Publisher: MVP
A finely honed abridgement of Emerson's principal essays with an introduction that clarifies the essence of Emerson's ideas and establishes their relevance to our own troubled era. This is the first truly accessible edition of Emerson's work, revealing him to be one of America's wisest teachers.
For nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed "overmined" and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling—particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air.Entering Die Sperrgebiet ("The Forbidden Zone") is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing—even eager—to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It's a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes.From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth to Kleinzee's shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town.
Show book
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Grandma's Prayer by Eugene Field . This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 4, 2011.Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. He first started publishing poetry in 1879, when his poem "Christmas Treasures" appeared in A Little Book of Western Verse. Over a dozen volumes of poetry followed and he became well known for his light-hearted poems for children, perhaps the most famous of which is "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod." (Summary from Wikipedia)*This poem taken from the Yale Book of American Verse. (1912). Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915)Show book
This Portuguese audio book contains 100 entertaining and culturally interesting Portuguese short stories for beginners and intermediate learning level. Portuguese for beginners can be challenging, but not with this audio book. All the Portuguese short stories in this audio book are unique and hopefully entertaining in content, new vocabulary is gradually added at a manageable pace so you won't get overwhelmed. Towards the end of this book you find the stories slightly more complex, but still comprehensible for beginners. This audio book is about Portuguese as spoken in Europe, Africa, and Asia. This Portuguese language audio book offers you a wide range of culturally important information you can use when you travel to Portugal or study there, and frankly, this book is not only for Portuguese language learners but also for anyone interested in Portuguese culture in general.Show book
During a nearly 40-year career in the United States Army, Hugh Shelton has been known as a straight shooter — when he speaks he means what he says. Whether serving under a Democratic president or a Republican president, whether in a war that was popular at home or not, Hugh Shelton gave all he had, and asked nothing less of the men and women who worked for him. Politically independent, Shelton told the truth — not what his superiors wanted to hear.And now, in his unvarnished memoir, Shelton tells the incredible story that took him from a small farming community in North Carolina to the jungles of Vietnam as one of our country's first special forces soldiers, to the inner sanctum of American military and political power as a General, Commander of Special Operations Command, and then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during 9/11. Delving into the key characters and personalities he met on the field of battle and behind the scenes at the Pentagon and White House, Shelton also covers key military operations and meetings that have not yet been explored, including:Details of the Camp David meeting among President Bush and his National Security Council immediately after 9/11, where internal battle lines are drawn over creating a plan to attack Iraq — NOT the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. How Donald Rumsfeld persuaded General Tommy Franks to bypass the Joint Chiefs, leading to a badly flawed Iraq war plan that failed to anticipate the devastating after-effects of the insurgency and the civil war that followed.Attempts to kill Osama bin Laden that were shot down by our State Department.The time the CIA botched a high-profile terrorist snatch in the Balkans, leaving Shelton’s Special Operations teams to clean up their mess.And much more.Yet it's Shelton’s amazing personal story puts his military career in perspective.A Macmillan Audio production.Show book
Walden (1854) is a book by Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."— Henry David ThoreauShow book
