Julie M Fenster – författare

"Father McGivney''s vision remains as relevant as ever in the changed circumstances of today''s church and society."—Pope John Paul II

Is now the time for an American parish priest to be declared a Catholic saint?

In Father Michael McGivney (1852-1890), born and raised in a Connecticut factory town, the modern era''s ideal of the priesthood hit its zenith. The son of Irish immigrants, he was a man to whom "family values" represented more than mere rhetoric. And he left a legacy of hope still celebrated around the world.

In the late 1800s, discrimination against American Catholics was widespread. Many Catholics struggled to find work and ended up in infernolike mills. An injury or the death of the wage earner would leave a family penniless. The grim threat of chronic homelessness and even starvation could fast become realities. Called to action in 1882 by his sympathy for these suffering people, Father McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, an organization that has helped to save countless families from the indignity of destitution. From its uncertain beginnings, when Father McGivney was the only person willing to work toward its success, it has grown to an international membership of 1.7 million men.

At heart, though, Father McGivney was never anything more than an American parish priest, and nothing less than that, either—beloved by children, trusted by young adults, and regarded as a "positive saint" by the elderly in his New Haven parish.

In an incredible work of academic research, Douglas Brinkley (The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc, Tour of Duty) and Julie M. Fenster (Race of the Century, Ether Day) re-create the life of Father McGivney, a fiercely dynamic yet tenderhearted man. Though he was only thirty-eight when he died, Father McGivney has never been forgotten. He remains a true "people''s priest," a genuinely holy man—and perhaps the most beloved parish priest in U.S. history. Moving and inspirational, Parish Priest chronicles the process of canonization that may well make Father McGivney the first American-born parish priest to be declared a saint by the Vatican.

The true story of the men behind the first surgical use of anesthesia—and the price they paid for their breakthrough.On Friday, October 16, 1846, only one operation was scheduled at Massachusetts General Hospital . . .That day in Boston, the operation was the routine removal of a growth from a man''s neck. But one thing would not be routine: instead of using pulleys, hooks, and belts to subdue a patient writhing in pain, this crucial operation would be the first performed under a general anesthetic. No one knew whether the secret concoction would work. Some even feared it might kill the patient.This engrossing book chronicles what happened that day and during its dramatic aftermath. In a vivid history that is stranger than fiction, Ether Day tells the story of the three men—Charles Jackson, Horace Wells, and William Morton—who converged to invent the first anesthesia, and the war of ego and greed that soon sent all three men spiraling wildly out of control."A riveting saga. . . . This is non-fiction story telling at its absolute finest." —Douglas Brinkley"A steady and witty guide to the fascinating charges and frustrations that grew out of Ether Day." —New York Times Book Review"It would not be inappropriate to compare anesthesia history to a Shakespearean play. Here we have all the ingredients: tragedy, comedy, farce, a well-drawn set of characters, and intricate subplots. All this and more can be found in Ether Day." —Journal of the American Medical Association

On the morning of February 12, 1908, six cars from four different countries lined up in the swirling snow of Times Square, surrounded by a frenzied crowd of 250,000. The seventeen men who started the New York to Paris auto race were an international roster of personalities: a charismatic Norwegian outdoorsman, a witty French count, a pair of Italian sophisticates, an aristocratic German army officer, and a cranky mechanic from Buffalo, New York. President Theodore Roosevelt congratulated them by saying, “I like people who do something, not the good safe man who stays at home.” These men were doing something no man had ever done before, and their journey would take them very far from home.Their course was calculated at more than 21,000 miles, across three continents and six countries. It would cross over mountain ranges—some as high as 10,000 feet—and through Arctic freeze and desert heat, from drifting snow to blowing sand. Bridgeless rivers and seas of mud blocked the way, while wolves, bears, and bandits stalked vast, lonely expanses of the route. And there were no gas stations, no garages, and no replacement parts available. The automobile, after all, had been sold commercially for only fifteen years. Many people along the route had never even seen one.Among the heroes of the race were two men who ultimately transcended the others in tenacity, skill, and leadership. Ober-lieutenant Hans Koeppen, a rising officer in the Prussian army, led the German team in their canvas-topped 40-horsepower Protos. His amiable personality belied a core of sheer determination, and by the race’s end, he had won the respect of even his toughest critics. His counterpart on the U.S. team was George Schuster, a blue-collar mechanic and son of German immigrants, who led the Americans in their lightweight 60-horsepower Thomas Flyer. A born competitor, Schuster joined the U.S. team as an undistinguished workman, but he would battle Koeppen until the very end. Ultimately the German and the American would be left alone in the race, fighting the elements, exhaustion, and each other until the winning car’s glorious entrance into Paris, on July 30, 1908.Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12, 1908 . . . The crowds gathering on Broadway all morning were not out to honor Abe Lincoln, either. They were on the avenue to catch sight of the start of the New York-to-Paris Automobile Race. There would only be one—one race round the world, one start, and one particular way that, for the people who lived through it, the world would never be the same. The automobile was about to take it all on: not just Broadway, but the farthest reaches to which it could lead. On that absurdity, the auto was about to come of age.“By ten o’clock,” reported the Tribune, “Broadway up to the northernmost reaches of Harlem looked as though everybody was expecting the circus to come to town.” The excitement was generated by the potential of the auto to overcome the three challenges most frustrating to the twentieth century: distance, nature, and technology. First, distance: in the form of twenty-two thousand miles of the Northern Hemisphere, from New York west to Paris. Second, nature: in seasons at their most unyielding. And third, the very machinery itself, which would be pressed hard by the race to defeat itself. Barely twenty years old as a contraption and only ten as a practical conveyance, the automobile couldn’t reasonably be expected to be ready to take on the world. But there were men who were ready and that was what mattered.—From Race of the CenturyFrom the Hardcover edition.

Worth magazine founder Randy Jones shows how to pick the best stocks of the future by learning the lessons of the greatest stocks of all time.In a turbulent investing environment, luck must be the only way to score in the stock market, right? Not so, says Randy Jones. The people who bought McDonald’s in 1965 or Chrysler in 1980 weren’t just fortunate. Most of them knew how to read the signs of a good stock and jumped on the opportunity. Such stocks exist in every economic climate, and Jones shows readers exactly how to find them.In The Greatest Stock Picks of All Time, Jones describes twenty-five of the best stock picks ever and explains what made them great. He shows how the smartest investors find companies that are about to zoom, giving readers a framework for analyzing stocks today. For example, Jones explains why AT&T was a great stock pick in the 1920s, Polaroid in the 1940s, Xerox in the 1950s, Teledyne in the 1970s, and Intel in the 1990s. He then guides readers to discover stocks that represent the same kinds of pathbreaking products, innovative business models, great management teams, and other harbingers of success that will certainly be characteristic of the great stock picks of tomorrow. The Greatest Stock Picks of All Time has invaluable lessons for anyone in the market today.“Today a lot of people think they should murder their brokers, but my advice is don’t. You can stay out of jail and make a lot of money by learning from the greatest stocks of the last century and by heeding this advice for your future investments.”—Dominick DunneFrom the Trade Paperback edition.