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  Ghosts of Galveston

  Kathleen Shanahan Maca

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  Discover the haunting history of this town on the Texas coast—includes photos.   One of the oldest cities in Texas, Galveston has witnessed more than its share of tragedies. Devastating hurricanes, yellow fever epidemics, fires, a major Civil War battle, and more cast a dark shroud on the city’s legacy.   Ghostly tales creep throughout the history of famous tourist attractions and historical homes. The altruistic spirit of a schoolteacher who heroically pulled victims from the floodwaters during the great hurricane of 1900 roams the Strand. The ghosts of Civil War soldiers march up and down the stairs at night and pace in front of the antebellum Rogers Building. The spirit of an unlucky man decapitated by an oncoming train haunts the railroad museum, moving objects and crying in the night. In this fascinating book, Kathleen Shanahan Maca explores these and other haunted tales from the Oleander City.  

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  Waters of the Sanjan

  David Read

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  "Waters of the Sanjan is fiction based on fact, woven around the life of a known (Masai) warrior who lived at the turn of the century. It is an historical novel and the events portrayed were not unusual in the life of a warrior of those times. The customs and traditions are accurate; the places where events took place are real places and to date still go by the same name the Waters of the Sanjan, translated literally, Inkariak-oo-Sanjan, means "The Waters of Sweehearts", and in fact is a place that lies to the North of the famous treeless undulating savannah known the world over as The Serengeti, and to the Masai as Sirinket. Isirinket are the people that lived in the now unique Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. barefoot over the serengeti beating about the bush another load of bull waters of the sanjan home | about david | david's books | contact author, guide, farmer, soldier, father, grandfather and gentle man D R Waters of the Sanjan Available in English and German (Die Wasser des Sanjan) "Waters of the Sanjan is fiction based on fact, woven around the life of a known (Masai) warrior who lived at the turn of the century. It is an historical novel and the events portrayed were not unusual in the life of a warrior of those times. The customs and traditions are accurate; the places where events took place are real places and to date still go by the same name the Waters of the Sanjan, translated literally, Inkariak-oo-Sanjan, means "The Waters of Sweehearts", and in fact is a place that lies to the North of the famous treeless undulating savannah known the world over as The Serengeti, and to the Masai as Sirinket. Isirinket are the people that lived in the now unique Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. "The author is perhaps one of the last lifelong European Tanzanian settlers, who possesses an intimate knowledge of the Masai. He has, since childhood mixed freely in friendship with both their children and the elders, and has had a unique opportunity to observe their way of life and customs." Geoffrey Cotterell , Tanzanian Affairs Waters of the Sanjan is an accurate and admirable historic record of my people, recording their way of life at another point in time, yet not so very long ago. And because not many truly authentic books have been written about us, it is, I think, a valuable record of a proud people that will enlighten the reader and allow him to glimpse another world. He may, perhaps, shudder at the horror of some of the more violent sections, but he will emerge the wiser for knowing and understanding a little of what our forefathers had to cope with , and what they suffered, not only at the hands of encroaching colonialism, but at the hand of nature; climatic disaster, diseases of man and beast and inter/intra tribal wars that were the norm and claimed with monotonous regularity the lives of many." Foreword from Ole Ntekerei Memusi

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  Antarctica's Lost Aviator - The...

  Jeff Maynard

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  By the 1930s, no one had yet crossed Antarctica, and its vast interior remained a mystery frozen in time. Hoping to write his name in the history books, wealthy American Lincoln Ellsworth announced he would fly across the unexplored continent, and to honor his hero, Wyatt Earp, he would carry his gun belt on the flight.The obstacles to Ellsworth’s ambition were numerous: He didn’t like the cold, he avoided physical work, and he couldn’t navigate. Consequently, he hired the experienced Australian explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins to organize the expedition on his behalf. While Ellsworth battled depression and struggled to conceal his homosexuality, Wilkins purchased a ship, hired a crew, and ordered a revolutionary new airplane constructed.The Ellsworth Trans-Antarctic Expeditions became epics of misadventure, as competitors plotted to beat Ellsworth, pilots refused to fly, crews mutinied, and the ship was repeatedly trapped in the ice. Finally, in 1935, Ellsworth took off to fly from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. A few hours after leaving, radio contact with him was lost, and the world gave him up for dead.Antarctica’s Lost Aviator brings alive one of the strangest episodes in polar history, using previously unpublished diaries, correspondence, and film to reveal the amazing true story of the first crossing of Antarctica and how, against all odds, it was achieved by the unlikeliest of heroes.

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  Wild Island - A Year in the...

  Jane Smith

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  This memoir of a year on a virtually uninhabited Scottish island, including illustrations of flora and fauna, is “the next best thing to being there” (Scotland on Sunday).Wild Island depicts a year in the life of Oronsay, a remote Scottish island that is farmed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and follows artist Jane Smith as she attempts to portray the interactions of wildlife, farm animals, and a small number of human inhabitants. A humorous, first-hand, personal view of island life, both human and otherwise, the book is illustrated with Smith’s vibrant and acutely observed sketches, paintings, and prints. She invites us into her world as she delves into such questions as: What does it feel like to sit in a bog all day? Where are a bird's knees? And why do I always wind up covered in acrylic paint?  Musing on encounters with creatures from otters to oil beetles, conservation management, and the tides, winds, and ferries that affect each journey to and from the island, Smith offers a beautiful portrait of a special place—and shares the ridiculous things that happen when living on a remote island, cut off from the rest of the world.

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  The Ribbon of Road Ahead

  Carol Clupny

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  At forty-nine years old, Carol Clupny was an active, driven woman with a career, a family, and a zest for adventure. A mere year later, she struggles with strange symptoms of internal tremors, frozen shoulders, and a serious intestinal infection. She doesn’t understand why she can’t paddle a kayak or throw the ball for her dogs. Then comes the diagnosis: early onset Parkinson’s Disease. “How can I keep going?” she asks her doctor. “Keep exercising and taking your meds. You have five to ten years before things get more difficult.” Carol finds she can no longer work. From her easy chair, she watches videos of people in advanced stages of Parkinson’s. “I can’t go there,” she tells herself. Struggling out of her chair, she shuffles outside to the mailbox and back. These first steps begin her training for the trip at the top of her bucket list: a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Completing this adventure once is not enough, she returns again and again. She reads in an article that bicycling helps mitigate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Dusting off a seldom-used bike in her garage, she leans it against the mailbox to mount up. Away she goes with newfound freedom to train for the RAGBRAI (the Des Moines Registers Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa). On her trips, Carol faces challenges she never could have foreseen. She forges lasting friendships and confronts the reality of living with a progressive neurological disorder. Crashing her bike, slipping along muddy paths with a heavy backpack, suffering through blisters and tendonitis, using a field as a bathroom, she approaches every aspect of life with an attitude of adventure. Carol is not afraid to face the apathy and depression that come with Parkinson’s. Instead of being drug down into darkness, she finds strategies for lifting herself, and others around her, up into the light.

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  My Good Life in France - In...

  Janine Marsh

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  One grey dismal day, Janine Marsh was on a trip to northern France to pick up some cheap wine. She returned to England a few hours later having put in an offer on a rundown old barn in the rural Seven Valleys area of Pas de Calais. This was not something she'd expected or planned for. 
  Janine eventually gave up her job in London to move with her husband to live the good life in France. Or so she hoped. While getting to grips with the locals and la vie Française, and renovating her dilapidated new house, a building lacking the comforts of mains drainage, heating, or proper rooms, and with little money and less of a clue, she started to realize there was lot more to her new home than she could ever have imagined. Ten years ago, Janine Marsh decided to leave her corporate life behind to fix up a run-down barn in northern France. This is the true story of her rollercoaster ride, in many ways a love story, with her sharp observations on the very different way of life, culture, and etiquette of France. 
  From her early struggles and homesickness through personal tragedy, to her attempts to become self-sufficient and to breed "the fattest chickens in the village," Janine learned that there was more to her new home than she could ever have imagined.

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