In an edenic community of wealthy Bay Area families, Molly Nicholl, a replacement teacher from a poorer, scrubbier version of California, arrivews in the middle of the school year and soon becomes intrigues by the hidden lives of her privileged students. Unknown to her, a tragedy from their middle school years continues to reverberate for 'her' kids. Among these are Callista, a hippe outcast who hides her intelligence for reasons of her own; Ryan the star pitcher and sex object; Dave, the nice kid whose parents' obsession iwth his SAT scores threatens to upend his life; Emma, a dancer who balances her dreams of bright stagelights with wildness on the weekends, and Nick, the uneasy kingpin of schemes, pranks, and parties. These teens are all navigating in a world in which every action may become public--postable, shareable, indelible--a world Molly finds both alluring and dangerous.

In an edenic community of wealthy Bay Area families, Molly Nicholl, a replacement teacher from a poorer, scrubbier version of California, arrives in the middle of the school year and soon becomes intrigues by the hidden lives of her privileged students. Unknown to her, a tragedy from their middle school years continues to reverberate for 'her' kids. Among these are Callista, a hippie outcast who hides her intelligence for reasons of her own; Ryan the star pitcher and sex object; Dave, the nice kid whose parents' obsession with his SAT scores threatens to upend his life; Emma, a dancer who balances her dreams of bright stagelights with wildness on the weekends, and Nick, the uneasy kingpin of schemes, pranks, and parties. These teens are all navigating in a world in which every action may become public--postable, shareable, indelible--a world Molly finds both alluring and dangerous.

Based on a new documents and interviews, this work is a look at the Berlin Crisis of 1961, with powerful applications for the present. In June 1961, Nikita Khrushchev called it "the most dangerous place on earth." He knew what he was talking about. Much has been written about the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later, but the Berlin Crisis of 1961 was more decisive in shaping the Cold War, and more perilous. For the first time in history, American and Soviet fighting men and tanks stood arrayed against each other, only yards apart. One mistake, one overzealous commander, and the trip wire would be sprung for a war that would go nuclear in a heartbeat. On one side was a young, untested U.S. president still reeling from the Bay of Pigs disaster. On the other, a Soviet premier hemmed in by the Chinese, the East Germans, and hard liners in his own government. Neither really understood the other, both tried cynically to manipulate events. And so, week by week, the dangers grew.

East Germany built the Berlin Wall in the early 1960s, an eleven-foot-high barrier manned around the clock by guards who shot to kill. Over the next twenty-eight years, at least five thousand people attempted to break through. Here is a powerful, fascinating, and groundbreaking history of Checkpoint Charlie, the famous military gate on the border of East and West Berlin where the United States confronted the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

"Checkpoint Charlie is the story of the men and women - from both sides of the Cold War's political divide - who lived, served on, or escaped through the Berlin Wall during its life span (13th August 1961 - 9th November 1989). This physical monstrosity created by the East German communist state was to divide one of the most beautiful and by 1961, ruined cities of the world; dividing families, friends and lovers. Its creation, and its sudden collapse twenty-seven years later, were the key moments of the Cold War. Checkpoint Charlie was the one place in a paranoid continent where East faced West across one hundred yards of No Man's Land. Where soldiers served, spies watched through trained binoculars, escapees fled, politicians made speeches, people died and, mothers wept. The Wall was seen by many as permanent as the Himalayas. Across the Wall's almost three decades of existence, over two hundred people died trying to escape through it to the West, and these are just the recorded deaths

Russia the most dangerous place on earth to be a bodyguard. Teenage bodyguard Connor Reeves faces his deadliest assignment yet. In a country governed by criminals, he must protect Feliks, the only son of Russian billionaire and politician, Viktor Malkov. Viktor wants to change Russia for the good of all its people. But the mafia have different plans and a contract is out for the billionaire's life. With Feliks being the one chink in his father's armour, Connor must join forces with his rival Jason to act as a bulletproof shield against blackmail, assassination and kidnapping. This is the first mission Connor and Jason have worked together. And with a deadly assassin on the loose it could be their last.