Frank Carlson Library

In 1766, a ship docks at Bristol, England, disgorging a crate with two young elephants in poor health, but alive. A wealthy sugar merchant purchases them for his country estate and turns their care over to a young stable boy, Tom Page. It takes time for Tom and the two elephants to understand each other, but to the surprise of everyone on the estate, a remarkable bond is formed, and changes the lives of all who meet them.

"For fans of sweeping historical literature in the vein of Philipp Meyer's The Son or Min Jin Lee's Pachinko, an extraordinary US literary debut set in Paris and colonial New Orleans and based on a true story, about three of the 88 young women--among them an orphan, a madwoman, and an abortionist--who were deported to the Louisiana Territory as brides"--

Many books have been written about the 1st Duke of Marlborough's famous victories, but none of the previous studies has really concentrated on how the warfare was perceived by the men and women who took part - those who experienced the action at first hand. James Falkner has brought together a vivid selection of contemporary accounts of every aspect of the war to create a panoramic yet minutely detailed picture of those years of turmoil. The story...

The untold story of how George Washington took a disorderly, ill-equipped rabble and defeated the best trained and best equipped army of its day. Author John A. Nagy has become the nation's leading expert on Revolutionary spies, discovering hundreds who went behind enemy lines to gather intelligence during the American Revolution, many of whom are completely unknown to most historians. Using Washington's diary as the primary source, Nagy tells of...

"A lively survey…her research and insights make us conscious of how we, today, use books."-John Sutherland, The New York Times Book Review Two centuries before the advent of radio, television, and motion pictures, books were a cherished form of popular entertainment and an integral component of domestic social life. In this fascinating and vivid history, Abigail Williams explores the ways in which shared reading shaped the lives and literary...

Do you ever feel like you don't know how to be a great leader? In Sheunesu E Kasiamhuru's leadership book The Art of Decisiveness, we are taken on a blast to the past to learn key skills from the Age of Enlightenment through modern greats in order to move towards a brighter future. From the world of theory and philosophy, we will learn the practical applications to help support individuals and businesses on their quests for success in this ever-changing...

Today, Abraham Lincoln is a beloved American icon, widely considered to be our best president. It was not always so. Larry Taggs The Battles that Made Abraham Lincoln is the first study of its kind to concentrate on what Lincoln's contemporaries thought of him during his lifetime, and the obstacles they set before him. Be forewarned: your preconceived notions are about to be shattered. Torn by civil war, the era in which our sixteenth president lived...

Two hundred years ago, only the most reckless or eccentric Europeans had dared to traverse the unmapped territory of the modern-day Middle East. But in 1798, more than 150 French engineers, artists, doctors, and scientists-even a poet and a musicologist-traveled to the Nile Valley under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte and his invading army. Hazarding hunger, hardship, uncertainty, and disease, Napoleon's "savants" risked their lives in pursuit of...

Dutiful daughter, frustrated wife, passionate lover, domineering mother, doting grandmother, devoted friend, tireless legislator, generous patron of artists and philosophers-the Empress Catherine II, the Great, was all these things, and more. Her reign, the longest in Russian Imperial history, lasted from 1762 until her death in 1796; during those years she built on the work begun by her most famous predecessor, Peter the Great, to establish Russia...