Reading Recommendations; A Terrible Glory-Custer and The Little Bighorn-The Last Great Battle of the American West, James Donovan

June 25, 1876. The air is filled with smoke, arrows, and the roar of hundreds of rifles. George Armstrong Custer and five undermanned companies of his famed seventh cavalry are trapped on a hill overlooking a river called the Little Bighorn. They are surrounded by more than a thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors, and slowly, in inexorably, the Indians are moving closer, forming a tightening noose around Custer's tenuous position. What will follow is the bloody climax to one of the most remarkable sagas in American history.

For well over a century, the Battle of Little Bighorn has fascinated Americans, but few people know the entire truth behind it. Now, at long last comes the authoritative account that readers and historians have been waiting for. Scrupulously researched and thrillingly told, A Terrible Glory is a landmark work brimming with authentic detail and an unforgettable cast of characters, from Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse to Ulysses S. Grant and, of course, the complex and controversial Custer himself. Drawing upon a wide range of primary sources, many of them unpublished or little known, as well as vital new forensic research of the past twenty five years, the noted historian James Donovan casts aside the myth and gives us the fullest and most accurate account ever written about Custer's Last Stand. He paints a spell binding narrative of the entire campaign from the early conflicts between Indians and settlers to the army court of inquiry that sought to assign blame to the stunning defeat. We are there in the village as young warriors paint their faces and grab their favorite weapons in preparation for battle; in the field as desperate cavalry men kill their mounts to use their carcasses for cover; and in the courtroom as some of the surviving officers of the Seventh Cavalry point fingers in order to avoid being held responsible for the disaster.

An astonishing chronicle of courage, honor, and loss. Not necessarily a book I would choose, yet one I wouldn't have missed!

And, Almost Home, a novel, Pam Jenoff

Ten years ago, American Jordan Weiss's idyllic experience as a graduate student and coxswain at Cambridge was shattered when her boyfriend and fellow crew member, Jared Short, drowned in the River Cam the night before the biggest race of the year. Since that time, Jordan, a State Department intelligence officer, has traveled the world on dangerous assignments but has managed to avoid returning to face her painful memories in England. When her terminally ill friend Sarah asks her to come to London, though, Jordan finds herself requesting a transfer to the one place where swore she'd never go again.

In London, Jordan attempts to settle into her new life, pushing aside her haunting memories and taking on an urgent mission beside Rakish agent Sebastian Hodges. Shortly after her arrival, just when she thinks there's hope for a fresh start in England, she is approached by a former college classmate who makes a startling assertion. He tells her that Jared's death was not an accident, but that he was murdered.

Jordan quickly learns that Jared's death was indeed not an accident, and that his research on World War II had uncovered a shameful secret. But powerful forces with everything to lose will stop at nothing to keep the past buried. Soon, Jordan finds herself in grave peril as she struggles to find the answers that lie treacherously close to home, the truth that threatens to change her life forever, and the love that makes it all worth fighting for.

It is a journey that sweeps readers across England and back in time to reveal the incalculable dangers that lie in the wake of war. Fast moving and impossible to put down.

See you at Rylander!