Other books that might interest you

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  The Man Who Climbs Trees

  James Aldred

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  A professional tree climber encounters gorillas, snakes, spiders, and birds of prey, as well as answers and perspective, hundreds of feet up, all over the world 
  Every child knows the allure of climbing trees. But how many of us get to make a living at it, spending days observing nature from the canopies of stunning forests all around the world? 
  As a wildlife cameraman for the BBC and National Geographic, James Aldred spends his working life high up in trees, poised to capture key moments in the lives of wild animals and birds. Aldred's climbs take him to the most incredible and majestic trees in existence. In Borneo, home to the tallest tropical rain forest on the planet, just getting a rope up into the 250-foot-tall trees is a challenge. In Venezuela, even body armor isn't guaranteed protection against the razor-sharp talons of a nesting Harpy Eagle. In Australia, the peace of being lulled to sleep in a hammock 25 stories above the ground—after a grueling day of climbing and filming—is broken by a midnight storm that threatens to topple the tree. 
  In this vivid account of memorable trees he has climbed ("Goliath", "Apollo", "Roaring Meg"), Aldred blends incredible stories of his adventures in the branches with a fascination for the majesty of trees to show us the joy of rising—literally—above the daily grind, up into the canopy of the forest.

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  Double Ace - The Life of Robert...

  Robert Coram

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  Robert Lee Scott was larger than life. A decorated Eagle Scout who barely graduated from high school, the young man from Macon, Georgia, with an oversize personality used dogged determination to achieve his childhood dream of becoming a famed fighter pilot.First capturing national attention during World War II, Scott, a West Point graduate, flew missions in China alongside the legendary "Flying Tigers," where his reckless courage and victories against the enemy made headlines. Upon returning home, Scott's memoir, God Is My Co-Pilot, became an instant bestseller and a successful film. Later in life, Scott traveled the entire length of China's Great Wall and helped found Georgia's Museum of Aviation.Yet Scott's life was not without difficulty. His single-minded pursuit of greatness was offset by bouts of depression, and his brashness placed him at odds with superior officers. What wealth he gained he squandered, and his numerous public affairs destroyed his relationships with his wife and child.Backed by meticulous research, Double Ace brings Scott's uniquely American character to life and captures his fascinating exploits as a national hero alongside his frustrating foibles.

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  Land of Men - Wind Sand and Stars

  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is known universally for the gentle charm of Le Petit Prince, but it is this book, Land of Men - known originally in English as Wind, Sand and Stars - which is his masterpiece. First published in 1939, it documents Saint-Exupéry's life as a pilot in the pioneering days of long-distance flying and in particular his experiences as a pilot transporting mail across countries, across continents.These courageous pilots took their lives in their hands each time they set out to deliver the mail. It was extremely hazardous, for the aeroplanes were unreliable, precise meteorology was in its infancy, radio communication and maps were relatively primitive and new and long routes were being pioneered over dangerous terrain of all kinds - across the Sahara, over the Andes, even just across the Mediterranean.But in Land of Men, Saint-Exupéry doesn't just relate tales of derring-do in the clouds, the storms, or what it is like to be lost over thousands of featureless miles above sea or sand. He does speak of the dangers, the risks from bandits and dissidents when landing in a tiny desert outpost and the struggles to keep these basic machines in the air when faced with buffeting winds or flying through dense cloud for hours, without one reassuring sight of a landmark. He recounts his crash in the Sahara, his days of walking without water and his remarkable survival. But all this action is underpinned by reflection, by poetic expression, by camaraderie and by an inner quiet born of those hours spent high in the sky - with the wind, the sand and the stars. It is poignant also, because Saint-Exupéry himself disappeared one day five years after the book's publication, flying over the Mediterranean.All this, and a rich humanity, makes this a great, great book. It has been an international favourite since it first appeared and is now presented in Bill Homewood's vibrant new translation of Terre des Hommes, more faithful to and representative of Saint-Exupéry's original. This recording, narrated with intimacy and care by Nicholas Boulton, will be one you will never forget.

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  Tenskwatawa: The Life of the...

  Charles River Editors

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  As settlers continued to encroach further west, the Shawnee, who were attempting to put together a confederacy of Native Americans to resist, stood firm and ready to fight them. Before America fought Britain in the War of 1812, they were engaged in Tecumseh’s War around the Great Lakes. The fighting made him famous and made a military hero (and eventually a president) out of William Henry Harrison, whose victory at Tippecanoe is considered the end of that war.  
  	Despite being one of their most tenacious opponents, Tecumseh almost immediately became a celebrated folk hero and respected leader in American history, all while continuing to be one of the most poignant symbols of resistance among Native Americans. He continues to be a household name across the United States today, nearly 200 years after his death.  
  	What makes Tecumseh’s legacy ironic is that the Shawnee were nominally led by a different man altogether, and that man just so happened to be Tecumseh’s brother. Lalawethika’s early life mostly consisted of abject failures, and he became an alcoholic, but in one of his alcohol-soaked stupors, he began to have visions of the Master of Life that turned him into the Open Door, the prophet named Tenskwatawa. It was Tenskwatawa who brought a new vision to the Shawnee, transforming himself from an object of pity and contempt into a religious leader who had thousands of followers. When the Americans fought at Tippecanoe, the gathering of Native Americans who they were attempting to disperse had congregated at a place colloquially known as Prophetstown. 

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  How It Feels To Be Colored Me

  Zora Neale Hurston

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  How It Feels To Be Colored Me was first published in The World Tomorrow in May 1928. In this autobiographical piece that focuses on race and 1920s America, Hurston reflects on her early childhood in an all-black Florida town and her first experiences in life where she felt "different." 
   
  Hurston focuses on the similarities we all share and on her own self-identity in the face of difference. "Through it all," she says, "I remain myself."

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  The Metabolife Story - The Rise...

  Michael J. Ellis

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  When Michael J. Ellis saw how cancer was ravaging his father’s body, he was desperate to find something—anything—that would help ease the dying man’s suffering. It just so happened that Ellis discovered such a method in herbal remedies—but in a fateful twist, his research inadvertently uncovered something else entirely, a secret that would also impact American society: a weight loss product that actually worked! 
  Five years later, in 1998, Ellis stood at the head of Metabolife International, Inc., one of the most successful and notorious herbal supplement companies in the world. Millions of Americans were taking its revolutionary product, Metabolife 356, to lose weight. By all accounts, it was the perfect Cinderella story—but this fairy tale would not have a happy ending. 
  Metabolife 356, with its remarkable success and happy customers, had cut into the profits of the nation’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. In short order, the pharma industry’s watchdog, the FDA, intervened, turning its sights on Metabolife and the product’s active ingredient, ephedrine. For all Americans, the FDA’s actions have had shattering consequences. 
  This is the true story of one of the most audacious thefts in corporate history; a story about how a massive clerical error led to one of the largest IRS raids in history; a story about how no man, however guiltless, is immune to the awful power of the media. 
  Above all, this is the story of one federal agency’s successful attempt to steal a safe and effective product from the American public through little more than propaganda and misinformation.

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