Other books that might interest you

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  The American Museum of Natural...

  Colin Davey, Thomas A. Lesser

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  An extensive history of the American Museum of Natural History and Hayden Planetarium, featuring a cast of colorful characters. 
   
  The American Museum of Natural History is one of New York City’s most beloved institutions, and one of the largest, most celebrated museums in the world. Since 1869, generations of New Yorkers and tourists of all ages have been educated and entertained here. Located across from Central Park, the sprawling structure, spanning four city blocks, is a fascinating conglomeration of many buildings of diverse architectural styles built over a period of 150 years. The first book to tell the history of the museum from the point of view of these buildings, including the planned Gilder Center, The American Museum of Natural History and How It Got That Way contextualizes them within New York and American history and the history of science. 
   
  Part II, “The Heavens in the Attic,” is the first detailed history of the Hayden Planetarium, from the museum’s earliest astronomy exhibits, to Clyde Fisher and the original planetarium, to Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and it features a photographic tour through the original Hayden Planetarium. 
   
  Author Colin Davey spent much of his childhood literally and figuratively lost in the museum’s labyrinthine hallways. The museum grew in fits and starts according to the vicissitudes of backroom deals, personal agendas, two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Cold War. Chronicling its evolution?from the selection of a desolate, rocky, hilly, swampy site, known as Manhattan Square to the present day?the book includes some of the most important and colorful characters in the city’s history, including the notoriously corrupt and powerful “Boss” Tweed, “Father of New York City” Andrew Haswell Green, and twentieth-century powerbroker and master builder Robert Moses; museum presidents Morris K. Jesup, Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Ellen Futter; and American presidents, polar and African explorers, dinosaur hunters, and German rocket scientists. 
   
  Features a new preface by the author and a new foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson. 
   
  “This is, in many ways, a particularly American story, and anyone interested in history or museums will find this a very satisfying read. Author Colin Davey had a life-long love affair with the museum, growing up in New York and spending many, many hours happily lost in the museum collections, and that shines through in his writing as does his fine, in-depth research. Plenty of excellent graphics and photographs support this fascinating history.” —Seattle Book Review

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  Haunted Alabama Battlefields

  Dale Langella

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  Discover Civil War history—and supernatural mystery—in this paranormal tour. Includes photos.   Alabama is no stranger to the battles and blood of the Civil War, and nearly every eligible person in the state participated in some fashion. Some of those citizen soldiers may linger still on hallowed ground throughout the state.   War-torn locations such as Fort Blakely National Park, Crooked Creek, Bridgeport, and Old State Bank have chilling stories of hauntings never before published. In Cahawba, Colonel C.C. Pegue’s ghost has been heard holding conversations near his fireplace. At Fort Gaines, sentries have been seen walking their posts, securing the grounds years after their deaths. Sixteen different ghosts have been known to take up residence in a historic house in Athens. Join author Dale Langella as she recounts the mysterious history of Alabama’s most famous battlefields and the specters that still call those grounds home.  

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  The Backpacking Guide to Hostels...

  Grizzly Publishing

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  Over the last few years, the quality of hostel accommodation has risen through the roof – so much so that they are now frequently considered to be one of the best options when it comes to comfortable, affordable, and social accommodation.Hostels not only provide a place to stay on the cheap, but also offer fun activities, new friendships, and new experiences that you will never forget. 
  They offer a unique chance to get to know people from all over the world, from various cultures and different ethnic backgrounds. 
  A way to interact with people in a manner that traditional accommodation simply does not allow. 
  Hostels are no longer strictly for students and money poor backpackers. They are for young couples on a romantic and fun vacation; they are for the older crowd who want to enjoy a positive atmosphere, and they are for the family looking for an affordable holiday. 
  In this book, you will discover: 
  What a hostel truly is 
  How to find the best hostels 
  Tips for staying in a hostel 
  How you can maximize the hostel lifestyle 
  So, what are you waiting for? Unlock an entire world of fun, comfortable, and affordable accommodation, and take your travel to the next level.

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  A Small Balance of Favors - An...

  Lincoln Dahl

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  Willard Thrasher Card III, from Cardston, Alberta, Canada embarks on an African adventure as a freshly-minted development expert. His assignment to Malawi dissolves just as he makes the disastrous decision to start a business and move his young family to Africa with him. With the help of new-found African friends, his family moves to Zambia and stumbles their way through several business failures. Eventually they find some success and recognize that Africa runs on a small balance of favors. This humorous fictional account is based on some real-life experiences and insights into modern Africa by an author who has worked in Africa for nearly thirty years.

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  The Last Overland - Singapore to...

  Alex Bescoby

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  "In 1955, a young TV producer named David Attenborough was approached by six recent graduates from Oxford and Cambridge universities determined to drive the entire length of Eurasia, as it was then known, from London to Singapore. Many tried this before, but none succeeded. Sensing this time might be different, Attenborough gave The Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition enough film reels to cover their attempt. The 19,000-mile journey completed by Tim Slessor and the team was told in Attenborough's Travellers' Tales and captivated a nation emerging from postwar austerity. Tim's book, The First Overland, was published shortly after and soon became the Bible of the overlanding religion. Inspired by Attenborough's comment fifty years on that it was a journey ""that I don't think could be made again today,"" Alex made contact with now eighty-six-year-old Tim, and together they planned an epic recreation of the original trip, this time from Singapore to London. With their improbable team and the prospect of getting the original Oxford, their goal was to complete the heroic journey that started more than sixty years earlier. In awe of the unstoppable Tim, and haunted by his own grandfather's deterioration due to tragedy and then dementia, Alex soon finds himself on the defining trip of his life and discovers how the world has changed for better, and for worse, since the First Overland..."

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  A Moroccan Trilogy - Marrakesh...

  Jérôme and Jean Tharaud

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  From 1917–19, the Tharaud brothers immersed themselves in Morocco while observing the determined imposition of the French Protectorate at first hand. With unique access to both colonial manoeuvres and a now-vanished Moroccan way of life, they settled for periods in Marrakesh, Rabat and Fez to absorb and observe. We join them on visits to the Sultan one day and to the shrine of Sidi Ben Achir – part shrine, part mental asylum – on another. They watch the son and heir of the Glaoui dynasty die from wounds received in a mountain battle, and lovers weaving and ducking across the rooftops of Fez to reach their trysting place. This is the first translation of these vivacious works into English, giving access to the majesty, the squalor and above all the liveliness of this extraordinary period of Moroccan history.

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