Other books that might interest you

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  The Lawrence Durrell Travel Reader

  Lawrence Durrell

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  A collection of travel essays from the bestselling author whose writing sparkles with “prose as luminous as the Mediterranean air he loves” (Time). Few men have traveled as wisely as Lawrence Durrell. Born in India, he lived in Corfu as a young man, enjoying salt air, cobalt water, and an unfettered bohemian lifestyle. Over the following decades, he rambled around the Mediterranean, making homes in Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece. Each time he moved, he asked himself why he felt compelled to travel. In this book, he gives his answer. Durrell knew that the wise traveler looks not for pleasure, education, or landmarks, but is hungry for a sense of place—the element of a landscape, city, or nation that makes its people who they are. In this anthology, passages from Durrell’s classic Mediterranean writings are paired with observations on other lands. His writing is poetic, lush, and achingly clear, for this was a man who truly saw the world.

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  Rising Ground - A Search for the...

  Philip Marsden

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  The travel writer and Cornwall native explores his home on a journey by foot to Land’s End in this “fascinating and hauntingly evocative” memoir (Literary Review).  A Guardian, Financial Times, Observer, and Scotsman Book of the Year   In 2010, Philip Marsden moved with his family to a rundown farmhouse in Cornwall, England. From the moment he arrived, Marsden was fascinated by the landscape and the traces of human history all around him. Wanting to experience the place more fully, he set out to walk across Cornwall, to the evocatively named Land’s End.  Rising Ground is a record of that journey, but it is also so much more: a beautifully written meditation on place, nature, and human life that encompasses history, archaeology, geography, and the love of place that suffuses us when we finally find home. Firmly in a storied tradition of English nature writing that stretches from Gilbert White to Helen MacDonald, Rising Ground reveals the ways that places and peoples have interacted over time, from standing stones to footpaths, ancient habitations to modern highways. What does it mean to truly live in a place, and what does it take to understand, and honor, those who lived and died there long before we arrived?  "A fascinating study of place and its meaning."—Observer, UK

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  What Are the Chances? - Voodoo...

  Bart K. Holland

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  An “enjoyable [and] painlessly instructive” guide to probability, full of examples drawn from daily life and history (The Skeptic). Our lives are governed by chance. But what, exactly, is chance? In this book, statistician and storyteller Bart K. Holland takes us on a tour of the world of probability. Weaving together tales from real life?from the spread of the bubonic plague in medieval Europe and the number of Prussian cavalrymen kicked to death by their horses, through IQ test results and why you have to wait in line for rides at Disney World?Holland captures probability in action, and the everyday events that can profoundly affect our lives but are controlled by just one number. As Holland explains, even chance events are governed by the laws of probability and follow regular patterns called statistical laws. He shows how such laws are successfully applied, with great benefit, in fields as diverse as the insurance industry, the legal system, medical research, aerospace engineering, and climatology. Whether you have only a distant recollection of high school algebra or use differential equations every day, this book offers enlightening and entertaining examples of the impact of chance. “[An] excellent primer on probability . . . In a time when anecdote and panic seem to influence public policy more than objective analysis, Holland has provided a welcome reminder of the power of the analytical approach.” —Simon Singh, New Scientist

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  Abbott and Costello: New Year's Eve

  Bud Abbott, Lou Costello

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  Lou was visiting movie stars homes. AC say tomorrow is New Years Eve. They say 1949 is only a couple of days off. AC talk about what to do on New Years Eve. Bud flubs the line multiple times. AC talk about resolutions and were to spend New Years Eve. AC do Sam Shovel. The Murder At The Radio Quiz Show or I've Got A Body In The Balcony Doctor.

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  Sextant - A Young Man's Daring...

  David Barrie

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  Award–winning author David Barrie explores the history of the Sextant and the daring mariners who used it to explore, conquer, and map the world. 
   
  Since its invention in 1759, a mariner’s most prized possession has been the sextant. A navigation tool that measures the angle between a celestial object and the horizon, the sextant allowed sailors to pinpoint their exact location at sea. 
   
  David Barrie chronicles the sextant’s development and shows how it not only saved the lives of navigators in wild and dangerous seas, but played a pivotal role in their ability to map the globe. He synthesizes centuries of seafaring history and the brave sailors who have become legend, including James Cook, Matthew Flinders, Robert FitzRoy, Frank Worsley of the Endurance, and Joshua Slocum, the redoubtable old “lunarian” and first single-handed-round-the-world yachtsman. He also recounts his own maiden voyage, and insights gleaned from his experiences as a practiced seaman and navigator. 
   
  In the tradition of Dava Sobel’s Longitude, David Barrie’s compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery is an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created. Full of heroism, danger, and excitement, told with an infectious sense of wonder, Sextant examines a masterful achievement that changed the course of history.

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  Guys Can Be Cat Ladies Too - A...

  Michael Showalter

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  “Mixes the funny with the feline . . . Showalter makes us laugh while revealing that he’s a big softie who cares a lot about the future of felines.” —Catster 
   
  Michael Showalter’s Guys Can Be Cat Ladies Too is the hilarious all-access guide to help a man comprehend, appreciate, and bond with the felines in his life. They say dogs are a man’s best friend. True! But what if that man’s girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband, or mother-in-law has a cat? Is that the end for him? Is he resigned to an eternity of estrangement from this furry creature with which he shares his life partner, his favorite chair, and his sock drawer? Showalter offers hope for men everywhere in their quest to understand and love cats. In this intimate portrait of one man’s love for cats, you will learn the answers to burning questions such as: Why are they all aloof and weird and stuff?; They hate me, right?; and Is it true that they have nine lives? Armed with these and countless other valuable lessons, by the book’s end any guy can be on the fast track to becoming a cat’s best friend. 
   
  “Showalter enlightens the male species on how to become loving cat people . . . it’s an inside scoop on how men can learn to love the felines that come into their lives by no choice of their own.” —Trend Hunter 
   
  “Fabulously illustrated.” —Entertainment Weekly

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