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Books published by publisher Sunbury Press, Inc.

  • Last Ride of the Iron Horse: How Lou Gehrig Fought ALS to Play One Final Championship Season

    Dan Joseph

    (Sunbury Press, Inc., Nov. 13, 2019)
    "Last Ride of the Iron Horse" tells the tale of Lou Gehrig's final year in the Yankee lineup, as he dealt with early effects of the deadly disease ALS. For much of the 1938 season, Gehrig -- dubbed the Iron Horse for his strength and reliability -- struggled with slumps and a mystifying loss of power. Fans booed and sportswriters called for him to be benched. Then, as the Yankees battled for the pennant in August, Lou began pounding home runs like his old self -- a turnaround that in retrospect looks truly miraculous. It may have been a rare case of temporary ALS reversal.Using rare film footage, radio broadcasts, newspapers and interviews, author Dan Joseph chronicles Gehrig's roller coaster of a year. The story begins in Hollywood, where the handsome "Larrupin' Lou" films a Western that would be his only movie. As the year unfolds, he holds out for baseball’s highest salary, battles injuries that would sideline a lesser man, wins his sixth World Series ring, and enters the political arena for the first time, denouncing the rising threat of Nazism.Joseph also answers questions that have long intrigued Gehrig's admirers: When did he sense something was wrong with his body? What were the first signs? How did he adjust? And did he still help the Yankees win the championship, even as his skills declined?1938 would be Gehrig's last hurrah. With his strength fading, he ended his renowned consecutive games streak the following May. A few weeks later, doctors at the Mayo Clinic diagnosed him with ALS. On July 4th, the Yankees retired his number in a ceremony at Yankee Stadium. All along, Gehrig showed remarkable courage and grace, never more so than when he told the stadium crowd, "I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for."
  • Dead Center: How Political Polarization Divided America and What We Can Do About It

    Jason Altmire

    eBook (Sunbury Press, Inc., Oct. 3, 2017)
    Rarely has America been so bitterly divided. Partisans now view those with differing opinions as the enemy. Cable news programs inflame passions rather than inform viewers. Social media provides the most irrational partisans a venue to spew their hatred and bias. Town hall meetings, once the staple of representative democracy, have degenerated into choreographed shouting matches. Money flows into campaigns at unprecedented rates. Centrists are nearly extinct in Congress, where compromise has become a dirty word. All the while, ordinary Americans feel disenfranchised, watching in disgust as our political process has been hijacked by ideological extremists.A former three-term member of Congress, Jason Altmire is uniquely qualified to offer solutions to the polarization that has paralyzed Washington. A respected political moderate known for working with both sides of the aisle, Altmire during his time in office was recognized as having the most centrist voting record in the entire House of Representatives.Fast-paced and easily-readable, Dead Center moves beyond the tired rhetoric that so often dominates our political discourse. Featuring a cast of characters including Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, Dead Center contains riveting anecdotes from Altmire's time in office, giving readers an inside view of what it is like to be a centrist in a divided Congress. Altmire draws upon his first-hand experience in the corridors of power to evaluate the root causes of polarization and offer novel solutions to break the gridlock and restore to Washington a spirit of cooperation nonexistent today.
  • Call Sign Dracula: My Tour with the Black Scarves April 1969 to March 1970

    Joe Fair

    eBook (Sunbury Press, Inc., May 11, 2017)
    "Call Sign Dracula" provides an outstanding, valuable and worthy in-depth look into the life of a US Army Infantry soldier serving with the famed 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One) in Vietnam. It is a genuine, firsthand account of a one-year tour that shows how a soldier grew and matured from an awkward, bewildered, inexperienced, eighteen year-old country “bumpkin” from Kentucky, to a tough, battle hardened, fighting soldier.You will laugh, cry and stand in awe at the true life experiences shared in this memoir. The awfulness of battle, fear beyond description, the sorrow and anguish of losing friends, extreme weariness, the dealing with the scalding sun, torrential rain, cold, heat, humidity, insects and the daily effort just to maintain sanity were struggles faced virtually every day. And yet, there were the good times. There was the coming together to laugh, joke, and share stories from home. There was the warmth and compassion shown by men to each other in such an unreal environment. You will see where color, race or where you were from had no bearing on the tight-knit group of young men that was formed from the necessity to survive. What a “bunch” they were!... then the return to home and all the adjustments and struggles to once again fit into a world that was now strange and uncomfortable."Call Sign Dracula" is an excellent and genuine memoir of an infantry soldier in the Vietnam War.
  • Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last

    Mike Campbell

    Paperback (Sunbury Press, Inc., March 5, 2016)
    Nearly everything the American public has seen, read and heard in the media for nearly eighty years about the so-called Amelia Earhart mystery is intentionally false or inadvertently misleading. The widely accepted myth that the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan during their ill-fated world-flight attempt in July 1937 is among the greatest aviation mysteries of the 20th century is an abject lie, the result of decades of government propaganda that continues unabated to this day. This second edition of "Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last" adds two chapters, a new foreword, rarely seen photos, and the most recent discoveries and analysis to the mountain of overwhelming witness testimony and documentation presented in the first edition of "Truth at Last." The result is the most compelling, comprehensive presentation of the indisputable facts that reveal the stark truth about the Marshall Islands and Saipan presence and deaths of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan – a tragic story that American’s ruling class still doesn’t want the public to know, for reasons revealed in "Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last." "Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last" dismantles and debunks the popular theories that Amelia Earhart's Electra crashed and sank off Howland Island on July 2, 1937, or landed at Gardner Island, now Nikumaroro, where the suddenly helpless fliers died of starvation on an island teeming with food sources. "The Truth at Last" presents many remarkable new findings, eyewitness accounts and never published revelations from unimpeachable sources including three famous U.S. flag officers and iconic newsman and Earhart researcher Fred Goerner's files that reveal the truth about Amelia’s death on Saipan, as well as the sacred cow status of this matter within the U.S. government and media establishment. "The Truth at Last" answers the big questions about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, leaves no doubt about what happened to the doomed fliers, and is destined to take its rightful place as the definitive Earhart work.
  • Dead Center: How Political Polarization Divided America and What We Can Do About It

    Jason Altmire

    Hardcover (Sunbury Press, Inc., Oct. 3, 2017)
    Rarely has America been so bitterly divided. Partisans now view those with differing opinions as the enemy. Cable news programs inflame passions rather than inform viewers. Social media provides the most irrational partisans a venue to spew their hatred and bias. Town hall meetings, once the staple of representative democracy, have degenerated into choreographed shouting matches. Money flows into campaigns at unprecedented rates. Centrists are nearly extinct in Congress, where compromise has become a dirty word. All the while, ordinary Americans feel disenfranchised, watching in disgust as our political process has been hijacked by ideological extremists.A former three-term member of Congress, Jason Altmire is uniquely qualified to offer solutions to the polarization that has paralyzed Washington. A respected political moderate known for working with both sides of the aisle, Altmire during his time in office was recognized as having the most centrist voting record in the entire House of Representatives.Fast-paced and easily-readable, Dead Center moves beyond the tired rhetoric that so often dominates our political discourse. Featuring a cast of characters including Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, Dead Center contains riveting anecdotes from Altmire’s time in office, giving readers an inside view of what it is like to be a centrist in a divided Congress. Altmire draws upon his first-hand experience in the corridors of power to evaluate the root causes of polarization and offer novel solutions to break the gridlock and restore to Washington a spirit of cooperation nonexistent today.
  • Dead Center: How Political Polarization Divided America and What We Can Do about It

    Jason Altmire

    Paperback (Sunbury Press, Inc., Oct. 3, 2017)
    Rarely has America been so bitterly divided. Partisans now view those with differing opinions as the enemy. Cable news programs inflame passions rather than inform viewers. Social media provides the most irrational partisans a venue to spew their hatred and bias. Town hall meetings, once the staple of representative democracy, have degenerated into choreographed shouting matches. Money flows into campaigns at unprecedented rates. Centrists are nearly extinct in Congress, where compromise has become a dirty word. All the while, ordinary Americans feel disenfranchised, watching in disgust as our political process has been hijacked by ideological extremists.A former three-term member of Congress, Jason Altmire is uniquely qualified to offer solutions to the polarization that has paralyzed Washington. A respected political moderate known for working with both sides of the aisle, Altmire during his time in office was recognized as having the most centrist voting record in the entire House of Representatives.Fast-paced and easily-readable, Dead Center moves beyond the tired rhetoric that so often dominates our political discourse. Featuring a cast of characters including Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, Dead Center contains riveting anecdotes from Altmire's time in office, giving readers an inside view of what it is like to be a centrist in a divided Congress. Altmire draws upon his first-hand experience in the corridors of power to evaluate the root causes of polarization and offer novel solutions to break the gridlock and restore to Washington a spirit of cooperation nonexistent today.
  • Dear Ma - The Civil War Letters of Curtis Clay Pollock: First Defender and First Lieutenant, 48th Pennsylvania Infantry

    John David Hoptak

    Paperback (Sunbury Press, Inc., Nov. 6, 2017)
    Curtis Clay Pollock served bravely with the 48th Pennsylvania, one of the Civil War's most famous fighting regiments, from the regiment’s organization in September 1861 until his mortal wounding at the Battle of Petersburg in June 1864, participating in the regiment’s many campaigns in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee and seeing action at some of the war’s most sanguinary battles, including 2nd Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Knoxville. Prior to his service in the 48th, Pollock also served as a member of the Washington Artillery, a Pottsville-based militia company that marched off to war in response to President Lincoln’s first call-to-arms in April 1861 and a company that would have the distinction of being among the very first Northern volunteer units to arrive in Washington following the outbreak of war, reaching the capital on the evening of April 18, 1861, after coming under attack in the streets of Baltimore. In recognition of their timely response and prompt arrival in the capital, Pollock and the other members of the Washington Artillery, would be among those who earned the proud title of First Defender. All throughout his time in uniform—from the day after he first arrived in Washington with the First Defenders until a few days before receiving his fatal wound at Petersburg—Curtis Pollock wrote letters home. Many of these letters were written to his younger siblings, some were addressed to his father. Most, however, were written to his mother, Emily, whom he affectionately referred to as his “Dear Ma.” Fortunately, many of these letters survive and are held today in the archives of the Historical Society of Schuylkill County in Pottsville. The letters of Curtis Pollock provide us with a window to view the history and experiences of one of the war’s most famous and most well-traveled regiments—the 48thPennsylvania—a regiment that served in many theaters of the war, under many different commanders, and in many of the war’s largest and bloodiest battles; a regiment that endured many battlefield defeats as well as many battlefield triumphs. More than this, though, Pollock’s letters home enable us to gain a further glimpse of the war from the inside. They chronicle and document the actions, the experiences, and the thoughts of a brave young man, who like so many others, volunteered his services and ultimately gave his life fighting in defense of his nation.
  • Pennsylvania Patriots: Their Lives, Contributions, and Burial Sites

    Lawrence Knorr, Joe Farrell, Joe Farley, Edward G. Rendell, Mark Singel

    Paperback (Sunbury Press, Inc., Oct. 24, 2019)
    Joe Farrell, Joe Farley, and Lawrence Knorr have traveled across the eastern USA to the graves of over 200 founding fathers (and mothers) responsible for the birth of the United States of America. This special volume about Pennsylvania includes those that lived, worked, and or died in Pennsylvania. Included in this volume are biographies and grave information for 44 of these luminaries who made significant contributions to the Revolutionary cause.In this volume: Introduction by former Governor Edward G. RendellForeword by former Lt. Governor Mark SingelBenjamin FranklinJohn Armstong, Sr.John BarryJacob BroomPierce ButlerWilliam ClinganGeorge ClymerTench CoxeJohn DickinsonWilliam Henry DraytonThomas FitzsimmonsEdward HandJoseph HewesMichael HillegasFrancis HopkinsonCharles HumphreysJared IngersollWilliam JacksonPhilip LivingstonWilliam MaclayThomas McKeanHugh MercerSamuel MeredithThomas MifflinGouverneur MorrisRobert MorrisJohn MortonFrederick MuhlenbergPeter MuhlenbergMolly PitcherJoseph ReedDavid RittenhouseBetsy RossGeorge RossBenjamin RushArthur St. ClairJames SmithJonathan Bayard SmithHaym SolomonGeorge TaylorCharles ThomsonAnthony WayneThomas WillingJames WilsonRevolutionary War Sites in PennsylvaniaIndex
  • Call Sign Dracula: My Tour with the Black Scarves April 1969 to March 1970

    Joe Fair

    Paperback (Sunbury Press, Inc., March 27, 2014)
    "Call Sign Dracula" provides an outstanding, valuable and worthy in-depth look into the life of a US Army Infantry soldier serving with the famed 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One) in Vietnam. It is a genuine, firsthand account of a one-year tour that shows how a soldier grew and matured from an awkward, bewildered, inexperienced, eighteen year-old country “bumpkin” from Kentucky, to a tough, battle hardened, fighting soldier. You will laugh, cry and stand in awe at the true life experiences shared in this memoir. The awfulness of battle, fear beyond description, the sorrow and anguish of losing friends, extreme weariness, the dealing with the scalding sun, torrential rain, cold, heat, humidity, insects and the daily effort just to maintain sanity were struggles faced virtually every day. And yet, there were the good times. There was the coming together to laugh, joke, and share stories from home. There was the warmth and compassion shown by men to each other in such an unreal environment. You will see where color, race or where you were from had no bearing on the tight-knit group of young men that was formed from the necessity to survive. What a “bunch” they were! ... then the return to home and all the adjustments and struggles to once again fit into a world that was now strange and uncomfortable. "Call Sign Dracula" is an excellent and genuine memoir of an infantry soldier in the Vietnam War.
  • Warriors, Wampum, and Wolves

    John L. Moore

    Paperback (Sunbury Press, Inc., Dec. 5, 2014)
    In April 1753, frontier missionary David Zeisberger prepared for a month-long voyage up the Susquehanna River’s North Branch by walking along the river bank at present-day Sunbury and selecting a suitable tree to fashion into a dugout canoe. Zeisberger and another missionary felled the tree, then spent two days hollowing its trunk into the shape of a canoe, before setting sail. A month later they came upon a fleet of 25 canoes carrying Nanticoke Indians upriver. “As far as the eye could reach, you could see one canoe behind the other along the Susquehanna,” the missionaries wrote. Zeisberger is one of many real characters who people the pages of this non-fiction book about the Pennsylvania frontier. Others include Shikellamy, the Iroquois half-king at Shamokin; Conrad Weiser, the Pennsylvania colony’s Indian agent; Teedyuscung, king of the Delawares; Benjamin Franklin, builder of frontier forts; and a Delaware war chief known as Shingas the Terrible. Author John L. Moore used journals, letters, official reports and other first-person accounts to portray the frontiersmen and the events and conflicts in which they were involved. The stories are set mainly in the valleys of the Delaware, Juniata, Lehigh, Ohio and Susquehanna rivers. WHAT OTHERS SAY: “Moore brings us an engaging treatment of Gen. Edward Braddock’s ill-fated campaign in 1755 to oust the French from the Ohio Valley. His account gives us a fresh perspective of something often lost in the histories of this march through the wilderness – the troubles the British army experienced with logistics and their erstwhile Native American allies. “Moore includes a later description by Moravian missionary John Heckewelder of how horses’ hooves made ‘dismal music’ as they walked over the unburied bones of Braddock’s soldiers. But Moore’s book is overall about a lost world of encounters in the forest between the colonial Americans and the Iroquois and Delaware – the tree paintings along trails and the travails of a Seneca given the English name of Captain Newcastle. It’s a world worth visiting.” ~ Robert B. Swift, Author of “The Mid-Appalachian Frontier: A Guide to Historic Sites of the French and Indian War.” “One can’t go wrong with this work. It’s the kind of tale one might read aloud to one’s children out in the woods at evenings while huddled around a campfire.” ~ Thomas J. Brucia, Houston, Texas, bibliophile, outdoorsman and book reviewer. “As someone who despised history classes in high school and practically fell asleep during college history courses, I must admit that I immensely enjoyed this fascinating read.” ~ Catherine Felegi, Cranford, N.J., Writer, editor, and blogger at: cafelegi.wordpress.com.
  • Visions of Teaoga

    Jim Remsen

    eBook (Sunbury Press, Inc., Aug. 11, 2014)
    The year is 1790 and Queen Esther, a notorious American Indian matriarch, travels under cover to observe a U.S.-Iroquois summit at the ancient Teaoga treaty grounds. Will she be able to pass on her wisdom – and warnings – to the Indian villagers before the hostile settlers discover her in their midst? Will troubled native girl Sisketung awaken to Esther’s truths and see how wrong-headed the brash settler girl Sarah was? Moving two centuries forward, restless tweener Maddy Winter also visits Teaoga, now a quiet riverfront town on the Pennsylvania-New York border. She tunes in to the region’s dramatic lost history and soon encounters spirits in the wind. As she gains in wisdom, Maddy longs to take on Esther’s mantle of the “peace woman,” but will she find the courage to do right in her own life?Drawing richly from the historical record, Visions of Teaoga captures a world in upheaval. Readers sit at a native story circle and learn of the tensions and treachery besetting the Eastern frontier. As Maddy and her modern-day compatriots enter the story, they ponder how our history was recorded and by whom. The book is a perfect companion for middle-school history classes, with discussion questions and other supplemental materials provided on the author’s website, www.jimremsen.com.
  • The Bronze Dagger

    Marie Sontag

    eBook (Sunbury Press, Inc., March 30, 2014)
    Samsaluna, a physically handicapped boy on the verge of adolescence, leaves his broken and abusive home in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains in an attempt to find his uncle in the city of Susa, near ancient Babylon. Befriending a young baker’s son and an asu’s daughter, Sam soon finds himself on a journey to the lively city of Babylon. By becoming a healer’s apprentice, Sam not only learns a valued and respected skill—increasing his prospects and status—but also endears himself to the great asu, earning himself a second chance at being part of a family. But when Sam’s past won’t stay behind him and his well-intentioned lies come to light, he risks losing it all. Brokenhearted that he has brought about his own downfall and has been abandoned by his new friends, Sam is forced to come to terms with his deceptions. His newfound understanding of justice, according to the code set forth by the great ruler Hammurabi, and the unyielding compassion shown to him by the asu must come into play before Sam can defeat the demons of his past, right his wrongs, and establish himself as the worthy apprentice and son he always hoped to be. Surrounded by the changing times in ancient Mesopotamia, Sam learns to cope with the past and thrive in the present in this coming-of-age middle grade story. What Others Are Saying:Dr. Sontag captures the Ancient Mesopotamia culture in a captivating tale of a young boy's survival. Armed with his lucky dagger, Sam sets out on an adventure where he encounters numerous challenges and foibles leading him to a lesson in forgiveness. A great read! -- Dr. Donna Lewis, Educator: Assistant SuperintendentA terrific book for kids who like adventure, and for parents who'd love their kids to learn a bit about history. Well-written, a lively main character who struggles with his failures and searches for hope.Here is a hero who is flawed but resourceful, and who can lead readers on an adventure involving bad guys, jewels, new friends, and making choices. A real winner! -- Karen Llewellyn., home-schooling momThe book pulls you into history through well-written narrative. By the end of the tale you come away with not only an interest in the characters and storyline, but more knowledge about the time of the Babylonians. -- Rick Crawford, former principal and author of Stink Bomb, and Ricky Robinson Braveheart