- Table View
- List View
The Water Is Wide: A Memoir
by Pat ConroyThe book is Pat Conroy's extraordinary drama based on his own experience the true story of a man who gave a year of his life to an island and the new life its people gave him.
The Water Is Wide: A Memoir
by Pat ConroyThe bestselling Pat Conroy memoir--now available as an ebookThe moving story of a young teacher's experience on an island forgotten by the worldThough the children of Yamacraw Island live less than two miles from the coast of South Carolina, they can't name the president or the ocean that surrounds them. Many can't sign their names. Most can't read or write--they're unable to reach their potential to grow and learn because they have been failed by their school district and handicapped by their poverty and isolation. But with the arrival of an eager young teacher, their prospects begin to brighten.Based on Pat Conroy's experiences teaching elementary school for a year on South Carolina's Daufuskie Island, The Water Is Wide is a revealing portrait of the inequalities of the American education system and a powerful story of the group of children that changed one man's life forever.
The Water Is Wide: A Memoir
by Pat Conroy“A powerfully moving book . . . You will laugh, you will weep, you will be proud and you will rail.” —Charleston News and CourierYamacraw Island was haunting, nearly deserted, and beautiful. Separated from the mainland of South Carolina by a wide tidal river, it was accessible only by boat. But for the handful of families that lived on Yamacraw, America was a world away. For years these families lived proudly from the sea until waste from industry destroyed the oyster beds essential to their very existence. Already poor, they knew they would have to face an uncertain future unless, somehow, they learned a new life. But they needed someone to teach them, and their rundown schoolhouse had no teacher.The Water Is Wide is Pat Conroy’s extraordinary memoir based on his experience as one of two teachers in a two-room schoolhouse, working with children the world had pretty much forgotten. It was a year that changed his life, and one that introduced a group of poor Black children to a world they did not know existed.“A hell of a good story.” —The New York Times“[Pat] Conroy cuts through his experiences with a sharp edge of irony. . . . He brings emotion, writing talent and anger to his story.” —Baltimore Sun
The Water Lady: How Darlene Arviso Helps a Thirsty Navajo Nation
by Alice B. McGintyThis inspiring picture book tells the true story of a woman who brings desperately needed water to families on the Navajo reservation every day. Underneath the New Mexico sky, a Navajo boy named Cody finds that his family's barrels of water are empty. He checks the chicken coop-- nothing. He walks down the road to the horses' watering hole. Dry. Meanwhile, a few miles away, Darlene Arviso drives a school bus and picks up students for school. After dropping them off, she heads to another job: she drives her big yellow tanker truck to the water tower, fills it with three thousand gallons of water, and returns to the reservation, bringing water to Cody's family, and many, many others. Here is the incredible and inspiring true story of a Native American woman who continuously gives back to her community and celebrates her people.
Water Mask (The Alaska Literary Series)
by Monica DevineWater Mask is an adventurous memoir from Monica Devine, an itinerant therapist who travels to villages throughout Alaska and builds a life in this vast, captivating landscape. She traverses mountains, navigates sea ice with whalers, and whirls two thousand feet above tundra with a rookie bush pilot; she negotiates the death of her father, and the near-loss of her family’s cabin on the Copper River. Her journey is exhilarating—but not without reminders of the folly of romanticizing a northern landscape that both rejects and beguiles. Reflections on family, place, and culture are woven into a seductive tapestry of a life well-lived and well-loved.
Water on Fire: A Memoir of War
by Tarek El-ArissIn this evocative, insightful memoir, a leading voice in Middle Eastern Studies revisits his childhood in war-torn Lebanon and his family&’s fascinating history, coming to terms with trauma and desire.Water on Fire tells a story of immigration that starts in a Beirut devastated by the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90), continues with experiences of displacement in Europe and Africa, moves to northeastern American towns battered by lake-effect snow and economic woes, and ends in New York City on 9/11. A story of loss, but also of evolution, it models a kind of resilience inflected with humor, daring, and irreverence.Alternating between his perspective as a child and as an adult, Tarek El-Ariss explores how we live with trauma, poignantly illustrating the profound impact of war on our perception of the world, our fears and longings. His memoir is at once historical and universal, intellectual and introspective, the outcome of a long and painful process of excavation that reveals internal turmoil and the predicament of conflict and separation. A contemporary &“interpretation of dreams&” dealing with monsters, invisible creatures, skin outbreaks, and the sea, it is a book about objects and elements, like water and fire, and about how encountering these elements triggers associations, connecting present and past, time and space.
Water Thicker Than Blood: A Memoir of a Post-Internment Childhood (Asian American History & Cultu)
by George Uba“I thought my life began in Chicago. I was mistaken. That is where my body first made its appearance, but the contours of my life…had their start much sooner.” In Water Thicker Than Blood, poet and professor George Uba traces his life as a Japanese American born in the late 1940s, a period of insidious anti-Japanese racism. His beautiful, impressionist memoir chronicles how he, like many Sansei (and Nisei) across the United States, grappled with dislocation and trauma while seeking acceptance and belonging. Uba’s personal account of his efforts to achieve normality and assuage guilt unfolds as racial demographics in America are shifting. He struggled with inherently violent midcentury educational and childrearing practices and a family health crisis, along with bullying. Uba describes boy scouts and yogore (community rebels and castoffs) with vivid detail, using these vignettes to show how margins were blurred and how both sets of youth experienced injury through the same ideological pressures. Water Thicker Than Blood is not a conventional story about recovery or family reconciliation. But itoffers an intimate look at the lasting—in some ways irreversible—damage caused by post-internment ideologies of “being accepted” and “fitting in inconspicuously.” It speaks volumes for the greater Sansei post-internment experience.
Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
by Les StandifordThe author of Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the largest public water project ever created—William Mulholland’s Los Angeles aqueduct—a story of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and one determined man who's vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.In 1907, Irish immigrant William Mulholland conceived and built one of the greatest civil engineering feats in history: the aqueduct that carried water 223 miles from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Los Angeles—allowing this small, resource-challenged desert city to grow into a modern global metropolis. Drawing on new research, Les Standiford vividly captures the larger-then-life engineer and the breathtaking scope of his six-year, $23 million project that would transform a region, a state, and a nation at the dawn of its greatest century.With energy and colorful detail, Water to the Angels brings to life the personalities, politics, and power—including bribery, deception, force, and bicoastal financial warfare—behind this dramatic event. At a time when the importance of water is being recognized as never before—considered by many experts to be the essential resource of the twenty-first century—Water to the Angels brings into focus the vigor of a fabled era, the might of a larger than life individual, and the scale of a priceless construction project, and sheds critical light on a past that offers insights for our future.Water to the Angels includes 8 pages of photographs.
The Water Will Hold You: A Skeptic Learns to Pray
by Lindsey CrittendenThe first time she said those words, suggested to her by an Episcopal priest, Lindsey Crittenden was riddled with misgivings. She didn't pray or attend church services--she wasn't even sure she believed in God--but the simple phrase held a soothing power she couldn't deny. Unlike the prayers of her childhood with their vague references to forgiving trespasses and dying before you wake, this felt solid. I am here was incontestable, certain. You are here confirmed the existence of a world outside herself and eased the knot of isolation Lindsey had been carrying with her since the day her brother died. She soon found that she couldn't pray enough. She spoke to God; she questioned God; and as a result, she came to a deeper understanding of herself and the world around her. Prayer opened Crittenden up to the present and to those around her. It gave her strength when her mother, and then her father, became ill, and when her late brother's young son became increasingly hers to care for. But when a relationship went sour, prayer abandoned her. Or so it seemed, until she learned the most important lesson of all. Poignant, personal, and surprisingly honest, The Water Will Hold You is a skeptic's story as much as it is a believer's story. It explores the power of the ineffable through a compelling narrative of family, loss, and love. Lindsey Crittenden has emerged as a fresh new voice with a message to cross spiritual and religious lines: Faith is constant discovery.
The Waterfront Journals
by David WojnarowiczVoices from the margins of American life tell tales of trickery, betrayal, sex, and defeat in these short monologues by &“a spokesman for the unspeakable&” (New York magazine). In his full but regrettably brief lifetime, David Wojnarowicz was many things: a visual and performance artist whose radical work incensed the right-wing establishment, a tireless AIDS and anticensorship activist, and, most emphatically, a writer. His Waterfront Journals are a remarkable collection of fictionalized stories spoken in the voices of unforgettable characters the author met during his time spent living on America&’s streets and traveling her back roads. The narrators speak from the heart and from the depths of despair, creating an often shocking and powerfully moving mosaic of life in the shadows. Here are junkies and boy hustlers, truckers and hoboes. A runner tells of his encounter with two drug-using priests who openly and proudly discuss their various sexual exploits. Whores tell of johns who brutalized them and corrupt cops who did the same. A young man relays his tale of a seedy movie balcony pickup and his shocking discovery that his &“date&” was not who she seemed. Another man describes sex with an amputee Vietnam veteran. Each of their stories stuns with hard and haunting truths that will leave the reader staggered and breathless, yet exhilarated. From a Lambda Literary Award winner and the subject of a new documentary by Chris McKim, these are &“dispatches from that region of dissolute grace at the city&’s edge&” (Time Out New York).
Watergate: A Story of Richard Nixon and the Shocking 1972 Scandal (Jules Archer History for Young Readers)
by Jules Archer Roger StoneWith expert storytelling skills, historian Jules Archer recounts the complete story of Watergate, from that first fateful predawn Saturday morning--June 18, 1972--when night watchman Frank Willis discovered "burglars” inside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee to President Richard Nixon’s disgraced resignation two years later. This story dives into the cover-ups, the payoffs, the blackmailing, the scapegoats, and Nixon’s impending impeachment, conviction, and removal from office. As suspenseful as any detective story, Archer unveils the scandal of a president trying to steal an election that was already his. More than eighty-five historic black-and-white photographs record the events, and Archer’s thoughtful questions and conclusions leave readers with much-needed cause for hope. Part of Sky Pony Press’s revitalized Jules Archer History for Young Readers series, with a new foreword by Roger Stone, Watergate strives to give young readers the whole truth about this moment in history, which will enable young people to form intelligent judgments essential to being a part of a functioning democracy.
Watergate: A New History
by Garrett M. GraffFinalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * &“Do we need still another Watergate book? The answer turns out to be yes—this one.&” —The Washington Post * &“Dazzling.&” —The New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky, comes the first definitive narrative history of Watergate—&“the best and fullest account of the crisis, one unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon&” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)—exploring the full scope of the scandal through the politicians, investigators, journalists, and informants who made it the most influential political event of the modern era.In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Wills enters six words into the log book of the Watergate office complex that will change the course of history: 1:47 AM Found tape on doors; call police. The subsequent arrests of five men seeking to bug and burgle the Democratic National Committee offices—three of them Cuban exiles, two of them former intelligence operatives—quickly unravels a web of scandal that ultimately ends a presidency and forever alters views of moral authority and leadership. Watergate, as the event is called, becomes a shorthand for corruption, deceit, and unanswered questions. Now, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Garrett M. Graff explores the full scope of this unprecedented moment from start to finish, in the first comprehensive, single-volume account in decades. The story begins in 1971, with the publication of thousands of military and government documents known as the Pentagon Papers, which reveal dishonesty about the decades-long American presence in Vietnam and spark public outrage. Furious that the leak might expose his administration&’s own duplicity during a crucial reelection season, President Richard M. Nixon gathers his closest advisors and gives them implicit instructions: Win by any means necessary. Within a few months, an unsteady line of political dominoes are positioned, from the creation of a series of covert operations code-named GEMSTONE to campaign-trail dirty tricks, possible hostage situations, and questionable fundraising efforts—much of it caught on the White House&’s own taping system. One by one they fall, until the thwarted June burglary attracts the attention of intrepid journalists, congressional investigators, and embattled intelligence officers, one of whom will spend decades concealing his identity behind the alias &“Deep Throat.&” As each faction slowly begins to uncover the truth, a conspiracy deeper and more corrupt than anyone thought possible emerges, and the nation is thrown into a state of crisis as its government—and its leader—unravels. Using newly public documents, transcripts, and revelations, Graff recounts every twist with remarkable detail and page-turning drama, bringing readers into the backrooms of Washington, chaotic daily newsrooms, crowded Senate hearings, and even the Oval Office itself during one of the darkest chapters in American history. Grippingly told and meticulously researched, Watergate is the defining account of the moment that has haunted our nation&’s past—and still holds the power to shape its present and future.
The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President
by Jill Wine-BanksObstruction of justice, the specter of impeachment, sexism at work, shocking revelations: Jill Wine-Banks takes us inside her trial by fire as a Watergate prosecutor. It was a time, much like today, when Americans feared for the future of their democracy, and women stood up for equal treatment. At the crossroads of the Watergate scandal and the women’s movement was a young lawyer named Jill Wine Volner (as she was then known), barely thirty years old and the only woman on the team that prosecuted the highest-ranking White House officials. Called “the mini-skirted lawyer” by the press, she fought to receive the respect accorded her male counterparts—and prevailed.In The Watergate Girl, Jill Wine-Banks opens a window on this troubled time in American history. It is impossible to read about the crimes of Richard Nixon and the people around him without drawing parallels to today’s headlines. The book is also the story of a young woman who sought to make her professional mark while trapped in a failing marriage, buffeted by sexist preconceptions, and harboring secrets of her own. Her house was burgled, her phones were tapped, and even her office garbage was rifled through.At once a cautionary tale and an inspiration for those who believe in the power of justice and the rule of law, The Watergate Girl is a revelation about our country, our politics, and who we are as a society.
The Watergate Scandal (Cornerstones of Freedom)
by Dan ElishDetails the events of the scandal called Watergate, including the major players, how the facts were uncovered, and the way in which the events ultimately reaffirmed basic principles of the Constitution.
Waterlog: A Swimmers Journey
by Roger Deakin“Like swimming through Alice’s Wonderland.” —Lynne Cox A swimming journey would give me access to that part of our world which, like darkness, mist, woods or high mountains, still retains most mystery. It would afford me a different perspective on the rest of land-locked humanity. A masterpiece of nature writing, Roger Deakin’s Waterlog is a fascinating and inspiring journey into the aquatic world that surrounds us. In an attempt to discover his island nation from a new perspective, Roger Deakin embarks from his home in Suffolk to swim Britain—the seas, rivers, lakes, ponds, pools, streams, lochs, moats, and quarries. Through the watery capillary network that braids itself throughout the country, Deakin immerses himself in the natural habitats of fish, amphibians, mammals, and birds. And as he navigates towns, private property, and sometimes dangerous waters and inclement weather, Deakin finds himself in precarious situations: he’s detained by bailiffs in Winchester, intercepted by the coast guard at the mouth of a river, and mistaken for a dead body on a beach. The result of this surprising journey is a deep dive into modern Britain, especially its wild places. With enchanting descriptions of natural landscapes, and a deep well of humanity, boundless humor, and unbridled joy, Deakin beckons us to wilder waters and inspires us to connect to the larger world in a most unexpected way. Thrilling, vivid, and lyrical, Waterlog is a fully immersive adventure—a remarkable personal quest, a bold assertion of the swimmer’s right to roam, and an unforgettable celebration of the magic of water.
Waterloo 1815: Captain Mercers Journal (Military History from Primary Sources)
by Bob CarruthersMore has probably been written about the Waterloo campaign than almost any other in history. It was the climax of the Napoleonic Wars and forms a watershed in both European and world history. However, the lethal combination of national bias, wilful distortion and simple error has unfortunately led to the constantly regurgitated traditional 'accepted' version being significantly wrong regarding many episodes in the campaign. Oft-repeated claims have morphed into established fact and, with the bicentenary of this famous battle soon to be commemorated, it is high time that these are challenged and finally dismissed.Gareth Glover has spent a decade uncovering hundreds of previously unpublished eyewitness accounts of the battle and campaign, which have highlighted many of these myths and errors. In this ground-breaking history, based on extensive primary research of all the nations involved, he provides a very readable and beautifully balanced account of the entire campaign while challenging these distorted claims and myths, and he provides clear evidence to back his version of events. His thoughtful reassessment of this decisive episode in world history will be stimulating reading for those already familiar with the Napoleonic period and it will form a fascinating introduction for readers who are discovering this extraordinary event for the first time.
Waterloo 1815: History's Most Famous Battle Told Through Newspaper Reports, Official Documents and the Accounts of Those Who Were There (Voices from the Past)
by John GrehanFor more than twenty years Europe had been torn apart by war. Dynasties had crumbled, new states had been created and a generation had lost its young men. When it seemed that peace might at last settle across Europe, terrible news was received Napoleon had escaped from exile and was marching upon Paris. Europe braced itself once again for war. The allied nations agreed to combine against Napoleon and in May 1815 they began to mass on France's frontiers. The scene was set for the greatest battle the world had yet seen.Composed of more than 300 eyewitness accounts, official documents, parliamentary debates and newspaper reports, Voices from the Past tells the story of Napoleon's last battles as they were experienced and reported by the men and women involved. Heroic cavalry charges, devastating artillery bombardments, terrible injuries, heart-breaking encounters, and amusing anecdotes, written by aristocratic officers and humble privates alike, fill the pages of this ambitious publication. Many of these reports have not been reproduced for almost 200 years.
Waterloo General: The Life, Letters and Mysterious Death of Major General Sir William Ponsonby, 1772–1815
by John MorewoodThe defeat of Napoleons French army by the combined forces of Wellington and Blcher at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 was a turning point in world history. This was the climax of the Napoleonic Wars, and the outcome had a major influence on the shape of Europe for the next century and beyond. The battle was a milestone, and it cannot be properly understood without a detailed, on-the-ground study of the landscape in which it was fought and that is the purpose of David Butterys new battlefield guide. In vivid detail, using eyewitness accounts and an intimate knowledge of the terrain, he reconstructs Waterloo and he takes the reader and the visitor across the battleground as it is today. He focuses on the pivotal episodes in the fighting the day-long struggle for the chateau at Hougoumont, the massive French infantry assaults, repeated cavalry charges, the fall of La Haye Sainte, the violent clashes in the village of Plancenoit, the repulse of the Imperial Guard and rout of the French army. This thoroughgoing, lucid, easy-to-follow guide will be a fascinating introduction for anyone who seeks to understand what happened on that momentous day, and it will be an essential companion for anyone who explores the battlefield in Belgium.
Waterloo Lectures: A Study Of The Campaign Of 1815
by Lt.-Colonel Charles C. Chesney R.E.This ebook is purpose built and is proof-read and re-type set from the original to provide an outstanding experience of reflowing text for an ebook reader. Waterloo Illustration Pack - 14 maps/battle plans, 18 portraits of the personalities engaged, 10 illustrations. The Waterloo campaign of 1815 was a turning point in world history. After 25 years of almost constant warfare that raged from India to Canada, from South America to the Caribbean, peace among the European powers was decided on a small strip of land in modern day Belgium. The momentous fruits of the campaign have led to the decisions and actions of the belligerents and their armies to be argued back and forth ever since. Colonel Chesney's work is amongst a handful of books that are considered to be "standard" as histories of the campaign that have been translated into French and German. It is fitting that the work of such a learned soldier, who is also a late professor of Military Art and History at the Staff College in Camberley, should be such a balanced and detailed account of the campaign. This ebook is based on the 4th edition which includes all of the changes that Colonel Chesney wished to be incorporated until his untimely death and was published posthumously. Title - Waterloo Lectures: A Study Of The Campaign Of 1815 (4th Edition) Author -- Lt.-Colonel Charles C. Chesney R.E. (1826-1876) Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in 1907, London, by Longmans, Green and Co. Original - xiv and 251 pages. Illustrations - The original map cannot be provided with this edition due to its A3 size - We have added our Waterloo Illustration pack to ensure that the reader can follow the text.
Waterloo Messenger: The Life of Henry Percy: Peninsular Soldier & French Prisoner of War
by William MahonAt the Battle of Waterloo Sir William Ponsonby, a man who the Duke of Wellington stated had rendered very brilliant and important services and was an ornament to his profession, was killed by French lancers after leading the Union Brigade (the three Dragoon Regiments of the Royals, Iniskillings and Scots Greys) in a charge that wrecked a French advance that threatened Wellington with defeat. Sir William was a career soldier who had led his regiment in the decisive charge at the Battle of Salamanca and served with great distinction during the Peninsular War. Yet historians have blamed him because the charge at Waterloo got out of hand. In this book John Morewood uses family sources, including Sir Williams letters, as well as French and German accounts, to restore his reputation and, by shedding new light on the battle, establishes what really happen to him on that fatal afternoon. It is also a biography of a man whose bravery and professionalism distinguished him as one of the outstanding cavalry commanders of the age.
Waterloo Witnesses: Military and Civilian Accounts of the 1815 Campaign
by Kristine HughesThe events of Sunday, 18 June, stand as the defining moment of the year 1815, if not of an entire era. The allied victory over Napoleon’s French army at the Battle of Waterloo reshaped governments and boundaries, made or broke fortunes and touched thousands of lives in ways both large and small, and it has been analysed, dissected and refought on paper a hundred times. Perhaps, though, the very best words ever written about that momentous campaign are the first-person accounts recorded as events unfolded. It is these vivid accounts that Kristine Hughes has collected together in order to convey the hopes, fears and aspirations of their authors. They inject the story of the battle with a level of humanity that reclaims it from the realm of legend and restores it to the people who witnessed it. In chronological order her work pieces together a novel view of the battle and events surrounding it as they were experienced by both military men and civilians. The result is a fascinating and varied picture of the individuals involved and the society of the period. Their words make compelling reading.
Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku
by David DavisWaterman is the first comprehensive biography of Duke Kahanamoku (1890–1968): swimmer, surfer, Olympic gold medalist, Hawaiian icon, waterman.Long before Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz made their splashes in the pool, Kahanamoku emerged from the backwaters of Waikiki to become America’s first superstar Olympic swimmer. The original “human fish” set dozens of world records and topped the world rankings for more than a decade; his rivalry with Johnny Weissmuller transformed competitive swimming from an insignificant sideshow into a headliner event.Kahanamoku used his Olympic renown to introduce the sport of “surf-riding,” an activity unknown beyond the Hawaiian Islands, to the world. Standing proudly on his traditional wooden longboard, he spread surfing from Australia to the Hollywood crowd in California to New Jersey. No American athlete has influenced two sports as profoundly as Kahanamoku did, and yet he remains an enigmatic and underappreciated figure: a dark-skinned Pacific Islander who encountered and overcame racism and ignorance long before the likes of Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and Jackie Robinson.Kahanamoku’s connection to his homeland was equally important. He was born when Hawaii was an independent kingdom; he served as the sheriff of Honolulu during Pearl Harbor and World War II and as a globetrotting “Ambassador of Aloha” afterward; he died not long after Hawaii attained statehood. As one sportswriter put it, Duke was “Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey combined down here.”In Waterman, award-winning journalist David Davis examines the remarkable life of Duke Kahanamoku, in and out of the water.
The Watermen: The Birth of American Swimming and One Young Man's Fight to Capture Olympic Gold
by Michael LoyndThe feel-good underdog story of &“one of the most fascinating people not only in the sport of swimming but in all of athletics&” (Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines): the first American swimmer to win Olympic gold, set against the turbulent rebirth of the modern Games—for fans of The Boys in the Boat and Seabiscuit&“A truly compelling story of athletic triumph, individual perseverance in the face of adversity, and significant social history.&”—Bob Costas, former NBC host of twelve Olympic GamesIn the early twentieth century, few Americans knew how to swim, and swimming as a competitive sport was almost unheard of. That is, until Charles Daniels took to the water.On the surface, young Charles had it all: high-society parents, a place at an exclusive New York City prep school, summer vacations in the Adirondacks. But the scrawny teenager suffered from extreme anxiety thanks to a sadistic father who mired the family in bankruptcy and scandal before abandoning Charles and his mother altogether. Charles&’s only source of joy was swimming. But with no one to teach him, he struggled with technique—until he caught the eye of two immigrant coaches hell-bent on building a U.S. swim program that could rival the British Empire&’s seventy-year domination of the sport.Interwoven with the story of Charles&’s efforts to overcome his family&’s disgrace is the compelling history of the struggle to establish the modern Olympics in an era when competitive sports were still in their infancy. When the powerful British Empire finally legitimized the Games by hosting the fourth Olympiad in 1908, Charles&’s hard-fought rise climaxed in a gold-medal race where British judges prepared a trap to ensure the American upstart&’s defeat.Set in the early days of a rapidly changing twentieth century, The Watermen—a term used at the time to describe men skilled in water sports—tells an engrossing story of grit, of the growth of a major new sport in which Americans would prevail, and of a young man&’s determination to excel.
Waters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unraveled the Mysteries of Our Oceans, Atmosphere, and Ice Sheets and Made the Planet Whole
by Sarah DryA Nature Top Ten Book of the Year: “Immensely readable” accounts of seven pioneers who were at the forefront of what we now call climate science (New York Review of Books).One of Booklist’s Top Ten Sci-Tech Books of the YearFrom the glaciers of the Alps to the towering cumulonimbus clouds of the Caribbean and the unexpectedly chaotic flows of the North Atlantic, Waters of the World is a tour through 150 years of the history of a significant but underappreciated idea: that the Earth has a global climate system made up of interconnected parts, constantly changing on all scales of both time and space. A prerequisite for the discovery of global warming and climate change, this idea was forged by scientists studying water in its myriad forms. This is their story.Linking the history of the planet with the lives of those who studied it, Sarah Dry follows the remarkable scientists who summited volcanic peaks to peer through an atmosphere’s worth of water vapor, cored mile-thick ice sheets to uncover the Earth’s ancient climate history, and flew inside storm clouds to understand how small changes in energy can produce both massive storms and the general circulation of the Earth’s atmosphere. Each toiled on his or her own corner of the planetary puzzle. Gradually, their cumulative discoveries coalesced into a unified working theory of our planet’s climate.We now call this field climate science, and in recent years it has provoked great passions, anxieties, and warnings. But no less than the object of its study, the science of water and climate is—and always has been—evolving. By revealing the complexity of this history, Waters of the World delivers a better understanding of our planet’s climate at a time when we need it the most.“One of the richest books I have ever read . . . a beautifully written, episodic, yet comprehensive, history of the diverse scientific underpinnings of climate science over the past two hundred years.” —Environmental History“Smart, compelling, and timely . . . By focusing on specific scientists, Dry gifts readers with entertaining portraits of some thoroughly interesting if largely unknown individuals.”—Booklist (starred review)
Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress
by Ranae Lenor HansonA personal health crisis, stories from environmental refugees, and our climate in danger prompt a meditation on intimate connections between the health of the body and the health of the ecosystem The body of the earth, beset by a climate in crisis, experiences drought much like the human body experiences thirst, as Ranae Lenor Hanson&’s body did as a warning sign of the disease that would change her life: Type 1 diabetes. What if we tended to an ailing ecosystem just as Hanson learned to care for herself in the throes of a chronic medical condition. This is the possibility explored in a work that is at once a memoir of illness and health, a contemplation of the surrounding natural world in distress, and a reflection on the ways these come together in personal, local, and global opportunities for healing.Beginning with memories from a childhood nurtured among the waters of Minnesota, Watershed follows the streams and tributaries that connect us to our world and to each other, as revealed in the life stories of Hanson&’s students, Minnesotans driven from their faraway homelands by climate disruption. The book&’s currents carry us to threatened mangrove swamps in Saudi Arabia, to drought-stricken Ethiopia, to rocks bearing ancient messages above crooked rivers in northern Minnesota, to a diabetic crisis in an ICU bed at a St. Paul hospital. With the benefit of gentle insight and a broad worldview, Hanson encourages us at every turn to find our own way, to discover how the health of our bodies and the health of the world they inhabit are inextricably linked and how attending, and tending, to their shared distress can lead to a genuine, grounded wellbeing. When, in the grip of a global pandemic, humans drastically change their behavior to preserve human life, we also see how the earth breathes more freely as a result. In light of that lesson, Watershed helps us to consider our place and our part in the health and healing of the world around us.