In 1989 Dr. Robert Vande Kappelle cycled solo cross-country. The 3,400-mile trip was the seed project for the Washington County (Pennsylvania) chapter of Habitat for Humanity. For forty-two days he went Homeless for Habitat, placing himself and his personal needs in the hands of strangers he met along the way. At the beginning he cycled across some of the most mountainous--and spectacular--terrain in America. After he crossed the Rockies, a nagging...

"[This book] is a guide to the world not as it is, but as it was imagined to be. It's a world of ghost islands, invisible mountain ranges, mythical civilizations, ship-wrecking beasts, and other fictitious features introduced on maps and atlases through mistakes, misunderstanding, fantasies, and outright lies. This ... book collects and explores the colorful histories behind a striking range of real antique maps that are all in some way a little too...

Tensions between Pakistan and India are at an all-time high. To complicate matters, twelve American climbers have disappeared in Pakistan's Hindu Kush range. As the conflict escalates, the U.S. Secretary of State's motorcade is ambushed on the outskirts of Islamabad. When her back-up team arrives, they discover a disastrous scene: dozens are dead, including seven diplomatic security agents, and the secretary of state has vanished without a trace. In...

Invisible Heroes of World War II documents ten fascinating true stories of a diverse group of soldiers and noncombatants from all over the world, including African Americans, women, and Native Americans, who fought with the Allies during World War II. These heroes made significant contributions in the war effort, and sometimes gave their lives for freedom and liberty, often without much recognition or fanfare. Some were frontline soldiers who were...

A long-haul trucker reflects on the changing realities of the working class as witnessed during journeys ranging from the I-95 Powerland and the Florida Everglades to the truck stops of the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains.

"To the rest of the world, Nelson Mandela was a giant: an anti-apartheid revolutionary, a world-renowned humanitarian, and South Africa's first black president. To Ndaba Mandela, he was simply 'Granddad.' ...Ndaba tells how he came to live with Mandela shortly after he turned eleven--having met each other only once, years before, when Mandela was imprisoned at Victor Verster Prison--and how the two of them slowly, cautiously built a relationship that...

Adriano Doria, a wealthy Italian entrepreneur, is describing the murky events of the worst night of his life, when he discovers himself in a resort hotel room with a nasty cut on his forehead and the lifeless body of his young mistress, Laura. Though he protests his innocence, Adriano is the obvious prime suspect. With just hours to go before his arrest, he arranges a meeting with Virginia Ferrara, a notoriously tough attorney who has never lost a...

"California is the most multicultural state in the nation. As John Mack Faragher argues in this concise and lively history, that is nothing new. Covering four centuries and focused on the experiences of all Californians--including Native peoples, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, and Pacific Islanders--Faragher tells the stories of a colorful cast of characters, some famous, other mostly unknown, California's diversity often led to conflict, turmoil,...

"Between 1608 and 1610 the canopy of the night sky changed forever, ripped open by an object created almost by accident: a cylinder with lenses at both ends. Galileo¿́¿s Telescope tells the story of how an ingenious optical device evolved from a toy-like curiosity into a precision scientific instrument, all in a few years. In transcending the limits of human vision, the telescope transformed humanity¿́¿s view of itself and knowledge of the cosmos....