Joe

The Etymologicon is a completely unauthorized guide to the strange underpinnings of the English language. It explains: How you get from “gruntled” to “disgruntled”; why you are absolutely right to believe that your meager salary barely covers “money for salt”; how the biggest chain of coffee shops in the world (hint: Seattle) connects to whaling in Nantucket; and what precisely the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening.

The British have invaded Charlestown and the Revolutionary War has descended with a vengeance upon the sleepy southern frontier. Oppression, privation, and fear overwhelm the villages and homesteads of North and South Carolina. The Patriot cause seems all but lost. James and John Hamilton are violently drawn into the war by forces seemingly beyond their control. Since their early childhood these brothers have survived rejection, hunger, death, tragedy, and loss. But will they survive the bloody onslaught and depravity of the Redcoats and their Tory allies?

John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough (1644-1722), was one of the greatest military commanders and statesmen in the history of England. Victorious in the Battles of Blenheim (1704) and Ramillies (1706) and countless other campaigns, Marlborough, whose political intrigues were almost as legendary as his military skill, never fought a battle he didn't win. Marlborough also bequeathed the world another great British military strategist and diplomat, his descendant, Winston S. Churchill.

One of the bestselling novels of the 19th century, King Solomon's Mines has inspired dozens of adventure stories, including Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan books and the Indiana Jones movies. Vivid and enormously action-packed, Henry Rider Haggard's tale of danger and discovery continues to shock and thrill, as it has since it was first presented to the public and heralded as "the most amazing book ever written."