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  Blood on the Wave - Scottish Sea...

  John Sadler

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  A history of combat in Scottish waters—from the Iron Age to the Cold War—and the changes in the technology and tactics of naval warfare.   Scotland’s long coastline runs from the waters of Galloway and the Solway, through the Irish Sea to the long sea lochs and myriad islands of the Celtic west, around grim Cape Wrath, the coast of Caithness, Pentland Firth and the Orkneys, eastward down to the Moray Firth, the eastern seaboard, to the Forth and the sentinel of the Bass Rock. It is an ancient strand redolent with history. Sea battles have been fought in its lee from the time of Agricola to the Atlantic convoys.   In Blood on the Wave, John Sadler embarks on a pilgrimage around Scotland’s rugged and stunning coastline, to explore the fascinating history that has occurred in its waters. Beautifully illustrated throughout with photographs and line drawings, the narrative also describes developments in ship building technique and design, developments in naval gunnery with a look at coastal defenses. From the long-oared Norse galleys that swept down through the isles and the sea lochs to Somerled’s birlinns and nyvaigs contesting with those of Godred of Man in a moonlit clash of spears, many of the fiercest battles in Scottish history have been fought at sea.   Examining an array of skirmishes from the Wars of Independence to the Napoleonic Wars, the scuttling of the Imperial German Navy at Scapa Flow to the lurking threat of Second World War U-boats and nuclear submarines hunting for Soviet spy ships, John Sadler has created a brilliant, insightful and unique portrait of the Scottish war at sea.

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  Oxford Unknown - Secret Stories...

  Malcolm Horton

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  An alternative guide to Oxford featuring the eccentric, bizarre and outrageous people who have lived and passed through the city of dreaming spires. This book concentrates on the strange tales surrounding these extraordinary people, which you won't find in the average guidebook. The geologist who ate a king's heart. The queen who poisoned her husband's mistress, the transgender bursar who took on the Crown Prosecution Service. What can be more bizarre than an inter-college tortoise race? Read on and discover Oxford's best kept secrets.

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  Literary Luminaries of the...

  Bernard A. Drew

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  The literary history behind this beautiful mountain region.   The Massachusetts Berkshires have long been a mecca for literary greats, from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Edith Wharton to Sinclair Lewis and Joan Ackermann. The Green River in Great Barrington inspired William Cullen Bryant’s poetry. Charles Pierce Burton’s childhood hometown, Adams, became the setting for his frolicking Boys of Bob’s Hill children’s books. During an interlude in Lenox, Patricia Highsmith consulted a local undertaker for details to use in The Talented Mr. Ripley.   In this book, Bernard A. Drew brings together a fascinating chronicle of some 250 wordsmiths who took inspiration from the hills and valleys of the Berkshires.

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  How to Backpack Europe on a Budget

  HowExpert, Kacey Andreacola

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  Have you dreamed about backpacking through Europe but feel like you don’t have the money? In this book, you will learn tips and trick about how to backpack in Europe without breaking the bank. From hostels to restaurants to packing your bag, there are ways to save money and experience all the wonders of a continent that has a deep and rich history. Don’t put off your dream. Make it a reality by doing some research and being responsible with your money. The experiences and memories will make all the prep-work worth it. If you want to go to Europe, this book will help you plan and budget your way through the trip of a lifetime! 
  About the Expert 
  Kacey Andreacola graduated from the University of Arizona with an English degree after getting married the previous weekend. She and her husband then spent 4 months backpacking Europe as the first step in fulfilling their dream of adventure. They loosely planned out their trip but made plenty of adjustments as they learned along the way. 
  Kacey and her husband moved from Tucson, AZ to Seattle, WA where she now writes, edits and works at a non-profit that ships medical supplies overseas. She loves reading, blogging (sundaycereal.wordpress.com), drinking coffee, planning new adventures and enjoying the natural beauty all around her. 
  HowExpert publishes quick 'how to' guides on all topics from A to Z by everyday experts.

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  Living the Yogic Life in a...

  Karan Bajaj

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  Most of us have discovered that life is never a straight line. It actually resembles a series of zig-zags. We zig in order to strengthen our creative gifts. We zag in order to provide a roof over our head and food on the table. This conversation looks at the life adventures of a father, a husband, a writer, a corporate marketer, a world traveler, and a meditation and yoga teacher. Karan Bajaj’s life path has been a quest to answer the question: Does our search for spiritual fulfillment and creativity have to take a back seat to our livelihood? His answer is that he gives himself fully to his corporate work for an average of four years and then takes a year sabbatical to travel and replenish his creative well. This takes some planning and discipline. His practice of meditation and yoga support him in all his endeavors to create a meaningful life. He describes his process: “When I’m working in my corporate life or I’m writing, I’m trying to dissolve all sense of doership and just become a vessel to express myself. In some small way I’m trying to live in a meaningful way even if I’m in corporate environment. I’m trying to get to that point that I spontaneously become a medium for my work.” He also talks about a kind of purity of action and, as an engineer, he describes himself as very left-brained, so that yoga and meditation help to balance him, “[T]hese activities balance me out, make me much more intuitive, and that always has an effect on work and really spirals it up.” (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)

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  Concise History of Turkey A: The...

  Charles River Editors

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  It was not until the excavations of the 1930s that many of the relics, reliefs, and clay tablets that offer so much information about Persian life could be studied for the first time. Through archaeological remains, ancient texts, and work by a new generation of historians, a picture can today be built of this remarkable civilization and their capital city. Although the city had been destroyed, the legacy of the Persians survived, even as they mostly remain an enigma to the West and are not nearly as well understood as the Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians. In a sense, the Achaemenid Persian Empire holds some of the most enduring mysteries of ancient civilization. 
  Of course, one of the reasons the Persians aren’t remembered like the Greeks is because of the way the Greco-Persian Wars ended. The Ancient Greeks have long been considered the forefathers of modern Western civilization, but the Golden Age of Athens and the spread of Greek influence across much of the known world only occurred due to the Greeks’ victory in two of history’s most important wars. In 491 BCE, following a successful invasion of Thrace over the Hellespont, the Persian emperor Darius sent envoys to the main Greek city-states, including Sparta and Athens, demanding tokens of earth and water as symbols of submission, but Darius didn’t exactly get the reply he sought. According to Herodotus in his famous Histories, “Xerxes however had not sent to Athens or to Sparta heralds to demand the gift of earth, and for this reason, namely because at the former time when Dareios had sent for this very purpose, the one people threw the men who made the demand into the pit and the others into a well, and bade them take from thence earth and water and bear them to the king.”

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