First Descent
First Descent

Author: Pam Withers

Publisher: Tundra Books

Published: 2014-02-11

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 177049412X

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Montana-born Rex dreams of following in his grandfather's footsteps and making a first descent down one of the world's last unconquered wild rivers. When he finally gets enough sponsors, Rex heads to South America to tackle the well-named El Furioso. And while he anticipates the river's challenges, he finds himself in a situation where the real danger is human. In Colombia, he hires a guide: seventeen year-old Myriam Calambás, an indígena who has lived along El Furioso all her life. Though she loves its rushing waters, Myriam longs to go to university, become a reporter, and tell the world what is happening to her people. Her dreams, and her very survival, are in the balance when she and Rex become caught up in the clash between the paramilitaries, who work for the rich landowners, and the guerillas, who are supposed to protect the poor. Pam Withers' skill at writing about extreme sports is reflected in this compelling novel about an endangered world and a people struggling for their very right to exist.

First Descent
First Descent

Author: Pam Withers

Publisher: Tundra Books

Published: 2011-09-13

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1770492577

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Montana-born Rex loves nothing more than to take his kayak out on a river, the faster and more powerful the better. When he gets the opportunity to tackle the well-named El Furioso in southwest Colombia, he is thrilled. He anticipates the river’s challenges, but finds himself in a situation where the real danger is human. In Colombia, he meets Myriam Calambás, an indígena, who has lived along the El Furioso all her life. Though she loves its rushing waters, she dreams of leaving to get an education so that she can help her people. Her dreams, and her very survival, are in the balance when she and Rex are caught up in the clash between paramilitaries, working for rich landowners, and guerillas, who are supposed to be protecting the poor. Pam Withers’ skill at writing about extreme adventures combines with a compelling story about an endangered world and a people struggling for their very right to exist.

January First
January First

Author: Michael Schofield

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2012-08-07

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0307719103

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Michael Schofield’s daughter January is at the mercy of her imaginary friends, except they aren’t the imaginary friends that most young children have; they are hallucinations. And January is caught in the conflict between our world and their world, a place she calls Calalini. Some of these hallucinations, like “24 Hours,” are friendly and some, like “400 the Cat” and “Wednesday the Rat,” bite and scratch her until she does what they want. They often tell her to scream at strangers, jump out of buildings, and attack her baby brother. At six years old, January Schofield, “Janni,” to her family, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, one of the worst mental illnesses known to man. What’s more, schizophrenia is 20 to 30 times more severe in children than in adults and in January’s case, doctors say, she is hallucinating 95 percent of the time that she is awake. Potent psychiatric drugs that would level most adults barely faze her. A New York Times bestseller, January First captures Michael and his family's remarkable story in a narrative that forges new territory within books about mental illness. In the beginning, readers see Janni’s incredible early potential: her brilliance, and savant-like ability to learn extremely abstract concepts. Next, they witnesses early warning signs that something is not right, Michael’s attempts to rationalize what’s happening, and his descent alongside his daughter into the abyss of schizophrenia. Their battle has included a two-year search for answers, countless medications and hospitalizations, allegations of abuse, despair that almost broke their family apart and, finally, victories against the illness and a new faith that they can create a life for Janni filled with moments of happiness. A compelling, unsparing and passionate account, January First vividly details Schofield’s commitment to bring his daughter back from the edge of insanity. It is a father’s soul-baring memoir of the daily struggles and challenges he and his wife face as they do everything they can to help Janni while trying to keep their family together.

Descent
Descent

Author: Tim Johnston

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Published: 2015-01-06

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1616203048

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A Breakout NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller A USA Today Bestseller An Indie National Bestseller “Outstanding . . . The days when you had to choose between a great story and a great piece of writing? Gone.” —Esquire “The story unfolds brilliantly, always surprisingly . . . The magic of his prose equals the horror of Johnston’s story; each somehow enhances the other . . . Read this astonishing novel.” —The Washington Post “Tim Johnston’s high-wire literary thriller . . . will leave you gasping.” —Vanity Fair “A riveting literary thriller of the can’t-stop-turning-the-page, stay-up-all-night variety.” —Alice LaPlante, author of A Circle of Wives The Rocky Mountains have cast their spell over the Courtlands, a young family from the plains taking a last summer vacation before their daughter begins college. For eighteen-year-old Caitlin, the mountains loom as the ultimate test of her runner’s heart, while her parents hope that so much beauty, so much grandeur, will somehow repair a damaged marriage. But when Caitlin and her younger brother, Sean, go out for an early morning run and only Sean returns, the mountains become as terrifying as they are majestic, as suddenly this family find themselves living the kind of nightmare they’ve only read about in headlines or seen on TV. As their world comes undone, the Courtlands are drawn into a vortex of dread and recrimination. Why weren’t they more careful? What has happened to their daughter? Is she alive? Will they ever know? Caitlin’s disappearance, all the more devastating for its mystery, is the beginning of the family’s harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths until all that continues to bind them together are the questions they can never bring themselves to ask: At what point does a family stop searching? At what point will a girl stop fighting for her life? Written with a precision that captures every emotion, every moment of fear, as each member of the family searches for answers, Descent is a perfectly crafted thriller that races like an avalanche toward its heart-pounding conclusion, and heralds the arrival of a master storyteller.

Expedition Deep Ocean
Expedition Deep Ocean

Author: Josh Young

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2020-12-01

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1643136771

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The riveting story of the exploration of the final frontier of our planet—the deep ocean—and history-making mission to reach the bottom of all five seas. Humankind has explored every continent on earth, climbed its tallest mountains, and gone into space. But the largest areas of our planet remain largely a mystery: the deep oceans. At over 36,000 feet deep, there areas closest to earth’s core have remained nearly impossible to reach—until now. Technological innovations, engineering breakthroughs and the derring-do of a team of explorers, led by explorer Victor Vescovo, brought together an audacious global quest to dive to the deepest points of all five oceans for the first time in history. The expedition pushed technology to the limits, mapped hidden landscapes, discover previously unknown life forms and began to piece together how life in the deep oceans effects our planet—but it was far from easy. Expedition Deep Ocean is the inside story of this exploration of one of the most unforgiving and mysterious places on our planet, including the site of the Titanic wreck and the little-understood Hadal Zone. Vescovo and his team would design the most advanced deep-diving submersible ever built, where the pressure on the sub is 8 tons per square inch—the equivalent of having 292 fueled and fully loaded 747s stacked on top of it. And then there were hurricane-laden ocean waters and the byzantine web of global oceanography politics. Expedition Deep Ocean reveals the marvelous and other-worldly life found in all five deep ocean trenches, including several new species that have posed as of yet unanswered questions about survival and migration from ocean to ocean. Then there are the newly discovered sea mounts that cause tsunamis when they are broken by shifting subduction plates and jammed back into the earth crust, something that can now be studied to predict future disasters. Filled with high drama, adventure and the thrill of discovery, Expedition Deep Ocean celebrates courage and ingenuity and reveals the majesty and meaning of the deep ocean.

The Descent
The Descent

Author: Jeff Long

Publisher: Crown

Published: 1999-11-12

Total Pages: 610

ISBN-13: 0609607022

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We are not alone. Some call them devils or demons. But they are real. They are down there. And they are waiting for us to find them. In a cave in the Himalayas, a guide discovers a self-mutilated body with a warning: Satan exists. In the Kalahari Desert, a nun unearths evidence of a proto-human species and a deity called Older-than-Old. In Bosnia, something has been feeding upon the dead in a mass grave. So begins mankind’s most shocking realization: the underworld is a vast geological labyrinth populated by another race of beings. With all of Hell's precious resources and territories to be won, a global race ensues. Nations, armies, religions, and industries rush to colonize and exploit the subterranean frontier. A scientific expedition is launched westward to explore beneath the Pacific Ocean floor, both to catalog the riches there and to learn how life could develop in the sunless abyss. But in the dark underground, as humanity falls away from them, the scientists and mercenaries find themselves prey not only to the savage creatures, but also to their own treachery, mutiny, and greed. One thing is certain: Miles inside the earth, evil is very much alive.

The Descent of Alette
The Descent of Alette

Author: Alice Notley

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1996-04-01

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9780140587647

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The Decent Of Alette is a rich odyssey of transformation in the tradition of The Inferno. Alice Notley presents a feminist epic: a bold journey into the deeper realms. Alette, the narrator, finds herself underground, deep beneath the city, where spirits and people ride endlessly on subways, not allowed to live in the world above. Traveling deeper and deeper, she is on a journey of continual transformation, encountering a series of figures and undergoing fragmentations and metamorphoses as she seeks to confront the Tyrant and heal the world. Using a new measure, with rhythmic units indicated by quotations marks, Notley has created a "spoken" text, a rich and mesmerizing work of imagination, mystery, and power.

Mystery of the Nile
Mystery of the Nile

Author: Richard Bangs

Publisher: Signet

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780451217554

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A thrilling account of the greatest historical expedition of our time, this work highlights the first-ever complete descent of the Nile River in 2004. 16-page color insert.

A Genealogy of the Wives of the American Presidents and Their First Two Generations of Descent
A Genealogy of the Wives of the American Presidents and Their First Two Generations of Descent

Author: Craig Hart

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-11-01

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780786483679

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From Martha Washington to Laura Bush, the wife of each U.S. president has found her place in history, often setting trends and doing important work for the nation. This reference work traces the lineage of all presidents' wives, arranged alphabetically from Abigail Adams to Jane Wyman. Genealogy reveals that some of the women are connected to one another through common ancestry, sometimes even through royal blood--for example, the bloodlines of Laura Bush and Abigail Adams join at King Henry II and can then be traced to King Pepin the Short, born in 714. Several others can be traced back to King John, William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, and Lady Godiva. Clearly organized and easy to use, the work includes not only ancestors but offspring, listing children and grandchildren for each woman. Dates of birth, death, and marriage of ancestors, children and grandchildren are included where known.

Descent from Glory
Descent from Glory

Author: Paul C. Nagel

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 9780674198296

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There has never been any doubt that the Adams family was America's first family in our politics and memory. This research-based and insightful book is a multigenerational biography of that family from the founder father John through the mordant writer Brooks.