Other books that might interest you

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  Juggernaut Drivers

  Leslie Purdon

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  "Leslie Purdon lives and breathes trucking" - "Truck and Driver". It's the 1970s. Trucker Dennis Richardson (Rich) revels in the laughs and camaraderie of his life on the road. He sets up a transport company, North Kent, with two pals. Benny is the one with the short fuse; Rich tries to calm him down - when he's not winding him up. The irrepressible Chuckles has his own way of dealing with tachographs and then there's the indispensable Jean, the rock on which they rest. The determined team go through humorous, and sometimes extreme, exploits as they strive to stay afloat. They run legal when they can and cut corners when necessary, gambling on the new Scandinavian trucks that are changing the industry. They are cheated out of their earnings - but still come up smiling.

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  Xia Dynasty - The Myth and...

  Rolf Hedger

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  The Xia Dynasty is often considered the first dynasty of China, marking the transition from a prehistoric era dominated by tribal alliances to a structured monarchy. However, much of what is known about the Xia comes from ancient texts written centuries later, blurring the line between history and legend. At the heart of this foundation myth is Yu the Great, a figure credited with taming the catastrophic floods that once plagued the Yellow River region. 
  According to traditional accounts, China before the Xia was ruled by the Five Emperors, semi-mythical sages who brought order and knowledge to early societies. The final ruler of this period, Emperor Shun, recognized Yu for his brilliance and appointed him to control the devastating floods that had threatened agricultural settlements for generations. Unlike his predecessors, who attempted to block or divert the waters, Yu devised a system of dredging and canal-building that allowed the floodwaters to drain naturally into rivers and the sea. His efforts reportedly took over a decade, during which he traveled across the land, surveying the terrain and directing large-scale labor projects. His selfless dedication won him the admiration of the people, and his success in flood control cemented his reputation as a leader with the Mandate of Heaven. 
  The concept of the Mandate of Heaven, though later fully developed under the Zhou Dynasty, has its roots in the Xia period. It suggested that rulers were chosen by divine will and that their legitimacy depended on their ability to maintain order and prosperity. Yu's ability to tame the floods demonstrated both his virtue and his right to rule. Upon Emperor Shun’s abdication, Yu became the first king of the Xia Dynasty, establishing a hereditary monarchy that would continue for generations.

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  Chronicles of Canada Volume 04 -...

  Thomas Guthrie Marquis

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  These little books were designed to cover Canadian history in a scholarly and readable fashion. This volume, as suggested in the title, folows the Jesuit missionaries through North America as they attempt, with little success, to convert the natives of the new world. (Summary by Esther)

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  Love Your Mother - 50 States 50...

  Mallory McDuff

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  From elder voices opposing the Dakota Pipeline to young people running for office to advocate for change, every day we see real-life stories about how women are making a collective difference on climate justice. Women are also disproportionately impacted by climate change and thus are critical to transforming society away from dependence on fossil fuels and toward renewable energy and environmental equity. 
   
   
   
  As a mother and a professor of environmental education, Mallory McDuff wanted to give her two daughters and her students a roadmap to engage in climate justice in their communities, rather than be left feeling paralyzed by the enormity of the problem. She set out to find women of diverse ages, backgrounds, and vocations—one from each of the fifty US states—as inspiration for a new kind of leadership focused on the heart of the climate crisis. Love Your Mother lifts up the stories of these women working toward a viable future, from farmer and rancher Donna Kilpatrick in Arkansas to writer Latria Graham in South Carolina. 
   
   
   
  From Alabama to Alaska, from Wisconsin to Wyoming, these women are poets, physicians, climate scientists, students, farmers, writers, documentary filmmakers, and more. Their work lights the way for conversation and collective action in our homes and in the world. It's time we follow their lead.

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  Raptor - A Journey through Birds

  James Macdonald Lockhart

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  “This illuminating book serves as homage to a brilliant naturalist and extraordinary birds. If you loved H Is for Hawk, put this next on your reading list.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 
   
  From the merlin to the golden eagle, the goshawk to the honey buzzard, James Macdonald Lockhart’s stunning debut is a quest of beak, talon, wing, and sky. On its surface, Raptor is a journey across the British Isles in search of fifteen species of birds of prey, but as Lockhart seeks out these elusive predators, his quest becomes so much more: an incomparably elegant elegy on the beauty of the British landscape and, through the birds, a journey toward understanding an awesome power at the heart of the natural world—a power that is majestic and frightening in its strength, but also fragile. 
   
  Linking his journey to that of his muse—nineteenth-century Scottish naturalist and artist William MacGillivray—Lockhart shares his own encounters with raptors ranging from the scarce osprey to the successfully reintroduced red kite, a species once protected by medieval royal statute, revealing with poetic immediacy the extraordinary behaviors of these birds and the extreme environments they call home. 
   
  Creatures both worshipped and reviled, raptors have a talon-hold on the human heart and imagination. With his book, Lockhart unravels these complicated ties in a work by turns reverent and euphoric—an interweaving of history, travel, and nature writing at its best. A hymn to wanderers, to the land and to the sky, and especially to the birds, Raptor soars. 
   
  “Lockhart’s soaring debut is a perfect synthesis of travel writing and natural history.” —Financial Times

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  Living Landmarks of Chicago -...

  Theresa L. Goodrich

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  From the man shipped home in a rum barrel to the most dangerous woman in America, Chicago history comes to life in these tantalizing tales. 
  "A wonderful bible of Chicago." WGN 
  Living Landmarks of Chicago goes beyond the what, when, and where to tell the how and why of fifty Chicago landmarks. More than a book about architecture, these are stories of the people who made Chicago and many of its most popular tourist attractions what they are today. Each chapter is a vignette that introduces the landmark and brings it to life, and the book is organized chronologically to illustrate the development of the city's distinct personality. These fifty landmarks weave an interconnected tale of Chicago between 1836 and 1932 (and beyond). 
  History lines Chicago’s sidewalks. Stroll down LaSalle or Dearborn or State and you’ll see skyscrapers that have been there for a century or more. It’s easy to scurry by, to dismiss the building itself, but a hunt for placards turns up landmarks every few feet, it seems. Here’s a Chicago landmark; there’s a National Historic landmark. They’re everywhere. 
  Ironically, these skyscrapers keep the city grounded; they illustrate a past where visionaries took fanciful, impossible ideas and made them reality. Buildings sinking? Raise them. River polluting the lake and its precious drinking water? Reverse it. Overpopulation and urban sprawl making it challenging to get to work? Build up. From the bare to the ornate, from exposed beams to ornamented facades, the city’s architecture is unrestrainedly various yet provides a cohesive, beautiful skyline that illustrates the creativity of necessity, and the necessity of creativity.

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