shooting holes in your best-laid plans. Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Stube (Ret.) suffered life-changing wounds during the battle of Operation Medusa in Afghanistan in 2006, but using the Green Beret methods he learned in the Special Forces, Stube knew he could conquer anything. Service in the elite A-Team teaches you to come up with smart, well-researched, and flexible battle plans for completing the mission—every mission, even when that mission is to spend an arduous year in a hospital recovering from being blown up, badly burned, and shot multiple times. Greg shares the leadership principles and values he learned as a member of an A-Team and teaches us how to apply Special Forces strategies to our personal and business lives. Conquer Anything is a Special Forces book, but even more than that it is a leadership book designed to help each of us achieve the highest goals possible in our professional and private lives.

Secret Empires
Peter Schweizer  /  Political 

In Secret Empires Peter Schweizer explains how a new corruption has taken hold, involving larger sums of money than ever before. Stuffing tens of thousands of dollars into a freezer has morphed into multibillion-dollar equity deals done in the dark corners of the world. An American bank opening in China would be prohibited by US law from hiring a slew of family members of top Chinese politicians. However, a Chinese bank opening in America can hire anyone it wants. It can even invite the friends and families of American politicians to invest in can’t-lose deals. President Donald Trump’s children have made front pages across the world for their dicey transactions. However, the media has barely looked into questionable deals made by those close to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Mitch McConnell, and lesser-known politicians who have been in the game longer. In many parts of the world, the children of powerful political figures go into business and profit handsomely, not necessarily because they are good at it, but because people want to curry favor with their influential parents. This is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. But for relatives of some prominent political families, we may already be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. Deeply researched and packed with shocking revelations, Secret Empires identifies public servants who cannot be trusted and provides a path toward a more accountable government.

The Old School Advantage: Timeless Tools for Every Generation
J.N. Whiddon  /  Personal Growth

J.N. Whiddon, The Old School founder, arms you with the tools and wisdom you need to succeed in The Old School Advantage: Timeless Tools for Every Generation. It’s all about giving you an edge in life, not just an edge in school or your career. Learn to deliver impactful presentations using ready recall. Influence people with WOW! words and probing questions. Master the art of storytelling. Your acquisition of these skills through The Old School will allow you to make a lasting impression in every encounter. Become a life-changing leader dedicated to success as well as significance. School never truly lets out, no matter your age. Leaders never stop seeking out and soaking up knowledge. If you want to stand out in an age in which information is everywhere but wisdom is elusive, you need to be more than just technically skilled. You need to be a leader equipped with discernment “beyond your years.” With these indispensable tools, you can build a life and leave a legacy that will endure. Don’t fall behind, and don’t settle for mediocrity. Give yourself the Old School advantage.

Great Expectations 
Charles Dickens / Fiction 

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations charts the course of orphan Pip Pirrip’s life as it is transformed by a vast, mysterious inheritance. A terrifying encounter with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decrepit Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella at Satis House; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor – these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip’s life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble station as an apprentice to blacksmith Joe Gargery, beginning a new life as a gentleman.

Born To Run 
Christopher McDougall / Demographics 

Isolated by Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans 
Don Yaeger / History 

The War of 1812 saw America threatened on every side. Encouraged by the British, Indian tribes attacked settlers in the West, while the Royal Navy terrorized the coasts. By mid-1814, President James Madison’s generals had lost control of the war in the North, losing battles in Canada. Then British troops set the White House ablaze, and a feeling of hopelessness spread across the country. Into this dire situation stepped Major General Andrew Jackson. A native of Tennessee who had witnessed the horrors of the Revolutionary War and Indian attacks, he was glad America had finally decided to confront repeated British aggression. But he feared that President Madison’s men were overlooking the most important target of all: New Orleans.

Stranger in a Strange Land 
Robert A. Heinlein / Sci-Fi / Political 

Valentine Michael Smith is a man raised by Martians. Sent to Earth, he must learn what it is to be human. But his beliefs and his powers far exceed the limits of man, and his arrival leads to a transformation that will alter Earth’s inhabitants forever. In 2012, the US Library of Congress named it one of 88 “Books that Shaped America”.

Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
Jung Chang / Biography 

Wild Swans is the story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history. An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

The Zookeepers Wife: A War Story 
Diane Ackerman / Biography 

After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages. Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research and an exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, true-life story―sharing Antonina’s life as “the zookeeper’s wife,” while examining the disturbing obsessions at the core of Nazism. Winner of the 2008 Orion Award.

A Wrinkle in Time 
Madeleine L’Engle / Fiction 
A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg’s father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.

The Jefferson Files 
David Barton / History 

In The Jefferson Files, prominent historian David Barton sets out to correct the distorted image of a once-beloved founding father, Thomas Jefferson. Through Jefferson’s own words and the eyewitness testimony of contemporaries, Barton repaints a portrait of the man from Monticello as a visionary, an innovator, a man who revered Jesus, a classical Renaissance man―and a man whose pioneering stand for liberty and God-given inalienable rights fostered a better world for this nation and its posterity. For America, the time to remember these truths again is now.

The War on Cops 
Heather MacDonald / Political 

The War on Cops exposes the truth about officer use of force and explodes the conceit of “mass incarceration.” A rigorous analysis of data shows that crime, not race, drives police actions and prison rates. The growth of proactive policing in the 1990s, along with lengthened sentences for violent crime, saved thousands of minority lives. In fact, Mac Donald argues, no government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that “black lives matter” than today’s data-driven, accountable police department.

The Hunger Games 
Suzanne Collins / Fiction 

In the ruins of a place once known an North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games,” a fight to the death on live TV.

Pilgrim’s Progress 
John Bunyan / Religious 

Often rated as important as the Bible as a Christian document, this famous story of man’s progress through life in search of salvation remains one of the most entertaining allegories of faith ever written. Set against realistic backdrops of town and country, the powerful drama of the pilgrim’s trials and temptations follows him in his harrowing journey to the Celestial City.

Catching Fire : The second book of The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins / Fiction 

In the second title (2009) in Suzanne Collins’ planned trilogy set in the dystopic nation of Panem, Katniss has survived The Hunger Games (2008, both Scholastic), a fight to the death, and learns that she is now considered a danger to the Capital because she has become a symbol of rebellion. President Snow lets her know he is out to “get her” and those she loves.

Mocking Jay : The final book of The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins / Biography 

Mocking Jay is the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy, and carries the resolution to the previous books and quite importantly the answers to the end of the second book (Catching Fire).

Plunder and Deceit 
Mark R. Levin / Political 

Plunder and Deceit is an excellent, engaging, engrossing survey of the damage done by Permanent Washington and its incompetent, self-serving denizens… a bracing meditation.

How to Fly a Horse : The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery
Kevin Ashton / History 

To create is human. Technology pioneer Kevin Ashton has experienced firsthand the all-consuming challenge of creating something new. Now, in a tour-de-force narrative twenty years in the making, Ashton demystifies the sacred act, leading us on a journey through humanity’s greatest creations to uncover the surprising truth behind who creates and how they do it.

Leaders Eat Last 
Simon Sinek / Business 

Why do only a few people get to say “I love my job”? It seems unfair that finding fulfillment at work is like winning a lottery; that only a few lucky ones get to feel valued by their organizations, to feel like they belong. Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories from a wide range of examples, from the military to manufacturing, from government to investment banking.

Who Built That 
Michelle Malkin / Business 

Who Built That is a rousing tribute to the hidden American capitalists who pioneered everyday inventions. They’re the little big things we take for granted: bottle caps and glassware, tissue paper, flashlights, railroad signals, bridge cables, revolutionary plastics, and more.

Killing Patton 
BIll O’Reilly and Martin Dugard / History 

Killing Patton takes readers inside the final year of the war and recounts the events surrounding Patton’s tragic demise, naming names of the many powerful individuals who wanted him silenced.

Money : Master the Game
Tony Robbins / Finance 

Based on extensive research and one-on-one interviews with more than 50 of the most legendary financial experts in the world- from Carl Icahn and Warren Buffett, to Ray Dalio and Steve Forbes – Tony Robbins has created a simple 7-step blueprint that anyone can use for financial freedom.

The Noticer 
Andy Andrews / Inspirational 

Bestselling inspirational writer and speaker Andrews (The Traveler’s Gift) again blends fiction, allegory and inspiration and seasons it with a dash of autobiography. The result is a readable little tale of a mysterious old man named Jones – just Jones, no mister – who shows up in the lives of people in crisis.

Blood Feud : The Clintons VS. The Obamas
Edward Klein / Political 

An old-school reporter with incredible insider contacts, Klein reveals just how deep the rivalry between the Obamas and the Clintons runs, with details on closed-door meetings buttressed by hundreds of interviews. Blood Feud is a stunning expose of the animosity, jealousy, and competition between America’s two most powerful political couples.

The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure 
John Allison / Finance 

“As Allison is no ordinary public intellectual this is no ordinary book. It is a reform blueprint with deep integrity….Allison brings thoughtful solutions to the problems besetting both the banking industry and the American economy….An excellent resource to advance the renewal of equitable prosperity.” (Forbes.com)

In The President’s Secret Service : Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect
Ronald Kessler / Political 

Never before has a journalist penetrated the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service. After conducting exclusive interviews with more than one hundred current and former Secret Service Agents, bestselling author and award-winning reporter Ronald Kessler reveals their secrets for the first time.

Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims 
Rush Limbaugh / History 

Nationally syndicated radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has long wanted to make American history come to life for the children of his listeners, so he created the character of a fearless middle-school history teacher named Rush Revere, who travels back in time and experiences American history as it happens, in adventures with exceptional Americans. In this book, he is transported back to the deck of the Mayflower.

Outlander 
Diana Gabaldon / Fiction 

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon – when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach – an “outlander” – in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord…1743.

The Office That Grows Your Business 
Kevin J. Duggan / Business 

The Office That Grows Your Business is an easy-to-read story that teaches office professionals in any field including the service industries, hospital administration, insurance, finance, banking, and manufacturing the step-by-step methodology needed to transform their office to achieve Operational Excellence. The end result is a compay that leverages its office to dirve business growth.

Mark Twain: A Life 
Ron Powers / Biography 

Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers is of the “good biography” sort. Mark Twain comes through in clear colors. One comes away learning so much about a remarkable American icon as well as the nature of the times he lived in.

Gunny’s Rules : How to get Squared Away Like a Marine
R. Lee Ermey / Inspirational 

Is a mix of biography and self-help in plain, blunt language. The book is arranged in chapters, with each telling a part of the tale that makes up Ermey’s life. The chapters are often rounded out with “Gunny’s Rules” and “Quotes Worth Repeating.”

David and Goliath : Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
Malcolm Gladwell / Psychology 

In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks. Drawing upon psychology, history, science, business, and politics, David and Goliath is a beautifully written book about the mighty leverage of the unconventional.

Rigged Money, Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game 
Lee Munson / Finance 

To understand the economy you have to understand one simple, but unspoken, truth: Wall Street needs money from Main Street, not the other way around. Keeping this secret from the public has been an essential part of the development of the American economy for over four hundred years, but now that you know it- and with advice from Wall Street insider- turned- realist Lee Munson- you have the power to protect yourself and your money.

Inferno 
Dan Brown / Fiction 

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces… Dante’s Inferno.

Calvin Coolidge 
Amity Shlaes / Political 

Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man, delivers a brilliant and provocative reexamination of America’s thirtieth president, Calvin Coolidge, and the decade of unparalleled growth that the nation enjoyed under his leadership.

The Silmarillion 
J. R. R. Tolkien / Elves and Dragons 

The Silmarillion is a history of the War of the Exiled Elves against the Enemy, which all takes place in the North-west of the world (Middle-earth). Several tales of victory and tragedy are caught up in it; but it ends with catastrophe, and the passing of the Ancient World.

The Graveyard Book 
Neil Gaiman / Elves and Dragons 

A children’s fantasy novel by the English author Neil Gaiman, simultaneously published in Britain and America during 2008. It is set primarily in a graveyard, where the boy Nobody Owens is adopted and raised by the occupants after his family is murdered.

Agenda 21 
Glen Beck / Sci-Fi / Political 
A violent and tyrannical government rules what was once known as America. The old, the ill, and the defiant all quickly vanish.

Zebras & Cheetahs : Look Different and Stay Agile to Survive the Business Jungle
Micheal J. Burt & Colby B. Jubenville / Business 
Zebras and Cheetahs is a model that takes the complicated growth of organizations and makes it simple, engaging, and fun. It allows leadership to define roles so that everyone understands where they fit, offers the highest value of everyone’s time toward a dominant aspiration and focus, increases accountability, tracks and measures success, and drastically enhances the energy of your tribe in exciting ways.

A Tale of Two Cities 
Charles Dickens / Fiction 

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to life in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met; Lucie’s marriage and the collision between her beloved husband and the people who caused her father’s imprisonment; and Monsieur and Madame Defarge, sellers of wine in a poor suburb of Paris. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

On My Honor : Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting for
Rick Perry / Political 

In On My Honor, Texas governor Rick Perry, through the legacy of the Boy Scouts of America, takes dead aim at the moral relativism of the secular humanist movement, indicting its corrosive impact on the culture.

Unconventional Success : A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment
David Swensen / Finance 

Investment legend David F. Swensen offers incontrovertible evidence that the for-profit mutual-fund industry consistently fails the average investor.

Purple Cow : Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Seth Godin / Marketing 

Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff-a lot of brown cows-but you can bet they won’t forget a Purple Cow.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam 
Robert Spencer / Religious 

Robert Spencer refutes popular myths and reveals facts that you won’t be taught in school and will never hear on the evening news.

Rush Limbaugh, An Army of One 
Zev Chavets / Political 

Zef Chavets takes a closer look at one of the most recognizable political forces of our day. From his early days growing up in Cape Girardeau, Missouri to friendship with the Republican White House, Chavets presents Limbaugh as a passionate and tenacious advocate.

The Overton Window 
Glen Beck / Sci-Fi / Political 

There is a powerful technique called the Overton Window that can shape our lives, our laws, and our future. It works by manipulating public perception so that ideas previously thought of as radical begin to seem acceptable over time. Move the Window and you change the debate. Change the debate and you change the country.

Dick Cheney in My Time 
Dick Cheney / History 

In his enlightening and provocative memoir – a stately page-turner with flashes of surprising humor, remarkable candor, and powerful resonance – former Vice President Dick Cheney takes readers through his experiences as family man, policymaker, businessman, and politician during years that shaped our collective history.

The Amateur 
Edward Klein/John McClain / Political 

In this stunning expose’, bestselling author Edward Klein – a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, former foreign editor of Newsweek, and former editor-in-chief of the New York Times Magazine – pulls back the curtain on one of the most secretive White Houses in history. He reveals a callow, thin-skinned, arrogant president with messianic dreams of grandeur supported by a cast of true-believers, all of them united by leftist politics and an amateurish understanding of executive leadership.

Gangster Government 
David Freddoso / Political 

David Freddoso provides the much-needed expose’ of an administration that has brought Chicago-style corruption and strong-arm politics to Washington, looking to reward its friends (the unions, federal workers, and other liberal interest groups) and punish its enemies (the private sector workers and taxpayers who foot the bill for Obama’s massive expansion of the federal government).

Inheritance 
Christopher Paolini / Elves and Dragons 

Inheritance is the final book of the wildly popular “Inheritance Cycle” by wunderkind Christopher Paolini. In this thrilling conclusion, Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, take the fate of their world into their own hands.

Eldest 
Christopher Padlini / Elves and Dragons 

Second volume in the Inheritance trilogy shows growing maturity and skill on the part of its very young author, who was only seventeen when the first volume was published in 2003. The story is solidly in the tradition (some might say derivative) of the classic heroic quest fantasy.

Eragon 
Christopher Padlini / Elves and Dragons 

Here’s a great big fantasy that you can pull over your heard like a comfy old sweater and disappear into for a whole weekend. Book one of the Inheritance Cycle. Fifteen-year-old Eragon believes that he is merely a poor farm boy – until his destiny as a Dragon Rider is revealed.

The Prince 
Niccolo Machiavelli / Political 

A powerful and insightful look into the mind of a master politician who has an uninhibited sense of honesty and bluntness that leaves the reader staggered with astonishment.

The Power of Habit 
Charles Duhigg / Psychology 

Award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.

Shake Down Socialism 
Oleg Atbashian / Political 

This is a brilliant study, profusely illustrated with cartoons and propaganda posters. Atbashian explains why Socialism cannot work. He exposes the injustice of “Collective Greed” and shows why Economic Equality is a fraud.

The Charge 
Brendon Burchard / Inspirational 

“The Charge is an inspiring guide to the one thing we all want: more life in our lives.”

Jennifer Government 
Max Barry / Sci-Fi / Political 

A wickedly satirical and outrageous thriller about globalization and marketing hype.

How Civilizations Die 
David Goldman / Demographics 

Thanks to collapsing birthrates, much of Europe is on a path of willed self-extinction. The untold story is that birthrates in Muslim nations are declining faster than anywhere else – at a rate never before documented.

Coming Apart 
Charles Murray / Demographics 

From the bestselling author of Losing Ground and The Bell Curve, this startling long-lens view shows how America is coming apart at the seams that historically have joined our classes.

Bloodlands 
Timothy Snyder / History 

Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power.

Cowards 
Glen Beck / Political 
There is much valuable information contained here, some of which is surprising even to those who consider themselves well-read.

Brisinger 
Christopher Padlini / Elves and Dragons 

Book 3 of the Inheritance trilogy. It’s been only months since Eragon first uttered “brisingr,” the ancient language term for fire. Since then, he’s not only learned to create magic with words – he’s been challenged to his very core. Following the colossal battle against the Empire’s warriors on the Burning Plains, Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have narrowly escaped with their lives.

Frank Lloyd Wright in Arizona 
Lawrence Cheek / Biography 

This is a streamlined re-telling of the Frank Lloyd Wright in Arizona story. But there is little detail beyond the Arizona Biltmore and Taliesin West. There are some nice late afternoon photos of T-West, but few of any other houses.

Crimes Against Liberty : An Indictment of President Barack Obama
David Limbaugh / Political 

Obama presents an image of a man wholly unfazed by the debt crisis. This leaves conservatives, and a growing number of independents, scratching their heads wondering how any president could so zealously obstruct the reforms necessary to save the nation.

Courage and Consequence 
Karl Rove / Political 

The first intimate account from the highest level at the White House of one of the most headline-making presidencies of the modern age. Rove takes readers behind the scenes.

Culture of Corruption : Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies
Michelle Malkin / Political 

Culture of Corruption proves once again this isn’t just any politics. It’s “boodle”-clogged, dissent-squelching, redistributive Chicago politics.

How Children Succeed 
Paul Tough / Psychology 

In How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control.

The Snow Angel 
Glenn Beck / Inspirational 

A picture-book edition of Glenn Beck’s tale of family, resilience, and love across distance, following the footsteps of his #1 New York Times bestselling The Christmas Sweater.

One Second After 
William Forstchen / Political 

New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real…a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America Back to the Dark Ages…A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

How Children Succeed : Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
Paul Tough / Demographics 

How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories- and the stories of the children they are trying to help- Tough traces the links between childhood stress and life success.

Raw Hide Down 
Del Quentin Wilber / History 

On March 30, 1981, President Reagan walked out of a hotel in Washington, D.C., and was shot by a would-be assassin. For years, few people knew the truth about how close the president came to dying, and no one has ever written a detailed narrative of that harrowing day. Now, drawing on exclusive new interviews, Del Quentin Wilber tells the electrifying story of a moment when the nation faced a terrifying crisis.

1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die : The World’s Architectural Masterpieces
Mark Irving / History 

The World’s Architectural Masterpieces – This book is a one-stop guide to the world’s greatest architectural achievements. Comprehensive and concise, it contains reviews of the most influential structures ever built worldwide.