Throwing Fire

Throwing Fire

Author: Alfred W. Crosby

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2002-04-08

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 9780521791588

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Historian Alfred W. Crosby looks at hard, accurate throwing and the manipulation of fire as unique human capabilities. Humans began throwing rocks in prehistory and then progressed to javelins, atlatls, bows and arrows. We learned to make fire by friction and used it to cook, drive game, burn out rivals, and alter landscapes. In historic times we invented catapults, trebuchets, and such flammable liquids as Greek Fire. About 1,000 years ago we invented gunpowder, which accelerated the rise of empires and the advance of European imperialism. In the 20th century, gunpowder weaponry enabled us to wage the most destructive wars of all time, peaking at the end of World War II with the V-2 and atomic bomb. Today, we have turned our projectile talents to space travel which may make it possible for our species to migrate to other bodies of our solar system and even other star systems.


All the Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See

Author: Anthony Doerr

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-05-06

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 1476746605

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*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).


The Throw of the Dice

The Throw of the Dice

Author: R. D. Craze

Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing

Published: 2013-03

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1625161808

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This is the first book of a trilogy, a true story of the earlier years of an Englishman whose business ideas attracted government ministers. When barely out of his teens, he helped to take on the pharmaceutical giants of the '60s and won. He then refused an offer to spy for his country but was arrested for spying, the man who got involved in the sex for secrets trade in Eastern Europe, and set up an office in Prague just before and after the '68 revolution, who sadly lost his good friend, Eva. He was unwillingly involved in one of the biggest acid raids of the late '60s and '70s in San Francisco, and escaped death by the skin of his teeth. He mixed with celebrities and heads of state, made a lot of money and lost a lot of money. Much of this takes place in the swinging '60s and '70s, when the slogan of the time was "make love not war" and it was the time of the Beatles. He loved adventure and when a new idea came into his head he had to follow through.


Basic Training

Basic Training

Author: Jon Giswold

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2014-03-18

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1466866411

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A beautifully illustrated, indispensable guide for anyone embarking on a fitness program Basic Training by Jon Giswold is an introductory guide to achieving health and fitness for men. This user-friendly source of information, techniques, and images will enable and inspire any man to achieve a healthy body and a fit lifestyle. Divided into three sections--Motivation, Action, and Lifestyle--this book explains the basic elements of health and fitness and how to combine aerobic activities with a weight program that will give you the body you want and the energy to make life enjoyable. Clearly illustrated by the vivid photographs of David Morgan, Basic Training is the perfect exercise book for anyone seeking information and inspiration to begin a personalized training routine today.