Other books that might interest you

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  Incidents of Travel in Central...

  John Lloyd Stephens

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  The year is 1838. The scene is the dense Honduran forest along the Copán River. Two men, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, are about to rediscover Mayan civilization. Their guide, slashing through the rampant growth with his machete, leads them to a stone column, fourteen feet high, sculptured on the front with a portrait of a man, “solemn, stern and well fitted to excite terror,” covered on the sides with hieroglyphics, and with workmanship “equal to the finest monuments of the Egyptians.” Stephens records their discoveries and also his travels in Central America, while Catherwood directs his immense artistic talent to illustrating views of Mayan architecture. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán was a best seller in its day and has been called an “Indiana Jones” saga by modern reviewers. (Summary by Sue Anderson)

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  Busting Vegas - A True Story of...

  Ben Mezrich

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  Semyon Dukach was known as the darling of Las Vegas. A legend at twenty-one, this cocky hotshot was the biggest high roller to appear in Sin City in decades, a mathematical genius with a system the casinos had never seen before and couldn't stop -- a system that had nothing to do with card counting, wasn't illegal, and was more powerful than anything that had been tried before.  
  Las Vegas. Atlantic City. Aruba. Barcelona. London. And the jewel of the gambling crown -- Monte Carlo. 
  Dukach and his fellow MIT students hit them all and made millions. They came in hard, with stacks of cash; big, seemingly insane bets; women hanging on their arms; and fake identities. While they were taking classes and studying for exams during the week, over the weekends they stormed the blackjack tables, only to be banned from casinos, harassed, on the wrong end of guns, and beaten in the notorious back rooms of casinos. 
  The stakes were high, the dangers very real, but the players were up to the challenges, the consequences be damned. In the classroom, they were geeks. On the casino floor, they were unstoppable. Busting Vega$ is Dukach's unbelievably true story; a riveting account of monumental greed, excess, hubris, sex, love, violence, fear, and statistics that is high-stakes entertainment at its best.

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  A Handful of Honey - Away to the...

  Annie Hawes

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  Aiming to track down a small oasis town deep in the Sahara, some of whose generous inhabitants came to her rescue on a black day in her adolescence, Annie Hawes leaves her home in the olive groves of Italy and sets off along the south coast of the Mediterranean. 
   Travelling through Morocco and Algeria she eats pigeon pie with a family of cannabis farmers, and learns about the habits of djinns; she encounters citizens whose protest against the tyrannical King Hassan takes the form of attaching colanders to their television aerials - a practice he soon outlaws - and comes across a stone-age method of making olive-oil, still going strong. She allows a ten-year-old to lead her into the fundamentalist strongholds of the suburbs of Algiers - where she makes a good friend. 
   Plunging southwards, regardless, into the desert, she at last shares a lunch of salt-cured Saharan haggis with her old friends, in a green and pleasant palm grove perfumed by flowering henna: once, it seems, the favourite scent of the Prophet Mohammed. She discovers at journey's end that life in a date-farming oasis, haunting though its songs may be, is not so simple and uncomplicated as she has imagined. 
   Annie Hawes has legions of fans. Her writing has the well-built flow of fiction and the self-effacing honesty of a journal.

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  Joey - How a Blind Rescue Horse...

  Jennifer Marshall Bleakley

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  The heartwarming true story of a blind horse named JoeyAt the height of his show career, this beautiful Appaloosa's majestic stature, strength, and willingness to work made him the perfect partner. But when an injury cost Joey his show career, he moved from one owner to the next, ultimately experiencing severe abuse and neglect. A rescue group found Joey nearly dead from starvation — and blind.Then he came to Hope Reins — a ranch dedicated to helping hurting kids who had been abused, emotionally wounded, or unwanted. By teaching these children to care for rescued animals, the Hope Reins staff were convinced they could reach kids with love and hope and show them that we are never forgotten by God.But could the financially struggling ranch afford to take care of a blind horse that no one else wanted? Could Joey somehow learn to trust people even though the world had hurt him so badly? And what would happen — to Joey, the kids, and Hope Reins — if they failed?A true story of friendship destined to become a classic, Joey will touch your heart and reveal the power of finding light in the darkness.

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  A Guide to the Historic French...

  Andy Peter Antippas

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  From Bourbon Street to Pirate’s Alley and beyond—a local historian takes you on a walking tour of the historic French Quarter in New Orleans.   Walking through the French Quarter can overwhelm the senses—and the imagination. The experience is much more meaningful with knowledge of the area’s colorful history. For instance, the infamous 1890 “separate but equal” legal doctrine justifying racial segregation was upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court at the Cabildo on Jackson Square. In the mid-twentieth century, a young Lee Harvey Oswald called Exchange Alley home. One of New Orleans’s favorite cocktails—the sazerac—would not exist if Antoine Peychaud had not served his legendary bitters with cognac from his famous apothecary at 437 Royal. Local author Andy Peter Antippas presents a walking history of the Vieux Carre, one alley, corner and street at a time.

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  More Stuff Irish People Love

  Colin Murphy, Donal O'Dea

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  Do you love the taste of Red Lemonade, change into your swimming togs under a towel on the beach or find yourself admiring 'the grand stretch in the evenings'? Then this book, jammed with hilarious reflections on what it is to be Irish, will have you nodding in agreement with every turn of the page. Contains approximately 100 things that Irish people like, such as;
  
  - Waving hello to complete strangers on country roads.
  - Using the 'cupla focal' to stress our Irishness when on holidays.
  - Going for a few pints after mass.
  - Claiming a relative who fought in the Easter Rising.
  - Explaining hurling to foreigners.
  - Nicknaming statues, for example 'The Floozie in the Jacuzzi'.

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