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  Flight from Colditz - Would the...

  Anthony Hoskins

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  Colditz Castle was one of the most famous Prisoner of War camps of the Second World War. It was there that the Germans interred their most troublesome or important prisoners. Hundreds of ingenious escape attempts were made but the most ambitious of all was to build a glider and fly to freedom.Though the glider was built, the war ended before it could be used, and it was subsequently destroyed. Using the original plans and materials used by the prisoners, in March 2012 a replica of the glider was constructed in a bid to see if the escape attempt would have succeeded. The glider was then launched from the roof of the castle roof.Anthony Hoskins is the man who built, and helped launch, the glider. As well as examining the story behind the building of the original glider, he details the construction of the replica and the nail-biting excitement as the Colditz Cock finally took to the skies. Packed with photos of the glider and its flight over Colditz, this is the inside story of the recreation of one of the most intriguing episodes of the Second World War.

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  The Anti-Romantic Child - A...

  Priscilla Gilman

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  “A beautifully sinuous and intensely literary celebration of the exceptional, unconventional child.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review 
   
  Priscilla Gilman, a teacher of romantic poetry who embraced Wordsworth’s vision of childhood’s spontaneous wonder, eagerly anticipated the birth of her first child, certain that he would come trailing clouds of glory. But as Benjamin grew, his remarkable precocity was associated with a developmental disorder that would dramatically alter the course of Priscilla’s dreams. 
   
  In The Anti-Romantic Child, a memoir full of lyricism and light, Gilman explores our hopes and expectations for our children, our families, and ourselves—and the ways in which experience may lead us to re-imagine them. Using literature as a touchstone, Gilman reveals her journey through crisis to joy, illuminating the flourishing of life that occurs when we embrace the unexpected. The Anti-Romantic Child is a profoundly moving and compellingly universal book about family, parenthood, and love. 
   
  “Haunting and lyrical.” —Marie Brenner, author of Apples and Oranges 
   
  “Rapturously beautiful and deeply moving, profound and marvelous” —Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon and Far From the Tree 
   
  “A lovely, thoughtful memoir.” —The Boston Globe 
   
  “A striking celebration of the bond between a mother and son.” —Kirkus Reviews 
   
  “Gilman is at once lyrical and deeply analytical as she explores the complexities of parenthood and the need to embrace the unforeseen.” —Booklist, starred review 
   
  “A book every parent should read.” —Kathryn Erskine, National Book award–winning author of Mockingbird  
   
  “A very moving personal story.” —Tina Brown, Newsweek 
   
  “Smart, soulful, and involving.” —Nick Hornby, The Believer

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  Splendid Solution - Jonas Salk...

  Jeffrey Kluger

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  The riveting story of one of the greatest scientific accomplishments of the twentieth century, from the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Apollo 13.With rivalries, reversals, and a race against time, the struggle to eradicate polio is one of the great tales of modern history. It begins with the birth of Jonas Salk, shortly before one of the worst polio epidemics in United States history. At the time, the disease was a terrifying enigma: striking from out of nowhere, it afflicted tens of thousands of children in this country each year and left them—literally overnight—paralyzed, and sometimes at death's door. Salk was in medical school just as a president crippled by the disease, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was taking office—and providing the impetus to the drive for studies on polio. By the early 1950s, Salk had already helped create an influenza vaccine, and was hot on the trail of the polio virus. He was nearly thwarted, though, by the politics of medicine and by a rival researcher eager to discredit his proposed solution. Meanwhile, in 1952, polio was spreading in record numbers, with 57,000 cases in the United States that summer alone.In early 1954, Salk was weighing the possibility of trials of a not-yet-perfected vaccine against—as the summer approached—the prospect of thousands more children being struck down by the disease. The results of the history-making trials were announced at a press conference on April 12, 1955: "The vaccine works." The room—and an entire nation—erupted in cheers for this singular medical achievement.Salk became a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation. Now, at the fiftieth anniversary of the first national vaccination program—and as humanity is tantalizingly close to eradicating polio worldwide—comes this unforgettable chronicle. Salk's work was an unparalleled achievement—and it makes for a magnificent listen.

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  Seven Climbs - Finding the...

  Charles Sherwood

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  'Even the most casual reader among you will by now have worked out that the whole thing is little more than a delightful ruse for having a very good time.'
  Experienced climber Charles Sherwood is on a quest to find the best climb on each continent. He eschews the traditional Seven Summits, where height alone is the determining factor, and instead considers mountaineering challenge, natural beauty and historical context, aiming to capture the diverse character of each continent and the sheer variety of climbing in all its forms.
  The author's ambitious odyssey takes him to the Alps, the Himalaya, Yosemite, the Andes, Kenya, New Zealand and South Georgia. His goal is neither to seek glory nor to complete a box-ticking exercise, but simply to enjoy himself in the company of his fellow climbers, including Mark Seaton, Andy Kirkpatrick and Stephen Venables, and to appreciate the splendour of his surroundings. On classic routes like the North Face of the Eiger and the Nose on El Capitan, it is hard not to be swept away by Sherwood's unfaltering enthusiasm.
  Also featuring fascinating historical detail about each route, Seven Climbs is a compelling account of Sherwood's efforts to answer a much-debated question: which are the world's greatest climbs?

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  Letters to a Young Poet - With...

  Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Xaver...

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  A work that has inspired generations, this new edition of Letters to a Young Poet features a fresh translation of Rilke's ten classic letters, along with the missing letters from the young poet himself.For nearly a century, eager writers and young poets, as well as those simply looking for a purpose in life, have embraced the wisdom of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, first published in 1929. Most readers and scholars have long assumed that the letters from the young poet were forever lost to posterity. Yet, shockingly, these letters were recently uncovered in Germany, and now the acclaimed translator Damion Searls has not only cast a fresh eye on Rilke's original letters but also those of the "young poet," Franz Xaver Kappus, an Austrian military cadet and an aspiring poet. This timeless edition, in addition to presenting their dialogue together for the first time in English, provides a new window into the workings of Rilke's visionary poetic and philosophical mind, allowing us to reexperience the literary genius of one of the most inspiring works of twentieth-century literature.

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  The Bells of Old Tokyo -...

  Anna Sherman

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  An elegant and absorbing tour of Tokyo and its residents.From 1632 until 1854, Japan's rulers restricted contact with foreign countries, a near isolation that fostered a remarkable and unique culture that endures to this day. In hypnotic prose and sensual detail, Anna Sherman describes searching for the great bells by which the inhabitants of Edo, later called Tokyo, kept the hours in the shoguns' city. 
  An exploration of Tokyo becomes a meditation not just on time, but on history, memory, and impermanence. Through Sherman's journeys around the city and her friendship with the owner of a small, exquisite cafe, who elevates the making and drinking of coffee to an art-form, The Bells of Old Tokyo follows haunting voices through the labyrinth that is the Japanese capital: an old woman remembers escaping from the American firebombs of World War II. A scientist builds the most accurate clock in the world, a clock that will not lose a second in five billion years. The head of the Tokugawa shogunal house reflects on the destruction of his grandfathers' city: "A lost thing is lost. To chase it leads to darkness." 
  The Bells of Old Tokyo marks the arrival of a dazzling new writer who presents an absorbing and alluring meditation on life in the guise of a tour through a city and its people.

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