As the voyage steams (sweats, rather) eastward from Seattle to New York, he meets a diverse, humorous, and motley bunch of individuals in full support of his spirit of adventure, evidence that one's wildest dreams are in fact worth pursuing. The story is a testament to the power of welcoming the stranger and the good that resides in us all. Read it to laugh, read it to learn, or read it simply to remember that you are human.They say once you start pedaling you can't stop. So buckle your helmet, don spandex if you dare, and get ready for the ride of a lifetime.

    Though competing against one another for the flying assignments of their dreams, like the fearsome F-15 and F-16 fighters, a good mission sometimes takes a backseat to a good party or punch line in this classroom of cut-ups. The high stakes, however, loom over Lt. Wright. In a program where one out of three students fails, not everybody who starts UPT will finish it. And not everybody who does finish will get a desirable flying assignment. Some won’t even escape the Columbus Air Force Base. Will Lt. Wright get his dream assignment flying a C-141 cargo plane based out of beachside Charleston, South Carolina? Or be forced to perpetuate the If you ain’t a pilot… system as the dreaded FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot) in Columbus, Mississippi? Though a military memoir, IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT… is a story of youthful innocence, a happy tale of the best of friends. Beneath the story’s surface layer of how an Air Force officer’s aeronautical rating determines his worth, similar thematic layers unfold around gender, race, and other ways people define each other. At its core, this story is about people, our relationships, and how we choose to treat each other. While 30 years have passed since the memoir’s events—and our aircraft, our enemy, and our pop-culture ties have changed—we still struggle with our differences. IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT taps into the mystic of Top Gun, the satirical wryness of Candide and Catch-22, and the allure of the air-travel genre captured by Mark Vanhoenacker’s recent Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot (2015), Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff, and James Salter’s The Hunters. Set at the end of the Cold War in the heart of Dixie, IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT…crosses Top Gun adrenaline with Pee-Wee’s Playhouse antics at a flight training base where Air Force idealism collides with Deep South heritage. Complete at 142,000 words, this comedic memoir written for a general audience charts the year when a newly commissioned officer is challenged not only by flight school but also by the Air Force dictum If you ain’t a pilot, you ain’t $#!+. That said, the primary mission for IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT...is to make readers laugh. While the story is written for a non-military audience, military pilots, civilian pilots, and any person who ever dreamed about flying as a kid will love IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT….

    

    Up-and-coming cities that wanted teams of their own were being rebuffed by the owners, and in response Congress was threatening to revoke the sport's antitrust exemption. These problems were magnified by what was happening on the field, as the New York Yankees were winning so often that true competition was vanishing in the American League.In "Bottom of the Ninth," Michael Shapiro brings to life this watershed moment in baseball history. He shows how the legendary executive Branch Rickey saw the game's salvation in two radical ideas: the creation of a third major league--the Continental League--and the pooling of television revenues for the benefit of all. And Shapiro captures the audacity of Casey Stengel, the manager of the Yankees, who believed that he could bend the game to his wishes and remake how baseball was played. Their stories are interwoven with the on-field drama of pennant races and clutch performances, culminating in three classic World Series confrontations.As the tension built on and off the field, Rickey and Stengel would find themselves outsmarted and defeated by the team owners who held true backroom power--defeats that would diminish the game for decades to come. Shapiro's compelling narrative reaches its stunning climax in the seventh game of the 1960 World Series, when one swing of the bat heralds baseball's eclipse as America's number-one sport.

    They would ask her about her family’s health history, and she would hear the doctor’s familiar sigh after she answered, “I don’t know, I’m adopted.”Being perfectly happy with the loving family she had, Feldman never took an interest in finding her biological parents until diagnosed with a disease that she passed on to her son. Suddenly, Nancy’s lack of family history was affecting someone else.Writing to the Nebraska Children’s Home Society for help, the adoption agency assigned Nancy’s case to Rebecca Crofoot. This began a 17-year journey between the two women who were determined to find information about a family that might not know, or want to know, Nancy existed.Family Medical History: Unknown/Adopted is a heart-warming story of personal, medical, genealogical and emotional discovery.

    Tasting profiles from the booklet get the ball rolling they break down beer into style categories and include information on each variety's background, flavors, aromas, and unique character."

    New stadiums in this completely revised and updated edition include Citizens Bank Ballpark (Philadelphia), PETCO Park (San Diego), and the newly renovated RFK Stadium (Washington, D.C.) home to the Washington Nationals. Crammed with the statistics baseball fans love, Take Me Out to the Ballpark will hit a home run with legions of new readers this fall.

    In Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends, Neyer breathes new life into both classic and obscure stories throughout twentieth-century baseball—stories that, while engaging on their own, also tell us fascinating things about their main characters and about the sport's incredibly rich history. With his signature style, Rob gets to the heart of every anecdote, working through the particulars with careful research drawn from a variety of primary sources. For each story, he asks: Did this really happen? Did it happen, sort of? Or was the story simply the wild invention of someone's imagination? Among the scores of legends Neyer questions and investigates... -Did an errant Bob Feller pitch really destroy the career of a National League All-Star? -Did Greg Maddux mean to give up a long blast to Jeff Bagwell? -Was Fred Lynn the clutch player he thinks he was? -Did Tommy Lasorda have a direct line to God? -Did Negro Leaguer Gene Benson really knock Indians second baseman Johnny Berardino out of baseball and into General Hospital? -Did Billy Martin really outplay Jackie Robinson every time they met? -Oh, and what about Babe Ruth's “Called Shot”? Rob checks each story, separates the truths from the myths, and places their fascinating characters into the larger historical context. Filled with insider lore and Neyer's sharp wit and insights, this is an exciting addition to a superb series and an essential read for true fans of our national pastime.

    True Stories of Messages From Beyond tells 14 different personal stories of the bond we all share with those we love a bond never broken, not even by death. Each story was written by an ordinary person living an ordinary life, who was touched, changed, comforted, and even transformed by their own unique extraordinary encounters with those they love on the other side. Each encounter, whether a smell, a touch, a message in a song or another form of communication are touching, emotional and give hope to those who read them. Dennis passed away in a hospital bed in the bedroom we shared. I was with him, holding his hand, when he peacefully passed. My best friend was the first person to arrive at my house and she made all of the necessary calls for me. I remained in the room with Dennis, not able to leave his side. My friend had stepped outside for a few minutes and then the excitement began. Suddenly, everyone was calling for me to come outside. I replied that I didn't want to leave Dennis. The hospice nurse then came into the room and told me that I would forever regret not going outside. When I got outside, many of my neighbors were lining my street to see this amazing thing happening.The day of the visitation was here. It was the day I dreaded the most. Today I would have to see my daughter in a casket. I asked God to help me get through this day. He did. The funeral director gently opened the lid and we stepped forward. The next twenty minutes were a total blur. There was my girl. She looked beautiful. Only a small bruise on the bridge of her nose gave a clue to the trauma her body had undergone. It was as though time stood still. I began to cry as I have never cried before. It was a deep guttural cry that came from deep within my soul.I finally got out of bed about 6:30 a.m. and started getting ready to go to the airport. I did everything I possibly could to keep back the tears. Packing my suitcase was so hard. I walked down the stairs and my mom was sitting on the couch looking just as disappointed as I was. I cried hugging her and holding her, telling her I would be back in a few weeks: I promise Mom! I kept telling her, Don t worry I ll be back! I loaded the car, and pulled out of the driveway knowing that was the last time I would see my mom standing in the door waving goodbye to me. She was crying too. We both knew, this was it; if I made it back in a few weeks, everything would be different. I never cried so hard in my life. I believe that leaving that morning was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. I had to go, with my mom standing there alive, still able to communicate, and I wouldn't ever get to see her like that again.Often the most influential evidence of life after death comes in the form of messages from loved ones who have passed on. Sometimes these messages are relayed by very convincing messages images or visuals, while other times they come as voices, slight touches and even written notes. Messages from the other side, are most often thoughts of comfort and tranquility, and often evidence that someone is still watching over us. In some of the most amazing cases, loved ones who have passed on communicate messages that are highly personal, often very important, and at times even life saving. If you have ever experienced an amazing message from a loved one after they have passed on, you don't want to miss this book! It is filled with true stories from normal people who shared their love, laughter, pain and experience through their story. After you are finished reading these amazing stories, you will feel an enormous amount of contentment with spiritual existence after death. Make sure you get your copy today! These stories are very personal, and touch on the life and death of the writers loved one.

    Dubbed the 'man in black', guitarist Ritchie Blackmore found fame with Seventies rock giants Deep Purple, then walked away from them to create Rainbow, only to abandon them and form another band in 1997 - Blackmore's Night.

    Authored by two pediatric nurses, this straightforward guide to feeding, bedtime routines, and medical issues includes an instructional DVD with step-by-step demonstrations of how to care for a newborn to a 6-month-old child.

    Richard Ben Cramer, Pulitzer Prize winner and acclaimed biographer of Joe DiMaggio, decodes this oversized icon who dominated the game and finds not just a great player, but also a great man. In 1986, Richard Ben Cramer spent months on a profile of Ted Williams, and the result was the Esquire article that has been acclaimed ever since as one of the finest pieces of sports reporting ever written. Given special acknowledgment in The Best American Sportswriting of the Century and adapted for a coffee-table book called Ted Williams: The Seasons of the Kid, the original piece is now available in this special edition, with new material about Williams' later years. While his decades after Fenway Park were out of the spotlight -- the way Ted preferred it -- they were arguably his richest, as he loved and inspired his family, his fans, the players, and the game itself. This is a remembrance for the ages.

    They were pure ballplayers, sluggers and sweet fielders who played with unbridled joy and breathtaking skill. The national press converged on Crenshaw. So many scouts gravitated to their games that they took up most of the seats in the bleachers. Even the Crenshaw ballfield was a sight to behold -- groomed by the players themselves, picked clean of every pebble, it was the finest diamond in all of inner-city Los Angeles. On the outfield fences, the gates to the outside stayed locked against the danger and distraction of the streets. Baseball, for these boys, was hope itself. They had grown up with the notion that it could somehow set things right -- a vague, unexpressed, but persistent hope that even if life was rigged, baseball might be fair. And for a while it seemed they were right. Incredibly, most of of this team -- even several of the boys who sat on the bench -- were drafted into professional baseball. Two of them, Darryl Strawberry and Chris Brown, would reunite as teammates on a National League All-Star roster. But Michael Sokolove's The Ticket Out is more a story of promise denied than of dreams fulfilled. Because in Sokolove's brilliantly reported poignant and powerful tale, the lives of these gifted athletes intersect with the realities of being poor, urban, and black in America. What happened to these young men is a harsh reminder of the ways inspiration turns to frustration when the bats and balls are stowed and the crowd's applause dies down.

    ‘Hollywood: Did You Know?’ is a collection of tidbits of information about the content or making of around 400 movies, ranging from the earliest days of the silent era to the present time. I have utilised anecdotes and comments from scores of biographies (authorised and unauthorised), as well as Internet sources, magazine articles, interviews and TV appearances. If, like me, you are fascinated by the world of movies, particularly the days of the studio system, I think you shall find more than enough items here to satisfy your curiosity. I am currently researching a second volume along similar lines. For elderly readers I should point out that there is a considerable amount of ‘bad language’ herein, simply because I quote actors and actresses verbatim. For many of them (even the so-called ‘greats’), peppering their reminiscences with expletives is commonplace. I make no apology for this, however, for I think it is important to present these individuals as they really were, minus the studio hype that tended to elevate them to the status of flawless gods and godesses. Very few lived up to their glowing reputations, I’m afraid. Having said that, I believe that the temptations ever present for these men and women who were suddenly faced with enormous wealth and universal adoration, would test the resolve of most of us, saints and all. And saints have always been few and far between in Tinsel Town. When I published my first book (Hollywood Warts ‘n’ All Volume 1) in 2005, I was accused of ‘muck-raking’, of tarnishing the reputations of deceased stars who could no longer defend themselves. I still get the occasional brickbat along those lines even today, but times have changed. Over the past 20 years or so, hundreds of books have been published about the ‘good old days’ of the studio system; not only stars’ biographies, but accounts from a diverse range of previously unheard from sources. Maids, bodyguards, chauffeurs, secretaries, bell-hops, agents, family members and acquaintances of the rich and famous etc, now put their memories into print, confirming much of what I have been writing about for almost a decade and a half. Of course, there are still those who rail against anyone who deigns to question the ‘snow-jobs’ churned out by studio publicity departments down the decades; the standard complaint being the usual one – the dead cannot defend themselves. Well, there have been more books written about Napoleon Bonaparte and Hitler than most anyone else, yet no-one complains of either man being unable to defend himself. So, again I make no apolgies for anything included in this publication, unless the reader comes across an unforseen error I may have accidentally overlooked, in which case I apologise unreservedly.

    Sgt. Charles Black is a 35 year veteran of the Iowa State Patrol during those years he has had many experiences and he shares his favorites in this book. In 35 years I have seen a lot of changes from the name of the organization to the primary function. From hearses to ambulances to rescue units with EMT's. From paper list of stolen cars to computers.From no recorders to body cameras. From fist fights to gun fights.But human nature and the effects of drugs and alcohol remain the same.