Search results for ""chicago review press""

“Fascinating . . . vividly recounts one of the most tragic true stories to emerge from the Iraq War . . . eloquent, disturbing, and haunting.” —Mark Boal, journalist and screenwriter of The Hurt Locker and In the Valley of Elah Army Specialist Richard T. Davis seemed to be a survivor. He had been in Bosnia, reenlisted in time for the invasion of Iraq, and made it through the bloody, savage battle known as the Midtown Massacre. When his father, a career army officer, received a call stating his son was AWOL, he knew something was terribly wrong. And it was. On July 14, 2003, within hours of Davis's return to Fort Benning, Georgia, he had been mercilessly beaten and murdered. His body was set on fire and left in the woods. The army did not open an official investigation into the missing soldier until September, and his remains would not be recovered until November. Four members of his own platoon were arrested for the crime. When one of them was asked why they had set Richard on fire, his answer was both bone-chilling and revealing. He said, "Because that's the way we got rid of bodies in Iraq." Murder in Baker Company is a journey to uncover the truth about what happened to Richard Davis. Using court transcripts, personal interviews, and police records, Cilla McCain traces the events of the case and, in the process, provides a disturbing, eye-opening look into today's military. Soldiers are handed antipsychotic drugs and sent into battle. Treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder is stigmatized. Gang members carry their affiliation from the streets to the barracks. And many of our soldiers are forced to face down two separate enemies, one in the same uniform they wear. Murder in Baker Company is not only an exploration of the heinous murder of one of our soldiers, it is also a warning and a call to action for American citizens.

Read more less

Bringing to life the heady days of the American Revolution through the eyes of a heroine who played a brave and dramatic part in the conflict, this novel follows Celia Garth, a Charleston native, as she transforms from a fashionable dressmaker to a patriot spy. When the king's army captures Charleston and sweeps through the Carolina countryside in a wave of blood, fire, and debauchery, the rebel cause seems all but lost. But when Francis Marion, a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army known as "The Swamp Fox," recruits Celia as a spy, the tides of war begin to shift. This classic historical novel captures the fervor of 18th-century Charleston, the American Revolution, and a woman who risked her life for the patriot cause.

Read more less

There is a commonly held perception that we don’t talk about money. Actually, we talk about it all the time—we are just having the wrong conversation. The result: finances fracture and even destroy many relationships. In this timely book, money expert Jacquette M. Timmons addresses the financial issues that couples face, examining how family background, personal choices, and socioeconomic and cultural influences affect the way women merge love and money. Encouraging women first to explore their own relationship with money, she provides a framework for an honest exchange of information so partners can understand each other’s personal financial stories, the many emotions money elicits in them, and their financial preferences, prejudices, and tolerance levels. In these uncertain economic times, more and more couples are learning the hard way that a lack of financial intimacy can sabotage even the best relationships. Timmons gives women the tools they need to take the lead in the financial dialogue so they can live wealthy and well with their partner—in good times and bad.

Read more less

Now a Netflix original film starring Will Forte, Domhnall Gleeson, and Emmy Rossum. Comic genius Doug Kenney cofounded National Lampoon, cowrote Animal House and Caddyshack, and changed the face of American comedy before mysteriously falling to his death at the age of 33. This is the first-ever biography of Kenney--the heart and soul of National Lampoon—reconstructing the history of that magazine as it redefined American humor, complete with all its brilliant and eccentric characters. Filled with vivid stories from New York, Harvard Yard, Hollywood, and Middle America, this chronicle shares how the magazine spawned a comedy revolution with the radio shows, stage productions, and film projects that launched the careers of John Belushi, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Gilda Radner, while inspiring Saturday Night Live and everything else funny that’s happened since 1970. Based on more than 130 interviews conducted with key players including Chevy Chase, Harold Ramis, P. J. O’Rourke, John Landis, and others and boasting behind-the-scenes stories of how Animal House and Caddyshack were made, this book helps capture the nostalgia, humor, and enduring legacy that Doug Kenney instilled in National Lampoon--America’s greatest humor magazine.

Read more less

Benjamin Franklin was a 17-year-old runaway when he arrived in Philadelphia in 1723. Yet within days he’d found a job at a local print shop, met the woman he would eventually marry, and even attracted the attention of Pennsylvania’s governor. A decade later, he became a colonial celebrity with the publication of Poor Richard: An Almanack and would go on to become one of America’s most distinguished Founding Fathers. Franklin established the colonies’ first lending library, volunteer fire company, and postal service, and was a leading expert in the study of electricity. He represented the Pennsylvania colony in London but returned to help draft the Declaration of Independence. The new nation then named him Minister to France, where he helped secure financial and military aide for the breakaway republic.Author Brandon Marie Miller captures the essence of this exceptional individual through both his original writings and hands-on activities from the era. Readers will design and print an almanac cover, play a simple glass armonica (a Franklin invention), experiment with static electricity, build a barometer, and more. The text also includes a time line, glossary, Web and travel resources, and reading list for further study.

Read more less

Earthy, sexy, and vivacious, the life of beloved country singer, Patsy Cline, who soared from obscurity to international fame to tragic death in just thirty short years, is explored in colorful and poignant detail. An innovator—and even a hell-raiser—Cline broke all the boys’ club barriers of Nashville’s music business in the 1950s and brought a new Nashville sound to the nation with her pop hits and torch ballads like “Walking After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces“ and "Crazy.” She is the subject of a major Hollywood movie and countless articles, and her albums are still selling 45 years after her death. Ellis Nassour was the very first to write about Cline and did so with the cooperation of the stars who knew and loved her—including Jimmy Dean, Jan Howard, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller, Dottie West, and Faron Young. He was the only writer to interview Cline's mother and husbands. This updated edition features not only a complete discography and a host of never-before-published photographs, but includes an afterword that details controversial claims about her birth, the battle between Cline's siblings for her possessions, the amazing influence Cline had on a new generation of singers and, in Cline’s own words from letters to a devoted friend, her excitement as her career soared to new heights and her marriage descended to new depths.

Read more less

Winner of the 2009 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Children’s Literature Award. How do we know that Mars is covered in rusty dust, that a day on Venus lasts longer than its year, and that Neptune has 13 moons? Human exploration! Exploring the Solar System relates the rich history of space exploration using telescopes, satellites, probes, landers, and human missions. This book has been updated to include the recent discovery of Eris, which, along with Pluto, has been newly classified as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union. In addition to history, this book contains 22 hands-on projects to explore the planets and other celestial bodies from right here on earth. Exploring the Solar System also includes biographies of 20 space pioneers, details of specific missions, a time line, and a 20-page Field Guide to the Solar System with detailed scientific data on each of our celestial neighbors and the historic missions to visit them.Download the free teaching guide.

Read more less

Chronicling the author’s 10,000-mile “Great Lakes Circle Tour,” this travel memoir seeks to answer a burning question: Is there a Great Lakes culture, and if so, what is it? Largely associated with the Midwest, the Great Lakes region actually has a culture that transcends the border between the United States and Canada. United by a love of encased meats, hockey, beer, snowmobiling, deer hunting, and classic-rock power ballads, the folks in Detroit have more in common with citizens in Windsor, Ontario, than those in Wichita, Kansas—while Toronto residents have more in common with Chicagoans than Montreal's population. Much more than a typical armchair travel book, this humorous cultural exploration is filled with quirky people and unusual places that prove the obscure is far more interesting than the well known.

Read more less

Practical, savvy, and wide-ranging, this resource shows men and women how to avoid the pitfalls that turn a straightforward divorce into a nightmare. Drawing on her own personal experience, the author also brings together the best advice from a wide range of experts that include divorce attorneys, mental-health professionals, and financial gurus. This guide coaches separating couples how to build a shortlist of the best divorce attorneys in their area, how to conduct an interview to find the right one, and what the full range of legal options are for each case. Further tips explain how to manage the paperwork, ways to lower legal costs, and practical advice for getting back to "normal" once the divorce is finalized. This reassuring manual also explains the stages of divorce grief and how to separate the emotional divorce from the legal divorce.

Read more less

Ten slaves—all under the age of 19—tell stories of enslavement, brutality, and dreams of freedom in this collection culled from full-length autobiographies. These accounts, selected to help teenagers relate to the horrific experiences of slaves their own age living in the not-so-distant past, include stories of young slaves torn from their mothers and families, suffering from starvation, and being whipped and tortured. But these are not all tales of deprivation and violence; teenagers will relate to accounts of slaves challenging authority, playing games, telling jokes, and falling in love. These stories cover the range of the slave experience, from the passage in slave ships across the Atlantic—and daily life as a slave both on large plantations and in small-city dwellings—to escaping slavery and fighting in the Civil War. The writings of Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Harriet Jacobs, Elizabeth Keckley, and other lesser-known slaves are included.

Read more less

Hands-on activities, games, and crafts introduce children to the diversity of Asian American cultures and teach them about the people, experiences, and events that have shaped Asian American history. This book is broken down into sections covering American descendents from various Asian countries, including China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, India, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Topics include the history of immigration from Asian countries, important events in U.S. history, sidebars on famous Asian Americans, language lessons, and activities that highlight arts, games, food, clothing, unique celebrations, and folklore. Kids can paint a calligraphy banner, practice Tai Chi, fold an origami dog or cat, build a Japanese rock garden, construct a Korean kite, cook bibingka, and create a chalk rangoli. A time line, glossary, and recommendations for Web sites, books, movies, and museums round out this multicultural guide.

Read more less

The history of California in the mid-19th century comes alive in this captivating historical novel. Garnet Cameron, a fashionable young lady of New York, is leading a neat, proper life, full of elegant parties and polite young men, yet the prospect of actually marrying any of them appalls her. Yearning for adventure, she instead marries Oliver Hale, a wild trader who is about to cross the mountains and deserts to an unheard-of land called California. During Garnet and Oliver's honeymoon in New Orleans, she meets a dance-hall performer on the lam who calls herself Florinda Grove and is also traveling to California. Along the Jubilee Trail, Garnet and Florinda meet kinds of men never known to them before, and together they make their painstaking way over the harsh trail to Los Angeles, learning how to live without compromise and discover both true friendship and true love.

Read more less

This riveting sequel to My Bloody Life traces Reymundo Sanchez’s struggle to create a “normal” life outside the Latin Kings, one of the nation's most notorious street gangs, and to move beyond his past. Sanchez illustrates how the Latin King motto “once a king, always a king” rings true and details the difficulty and danger of leaving that life behind. Filled with heart-pounding scenes of his backslide into drugs, sex, and violence, Once a King, Always a King recounts how Sanchez wound up behind bars and provides an engrossing firsthand account of how the Latin Kings are run from inside the prison system. Harrowing testaments to Sanchez’s determination to rebuild his life include his efforts to separate his family from gang life and his struggle to adapt to marriage and the corporate world. Despite temptations, nightmares, regressions into violence, and his own internal demons, Sanchez makes an uneasy peace with his new life. This raw, powerful, and brutally honest memoir traces the transformation of an accomplished gangbanger into a responsible citizen.

Read more less

Offering sample writings, historical examples, and practical advice, this invaluable and beautifully packaged book contains guidance for all occasions that call for eloquent and inspired love letters. Modern model letters to adapt and use in specific circumstances, tips on letter-writing techniques, and creative suggestions for packaging and delivering messages of love are peppered with fanciful, original Victorian illustrations, making the look of this volume as romantic as the letters within. With charming specificity, guidance and appropriate words are provided for various would-be Shakespeares, from the 'morning-after lover' and the 'anniversary lover' to the 'frustrated lover' and the 'neglected lover.' Also included are a short history of epistolary romance, 76 model letters, and a host of helpful and witty epigrams.

Read more less

These 25 unforgettable fishing stories boast fast action, dramatic plot twists, and intriguing characters, from the sinister to the hilarious. Spanning the entire 20th century, they offer a bounty of fishing adventures: the solitary sportsman casting in a fast trout stream; expensive ocean charters seeking grouper; a couple of kids with bamboo poles and high hopes for the big one. The world-class authors include Stephen King, Bob Shacochis, Thomas McGuane, and E. Annie Proulx; timeless storytellers such as Guy de Maupassant and the Brothers Grimm; and early- and mid-century favorites like Stephen Vincent Benét, Philip Wylie, Henry Van Dyke, and others. Sports enthusiasts and story lovers alike will find this collection irresistible.

Read more less

Language skills will fly through the air with the greatest of ease as kids join in The Circus of Words. Children of all ages are delighted by anagrams, palindromes, acrostics, alliteration, riddles, and puns, yet few books on wordplay are addressed to middle-schoolers. This creative and challenging activity book shows kids how to juggle letters to become ringmasters of wordplay. “The Shrinking Spotlight” shows how larger words become smaller words when certain letters are removed. “Clown Cars” introduces the idea of words hiding within words, and “The Acro Bat” and “Silver Spoonerisms” show off letter clusters that change from one word to another. The whole bandwagon is here, enabling kids, who are natural language enthusiasts, to cavort through that endless entertainment, the English language.

Read more less

The Far East comes alive in this activity book centered on Marco Polo’s journey to China from Venice along the 13th-century Silk Road. Kids will join Marco as he travels by caravan through vast deserts and over steep mountain ranges, stopping in exotic cities and humble villages, until at last he arrives at the palace of the Kublai Khan. Woven throughout the tale are 21 activities that highlight the diverse cultures Marco encountered along the way. Activities include making a mythical map, creating a mosaic, fun with Feng Shui, making paper, and putting on a wayang-kulit (shadow-puppet play). Just for fun, kids will learn a few words of Turkish, Persian, Mongol, Hindi, and Chinese. A complete resource section with magnificent museums and their Web sites invites kids to embark on their own expedition of discovery.

Read more less

Owning a pet can teach a child responsibility, patience, confidence, and the satisfaction of a job well done—and best of all, it’s fun! Over 60 inventive activities and crafts such as Can Do Canine Show and Dog Day Story teach kids about taking care of their pooch pal while promoting a long-lasting relationship. Games such as musical chairs, burying bones together, and throwing a frisbee and flyball; fun things to make such as a rag rug, a pooch pillow, and a puppy bed; and yummy treats to cook such as crunchy dog biscuits and a dog food cake get kids involved with taking care of their dog’s needs while teaching healthy care-giving techniques and fostering a deep friendship. In addition, A Dog’s Best Friend includes information about dog obedience training; a reading list of children’s animal books; listings of Web sites, pet-care resources, and animal organizations and events; and amusing trivia for dog lovers.

Read more less

A biting satire about the downfall of a businessman-polygamist who assumes the role of the colonialist in French-speaking Africa.

Read more less

If the question is How do you raise anti-ableist kids? the answer is Become anti-ableist and then model it through intention and action for your children. Raising kind and compassionate children is a goal for a lot of parents.While many people have a desire to be inclusive of their disabled and neurodivergent neighbors, and strongly desire to pass these values along to their children, they do not have a breadth of education or experience on how to appropriately do this.Beyond Inclusionbreaks down fifteen common forms of ableism, with explanations, examples, and first-person accounts. Then, author Carrie Cherney Hahn offers activities and perspectives that help parents understand the ableism that exists within them and supports their ability to process and dismantle it so that they can model anti-ableist practices for their kids. Each chapter offers children's resources that parents can use to nurture informed and anti-ableist ideals in their kids. Inclusion is actually the bare min

Read more less

Unlock the power of imagination! Using easy-to-follow instructions and materials that can be found around the house, Making Make-Believe offers over 125 projects and activities sure to foster children’s creativity. Little ones will learn to see the world in a new way as they transform things like old sheets, rubber gloves, egg cartons, and pebbles into toys, costumes, forts, and storytelling games. With plenty of drawings and step-by-step guidelines, this book will show you how to: Create wacky hats, fabric-m chÉ masks, and other silly dress-up outfits Turn your living room into a magical blanket land or a daring obstacle maze Put on a play starring puppets made from socks, sticks, spoons, or even shadows Whip up culinary delights like edible moon rocks, goldfish aquariums, and butterfly bagels Make crafts and forts inspired by storybooks like Curious George, Madeline, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Play pretend as an artist, carpenter, scientist, treasure-hunter, veterinarian, and more! Perfect for inspiring independent play or for side-by-side fun with a grown-up, Making Make-Believe is packed with ideas for hours of creative adventure!

Read more less

A 2017 Michigan Notable Book After World War II, the American automobile industry was reeling. Having spent years building tanks and airplanes for the army, the car companies would need years more to retool their production to meet the demands of the American public, for whom they had not made any cars since 1942. And then in stepped Preston Tucker. This salesman extraordinaire from Ypsilanti, Michigan, had built race cars before the war, and had designed prototypes for the military during it. Now, gathering a group of brilliant automotive designers, engineers, and promoters, he announced the creation of a revolutionary new car: the Tucker '48, the first car in almost a decade to be built fresh from the ground up. Tucker's car would include ingenious advances in design and engineering that other car companies could not match. With a rear engine, rear-wheel drive, a safety-glass windshielf that would pop out in case of an accident, a padded dashboard, independent suspension, and automatic transmission, it would be more attractive and aerodynamic—and safer—than any other car on the road. But as the public eagerly awaited Tucker's car of tomorrow, powerful forces in Washington were trying to bring him down. An SEC commissioner with close ties to Detroit's Big Three automakers deliberately leaked information about an investigation the agency was conducting, suggesting that Tucker was bilking investors with a massive fraud scheme. Headlines accused him a perpetrating a hoax and claimed that his cars weren't real and his factory was a sham. In fact, the Tucker '48 sedan was genuine, and everyone who saw it was impressed by what this upstart carmaker had achieved. But the SEC's investigation had compounded the company's financial problems and management conflicts, and a superior product was not enough to keep Tucker's dream afloat. Here, Steve Lehto tackles the story of Tucker's amazing rise and tragic fall, relying on a huge trove of documents that has been used by no other writer to date. It is the first comprehensive, authoritative account of Tucker's magnificent car and his battles with the government. And in this book, Lehto finally answers the questions automobile aficionados have wondered about for decades: Exactly how and why was the production of such an innovative car killed?

Read more less

Calling all pumpkin chuckers, wannabe marauders, and tinkerers of all ages! Flinging things and playing at defending your own castle has never been more fun. Whether playing at defending their own castle or simply chucking pumpkins over a fence, wannabe marauders and tinkerers will become fast acquainted with Ludgar the War Wolf, Ill Neighbor, Cabulus, and the Wild Donkey—ancient artillery devices known commonly as catapults. Updated and improved instructions and diagrams illustrate how to build 10 authentic working model catapults, including an early Greek ballista, a Roman onager, and the apex of catapult technology, the English trebuchet. Additional projects include learning how to lash and make rope and how to construct and use a hand sling and a staff sling. Building these simple yet sophisticated machines introduces fundamentals of math and physics using levers, force, torsion, tension, and traction. The colorful history of siege warfare is explored through the stories of Alexander the Great and his battle of Tyre; Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, and the Third Crusade; pirate-turned-soldier Jon Crabbe and his ship-mounted catapults; and Edward I of England and his battle against the Scots at Stirling Castle. For the legions of Tolkien fans, budding backyard warriors, and engineering wizards, this book is a must-have.

Read more less

Today, a trip to Hawaii is a simple six-hour flight from the West Coast, but almost a century ago, it was a nerve-wracking and twenty-six-hour journey across 2,400 miles of the open Pacific. Race to Hawaii chronicles the thrilling first flights during the Golden Age of Aviation, a time when new airplanes traveled farther and faster but were also unreliable, fragile, and hampered by primitive air navigation equipment. The US Navy tried first, sending flying boats winging toward the islands. Next came Army Air Corps aviators and a civilian pilot, who informally raced each other to Hawaii in the weeks after Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic to land the Spirit of St. Louis in Paris. Finally came the Dole Derby, an unprecedented 1927 air race in which eight planes set off at once across the Pacific, all eager to claim a cash prize offered by Pineapple King, James Dole. Military men, barnstormers, a schoolteacher, a Wall Street bond salesman, a Hollywood stunt flyer, and veteran World War aces all encountered every type of hazard during their perilous flights, from fuel shortages to failed engines, forced sea landings and severe fatigue to navigational errors. With so many pilots taking aim at the far-flung islands in so many different types of planes, everyone wondered who would reach Hawaii first, or at all.

Read more less

From the moment Patti Smith burst onto the scene, chanting "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine," the irreverent opening line to Horses, her 1975 debut album, the punk movement had found its dissident intellectual voice. Yet outside the recording studio -- Smith has released eleven studio albums -- the punk poet laureate has been perhaps just as revelatory and rhapsodic in interviews, delivering off-the-cuff jeremiads that emboldened a generation of disaffected youth and imparting hard-earned life lessons. With her characteristic blend of bohemian intellectualism, antiauthoritarian poetry, and unflagging optimism, Smith gave them hope in the transcendent power of art. Her interview archive serves as a compelling counternarrative to the albums and books. Initially, interviewing Patti Smith was a censorship liability. Contemptuous of staid rules of decorum, no one knew what she might say, whether they were getting the romantic, swooning for Lorca and Blake, or the firebrand with no respect for an on-air seven-second delay. Patti Smith on Patti Smith is a compendium of profound and reflective moments in the life of one of the most insightful and provocative artists working today.

Read more less

The 1968 US men’s Olympic track and field team won 12 gold medals and set six world records at the Mexico City Games, one of the most dominant performances in Olympic history. The team featured such legends as Tommie Smith, Bob Beamon, Al Oerter, and Dick Fosbury. Fifty years later, the team is mostly remembered for embodying the tumultuous social and racial climate of 1968. The Black Power protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the victory stand in Mexico City remains one of the most enduring images of the 1960s. Less known is the role that a 400-meter track carved out of the Eldorado National Forest above Lake Tahoe played in molding that juggernaut. To acclimate US athletes for the 7,300-foot elevation of Mexico City, the US Olympic Committee held a two-month training camp and final Olympic selection meet for the ages at Echo Summit near the California-Nevada border. Never has a sporting event of such consequence been held in such an ethereal setting. On a track in which hundreds of trees were left standing on the infield to minimize the environmental impact, four world records fell—more than have been set at any US meet since (including the 1984 and 1996 Olympics). But the road to Echo Summit was tortuous—the Vietnam War was raging, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, and a group of athletes based out of San Jose State had been threatening to boycott the Mexico City Games to protest racial injustice. Informed by dozens of interviews by longtime sports journalist and track enthusiast Bob Burns, this is the story of how in one of the most divisive years in American history, a California mountaintop provided an incomparable group of Americans shelter from the storm.

Read more less

Rachel Carson was an American biologist, conservationist, science and nature writer, and catalyst of the modern environmental movement. She studied biology in college at a time when few women entered the sciences, and then worked as a biologist and information specialist for the US government and wrote about the natural world for many publications. Carson is best remembered for her book Silent Spring, which exposed the widespread misuse of chemical pesticides in the United States and sparked both praise and fury. Carson’s personal life and scientific career were rooted in the study of nature. Using examples from Carson’s life and works, Rachel Carson and Ecology for Kids will introduce readers to ecology concepts such as the components of ecosystems, adaptations by living things, energy cycles, food chains and food webs, and the balance of ecosystems. This lively biography includes a time line, resources, sidebars, and 21 hands-on activities that are sure to inspire the next generation of scientists, thinkers, leaders, agricultural producers, environmental activists, and world citizens. Kids will: Collect a seed bank of local plant species Chart bird migration through their region Make birdseed cookies Model bioaccumulation and biomagnification Build a worm farm And more!

Read more less

Gathering the 30 most vital Miles Davis interviews—on his music, his life, and his philosophy—this collection reveals the jazz icon as a complex and contradictory man, secretive at times but extraordinarily revealing at others. Miles was not only a musical genius, but an enigma, and nowhere else was he so compelling, exasperating, and entertaining as he was in his interviews, which vary from polite to outrageous, from straight-ahead to contrarian. Many were conducted by leading journalists like Leonard Feather, Stephen Davis, Ben Sidran, Mike Zwerin, and Nat Hentoff; while others have never before been printed, and are newly transcribed from radio and television shows—making this the definitive source for anyone wanting to really encounter the legend in print.

Read more less

Wild Rescues is a fast-paced, firsthand glimpse into the exciting lives of paramedics who work with the National Park Service: a unique brand of park rangers who respond to medical and traumatic emergencies in some of the most isolated and rugged parts of America. In 2014, Kevin Grange left his job as a paramedic in Los Angeles to work in a response area with 2.2 million acres: Yellowstone National Park. Seeking a break from city life and urban EMS, he wanted to experience pure nature, fulfill his dream of working for the National Park Service, and take a crash-course in wilderness medicine. Between calls, Grange reflects upon the democratic ideal of the National Park mission, the beauty of the land, and the many threats facing it. With visitation rising, budgets shrinking, and people loving our parks to death, he realized that—along with the health of his patients—he was also fighting for the life of “America’s Best Idea.”

Read more less

More than any other black leader, H. Rap Brown, chairman of the radical Black Power organization Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), came to symbolize the ideology of black revolution. This autobiography—which was first published in 1969, went through seven printings and has long been unavailable—chronicles the making of a revolutionary. It is much more than a personal history, however; it is a call to arms, an urgent message to the black community to be the vanguard force in the struggle of oppressed people. Forthright, sardonic, and shocking, this book is not only illuminating and dynamic but also a vitally important document that is essential to understanding the upheavals of the late 1960s. University of Massachusetts professor Ekwueme Michael Thelwell has updated this edition, covering Brown’s decades of harassment by law enforcement agencies, his extraordinary transformation into an important Muslim leader, and his sensational trial.

Read more less

Randy Shilts was the greatest LGBTQ reporter of his generation. He was the first openly gay journalist in mainstream news media and one of the nation's most influential chroniclers of gay history, politics, and culture. Shilts wrote three seminal works on the community: The Mayor of Castro Street, on the life, assassination, and legacy of Harvey Milk; And the Band Played On, detailing the failure of politics as usual during the early AIDS epidemic; and Conduct Unbecoming, a history of the US military's mistreatment of LGBTQ servicemembers. Yet the intimate life story of Randy Shilts has been left unwritten. When the Band Played On tells that story, recognizing his legacy as a trailblazing figure in gay activism, journalism, and public policy. Author Michael G. Lee conducted interviews with Shilts's family, friends, college professors, colleagues, informants, lovers, and critics. The resulting narrative tells the tale of a singularly gifted voice, a talented yet insecure young man who

Read more less

Sharing perspectives on their journeys into the physical sciences, these heroes provide readers with advice about overcoming adversity. Quake Chasers: 15 Women Who Rock Earthquake Science explores the lives of 15 diverse, contemporary female scientists with a variety of specialties related to earthquake science. Dr. Debbie Weiser travels to communities post-disaster, such as Japan and China, to evaluate earthquake damage in ways that might help save lives during the next Big One. Geologist Edith Carolina Rojas climbs to the top of volcanoes or searches barren deserts for volcanic evidence to measure seismic activity. Geophysicist Lori Dengler works with the National Weather Service and provided guidance to counties after the 2011 tsunami. With tenacity, intellect, and innovation, these women have crushed obstacles in society, in the lab, and out in the field. Their accomplishments leave aftershocks as they work toward revealing answers to the many riddles that lie behind ear

Read more less

BERLIN, 1942. The Gestapo arrest eighteen-year-old Bert Lewyn and his parents, sending the latter to their deaths and Bert to work in a factory making guns for the Nazi war effort. Miraculously tipped off the morning the Gestapo round up all the Jews who work in the factories, Bert goes underground. He finds shelter sometimes with compassionate civilians, sometimes with people who find his skills useful and sometimes in the cellars of bombed-out buildings. Without proper identity papers, he survives as a hunted Jew in the flames and terror of Nazi Berlin in part by successfully mimicking non-Jews, even masquerading as an SS officer. But the Gestapo are hot on his trail… Before World War II, 160,000 Jews lived in Berlin. By 1945, only 3,000 remained alive. Bert was one of the few, and his thrilling memoir—from witnessing the famous 1933 book burning to the aftermath of the war in a displaced persons camp—offers an unparalleled depiction of the life of a runaway Jew caught in the heart of the Nazi empire.

Read more less

“Never Silent is a gorgeous book . . . Peter Staley has written an electrifying primer for anyone who’s thinking/worrying/wondering about how to change/save the world.” —Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright of Angels in AmericaThe previously untold stories of the life of the leading subject in David France’s How To Survive A Plague, Peter Staley, including his continuing activism In 1987, somebody shoved a flyer into the hand of Peter Staley: massive AIDS demonstration, it announced. After four years on Wall Street as a closeted gay man, Staley was familiar with the homophobia common on trading floors. He also knew that he was not beyond the reach of HIV, having recently been diagnosed with AIDS-Related Complex. A week after the protest, Staley found his way to a packed meeting of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power—ACT UP—in the West Village. It would prove to be the best decision he ever made. ACT UP would change the course of AIDS, pressuring the National Institutes of Health, the FDA, and three administrations to finally respond with research that ultimately saved millions of lives. Staley, a shrewd strategist with nerves of steel, organized some of the group’s most spectacular actions, from shutting down trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to putting a giant condom over the house of Senator Jesse Helms. Never Silent is the inside story of what brought Staley to ACT UP and the explosive and sometimes painful years to follow—years filled with triumph, humiliation, joy, loss, and persistence.Never Silent is guaranteed to inspire the activist within all of us.

Read more less

This bestselling DIY handbook now features new and expanded projects, enabling ordinary folks to construct 16 awesome ballistic devices in their garage or basement workshops using inexpensive household or hardware store materials and this step-by-step guide. Clear instructions, diagrams, and photographs show how to build projects ranging from the simple match-powered rocket to the more complex tabletop catapult and the offbeat Cincinnati fire kite. The classic potato cannon has a new evil twin—the piezo-electric spud gun and the electromagnetic pipe gun has joined the company of such favorites as the tennis ball mortar. With a strong emphasis on safety, the book also gives tips on troubleshooting, explains the physics behind the projects, and profiles scientists and extraordinary experimenters such as Alfred Nobel, Robert Goddard, and Isaac Newton. This book will be indispensable for the legions of backyard toy-rocket launchers and fireworks fanatics who wish every day was the fourth of July.

Read more less

If you’re a girl, you should strive to look like the model on the cover of a magazine. If you’re a boy, you should play sports and be good at them. If you’re smart, you should immediately go to college after high school, and get a job that makes you rich. Above all, be normal.Right? Wrong, say 35 leading middle grade and young adult authors. Growing up is challenging enough; it doesn’t have to be complicated by convoluted, outdated, or even cruel rules, both spoken and unspoken. Parents, peers, teachers, the media, and the rest of society sometimes have impossible expectations of teenagers. These restrictions can limit creativity, break spirits, and demand that teens sacrifice personality for popularity. In these personal, funny, moving, and poignant essays, Kathryn Erskine (Mockingbird), Matthew Quick (The Silver Linings Playbook), Gary D. Schmidt (The Wednesday Wars), Sara Zarr (Story of a Girl), and many others share anecdotes and lessons learned from their own lives in order to show you that some rules just beg to be broken.

Read more less

What makes someone a boy or a girl? Is it external genitalia, chromosomes, DNA, environment, or some combination of these factors? Not even doctors or scientists are entirely clear. What is clear is that sex is not girl/boy or XX/XY, switching between two poles like an on/off switch on a radio.Rather, sex is like the bass and treble knobs on that radio. In this eye-opening exploration of the science of sex, Gerald N. Callahan, PhD, challenges our notion of two opposite sexes. Human sex is more than it appears to be. Using a brief history of sex from the ancient Greeks to the geneticists of the twentieth century, he shows us how our understanding of the sexual development of human beings is constantly evolving.By sharing the extraordinary stories of people living with intersex conditions such as hermaphroditism, Klinefelter syndrome, and androgen insensitivity syndrome, Between XX and XY reveals that the path of sexual development is as varied as humans themselves

Read more less

Parents, teachers, and caregivers looking for ideas on how to get children outdoors and instill in them a love of nature can find more than 75 creative crafts, games, and activities using objects that kids can collect from nature in this idea book. As children make race cars out of rocks, create paint from plants, and assemble funny grass masks, they learn to be environmentally friendly—absorbing information on recycling, reducing waste, and inspiring others to protect nature. Organized by the various natural materials needed, the crafts offer a new twist on perennial homemade gifts and school projects.

Read more less

In the first-ever comprehensive survey of the world’s female buccaneers, Pirate Women tells of the women, both real and legendary, who through the ages sailed alongside—and sometimes in command of—their male counterparts. These women came from all walks of life but had one thing in common: a desire for freedom. History has largely ignored these female swashbucklers, until now. Here are their stories, from ancient Norse warriors like Awilda, Stikla, and Rusla; to Sayyida al-Hurra of the Barbary corsairs; from Grace O’Malley, who terrorized shipping operations around the British Isles; to Cheng I Sao, who commanded a fleet of 400 ships off China in the early 19th century. Author Laura Sook Duncombe also looks beyond the stories to the storytellers and mythmakers. What biases and agendas motivated them? What did they leave out? Pirate Women explores why and how these stories are told and passed down and how history changes depending on who is recording it. It’s the largest overview of women pirates in one volume and chock-full of swashbuckling adventures. In this book, pirate women are pulled from the shadows into the spotlight that they deserve.

Read more less

In the speeches and articles collected in this book, the black activist, organizer, and freedom fighter Stokely Carmichael traces the dramatic changes in his own consciousness and that of black Americans that took place during the evolving movements of Civil Rights, Black Power, and Pan-Africanism. Unique in his belief that the destiny of African Americans could not be separated from that of oppressed people the world over, Carmichael's Black Power principles insisted that blacks resist white brainwashing and redefine themselves. He was concerned not only with racism and exploitation, but with cultural integrity and the colonization of Africans in America. In these essays on racism, Black Power, the pitfalls of conventional liberalism, and solidarity with the oppressed masses and freedom fighters of all races and creeds, Carmichael addresses questions that still confront the black world and points to a need for an ideology of black and African liberation, unification, and transformation.

Read more less

On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Long a target of J. Edgar Hoover's campaign to defame, infiltrate, and criminalize Black nationalist organizations and their leaders, Shakur was incarcerated for four years prior to her conviction on flimsy evidence in 1977 as an accomplice to murder. This intensely personal and political autobiography belies the fearsome image of JoAnne Chesimard long projected by the media and the state. With wit and candor, Assata Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portrays the strengths, weaknesses, and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at the hand of government officials. The result is a signal contribution to the literature about growing up Black in America that has already taken its place alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou. Two years after her conviction, Assata Shakur escaped from prison. She was given political asylum by Cuba, where she now resides.

Read more less

A source of inspiration for young women with strong social convictions, She Takes a Stand highlights 16 extraordinary women who have fought for human rights, civil rights, workers’ rights, reproductive/sexual rights, and world peace. Among these are many who have been imprisoned, threatened, or suffered financial hardships for pursuing their missions to change the world for the better. Included are historic heroes such as anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells and suffragist Alice Paul, along with contemporary figures such as girls-education activist Malala Yousafzai; Sampat Pal Devi, who fights violence against Indian women; and SPARK executive director Dana Edell, who works to end the sexualization of women and girls in the media. Taking a multicultural, multinational perspective, She Takes a Stand spotlights brave women around the world with an emphasis on childhood details, motivations, and life turning points—in many cases gleaned from the author’s original interviews—and includes related sidebars, a bibliography, source notes, and a list of organizations young women can explore to get involved in changing their world.

Read more less