History offer no more astonishing instance of the part that chance plays in our lives than the catastrophic slow-motion clash between Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes and the Aztec leader Montezuma, writes Mee. The 1519 landing of Cortes and his men in Mexico came as a shock to the Aztecs. Everything that followed from that moment to the destruction of an entire civilization was a succession of stunning surprises:

• The surprise that Cortes would find himself in a land where so many wanted to revolt against the indigenous central government.
• The surprise that the Spaniards could overcome the enormous military odds against them.
• The surprise that Cortes could take Montezuma captive in his own capital.
• The surprise that the Spaniards could level the entire city of Tenochtitlan.
• The surprise that an illness would be introduced that could annihilate tens of millions of people.
• The surprise that the backbone of an entire civilization could be broken in a matter of only a few decades.

The End of the Aztecs is a humbling story for anyone who neglects to take into account the inevitability of the unpredictable in human affairs.

The digital short is available on all the major bookseller sites, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore, Kobo, and Sony.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Mee is the author of a dozen books of history, on such subjects as the origins of the Cold War, summit diplomacy, and the American Constitutional Convention. He served editor-in-chief of Horizon, a magazine of history, literature, and the arts. In recent years, he has written several dozen plays, which have been produced in New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Istanbul, and India. Among his many honors, he has received the award for lifetime achievement in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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The Good Counsel Hill convent in Mankato, Minnesota, housed nearly 200 Catholic nuns. Their lives all followed remarkably similar paths. The sisters never had children, never smoked, never drank, and had access to the same high-quality medical care. Yet their life spans varied substantially. Some passed the century mark; others died in their fifties or sixties.
What accounted for the differences?

Scientific studies showed that the happiest and most positive-thinking nuns lived a full decade longer than the least positive ones, and more than half of the most cheerful nuns reached age ninety-four, while only 11 percent of the least upbeat ones survived to that age. Happiness, journalist Ratha Tep writes in his digital short, has a larger role in predicting life expectancy than smoking.

Here’s a look into what matters – and what doesn’t – when it comes to crafting our happiest, most fulfilling, and longest lives, with research-backed tips on how to boost your mood right now.
Come On, Get Happy is available on all the major bookseller sites, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore, Kobo, and Sony.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ratha Tep is a journalist who has written for The New York Times, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Salon, Forbes Inc., Budget Travel, and The Daily Beast, among others. She splits her time between Switzerland and the United States.

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Attention spans are shrinking, the pace of life is accelerating, and no one’s job is completely secure. As a result, everyone who lives and works on the planet needs at least two thirty-second speeches – one that says who you are and the other that explains who you are and what you do. This digital short shows you how to create a pitch-perfect thirty-second speeches and how to use them.

How to Sell Yourself in 30 Seconds is available on all the major bookseller sites, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore, Kobo, and Sony.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Nick Morgan is one of America’s top communications theorists and coaches. A passionate teacher, he is committed to helping people find clarity in their thinking and ideas – and then delivering them with panache. He has been commissioned by Fortune 50 companies to write for CEOs and presidents. He has coached people to, among other things, give Congressional testimony, appear on the Today show, and make presentations the investment community. He has worked widely with political and educational leaders. And he has himself spoken, led conferences, and moderated panels around the world. He is the author of three books – Give Your Speech, Change the World, and Trust Me – and three eBooks in addition to this one: 7 Steps to a Great Speech, How to Read Body Language, and How to Tell Great Business Stories.

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When times get tough, the authors write, the tough just get tougher. And if Bullseye, Target’s value-fetching bull terrier mascot, could talk, he’d explain how his master, CEO Gregg W. Steinhafel, and his staff quietly went to work in the midst of difficult economic times and did what Target’s leaders have always done best: Make good things happen.

If you’ve never heard of Steinhafel, you’re not alone. Target likes to keep a low profile, a reflection, perhaps, of the retailer’s culture of Midwestern reserve. The absence of any cult of personality around Target’s executives may be one of the nearly $70 billion company’s most potent weapons: It can rapidly pivot in whatever direction its leaders deem necessary to take on rivals or pick up market share.

Here, in this digital short, is Target’s story – with lessons for businesspeople everywhere.

Great Companies: Target is available on all the major bookseller sites, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore, Kobo, and Sony.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New Word City LLC is a leader in the emerging field of digital publishing, specializing in and pioneering short-form eBooks on a variety of topics, such as biographies, business, fiction, food, history, sports, and travel. Its eBooks appear regularly on a number of bestseller lists. Its titles are also featured each week on the Starbucks Digital Network.

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All her life, Jacqueline Kennedy did things her way, often contradicting conventional wisdom and public expectation. But she also demonstrated considerable restraint and judgment. She won her place in America’s heart as the wife of President John F. Kennedy, then sealed her place in history as the widow who showed a stunned nation how to mourn his assassination, and finally as a woman in her own right, who lived the life she wanted and made a career that won honors and respect. It was to be a life of triumph, repeated tragedy, and much personal grace under fire as she fought to preserve the ideals and the legacy so vital to her, her children, and her country. Here is her story.

Jacqueline Kennedy, a Kindle Single, is available on Amazon.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nancy Nahra has published numerous articles in scholarly journals in history and the humanities both in the United States and England. With Willard Sterne Randall she has co-authored four volumes of history and biography. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colby College in Maine, she holds an M.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from Princeton. She has studied and been a tutor at the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris. She has taught literature and language courses in French and in English literature, as well as Latin classics in translation at the University of Vermont and later at John Cabot University in Rome, where she holds a permanent appointment as Visiting Professor of Humanities after being Poet in Residence there. Most recently at Champlain College in Vermont, she was Professor of Humanities and also served as Coordinator for Humanities.

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World War II was roaring to a climax. Harry Truman was meeting with the speaker of the House of Representatives and his old friend Sam Rayburn when he was called to the White House: Franklin Roosevelt was dead. Truman was now faced with more problems and decisions than any other leader in American history.

While American, British, and Russian armies were smashing into the heart of Nazi Germany and American troops were fighting a ferocious battle with the Japanese in the Pacific, Harry Truman took the oath of office, swearing to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Suddenly – in the middle of a global war – he had become president of the most powerful nation in the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming is one of the most distinguished and productive historians and novelists of our time. He has written twenty nonfiction books that have won prizes and praise from critics and fellow historians, many with a special focus on the American Revolution. He has also written twenty-three historical novels, many of them bestsellers.

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In 1611, Henry Hudson was on his second trip to the New World, seeking a shortcut through North America to the riches of the Orient. After having wintered over in what is now known as James Bay, the southern pocket of the huge bay that would be named for Hudson, some of his crew had had enough. Low on food and tired of Hudson’s quixotic rule, they rebelled. Hudson and several crew members were set adrift in a shallop and never seen again.

What became of Hudson and his men? Stories have come down over the centuries to the inhabitants of the James Bay area, telling of fair-skinned strangers on their shores. Could they have been the abandoned master and his crew? Millman weaves together the contemporary accounts of Hudson’s voyages and visits James Bay to investigate the mysterious fate of one of England’s greatest maritime explorers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Called “a wonderful writer” by Paul Theroux, “a master of the remote” by Bruce Chetwin, and “a genius” by Annie Dillard, Lawrence Millman is the author of 15 books, including such titles as Last Places, An Evening Among Headhunters, Lost in the Arctic, Our Like Will Not Be There Again, and, most recently, Fascinating Fungi of New England. He is a frequent contributor to a variety of magazines, among them, Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, Outside, and Sports Illustrated. He is a Fellow of the prestigious Explorers Club, has a mountain named for him outside Angmagssalik, East Greenland, and makes his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the rare times he’s not traveling.

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Mark Twain’s life was as exciting and vivid as his books. From riverboat pilot to travel correspondent to bestselling author of novels, such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King’s Arthur’s Court, his biography bursts with wit and color. Here, in this beautifully designed book, is his amazing story.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After a successful career as an investigative journalist, Willard Sterne Randall pursued advanced studies in history at Princeton University. Biographer of Benjamin and William Franklin, of Benedict Arnold, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Ethan Allen, he has taught American history at John Cabot University in Rome and at the University of Vermont and Champlain College, where he was a professor. He is a contributing editor to MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History and American Heritage.

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A top-secret military code helped win World War II in the Pacific. The unbroken code was not based on numbers or symbols but on birds and whales and fish. This is the story of the Navajo Code Talkers, who left high desert country to storm tropical jungles, armed only with their language and a rare courage in the face of fire. Here, in this digital short, Watson tells the story, based on interviews and oral histories by the last living Code Talkers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bruce Watson is the author of four acclaimed books of American history, including Sacco and Vanzetti, Freedom Summer, and Bread and Roses, each published by Viking. As a frequent contributor to Smithsonian, Watson wrote more than forty feature articles on topics ranging from eels to Ferraris to the history of Coney Island. His pieces have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Yankee, and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2003.

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The most famous collision in American Navy history took place on a moonless night in 1943. PT-109, under John F. Kennedy’s command, was idling off the South Pacific island of Kolombangara. With virtually no warning, a Japanese destroyer smashed into the boat, slicing it in half and igniting its thousands of gallons of gasoline. PT-109’s commander and surviving crew were flung or leaped into the blazing water.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming is one of the most distinguished and productive historians and novelists of our time. He has written twenty nonfiction books that have won prizes and praise from critics and fellow historians, many with a special focus on the American Revolution. He has also written twenty-three historical novels, many of them bestsellers.

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