The treacherous "dark side" of Mount Everest is the setting for this high-stakes adventure, the story of ten men and two women who pit themselves against the "ultimate summit". The ascent is the supreme test of physical and emotional discipline. Yet the mountain, in its otherworldly, ice-sheathed beauty, offers two of the climbers a special promise of release from a haunting past.
The expedition takes place in the Forbidden Kingdom of Tibet, where high in the ruins of rock-bound monasteries, the remnants of a shattered culture struggle to survive in the face of Chinese genocide. Views: 48
A collection of short stories by a world-renowned naturalist and author of My Family and Other Animals introduces an eccentric cast of characters including a prize-truffling pig in France and an aging Memphis belle. Views: 45
Bear Grylls is a man who has always sought the ultimate in adventure. Growing up on the Isle of Wight, he was taught by his father to sail and climb at an early age. Inevitably, it wasn’t long before Bear was leading out-of-bounds night-climbing missions at school. As a teenager, he found identity and purpose through both mountaineering and martial arts, which led the young adventurer to the foothills of the mighty Himalaya and a grandmaster’s karate training camp in Japan. On returning home, he embarked upon the notoriously gruelling selection course for the British Special Forces to join 21 SAS – a journey that was to push him to the very limits of physical and mental endurance.Then, in a horrific free-fall parachuting accident in Africa, Bear broke his back in three places. It was touch and go whether he would ever walk again. However, only eighteen months later and defying doctors’ expectations, Bear became one of the youngest ever climbers to scale Everest, aged only twenty-three. But this was just the beginning of his many extraordinary adventures . . .Known and admired by millions – whether from his global adventure TV series, as a bestselling author, or as Chief Scout to the Scouting Association – Bear Grylls has survived where few would dare to go. Now, for the first time, Bear tells the story of his action-packed life. Gripping, moving and wildly exhilarating, Mud, Sweat and Tears is a must-read for adrenalin junkies and armchair adventurers alike. Views: 43
Library of America inaugurates its edition of the complete fiction of one of America's most beloved living writersFor more than fifty years, in eight novels and fortytwo short stories, Wendell Berry (b. 1934) has created an indelible portrait of rural America through the lens of Port William, Kentucky, one of the most fully imagined places in American literature. Taken together, these novels and stories form a masterwork of American prose: straightforward, spare, and lyrical. Now, for the first time, in an edition prepared in consultation with the author, Library of America is presenting the complete story of Port William in the order of narrative chronology. This first volume, which spans from the Civil War to World War II, gathers the novels Nathan Coulter (1960, revised 1985), A Place on Earth (1967, revised 1983), A World Lost (1996), and Andy Catlett: Early Travels (2006), along with twenty-three short stories, among them such favorites... Views: 41
Book DescriptionWhen an 80-ton fin whale became trapped in a lagoon near his Newfoundland home, Farley Mowat rejoiced at the unique chance to observe one of the world's most magnificent creatures up close. But some of his neighbors saw a different opportunity altogether: in a prolonged fit of violence, they blasted the whale with rifle fire, and scarred its back with motorboat propellers. Mowat appealed desperately to the police, to marine biologists, finally to the press. But it was too late. Mowat's poignant and compelling story is an eloquent argument for the end of the whale hunt, and the rediscovery of the empathy that makes us human.About The AuthorFarley Mowat was born in Belleville, Ontario, in 1921. He began writing upon his return from serving in World War II, and has since written 44 books. He spent much of his youth in Saskatoon, and has lived in Ontario, Cape Breton and Newfoundland, while travelling frequently to Canada's far north. Throughout, Mowat has remained a determined environmentalist, despairing at the ceaseless work of human cruelty. Yet his ability to capture the tragic comedy of human life on earth has made him a national treasure in Canada, and a beloved storyteller to readers around the world. His internationally celebrated books include People of the Deer, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, Sea of Slaughter, and The Boat Who Wouldn't Float. Views: 40
Spirit of the Jungle, by real-life adventurer Bear Grylls, is a heart-stopping, contemporary adventure inspired by Rudyard Kipling's classic The Jungle Book.When teenager Mak discovers the whole family is going on a trip to India, his heart sinks. He's happiest at home playing computer games and practising his magic tricks in his room - and he's about to be thrown into the busy, colourful heart of India. When they arrive, his dad suggests a trip into the jungle as an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. But as they set out along the Wainganga River, the family are caught in a flash storm and Mak' is washed away. Alone in the jungle, he must learn to survive. Dodging poachers, poisonous snakes and evil monkeys, Mak finds help and friendship from other jungle creatures. But can he gather all his skills to make it back to civilization? Views: 40
SUMMARY:
"Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time that has ever been devised," wrote Apsley Cherry-Garrard in a deceptively jaunty introduction to this classic story of bravery and fortitude first published in 1922. The story he relates is of Scott's last expedition to the Antarctic, from its departure from England in 1910 to its arrival in New Zealand in 1913; it is one of the most famous and tragic in the annals of exploration. Driven by an obsession for scientific knowledge, these brave polar explorers embarked on a journey into the unknown, testing their endurance by pushing themselves to the ultimate physical and mental limits as they surveyed the striking and mammoth land that lies far to the south.Cherry-Garrard was himself a member of the expedition that had two goals: to discover as much as was scientifically possible about the terrain and habitat of Antarctica, and to be the first to reach the South Pole. The party was plagued by bad luck, weather conditions of unanticipated ferocity, and the physical deterioration of the party on the last part of the journey. Confronted by the shattering knowledge that Roald Amundsen had reached the South Pole a month before them, Scott's party then had to negotiate the last, heroic part of their journey, a doomed attempt which has entered modern mythology.The Worst Journey in the World is the inside story of this most famous of journeys and is truly one of the best and most moving books of travel ever written. Join Scott's expedition as he and his team venture deep into the frozen unknown. This volume is the second in the continuing series of Explorers Club books. Views: 39
«Cold Hand in Mine» was first published in the UK in 1975 and in the US in 1977. The story «Pages from a Young Girl's Journal» won Aickman the World Fantasy Award in 1975. It was originally published in «The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction» in 1973 before appearing in this collection. «Cold Hand in Mine» stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a «strange story» writer to the full, being more ambiguous than standard ghost stories. Throughout the stories the reader is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story («Pages from a Young Girl's Journal») but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing. «Of all the authors of uncanny tales, Aickman is the best ever…His tales literally haunt me; his plots and his turns of phrase run through my head at the most unlikely moments.» — Russell Kirk. Views: 39
When her granddaughter's boyfriend, Mark, is accused of sexual harassment soon after starting a teaching job at a small college, Lillian Morgan tries to help him and finds that the harassment policy from hell could end his career. Then a student is murdered and Mark becomes the chief suspect. Lillian finds that life on campus isn't what it used to be (if it ever was). Views: 39
