Into a gathering storm, rescuers race to snatch the dying adventurers from nature's hungry grasp. But even the Antarctic's unending whiteness cannot hide the utter darkness of a madman's heart. Martin's Press.
It seemed like any other season on Mount Everest. Ten expeditions from around the world were preparing for their summit push, gathered together to try for mountaineering's ultimate prize. Twenty-four hours later, eight of those climbers were dead, victims of the most devastating storm ever to hit Everest. On the North face of the mountain, a British expedition found itself in the thick of the drama. Against all odds, film-maker Matt Dickinson and professional climber Alan Hinkes managed to battle through hurricane-force winds to reach the summit. In Death Zone, Matt Dickinson describes the extraordinary event that put the disaster on the front cover of Time and Newsweek. The desperate attempts of teams on the southern side of the mountain, fatal errors that led to the deaths of three Indian climbers on the North Ridge and the moving story of Rob Hall, the New Zealand guide who stayed with his stricken client, and paid with his life. Based on interviews with the surviving climbers and the first-hand experience of having lived through the killer storm, this gripping non-fiction book tackles issues at the very heart of mountaineering. Death Zone is an extraordinary story of human triumph, folly and disaster.
Tracing the history of intercultural struggle and cooperation in the citrus belt of Greater Los Angeles, Matt Garcia explores the social and cultural forces that helped make the city the expansive and diverse metropolis that it is today. As the citrus-growing regions of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys in eastern Los Angeles County expanded during the early twentieth century, the agricultural industry there developed along segregated lines, primarily between white landowners and Mexican and Asian laborers. Initially, these communities were sharply divided. But Los Angeles, unlike other agricultural regions, saw important opportunities for intercultural exchange develop around the arts and within multiethnic community groups. Whether fostered in such informal settings as dance halls and theaters or in such formal organizations as the Intercultural Council of Claremont or the Southern California Unity Leagues, these interethnic encounters formed the basis for political cooperation to address labor discrimination and solve problems of residential and educational segregation. Though intercultural collaborations were not always successful, Garcia argues that they constitute an important chapter not only in Southern California's social and cultural development but also in the larger history of American race relations.
May 1996 began like most other climbing seasons on Mount Everest. The arrival of spring brought the usual pre-monsoon period, with teams of hopeful mountaineers ready to reach for the roof of the world. Among the dozens of climbers were Jon Krakauer and Anatoli Boukreev (who would both later write their own accounts of what followed) and Matt Dickinson. But on May 10, with ten different expeditions strung out along the mountain, the usual turned deadly. Suddenly, the temperature dropped from merely frigid to 40 degrees below zero. A killer storm with howling winds swept in and climbers were soon blinded in white-out conditions. Before it was over, the blizzard would claim a dozen lives, the worst loss of life in the modern history of climbing on Everest. Dickinson, an adventure filmmaker, was part of an expedition challenging the treacherous North Face of Everest, on the Tibetan side. Of the nearly 700 people who have scaled Everest since the first ascent in 1953, barely 230 have managed to ascend via the colder and technically more difficult route up the North Face. In addition to climbing through the storm, which would test him beyond his imagining, Dickinson also filmed the ascent. He and his team watched in awe as violent clouds gathered over the mountain and swept them all up in a frightening white force. Dickinson was a relative novice who had never climbed at this crushing altitude, and the storm preyed on his mind, throwing into question his entire mission. Despite this uncertainty and the treacherous conditions, Dickinson and his partner Alan Hinkes continued their climb, compelled to reach the summit. Dickinson's first-person narrative--the only account of the killer storm written by a climber who was on the North Face--places the reader amid the swirl of the catastrophe, while providing rare insight into the very essence of mountaineering. The Other Side of Everest is a portrait of personal triumph set against the most disastrous storm to ever befall the world mountaineering community. Anyone who has ever pushed beyond familiar limits of physical and psychological endurance will cherish this book.
Regarding humans unfavorably upon arriving on Earth, a reluctant extraterrestrial assumes the identity of a Cambridge mathematician before realizing that there's more to the human race than he suspected.
An introduction to poetry geared toward the study of song "Fusing an approach that engages both lyrics and musical content of English-language songs in a wide swath of genres, Lines and Lyrics gives readers the tools and concepts to help them better interpret songs, in an accessible and enjoyable format."--Victoria Malawey, author of A Blaze of Light In Every Word: Analyzing the Popular Singing Voice "I can think of no other book that juxtaposes art song and pop song so effectively, in a way that doesn't privilege one over the other. This is a real achievement, and a must-have for anyone who loves words and songs."--Stephen Rodgers, University of Oregon Bruce Springsteen, Benjamin Britten, Kendrick Lamar, Sylvia Plath, Outkast, and Anne Sexton collide in this inventive study of poetry and song. Drawing on literary poetry, rock, rap, musical theater, and art songs from the Elizabethan period to the present, Matt BaileyShea reveals how every issue in poetry has an important corresponding status in song, but one that is always transformed. Beginning with a discussion of essential features such as diction, meter, and rhyme, the book progresses into the realms of lineation, syntax, form, and address, and culminates in an analysis of two complete songs. Throughout, BaileyShea places classical composers and poets in conversations with contemporary songwriters and musicians (T. S. Eliot and Johnny Cash, Aaron Copland and Pink Floyd) so that readers can make close connections across time, genres, and fields, but also recognize inherent differences. To aid the reader, the author has created a Spotify playlist of all the music discussed in this book and provides time cues throughout, enabling readers to listen to the music as they read.
Do you aspire to be a more effective leader who guides your team or organization to higher levels of lasting success? Would you like to look forward to each day and know that you are having a positive impact on the world around you? This is possible for everyone, regardless of your title or position. In fact, Serve to Be Great: Leadership Lessons from a Prison, a Monastery, and a Boardroom will train you to make this a reality. Although it’s not an easy process, it is a worthwhile one. By making a shift in your approach to leadership, you can become a highly effective leader who enjoys your work and makes the world a better place. The shift is simply a matter of gradually becoming more focused on how you can serve others and increase your capacity to do so. Being an extraordinary leader does not require a MBA or PhD. The reality is that anyone can be a great leader. Author Matt Tenney has survived – and thrived – in situations where most people would have been quickly broken. In Serve to Be Great, he offers his life experiences and unique insights to help leaders apply the powerful principles of servant leadership. Servant leaders are not weak or timid. Motivated by the aspiration to serve, they achieve true power by empowering others to achieve excellence. This is a practical guide to becoming a leader people want to follow. By shifting focus from short-term gain to serving others, leaders can create great workplace cultures that deliver superior, long-term results. Serve to Be Great is the perfect playbook for realizing the ultimate in personal and business success. In keeping with the spirit in which Serve to Be Great was written, all author proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to charity.
Stories and portraits of sixty-five unsung heroes behind some of history’s greatest achievements in the arts, politics, science, and technology. Explore the secret stories of the individuals behind some of the most legendary figures in the arts, politics, science, and technology in this fascinating compendium of historical fact and biographical trivia. Learn about Michael and Joy Brown, who gifted Harper Lee a year’s worth of wages to help her write To Kill a Mockingbird. Meet Thomas A. Watson, the assistant who built the telephone Alexander Graham Bell invented. And read about Sam Shaw, the man whose iconic photographs helped make Marilyn Monroe the enduring legend she is today. Each individual’s incredible story is told by a noted historian and illustrated in a sumptuous portrait by one of today’s hottest artists. History has never been so captivating or looked so good. Featuring Artwork By: Wendy MacNaughton Samantha Hahn Laura Callahan Thomas Doyle And Text by: Jessica Lamb-Shapiro Mark Binelli Manuel Gonzales Josh Viertel and many more . . . “Sixty-five illustrators and as many writers collaborated for these surprising, fun bios of history’s secret sidekicks, including Mrs. Warhola, who inspired her son Andy’s fascination with groceries.” —mental_floss magazine “A charmingly illustrated compendium of history’s most fascinating—and largely unknown—sidekicks.” —Entertainment Weekly
It seemed like any other season on Mount Everest. Ten expeditions from around the world were preparing for their summit push, gathered together to try for mountaineering's ultimate prize. Twenty-four hours later, eight of those climbers were dead, victims of the most devastating storm ever to hit Everest. On the North face of the mountain, a British expedition found itself in the thick of the drama. Against all odds, film-maker Matt Dickinson and professional climber Alan Hinkes managed to battle through hurricane-force winds to reach the summit. In Death Zone, Matt Dickinson describes the extraordinary event that put the disaster on the front cover of Time and Newsweek. The desperate attempts of teams on the southern side of the mountain, fatal errors that led to the deaths of three Indian climbers on the North Ridge and the moving story of Rob Hall, the New Zealand guide who stayed with his stricken client, and paid with his life. Based on interviews with the surviving climbers and the first-hand experience of having lived through the killer storm, this gripping non-fiction book tackles issues at the very heart of mountaineering. Death Zone is an extraordinary story of human triumph, folly and disaster.
“Matt Heard writes winsomely and compellingly, answering that quiet aching so many people – yes, even Christians – have that there must be more to life…. I highly recommend Life With a Capital L!” - Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends International Disability Center What is it that you long for? Dream about? Hunger after? We all desire more than just the endurance of our daily routines. But often we feel limited and stuck — like we’re merely existing instead of living. That’s not the way it was meant to be. God intends the humanity in each of us to be deeply experienced, lavishly enjoyed, and exuberantly celebrated. In fact this is what the gospel is all about. Yes, the gospel. Contrary to conventional thinking — inside and outside the church — following Jesus is not about denying our humanness but embracing it. Rather than acting more spiritual or being more religious, we’re called and enabled to become more fully human… and alive. Matt Heard escorts us on a journey of discovery: that Jesus didn’t come to save us from our humanity — Christ instead yearns to restore it to what God originally intended. Matt then explores ten key areas where everyday life can become extraordinary Life. Christ promised we could “live life to the full.” He didn’t just mean eventually. Life with a Capital L is the Life you are longing for. Now.
The death of Socrates may be the most famous unsolved murder in history. Set during the Peloponnesian War, this narrative solves that mystery, revealing for the first time how the philosopher was set up, who did it, and why. The influence of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates has been profound. Even today, over two thousand years after his death, he remains one of the most renowned humans to have ever lived, occupying a stratum with the likes of Buddha, Jesus, Muhammed, Confucius, and Moses. It may not be too much to say that Socrates is the single most recognizable name in the history of all humanity. The death of Socrates is, in some ways, the most famous unsolved murder mystery in history. This book will solve the mystery, revealing for the first time how he was set up, who did it, and why. What follows is not a philosophical tract but something closer to a novel—made all the more compelling because it’s true. This is a real-life whodunit intertwined with a long running war, rivalry, sex addiction, betrayal, sedition, starvation, and epic bravery. Socrates was the most rational of men living in the most irrational of times. There is another side to this story: impiety, lack of reverence for the gods, was a religious crime. From the perspective of the religious authorities of the time, the charge of impiety against Socrates was warranted, his trial just, and the penalty appropriate. The priests did not tolerate scrutiny, even in the form of philosophical critique. To understand what happened and how it happened, we have to come to terms with the motives of the priests, and as importantly, Socrates’ motives in provoking them. His trial is perhaps first, but not last, great battle between philosophy and religion. The repercussions of this ancient epic apply equally to the West today, as Athens also endured pendulum swings between democracy and oligarchy—always with bloodshed, and never with Socrates’s approval.
In 1794 and 1799 Superintendent of Convicts Nicholas Devine was granted 210 acres on the edge of the current CBD of Sydney. After the demise of Governor Bligh (to whom he was closely allied) Devine reluctantly retired to his estate where, as an old man living alone, he was constantly beaten and robbed. An Irish convict named Bernard Rochford befriended the old man in 1825 and upon his death in 1830 forged a Will and seized control of the estate and proceeded to subdivide it and sell it off. Many of the purchasers (and others, including the Governor) knew Rochford was in no position to sell the land as even if the will he had was authentic, he was a nonetheless a convict and therefore was prohibited from holding property, let alone profit from its sale. Rochford sold much of the land in exchange for grog and was continually in court over a variety of issues. As devious as Rochford was, he proved no match for his wife whose deceit landed him in jail where he died in 1839. The 30 new landowners included judges, mayors, magistrates, aldermen, newspaper editors, solicitors and other Sydney luminaries. They believed that with Rochford’s death all suspicions regarding their ownership of the land would also die but that was not to be. In 1848 Nicholas Devine’s heir John Devine arrived to lay claim to the entire estate.
Best in Tent Camping: Michigan is for those who want to experience the beauty of Michigan amongst quiet and solitude. Author Matt Forster carefully selected all 50 campgrounds to offer readers the most promise for a unique outdoor experience. With a five-star rating system for qualities like privacy, security, noise, beauty, and cleanliness and detailed maps leading directly to the campsites, Best in Tent Camping: Michigan is the perfect tool for a weekend getaway.
Excavations at Cliffs End Farm, Thanet, Kent, undertaken in 2004/5 uncovered a dense area of archaeological remains including Bronze Age barrows and enclosures, and a large prehistoric mortuary feature, as well as a small early 6th to late 7th century Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery. An extraordinary series of human and animal remains were recovered from the Late Bronze Age–Middle Iron Age mortuary feature, revealing a wealth of evidence for mortuary rites including exposure, excarnation and curation. The site seems to have been largely abandoned in the later Iron Age and very little Romano-British activity was identified. In the early 6th century a small inhumation cemetery was established. Very little human bone survived within the 21 graves, where the burial environment differed from that within the prehistoric mortuary feature, but grave goods indicate ‘females’ and ‘males’ were buried here. Richly furnished graves included that of a ‘female’ buried with a necklace, a pair of brooches and a purse, as well as a ‘male’ with a shield covering his face, a knife and spearhead. In the Middle Saxon period lines of pits, possibly delineating boundaries, were dug, some of which contained large deposits of marine shells. English Heritage funded an extensive programme of radiocarbon and isotope analyses, which have produced some surprising results that shed new light on long distance contacts, mobility and mortuary rites during later prehistory. This volume presents the results of the investigations together with the scientific analyses, human bone, artefact and environmental reports.
Follows Jake Kincaid, a gambler, loner, and hunter whose ambition and greed forever change Kansas and the Indian Territories as well as the lives of his two sons--one a lawman and one an outlaw.
The American ninteenth century witnessed a media explosion unprecedented in human history, and Walt Whitman's poetry reveled in the potentials of his time: "See, the many-cylinder'd steam printing-press, " he wrote. "See, the electric telegraph, stretching across the Continent, from the Western Sea to Manhattan." Still, as the budding poet learned, books neither sell themselves nor move themselves: without an efficient set of connections to get books to readers, the democratic, media-saturated future that Whitman imagined would have remained warehoused. Whitman's works sometimes ran through the "many-cylinder'd steam printing-press" and were carried in bulk on "the strong and quick locomotive." Yet during his career, his publications did not follow a progressive path toward mass production and distribution. Whitman's Drift asks how the many options for distributing books and newspapers shaped the way writers wrote and readers read. Studying nineteenth-century literature and how it circulated can help us understand not just how to read Whitman's works and times, but how to understand what is happening to our imaginations now, in the midst of the twenty-first century media explosion. -- from back cover.
An Entrepreneur Best Book of the Year Facebook makes us lonely. Selfies breed narcissism. On Twitter, hostility reigns. Pundits and psychologists warn that digital technologies substantially alter our emotional states, but in this lively investigation of changing feelings about technology, we learn that the gadgets we use don’t just affect how we feel—they can profoundly change our sense of self. When we say we’re bored, we don’t mean the same thing as a Victorian dandy. Could it be that political punditry has helped shape a new kind of anger? Luke Fernandez and Susan Matt take us back in time to consider how our feelings of loneliness, boredom, vanity, and anger have evolved in tandem with new technologies. “Technologies have been shaping [our] emotional culture for more than a century, argue computer scientist Luke Fernandez and historian Susan Matt in this original study. Marshalling archival sources and interviews, they trace how norms (say, around loneliness) have shifted with technological change.” —Nature “A powerful story of how new forms of technology are continually integrated into the human experience.” —Publishers Weekly
Homesickness today is dismissed as a sign of immaturity, what children feel at summer camp, but in the nineteenth century it was recognized as a powerful emotion. When gold miners in California heard the tune "Home, Sweet Home," they sobbed. When Civil War soldiers became homesick, army doctors sent them home, lest they die. Such images don't fit with our national mythology, which celebrates the restless individualism of colonists, explorers, pioneers, soldiers, and immigrants who supposedly left home and never looked back. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, medical records, and psychological studies, this wide-ranging book uncovers the profound pain felt by Americans on the move from the country's founding until the present day. Susan Matt shows how colonists in Jamestown longed for and often returned to England, African Americans during the Great Migration yearned for their Southern homes, and immigrants nursed memories of Sicily and Guadalajara and, even after years in America, frequently traveled home. These iconic symbols of the undaunted, forward-looking American spirit were often homesick, hesitant, and reluctant voyagers. National ideology and modern psychology obscure this truth, portraying movement as easy, but in fact Americans had to learn how to leave home, learn to be individualists. Even today, in a global society that prizes movement and that condemns homesickness as a childish emotion, colleges counsel young adults and their families on how to manage the transition away from home, suburbanites pine for their old neighborhoods, and companies take seriously the emotional toll borne by relocated executives and road warriors. In the age of helicopter parents and boomerang kids, and the new social networks that sustain connections across the miles, Americans continue to assert the significance of home ties. By highlighting how Americans reacted to moving farther and farther from their roots, Homesickness: An American History revises long-held assumptions about home, mobility, and our national identity.
It took Shakespeare 25 years to create his legacy of 38 plays and five years for Coculuzzi and Toner to destroy it. Shakespeare?s Sports Canon transforms the Complete Works of William Shakespeare into a hilarious hybrid of improvised sporting play and spectacle theatre. Presented as live UCSN (Upstart Crow Sports Network) broadcasts, the Sports Canon includes:Shakespeare?s Rugby Wars: the Wars of the Roses tetralogy presented as a rugby match as Team Lancaster and Team York scrum it out for the British Crown and Rugby Supremacy;Shakespeare?s World Cup: the famous four Tragedies as Team Denmark, England, Scotland, and Italy kick out the blank verse for Top Tragic Cup;Shakespeare?s Gladiator Games: the Roman and Greek plays as a traditional Roman Ludi where Gladiators vie for the coveted wooden Rudis...and with it their freedom;Shakespeare?s Comic Olympics: all of the Comedies and Romances as Olympic events as Athletes strive to overcome comic feats of timing in their quest for Ring Finger Gold;Shakespeare?s NHL (National History League): the leftover Histories as a tribute to Canadian street hockey and homage to the Original Six as hockey's Historical Heroes faceoff for Lord Stanley's impressive Cup.
Porsche is a world-renowned brand that is known best for producing highly sought-after sports cars and exotic cars and more recently for high-performance sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and high-tech luxury electric cars. Additionally, Porsche is a world-dominating sports car racing brand with factory-built-and-backed motorsport activities dating to the early 1950s, having won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright more than any other carmaker, dominating sports car racing, endurance racing, and championship-level rallying around the world. Enthusiasts at all levels generally recognize and can identify on sight Porsche’s most iconic and mainstay models, such as the original 356 models of the 1950s and early 1960s, the seminal 911 first shown in 1963 and still in production nearly seven decades later, and perhaps the mid-engine 914. Each of these model platforms contain many subsets of special-edition versions built to higher levels of style, performance, luxury, or rarity. These include a variety of anniversary editions, commemorating certain landmarks in the marque’s history. Lumping all Porsches into the “if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” category is to miss the design, details, and performance of many great cars. These cars range from relatively straightforward color and trim combinations to limited-edition, high-performance machines, including several generations of modern 911-based Speedsters, Turbos, slant-nose Flachbaus, select RS and ClubSport models, special 356s, factory and independent concepts, and design studies. The unique work of low-volume production houses, such as Germany’s RUF, and high-end restoration and custom build shops, such as Singer Vehicle Design, Guntherwerks, and others, are also found here. This book contains a veritable Smorgasbord of interesting, rare, and unique special Porsches from around the world.
Can a book that helps us find lasting success and happiness actually be fun to read? It can if its Goals Gone Wild! Visionary coach and humorist, Dr. Matt Poepsel, knows better than anyone what its like to seek personal improvement, set goals, and then watch your dreams come to fruition. In his collection of inspiring and entertaining stories, he shares candid and often witty anecdotes that identify personal improvement lessons that can help you get more out of life. With the goal of helping others tap into their potential, develop deeper self-awareness, and identify strengths, Dr. Poepsel creatively draws meaningful lessons from a variety of experiences including an aggressive Volvo driver, a razor-toothed puppy, and a broken CD player while exploring a wide range of personal development themes that lead others how to: Find great role models Form a unique brand of successful living Develop a renewed emphasis on focus Make changes for the better Shun negative self-talk Goals Gone Wild! is a thought-provoking, entertaining collection of stories, fun exercises, and practical tools designed to encourage others to clarify life goals, live in the moment, and discover true happiness.
‘As entertaining as it is instructive . . . Surprisingly funny and touching.’ - Evening Standard A Sunday Times bestseller, Where's My Happy Ending? asks the questions you've always wondered: What is ‘happily ever after’? How do you make love last? Is there such a thing as ‘the one’? Maybe you’ve just had a first date with ‘the one’, maybe you’ve been married for ten years. Either way, it’s hard to know if they’re really meant to be by your side until you both wear dentures. In this book Anna Whitehouse and Matt Farquharson, co-founders of the Mother Pukka website and authors of the Sunday Times bestseller Parenting the Sh*t Out of Life, set out to discover what it takes to make it to forever, by asking our greatest questions about love. They ask a former sex-worker and her ex-gigolo husband, celibate monks and free-loving hippies. They ask people who never wanted kids and people who have loads of them. They speak to couples, throuples and singles; gay, straight and anywhere in-between. And in asking these questions, they are forced to confront their own relationship after a decade of marriage. Join Anna and Matt on a searingly honest, belly-laugh inducing journey through love and relationships, social media and small children, expert advice and everyday exasperation, as they navigate the muddy waters of modern romance.
Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting for an engaging read aloud experience! In 2015, when Ohio State took on the University of Oregon in the first College Football Playoff championship game, millions of sports fans tuned in. But back in 1869, when Rutgers University and Princeton University played the first-ever college football game, no one predicted the national spectacle that a college football championship game would become. Author Matt Doeden takes readers on a journey from the disorganized games of the early years to the most recent playoffs to determine the best college team in the nation. Along the way, discover some of the most incredible moments, games, blunders, and statistics in the history of college football championships.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library. "Destined to become a modern classic." —Entertainment Weekly WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FEEL TRULY ALIVE? At the age of 24, Matt Haig's world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again. A moving, funny and joyous exploration of how to live better, love better and feel more alive, Reasons to Stay Alive is more than a memoir. It is a book about making the most of your time on earth. "I wrote this book because the oldest clichés remain the truest. Time heals. The bottom of the valley never provides the clearest view. The tunnel does have light at the end of it, even if we haven't been able to see it . . . Words, just sometimes, really can set you free.
Who says you have to travel far from home to go on a great hike? In Best Hikes Detroit and Ann Arbor veteran hiker Matt Forster offers the absolute best hikes in the greater Detroit area. Each featured trail is perfect for the urban and suburbanite hard-pressed to find outdoor activities close to home. Every chapter includes up-to-date hike specs, a brief hike description, directional cues, and a detailed map.
HE CAME WEST HAUNTED BY DEATH AND GRIEF... In 1884, a Harvard-educated legislator from New York set off for Dakota Territory. Staggered by the deaths of his mother and wife on the same tragic night, Teddy Roosevelt was returning to a place he had visited the year before, a place that had struck him with its fierce beauty and its bounty of big game and big opportunity. By the Little Missouri River, Teddy Roosevelt established a ranching empire, and soon stood at the center of a storm... AND IN A VIOLENT LAND, HE WAS REBORN... Less than a decade after an Indian rebellion and the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Dakota was being settled by the brave, the ambitious, and the restless. While some men were grabbing power, some were getting away with murder. For Roosevelt, using local cowboys and transplanted Easterners as his ranch hands, this was a place to make his mark, to make a stand and to look a killer in the eye. And this was a time to bring wild Dakota into the heart of America...
CLICK HERE to download the first chapter from The Bar Mitzvah & The Beast * A light-hearted and hilarious memoir of an ordinary family’s extraordinary cross-country bike adventure * Kids fighting, equipment breaking, characters popping up around each turn -- all the good cycling material is here Amateur bike rider, father of three, and everyday public school teacher, Matt Biers-Ariel never dreamed of riding a bike across the United States. But then his hard-to-impress teenage son, Yonah, refused to have a bar mitzvah as he approached age thirteen. No dancing with grandma or chanting traditional prayers? Something had to be done to celebrate this rite of passage. So Matt, his wife Djina, Yonah, and little brother Solomon decided to saddle up for a physical ride of passage -- one that would take them 3,804 miles by bicycle from the waters of the Pacific Ocean, over the Rockies, through Midwest small towns, and all the way to Washington D.C. Armed with ibuprofen, several gallons of Gatorade, and one unpredictable tandem bike (the “Beast”), the Biers-Ariel family cycled across the middle of America, chatting with colorful characters along the way, roasting marshmallows at campgrounds, and quarrelling over the state of climate change, religious identity, and several flat tires. They also collected thousands of signatures on a self-made global-warming petition calling for the United States to undergo its own rite of passage -- one of energy conservation. The Bar Mitzvah and The Beast is a funny, thoughtful memoir of one ordinary American family’s extraordinary journey by bicycle, and an enlightening, warm exploration of the bond between a spiritual, nature-loving father and his ambivalent, computer game-loving son.
The prophetic poetry of slavery and its abolition During the pitched battle over slavery in the United States, Black writers—enslaved and free—allied themselves with the cause of abolition and used their art to advocate for emancipation and to envision the end of slavery as a world-historical moment of possibility. These Black writers borrowed from the European tradition of Romanticism—lyric poetry, prophetic visions--to write, speak, and sing their hopes for what freedom might mean. At the same time, they voiced anxieties about the expansion of global capital and US imperial power in the aftermath of slavery. They also focused on the ramifications of slavery's sexual violence. Authors like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, George Moses Horton, Albery Allson Whitman, and Joshua McCarter Simpson conceived the Civil War as a revolutionary upheaval on par with Europe's stormy Age of Revolutions. The Black Romantic Revolution proposes that the Black Romantics' cultural innovations have shaped Black radical culture to this day, from the blues and hip hop to Black nationalism and Black feminism. Their expressions of love and rage, grief and determination, dreams and nightmares, still echo into our present.
Two of bestselling author Matt Braun's most beloved novels—now newly repackaged as a 2-in-1! In The Overlords, Galveston, Texas belongs lock, stock, and barrel to a handful of criminal overlords. Kingpins of vice, gambling, liquor, and big-time show business, the overlords never counted on a stubborn Hollywood stuntman who inherited his uncle's bank and a grudge. Nor could they have predicted that one Texas Ranger and a beautiful woman would try to shut down America's paradise of gambling. Now, a dangerous brew of mobsters, flappers, traitors, lovers, and lawmen is about to explode in a sin city by the sea. Who will be left standing when the last man goes down? In The Wild Ones, the Fontaines were not prepared for the life they found across the Mississippi. From Abilene to Dodge City, this family of New York City stage performers crossed paths with some of the legendary figures on the frontier, from Jesse James to Bill Hickok and General George Custer. All the while, the Fontaines kept searching for a place to settle down...until they set their sights on the boomtown called Denver.
Deep beneath the Antarctic ice cap, scientist Lauren Burgess has discovered a secret that could change the face of human knowledge. Then a desperate mayday call comes in. Two explorers, one of them the legendary Julian Fitzgerald, are stranded out on the ice and a rescue is their only hope. Lauren puts the ground breaking scientific work on hold as she leads a dangerous rescue mission into the frozen void. But after returning to the base, the pressure of isolation gradually takes its toll on Fitzgerald and his true dark nature is revealed. Lauren and her scientific team must fight for their very lives. On the run with injured members of the team, sub-zero conditions and a madman on the loose, the odds are against them and time is running out, in Black Ice by Matt Dickinson.
May 1996 began like most other climbing seasons on Mount Everest. The arrival of spring brought the usual pre-monsoon period, with teams of hopeful mountaineers ready to reach for the roof of the world. Among the dozens of climbers were Jon Krakauer and Anatoli Boukreev (who would both later write their own accounts of what followed) and Matt Dickinson. But on May 10, with ten different expeditions strung out along the mountain, the usual turned deadly. Suddenly, the temperature dropped from merely frigid to 40 degrees below zero. A killer storm with howling winds swept in and climbers were soon blinded in white-out conditions. Before it was over, the blizzard would claim a dozen lives, the worst loss of life in the modern history of climbing on Everest. Dickinson, an adventure filmmaker, was part of an expedition challenging the treacherous North Face of Everest, on the Tibetan side. Of the nearly 700 people who have scaled Everest since the first ascent in 1953, barely 230 have managed to ascend via the colder and technically more difficult route up the North Face. In addition to climbing through the storm, which would test him beyond his imagining, Dickinson also filmed the ascent. He and his team watched in awe as violent clouds gathered over the mountain and swept them all up in a frightening white force. Dickinson was a relative novice who had never climbed at this crushing altitude, and the storm preyed on his mind, throwing into question his entire mission. Despite this uncertainty and the treacherous conditions, Dickinson and his partner Alan Hinkes continued their climb, compelled to reach the summit. Dickinson's first-person narrative--the only account of the killer storm written by a climber who was on the North Face--places the reader amid the swirl of the catastrophe, while providing rare insight into the very essence of mountaineering. The Other Side of Everest is a portrait of personal triumph set against the most disastrous storm to ever befall the world mountaineering community. Anyone who has ever pushed beyond familiar limits of physical and psychological endurance will cherish this book.
Who do the police protect? An investigation into 40 years of battling protest that reveals a hidden police agenda against dissent. Charged is an essential investigation into the role of policing protest in Britain today. As the UK government tries to suppress all forms of dissent, in their pursuit of more control, how do the police manage crowds, provoke violence and even break the law? Since the 1980s under successive governments the police have been allowed to suppress protests, using aggressive tactics—from batons to horse charges to kettling. The landscape of how police deal with protest changed following criticism of the police during the 1981 Brixton riots. New military-style tactics were sanctioned by the Thatcher government, in secret. Over the next forty years those protesting against racism, unfair job losses, draconian laws, or for environmental protection were subject to brutal tactics. In the aftermath, media attention denigrates protesters while the police are praised and continue to act with impunity. Looking through these moments of conflict widens our understanding of policing public order to reveal the true character of the state. Since the 1980s successive governments, from Thatcher to Johnson, covertly plot to suppress protests, using standardised aggressive tactics, from batons to horse charges to kettling. Through undisclosed documents and eyewitness accounts the authors reveal organised police violence against miners at Orgreave, print workers at Warrington, anti poll tax campaigners, student protestors and Black Lives Matter. The voices of protesters have been undeterred.
A novel about love, loss and living in the moment, from the bestselling author of The Humans The first rule is that you don’t fall in love. There are other rules too, but that is the main one. No falling in love. No staying in love. No daydreaming of love. Because otherwise, of course, you slowly lose your mind . . . Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary forty-one-year-old, but he was born in 1581. Owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. From Shakespeare’s England to Jazz Age Paris to voyaging the Pacific alongside Captain Cook, Tom has seen a lot, and he now craves an ordinary life. Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom now has the perfect cover—working as a history teacher at a London school. Here, he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he’d never witnessed them first-hand. He can try to tame the past that is quickly catching up with him. The only thing Tom can’t do is fall in love. How to Stop Time is a wild, bittersweet, time-travelling story about losing and finding yourself, about the certainty of change, about the mistakes humans are doomed to repeat. And about the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live.
The instant #1 international bestseller from the beloved author of How to Stop Time and The Humans The societies we are part of are increasingly making our minds ill. It very often feels that the way we live is almost engineered to make us unhappy. Whether it is our attitudes toward sleep, the marketing messages that inundate us daily, the constant and hysterical news cycle, social media or even the way we educate our children, we are programming ourselves to put our bodies and minds at odds and setting ourselves up with expectations for our lives that prevent our happiness. When Matt became ill with panic disorder, anxiety and depression, it took him a long time to work out the ways the external world could impact his mental health in positive and negative ways. Notes on a Nervous Planet shares his journey back to happiness and all of the lessons that Matt learned along the way.
The Definitive Golden Girls Cultural Reference Guide is an in-depth look at the hundreds of topical references to people, places, and events that make up many of the funniest lines from the ever-popular television series, The Golden Girls. Over the course of seven seasons and 180 episodes, The Golden Girls was a consistent top 10 hit, yielding 58 Emmy nominations, multiple spin-off shows, and millions of lifelong devoted fans with its biting observations and timeless humor about such issues as dating, sex, marriage, divorce, race, gender equality, gay rights, menopause, AIDS, and more. Reruns are run on multiple cable networks daily and are streaming 24/7 on Hulu. This book brings 21st Century viewers “in on the joke” while educating readers about pop culture and world events from the past.
Everyone knows that squirrels love nuts, right? Wrong! When three young squirrels meet Salty – a grumpy, greedy old squirrel, addicted to popcorn – they become tangled up in a magical adventure that is to change their lives forever. But what will become of Ben, Cassie and Alfie when the evil honey badgers show up? Will the three friends survive an unexpected tumble in the Pop-O-Matic 3000? Popcorn-Eating Squirrels of the World Unite! by bestselling children's author Matt Dickinson is a funny, non-stop action-adventure story about four squirrels who dive in to all sorts of mischief and chaos in the pursuit of a delicious new foodstuff: popcorn. Making friends, battling enemies and overcoming obstacles along the way, this is a story for children who like to be thrilled with every page turn.
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