For more than 30 years Bob Higdon has been an instigator, raconteur, provocateur, and unapologetic contrarian. He is a record-holding long-distance rider, both unabashed promoter and red-eyed critic of BMW Motorrad, award-winning motorcycle-rights advocate, and voice of the Iron Butt Association. His writing has earned him a unique place among the legends of motorcycle journalism. The Higdon Chronicles, collated from various sources over the past 30 years, represents his best work. A self-described "recovering attorney," these days he migrates between Maryland and Florida, depending on where the better riding weather is currently found.
Provides an insider's view of long-distance riding, explains what draws people to the challenges and solitude of the pastime, and highlights a middle-aged diabetic man who loves riding impossible distances.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Years after her death, Princess Diana remains a mystery. This "insanely readable and improbably profound" biography (Chicago Tribune) reveals the truth as only famed journalist Tina Brown could tell it. "The best book on Diana." —The New Yorker Was she “the people’s princess,” who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions? Or was she manipulative and media-savvy and nearly brought down the monarchy? Tina Brown, former Editor-in-Chief of Tatler, England’s glossiest gossip magazine; Vanity Fair; and The New Yorker gives us the answers. Tina knew Diana personally and has far-reaching insight into the royals and the Queen herself. In The Diana Chronicles, you will meet a formidable female cast and understand as never before the society that shaped them: Diana's sexually charged mother, her scheming grandmother, the stepmother she hated but finally came to terms with, and bad-girl Fergie, her sister-in-law, who concealed wounds of her own. Most formidable of them all was her mother-in-law, the Queen, whose admiration Diana sought till the day she died. Add Camilla Parker-Bowles, the ultimate "other woman" into this combustible mix, and it's no wonder that Diana broke out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect.
For more than 30 years has been a raconteur, provocateur, and relentless contrarian. He is a record-holding long-distance rider, both unabashed promoter and red-eyed critic of BMW Motorrad, award-winning motorcycle-rights advocate and voice of the Iron Butt Association. His writing has earned him a unique place among the legends of motorcycle journalism. The Higdon Chronicles, collated from various sources over the past three decades, represents his best work. A self-described "recovering attorney," these days he migrates between Maryland and Florida, depending on where the better riding weather is currently found.
Lacon Mountain is located in South Morgan County, Alabama, on the Old Highway 31. At one time Lacon was a thriving village formally known as Cedar Crossing, boasting a post office, brickyard, a sawmill, a gin, a rock crusher, a church, and a newspaper. Today all that remains of Lacon is the Lacon Trade Day. The Patterson family home sits across the highway from it, backed up by the Knight Farm, which still operates and remains in the family. You can find anything you want for a price, from the best hunting dogs in the world to goats. The proper slogan for Lacon Trade Day is, "If it ain't here, it don't exist." My favorite is the meat skins that are cooked on the spot and packaged in a paper sack still warm. Settle back and learn about life in Lacon and around the world as seen through the eyes of master storyteller Ed Higdon.
A Gripping Story of Love, Loss, and Second Chances When her husband disappears into a mountain snowstorm one morning, Kathryn Jennings is flung into the world of ranching, banking, and business. Penniless and pregnant, Kathryn is determined to keep her land as a legacy for her child. The man who offers her a job seems to have an awful lot of secrets, but she is desperate. Most disconcerting of all is the uncanny familiarity she feels toward the badly scarred ranch hand who works in the dark shadows of the horse stables.
Giovanni Villani’s New Chronicle traces the history of Europe, Italy, and Florence over a vast sweep of time – from the Tower of Babel to the great earthquake of 1348. In the eleventh and twelfth books, Villani depicts a particularly eventful period in the history of Florence, whose grandeur is illustrated in several famous chapters describing the city’s income, expenses, and magnificence. The dramatic account follows Florence’s internal affairs as well as its conflicts with powerful lords like Castruccio Castracani and Mastino della Scala. The chronicler’s perspective, however, ranges beyond his city, as he documents such events as the imperial coronation of Louis of Bavaria, the penitential pilgrimage of Venturino da Bergamo, and the first campaigns of the Hundred Year’s War.
What if you had to live on the street? Could you survive? At five years old, John Maina was forced to live on the dangerous streets of an African slum. Several years later, he was taken into an orphanage in the heart of one of Nairobi's vast shantytowns. When he was in high school, he met Paul, an American businessman, who was visiting the orphanage. That day, they bonded instantly, but were only able to spend a few hours together. Twelve years later, through an improbable series of events, John and Paul were miraculously re-united. In an African sense, they are now father and son. Hope and a Future is a beautifully interwoven narrative-the true story of John's harrowing life in the slums; the moving story of the remarkable friendship John and Paul forged; and Paul's personal journey, sharing his spiritual challenges of working in Africa. This is how it happened. No one could make up such an incredible tale.
Ten consecutive thousand-mile days on two wheels in a mental race against imponderable odds and a ceaselessly ticking clock--welcome to the legendary Iron Butt Rally. Against the Wind is a riveting new book, written by sixth-place 1995 finisher Ron Ayres, telling the story of what many call the most grueling test of human endurance in all of motorcycling. With guts and shear willpower, riders must overcome (or succumb to) fatigue and danger, calling upon human reserves buried deep within. Ayres reveals the innermost thoughts of a successful contestant and lets us share the anticipation, the thrill, the fatigue, the heartbreak, the euphoria, and ultimately the controversy of completing this merciless trial. More than the mere mechanics of making it through the eleven-day ordeal, Ayres describes the elegant strategy necessary to be a contender. You'll discover what motivates the riders, how the rally is scored, what takes place each day, how the routes are planned, and what it's like to ride to the very limit of endurance--and then ride some more.As engaging as Ayres own story is, you'll also be fascinated by the experiences of other riders who are attracted to such events. Motorcycle journalist Bob Higdon states in his foreword to the book, "Here, told from the point of view of a participant, the unraveling of human souls proceeds in almost embarrassing clarity." It's an incredible journey most of us would rather enjoy from our easy chair, and now we can with this first-rate book.
