In Peter Schranz's new collection, the Bridges family tries out a new diet, a documentarian discovers that drowning is an urban legend, and a regal sea monster can't tell the difference between a human and a chimpanzee. While the author apologizes that one of the stories' most significant body of water is a lake, he assures readers that the mighty oceans feature in all six tales.
This collection of seafaring sagas displays how sailors fight their way across vast waters, face unknown dangers, and find the courage to battle forces of nature with amazing fortitude. This collection includes the story of Mike Plant, America's greatest solo sailing racer, as he headed out to sea from New York harbor never to be seen again; the journey of one man on a wooden fishing skiff who faced an early sea ice storm to search desperately for a lost partner; the courageous adventure of Gerry Spiess aboard Yankee Girl, a 10-foot home-built plywood sloop, as he left Long Beach, California, to begin a bold voyage in the smallest craft ever to sail across the Pacific Ocean; and the tragic legend of the men aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald who found themselves in a deadly race against time as a terrible storm deepened. These powerfully retold stories will sweep readers into the world of high seas adventure and desperate survival of outstanding sailors aboard memorable boats.
Stories of heroism, exploration, and sacrifice -- including Apollo XIII and Scott of the Antarctic -- that inspire boys to be courageous, selfless, and open to adventure Tales of brave and selfless deeds used to be part of every boy’s education. We grew up sharing stories with our fathers, uncles, and grandfathers of how other men had lived their lives, met their challenges, reached their goals, and faced their deaths. Becoming a man was about comradeship and standing by your friends whatever the circumstances. And it meant that sometimes it was more important to die a hero than live a coward’s life. Through Neil Oliver’s vivid, stirring accounts we can rediscover the stories that inspire men to perform acts greater than themselves. These are the epics that we should all know by heart; the tales of courage, endurance, and sacrifice that made men out of boys. Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys is packed with classic stories of courage and heroism from around the world and includes four stories especially for the American edition: Omaha Beach, June 6th 1944; The Alamo; The Civil War Battle of Shilo; and The Revolutionary War Sea Battle of John Paul Jones and the Bon Homme Richard.
The sea and Great Lakes have inspired American authors from colonial times to the present to produce enduring literary works. This reference is a comprehensive survey of American sea literature. The scope of the encyclopedia ranges from the earliest printed matter produced in the colonies to contemporary experiments in published prose, poetry, and drama. The book also acknowledges how literature gives rise to adaptations and resonances in music and film and includes coverage of nonliterary topics that have nonetheless shaped American literature of the sea and Great Lakes. The alphabetical arrangement of the reference facilitates access to facts about major literary works, characters, authors, themes, vessels, places, and ideas that are central to American sea literature. Each of the several hundred entries is written by an expert contributor and many provide bibliographical information. While the encyclopedia includes entries for white male canonical writers such as Herman Melville and Jack London, it also gives considerable attention to women at sea and to ethnically diverse authors, works, and themes. The volume concludes with a chronology and a list of works for further reading.
As Amazing Tales—First Series by Ling Mengchu (1580-1644) made a hit, the publisher urged him to write a sequel to it. This gave rise to Amazing Tales—Second Series, which has become another bestseller for the last few centuries. Our English version of the Second Series features 19 stories carefully chosen from the original 40. In fascinating plots and a highly expressive colloquial language, they are mostly about women’s fate, their miserable existence in a polygamous society, their daring struggle for genuine love, and their implications in legal cases. All these shed precious light on the social mosaic of seventeenth-century China.
A king who composed more than 400 songs. A princess who followed a beloved temple idol to the very end. Emperors who tamed wild cheetahs and kept zebras as pets. Queens who fought the mightiest and cruellest powers on land and sea. Determined warriors, artistic temple builders, wise administrators, prolific writers, unabashed food-lovers and expert musicians... Who were these incredible, multifaceted rulers from the past who stood out among hundreds of others? From Kattabomman to Krishnadevaraya, from Abbakka to Durgavati, from Velu Nachiyar to Shantala, and from Mahendravarman to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj - what was extraordinary about them and their reign? In over 15 fascinating stories, this charmingly illustrated book takes you to the kingdoms, courts, palaces and battlefields of glorious royals, who shaped events in their own times and made their place forever in our history.
From the bestselling author of The Devil in the White City, here is the true story of the deadliest hurricane in history. National Bestseller September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devastating personal tragedy. Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful, Isaac's Storm is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.
The stories in this book will provide entertainment for everyone and evoke wonder in the most jaded observer of the human condition. Some of the exploits that Fred D. Cavinder describes are half-hidden footnotes to national and international happenings. Others seem so typical of Indiana that they will appeal to anyone who understands the Hoosier spirit. But all of them are true—recorded in reliable accounts or by reliable witnesses from early times to the present. In "Saving Face," Cavinder introduces us to General Ambrose Burnside of Liberty. Burnside blundered his way through the Civil War, relocated to Rhode Island, and served three terms as governor and two terms as U.S. Senator. But what we really remember Burnside for is his unique facial hair—his "sideburns." Did you know that Indiana produced three of the movie Tarzans? In "AHHaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee!" you can find out who they were. With its sometimes quirky stories about the Hoosier state, More Amazing Tales from Indiana will be a ready companion for the bedside table and will provide a wellspring of anecdotes for speechmakers and pundits.
