On a warm Saturday night in July 1973 in Bethesda Maryland, a gunman stepped out from behind a tree and fired five point-blank shots into Joe Alon, an unassuming Israeli Air Force pilot and family man. Alon's sixteen-year-old neighbor, Fred Burton, was deeply shocked by this crime that rocked his sleepy suburban neighborhood. As it turned out, Alon wasn't just a pilot€”he was a high-ranking military official and with intelligence ties. The assassin was never found and the case was closed. In 2007, Fred Burton€”who had since become a State Department counterterrorism special agent€”reopened the case. Here, Burton spins a gripping tale of the secret agents, double dealings, terrorists and heroes he encounters he chases leads around the globe in an effort to solve this decades-old murder. From swirling dogfights over Egypt and Hanoi to gun battles on the streets of Beirut, this action-packed thriller looks in the dark heart of the Cold War to

Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice

Biographies & Memoirs

Bruning, John R.

BURTON, Fred

True Crime

St.Martin's Press

Unleashing Our Unknown Selves begins with a critique of central paradigms in contemporary social science and ends with a provocative new theory of psychosexual development. Dr. Morrow brilliantly demonstrates why men are just as damaged as women by our present patriarchal sex/gender system. . . . I highly recommend [it] as a primary text for graduate courses in human development, psychology of gender, and cultural studies. Joseph L. White, Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Comparative Culture, University of California, IrvineDescribed as a hopeful book, Unleashing Our Unknown Selves presents a new theory of psychosexual development and, concurrently, of psychosocial evolution. France Morrow claims that the sexual division of nature was a primordial organizing principle for all cultures. However, evolving qualities and psychological characteristics have been assigned by culture to women and men. Real biological differences have, over millennia, been incorporated, absorbed, or superceded by cultural differences. The resultant schism between femininity and masculinity represents the deepest cleavage in the human species, crippling both men and women through the cultural subordination of women. Morrow believes that to be truly whole, both sexes must be allowed to release the repressed qualities of the opposite sex.France Morrow's interdisciplinary focus finds hope in the explanatory power of a theory which systematically explores the crippling of both sexes by the cultural invisibility of women. The book's chapters explore, among other subjects, the structure of gender evolution, Sigmund Freud's impact on the future of femininity and masculinity, and the internal repression of the majority self. Morrow's study affirms the dependence of human survival on the integrating of our feminine selves with our masculine selves. Her work is particularly directed to courses in developmental and social psychology, gender studies, sociology, and women's studies.

Indestructible

History

Asia

Hachette Books

The Pursuit is Plan Z&nbsp;is the unlikely origin story of the intelligence coup that led to the largest naval battle in history, in World War II's Pacific Theater, resulting in the most crushing defeat the U.S. Navy has ever inflicted on an enemy force. &nbsp; In March 1944, the Japanese admiral in charge of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Navy departed the Palau Islands, bound for the Philippines. With him was a secure briefcase containing the location and numbers of every single Japanese aircraft, ship, sailor, and soldier in the Pacific. Dubbed War Plan Z, the documents detailed how and where the Japanese would counter-attack any American offensive. &nbsp; En route, Admiral Fukudome's flying boat got lost in a storm and crashed off the coast of Cebu. The admiral survived, as did his briefcase. Both were captured by Filipino guerrillas, who brought them to their commander, American insurgent James Cushing. Recognizing the value of the intelligence, Cushing made plans to smuggle Fukudome and the documents out of the Philippines and into the hands of General MacArthur's special operations department. Japanese forces unleashed a wave of wanton violence, burning a path of destruction deep into Cebu's central mountains in search of their captured admiral. &nbsp; Cushing knew the real value wasn't the admiral, but the war plan--and the Japanese were not yet certain the insurgent had found the briefcase. But soon after Fukudome was released, the chase was back on after a captive confessed Cushing possessed War Plan Z. What followed was one of the war's most epic pursuits, a deadly game of cat and mouse through the Philippine Islands to get Plan Z to a special operations USN submarine.&nbsp;The course of the war's final year would be determined by who won this race.

The Pursuit of Plan Z: An American Insurgent, His Filipino Guerrillas, and the Greatest Special Operations Coup of the Pacific War

Americas

Finding Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, had long been the U.S. military's top priority―trumping even the search for Osama bin Laden. No brutality was spared in trying to squeeze intelligence from Zarqawi's suspected associates. But these "force on force" techniques yielded exactly nothing, and, in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal, the military rushed a new breed of interrogator to Iraq. Matthew Alexander, a former criminal investigator and head of a handpicked interrogation team, gives us the first inside look at the U.S. military's attempt at more civilized interrogation techniques―and their astounding success. 
Matthew and his team decided to get to know their opponents. Who were these monsters? Who were they working for? Every day the "‘gators" matched wits with a rogues' gallery of suspects brought in by Special Forces: egomaniacs, bloodthirsty adolescents, opportunistic stereo repairmen, Sunni clerics horrified by the sectarian bloodbath, al Qaeda fanatics, and good people in the wrong place at the wrong time. 
This account is an unputdownable thriller―more of a psychological suspense story than a war memoir―and a reminder that we don't have to become our enemy to defeat him.

How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq

Alexander, Matthew

Historical

St. Martin's: Griffin

In this remarkable WWII story by New York Times bestselling author John R. Bruning, a renegade American pilot fights against all odds to rescue his family--imprisoned by the Japanese--and revolutionizes modern warfare along the way. From the knife fights and smuggling runs of his youth to his fiery days as a pioneering naval aviator, Paul Irving "Pappy" Gunn played by his own set of rules and always survived on his wits and fists. But when he fell for a conservative Southern belle, her love transformed him from a wild and reckless airman to a cunning entrepreneur whose homespun engineering brilliance helped launch one of the first airlines in Asia. Pappy was drafted into MacArthur's air force when war came to the Philippines; and while he carried out a top-secret mission to Australia, the Japanese seized his family. Separated from his beloved wife, Polly, and their four children, Pappy reverted to his lawless ways. He carried out rescue missions with an almost suicidal desperation. Even after he was shot down twice and forced to withdraw to Australia, he waged a one-man war against his many enemies--including the American high command and the Japanese--and fought to return to the Philippines to find his family. Without adequate planes, supplies, or tactics, the U.S. Army Air Force suffered crushing defeats by the Japanese in the Pacific. Over the course of his three-year quest to find his family, Pappy became the renegade who changed all that. With a brace of pistols and small band of loyal fol,lowers, he robbed supply dumps, stole aircraft, invented new weapons, and modified bombers to hit harder, fly farther, and deliver more destruction than anything yet seen in the air. When Pappy's modified planes were finally unleashed during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, the United States scored one of the most decisive victories of World War II. Taking readers from the blistering skies of the Pacific to the jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines to one of the the war's most notorious prison camps, Indestructible traces one man's bare-knuckle journey to free the people he loved and the aerial revolution he sparked that continues to resonate across America's modern battlefields.

Indestructible: One Man's Rescue Mission That Changed the Course of WWII

Historical Study & Educational Resources

"Brings you into the cockpit of the lethal, fast-paced world of fighter pilots...Fascinating." -- Sara Vladic"Extraordinary...A must-read." -- US Navy Captain Dan Pedersen"A heart-pounding narrative of the courage, sacrifice, and tragedy of America's elite fighter pilots." -- James M. Scott "Vivid and gripping...Confirms Bruning's status as the premier war historian of the air." -- Saul DavidThe astonishing untold story of the WWII airmen who risked it all in the deadly race to become the greatest American fighter pilot. In 1942, America's deadliest fighter pilot, or "ace of aces" -- the legendary Eddie Rickenbacker -- offered a bottle of bourbon to the first U.S. fighter pilot to break his record of twenty-six enemy planes shot down. Seizing on the challenge to motivate his men, General George Kenney promoted what they would come to call the "race of aces" as a way of boosting the spirits of his war-weary command. What developed was a wild three-year sprint for fame and glory, and the chance to be called America's greatest fighter pilot. The story has never been told until now. Based on new research and full of revelations, John Bruning's brilliant, original book tells the story of how five American pilots contended for personal glory in the Pacific while leading Kenney's resurgent air force against the most formidable enemy America ever faced. Thepilots -- Richard Bong, Tommy McGuire, Neel Kearby, Charles MacDonald and Gerald Johnson -- riveted the nation as they contended for Rickenbacker's crown. As their scores mounted, they transformed themselves from farm boys and aspiring dentists into artists of the modern dogfight. But as the race reached its climax, some of the pilots began to see how the spotlight warped their sense of duty. They emerged as leaders, beloved by their men as they chose selfless devotion over national accolades. Teeming with action all across the vast Pacific theater, Race of Aces is a fascinating exploration of the boundary between honorable duty, personal glory, and the complex landscape of the human heart.

Race of Aces: WWII's Elite Airmen and the Epic Battle to Become the Master of the Sky

Leaders & Notable People

The astonishing untold story of the WWII airmen who risked it all in the deadly race to become the greatest American fighter pilot.\nIn 1942, America's deadliest fighter pilot, or "ace of aces" -- the legendary Eddie Rickenbacker -- offered a bottle of bourbon to the first U.S. fighter pilot to break his record of twenty-six enemy planes shot down. Seizing on the challenge to motivate his men, General George Kenney promoted what they would come to call the "race of aces" as a way of boosting the spirits of his war-weary command.\nWhat developed was a wild three-year sprint for fame and glory, and the chance to be called America's greatest fighter pilot. The story has never been told until now.\nBased on new research and full of revelations, John Bruning's brilliant, original book tells the story of how five American pilots contended for personal glory in the Pacific while leading Kenney's resurgent air force against the most formidable enemy America ever faced.\nThe pilots -- Richard Bong, Tommy McGuire, Neel Kearby, Charles MacDonald and Gerald Johnson -- riveted the nation as they contended for Rickenbacker's crown. As their scores mounted, they transformed themselves from farm boys and aspiring dentists into artists of the modern dogfight.\nBut as the race reached its climax, some of the pilots began to see how the spotlight warped their sense of duty. They emerged as leaders, beloved by their men as they chose selfless devotion over national accolades.\nTeeming with action all across the vast Pacific theater, Race of Aces is a fascinating exploration of the boundary between honorable duty, personal glory, and the complex landscape of the human heart.\n"Brings you into the cockpit of the lethal, fast-paced world of fighter pilots . . . Fascinating." -- Sara Vladic\n"Extraordinary . . . a must-read." -- US Navy Captain Dan Pedersen\n"A heart-pounding narrative of the courage, sacrifice, and tragedy of America's elite fighter pilots." -- James M. Scott\n"Vivid and gripping . . . Confirms Bruning's status as the premier war historian of the air." -- Saul David

Race of Aces

The pivotal true story of the first fifty-three days of the standoff between Imperial Japanese and a handful of Marine aviators defending the Americans dug in at Guadalcanal, from the New York Times bestselling author of Indestructible and Race of Aces.\nOn August 20, 1942, twelve Marine dive-bombers and nineteen Marine fighters landed at Guadalcanal. Their mission: defeat the Japanese navy and prevent it from sending more men and supplies to "Starvation Island," as Guadalcanal was nicknamed. The Japanese were turning the remote, jungle-covered mountain in the south Solomon Islands into an air base from which they could attack the supply lines between the U.S. and Australia. The night after the Marines landed and captured the partially completed airfield, the Imperial Navy launched a surprise night attack on the Allied fleet offshore, resulting in the worst defeat the U.S. Navy suffered in the 20th century, which prompted the abandonment of the Marines on Guadalcanal.\nThe Marines dug in, and waited for help, as those thirty-one pilots and twelve gunners flew against the Japanese, shooting down eighty-three planes in less than two months, while the dive bombers, carried out over thirty attacks on the Japanese fleet. Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island follows Major John L. Smith, a magnetic leader who became America’s top fighter ace for the time; Captain Marion Carl, the Marine Corps’ first ace, and one of the few survivors of his squadron at the Battle of Midway. He would be shot down and forced to make his way back to base through twenty-five miles of Japanese-held jungle. And Major Richard Mangrum, the lawyer-turned-dive-bomber commander whose inexperienced men wrought havoc on the Japanese Navy.\nNew York Times bestselling author John R. Bruning depicts the desperate effort to stop the Japanese long enough for America to muster reinforcements and turn the tide at Guadalcanal. Not just the story of an incredible stand on a distant jungle island, Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island also explores the consequences of victory to the men who secured it at a time when America had been at war for less than a year and its public had yet to fully understand what that meant. The home front they returned to after their jungle ordeal was a surreal montage of football games, nightclubs, fine dining with America’s elites, and inside looks at dysfunctional defense industries more interested in fleecing the government than properly equipping the military. Bruning tells the story of how one battle reshaped the Marine Corps and propelled its veterans into the highest positions of power just in time to lead the service into a new war in Southeast Asia.

Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island: The World War II Battle That Saved Marine Corps Aviation

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bruning, John R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bruning, John R.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bruning, John R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice

Indestructible

The Pursuit of Plan Z: An American Insurgent, His Filipino Guerrillas, and the Greatest Special Operations Coup of the Pacific War

How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq

Indestructible: One Man's Rescue Mission That Changed the Course of WWII

Indestructible

Indestructible: One Man's Rescue Mission That Changed the Course of WWII

Race of Aces: WWII's Elite Airmen and the Epic Battle to Become the Master of the Sky

Race of Aces

Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island: The World War II Battle That Saved Marine Corps Aviation