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Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower
by Greg PizzoliA New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2015In the early 1900s, Robert Miller, a.k.a. &“Count Victor Lustig,&” moved to Paris hoping to be an artist. A con artist, that is. He used his ingenious scams on unsuspecting marks all over the world, from the Czech Republic, to Atlantic ocean liners, and across America. Tricky Vic pulled off his most daring con in 1925, when he managed to "sell" the Eiffel Tower to one of the city&’s most successful scrap metal dealers! Six weeks later, he tried to sell the Eiffel Tower all over again. Vic was never caught. For that particular scam, anyway. . . . Kids will love to read about Vic's thrilling life, and teachers will love the informational sidebars and back matter. Award-winner Greg Pizzoli&’s humorous and vibrant graphic style of illustration mark a bold approach to picture book biography.
Tricurious: Surviving the Deep End, Getting into Gear and Racing to Triathlon Success
by Katie King Laura FountainTricurious tells Laura’s and Katie’s story with energy and humour. Filled with anecdotes and advice about the trials and tribulations of preparing for a triathlon, this inspiring book will answer your questions and leave you curious to experience the joy (and pain) of swim, bike, run.
Tricurious: Surviving the Deep End, Getting into Gear and Racing to Triathlon Success
by Katie King Laura FountainTricurious tells Laura’s and Katie’s story with energy and humour. Filled with anecdotes and advice about the trials and tribulations of preparing for a triathlon, this inspiring book will answer your questions and leave you curious to experience the joy (and pain) of swim, bike, run.
Trident K9 Warriors: My Tale from the Training Ground to the Battlefield with Elite Navy Seal Canines
by Gary Brozek Michael RitlandAs Seen on "60 Minutes" As a Navy SEAL during a combat deployment in Iraq, Mike Ritland saw a military working dog in action and instantly knew he'd found his true calling. Ritland started his own company training and supplying dogs for the SEAL teams, U. S. Government, and Department of Defense. He knew that fewer than 1 percent of all working dogs had what it takes to contribute to the success of our nations elite combat units, and began searching the globe for animals who fit this specific profile. These specialized canines had to pass rigorous selection tests before their serious training could begin. The results were a revelation: highly trained working dogs capable of handling both detection and apprehension work in the most extreme environments and the tensest of battlefield conditions. Though fiercely aggressive and athletic, these dogs develop a close bond with the handlers they work side by side with and the other team members. Truly integrating themselves into their units, these K9 warriors are much like their human counterparts--unwavering in their devotion to duty, strong enough and tough enough to take it to the enemy through pain, injury, or fear. For the first time ever, "Trident K9 Warriors" gives readers an inside look at these elite canines--who they are, how they are trained, and the extreme missions they undertake saving countless lives, asking for little in the way of reward. From detecting explosives to eliminating the bad guys, these powerful dogs are also some of the smartest and most highly skilled working animals on the planet. Center photo pages have been moved to the end, images are removed, but captions intact.
Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
by James M. McphersonJames McPherson, a bestselling historian of the Civil War, illuminates how Lincoln worked with - and often against - his senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and create the role of commander in chief as we know it. Though Abraham Lincoln arrived at the White House with no previous military experience (apart from a couple of months spent soldiering in 1832), he quickly established himself as the greatest commander in chief in American history. James McPherson illuminates this often misunderstood and profoundly influential aspect of Lincoln's legacy. In essence, Lincoln invented the idea of commander in chief, as neither the Constitution nor existing legislation specified how the president ought to declare war or dictate strategy. In fact, by assuming the powers we associate with the role of commander in chief, Lincoln often overstepped the narrow band of rights granted the president. Good thing too, because his strategic insight and will to fight changed the course of the war and saved the Union. For most of the conflict, he constantly had to goad his reluctant generals toward battle, and he oversaw strategy and planning for major engagements with the enemy. Lincoln was a self-taught military strategist (as he was a self-taught lawyer), which makes his adroit conduct of the war seem almost miraculous. To be sure, the Union's campaigns often went awry, sometimes horribly so, but McPherson makes clear how the missteps arose from the all-too-common moments when Lincoln could neither threaten nor cajole his commanders to follow his orders. Because Lincoln's war took place within our borders, the relationship between the front lines and the home front was especially close - and volatile. Here again, Lincoln faced enormous challenges in exemplary fashion. He was a masterly molder of public opinion, for instance, defining the war aims initially as preserving the Union and only later as ending slavery - when he sensed the public was at last ready to bear such a lofty burden. As we approach the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth in 2009, this book will be that rarest gift-a genuinely novel, even timely, view of the most-written-about figure in our history. Tried by War offers a revelatory portrait of leadership during the greatest crisis our nation has ever endured. How Lincoln overcame feckless generals, fickle public opinion, and his own paralyzing fears is a story at once suspenseful and inspiring.
Trifles From My Portfolio; Or, Recollections Of Scenes And Small Adventures - Vol. I: During Twenty-Nine Years Military Service In The Peninsular War And Invasion Of France (Trifles From My Portfolio; Or, Recollections Of Scenes And Small Adventures #1)
by Surgeon Walter HenryAs a "cutter", or regimental surgeon, Walter Henry faced the bloodiest side of the military on no less than three continents. "In December 1811 he became an assistant surgeon in the 66th Foot, with which he served throughout the Peninsular War, participating in numerous actions including Badajoz, Vitoria, and Nivelle. Henry was posted to India and Nepal in 1815 with the regiment's first battalion, which was recalled in 1817 to join the second battalion in garrisoning the south Atlantic island of St Helena, where Napoleon was confined. He found the former French emperor "unsightly and obese"; in 1821 he kept the official notes made during Napoleon's autopsy. Subsequently he served with the 66th in Ireland (1822-27), and in 1826 was made regimental surgeon. In 1827 Henry arrived in the Canadas with his regiment, which was stationed at Quebec (1827-30 and 1835-39), Montreal (1830-31), Kingston (1831-33 and 1834-35), and York (Toronto) (1833-34). Promoted surgeon to the army medical department in 1839, he remained at Quebec until 1841, when he was posted to Halifax where four years later he became a deputy inspector general of military hospitals. He returned to England in 1848 but in 1852 came back to Quebec as inspector general in charge of military medical services in British North America. His career seems not to have had medical distinction. Nevertheless his memoirs leave little doubt of his surgical competence, and his courage was exemplary both in battle and while performing equally dangerous work such as during the cholera epidemics."Dict. Canadian Bio.A valuable memoir for both early life in Canada and a surgeon's life in the Napoleonic Wars.
Trifles From My Portfolio; Or, Recollections Of Scenes And Small Adventures - Vol. Ii: During Twenty-Nine Years Military Service In The Peninsular War And Invasion Of France (Trifles From My Portfolio; Or, Recollections Of Scenes And Small Adventures #2)
by Surgeon Walter HenryAs a "cutter", or regimental surgeon, Walter Henry faced the bloodiest side of the military in no less than three continents. "In December 1811 he became an assistant surgeon in the 66th Foot, with which he served throughout the Peninsular War, participating in numerous actions including Badajoz, Vitoria, and Nivelle. Henry was posted to India and Nepal in 1815 with the regiment's first battalion, which was recalled in 1817 to join the second battalion in garrisoning the south Atlantic island of St Helena, where Napoleon was confined. He found the former French emperor "unsightly and obese"; in 1821 he kept the official notes made during Napoleon's autopsy. Subsequently he served with the 66th in Ireland (1822-27), and in 1826 was made regimental surgeon. In 1827 Henry arrived in the Canadas with his regiment, which was stationed at Quebec (1827-30 and 1835-39), Montreal (1830-31), Kingston (1831-33 and 1834-35), and York (Toronto) (1833-34). Promoted surgeon to the army medical department in 1839, he remained at Quebec until 1841, when he was posted to Halifax where four years later he became a deputy inspector general of military hospitals. He returned to England in 1848 but in 1852 came back to Quebec as inspector general in charge of military medical services in British North America. His career seems not to have had medical distinction. Nevertheless his memoirs leave little doubt of his surgical competence, and his courage was exemplary both in battle and while performing equally dangerous work such as during the cholera epidemics."Dict. Canadian Bio.A valuable memoir for both early life in Canada and a surgeon's life in the Napoleonic Wars.
Trigger Marshal: The Story of Chris Madsen
by Homer Croy"'Chris Madsen was a greater peace officer than Wyatt Earp - greater by far.' With these fighting words, Homer Croy launches into a fascinating story that has never before been told, the story of a great peace officer of the West who came to America from Denmark as a youth to fight Indians."
Trigger Time
by Mick FlynnGritty, but witty, description of life and death on the front line in Afghanistan, by the bestselling author of BULLET MAGNET.Now Zad, Afghanistan: a small unit of British soldiers are beseiged on a hilltop, surrounded by Taliban. There is no way out but through ambush country, on roads full of IEDs. In any case, the British have no intention of running: they have promised the local population that they are here to stay. But every day the attacks on their position become more daring, the shells more accurate. It is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt...This is the gritty but life-affirming story of how Britain's most highly decorated frontline soldier led his men through two tours in Afghanistan. Through rocket strikes and IED attacks, drugs busts, ambushes and full scale battles, Mick Flynn's first priority has always been to get his men out alive. But it is an ambition he can't promise to live up to...
Trigger Time
by Mick FlynnGritty, but witty, description of life and death on the front line in Afghanistan, by the bestselling author of BULLET MAGNET.Now Zad, Afghanistan: a small unit of British soldiers are beseiged on a hilltop, surrounded by Taliban. There is no way out but through ambush country, on roads full of IEDs. In any case, the British have no intention of running: they have promised the local population that they are here to stay. But every day the attacks on their position become more daring, the shells more accurate. It is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt...This is the gritty but life-affirming story of how Britain's most highly decorated frontline soldier led his men through two tours in Afghanistan. Through rocket strikes and IED attacks, drugs busts, ambushes and full scale battles, Mick Flynn's first priority has always been to get his men out alive. But it is an ambition he can't promise to live up to...
Trigger Warning: My Lesbian Feminist Life
by Sheila JeffreysI am in the very fortunate position of having been able to contribute to two waves of feminism: The Women's Liberation Movement and the new wave that is taking place now. Trigger Warning: My Lesbian Feminist Life is both an engaging autobiography and a fascinating account of feminist history. From the heady days of the Women's Liberation Movement through to the backlash against radical feminism as neoliberal laissez-faire attitudes took hold. Fast forward to the current re-examination of feminism in light of the #MeToo movement and an emerging new wave of radical feminism.Sheila Jeffreys' bold account makes it clear that the feminism and lesbianism she has championed for decades is needed more than ever. With honesty and frankness, she tells of victories and setbacks in her unrelenting commitment to women's freedom from men's violence, especially the violence inherent in pornography and prostitution. We also learn what her steadfastness has cost her in terms of personal and professional rewards.Trigger Warning places radical feminism within a cultural, social and intellectual context while also taking us on a personal journey. Sheila Jeffreys has tirelessly crossed the globe to advance radical feminist theory and practice and we are invited to share in the intellectual and political crossroads she has encountered during her life.Accessible yet detailed and rigorous, this landmark volume is essential reading for everyone who has ever wondered what radical feminism really is.
Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
by Fletcher Wortmann***AS FEATURED ON NPR'S TALK OF THE NATION***Imagine the worst thing in the world. Picture it. Construct it, carefully and deliberately in your mind. Be careful not to omit anything. Imagine it happening to you, to the people you love. Imagine the worst thing in the world. Now try not to think about it. This is what it is like for Fletcher Wortmann. In his brilliant memoir, the author takes us on an intimate journey across the psychological landscape of OCD, known as the "doubting disorder," as populated by God, girls, and apocalyptic nightmares. Wortmann unflinchingly reveals the elaborate series of psychological rituals he constructs as "preventative measures" to ward off the end times, as well as his learning to cope with intrusive thoughts through Clockwork Orange-like "trigger" therapy.But even more than this, the author emerges as a preternatural talent as he unfolds a kaleidoscope of culture high and low ranging from his obsessions with David Bowie, X-Men, and Pokemon, to an eclectic education shaped by Shakespeare, Kierkegaard, Catholic mysticism, Christian comic books, and the collegiate dating scene at the "People's Republic of Swarthmore." Triggered is a pitch-perfect memoir; a touching, triumphantly funny, compulsively readable, and ultimately uplifting coming-of-age tale for Generation Anxiety.Fletcher Wortmann on OCD and sex:"If a girl accepts an invitation to help count the tiles on your bedroom ceiling, then she will probably be disappointed when she realizes you were speaking literally."…on OCD and religion:"I have found Catholicism and obsessive compulsive disorder to be deeply sympathetic to one another. One is a repressive construct founded in existential terror, barely restrained by complex, arbitrary ritual behaviors; the other is an anxiety disorder."…on OCD humor:"By the sink, I noticed a perfunctory sign warning readers to wash their hands. It was scrawled with graffiti: NO YOU CAN'T GERMS ARE UNPREVENTABLE AND INESCAPABLE."…on the seductiveness of OCD:"Every so often, everything will work, and you will somehow convince yourself that you are safe, and the disorder will claim credit. I had struck a bargain with the OCD. The transaction was complete. In that moment I became subservient to it."
Triggernometry: A Gallery Of Gunfighters
by Eugene CunninghamThis widely regarded classic represents a volume of biographies of numerous master gunfighters, including such notables as John Wesley Hardin, Billy the Kid, Dallas Stoudenmire, Sam Bass, Wild Bill Hickok, Butch Cassidy, and Tom Horn. Himself a Westerner familiar with the feel of pistol and rifle, Cunningham knew firsthand several of the Texas gunfighters featured in his book, the product of more than 35 years of research, interviews, and writing.
Triggers: A Life In Music
by Glen MatlockThe life and career of Sex Pistols legend Glen Matlock through the lens of thirty of his most formative songs: a one-of-a-kind insight into the ultimate icons of punk.Courting controversy wherever they went, the Sex Pistols embraced shock value and pushed boundaries, generating headlines and public outrage. Sharing insider tales of the Sex Pistols' earliest gigs and stormiest reunions, as well as their most idiosyncratic inter-band dynamics, Glen Matlock tells his story through the impact 30 songs made in his life, including how &“Starman&” by David Bowie reminded him of his love for Anthony Newley or &“Three Button Hand Me Down&” by The Faces spoke to his hardscrabble early life in London. Matlock&’s story is the pioneering story of punk rock yet, having performed and recorded with so many musical luminaries over the decades, Glen also reflects on his time with the likes of Iggy Pop, David Bowie, the Faces, Blondie, Primal Scream, and many more.
Triksta: Life and Death and New Orleans Rap
by Nik CohnWhat lunacy would cause a 55-year-old white male, neither lean nor hungry, to embroil himself in the world of New Orleans rap, not merely as an observer, but as an active participant - ideas man, talent-spotter, lyricist, and would-be producer? And why did his experience, after many tribulations, end up so profoundly joyous and fulfilling? Nik Cohn has loved (and hated) hip-hop since its birth, thirty years ago, and loved (and hated) New Orleans for even longer. The city has haunted him from childhood, an addiction he's never wanted to kick. But nothing prepared him for the experience of being pitched, more or less by accident, into the role of Triksta, rap impressario. A white alien in a black world, with no funding or qualifications, and not a clue what he was doing, he had to rethink himself from scratch. Surrounded by a cast-list that included such names as Choppa and Soulja Slim, Big Ramp and Lil T, Bass Heavy, Fifth Ward Weebie, and Shorty Brown Hustle, he entered a world of tiny backstreet studios, broken-down slums and gun turfs, almost unimaginable to those who know New Orleans only as the touristic Big Easy. Triksta is the story of a three-year odyssey that became all-consuming - a journey to the heart of rap, and New Orleans, and self-knowledge. Hilarious, tragic, startling, and exhilarating, sometimes all at once, it is Nik Cohn's greatest book.
Trilogía de la casa de los conejos
by Laura AlcobaPor fin reunida en un solo volumen la aclamada trilogía autobiográfica de Laura Alcoba: La casa de los conejos, El azul de las abejas y La danza de la araña. «Es lo primero que me llamó la atención: la precisión de esa escritura. Y es lo que siento cada vez que escucho a su autora hablar: la claridad de su voz. Esa voz tan cristalina que venció a todos los silencios.»Daniel Pennac «Por fin voy a evocar toda aquella locura argentina, a todos aquellos seres arrebatados por la violencia. Me decidí a hacerlo porque muy a menudo pienso en los muertos, pero también porque sé que no hay que olvidarse de los sobrevivientes.» Por fin se publican reunidas en un solo volumen las tres novelas con las que Laura Alcoba ha narrado una infancia ―su infancia― y, con ella, también la historia de la época más convulsa de la Argentina contemporánea: La casa de los conejos, El azul de las abejas y La danza de la araña. Aquí palpita una memoria viva y llena de claroscuros que nace en 1975, poco antes del inicio de la dictadura argentina, atraviesa el exilio en Francia y alcanza hasta la llegada de la adolescencia en un país que quizá ya sea el propio, pero quizá no. Esta historia a caballo entre un lado y otro del océano, siempre anhelando una patria imposible, tiene la carga de emotividad que solo el recuerdo de la infancia o la mejor literatura pueden invocar. Ambos están presentes aquí con una fuerza y una finura únicas. Todo un fenómeno editorial en Francia y ya un clásico de la literatura autobiográfica más reciente. Sobre La casa de los conejos«Una historia íntima, narrada con una prosa sencillamente tierna que evoca, a veces, una humanidad amenazada y herida.»Hisham Matar «Una historia profundamente perturbadora pero bellamente contada sobre la pérdida de la inocencia. En La casa de los conejos, vemos la guerra sucia en Argentina como realmente era: una pesadilla de la vida real creada por adultos y vista a través de los aterrorizados ojos de una niña.»Jon Lee Anderson «Una conmovedora, perspicaz y dolorosa memoria de la infancia durante los días más oscuros de la Argentina. De lectura requerida para cualquiera que quiera entender lo que significa estar en la primera línea del miedo y la incertidumbre.»Philippe Sands Sobre El azul de las abejas«A través de una prosa simple y sobria, Alcoba transmite con éxito la sensación de ser un niño en un mundo adulto que no comprende [...]. Un recuerdo aleccionador, reflexivo y conmovedor.»Lesley McDowell «Para pintar El azul de las abejas, himno de amor a la literatura, Laura Alcoba buscó inspiración en su propia historia y en las cartas de su padre. Magnífico.»Le Monde Sobre La danza de la araña«Laura Alcoba escribe a la altura de los niños, en pequeños impulsos [...]. La araña danza y este libro es una pequeña pieza musical sobre la infancia y el exilio que no te va a abandonar.»Jurado del Premio Marcel Pagnol
Trimarco: La mujer que lucha por todas las mujeres
by Soledad VallejosUna investigación conmovedora y tristemente real del dolor que aún no encuentra consuelo y de la incansable lucha de Susana Trimarco por la justicia y la verdad. El dolor de Susana Trimarco no encuentra verdad ni justicia. Su vida cambió para siempre la mañana del 3 de abril de 2002 cuando Marita Verón, su hija, desapareció sin dejar rastros. Dejó de ser una esposa dedicada, una madre común y una abuela amorosa para convertirse en símbolo de una lucha que no cesa: la lucha contra la mafia de la trata en la Argentina. En la búsqueda de su hija, Trimarco se volvió implacable y descubrió un infierno clandestino que no termina de salir a la luz basado en secuestros, torturas, esclavitud y explotación sexual de miles de mujeres, niñas y jóvenes en toda la Argentina. Todavía no encontró a Marita, pero sí a cientos de jóvenes secuestradas, a las que liberó y ayudó. En ese camino logró imponer la trata de personas como un tema central de la agenda mediática, política y social de nuestro país. En este libro, Soledad Vallejos recorre los pasos de la transformación de una mujer que lucha por todas las mujeres.
Trinity: A Novel
by Louisa HallFrom the acclaimed author of Speak comes a kaleidoscopic novel about Robert Oppenheimer—father of the atomic bomb—as told by seven fictional charactersJ. Robert Oppenheimer was a brilliant scientist, a champion of liberal causes, and a complex and often contradictory character. He loyally protected his Communist friends, only to later betray them under questioning. He repeatedly lied about love affairs. And he defended the use of the atomic bomb he helped create, before ultimately lobbying against nuclear proliferation.Through narratives that cross time and space, a set of characters bears witness to the life of Oppenheimer, from a secret service agent who tailed him in San Francisco, to the young lover of a colleague in Los Alamos, to a woman fleeing McCarthyism who knew him on St. John. As these men and women fall into the orbit of a brilliant but mercurial mind at work, all consider his complicated legacy while also uncovering deep and often unsettling truths about their own lives.In this stunning, elliptical novel, Louisa Hall has crafted a breathtaking and explosive story about the ability of the human mind to believe what it wants, about public and private tragedy, and about power and guilt. Blending science with literature and fiction with biography, Trinity asks searing questions about what it means to truly know someone, and about the secrets we keep from the world and from ourselves.
Trinity: Shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize
by Louisa Hall'Brilliant . . . Hall has shaped a richly imagined, tremendously moving fictional work. Its genius is not to explain but to embody the science and politics that shaped Oppenheimer's life . . .The resulting quantum portrait feels both true and dazzlingly unfamiliar' New York Times J. Robert Oppenheimer - the father of the atomic bomb - was a brilliant scientist, a champion of liberal causes, and a complex and often contradictory character. In Louisa Hall's kaleidoscopic novel, seven fictional characters bear witness to his life. From a secret service agent who tailed him in San Francisco, to the young lover of a colleague in Los Alamos, to a woman fleeing McCarthyism who knew him on St. John, as these men and women fall into the orbit of a brilliant but mercurial mind at work, all consider his complicated legacy while also uncovering deep and often unsettling truths about their own lives.In Trinity, Louisa Hall has crafted an explosive story about what it means to truly know someone, and about the secrets we keep from the world and from ourselves.
Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change
by Tao LinPart memoir, part history, part journalistic exposé, Trip is a look at psychedelic drugs, literature, and alienation from one of the twenty-first century's most innovative novelists--The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test for a new generation. A Vintage Original.While reeling from one of the most creative--but at times self-destructive--outpourings of his life, Tao Lin discovered the strange and exciting work of Terence McKenna. McKenna, the leading advocate of psychedelic drugs since Timothy Leary, became for Lin both an obsession and a revitalizing force. In Trip, Lin's first book-length work of nonfiction, he charts his recovery from pharmaceutical drugs, his surprising and positive change in worldview, and his four-year engagement with some of the hardest questions: Why do we make art? Is the world made of language? What happens when we die? And is the imagination more real than the universe?In exploring these ideas and detailing his experiences with psilocybin, DMT, salvia, and cannabis, Lin takes readers on a trip through nature, his own past, psychedelic culture, and the unknown.
Tripping Into the Light
by Charlie CollinsDiagnosed with a rare eye disorder in the third grade, Charlie's self-esteem began to unravel by the thread. He wouldn't have a future as a detective like his hero, Magnum P. I. He would never soar in a jet fighter like he dreamed. He would never drive a race car and see the checkered flag wave. College was out of the question, because he just wasn't smart enough. At least that's what the teachers told him. Only a God who was unusually cruel would shatter the dreams of a little boy by creating him defective. It was the only explanation that made any sense, and it was a crushing blow. If God didn't care about him, why should he care about himself? And so began Charlie's freefall into a world of negative self-talk and ultimately addiction. A self-destructive plummet that would see him cheat death twice as he marched to the precipice of suicide. Raw and brutally honest, Tripping into the Light is a tale of soaring triumphs and heartbreaking defeat. It illustrates the power of true love and the undying spirit of hope. It is about one man's willingness to try just one more time, when it seemed all was lost. Through Charlie's eyes, we see that all things are possible if we are willing to roll up our sleeves and do the work. www. TrippingIntoTheLight. com
Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science
by Benjamin BreenA bold and brilliant revisionist take on the history of psychedelics in the twentieth century, illuminating how a culture of experimental drugs shaped the Cold War and the birth of Silicon Valley."It was not the Baby Boomers who ushered in the first era of widespread drug experimentation. It was their parents." Far from the repressed traditionalists they are often painted as, the generation that survived the second World War emerged with a profoundly ambitious sense of social experimentation. In the '40s and '50s, transformative drugs rapidly entered mainstream culture, where they were not only legal, but openly celebrated. American physician John C. Lilly infamously dosed dolphins (and himself) with LSD in a NASA-funded effort to teach dolphins to talk. A tripping Cary Grant mumbled into a Dictaphone about Hegel as astronaut John Glenn returned to Earth. At the center of this revolution were the pioneering anthropologists—and star-crossed lovers—Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Convinced the world was headed toward certain disaster, Mead and Bateson made it their life&’s mission to reshape humanity through a new science of consciousness expansion, but soon found themselves at odds with the government bodies who funded their work, whose intentions were less than pure. Mead and Bateson's partnership unlocks an untold chapter in the history of the twentieth century, linking drug researchers with CIA agents, outsider sexologists, and the founders of the Information Age. As we follow Mead and Bateson&’s fractured love affair from the malarial jungles of New Guinea to the temples of Bali, from the espionage of WWII to the scientific revolutions of the Cold War, a new origin story for psychedelic science emerges.
Tripping with Allah: Islam, Drugs, and Writing
by Michael Muhammad KnightIf Tripping with Allah is a road book, it's a road book in the tradition of 2001: A Space Odyssey, rather than On the Road. Amazonian shamanism meets Christianity meets West African religion meets Islam in this work of reflection and inward adventure. Knight, the "Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature" seeks reconciliation between his Muslim identity and his drinking of ayahuasca, a psychedelic tea that has been used in the Amazon for centuries. His experience becomes an opportunity to investigate complex issues of drugs, religion, and modernity.Though essential for readers interested in Islam or the growing popularity of ayahuasca, this book is truly about neither Islam nor ayahuasca. Tripping with Allah provides an accessible look into the construction of religion, the often artificial borders dividing these constructions, and the ways in which religion might change in an increasingly globalized world.Finally, Tripping with Allah not only explores Islam and drugs, but also Knight's own process of creativity and discovery.
Trippy: The Peril and Promise of Medicinal Psychedelics
by Ernesto LondoñoA riveting look at the tremendous promise and inherent risks of the use of psychedelics in mental health treatment through the lens of a New York Times reporter whose journalistic exploration of this emerging field began with a personal crisis.When he signed up for a psychedelic retreat run by a mysterious Argentine woman deep in Brazil’s rainforest in early 2018, Ernesto Londoño, a veteran New York Times journalist, was so depressed he had come close to jumping off his terrace weeks earlier. His nine-day visit to Spirit Vine Ayahuasca Retreat Center included four nighttime ceremonies during which participants imbibed a vomit-inducing plant-based brew that contained DMT, a powerful mind-altering compound.The ayahuasca trips provided Londoño an instant reprieve from his depression and became the genesis of a personal transformation that anchors this sweeping journalistic exploration of the booming field of medicinal psychedelics. Londoño introduces readers to a dazzling array of psychedelic enthusiasts who are upending our understanding of trauma and healing. They include Indigenous elders who regard psychedelics as portals to the spirit world; religious leaders who use mind-bending substances as sacraments; war veterans suffering from PTSD who credit psychedelics with changing their lives; and clinicians trying to resurrect a promising field of medicine hastily abandoned in the 1970s as the United States declared a War on Drugs.Londoño’s riveting personal narrative pulls the reader through a deeply researched and brilliantly reported account of a game-changing industry on the rise. Trippy is the definitive book on psychedelics and mental health today, and Londoño’s in-depth and nuanced look at this shifting landscape will be pivotal in guiding policymakers and readers as they make sense of the perils, limitations, and promises of turning to psychedelics in the pursuit of healing.
Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend
by Timothy M. GayA three-time World Series winner and an early inductee into the Hall of Fame, lauded by Babe Ruth as the finest defensive outfielder he ever saw and described as "perfection on the field" by the great Grantland Rice, Tris Speaker enjoys the peculiar distinction of being one of the least-known legends of baseball history. Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend is the first book to tell the full story of Speaker&’s turbulent life and to document in sharp detail the grit and glory of his pivotal role in baseball&’s dead-ball era. Playing for the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians in the early part of the twentieth century, Tris &“Spoke&” Speaker put up numbers that amaze us even today: his record for career doubles—792—may never be approached, let alone broken. Tris Speaker explores the colorful life behind the statistics, introducing readers to a complex and contradictory Texan whose cowboy mentality never left him as he brawled his way through two decades in the big leagues. Speaker&’s career put him in the company of Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Honus Wagner, and in describing it Timothy M. Gay gives a rousing account of some of the best baseball ever played—and some of the darkest moments that ever tainted a game and hastened the end of a career. His four years of research on Speaker unearthed a document that suggests that cheating induced by gambling was far more widespread in early baseball than officials have acknowledged. Gay&’s book captures the bygone spirit of the big leagues&’ rough-and-tumble early years and restores one of baseball&’s true greats—and a truly larger-than-life personality—to his rightful place in the American sports pantheon. Purchase the audio edition.