- Table View
- List View
The Footloose American
by Brian KevinAn adventure-filled and thought-provoking travelogue along Hunter S. Thompson's forgotten route through South AmericaIn 1963, twenty-five-year-old Hunter S. Thompson completed a yearlong journey across South America, filing a series of dispatches for an upstart paper called the National Observer. It was here, on the front lines of the Cold War, that this then-unknown reporter began making a name for himself. The Hunter S. Thompson who would become America's iconic "gonzo journalist" was born in the streets of Rio, the mountains of Peru, and the black market outposts of Colombia. In The Footloose American, Brian Kevin traverses the continent with Thompson's ghost as his guide, offering a ground-level exploration of twenty-first-century South American culture, politics, and ecology. By contrasting the author's own thrilling, transformative experiences along the Hunter S. Thompson Trail with those that Thompson describes in his letters and lost Observer stories, The Footloose American is at once a gripping personal journey and a thought-provoking study of culture and place.From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Forbidden Orchid
by Sharon Biggs WallerThe adventures of a British girl in China, hunting for the orchid that will save her family.Staid, responsible Elodie Buchanan is the eldest of ten sisters growing up in a small English market town in 1861. The girls barely know their father, a plant hunter usually off adventuring through China, more myth than man. Then disaster strikes: Mr. Buchanan reneges on his contract to collect an extremely rare and valuable orchid. He will be thrown into debtors' prison while his daughters are sent to the orphanage and the workhouse. Elodie can't stand by and see her family destroyed, so she persuades her father to return to China once more to try to hunt down the flower--only this time, despite everything she knows about her place in society, Elodie goes with him. She has never before left her village, but what starts as fear turns to wonder as she adapts to seafaring life aboard the tea clipper The Osprey, and later to the new sights, dangers, and romance of China. She comes to find that both the world and her place in it are so much bigger than she'd ever dreamed. But now, even if she can find the orchid, how can she ever go back to being the staid, responsible Elodie that everybody needs?From the Hardcover edition.
The Forbidden Place
by Susanne Jansson'A bone-chillingly cool crime debut.' Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the TrainTerrible things happen in Mossmarken. Long ago, the mire welcomed sacrifices to the gods...and the area still seems haunted. Nathalie thought she had escaped, but the half-buried memories of what happened in her childhood have finally called her home. Then, soon after she returns, her friend Johannes is found unconscious out on the marsh, his pockets filled with gold coins - just like the ancient victims. As the police investigate, more bodies surface, but the truth seems lost in the mire. Superstitious locals claim the gods cry out for blood. But Nathalie is about to find out the true extent of human evil.An international sensation, THE FORBIDDEN PLACE is a darkly gripping tale of the stories we tell ourselves to survive, and the terrible consequences they can have.
The Forbidden Place
by Susanne JanssonBad things happen in Mossmarken... and now Nathalie has come home, they seem to be happening again. A dark, brilliant suspense novel from a fantastic new voice in international literature.In the remote Swedish wetlands lies Mossmarken: the village on the edge of the mire where, once upon a time, people came to leave offerings to the gods. Biologist Nathalie came in order to study the peat bogs. But she has a secret: Mossmarken was once her home, a place where terrible things happened. She has returned at last, determined to confront her childhood trauma and find out the truth.Soon after her arrival, she finds an unconscious man out on the marsh, his pockets filled with gold - just like the ancient human sacrifices. A grave is dug in the mire, which vanishes a day after. And as the police investigate, the bodies start to surface...Is the mire calling out for sacrifices, as the superstitious locals claim? Or is it an all-too-human evil?An international sensation, THE FORBIDDEN PLACE is a darkly gripping tale of the stories we tell ourselves to survive, and the terrible consequences they can have.(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Forest of Moon and Sword
by Amy Raphael"A sumptuously imagined children's debut" The Telegraph"A fast paced; single minded adventure. Female bravery is a given" The Observer When Art's mother is accused of witchcraft and captured, she is determined to get her back - at any cost. A lyrical adventure with folklore at its heart, for fans of THE HOUSE WITH CHICKEN LEGS.Twelve-year-old Art lives in a small village in Scotland. Her mother has always made potions that cure the sick, but now the townspeople say she is a witch. One cloudless night, Art's mother is arrested and taken to England. Art mounts her horse, taking a sword, a tightrope, and a herbal recipe book, and begins a journey through wild forests, using nature's signs and symbols to guide her.But will she spot the signs from the omens? Will she reach her mother, before it's too late?'A wonderful book' - Piers Torday'Very exciting' - Anthony McGowan 'Thrilling and uplifting' - Frank Cottrell-Boyce 'Gripping. I raced through it' - A.M. Howell
The Forgotten Adventures of Richard Halliburton: A High Flying Life from Tennessee to Timbuktu
by R. Scott WilliamsA biography of the charismatic world traveler whose daredevil exploits thrilled millions in the early twentieth century. Born in 1900, Richard Halliburton ran away from his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of nineteen to lead an extraordinary and dramatic life of adventure. Against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, Halliburton&’s exploits around the globe made him an internationally known celebrity and the most famous travel writer of his time. From climbing Mount Olympus in Greece to swimming the Panama Canal and flying all the way to Timbuktu, Halliburton experienced and wrote about adventures that others never even believed possible. His youthful spirit and bohemian lifestyle won the hearts of millions, and this absorbing biography tells his story. &“He was Marco Polo and Indiana Jones wrapped up in one, with P.T. Barnum&’s flippancy and James Bond&’s bravado, capped off by F. Scott Fitzgerald&’s aristocratic good looks and manners.&” —Smithsonian &“A concise new biography [that] covers the life of a man of marvels.&” —Memphis Magazine
The Forgotten Japanese
by Jeffrey Irish Tsuneichi MiyamotoTsuneichi Miyamoto (1907-1981), a leading Japanese folklore scholar and rural advocate, walked 160,000 kilometers to conduct interviews and capture a dying way of life. This collection of photos, vignettes, and life stories from pre- and postwar rural Japan is the first English translation of his modern Japanese classic. From blowfish to landslides, Miyamoto's stories come to life in Jeffrey Irish's fluid translation.
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
by Jennifer 8 LeeOne woman. One obsession. Forty thousand restaurants. A woman's search for the world's greatest Chinese restaurant proves that egg rolls are as American as apple pie.
The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus
by Christopher Columbus J. M. CohenNo gamble in history has been more momentous than the landfall of Columbus's ship the Santa Maria in the Americas in 1492 - an event that paved the way for the conquest of a 'New World'. The accounts collected here provide a vivid narrative of his voyages throughout the Caribbean and finally to the mainland of Central America, although he still believed he had reached Asia. Columbus himself is revealed as a fascinating and contradictory figure, fluctuating from awed enthusiasm to paranoia and eccentric geographical speculation. Prey to petty quarrels with his officers, his pious desire to bring Christian civilization to 'savages' matched by his rapacity for gold, Columbus was nonetheless an explorer and seaman of staggering vision and achievement.
The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus
by Christopher ColumbusNo gamble in history has been more momentous than the landfall of Columbus's ship the Santa Maria in the Americas in 1492 - an event that paved the way for the conquest of a 'New World'. The accounts collected here provide a vivid narrative of his voyages throughout the Caribbean and finally to the mainland of Central America, although he still believed he had reached Asia. Columbus himself is revealed as a fascinating and contradictory figure, fluctuating from awed enthusiasm to paranoia and eccentric geographical speculation. Prey to petty quarrels with his officers, his pious desire to bring Christian civilization to 'savages' matched by his rapacity for gold, Columbus was nonetheless an explorer and seaman of staggering vision and achievement.
The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name
by Toby Lester“Old maps lead you to strange and unexpected places, and none does so more ineluctably than the subject of this book: the giant, beguiling Waldseemüller world map of 1507.” So begins this remarkable story of the map that gave America its name.For millennia Europeans believed that the world consisted of three parts: Europe, Africa, and Asia. They drew the three continents in countless shapes and sizes on their maps, but occasionally they hinted at the existence of a "fourth part of the world," a mysterious, inaccessible place, separated from the rest by a vast expanse of ocean. It was a land of myth—until 1507, that is, when Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure scholars working in the mountains of eastern France, made it real. Columbus had died the year before convinced that he had sailed to Asia, but Waldseemüller and Ringmann, after reading about the Atlantic discoveries of Columbus’s contemporary Amerigo Vespucci, came to a startling conclusion: Vespucci had reached the fourth part of the world. To celebrate his achievement, Waldseemüller and Ringmann printed a huge map, for the first time showing the New World surrounded by water and distinct from Asia, and in Vespucci’s honor they gave this New World a name: America. The Fourth Part of the World is the story behind that map, a thrilling saga of geographical and intellectual exploration, full of outsize thinkers and voyages. Taking a kaleidoscopic approach, Toby Lester traces the origins of our modern worldview. His narrative sweeps across continents and centuries, zeroing in on different portions of the map to reveal strands of ancient legend, Biblical prophecy, classical learning, medieval exploration, imperial ambitions, and more. In Lester’s telling the map comes alive: Marco Polo and the early Christian missionaries trek across Central Asia and China; Europe’s early humanists travel to monastic libraries to recover ancient texts; Portuguese merchants round up the first West African slaves; Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci make their epic voyages of discovery; and finally, vitally, Nicholas Copernicus makes an appearance, deducing from the new geography shown on the Waldseemüller map that the earth could not lie at the center of the cosmos. The map literally altered humanity’s worldview. One thousand copies of the map were printed, yet only one remains. Discovered accidentally in 1901 in the library of a German castle it was bought in 2003 for the unprecedented sum of $10 million by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display. Lavishly illustrated with rare maps and diagrams, The Fourth Part of the World is the story of that map: the dazzling story of the geographical and intellectual journeys that have helped us decipher our world.
The Franco-Prussian War, 1870–1871: Touring the Sedan Campaign (Battleground 1870–1871)
by Maarten Otte&“Masterfully written . . . This series provides the enthusiast and historian with volumes in which history is combined with tourism on the battlefields.&” —On the Old Barbed Wire In 1870 France embarked on a war with Prussia and her allied German states that was to be a complete disaster. For Napoleon III, after his ignominious surrender with thousands of his troops from the Army of the Rhine and the Army of Châlons, it meant his abdication and exile. For France it resulted in the humiliation of her army, a bitter civil war in Paris, the loss of two Provinces (Alsace and Lorraine) and a heavy indemnity. Maarten Otte provides background chapters to place the lead up to the war and the issues that were involved; he describes the makeup of the opposing armies and some of their principal commanders. The Sedan Campaign was fought over a relatively small area and the locations of some of the key battles have changed little, though some of those near the built-up areas, such as Sedan itself, require some imagination. After the war several German regiments erected monuments and a surprising number remain today, often hidden away in isolated fields and copses. Several communal cemeteries have a number of German graves. Perhaps one of the most macabre of these is the ossuary in Bazeilles, where the visitor is able to see skeletons that still have shreds of uniform and footwear on them. Sedan was also a focus of the most recent and bloody western European wars, and a notable feature of this battlefield is to see memorials to the conflicts of the twentieth century—the Great War and the Second World War.
The Franconia Gateway
by Bruce D. HealdOf the several entrances to the White Mountains, none is more majestic than the Franconia Gateway. The gateway begins in the valley of the Pemigewasset River and reaches through broad meadows, between jagged mountains, alongside quiet pools and cascades of sparkling water, into the wilderness of Franconia Notch and beyond. Altogether, this region contains more historical secrets and hidden treasures than any other part of the White Mountains.The Franconia Gateway opens the way from a new perspective. With nearly one hundred fifty breathtaking views and fascinating stories, this history and guide leads from lore of the Native Americans, explorers, and early entrepreneurs to the logging boom years and the subsequent preservation era on to the days of the artists and poets and, ultimately, the tourists. The journey progresses through the communities of Plymouth, Campton, Thornton, Waterville Valley, Woodstock, and Franconia, and includes all the wonder and mystery of sites such as the Lost River, the Flume, and the Old Man of the Mountain.
The Frangipani Tree Mystery (Crown Colony #1)
by Ovidia YuFirst in a delightfully charming crime series set in 1930s Singapore, introducing amateur sleuth Su Lin, a local girl stepping in as governess for the Acting Governor of Singapore.1936 in the Crown Colony of Singapore, and the British abdication crisis and rising Japanese threat seem very far away. When the Irish nanny looking after Acting Governor Palin's daughter dies suddenly - and in mysterious circumstances - mission school-educated local girl Su Lin - an aspiring journalist trying to escape an arranged marriage - is invited to take her place. But then another murder at the residence occurs and it seems very likely that a killer is stalking the corridors of Government House. It now takes all Su Lin's traditional skills and intelligence to help British-born Chief Inspector Thomas LeFroy solve the murders - and escape with her own life.'Simply glorious. Every nook and cranny of 1930s Singapore is brought richly to life, without ever getting in the way of a classic puzzle plot. But what's a setting without a jewel? Chen Su Lin is a true gem. Her slyly witty voice and her admirable, sometimes heartbreaking, practicality make her the most beguiling narrator heroine I've met in a long while.' Catriona McPherson'Charming and fascinating with great authentic feel. Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels.' Rhys Bowen
The Frangipani Tree Mystery (Crown Colony)
by Ovidia YuFirst in a delightfully charming crime series set in 1930s Singapore, introducing amateur sleuth Su Lin, a local girl stepping in as governess for the Acting Governor of Singapore.1936 in the Crown Colony of Singapore, and the British abdication crisis and rising Japanese threat seem very far away. When the Irish nanny looking after Acting Governor Palin's daughter dies suddenly - and in mysterious circumstances - mission school-educated local girl Su Lin - an aspiring journalist trying to escape an arranged marriage - is invited to take her place. But then another murder at the residence occurs and it seems very likely that a killer is stalking the corridors of Government House. It now takes all Su Lin's traditional skills and intelligence to help British-born Chief Inspector Thomas LeFroy solve the murders - and escape with her own life.'Simply glorious. Every nook and cranny of 1930s Singapore is brought richly to life, without ever getting in the way of a classic puzzle plot. But what's a setting without a jewel? Chen Su Lin is a true gem. Her slyly witty voice and her admirable, sometimes heartbreaking, practicality make her the most beguiling narrator heroine I've met in a long while.' Catriona McPherson'Charming and fascinating with great authentic feel. Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels.' Rhys Bowen
The Franklin Conspiracy: An Astonishing Solution to the Lost Arctic Expedition
by John Robert Colombo Jeffrey Blair LattaThe Franklin Conspiracy is an absorbing account of the single most enigmatic event in Canadian history. In 1845, two British Royal Navy ships, the Erebus and the Terror, commanded by Sir John Franklin, entered the Canadian Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage. Neither ship returned. A fifteen-year search uncovered evidence of unparalleled disaster, but to this day no one knows exactly how the 129 men of the Franklin Expedition met their deaths. Although the expedition did not run out of food, there is clear evidence of cannibalism. The ships carried two hundred message cylinders with them, yet failed to leave records. Stranger still, an earlier explorer, Thomas Simpson, was reputedly murdered for the "secret of the Northwest Passage." What was this "secret"? The Franklin Conspiracy is an exhaustively researched, compellingly reasoned answer to that question. The result is a shocking saga of conspiracy, cover-up, and unbelievable secrets the.
The French Art of Living Well: Finding Joie de Vivre in the Everyday World
by Cathy YandellIn the tradition of Bringing up Bebe and French Toast, Cathy Yandell's The French Art of Living Well is a delightful look at French culture, from literature to cuisine to humor and more, showing how the French have captured that magic elixir known as joie de vivre.What is joie de vivre, and why is it a fundamentally French concept?In search of those ineffable qualities that make up the joy of living, this lively book takes readers on a voyage to France through forays into literature, history, and culture. How does art contribute to daily life? Why is cuisine such a central part of French existence? Why are the French more physical than many other cultures? How do French attitudes toward time speak volumes about their sense of pleasure and celebration? And finally, to what extent is this zest for life exportable? These and other questions give way to a dynamic sketch of French life today.Peppered with anecdotes and humor, this book uncovers some of the secrets of the celebrated French art of living well. Drawing from her years of living in France as a student, professor, and mother, Yandell crafts an honest and profound appraisal of French culture and how la joie de vivre can be developed in anyone’s life.
The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time; A Memoir
by Jane BertchThe inspiring and delicious memoir of an American woman who had the gall to open a cooking school in Paris—a true story of triumphing over French naysayers and falling in love with a city along the way&“An engaging, multilayered story of a woman navigating innumerable cultural differences to build a life in Paris and create her dream: to establish a French cooking school.&”—David Lebovitz, author of My Paris KitchenWhen Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return.Yet a decade later she found herself back in Paris, transferred there by the American bank she worked for. She became fluent in the language and excelled in her new position. But she had a different dream: to start a cooking school for foreigners like her, who wanted to take a few classes in French cuisine in a friendly setting, then bring their new skills to their kitchens back home. Predictably, Jane faced the skeptical French—how dare an American banker start a cooking school in Paris?—as well as real-estate nightmares, and a long struggle to find and attract clients.Thanks to Jane&’s perseverance, La Cuisine Paris opened in 2009. Now the school is thriving, welcoming international visitors to come in and knead dough, whisk bechamel, whip meringue, and learn the care, precision, patience, and beauty involved in French cooking. The French Ingredient is the story of a young female entrepreneur building a life in a city and culture she grew to love. As she established her school, Jane learned how to charm, how to project confidence, and how to give it right back to rude waiters. Having finally made peace with the city she swore to never revisit, she now offers a love letter to France, and a master class in Parisian cooking—and living.
The French Travelmate
by Lexus Sandrine FrançoisThe French Travelmate phrasebook and dictionary gives you a detailed yet easy-to-use A to Z list of English words and phrases with French translations for quick-find reference. There are more than 3500 words and phrases, and the French translations come together with an easy-to-read pronunciation guide. Tap a hyperlink (there are hundreds of them) to go to special sections: travel tips about being in France; basic language notes; typical French replies to your French questions; conversion tables. These are features which make the Travelmate the must-have ebook French phrasebook download for the traveller who wants to really communicate. The French Travelmate phrasebook and dictionary also gives you a detailed French menu reader of over 500 items and a dictionary section with translations of over 300 common French signs and notices. This is the little book that's a big help. And a joined-up language experience.
The French in London: From William the Conqueror to Charles de Gaulle
by Emily Read Isabelle Janvrin Catherine RawlinsonEver since 1066 there has been a substantial French presence in London. It is now said to be the sixth most populous French city and this book illustrates, explains, and exposes how this came about over more than a 1000 years. Full of individual stories and overlooked details covering a common history, from William the Conqueror to Charles de Gaulle.
The Fresh and the Salt: The Story of the Solway
by Ann Lingard“Beautiful, intensely visual prose, born from deep intimacy with subtle borderlands: land and sea, England and Scotland, people and environments.” —David Gange, author of The Frayed Atlantic EdgeFirths and estuaries are liminal places, where land meets sea and tides meet freshwater. Their unique ecosystems support a huge range of marine and other wildlife: human activity too is profoundly influenced by their waters and shores.The Solway Firth—the crooked finger of water that both unites and divides Scotland and England—is a beautiful yet unpredictable place and one of the least-industrialized natural large estuaries in Europe. Its history, geology and turbulent character have long affected the way its inhabitants, both human and non-human, have learnt to live along and within its ever-changing margins.“Lingard’s scientific knowledge of the area and its multitudinous inhabitants [is] delivered in riveting prose. This is deep and beautiful natural history writing.” —BBC Countryfile Magazine“Like a hungry gull, Ann Lingard explores her beloved Solway shoreline for every living detail that catches her eye. In so doing she has created a portrait of this nation-cleaving water that is as broad and deep as the estuary itself.” —Mark Cocker, author of Birds & People“A kaleidoscopic portrait of the borders of the land.” —Cumbria Life“Lingard writes vividly about this estuary . . . an excellent point of reference for locals, visitors and for those simply intrigued by this lesser-known corner of Scotland.” —Scottish Field
The Friendship Highway: Two Journeys in Tibet
by Charlie CarrollAfter a twenty-year obsession, Charlie finally experienced Tibet in all its heartbreaking beauty. At the end of the road known as the Friendship Highway, he met Tibetan-born Lobsang who recounts the extraordinary story of how he fled the volatile region over the Himalayas, on foot, as a child in 1989, but was called back to Tibet by love.
The Frontier in American History
by Frederick Jackson TurnerA fascinating exploration of American identity by one of the most influential historians and thinkers of the twentieth century According to Frederick Jackson Turner, the distinct qualities of the American character are inseparable from the idea of the frontier. One of the nation's most influential historians, Turner sets forth his "frontier thesis" in the eight brilliant, enlightening, and provocative essays that make up his seminal work, The Frontier in American History--a book which profoundly altered the way Americans viewed themselves. Disputing the traditionally held emphasis on European cultural influences, Turner argues that the American frontier fostered self-reliance, optimism, ingenuity, individualism, restlessness, materialism, and democratic ideals--traits that collectively shaped the national character. His groundbreaking work continues to influence American culture, politics, and history more than eighty years after it was first published.
The Frozen Thames
by Helen HumphreysA groundbreaking, genre-bending new work from one of Canada’s most respected writers. In its long history, the River Thames has frozen solid forty times. These are the stories of that frozen river. And so opens one of the most breathtaking and original works being published this season. The Frozen Thamescontains forty vignettes based on events that actually took place each time the river froze between 1142 and 1895. Like a photograph captures a moment, etching it forever on the consciousness, so does Humphreys’ achingly beautiful prose. She deftly draws us into these intimate moments, transporting us through time so that we believe ourselves observers of the events portrayed. Whether it’s Queen Matilda trying to escape her besieged castle in a snowstorm, or lovers meeting on the frozen river in the plague years; whether it’s a simple farmer persuading his oxen the ice is safe, or Queen Bess discovering the rare privacy afforded by the ice-covered Thames, the moments are fleeting and transformative for the characters — and for us, too. Stunningly designed and illustrated throughout with full-colour period art,The Frozen Thamesis a triumph. From the Hardcover edition.
The Full Catastrophe
by James AngelosA transporting, good-humored, and revealing account of Greece's dire troubles, reported from the mountain villages, idyllic islands, and hardscrabble streets that define the country todayIn recent years, small Greece, often associated with ancient philosophers and marble ruins, whitewashed villages and cerulean seas, has been at the center of a debt crisis that has sown economic and social ruin, spurred panic in international markets, and tested Europe's decades-old project of forging a closer union. In The Full Catastrophe, James Angelos makes sense of contrasting images of Greece, a nation both romanticized for its classical past and castigated for its dysfunctional present. With vivid character-driven narratives and engaging reporting that offers an immersive sense of place, he brings to life some of the causes of the country's financial collapse, and examines the changes, some hopeful and others deeply worrisome, emerging in its aftermath. A small rebellion against tax authorities breaks out on a normally serene Aegean island. A mayor from a bucolic, northern Greek village is gunned down by the municipal treasurer. An aging, leftist hero of the Second World War fights to win compensation from Germany for the wartime occupation. A once marginal group of neo-Nazis rises to political prominence out of a ramshackle Athens neighborhood. The Full Catastrophe goes beyond the transient coverage in the daily headlines to deliver an enduring and absorbing portrait of modern Greece.From the Hardcover edition.