Other books that might interest you

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  Birds Singing In The Rain -...

  Greg Cetus

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  This unique audio book features the soothing sounds of gentle forest rain and the melodic songs of the Pine Warbler, Tufted Titmouse and other birds. Perfect for meditation, yoga, or simply unwinding after a long day, this ambient audio will transport you to a peaceful forest setting and promote holistic living.

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  The Insurgents - David Petraeus...

  Fred Kaplan

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  Based on previously unavailable documents and interviews with more than one hundred key players, including General David Petraeus, The Insurgents unfolds against the backdrop of two wars waged against insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the main insurgency is the one led at home by a new generation of officers-including Petraeus, John Nagl, David Kilcullen, and H. R. McMaster-who were seized with an idea on how to fight these kinds of "small wars" and who adapted their enemies' techniques to overhaul their own army. Fred Kaplan explains where their idea came from and how the men and women who latched onto this idea created a community (some would refer to themselves as a "cabal") and maneuvered the idea through the highest echelons of power.This is a cautionary tale about how creative ideas can harden into dogma, how smart strategists-"the best and the brightest" of today-can win bureaucratic battles but still lose the wars. The Insurgents made the U.S. military more adaptive to the conflicts of the post-Cold War era, but their self-confidence led us deeper into wars we shouldn't have fought and couldn't help but lose.

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  Wolf Island - Discovering the...

  L. David Mech, Greg Breining

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  In the late 1940s, a small pack of wolves crossed the ice of Lake Superior to the island wilderness of Isle Royale, creating a perfect "laboratory" for a long-term study of predators and prey. As the wolves hunted and killed the island's moose, a young graduate student named Dave Mech began research that would unlock the mystery of one of nature's most revered (and reviled) animals—and eventually became an internationally renowned and respected wolf expert. This is the story of those early years.Wolf Island recounts three extraordinary summers and winters Mech spent on the isolated outpost of Isle Royale National Park, tracking and observing wolves and moose on foot and by airplane—and upending the common misperception of wolves as destructive killers of insatiable appetite. Mech sets the scene with one of his most thrilling encounters: witnessing an aerial view of a spectacular hunt, then venturing by snowshoe to photograph the pack of hungry wolves at their kill. Wolf Island owes as much to the spirit of adventure as to the impetus of scientific curiosity. Written with science and outdoor writer Greg Breining, who recorded hours of interviews with Mech and had access to his journals and field notes from those years, the book captures the immediacy of scientific fieldwork in all its triumphs and frustrations.

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  Hurricane Season - A Coach His...

  Neal Thompson

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  "There's always a point in the season when you're faced with a challenge and you see what you're capable of. And you grow up." -J. T. Curtis, head coach, John Curtis Christian School PatriotsOn Saturday, August 27, 2005, the John Curtis Patriots met for a grueling practice in the late summer New Orleans sun, the air a visible fog of humidity. They had pulled off a 19-0 shutout in their preseason game the night before, but it was a game full of dumb mistakes. Head coach J. T. Curtis was determined to drill those mistakes out of them before their highly anticipated next game, which sportswriters had dubbed "the Battle of the Bayou" against a big team coming in all the way from Utah. As fate played out, that afternoon was the last time the Patriots would see one another for weeks; some teammates they'd never see again. Hurricane Katrina was about to tear their lives apart. The Patriots are a most unlikely football dynasty. Theirs is a small, nondescript, family-run school, the buildings constructed by hand by the school's founding patriarch, John Curtis, Sr. In this era of high school football as big business with 20,000-seat stadiums, John Curtis has no stadium of its own. The team plays an old-school offense, and Coach Curtis insists on a no-cut policy, giving every kid who wants to play a chance. As of 2005, they'd won nineteen state championships in Curtis's thirty-five years of coaching, making him the second most winning high school coach ever. Curtis has honed to a fine art the skill of teaching players how to transcend their natural talents. No screamer, he strives to teach kids about playing with purpose, the power of respect, dignity, poise, patience, trust in teamwork, and the payoff of perseverance, showing them how to be winners not only on the gridiron but in life, and making boys into men. Hurricane Katrina would put those lessons to the test of a lifetime. Hurricane Season is the story of a great coach, his team, his family, and their school-and a remarkable fight back from shocking tragedy. It is a story of football and faith and of the transformative power of a team that rises above adversity, and above its own abilities, to come together again and prove what they're made of. It is the gripping story of how, as one player put it, "football became my place of peace."

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  Whales Dolphins & Porpoises - A...

  Annalisa Berta

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  The eighty-nine cetacean species that swim our seas and rivers are as diverse as they are intelligent and elusive, from the hundred-foot-long, two-hundred-ton blue whale to the lesser-known tucuxi, ginkgo-toothed beaked whale, and diminutive, critically endangered vaquita. The huge distances these highly migratory creatures cover and the depths they dive mean we catch only the merest glimpses of their lives as they break the surface of the water. But thanks to the marriage of science and technology, we are now beginning to understand their anatomy, complex social structures, extraordinary communication abilities, and behavioral patterns. In this beautifully illustrated guide, renowned marine mammalogist Annalisa Berta draws on the contributions of a pod of fellow whale biologists to present the most comprehensive, authoritative overview ever published of these remarkable aquatic mammals. Opening with an accessible rundown of cetacean biology—including the most recent science on feeding, mating, and communication—Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises then presents species-specific natural history on a range of topics, from anatomy and diet to distribution and conservation status. Each entry also includes original drawings of the species and its key identifiers, such as fin shape and color, tooth shape, and characteristic markings as they would appear both above and below water—a feature unique to this book. Figures of myth and—as the debate over hunting rages on—figures of conflict since long before the days of Moby-Dick, whales, dolphins, and porpoises are also ecologically important and, in many cases, threatened. Written for general enthusiasts, emergent cetacean fans, and biologists alike, this stunning, urgently needed book will serve as the definitive guide for years to come.

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  Other Axis & Allied Armored...

  George Bradford

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  This fully illustrated volume presents an authoritative and highly detailed study of WWII’s lesser-known armored fighting vehicles.   The iconic tanks of WWII, such as America’s Shermans and the Germany’s Panzers, have been exhaustively studied. In Other Axis & Allied Armored Fighting Vehicles, military historian and technical artist George Bradford offers an in-depth look at a range of significant yet often-overlooked models.    This volume is filled with fine-scale drawings of Australian, Belgian, Canadian, Czech, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, and South African armored vehicles, including: ·       Centauro Tank Destroyer (Italy) ·       TKS Light Reconnaissance Tank (Poland) ·       Ram “Kangaroo” Personnel Carrier (Canada) ·       Renault R-35 Light Tank (France) ·       Type 3 Chi-nu Heavy Tank (Japan) ·       Scorpion AC1 Cruiser Tank (Australia) ·       TACAM R-2 Tank Hunter (Romania) ·       And many, many more . . .

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