A Checker taxicab and a conductor’s baton. An oyster and a mastodon tusk. Inspired by A History of the World in 100 Objects, The New York Times’ Sam Roberts chose fifty objects that embody the narrative of New York for a feature article in the paper. Many more suggestions came from readers, and so Roberts has expanded the list to 101. Here are just a few of what this keepsake volume offers: · The Flushing Remonstrance, a 1657 petition for religious freedom that was a precursor to the First Amendment to the Constitution.· Beads from the African Burial Ground, 1700s. Slavery was legal in New York until 1827, although many free blacks lived in the city. The African Burial Ground closed in 1792 and was only recently rediscovered.· The bagel, early 1900s. The quintessential and undisputed New York food (excepting perhaps the pizza).· The Automat vending machine, 1912. Put a nickel in the slot and get a cup of coffee or a piece of pie. It was the early twentieth century version of fast food.· The “I Love NY” logo designed by Milton Glaser in 1977 for a campaign to increase tourism. Along with Saul Steinberg’s famous New Yorker cover depicting a New Yorker’s view of the world, it was perhaps the most famous and most frequently reproduced graphic symbol of the time.Unique, sometimes whimsical, always important, A History of New York in 101 Objects is a beautiful chronicle of the remarkable history of the Big Apple that will enrich your mind and rekindle memories.

    Birthright Citizens recovers the story of how African American activists remade national belonging through battles in legislatures, conventions, and courthouses. They faced formidable opposition, most notoriously from the US Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott. Still, Martha S. Jones explains, no single case defined their status. Former slaves studied law, secured allies, and conducted themselves like citizens, establishing their status through local, everyday claims. All along they argued that birth guaranteed their rights. With fresh archival sources and an ambitious reframing of constitutional law-making before the Civil War, Jones shows how the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized the birthright principle, and black Americans' aspirations were realized. Birthright Citizens tells how African American activists radically transformed the terms of citizenship for all Americans.

    I highly recommend it." -- Vigilant Reader Book Reviews  From USA Today and Amazon #1 bestselling author, Luke Romyn, comes a compelling tale of survival and companionship. A plane crashes in the midst of the Amazon rainforest, leaving only two survivors: Jonas Drake, a wealthy award-winning author, and a terrified young boy named Jeremy. Jonas must find the strength to lead Jeremy through an army hunting them for ransom, predatory beasts, and all manner of perils not found in the concrete jungle he usually calls home. To keep Jeremy calm, Jonas shares extraordinary stories involving magical characters, tales from his early days as an author. Unfortunately, neither of them know what to do when these creations start to come alive in the jungle surrounding them. Filled with profound characters, this stunning adventure journeys into the heart of a man turned cold by a world he barely recognizes, who slowly thaws while learning to care for someone other than himself.

    --LewisMumford. . . important to America and all the rest of the world in ourstruggle to design rational, wholesome, and productive landscapes.--Laurie Olin, Hanna Olin, Ltd.This century's most influential landscape architecture book.--Landscape Architecture. . . an enduring contribution to the technical literature oflandscape planning and to that unfortunately small collection ofwritings which speak with emotional eloquence of the importance ofecological principles in regional planning. --Landscape and UrbanPlanningIn the twenty-five years since it first took the academic world bystorm, Design With Nature has done much to redefine the fields oflandscape architecture, urban and regional planning, and ecologicaldesign. It has also left a permanent mark on the ongoing discussionof mankind's place in nature and nature's place in mankind withinthe physical sciences and humanities. Described by one enthusiasticreviewer as a user's manual for our world, Design With Natureoffers a practical blueprint for a new, healthier relationshipbetween the built environment and nature. In so doing, it providesnothing less than the scientific, technical, and philosophicalfoundations for a mature civilization that will, as Lewis Mumfordecstatically put it in his Introduction to the 1969 edition, replace the polluted, bulldozed, machine-dominated, dehumanized, explosion-threatened world that is even now disintegrating anddisappearing before our eyes.

    You’d know how much they deserve what’s coming to them. Next on my list is the politician. A prime example.But the bouncy intern throws a wrench in my plans.I don’t intend to fall, but if I do, all bets are off.She comes first. Protecting her is all that matters, but things get complicated when feelings run hot.

    The standardized menu for the The Cheesecake Factory restaurant chain.

    A few weeks later it had completely collapsed. The disaster was mostly the responsibility of a 32-year-old trader named Brian Hunter, whose high-risk bets on natural gas prices bankrupted his firm and destroyed his career. Meanwhile, his rival at competitor fund Centaurus, John Arnold, emerged as the highest-paid trader on Wall Street and America's youngest billionaire. Meticulously researched and character driven, Hedge Hogs is a riveting, fly-on-the-wall account of the largest hedge-fund collapse in history: a blistering tale of the recent past that explains our precarious present and may predict our future.Through emails, instant messages, court testimony, and exclusive interviews, Hedge Hogs charts the colliding paths of two charismatic traders who dominated the speculative energy trading market. It follows Hunter, the Canadian farm boy and elbows-out high school basketball star, as he achieved phenomenal early success, only to see his ambition, greed, and hubris precipitate his downfall. At the center of Hunter's misfortune is Arnold, whose mild manner, sophisticated tastes, and low profile belie his own ferocious competitive streak. As the two clash, billions of dollars -- much of it in the form of pension and endowment money -- vanished.Hedge Hogs takes you behind closed doors into the shadowy world of hedge funds, the wild, unregulated frontier of finance, complete with lavish perks and over-the-top parties, where a tiny elite controls trillions of dollars of other people's money. The book traces the rise of this freewheeling industry while detailing the decades of deregulation -- of banks, of investment funds and of commodity trading -- that turned Wall Street into a casino for speculators.A gripping saga peppered with tales of fast money, vivid characters, and high drama, Hedge Hogs is also a cautionary tale that describes a financial system jeopardized by reckless practices, watered-down regulation, and regulatory loopholes, just waiting for the next bust.

    A meticulously researched and well-referenced study of the Weather Underground. . . . A gripping story, drawing important lessons for the younger generation of activists.”—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960–1975Outlaws of America brings to life the motivations and actions of America’s most famous renegades, who bombed their way into history. Through detailed and original research, Dan Berger offers a nuanced and compelling portrait of the group that risked everything in opposition to war and racism.This explosive, engaging, and timely book uncovers the untold story of the Weather Underground, from its incendiary beginning to its tumultuous ending—never sparing a critical analysis of the group. Especially noteworthy is Berger’s groundbreaking discussion of the infamous 1981 Brinks case, where former Weather Underground members allied with the Black Liberation Army in a failed robbery that resulted in the deaths of three men and the longtime incarceration of several activists.Outlaws of America is culled from dozens of in-depth interviews with former Weather Underground members, as well as with civil rights activists, Black Panthers, Young Lords, and others—many of whom speak about their experiences publicly here for the first time. The book also features an extensive appendix including Weather Underground communiqués, a chronology of actions, a collection of rare photographs, and current biographical sketches of many ex-Weather Underground members.Outlaws of America is published at a time of surging interest in the history of the group, immediately following the release of the Oscar-nominated documentary entitled The Weather Underground, of which Outlaws is the essential companion volume.Dan Berger is a writer, activist, and PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. A longtime anti-racism organizer, he is the co-editor of Letters From Young Activists (Nation Books, 2005).

     An alien craft the size of a cruise ship blips into space between the earth and the moon. It sends no messages. It responds to no calls. The people of earth panic, of course. The spacecraft settles on the moon and bides its time. It's right there, where anyone with a telescope can see it, but it's too far away for earth's nascent space programs to reach. And then, nothing happens. Frenzy fizzles to boredom. Everyone's attention turns back to their lives. Not that it matters, because the aliens are preparing for what's coming next, conquest. The Freedom's Fire Series Prequel - Freedom's Siege book 1 - Freedom's Fire book 2 - Freedom's Fury book 3 - Freedom's Fate book 4 - Freedom's Fist

    On Jenna Hall’s thirteen birthday, her mother committed suicide, a tragedy that continues to haunt the young woman twenty years later. Now, on her thirty-third birthday, Jenna’s pain over her mother’s death and abandonment is tempered by her hopes for a brighter future—of a happier life in the new home she’s buying with her beloved sister, Cassie. While touring the house, Jenna finds a secret room—a portal that magically transports her to an alternate reality in which her mother is still alive. It is the first of many alternate existences Jenna will experience in which she discovers a different version of herself and the people she knows, both the living and the dead. Accompanying her on these mystical journeys is her ever-present guardian angel. Traveling through these alternate realities, Jenna uncovers a long lost sibling, learns about her mother's past, reconnects with a childhood best friend, and meets her soul mate. Ultimately, she discovers newfound courage, confidence, forgiveness, and love—for herself, those around her, and those who are gone.Enchanting and thoughtful, House of Cry explores the consequences of our daily choices and the power they have to shape our lives, reaffirming our faith in restoration and the possibility of personal transformation.

    . . Splendidly presented, filled with thoughtful and brilliant intuitive insights." —The New Republic In a brilliant synthesis of words and pictures, Edmund N. Bacon relates historical examples to modern principles of urban planning. He vividly demonstrates how the work of great architects and planners of the past can influence subsequent development and be continued by later generations. By illuminating the historical background of urban design, Bacon also shows us the fundamental forces and considerations that determine the form of a great city. Perhaps the most significant of these are simultaneous movement systems—the paths of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, public and private transportation—that serve as the dominant organizing force, and Bacon looks at movement systems in cities such as London, Rome, and New York. He also stresses the importance of designing open space as well as architectural mass and discusses the impact of space, color, and perspective on the city-dweller. That the centers of cities should and can be pleasant places in which to live, work, and relax is illustrated by such examples as Rotterdam and Stockholm.

    A person would spend their entire career with ONE company and then upon retirement they would receive a pension which was a guaranteed paycheck every month for the rest of their life. Most Americans have no chance at getting that deal anymore. The burdens, challenges, and risks of today's world are far greater. The stock market has seen negative returns for an entire decade. Health care costs are up but benefits are down. Life expectancy has dramatically increased but pensions are all but extinct! We are in a time when people need guaranteed income more than ever, yet fewer people have it than ever before. Paychecks and Playchecks: Retirement Solutions For Life is a guide for retirement that is BUILT for markets like these. It's a roadmap for surviving, and thriving, in difficult economic times. This book is not an Op-Ed on how "Average Joe" can invest to generate huge returns. It is a mathematical and scientifically proven guide on how to create a solid retirement with as much upside potential and downside protection as possible. Its purpose is to help you make absolutely sure that you have guaranteed lifetime income to keep you and your family protected in any market.By using simple financial products properly, having a plan for long term care, and utilizing cutting edge estate planning ideas, Paychecks and Playchecks will show you how to retire with enough guaranteed lifetime income to cover your basic expenses and optimize the rest of your portfolio to make sure you receive your "playchecks." It's not rocket science - it's financial sense. Despite what most experts say, "Happily ever after" still exists and it starts with Paychecks and Playchecks: Retirement Solutions For Life.

     In her late twenties, M.E. Evans hops on a plane to Italy on a mission to change her life and that’s exactly what happens. Unfortunately, personal growth isn’t always easy. In Naked, bestselling author, M.E. Evans tackles the dysfunctional family narrative and travel memoir in a way that is refreshingly honest, painfully vulnerable, and wildly entertaining. If you’ve ever set foot in a foreign country or picked up a travel memoir you probably think you already know what Naked is about: a dreamy personal account of the life-altering beauty that is Italy. And sure, that’s in there, nestled somewhere between the profound grief, bruised ego, debilitating anxiety, chronic depression, vagina paintings, a boyfriend with billowing chest hair and a mother-in-law who forcibly irons your underwear. Evans’ dream of a magical life abroad is marred by forbidden love, the death of her younger brother, and a batshit crazy family, yet she skillfully merges tragedy and humor for a wild emotional journey exploring what it means to be human–flaws and all. Evans’ wit, compassion, and vulnerability make reading this book a rarely authentic and relatable experience. You’ll cry, you’ll cackle, and you’ll want Evans to be your best friend.