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Shortly before Christmas in 1943, five Army aviators left Alaska’s Ladd Field on a test flight. Only one ever returned:…
Leon Crane, a city kid from Philadelphia with little more than a parachute on his back when he bailed from his B-24 Liberator before it crashed into the Arctic. Alone in subzero temperatures, Crane managed to stay alive in the dead of the Yukon winter for nearly twelve weeks and, amazingly, walked out of the ordeal intact. 81 Days Below Zero recounts, for the first time, the full story of Crane’s remarkable saga. In a drama of staggering resolve with moments of phenomenal luck, Crane learned to survive in the Yukon’s unforgiving landscape. His is a tale of the human capacity to endure extreme conditions and intense lonelinessand emerge stronger than before.Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear
By Margee Kerr. 2015
Shiver-inducing science not for the faint of heart. No one studies fear quite like Margee Kerr. A sociologist who moonlights…
at one of America’s scariest and most popular haunted houses, she has seen grown men laugh, cry, and push their loved ones aside as they run away in terror. And she’s kept careful notes on what triggers these responses and why. Fear is a universal human experience, but do we really understand it? If we’re so terrified of monsters and serial killers, why do we flock to the theaters to see them? Why do people avoid thinking about death, but jump out of planes and swim with sharks? For Kerr, there was only one way to find out. In this eye-opening, adventurous book, she takes us on a tour of the world’s scariest experiences: into an abandoned prison long after dark, hanging by a cord from the highest tower in the Western hemisphere, and deep into Japan’s mysterious "suicide forest. ” She even goes on a ghost hunt with a group of paranormal adventurers. Along the way, Kerr shows us the surprising science from the newest studies of fear--what it means, how it works, and what it can do for us. Full of entertaining science and the thrills of a good ghost story, this book will make you think, laugh--and scream.The Wise King: A Christian Prince, Muslim Spain, and the Birth of the Renaissance
By Simon R. Doubleday. 2015
"If I had been present at the Creation,” the thirteenth-century Spanish philosopher-king Alfonso X is said to have stated, "Many…
faults in the universe would have been avoided. ” Known as El Sabio, "the Wise,” Alfonso was renowned by friends and enemies alike for his sparkling intellect and extraordinary cultural achievements. In The Wise King, celebrated historian Simon R. Doubleday traces the story of the king’s life and times, leading us deep into his emotional world and showing how his intense admiration for Spain’s rich Islamic culture paved the way for the European Renaissance. In 1252, when Alfonso replaced his more militaristic father on the throne of Castile and León, the battle to reconquer Muslim territory on the Iberian Peninsula was raging fiercely. But even as he led his Christian soldiers onto the battlefield, Alfonso was seduced by the glories of Muslim Spain. His engagement with the Arabic-speaking culture of the South shaped his pursuit of astronomy, for which he was famed for centuries, and his profoundly humane vision of the world, which Dante, Petrarch, and later Italian humanists would inherit. A composer of lyric verses, and patron of works on board games, hunting, and the properties of stones, Alfonso is best known today for his Cantigas de Santa María (Songs of Holy Mary), which offer a remarkable window onto his world. His ongoing struggles as a king and as a man were distilled--in art, music, literature, and architecture--into something sublime that speaks to us powerfully across the centuries. An intimate biography of the Spanish ruler in whom two cultures converged, The Wise King introduces readers to a Renaissance man before his time, whose creative energy in the face of personal turmoil and existential threats to his kingdom would transform the course of Western history.In the tradition of the late great George Carlin, New York Times bestselling author and lead singer of Slipknot and…
Stone Sour Corey Taylor sounds off in hilarious fashion about the many vagaries of modern life that piss him off. Whether it’s people’s rude behavior in restaurants and malls, the many indignities of air travel, eye-searingly terrible fashion choices, dangerously clueless drivers, and--most of all--the sorry state of much modern music, Taylor’s humor and insight cover civil society’s seeming decline--sparing no one along the way, least of all himself. Holding nothing back and delivered in Taylor’s inimitable voice, You’re Making Me Hate You is a cathartic critique of the strange world in which we find ourselves.Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder
By Samuel Wilson Fussell. 2004
A hilarious and harrowing firsthand account of the eccentric world of hardcore bodybuilding When blue-blooded, storklike Samuel Wilson Fussell arrived…
in New York City fresh from the University of Oxford, the ethereal young graduate seemed like the last person on Earth who would be interested in bodybuilding. But he was intimidated by the dangers of the city--and decided to do something about it. At twenty-six, Fussell walked into the YMCA gym. Four solid years of intensive training, protein powders, and steroid injections later, he had gained eighty pounds of pure muscle and was competing for bodybuilding titles. And yet, with forearms like bowling pins and calves like watermelons, Fussell felt weaker than ever before. His punishing regimen of workouts, drugs, and diet had reduced him to near-infant-like helplessness and immobility, leaving him hungry, nauseated, and prone to outbursts of " 'roid rage. " But he had come to succeed, and there was no backing down now. Alternately funny and fascinating, Muscle is the true story of one man's obsession with the pursuit of perfection. With insight, wit, and refreshing candor, Fussell ushers readers into the wild world of juicers and gym rats who sacrifice their lives, minds, bodies, and souls to their dreams of glory in Southern California's so-called iron mecca.الناصر صلاح الدين الأيوبي: نظرة الغرب لبطل الشرق (Studies In The History And Anthropology Of Religion Ser. #1)
By د.مجدي عز الدين حنفي. 2007
هذا الكتاب يبرز نبذة مختصرة عن حياة القائد صلاح الدين الأيوبي. أردتُ أن أُظهِر رؤية الغرب لصفات ومميِّزات وعيوب هذه…
الشخصية الأسطورية المسلمة مِن خلال ترجمة مصادر إنجليزية وفرنسية عديدة، وكذلك استشارة مصادر عربية فيما يتعلَّق ببعض التفاصيل التاريخية والدينية، وبذلك تتعدَّد زوايا قراءة تاريخه. أبهرني إظهارهم للحقيقة بدون مبالغة، وتقييمهم ونقدهم البَنَّاء، فإذا كان هذا رأي الغرب (الصليبيِّين) فيه، فما بالك بحقيقة شخصيَّته مِن وجهة نظر معاصِريه؟ توجد مساحات لَم يسلَّط عليها الضوء في سيرته الذاتية، نعلم الكثير عن إنجازاته، ونعلم القليل عن شخصيَّته، مثله مثل غيره مِن حُكَّام العصور الوسطى. الفصول الثلاثة الأخيرة مِن الكتاب تتناول ما نستطيع أن نتعلَّمه مِن هذه الشخصيَّة، وكيف يمكننا الاستفادة مِن أخلاقه وأفعاله.. أرجو مِن الله أن تتمتَّعوا وتستفيدوا مِن هذا العمل.