By every principle of war, every shred of military logic, logistics support to Canada's Task Force Orion in Afghanistan should have collapsed in July 2006. There are few countries that offer a greater challenge to logistics than Afghanistan, and yet Canadian soldiers lived through an enormous test on this deadly international stage - a monumental accomplishment. Canadian combat operations were widespread across southern Afghanistan in 2006, and logistics soldiers worked in quiet desperatio...

In the Service of Peace simple words that adorn the obverse of every United Nations medal, yet behind this eloquence lurks violence and an unheralded heroism invisible to an often misunderstood quarter of Canadas military history. The Canadian contribution to peacekeeping is enormous but ensnared in a lethal mythology that has seen it abandoned to popular folklore. From the early and intrinsic Canadian contribution to the U.N. Emergency Force in 1956, through the blur of the frenetic 1990s...

Timeless insights into military logistics sprang out of the hardships and sacrifices of Canadians who fought in Afghanistan.Good battlefield logistics have always been more about people than things. Yet military logisticians in the Canadian Armed Forces have suffered in the cellar — the underappreciated bottom of the institution — for decades. These soldiers were called upon mightily in the summer of 2006 to sustain an infantry battlegroup in one of the world’s har...

A gripping account of PTSD, and a stark reminder that, for many, wars go on long after the last shot is fired.In the shadows of army life is a world where friends become monsters, where kindness twists into assault, and where self-loathing and despair become constant companions. Whether you know it by old names like “soldier’s heart,” “shell shock,” or “combat fatigue,” post-traumatic stress disorder has left deep and silent wounds throughout history in the ranks o...

The beliefs and faith of a young priest and professor at American University, Father William Evers, are threatened upon learning the truth of his own sister's abortion and the news of her devastating suicide.In an effort to help the young cleric cope with his grief and meet the test of his faith, his mentor recommends him for an assignment as the Vatican's representative to investigate the reappearance of several lost burial sites found among the archaeological digs in Germany, Fra...

One of the finest and most influential horror writers of the twentieth century, Richard Matheson has left his stamp on the collective imagination. Here are more than twenty of Matheson's most memorable tales of fear and paranoia, personally selected by the author himself. Many of these stories have already entered into popular culture, including the title story, which became a landmark episode of The Twilight Zone, and "Duel," the nail-biting tale of man versus machines that inspi...

At the age of twenty-six , the religious pilgrim and maverick Kurata Hyakuzō wrote a profoundly philosophical play called "The Priest & His Disciples" . This stage play is based on the life and teachings of the 13th century Buddhist priest Shinran and quickly became immensely popular. Shinran, the historical founder of the True Pure Land School of Buddhism , encounters the poor family of Hino Saemon and his wife Okane, and converses with them about how to live in circumstances of change an...

The time: the waning years of the 1990s at the dawn of the millennium.The place: an isolated rural town called Auburn, which could be anywhere at all—a town where everyone knows everyone else—where dark secrets run through its veins like blood.Everyone knows that sixteen-year old Mikey Childress is "different." A target for bullies since he was a small boy, everything Mikey does attracts abuse: the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he looks. Everyone knows he's not li...

The Samurai are the legendary warrior class of Japan. They played a crucial role in the country's history, politics and religion and their legacy continues to hold immense sway over popular culture.In this fascinating history, author Rod Johnson takes us through the rise and fall of the Samurai in Japanese society from the emergence of the new class in the eighth century through the turbulent periods of the Mongol invasions and the civil wars of the Sengoku period to the attempts o...

A collection of the year’s best science fiction and fantasy short fiction selected by New York Times bestselling author of the Silo series Hugh Howey and series editor John Joseph Adams.“These are dangerous stories. The kind that warp reality and threaten to change the world” warns guest editor Hugh Howey in his introduction. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 promises a treasure trove of audacious characters, dari...

“Short stories can act like little tuning forks, helping us to clarify our own values,” writes guest editor Celeste Ng. “In a time when our values are being tested daily, it’s hard to think of anything more important.” The Best American Short Stories 2025 resonates precisely at this pitch: twenty pieces that upend expectations and test the foundation of our beliefs. From a bereaved medical actress obsessed with a student in her rotation to a mysterious sickness that ignites a leth...

The most horrific struggle of the American Revolution occurred just 100 yards off New York, where more men died aboard a rotting prison ship than were lost to combat during the entirety of the war.Moored off the coast of Brooklyn until the end of the war, the derelict ship, the HMS Jersey, was a living hell for thousands of Americans either captured by the British or accused of disloyalty. Crammed below deck -- a shocking one thousand at a time -- without ...