Books with author HUGHES

SOME THINGS HAVE TO BE DONE THE HARD WAY!Private Lewis Freeman had a problem. The treasure map passed down through generations of family, from slavery to modern day, showed his legendary ancestral fortune was buried in the dead center of the war zone.Corporal Vince Masini had several problems. He struggled to keep a ragtag group of outcasts and misfits together as a military unit and to keep them out of the clutches of Captain Nikki Christopoulos, war regulation enforcement. He also had to make it look as though they were obeying the orders of a blood and guts veteran commander, Colonel Thaddeus T. Fattingham.Could there have been a better way to cause chaos and mayhem than to go on a treasure hunt in the middle of the war zone?With a decrepit old jeep named Beulah, they must dodge bombs and bullets – and sometimes each other – through 180 miles of African jungle to get to the “X” on the ancient treasure map. Will they make it alive? Or will they die trying?

Nate Tanner is a rich boy whose family owns coal mines near Hazleton, Pennsylvania. He has everything a kid could want or need – except a friend. Then he meets Johnny, an easygoing Polish American boy who works sorting coal in a filthy, dark building called a breaker. Unaware that Nate is the boss’s son, Johnny invites him to play baseball with the breaker boys. As the summer of 1897 progresses, Nate finds himself piling lie on top of lie to keep his identity secret from Johnny, and the friendship secret from his family. In the patch town where the mining families live, Nate confronts disturbing realities; back at home, he learns of his family’s fears about the future. Meanwhile, the miners are joining a labor union to challenge the owners – and the owners are trying to stop a strike. As Nate’s moment of truth draws near, so does a violent confrontation that will alter coal country lives forever. Originally published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, now in paperback for the first time, "The Breaker Boys" explores both sides of a timeless issue through a nuanced portrayal of both immigrant laborers and the coal-mine owners who employed them.

Attila the Hun is a household name. Rising to the Hunnic kingship around 434, he dominated European history for the next two decades. Attila bullied and manipulated both halves of the Roman empire, forcing successive emperors to make tribute payments or face invasion. Ian Hughes recounts Attila's rise to power, attempting to untangle his character and motivations so far as the imperfect sources allow. A major theme is how the two halves of the empire finally united against Attila, prompting his fateful decision to invade Gaul and his subsequent defeat at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plain in 451.Integral to the narrative is analysis of the history of the rise of the Hunnic Empire; the reasons for the Huns' military success; relations between the Huns and the two halves of the Roman Empire; Attila’s rise to sole power; and Attila’s doomed attempt to bring both halves of the Roman Empire under his dominion.

Daniel is an orphan with a prestigious and ghastly past—a past he knows nothing about. He is the sole survivor of the royal family, the rest murdered by the monk-turned-politician, Specula Greavus. When he discovers he is a Miraclist, able to bend the elements to his will, he is plucked from his dilapidated orphanage and thrust into a school of heroes in-training. Little does he know that wicked forces eye his throne. With the fate of the Empire in the balance, only the true heir can thwart their terrible scheme.

In Play Time, each page features a full-color photo of a familiar animal followed by a two-word text that includes the animal’s name and a verb to describe what the animal is doing, e.g. Cat pouncing/ Dolphins somersaulting. At the end of the book, a young children are shown playing. The rhythmic cadence of the text, the rich vocabulary, and the vivid photos are ideal for sharing with a toddler.

NICKY TAG! NICKY TAG!All his life, crowds have been cheering for Nick Taglio.He’s been skating since he could walk, scoring goals since he picked up a hockey stick. He’s only a sophomore but he rules the ice, because Nicky Tag’s a fighter. Which means you have to take some hits; concussions come with the territory. When he gets another head injury, his doctor, his parents, and his coach tell him he can never play again. Too dangerous, they say. He can’t risk his future. But they don’t understand that without hockey, Nick has no future. It’s not a game, it’s his life. And nobody can stop him from playing.

Built on Sugar, Slaves, and Piracy, Jamaica’s Port Royal was the Jewel in England’s Quest for Empire until a Devastating Earthquake Sank the City Beneath the Sea A haven for pirates and the center of the New World’s frenzied trade in slaves and sugar, Port Royal, Jamaica, was a notorious cutthroat settlement where enormous fortunes were gained for the fledgling English empire. But on June 7, 1692, it all came to a catastrophic end. Drawing on research carried out in Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States, Apocalypse 1692: Empire, Slavery, and the Great Port Royal Earthquake by Ben Hughes opens in a post–Glorious Revolution London where two Jamaica-bound voyages are due to depart. A seventy-strong fleet will escort the Earl of Inchiquin, the newly appointed governor, to his residence at Port Royal, while the Hannah, a slaver belonging to the Royal African Company, will sail south to pick up human cargo in West Africa before setting out across the Atlantic on the infamous Middle Passage. Utilizing little-known first-hand accounts and other primary sources, Apocalypse 1692 intertwines several related themes: the slave rebellion that led to the establishment of the first permanent free black communities in the New World; the raids launched between English Jamaica and Spanish Santo Domingo; and the bloody repulse of a full-blown French invasion of the island in an attempt to drive the English from the Caribbean. The book also features the most comprehensive account yet written of the massive earthquake and tsunami which struck Jamaica in 1692, resulting in the deaths of thousands, and sank a third of the city beneath the sea. From the misery of everyday life in the sugar plantations, to the ostentation and double-dealings of the plantocracy; from the adventures of former-pirates-turned-treasure-hunters to the debauchery of Port Royal, Apocalypse 1692 exposes the lives of the individuals who made late seventeenth-century Jamaica the most financially successful, brutal, and scandalously corrupt of all of England’s nascent American colonies.

Will the war ever end?It’s been five years since it began, but to Teddy, it might as well be forever. The war of the Republic, being part of the Governor’s Army, has made her who she is today, and now, trapped alone behind enemy lines, she isn’t even sure if she’ll live to see tomorrow. Lance wasn’t cut out for war, but he’s determined to be the best soldier that he can be. The Median Army is resolved to restore peace to the Republic, and the only way Lance can help is to return to the unit he’s been separated from. When a bitter storm drives the two lost opponents to both seek shelter in an abandoned house, it’s only a matter of time before secrets will begin to surface, threatening the precarious peace of their temporary truce. Can Lance be trusted? Where do his allegiances truly lie? Why is Teddy so guarded? Why does she seem vaguely familiar? Could their unlikely alliance be the key to peace or will their differences ultimately tear them apart?