Ernle Bradford, the author of THE GREAT SIEGE and popular biographies of Nelson, Hannibal and Drake turns his attention to one of the greatest, and most misguided, explorers the world has ever known.

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, the son of a weaver and trained in the trade. He started sailing for business at a young age, learned navigation by studying the methods of his captains and became highly skilled at a difficult and challenging task. He also heard stories that gave him a revolutionary idea—reach the Indies (India, China, Japan) by sailing west instead of east.

Having been shipwrecked and then settled in Portugal, he married well and used family influence to propose his idea to the King of Portugal, who turned him down. He moved to Spain and pursued the same course with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who made him wait five years to settle a war then gave him three small ships and enormous authority as Viceroy of any lands he discovered and Admiral of the Seas.

He set sail and sailed and sailed and sailed, long past the point where his crew believed they would survive the voyage, before stumbling on one of the islands of the Caribbean. He went from one to another, always convinced that the wealth of the east was just past the next point. He established a colony, returned to Spain and once again promised more than he could deliver to get support for another expedition.

He returned to discover that his colony had been wiped out but started another. He exploited the natives, started a slave trade with Spain and alienated many who had befriended and supported him. He trusted only family and close associates and managed poorly both people and assets. An investigation sent him home in chains. He set out on a final, truly disastrous voyage, lost most of his ships, and returned again to Spain unaware of the stupendous discoveries he had made and of the revolution in the future of the world that his exploration had precipitated.

Bradford portrays Columbus’s genius, stubbornness, greed and stupidity mixed with bravery and masterly navigation skills. A great book gives us a true and balanced portrait of a great man who changed the world.

For a complete list of Bradford biographies and histories published by E-Reads, visit his author page.

If you’re stuck for gifts for the men in your life you might consider some E-Reads books that our surveys tells us are popular among males. Included are:

Sunday In Hell: Pearl Harbor Minute by Minute by Bill McWilliams
Using long established historical records and contemporary journals as well as recently-released war-time documents, Bill McWilliams has created a brand-new minute-by-minute narrative of the Day that Will Live in Infamy. Told from the point-of-view of dozens of characters from Generals and Admirals and politicians and diplomats down to deckhands and private soldiers and also innocent civilians at all levels, this panoramic overview of one of the most traumatizing and shocking events in American history puts the reader in a spot where they can understand the big picture of strategy and tactics as well as the intimate detail of what the chaos, violence and sudden death felt like to people immersed in the surprise of an armed attack on American soil.

The Great Siege by Ernle Bradford
Suleiman the Magnificent, the most powerful ruler in the world, was determined to conquer Europe. Only one thing stood in his way: a dot of an island in the Mediterranean called Malta, occupied by the Knights of St. John, the cream of the warriors of the Holy Roman Empire. A clash of civilizations was shaping up the likes of which had not been seen since Persia invaded Greece.

Determined to capture Malta and use its port to launch operations against Europe, Suleiman sent an armada and an overwhelming army. A few thousand defenders in Fort St. Elmo fought to the last man, enduring cruel hardships. When they captured the fort the Turks took no prisoners and mutilated the defenders’ bodies. Grand Master La Vallette of the Knights reciprocated by decapitating his Turkish prisoners and using their heads to cannonade the enemy. Then the battle for Malta began in earnest: no quarter asked; none given.

The Siege of Malta is not merely a gripping tale of brutality, courage, and tenacity, but the saga of two mighty civilizations struggling for domination of the known world.

The Blood We Shed by William Christie

The United States Marine Corps is a legendary fighting force. Literally thousands of books and movies have glorified its history. But now a Marine veteran has written a novel that opens up the curtain and provides a look deep inside the modern Corps: the good, the bad, and the sometimes just plain embarrassing.

Lieutenant Mike Galway takes command of his first platoon and it is not at all what he bargained for. What he anticipated was the challenge of training a unit of disciplined Marine infantrymen to go to war. Instead he finds himself responsible for a group of unruly American teenagers, for whom he has to become a combination of surrogate father, psychologist, high school principal, marriage counselor, financial advisor, conflict mediator, and drug and alcohol therapist. The results are frequently hilarious, always frustrating, and sometimes heartbreakingly tragic.

Maneater by Jack Warner
Most hunts end in a death. This hunt begins with one–Lanelle Jackson’s. A wild tiger has escaped its cargo truck and now roams the dense forests of the Appalachian Mountains. When deer and wild boar run out, the tiger turns its growing hunger towards man. Now it has a taste for easy prey. With a body-count on the rise and the media coming in, Sheriff Grady Brickhouse calls upon Jim Graham, a tiger hunter trained in India to end the man-eater’s killing spree.

In Maneater, author Jack Warner crafts a tightly suspenseful adventure novel, where death hides in the shadows of small town life. It will have you straining to hear the low growl of the wild before it’s too late…

Out of the Ashes by William C. Johnson
Ben Raines is searching for his family in the chaos that remains after devastation hits America. Thieves and gangsters take the streets in the aftermath of nuclear apocalypse. Fearful American citizens band together searching for a leader. Luckily, there is Ben Raines, a rebel mercenary, soldier and patriot. Ben forges together the remains of the cities to join with the Resistance forces and create a new future for America. During their struggles, the final battle arises with an attack by government forces. Will they be able to rebuild America? And will Ben Raines find his family?
Out of the Ashes is the first novel of a gripping series that takes you further than you dare to imagine into a post-Apocalypse world

Meds by Ray Garton
One hot summer day, a man in a business suit running wildly down a busy street attacks a woman and her toddler, neither of whom have ever seen him before.

… As he waits in his pickup truck for his wife to finish shopping, a man decides to take the shotgun off its rack, go inside the mall and open fire on total strangers.

… While waiting to see her doctor, a woman takes a knife from her purse and begins stabbing others in the waiting room.

Something is making people become violent and murderous…something they all have in common. When Eli Dunbar discovers what it is, he becomes afraid, because it’s something he has in common with them–a drug prescribed to him by his psychiatrist. And now Eli is a ticking time bomb.

Do you know all of the risks your prescription drugs might pose? Does your doctor? Or has the manufacturer hidden them from the public in the interest of profits?

Meds…a thriller with deadly side effects.