Michael Steven Smith

Charlie Parker is an African Gray Parrot. He entered the life of Debby and Michael Smith three decades ago when, at the insistence of their young son, Eli, they brought him home from a downtown Manhattan bird shop. He has been an integral, and voluble, member of the family ever since. Charlie’s vocabulary is astonishingly diverse and colorful. He can be demanding, squawking imperiously “Clean my cage” or “Want some water.” He can be brutally direct, warning an aggressive business associate who had been yelling at Debby “I’m going to kick your ass, you sonofabitch.” He can be mischievous, making meowing noises to a neighbor’s confused dog in the elevator. Charlie is a survivor. He ended up recovering on an IV after the collapse of the World Trade Center filled the Smiths’ apartment with toxic dust. He is often an entertainer, with a songbook that extends across “Home on the Range” to “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” And most of the time he is affectionate, often hanging upside down against the side of his cage and demanding to be tickled. In encountering Charlie’s tales in this concise and charming book, we come to realize that parrots are intelligent and loving creatures, to an extent that, as the renowned avian scientist Professor Irene Pepperberg points out in her introduction, they cannot meaningfully be owned by humans but only enjoyed as companions.

The untold story of how the American government assassinated the world’s most famous revolutionary In compelling detail, two leading US civil rights attorneys recount the extraordinary life and deliberate killing of the world’s most storied revolutionary: Ernesto ? Che” Guevara. Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith survey the extraordinary trajectory of Che’s career from an early politicization recounted in The Motorcycle Diaries, through meetings with his compañero Fidel Castro in Mexico, his vital role in the Cuban revolution, and his expeditions abroad to Africa and Latin America. But their focus is on Che’s final days in Bolivia where, after months of struggle to spread the revolution that had begun in Havana, Che was wounded, captured, and executed. Bound and helpless, Che’s last words to his killer, a soldier in the Bolivian Army, were: ? Remember, you are killing a man.” Referencing internal US government documentation, much of it never before published, Ratner and Smith use their forensic skills as attorneys to analyze the evidence and present an irrefutable case that the CIA not only knew of and approved the execution, but was instrumental in making it happen. Cables from the agency disavowing any US role in the murder were merely attempts to provide plausible deniability for the Johnson administration. The spirit of Che Guevara, as an icon and an inspiration, is as vibrant today as it ever was. Protestors around the world continue to use his image. For anyone drawn to his remarkable life and its violent, unlawful end, How the CIA Killed Che will engage, anger, and educate. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.