Books with author Jonathan Nathan

Popular historian and former White House speechwriter Jonathan Horn tells the astonishing true story of George Washington’s forgotten last years—the personalities, plotting, and private torment that unraveled America’s first post-presidency.Washington’s End begins where most biographies of George Washington leave off, with the first president exiting office after eight years and entering what would become the most bewildering stage of his life. Embittered by partisan criticism and eager to return to his farm, Washington assumed a role for which there was no precedent at a time when the kings across the ocean yielded their crowns only upon losing their heads. In a different sense, Washington would lose his head, too. In this riveting read, bestselling author Jonathan Horn reveals that the quest to surrender power proved more difficult than Washington imagined and brought his life to an end he never expected. The statesman who had staked his legacy on withdrawing from public life would feud with his successors and find himself drawn back into military command. The patriarch who had dedicated his life to uniting his country would leave his name to a new capital city destined to become synonymous with political divisions. A vivid story, immaculately researched and powerfully told through the eyes not only of Washington but also of his family members, friends, and foes, Washington’s End fills a crucial gap in our nation’s history and will forever change the way we view the name Washington.

The definitive account of the life and tragic death of baseball legend Lou Gehrig.Lou Gehrig was a baseball legend—the Iron Horse, the stoic New York Yankee who was the greatest first baseman in history, a man whose consecutive-games streak was ended by a horrible disease that now bears his name. But as this definitive new biography makes clear, Gehrig’s life was more complicated—and, perhaps, even more heroic—than anyone really knew. Drawing on new interviews and more than two hundred pages of previously unpublished letters to and from Gehrig, Luckiest Man gives us an intimate portrait of the man who became an American hero: his life as a shy and awkward youth growing up in New York City, his unlikely friendship with Babe Ruth (a friendship that allegedly ended over rumors that Ruth had had an affair with Gehrig’s wife), and his stellar career with the Yankees, where his consecutive-games streak stood for more than half a century. What was not previously known, however, is that symptoms of Gehrig’s affliction began appearing in 1938, earlier than is commonly acknowledged. Later, aware that he was dying, Gehrig exhibited a perseverance that was truly inspiring; he lived the last two years of his short life with the same grace and dignity with which he gave his now-famous “luckiest man” speech. Meticulously researched and elegantly written, Jonathan Eig’s Luckiest Man shows us one of the greatest baseball players of all time as we’ve never seen him before.

He's never wanted for anything in his life.Except someone to share it with.Tycho spent his childhood exploring the universe. During his teenage years he spent lifetimes in the simulated worlds of full immersion. His life is one of unparalleled luxury, with every whim catered to by robotic companions. He has unlimited freedom to explore his interests. And it took nearly dying for him to realize he's never felt truly alive.With that wake up call Tycho finally realizes that he's been missing something in his life, a lack he hadn't even noticed before, but now feels keenly. He's been missing real connections and interactions with other humans. Something deeper than simple allnet acquaintances.Now he means to change that, searching to discover if he's the only human in the universe who feels like he's spent a perfect life living alone.(Author's note: Boralene is my first venture into Science Fiction and contains some mild adult themed romantic elements.)

Draws on hundreds of new interviews and previously unpublished letters to present a comprehensive account of the life of the Hall of Fame ballplayer whose career was cut short by the disease now named for him, in a portrait that shares background details about his rivalry with Babe Ruth, the onset of his illness, and the final years of his life. 100,000 first printing.

After growing up in the system he thought he was prepared for anything. Then his city started falling apart around him.Jack Porter knows all about how difficult life can be. He has no illusions about anyone stepping forward to offer him a hand, and is well aware that anything he wants from the future he'll have to earn for himself. So when a major attack destroys most of the fuel refineries and storage facilities along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, causing the US to run out of gas overnight, Jack isn't too worried. There might be hard times ahead for the country, but he's no stranger to hard times and is prepared to weather this disaster.Or so he thinks.

An Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, a decaying palazzo facing the sea, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, lit by a single bulb, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome, Francesca Cappelletti, makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, a painting lost for almost two centuries. The artist was Caravaggio, a master of the Italian Baroque. He was a genius, a revolutionary painter, and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, moving from one rooming house to another, constantly in and out of jail, all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth, but success didn’t alter his violent temperament. His rage finally led him to commit murder, forcing him to flee Rome a hunted man. He died young, alone, and under strange circumstances.Caravaggio scholars estimate that between sixty and eighty of his works are in existence today. Many others–no one knows the precise number–have been lost to time. Somewhere, surely, a masterpiece lies forgotten in a storeroom, or in a small parish church, or hanging above a fireplace, mistaken for a mere copy.Prizewinning author Jonathan Harr embarks on an spellbinding journey to discover the long-lost painting known as The Taking of Christ–its mysterious fate and the circumstances of its disappearance have captivated Caravaggio devotees for years. After Francesca Cappelletti stumbles across a clue in that dusty archive, she tracks the painting across a continent and hundreds of years of history. But it is not until she meets Sergio Benedetti, an art restorer working in Ireland, that she finally manages to assemble all the pieces of the puzzle.Told with consummate skill by the writer of the bestselling, award-winning A Civil Action, The Lost Painting is a remarkable synthesis of history and detective story. The fascinating details of Caravaggio’s strange, turbulent career and the astonishing beauty of his work come to life in these pages. Harr’s account is not unlike a Caravaggio painting: vivid, deftly wrought, and enthralling.". . . Jonathan Harr has gone to the trouble of writing what will probably be a bestseller . . . rich and wonderful. . .in truth, the book reads better than a thriller because, unlike a lot of best-selling nonfiction authors who write in a more or less novelistic vein (Harr's previous book, A Civil Action, was made into a John Travolta movie), Harr doesn't plump up hi tale. He almost never foreshadows, doesn't implausibly reconstruct entire conversations and rarely throws in litanies of clearly conjectured or imagined details just for color's sake. . .if you're a sucker for Rome, and for dusk. . .[you'll] enjoy Harr's more clearly reported details about life in the city, as when--one of my favorite moments in the whole book--Francesca and another young colleague try to calm their nerves before a crucial meeting with a forbidding professor by eating gelato. And who wouldn't in Italy? The pleasures of travelogue here are incidental but not inconsiderable." --The New York Times Book Review"Jonathan Harr has taken the story of the lost painting, and woven from it a deeply moving narrative about history, art and taste--and about the greed, envy, covetousness and professional jealousy of people who fall prey to obsession. It is as perfect a work of narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read." --The Economist

Few who go to the sky return to the ground.For Kale life has been pure misery ever since his parents died and he was sent to the orphanage. So when a Corsair from a nearby Skyhold comes to the orphanage and offers to take him to the sky as a member of an airship crew he's suspicious of a trap.The idea of a place where he'll always have enough to eat seems too good to be true. But as the Corsair says, there's no place worse than the orphanage so what does he have to lose?

Meet space-school attendee Bob and his alien bestie Beep in this start to an outrageously funny and action-packed chapter book series that’s great for “kids who love funny stories but may be too young for books like ­Diary of a Wimpy Kid” (School Library Journal) from debut author Jonathan Roth!Astro Elementary is a school near Saturn attended by the bravest, brightest, most elite kids in the galaxy…and Bob. Bob never wanted to go to fourth grade in dark, dangerous space. He even tried to fail the admissions test by bubbling in “C” for every answer—and turned out to be the only kid on Earth to get a perfect score! Bob feels he couldn’t be more misplaced at his school—until he meets Beep. Beep is an alien from the planet Orth who was kicked off his home world for being too small. The instant Bob finds him, Beep adopts Bob as his new mother. Soon Bob can’t turn around without bumping into Beep’s squishy little body. Together, they make the perfect team. And Bob logs their adventures on his space blog, or SPLOG, with Beep providing the illustrations. In their first adventure, Bob is humiliated on a field trip to Pluto when his tongue gets stuck to the ice. Not even Beep can keep Bob from becoming the laughing stock of the school. Bob has to find a way to completely change his personality, just in time for their next treacherous field trip—to the gaping mouth of a super massive black hole!

Quicklets: Your Reading Sidekick!Freakonomics was written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Levitt is an economist who is known for making connections that other people do not see, while Dubner is a journalist for the New York Times. The book started as an article about Levitt that Dubner was writing for the New York Times in 2003. They wrote the book together as an attempt to bring economics to the masses, to show in an interesting and conversational way on how economics can prove that conventional wisdom is often wrong and how it can shed new light on confusing situations. The book was published in 2005 and has become somewhat controversial for its findings.BOOK OUTLINEPt. I: Context and Overall Highlights ->Steven D. Levitt's background and the overall significance of Freakonomics.Pt. II: List Of Important People ->The most important figures in the book and their significance.Pt. III: Key Terms and Definitions ->Explanations of prominent economic, political, and historical terms used in Freakonomics.Pt. IV: Interesting Articles, Reviews, and Trivia

Told with consummate skill by the writer of the bestselling, award-winning A Civil Action, The Lost Painting is a remarkable synthesis of history and detective story. An Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, a decaying palazzo facing the sea, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, lit by a single bulb, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome, Francesca Cappelletti, makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, a painting lost for almost two centuries. The artist was Caravaggio, a master of the Italian Baroque. He was a genius, a revolutionary painter, and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, moving from one rooming house to another, constantly in and out of jail, all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth, but success didn’t alter his violent temperament. His rage finally led him to commit murder, forcing him to flee Rome a hunted man. He died young, alone, and under strange circumstances. Caravaggio scholars estimate that between sixty and eighty of his works are in existence today. Many others–no one knows the precise number–have been lost to time. Somewhere, surely, a masterpiece lies forgotten in a storeroom, or in a small parish church, or hanging above a fireplace, mistaken for a mere copy. Prizewinning author Jonathan Harr embarks on an spellbinding journey to discover the long-lost painting known as The Taking of Christ–its mysterious fate and the circumstances of its disappearance have captivated Caravaggio devotees for years. After Francesca Cappelletti stumbles across a clue in that dusty archive, she tracks the painting across a continent and hundreds of years of history. But it is not until she meets Sergio Benedetti, an art restorer working in Ireland, that she finally manages to assemble all the pieces of the puzzle.Praise for The Lost Painting“Jonathan Harr has gone to the trouble of writing what will probably be a bestseller . . . rich and wonderful. . . . In truth, the book reads better than a thriller. . . . If you're a sucker for Rome, and for dusk . . . [you'll] enjoy Harr's more clearly reported details about life in the city.”—The New York Times Book Review“Jonathan Harr has taken the story of the lost painting, and woven from it a deeply moving narrative about history, art and taste—and about the greed, envy, covetousness and professional jealousy of people who fall prey to obsession. It is as perfect a work of narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read.”—The Economist

Beep and Bob accidentally clone themselves for the school science fair in this fourth book in the hilarious, action-packed Beep and Bob series!What’s twice as fun as Beep and Bob? Two Beeps and Bobs! While up too late working on his science fair project, Bob accidentally points a duplication ray at Beep. To his shock, another Beep appears! Beep decides the more, the better, so he points the ray at Bob and PRESTO: it’s Bob 2 (or Backwards Bob). At first Bob thinks their clones are creepy, but it doesn’t take long to realize that having duplicates comes with perks: they can sleep in while their clones go to class! Then the real Beep and Bob discover a hitch: the Beep and Bob clones are EVIL, and are planning to duplicate an EVIL Earth to rule! How will they possibly get themselves (and themselves!) out of this one?

Jonathan Owen, in his book "#Fail: Why the US Lost the War in Afghanistan," provides a military insider's look at why the US counterinsurgency strategy was doomed to failure. When Owen’s research was first released in 2010, it challenged the flawed strategy of senior leadership and was suppressed. However, since then, the accuracy and predictive power of Owen’s research withstood the test of time and is now being heralded as the first major pioneering work overhauling the US military’s counterinsurgency strategy in the 21st Century. Owen's research and analysis is a detailed indictment of the entire US military's counterinsurgency strategy, or lack thereof. Owen's research pulls no punches and systematically takes down one sacred cow after another respective of the military's strategy in Afghanistan. Owen doesn't stop there and places blame by name on the likes of General Petraeus, David Kilcullen, and many other "snake oil" salesmen of military strategy. In short order, Owen debunks the key tactics of the US military strategy in Afghanistan as a waste of resources and proves our most senior generals were either willfully ignorant or incompetent when it came to being true military strategists. Not satisfied with simply pointing fingers, Owen details a truly viable strategy for Afghanistan, which promises actual decisive effects in short order. The beauty of Owen’s strategy is in its simplicity and the fact it can be replicated elsewhere. In it, Owen explains how when fighting insurgents, the US military can turn the tables and force the insurgents to fight against the conventional strengths of the US military. This flies in the face of the current failed strategy of playing by the insurgents’ rules in the vain hope of achieving victory. To his credit, Owen's prescient analysis accurately predicted the US failures in Afghanistan and Iraq over a half decade before they have now come to pass. Owen's research presented in book form has been briefed to members of Congress, the senior military officers, academia, and the intelligence community and is now available for public release. Owen’s analysis literally rewrites the book on how the US military should conduct counterinsurgency operations. Owen's book is a must read for any serious policy maker, military member, or anyone wanting to know the true reasons for what went wrong with the US's war in Afghanistan. If the US is to avoid repeating the intellectual dereliction that led to the strategic disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq, Owen's research should be mandatory reading.