Service Alert
Delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Showing 121 - 140 of 1187 items
By Paul Brunton. 1936
In this book, philosopher Paul Brunton (1898-1981) encounters the mysteries and magic of Egypt in the 1930s, including an eerie…
yet illuminating night spent alone inside the Great Pyramid. Alongside his explorations of ancient Egypt's monuments and gods, Brunton encounters a variety of occultists, fakirs, and dervishes, and even manages to become initiated into the deadly art of snake charming. His frank interviews with Muslim leaders remain relevant today, and his description of the Hajj reflects the beauty and inspiring faith of Mohammad's true followers. Brunton's journey to discover the furthest reaches of what the mind and body are capable of--and to distinguish various forms of yoga and magic from true spirituality--lead him to the myth of Osiris and to the mystery that is the Sphinx itself. In the end, Brunton turns his attention to his own spiritual path, connecting all of his experiences into a single discovery: that we are more than the body and that the freedom of our spirit can be experienced here and now. This new edition has been updated to incorporate Brunton's final revisions and includes an introduction by the Paul Brunton Philosophic Foundation. "Paul Brunton was a great original and got to a place of personal evolution that illumines the pathways of a future humanity." --Jean Houston, author of A Passion for the Possible and A Mythic Life"Any serious man or woman in search of spiritual ideas will find a surprising challenge and an authentic source of inspiration and intellectual nourishment in the writings of Paul Brunton."--Jacob Needleman, author of What is God? From the Trade Paperback edition.By Dan Hampton. 2017
From "one of the most decorated pilots in Air Force history"* comes a masterful account of Charles Lindbergh’s death-defying nonstop…
flight across the Atlantic Ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis—an inspiring achievement that brought the world to a halt in May 1927 and made Lindbergh the most celebrated man of his time. On the rainy morning of May 20, 1927, a little-known American pilot named Charles A. Lindbergh climbed into his single-engine monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, and prepared to take off from a small airfield on Long Island, New York. Despite his inexperience—the twenty-five-year-old Lindbergh had never before flown over open water—he was determined to win the $25,000 Orteig Prize promised since 1919 to the first pilot to fly nonstop between New York and Paris, a terrifying adventure that had already claimed six men’s lives. Ahead of him lay a 3,600-mile solo journey across the vast north Atlantic and into the unknown; his survival rested on his skill, courage, and an unassuming little aircraft with no front window. Only 500 people showed up to see him off. Thirty-three and a half hours later, a crowd of more than 100,000 mobbed the Spirit as the audacious young American touched down in Paris, having achieved the seemingly impossible. Overnight, as he navigated by the stars through storms across the featureless ocean, news of his attempt had circled the globe, making him an international celebrity by the time he reached Europe. He returned to the United States a national hero, feted with ticker-tape parades that drew millions, bestowed every possible award from the Medal of Honor to Time’s "Man of the Year" (the first to be so named), commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp within months, and celebrated as the embodiment of the twentieth century and America’s place in it. Acclaimed aviation historian Dan Hampton’s The Flight is a long-overdue, flyer’s-eye narrative of Lindbergh’s legendary journey. A decorated fighter pilot who flew more than 150 combat missions in an F-16 and made numerous transatlantic crossings, Hampton draws on his unique perspective to bring alive the danger, uncertainty, and heroic accomplishment of Lindbergh’s crossing. Hampton’s deeply researched telling also incorporates a trove of primary sources, including Lindbergh’s own personal diary and writings, as well as family letters and untapped aviation archives that fill out this legendary story as never before. *New York PostBy Howard Blum. 2011
It is the last decade of the 19th century. The Wild West has been tamed and its fierce, independent and…
often violent larger-than-life figures - gun-toting wanderers, trappers, prospectors, Indian fighters, cowboys, and lawmen -are now victims of their own success. They are heroes who've outlived their usefulness.But then gold is discovered in Alaska and the adjacent Canadian Klondike and a new frontier suddenly looms - an immense unexplored territory filled with frozen waterways, dark spruce forests, and towering mountains capped by glistening layers of snow and ice. "Klondicitis," a giddy mix of greed and lust for adventure, ignites a stampede. Fleeing the depths of a worldwide economic depression and driven by starry-eyed visions of vast wealth, tens of thousands rush northward. Joining this throng of greenhorns and grifters, whores and highwaymen, sourdoughs and seers are three unforgettable men. In a true-life tale that rivets from the first page, we meet Charlie Siringo, a top-hand sharp-shooting cowboy who, after futilely trying to settle down with his new bride, becomes one of the Pinkerton Detective Agency's shrewdest; George Carmack, a California-born American Marine who's adopted by an Indian tribe, raises a family with a Taglish squaw, makes the discovery that starts off the Yukon Gold Rush - and becomes fabulously rich; and Soapy Smith, a sly and inventive predator-conman who rules a vast criminal empire.As we follow this trio's lives, we're led inexorably into a perplexing mystery. A fortune in gold bars has somehow been stolen from the fortress-like Treadwell Mine in Juneau, Alaska, with no clues as to how the thieves made off with such an immensely heavy cargo. To many it appears that the crime will never be solved. But the Pinkerton Agency has a reputation for finding the answers that elude others. Charged with getting the job done is Charlie Siringo who discovers that, to run the thieves to ground, he must embark on a rugged cross-territory odyssey that will lead him across frigid waters and through a frozen wilderness. Ultimately, he'll have his quarry in his sights. But then an additional challenge will present itself. He must face down Soapy Smith and his gang of 300 cutthroats. Hanging in the balance: George Carmack's fortune in gold. At once a compelling true-life mystery and an unforgettable portrait of a time in America's history when thousands were fired with a vision of riches so unimaginable as to be worth any price, The Floor of Heaven is also an exhilarating tribute to the courage and undaunted spirit of the men and women who helped shape America.By Eric Alexander. 2010
"I have read several accounts of Everest climbs, but none gave me the "behind the scenes" view this book provides...…
Whether you get exercise climbing mountains or strolling shopping malls, you'll find your heart racing as you read The Summit: Faith Beyond Everest's Death Zone. If not, you should call 911 immediately and get checked for a pulse."- Philip Yancey It's one of the greatest challenges one can face on Earth; an ascent to the top of the world on the slopes of Mount Everest. Eric Alexander experienced grace and a faith-empowering journey he will never forget as part of a record-setting team in May 2001, scaling the heights of Everest with his friend, blind climber Erik Weinhenmayer. Experience some of the most dangerous locations in the world, including abject terror on Amadablam, a blind ski descent of Russia's Mount Elbrus, and up Kilimanjaro in Africa with four blind teens Gain wisdom in the application of trust, courage, innovation, teamwork, leadership, and integrity to overcome your own Everests Discover practical faith lessons learned on the highest peaks of six continents Here is the powerful story of Eric Alexander and his unique life journey of guiding people with disabilities to the most perilous places of the world, including Mount Everest's first blind ascent. In The Summit: Faith Beyond Everest's Death Zone you will follow in their historic footsteps, and learn about faith, trust, prayer, depending on God, as well as the perseverance needed during these climbs and in your own life. Be inspired and motivated by Eric's insight, not simply to survive but to thrive every day in God's grace.By Mary S Lovell. 2011
The New York Times bestseller: "Every page is filled with revelations, gossip and fascinating details about Markham."--Diane Ackerman, The New…
York Times Book Review Born in England and raised in Kenya, Beryl Markham was a notorious beauty. She trained race horses and had scandalous affairs, but she is most remembered for being a pioneering aviatrix. She became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to make it from London to New York nonstop. In Mary S. Lovell's definitive biography, Beryl takes on new life--vividly portrayed by a master biographer whose knowledge of her subject is unparalleled.By Erik Weihenmayer. 2002
Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoscheses, a degenerative eye disorder that would leave him blind by the age of thirteen.…
But Erik was determined to rise above this devastating disability and lead a fulfilling and exciting life. In this poignant and inspiring memoir, he shares his struggle to push past the limits imposed on him by his visual impairment-and by a seeing world. He speaks movingly of the role his family played in his battle to break through the barriers of blindness: the mother who prayed for the miracle that would restore her son's sight and the father who encouraged him to strive for that distant mountaintop. And he tells the story of his dream to climb the world's Seven Summits, and how he is turning that dream into astonishing reality (something fewer than a hundred mountaineers have done). From the snow-capped summit of McKinley to the towering peaks of Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro to the ultimate challenge, Mount Everest, this is a story about daring to dream in the face of impossible odds. It is about finding the courage to reach for that ultimate summit, and transforming your life into something truly miraculous."I admire you immensely. You are an inspiration to other blind people and plenty of folks who can see just fine." (Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air)By Don Cherry. 2016
Don Cherry has become a broadcasting legend, garnering millions of fans around the world with his "Coach's Corner" segment on…
Hockey Night in Canada. For over a decade, Cherry also hosted the TV show Grapevine, which brought viewers up close and personal with the biggest names in sports.Don was the interviewer and his son, Tim, produced the show. And no one in the sports world, from hockey players to boxers to curlers to umpires, turned down an invitation to appear on it. It was on that show that Don has some of his fondest memories from his many years in the biz, and, at last, in Don Cherry's Sports Heroes, he gives us behind-the-scenes access to some of his most fascinating and revealing interviews with the all-time greats. Don has his signature candidness and sizzling humour in these interviews and stories. In these pages you'll find epic stories about hockey greats Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe, to name a few, and since Grapevine TV was the place to be in the sports world, you can revel in some unforgettable stories on players in other fields, too. Don Cherry shares with the world tales that only a true insider could know. You won't be disappointed.By Michael Murrin. 2014
In "Trade and Romance," Michael Murrin examines the complex relations between the expansion of trade in Asia and the production…
of heroic romance in Europe from the second half of the thirteenth century through the late seventeenth century. He shows how these tales of romance, ostensibly meant for the aristocracy, were important to the growing mercantile class as a way to gauge their own experiences in traveling to and trading in these exotic locales. Murrin also looks at the role that growing knowledge of geography played in the writing of the creative literature of the period, tracking how accurate, or inaccurate, these writers were in depicting far-flung destinations, from Iran and the Caspian Sea all the way to the Pacific. aaaaaaaaaaaWith reference to an impressive range of major works in several languagesOCoincluding the works of Marco Polo, Geoffrey Chaucer, Matteo Maria Boiardo, Lu s de CamAes, Fernuo Mendes Pinto, Edmund Spenser, John Milton, and moreOCoMurrin tracks numerous accounts by traders and merchants through the literature, first on the Silk Road, beginning in the mid-thirteenth century; then on the water route to India, Japan, and China via the Cape of Good Hope; and, finally, the overland route through Siberia to Beijing. All of these routes, originally used to exchange commodities, quickly became paths to knowledge as well, enabling information to pass, if sometimes vaguely and intermittently, between Europe and the Far East. These new tales of distant shores fired the imagination of Europe and made their way, with surprising accuracy, as Murrin shows, into the poetry of the period. "By Stephen Cole. 2015
A wildly evocative chronicle of the decade that changed hockey forever. "Lady Byng died in Boston" read a sign in…
the Garden arena in 1970, a cheery dismissal of the NHL trophy awarded the game's most gentlemanly player. A new age of hockey was dawning. For 30 years, hockey was an orderly and (relatively) well-behaved sport. There was one Commissioner, six teams and five colours--red, white, black, blue and yellow. Oh, and one nationality. Until 1967, every player, coach, referee and GM in the NHL had been a Canadian. And then came NHL expansion, the founding of the WHA, and garish new uniforms. The Seventies had arrived: the era that gave us not only disco, polyester suits, lava lamps and mullets but also the movie Slap Shot and the arrest of ten NHL players for on-ice mayhem. But it also gave us hockey's greatest encounter (the 1972 Canada-Russia Summit), its most splendid team, the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, and the most aesthetically satisfying game--the three-all tie on New Year's Eve, 1975, between the Canadiens and the Soviet Red Army. Modern hockey was born in the sport's wild, sensational, sometimes ugly Seventies growth spurt. The forces at play in the decade's battle for hockey supremacy--dazzling speed vs. brute force--are now, for better or worse, part of hockey's DNA. This book is a welcome reappraisal of the ten years that changed how the sport was played and experienced. Informed by first-hand interviews with players and game officials, and sprinkled with sidebars on the art and artifacts that defined Seventies hockey, the book brings dramatically alive hockey's most eventful, exciting decade.By Reggie Leach, Bobby Clarke. 1976
"It all comes down to making the right life choices," says the NHL's legendary Reggie Leach, and this intimate biography…
lays bare the decisions that led him to become one of the best snipers in hockey history. Nicknamed the Riverton Rifle for his thrilling speed and deadly shooting skills, Leach overcame a childhood marked by poverty and racism to rise through the NHL, playing for the Stanley Cup-winning 1975 Philadelphia Flyers. Through Leach's own recollections, The Riverton Rifle traces his trajectory from humble beginnings to NHL stardom, and follows the dramatic fall caused by his drinking problem and his subsequent rebirth as a successful businessman, family man, and pillar of the Aboriginal community.By Tommy Caldwell. 2017
A dramatic inspiring memoir by legendary rock climber Tommy Caldwell the first person to free climb the Dawn…
Wall of Yosemite s El Capitan If you want to be inspired by a great leader if you want to feel what it takes to do what no one thought possible if you want to be absorbed by a heroic journey--Tommy Caldwell s story is one of the best you could ever hope to find Jim Collins author of Good to Great On January 14 2015 Tommy Caldwell along with his partner Kevin Jorgeson summited what is widely regarded as the hardest climb in history Yosemite s nearly vertical 3 000-foot Dawn Wall after nineteen days on the route Caldwell s odds-defying feat was the culmination of an entire lifetime of pushing himself to his limits as an athlete This engrossing memoir chronicles the journey of a boy with a fanatical mountain-guide father who was determined to instill toughness in his son to a teen whose obsessive nature drove him to the top of the sport-climbing circuit Caldwell s affinity for adventure then led him to the vertigo-inducing and little understood world of big wall free climbing But his evolution as a climber was not without challenges in his early twenties he was held hostage by militants in a harrowing ordeal in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan Soon after he lost his left index finger in an accident Later his wife and main climbing partner left him Caldwell emerged from these hardships with a renewed sense of purpose and determination He set his sights on free climbing El Capitan s biggest steepest blankest face the Dawn Wall This epic assault took more than seven years during which time Caldwell redefined the sport found love again and became a father The Push is an arresting story of focus drive motivation endurance and transformation a book that will appeal to anyone seeking to overcome fear and doubt cultivate perseverance turn failure into growth and find connection with family and with the natural worldBy Graham Maclachlan, Kevin Shea, Jason Wilson. 2017
He stayed out of the spotlight, but Leafs fans know J.P. Bickell cast a long shadow. A self-made mining magnate…
and the man who kept the Maple Leafs in Toronto and financed Maple Leaf Gardens, J.P. Bickell lived an extraordinary and purposeful life. As one of the most important industrialists in Canadian history, Bickell left his mark on communities across the nation. He was a cornerstone of the Toronto Maple Leafs, which awards the J.P. Bickell Memorial Award to recognize outstanding service to the organization. Bickell’s story is also tied up with some of the most famous Canadians of his day, including Mitchell Hepburn, Roy Thomson, and Conn Smythe. Through his charitable foundation, he has been a key benefactor of the Hospital for Sick Children, and his legacy continues to transform Toronto. Yet, though Bickell was so important both to Toronto and the Maple Leafs, the story of his incredible life is today largely obscure. This book sets the record straight, presenting the definitive story of his rise to prominence and his lasting legacy — on the ice and off.By Maurice Isserman. 2016
This magesterial and thrilling history argues that the story of American mountaineering is the story of America itself. In Continental…
Divide, Maurice Isserman tells the history of American mountaineering through four centuries of landmark climbs and first ascents. Mountains were originally seen as obstacles to civilization; over time they came to be viewed as places of redemption and renewal. The White Mountains stirred the transcendentalists; the Rockies and Sierras pulled explorers westward toward Manifest Destiny; Yosemite inspired the early environmental conservationists. Climbing began in North America as a pursuit for lone eccentrics but grew to become a mass-participation sport. Beginning with Darby Field in 1642, the first person to climb a mountain in North America, Isserman describes the exploration and first ascents of the major American mountain ranges, from the Appalachians to Alaska. He also profiles the most important American mountaineers, including such figures as John C. Frémont, John Muir, Annie Peck, Bradford Washburn, Charlie Houston, and Bob Bates, relating their exploits both at home and abroad. Isserman traces the evolving social, cultural, and political roles mountains played in shaping the country. He describes how American mountaineers forged a "brotherhood of the rope," modeled on America's unique democratic self-image that characterized climbing in the years leading up to and immediately following World War II. And he underscores the impact of the postwar "rucksack revolution," including the advances in technique and style made by pioneering "dirtbag" rock climbers. A magnificent, deeply researched history, Continental Divide tells a story of adventure and aspiration in the high peaks that makes a vivid case for the importance of mountains to American national identity."Thrilling. ...A captivating history of two men who dramatically changed their contemporaries' view of the past." -- Kirkus (starred review)In…
1839 rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the world's most intrepid travelers. Seized by the reports, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood--each already celebrated for their adventures in Egypt, the Holy Land, Greece, and Rome--sailed together out of New York Harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rainforests of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. What they found would re-write the West's understanding of human history.In the tradition of Lost City of Z and In the Kingdom of Ice, former San Francisco Chronicle journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist William Carlsen reveals the unforgettable true story of the discovery of the ancient Maya. Enduring disease, war, and the torments of nature and terrain, Stephens and Catherwood meticulously uncovered and documented the remains of an astonishing civilization that had flourished in the Americas at the same time as classic Greece and Rome--and had been its rival in art, architecture, and power. Their remarkable book about the experience, written by Stephens and illustrated by Catherwood, became a sensation, hailed by Edgar Allen Poe as "perhaps the most interesting book of travel ever published" and recognized today as the birth of American archeology. Most importantly, Stephens and Catherwood were the first to grasp the significance of the Maya remains, recognizing that their antiquity and sophistication overturned the West's assumptions about the development of civilization.By the time of the flowering of classical Greece (400 B.C.), the Maya were already constructing pyramids and temples around central plazas. Within a few hundred years the structures took on a monumental scale that required millions of man-hours of labor, technical and organizational expertise. Over the next millennium dozens of city-states evolved, each governed by powerful lords, some with populations larger than any city in Europe at the time, and connected by road-like causeways of crushed stone. The Maya developed a cohesive, unified cosmology, an array of common gods, a creation story, and a shared artistic and architectural vision. They created dazzling stucco and stone monuments and bas reliefs, sculpting figures and hieroglyphs with refined artistic skill. At their peak, an estimated ten million people occupied the Maya's heartland on the Yucatan Peninsula, a region where only half a million now live. And yet, by the time the Spanish reached the "New World," the classic-era Maya had all but disappeared; they would remain a mystery for the next three hundred years.Today, the tables are turned: the Maya are justly famous, if sometimes misunderstood, while Stephens and Catherwood have been all but forgotten. Based on Carlsen's rigorous research and his own 2,500-mile journey throughout the Yucatan and Central America, Jungle of Stone is equally a thrilling adventure narrative and a revelatory work of history that corrects our understanding of the Maya and the two remarkable men who set out in 1839 to find them.By A L Karras, Olaf Hanson. 2008
From 1919 to 1970, Olaf Hanson was a trapper, fur trader, prospector, game guardian, fisherman, and road blasting expert in…
northeastern Saskatchewan. He told his life story to popular Saskatchewan author A. L. Karras, who wrote this historical memoir in the 1980s. In an uncompromising, straightforward style, Karras and Hanson reveal the geography, wildlife, and natural history of the region as well as the business and social interactions between people. Northern Rover offers a look at the vanishing subsistence and commercial economy of the boreal forest, wound around a fascinating personal story of courage and physical stamina.By Richard Curtis. 1975
Athletic agent Dave Bolt, former star for the Dallas Cowboys, is a hardened sports insider, familiar with the dirty underside…
of American professional sports. He witnesses the kickbacks, the bribes and the blackmail that keep the high-powered industry spinning. In DEATH IN THE CREASE Bolt has to deal with is an explosive ice hockey scandal that threatens to expose the sport's biggest game as a sham. Former Black Hawk goalie Guy LeClede writes an expose of the corruption that "would blow hockey off the ice" if published. But before the book is seen by anyone else, LeClede suddenly drives his car off a cliff and the manuscript disappears. NHL brass have asked Bolt: to investigate the possibility of murder and unravel the intricacies of one of the priciest gambling deals of the decade.By Max K. Hurlbut. 2013
The author jjoins LAPD in the fading "Noir" era and is assigned to Hollywood. Ride with him as he encounters…
thugs, colorful pimps, and other characters in patrol & vice. MAX is "The crow collecting shiny things---the bits and pieces that color life." He writes with wit and humor of incidents and characters. MAX heads north to Alaska to police the Aleutian Chain, the Pribilofs, and Kodiak Island. He gives a "Sourdough's" insight into some peculiar happenings in the "Land of the Midnight Sun" as he patrols in kayak & snowshoes. He is called out of retirement to become City Marshal of Tombstone, Arizona, to find corruption and a department run amok. Two of his four deputies are shot to death. MAX travels the world as an Army Advisor. He tests experimental parachutes, is arrested in Egypt, pursued in The Sudan, hunts in the Congo, and sees action on the Thai/Cambodian border. He meets kings & presidents, generals & cannibals---and marries the Colonel's daughter in the Republic of China.By Roberto Canessa, Pablo Vierci. 2016
Now available in Spanish. On October 12, 1972, a Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying members of the "Old Christians" rugby…
team--and many of their friends and family members--crashed into the Andes Mountains. I Had to Survive offers a gripping and heartrending recollection of the harrowing brink-of-death experience that propelled survivor Roberto Canessa to become one of the world's leading pediatric cardiologists.As he tended to his wounded teammates amidst the devastating carnage of the wreck, rugby player Roberto Canessa, a second-year medical student at the time, realized that no one on earth was luckier: he was alive--and for that, he should be eternally grateful. As the starving group struggled beyond the limits of what seemed possible, Canessa played a key role in safeguarding his fellow survivors, eventually trekking with a companion across the hostile mountain range for help. This fine line between life and death became the catalyst for the rest of his life. This uplifting tale of hope and determination, solidarity and ingenuity gives vivid insight into a world famous story. Canessa also draws a unique and fascinating parallel between his work as a doctor performing arduous heart surgeries on infants and unborn babies and the difficult life-changing decisions he was forced to make in the Andes. With grace and humanity, Canessa prompts us to ask ourselves: what do you do when all the odds are stacked against you?By Leigh Ann Henion. 2015
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of The Signature of All Things and Eat, Pray, Love "What a cool and fascinating ride. Leigh…
Ann Henion has tackled one of the great questions of contemporary, intelligent, adventurous women: Is it possible to be a wife and mother and still explore the world? Her answer seems to be that this is not only possible, but essential. This story shows how. I think it will open doors for many." Heartfelt and awe-inspiring, Leigh Ann Henion's Phenomenal is a moving tale of physical grandeur and emotional transformation, a journey around the world that ultimately explores the depths of the human heart. A journalist and young mother, Henion combines her own varied experiences as a parent with a panoramic tour of the world's most extraordinary natural wonders. Phenomenal begins in hardship: with Henion deeply shaken by the birth of her beloved son, shocked at the adversity a young mother faces with a newborn. The lack of sleep, the shrinking social circle, the health difficulties all collide and force Henion to ask hard questions about our accepted wisdom on parenting and the lives of women. Convinced that the greatest key to happiness--both her own and that of her family--lies in periodically venturing into the wider world beyond home, Henion sets out on a global trek to rekindle her sense of wonder. Henion's quest takes her far afield, but it swiftly teaches her that freedom is its own form of parenting--one that ultimately allows her to meet her son on his own terms with a visceral understanding of the awe he experiences every day at the fresh new world. Whether standing on the still-burning volcanoes of Hawai'i or in the fearsome lightning storms of Venezuela, amid the vast animal movements of Tanzania or the elegant butterfly migrations of Mexico, Henion relates a world of sublimity and revelation. Henion's spiritual wanderlust puts her in the path of modern-day shamans, reindeer herders, and astrophysicists. She meets laypeople from all over the world, from all walks of life, going to great lengths to chase migrations, auroras, eclipses, and other phenomena. These seekers trust their instincts, follow their passions, shape their days into the lives they most want to lead. And, somewhere along the way, Leigh Ann Henion becomes one of them. A breathtaking memoir, Phenomenal reveals unforgettable truths about motherhood, spirituality, and the beauty of nature.Oprah.com"Part travel memoir, part parenting manifesto and part inquiry into those 'fleeting, extraordinary glimpses of something that left us groping for rational explanations in the quicksand of all-encompassing wonder.'"From the Hardcover edition.By Peter Firstbrook. 2014
Named a Best Book of 2014 by The Providence Journal "A nuanced account of the English captain saved by Pocahontas…
reveals an astonishingly complicated personality. Former BBC producer Firstbrook finds in the roguish, quarrelsome, fearless adventurer Capt. John Smith a sterling example of the tenacious early-American character. . . . Exciting historical tales with romantic overtones. " - Kirkus Reviews Everyone knows the story of Pocahontas and how she saved John Smith. And were it not for Smith’s leadership, the Jamestown Colony would surely have failed. Yet Smith was a far more ambitious explorer and soldier of fortune than these tales suggest--and a far more ambitious self-promoter, too, so reputed for his truculence that the pilgrims of the Mayflower snubbed him when he offered them his services, though his 1614 map of New England (which he named) made him the unrivaled expert on America. Now, in the first major biography of Smith in decades, award-winning BBC filmmaker and author Peter Firstbrook traces the adventurer’s astonishing exploits across three continents, testing Smith’s claimed biography against the historical and geographical reality on the ground. A Man Most Driven delivers an enlightening dissection of this mythology-making man and the invention of America.